All 2010 Reading Challenges Completed!

And I'm winded over here! I almost didn't think I'd make the YA Reading Challenge in time and if I didn't, I would have missed it by a single book. That would have rendered some serious self-ass-kicking. But I did it. I only participated in three this year, the Fantasy Reading Challenge, the Young Adult Reading Challenge and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Just click on the respective images below to go check out my lists.

In 2011 I'm doing quite a few more but I have an epic shitload of books to read and since I can overlap all of the challenges, it's going to work out in the end and I won't be scrambling around on December 30th trying to wolf down books. I'll post those lists posts probably this weekend. I was going to do it tonight but it's already after 10 and I'm tired.

I hope everyone else's reading challenges went smoothly and you all have some good ones picked out for the coming year. Read on!

The Sorcerer of Sainte Felice by Ann Finnin

Published 2010.

Condemned to death by the Holy Office for sorcery, fifteen-year-old Michael de Lorraine is rescued from the flames by Abbot Francis and granted refuge at Sainte Felice, a Benedictine monastery in fifteenth-century France. Michael learns that this strange and wonderful place, famous for its magical healing wine, harbors renegade monk-sorcerers, enchanted gargoyles, and a closely guarded secret that could spell violent death for the Abbot.

As the church intensifies its cruel pursuit of Michael, Abbot Francis and the wizard monks find themselves in grave danger. Michael will do anything to protect his mentor, but are his own magical powers great enough to save the monastery from the merciless, bloodthirsty Inquisition? (book back blurb)

I gave this book until its halfway point before I decided to put it down. I figured if nothing nominally interesting had happened by that point, chances are not much else was going to happen after it and if it did, I probably wouldn't care.

The beginning started off strong enough. It intros right into Michael being lit on fire on a stake and then gets rescued by the Abbot. I zoomed through the chapter, holding my breath, wondering if he'd make it out okay (obviously it's the first chapter and he'd make it out but in what condition?). And that's where the action and anticipation ended for me. It just fizzled out once Michael got to the monastery and the most engrossing aspect was how to make the magic wine.

I think what helped play into the lackluster plot was the voice. It's not a current voice, and it shouldn't be since the main character is living in the 1400s. But it's also a very droll, very proper voice that really doesn't lend itself to action. I was supposed to be frightened when the search party came to the door but I just couldn't feel the fear or anticipation. I was just going through the motions of reading the words and turning the pages.

Michael's a likable enough character, if not a little boring considering what he'd just escaped from. But ultimately I felt a little gypped from what the blurb on the back of the book offered. It made the story seem more intense, more mystical than what it actually was. Instead we get Michael making wine and a former sorcerer puttering around as an abbot. Yeah, they're a motley crew of people from a bunch of unsavory backgrounds but that's about where the excitement ends for them.

Maybe I missed a big crazy climax where the powers come out in order to defend the monastery against the Inquisition. But at the halfway mark, I was pretty bored and looking for things to do around my house so I didn't have to pick this book back up. When I'd rather scrub my bathtub than read my current book, all signs point to a Did Not Finish roundup.

Maybe someone else with a much greater appreciation for that time in history would be able to overlook the language and lack of expectancy and read through until the end. Maybe someone else would be able to actually draw urgency from the words on the page. But it wasn't for me. I had to stop because, by the halfway point, it became a chore to read. I don't like being bored by my books. Nor do I like going in expecting one thing and getting another. Like I said, maybe if the voice were different it would have better portrayed the action in the book but as it was, I don't think it worked.

Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang

Pub date - October 2010.

An enemy is hiding in Anna's barn - a Russian prisoner of war on the run from the Nazis.

Only Anna knows he's there. If she turns him in, he'll be shot.

