Two More Reading Challenges COMPLETED!

The Off the Shelf and Titanic 100th Anniversary Reading Challenges are both completed!  Woohoo!  How accomplished do I feel right now?  The only challenge I have left is my Goodreads goal that I set for myself: 100 books this year.  I'm eleven away from my mark.  I think I can manage that between now and the end of the year.

This was the year of reading challenges for me.  I actually completed them.  I most likely won't be competing in any next year because I'm simply just going to read the books I already have without having to worry about quotas so I'm happy to be ending this year on a good note.  Go me!

Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn

Published April 15, 2009.

Author website.

Four sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor. When they all find themselves on the Titanic, one of Tesla's inventions dooms them...and one could save them.  (goodreads.com)

For the first half of DISTANT WAVES I was wondering what the hell this book had to do with the Titanic.  It was mentioned once or twice in off-hand remarks, and not by name, and a couple of the people that were on board made appearances within the story but other than that it was a story that centered around Spiritualism, a mother defrauding people with her mystic "skills" and her daughters' lives as a result of this woman's charade.  The story in and of itself wasn't bad.  I actually found it pretty interesting and I liked Jane but don't give me 'A Novel of the Titanic' and not have the ship make an appearance until halfway through the book.  That's going to make me cranky.  I don't like to be cranky when I read.

Once the Titanic did show up it played its role like it does in any other story about it; you're reading the melodrama occurring on it all the while just holding your breath to see how the main event is going to destroy everything nice that's seemingly going on.  I didn't like how the sisters got onto the boat.  It was just far too contrived for my tastes and I really don't think the people letting on passengers would have let stowaways slip by.  Considering the ship and all the hype it should have been something the White Star Line was prepared for.

The ending pretty much murdered what was otherwise and interesting story.  I'm okay with authors taking liberties with history but to take major events and alter their causes for the sake of the story is really bothersome.  To the point where I was audibly going 'what???"

All sense of immediacy was gone as the iceberg was approaching.  No one seemed to be all that worried about it from those watching it head right towards the ship.  Then Tesla tests his magical mystery machine and supposedly breaks the ship.  It didn't REALLY hit the iceberg.  Excuse me?  And as the ship sank?  Poof, gone.  The major cataclysmic event was literally blinked out of the plot.  Gone.  Ground zero happens, people start running around a little confused, poof Jane is being rescued by the Carpathia.  I'm not even talking about a sentence to say it sank.  An element happened that actually eliminated the sinking from the story and skipped right to the rescue.  Infuriated would be a good word to describe me.  How do you have 'a novel of the Titanic' and just skip the sinking?

The individual elements of DISTANT WAVES were good; I liked the Spiritualism aspect, how historical people were factored into the plot, all of the characters were likable on some level and it even got a hint steampunky.  But I think the Titanic itself ruins this story of the Titanic for me simply because it was so bastardized.  The author actually altered history to serve her plot.  No.  Me no likey.  If that kind of thing doesn't bother you then you might just like DISTANT WAVES.  Like I said it's a pretty good story.  But the Titanic is killer.  No pun intended.  Too much was changed in a story that was only supposed to be historical fiction, not alt history or the like.  It's unfortunate but that's the way it is, I guess.  Titanic in one book and the rest of the plot in another, yes.  Both would have been good.  But they just didn't mix well, like a recipe whose ingredients didn't quite mesh.

Ban Factor: Low - An historical fiction centered around the Titanic.  One can hardly pick a more prudish time in our history.  The Spiritualism might offend but that's assuming they know what the word means.  One mustn't overestimate the banners.

Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh

Published March 27, 2012.

Author website.

Elizabeth Farr never wanted to return to America. During her family’s vacation abroad, she has fallen in love with England, and is despondent when her father refuses to let her stay. Returning to New York means having her debut into society, and that means a swiftly arranged marriage. Elizabeth will never go to college, never learn to be a reporter—as she sees it, her life is over as soon as the Titanic reaches port. Of course, if she’s unlucky, her life will be over far sooner than that. 


 As Elizabeth and her family settle into their first-class cabins, Katie Hanrahan, a young Irish girl with dreams of finding fortune in America, makes her way to a steerage berth. Both girls have plans for the future, but love and death are about to intervene.  (netgalley.com)

More kudos to Open Road for continuing to bring back the cheese.  While TITANIC isn't YA horror, the author carries the weight.  But in a good way.  TITANIC: THE LONG NIGHT proved to be a novel that transcended time, most likely because it's already a period piece.  It still read well despite the fact that it is an older title.

