15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Five of My Best Posts

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

How do you objectively chose five posts to spotlight? The five that are the tops in your stats? Your favorite books? Randomly? Today's post has been giving me a lot of trouble. I just don't know how to pick my best posts. I'm going to give it a try though by going with a mix of the above methods.

1. The Adept by Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris. January 16, 2012. I call it historical fantasy, Katherine Kurtz has used the term "crypto-history" on her website IIRC. Either way, this is the first book in one of my favorite series.
2. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. January 27, 2009. A book I've been re-reading regularly for more than a decade now. Some call it a teen novel, some say it's regular fantasy. I just call it a very good read.
3. Worlds of Medieval Europe by Clifford R. Backman. April 22, 2009. As I noted in my review, this was one of those rare textbooks that left me snickering as I reviewed for the final exam. It's also one that's still in my collection today.
4. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. April 21, 2011. For a short book, this is one incredibly vivid and well written story. One of my favorites too. Also, this is a book that more than a dozen people recommended to me.
5. The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. June 24, 2009. One of those "all ages" books that's good for early teens on up. Again, the first book in the series, and one I quite enjoyed reading. I do have to point out that this is going to be a fairly quick read, as are the sequels.

Brian's Hunt - Gary Paulsen

Brian's Hunt
Gary Paulsen
Laurel Leaf
Copyright Date: 2003
978-0553494150

According to the cover of Brian's Hunt:

Millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, Brian’s Winter, and Brian’s Return know that Brian Robeson is at home in the Canadian wilderness. He has stood up to the challenge of surviving alone in the woods. He prefers being on his own in the natural world to civilization.

When Brian finds a dog one night, a dog that is wounded and whimpering, he senses danger. The dog is badly hurt, and as Brian cares for it, he worries about his Cree friends who live north of his camp. His instincts tell him to head north, quickly. With his new companion at his side, and with a terrible, growing sense of unease, he sets out to learn what happened. He sets out on the hunt.

Although the shortest and last book in the series, being only a hundred and three pages, including the Author's Note, Brian's Hunt is perhaps the most exciting of them. On his journey to rejoin the Smallburrow family, Brian, now sixten, finds an injured dog. As he travels, he cares for the dog, bringing her back to full health. That's only the start of the adventure.

In both Brian's Hunt and Brian's Return, there is an author's note which makes for very interesting reading: Apparently Gary Paulsen based several of Brian's adventures on events in his own life.

That certainly explains how come the descriptions and scenery are so vividly described, as the author wasn't trying to imagine how something looked, but instead was describing something he'd seen or experienced.

Some of the reviews class this book as being for Grade Six to Ten or Six to Nine. I'd say it's good for all ages, with no upper limit. However, I'd definitely note a caution for younger readers, as there are a couple of scenes which are iffy.

As with all of the books in this series, Brian's Hunt was a quick read, and I couldn't put it down until I'd read the last page. From scenes of incredible peace and beauty, to a couple of scenes of the aftermath of violence, the book has it all, spanning the emotions.

Other books in the series:
Hatchet
The River
Brian's Hunt
Brian's Winter
Brian's Return

Books Read In June

Going from the most recent to the earliest, I reviewed a whopping twelve books this month. There's two other books that I read, but I haven't gotten the reviews written for: Brian's Hunt by Gary Paulsen and Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Brian's Return
Gary Paulsen
The fourth book about Brian Robeson. A very quick but enjoyable read where everything is described vividly and with passion.

An excerpt from my review:

In some ways this was the most beautiful of the books, filled with peaceful descriptions of nature and small details about the world. No great disasters such as plane crashes this time, but the story doesn't need them.

Brian's Winter
Gary Paulsen
This is the third book written about the adventures of Brian Robeson after the plane crash. However, this is a unique book as it takes the ending of Hatchet and goes "What If?"

An excerpt from my review:

Just reading about the weather in the Canadian wilderness in winter made me shiver. I've read about trees exploding, but Gary Paulsen's descriptions were so vivid I could almost see it happening, along with other incidents such as the skunk.

The River
Gary Paulsen
After surviving a plane crash and living off of his wits alone in the wilderness, Brian Robeson was rescued at the end of Hatchet. In The River he is asked to go back and do it again in order to teach others how to survive.

A snippet from my review:

I like the way the author has chosen to get into Brian's head, showing his thought processes, and how easy he found it to get back into the mindset he had during his first experience in the wilderness. This time though, he's also exploring (unintentionally) the effects of an extended period without sleep, which are very vividly described.

Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
The Newberry Honor winning survival story and the first of a series of five books about Brian Robeson and his life after he survived a plane crash in the wilderness.

A snippet from my review:

At just under two hundred pages, The Hatchet is quite the quick read I found, finishing it in only a couple of hours, but I also found that I couldn't put the book down until it was finished (when I picked up the next book, The River). This was all true even given the knowledge that Brian had to survive because there are more books about his experiences after the adventures of The Hatchet.