But if she hides him, she'll be a traitor to Germany. And for that, she could be shot herself . . . (book back blurb)

This isn't my first time reading a translated book. I've read both good and bad and usually, regardless of what it is, something's missing. It's the natural act of translating. Only the original language can hold the beauty the story was meant to portray. The thing is, with Traitor, hardly anything's lost. Yeah, there's some off punctuation, no doubt carried over from the original German. But the beauty? The emotion? The gut-wrenching feeling that kept me turning the pages? Oh yeah. All there. Didn't miss a beat. Reading this book makes me wish I knew German so I can read it in its original language. It can only be better in German.

Initially I got the feeling from reading that Anna was this little girl. And I guess in her head she was. Very naive, very close-minded about everything that was going on. She was literally smack dab in the middle of a war and all she cared about was socializing and where the greatest places to hang out were.

Maxim changed everything and throughout the course of the story, you see Anna harden. When the fear sets in, the fear that she could be shot for hiding this Russian POW, the fear that her brother really was capable of turning her in for the good of the Fatherland, her skin thickens. She no longer acts or talks like a little girl. Her mannerisms, her actions, are all adult. A guilty adult trying to hide as much as possible. At first her actions to help his man were purely innocent. She didn't know he was Russian. She thought he was mentally challenged and felt bad for him. But the she finds out and despite everything she was taught about Russians in the Hitlerjugen, their brutish, animalistic nature, she doesn't see that in Maxim. She sees a man like everyone else and she can't let him die.

Felix literally had me crying. He was younger than Anna by a couple of years (14, maybe) and he was wholly indoctrinated into the Third Reich to the point that he'd turn over his own family because nothing came before the good of Germany. Not even his life. By the end I wanted to scream for his fate, and the fate of the rest of his family because of him. The Reich got them when they were young and impressionable. They were more easily swayed. And Felix got sucked right into it.

Every loss portrayed in Traitor, every flinch of fear, every pang of sorrow, or hunger, every rumble of a bomb, you could hear and feel through Gudrun's writing. It's a different view of yet another World War II novel. The ending isn't happy. In fact it's a blackout that has you wondering what happened next but at the same time you know exactly what happened. Everything is true. Everything is true. And it had me wanting to screaming, "Noooooooooooooo!" It says something when you spend a few seconds flipping the last page back and forth, willing some more words to appear to give a more well-rounded ending to the story but there were none. Really, I liked where it ended for all the frustration it caused. I think it's perfect. Sad and heart-crushing and gut-churning but it's where the story needed to end. I can't picture it ending anywhere else.

If you read Traitor, and you should, it'll suck you right in. You'll feel everything Anna feels. You'll be able to hear everything, taste everything, shudder with her every shudder, flush with her every stroke of panic when she thinks she's been found out. You won't want it to end and you'll scream when it does because you won't be ready for it. It's just done, just like Anna. And then you'll want to go back to the beginning and start again just to feel everything she did all over again.

Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan Richard Shickman

First published in 2007.

Zan-Gah: A prehistoric adventure has only begun. Pressed by love for his brother and a bad conscience, the hero undertakes a quest which leads to captivity, conflict, love, and triumph. In three years Zan-Gah passes from an uncertain boyhood to a tried and proven manhood and a role of leadership among his people. This dramatic and impassioned story will thrill and deeply move young adults and older readers. They will dream of Zan-Gah at night, and remember it all of their lives! (book back blurb)

Reading this book was like trying a new food: your tongue doesn't really know how to react to it. It's neither good nor bad. It's definitely not bad but your tongue hasn't decided if it actually likes it yet. It might need a few more tastes to adjust.

This book is by far unique to anything I've ever read, in YA or not. How many books out there tell a story from the point of view of a kid living 10,000 years ago? It's a world we know very little about and all of his experiences are entirely new while his emotions are ones that transcend time. Wanting to find a missing brother, playing the opossum when you know you should, stepping up to the plate when it's your time to hit. All of those raw emotions are there without being supplemented by cars, iPods or lockers. It makes it interesting, like a new spice you're not used to yet.

I'd say the only deterrent for me was the voice of the book. It was a little stilted but at the same time, just what is the voice of a 15 year old that could tell you what a Sabretooth tiger tasted like? He's not going to sound like us, he's not going to relay information the same way. Hell, he doesn't even wear shoes! So there is a distance there but at the same time it doesn't make Zan-Gah unattainable. I was able to connect with him on his entire journey.