The two POVs alternate between Elizabeth, a first class passenger, and Katie, a third class passenger.  Unfortunately for me I just finished watching the Titanic miniseries on ABC and I'm getting plotlines crossed.  Hopefully I can keep them straight.

Elizabeth and Katie never really interact at all during the story except at a distance.  They both notice each other, make flattering comments, and towards the end actually come bodily close when they're trying to get on the boats.  But outside of that, and the grander story arc of the Titanic itself, their stories remain separate.  I had a real worry at the end that Hoh would pull an illogical ending out of it all and make everyone whom we've come across as a reader survive despite the OVERWHELMING odds against that happening.  Thankfully realism won over and while there were a couple of "oh, I'm not too sure that would work out like that" moments, they slipped easily enough into the surrounding story that the didn't seem too fantastical.

Elizabeth was a bit of a brat that wanted to go against all of the wishes of her parents and go to college and not marry the drone they scheduled her to marry and all of that.  And then she ends up meeting a boy on board that really forces her to see the forest for the trees and makes her fight for her right to party live her own life.  No, it wasn't a third class boy but one from first as is a much more plausible storyline.

Katie is going to New York to make a better life for herself and ends up falling in love on the way (also with someone of her own class as, again, classes mixing on the Titanic was, well, pretty nonexistent).  Of course it's to a boy that's more than likely horrible for her because he's a womanizer but I'm sure she'll settle his ways in the brave new world.

Elizabeth wasn't immensely likable within the context of the story but as a modern woman looking back she was only bucking the system, something most teenagers have a tendency of doing, especially when they're not susceptible to brainwashing.  Of course there were suffragettes at the time but I can't help but question just how set in her ways Elizabeth rightly should have been, having been indoctrinated from birth and all of that.  But I'm okay with it.

Katie's much more the free spirit, better able to be so since she doesn't have the confines of money and supposed class pushing down on her.  Or she doesn't have a stick wedged firmly up her bum.  One way or another.  She's basically the embodiment of everything that Elizabeth wants to be.  A nice irony there.  But it works and I found that much more believable than Elizabeth's situation.  Less pressure and all of that.

At the end of the day TITANIC: THE LONG NIGHT was definitely an excellent addition to all things Titanic in this world.  It has far more realistic love stories going on and Hoh did an amazing job of painting a picture of the shattering worlds of these passengers as the ship was sinking.  It was hard not to tear up reading it.  When it comes to the Titanic it's hard to think up something original to keep a well-known story fresh but Hoh's writing kept it all alive.  Love stories galore but the writing was killer.  I couldn't have asked for more.

Ban Factor: Low - No swearing, no sex, nothing really unsavory.  It's set in 1912 after all.  If the banners have something to complain about with this one then they're really running out of ideas.

Escaping Titanic by Marybeth Lorbiecki, illustrated by Kory S. Heinzen

Pub date: February 1, 2012.

Author website.

Commemorate the Titanic's disastrous voyage with this harrowing tale of survival. Follow the true story of young Ruth Elizabeth Becker as her awe of the mighty Titanic turns to horror when she is separated from her mother and siblings. (netgalley.com)

I think I've reviewed all of two picture books in my three years of blogging so forgive me if this comes across as a little too short. I just don't know what to say about it!

Well, I loved the illustrations. At times they were both beautiful and goofy, capturing the majesty of the Titanic along with the people sailing on it. But I couldn't help but think that for a story that really is so serious, the expressions on some of the faces were a little too cartoony and goofy. One panel showed one of the stewards coming into the room and telling everyone to get their lifebelts on. But instead of a serious face, he looks a bit cross-eyed. Yeah it makes the scene lighter and I know it's a picture book but still . . . it almost seemed . . . inappropriate. I don't know if this is something typical of a picture book, to lighten up a more dramatic scene with untoward facial expressions so as not to frighten the children reading it but it felt a little off.

The story itself was succinct. It would be a bit morbid to think that the girl was doing anything but surviving the end of the story so you knew it was coming but that doesn't mean there wasn't a tense moment where she was left on a ship as she watched the rest of her family get lowered in a lifeboat. And then when the lifeboats are rescued you wonder if she's going to find her family. For about half a second. The story is really in the illustrations, the words acting merely as captions to supplement the visuals. It's not that they're bad; there's just more to be garnered from the drawings.