Space Cadet
Robert A. Heinlein
A classic science fiction novel that's stood the test of time, decades of time, and it's still just as exciting and fun to read.

A snippet from my review:

Where Heinlein excels in my mind is in the creation of his characters. They're all very 'real' in these books, with doubts, weak areas, problems, and yet confidence. When working in a group they can come together to overcome separate weaknesses as well. And yet, he's spare with the details and descriptions, making for a fairly short, fast-moving story which can be hard to put down (I ended up finishing the read far too late at night).

Bess Of Hardwick: First Lady Of Chatsworth
Mary S. Lovell
A biography of Elizabeth Shrewsbury (to use just one of her many names), one of the most powerful women in Tudor and Elizabethan times. Interesting, thought-provoking and full of fascinating glimpses into the life of the sixteenth century.

A snippet from my review:

Overall, if you're interested in the Tudor and Elizabethan periods of English history, I highly recommend this book. Not dry in the slightest, and highly readable, Bess of Hardwick also includes two sections of illustrations, photos and paintings, most of which are in full color.

The Tattooed Map
Barbara Hodgson
The first word that comes to mind about this book is "different". The book is lavishly decorated and illustrated, so that it resembles a true diary - sketches, notes, ticket stubs etc. If you kept a travel journal, I'd bet it looks something like this. I know mine did. On top of that, a story that captures you and won't let you go. Having read this book, I'd love to see the places Barbara Hodgson describes, such as Marrakesh.

A snippet from my review:

The Tattooed Map is a moderately quick read, and, in my opinion, one that doesn't disappoint....By the time I'd finished the story, I still knew next to nothing about the characters, but it didn't matter. I was enthralled by their adventures, and I'd still like to know more.

Skin Trade
Laurell K. Hamilton
The most recent of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, Skin Trade picks up where Blood Noir left off. It also is my new favorite of the newest books in the series.

A snippet from my review:

My first reaction on finishing Skin Trade, the latest book in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series was WOW!. Admittedly, this was at somewhere around two this morning. Which should say something. For the last three/four days, this book has kept me up far past my bedtime, because I just had to know what happened next.

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs
Adrienne Mayor
Focusing on ancient uses of chemical and biological weapons, this is a book which will change your view on Classical and early Medieval attitudes. You don't think they used these horrific weapons? Neither did I. Adrienne Mayor looks at myth, history and archaeology to form this book. Well written and interesting.

A snippet from my review:

We think of weapons of mass destruction, be they chemical or biological as being relatively new things in the scope of history. However, as proved by Adrienne Mayor, clearly they were not. Poisons, fires and disease have been around for thousands of years. Of course people were going to figure out ways to use them for their own purposes.

Blood Noir
Laurell K. Hamilton
The sequel to The Harlequin, and closely followed by Skin Trade, this is one of the books in Hamilton's best-selling Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Not my favorite of the series, but once I got into it, the book was good and left me wanting more. Thankfully I read it just before Skin Trade came out.

A snippet from my review:

This book is shorter than some of Hamilton's books, but the pacing was fast, so the story didn't seem to suffer any. I will definitely agree with some of the reviews I've read that there is a bit too much sex, but that's been the case in all of the books since Narcissus In Chains. It's just become part of the book style now for me.

The Millionaire Next Door
Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. and William D. Danko, Ph.D.
A highly rated and bestselling book on personal finance.

A snippet from my review:

Frankly, I found the book a bit disappointing. First of all, and I should have realized it from the start, the book is entirely focused around the United States. I'm Canadian, so a lot of what the authors are mentioning doesn't apply quite the same. Second, the book only has one small line for any strategy other than the one the authors are following in The Millionaire Next Door.

Sigurd And Gudrún
J.R.R. Tolkien

The most recent of Christopher Tolkien's releases of J.R.R. Tolkien's many unpublished works. As far as I'm aware, this is also the most different of the books published for general consumption, being in the form of Norse poetry.

A snippet from my review:

Honestly, I liked this book, and I'm now planning to read more of the Norse sagas, as I came to Sigurd And Gudrun with no background knowledge on the subject at all. Although, in the commentary to this book, Christopher Tolkien has done a very good job of explaining the characters and the references that assume reader knowledge in the poetry, so the background knowledge isn't exactly needed.

Brian's Return - Gary Paulsen

Brian's Return
Gary Paulsen
Laurel Leaf
Copyright Date: 1999
978-0440413790

According to the cover of Brian's Return:

As millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, and Brian's Winter know, Brian Robeson survived alone in the wilderness by finding solutions to extraordinary challenges. But now that's he's back in civilization, he can't find a way to make sense of high school life. He feels disconnected, more isolated than he did alone in the North. The only answer is to return-to "go back in"-for only in the wilderness can Brian discover his true path in life, and where he belongs.

Brian's Return is the next book in the series about Brian Robeson started in the Newberry Honor book, Hatchet. It follows Brian's Winter and The River.