It was very interesting to read but I still don't know if I like it. It hasn't swished around in my mouth long enough, I guess. It's weird. I read through it pretty quickly. I was compelled to keep reading by the story. I guess because it's so different that it's kind of hard to digest. That doesn't make it a bad thing. It's just . . . interesting.

As I said, the only real turn-off for me was the voice. Other than that, it told a good story filled with suspense, action, hope and love. You get to look into the lives of people that no longer exist, in a time long past, and you get to see just how raw it all was. It's like reading the Natural History Museum in book form but with personality and life. In order to read this, though, you'd have to be really willing for something different. Like getting up the nerve to try sushi for the first time. Or frogs legs. It's an acquired taste. Not that it tastes bad when you first try it but the flavor doesn't really develop until you sit and think about it. This isn't your standard historical fiction, that's for sure.

But I am looking forward to reading the sequel. It's all about Gael, Zan-Gah's twin brother, who was kidnapped by these crazy people and then sold into slavery. He's got some real PTSD issues to deal with and it's just interesting looking as psychology 10,000 years ago. The notion of a broken soul that they use is just amazing.

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

Published in 2009.

The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony's vengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their orphaned children - ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander - are taken in chains to Rome. Delivered to the household of Octavian's sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian's family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts. (book flap blurb)

I had wanted to read this book since it came out so when I won it from a fellow blogger's contest, I was thrilled! Especially since I'm such a huge fan of the HBO series, Rome. When I was reading I kept envisioning the characters with the faces of the actors in the show.

The writing just sucks you in and keeps you reading from cover to cover. Considering the length of this book, it only took me a couple of days to read it all. I couldn't put it down and didn't want to when I had to.

There's enough history included in the text to give you a great idea of just what high Roman life was like during that time but not so much you felt like you were getting information dumped on you. That's a sign of an excellent writer that knows to keep herself behind the pages and the characters in the forefront. I'm sure there could have been so much more added regarding Roman life but if it had been, too much author knowledge would have seeped through. It's hard to do such meticulous research and not include everything you find but the final product speaks for itself.

I had a hard time imagining the kids in this book speaking like they did and being as young as they were but like the addendum in the back of the book states, these were children being groomed as royalty. They're not going to be children but future rulers so they're, unfortunately, not going to get a chance to act like children.

I felt so bad for the romantic situation Selene was in and I felt for her every time she had a pang when looking at Marcellus or when he would do something for her. In the back of my mind I was rooting for her but, unfortunately, I knew how his story ended so I knew, considering how strict to historical facts Michelle was, that that story line wasn't going to deviate. And while I didn't know Selene's history and where she ended up, I saw her arranged marriage coming from pretty early on. The hints are subtle enough that even someone who doesn't know that part of history can pick up on it.

It's hard to imagine that life was so much more precarious back then than it is now and how, at someone's word, a person can just be killed for any reason, or none at all. This book had all the drama, love and torment of any good modern novel, except this could have actually happened. While we're not too privy to what went on behind closed doors with the twins, a lot of inferences can be made based on what we do know. Bringing history to life is such an awesome power to wield and I think Michelle does an excellent job of raising these long-dead figures from their graves. This book has made me want to know more about Selene and Juba and read up on Alexander. Did Octavian really break Alexander the Great's finger taking his ring? What happened to Cleopatra's mausoleum? I can look at my pictures of the Pantheon and see Agrippa's name on there and they mean that much more.

If you're a fan of historical fiction, be sure not to miss this one. You'll regret it if you do.

2010 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

COMPLETED

My post for Royal Review's Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Since I completed the Curious level at the end of June, I'm going to step it up to the Fascinated level - 6 books.

1. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
2. Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan Richard Shickman
3. Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country by Allan Richard Shickman
4. Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
5. Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang
6. The Sorcerer of Sainte Felice by Ann Finnin