As a childless 28-year-old female reading a picture book, I've come across better. The story's a little dry and the illustrations are a bit bipolar but it was still enjoyable to this Titanic nut. From the POV of a child reading this, I can definitely see how they would really enjoy the pictures and how the small story itself would suck them right in, how they would hinge on every word and wonder if the girl was going to make it out okay. Damn jadedness. Personally I was more interested in the information about Ruth at the end of the story. How she never told anyone that she was a Titanic survivor until 1982 when the wreckage started getting poked at and she came forward about it. That's a long time to sit on something like that.

So really, there's something for everyone. A great story for the kids and a little bit of extra information for the adults reading it to them. Plus some great pictures for all.

Ban Factor: Low - Seriously. Unless they take issue with the mention of people's screaming death throes (although watered down a bit in the book), there's nothing wrong with this one.

Titanic: Disaster at Sea by Philip Wilkinson

Pub Date: February 1, 2012.

Author website.

Experience all the drama and tragedy of Titanic inside the pages of this richly illustrated narrative. With a pull-out poster and double gatefold diagram, Titanic: Disaster at Sea is brimming with facts, stories, and fascinating people. From the technological creativity of Titanic’s construction to unselfish sacrifice in the face of disaster, this comprehensive book will satisfy readers with its exciting, up-close look at this amazing true story of triumph and tragedy. (netgalley.com)

Seeing as how this book is really just an illustrated run-down of events surrounding the Titanic, there isn't all that much to review but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

The illustrations were, of course, the highlight of the book as they were the most pervasive. Richly colored and detailed it was hard not to stare at the visuals more than the words. I wouldn't recommend reading it in its digital form, though. I couldn't manage to zoom in on my Digital Editions and while I could in my eReader Library, I had to read the captions first and then zoom out to see the images it was set against. Kind of annoying but I lived with it. TITANIC is a book best viewed in hand. That much is clear. There's something to be said for being able to hold something in your head and stare at it and not have a glaring back-lit screen staring back. In my opinion anyway.

The only thing that kind of irked me about this title was that it presented the imprisonment of the third class passengers below decks during the sinking as fact. While it may have made for good drama by Stephen Spielberg, the likelihood of it actually having happened is pretty slim. As seen in Tim Maltin's 101 THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT THE TITANIC . . . BUT DIDN'T! in the excerpted testimony from the crew no one was forcibly kept below decks during the sinking. Many opted not to come above and, of course, there was a language barrier with some. One must take into account, though, that the British did attempt to whitewash what happened and perjury isn't such a far-flung idea. But since there are accounts from others about helping the third class passengers into boats (although few, they still exist), it kind of debunks that myth. But again, it's still something that pulls at the heartstrings.

This would be an excellent picture book for any kid, from the cross section of the Titanic's floors to the drawings and photos littering the pages making the Titanic come alive again, it's a visual smorgasbord of Titanic awesomeness. Hell, you don't even need to be a kid to enjoy this one. Buy it for the illustrations alone. You don't even need to read most of the captions. The images tell their own story.

Ban Factor: Low - Seriously, there's nothing in here that would drive the banners insane. Unless they have some weird adverse reactions to ships.

Titanic 100th Anniversary Reading Challenge

COMPLETED

Yup. I'm doing it. When Nicola at Back to Books posted on one of my reviews about her challenge, I just couldn't pass it up. I have a few in the queue to review as it is and I already have two I can add to the list. I'll be working on the Take a Plunge level of reading/watching 6 Titanic-related books/movies. Most of mine will be books but I'm a sucker for the Leo/Kate movie. And really anything Titanic.

1. 101 THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT THE TITANIC . . . BUT DIDN'T! by Tim Maltin

2. RETURN TO TITANIC: TIME VOYAGE, BOOK 1 by Steve Brezenoff

3. TITANIC: DISASTER AT SEA by Philip Wilkinson

4. ESCAPING TITANIC by Marybeth Lorbiecki, illustrated by Kory S. Heinzen

5. TITANIC: THE LONG NIGHT by Diane Hoh

6. DISTANT WAVES by Suzanne Weyn