This is where things start to get weird though. I'm sure I remember in the last two books somebody asking Brian about the fifty-odd days he survived in the wilderness, which made up the story of Hatchet and is explicitly stated in a couple of different places in The River, but at the same time, in Brian's Return he talks about things he saw and experienced in the winter there. Also, the main plot in this book is the first part of Brian's journey to rejoin the Smallburrows, who he met at the end of Brian's Winter, so Gary Paulsen is trying to merge the two timelines.

The problem with racing through all of the books in this series in one evening the way I did is that I can't always remember which detail was in which book. I apologise for that.

More or less though, Brian's Return and Brian's Hunt follow on Brian's Winter. This book shows just how much the experiences Brian had while learning to live in the wilderness changed him. For the first time, we really see him at home and at school. At the same time, it's easy to tell that he is probably going to end up returning to the life he made for himself in the woods (if only because otherwise there wouldn't be a story).

This time though, it's by choice, and he's going to be properly prepared.

As with the previous books I've read by Gary Paulsen, the descriptions were to the point and vivid. This is definitely a well written book. All too often, I could see the scenes he was depicting. Brian's Return is a short, but gripping tale, although it doesn't quite seem to finish the story. Still, at one point, this was supposed to be the final tale.

In some ways this was the most beautiful of the books, filled with peaceful descriptions of nature and small details about the world. No great disasters such as plane crashes this time, but the story doesn't need them.

My advice? Get all of the books at once. You're not going to want to stop reading until there is no more to read.

Other books in the series:
Hatchet
The River
Brian's Hunt
Brian's Winter
Brian's Return

Brian's Winter - Gary Paulsen

Brian's Winter
Gary Paulsen
Laurel Leaf
Copyright Date: 1996
978-0440227199

According to the cover of Brian's Winter:

In Hatchet, 13-year-old Brian Robeson learned to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness, armed only with his hatchet. Finally, as millions of readers know, he was rescued at the end of the summer. But what if Brian hadn't been rescued? What if he had been left to face his deadliest enemy--winter?

Gary Paulsen raises the stakes for survival in this riveting and inspiring story as one boy confronts the ultimate test and the ultimate adventure.

Brian's Winter is something unusual. Yes, it's part of the series begun with Hatchet, and yes, there's nothing extraordinary about it being a children's/teens book, but this is the only time I've read something like this before. What makes Brian's Winter unique in my experience is that it is an "alternate universe" type story going "what if.

In this case, the question is "what if Brian wasn't rescued at the end of the summer. How would he survive the fall and the winter?", so in this book, the final pages of Hatchet are ignored.

Just reading about the weather in the Canadian wilderness in winter made me shiver. I've read about trees exploding, but Gary Paulsen's descriptions were so vivid I could almost see it happening, along with other incidents such as the skunk.

As with the previous two books in the series: Hatchet and The River, I found Brian's thought processes as the story progressed to be one of the best things about the book.

There were times while I was reading this book that I felt like shouting at Brian that winter was coming and he'd better start planning for it, but that may simply have been because I'm older than the target audience by a fair margin. Regardless, the story was absolutely gripping (the whole series really), and I stayed up far too late last night in order to read all of the books in one sitting.

With each of the books being around a hundred and fifty pages, that was definitely an easy feat, and one I don't regret. On the other hand, it makes separating my impressions of the separate books somewhat difficult.

Other books in the series:
Hatchet
The River
Brian's Hunt
Brian's Winter
Brian's Return

The River - Gary Paulsen

The River
Gary Paulsen
Yearling Books
Copyright Date: 1991
978-0440407539

According to the cover of The River:

Two years ago, Brian Robeson was stranded alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a small hatchet. He survived. Now the government wants him to do it again - to go back into the wildrness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept him alive.

This time Brian won't be alone: Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, will accompany him. But during a freak storm, Derek is hit by lightning and falls into a coma. Their radio transmitter is dead. Brian's only hope is to build a raft and try to transport Derek a hundred miles down the river to a trading post - if the map he has is accurate.

The River is the sequel to the Newberry Honor book Hatchet. In this one, Brian, who has made it home safely after surviving nearly two months alone in the wilderness after the plane crash, has agreed to go out again and repeat the feat in order to help increase the odds for others in similar situations.

However, things, of course, go wrong, and he ends up in almost a worse situation. His companion, Derek ends up in a coma from a lightning strike, so, not only is Brian alone again, he's got to somehow keep Derek alive while getting them home safely.

As the series progresses, it becomes clear that although the language of the books is suitable for everyone from the nine to twelve age group, on up, some of the concepts are better suited to slightly older folks, say, early teens. However, there's no upper limit. I definitely enjoyed reading this book last night.

The whole thing is so vividly written, that I could see almost everything as it happened. Gary Paulsen has a real talent for writing nature in both it's beauty and it's viciousness, ranging from a sunset to the need to hunt for food.

I like the way the author has chosen to get into Brian's head, showing his thought processes, and how easy he found it to get back into the mindset he had during his first experience in the wilderness. This time though, he's also exploring (unintentionally) the effects of an extended period without sleep, which are very vividly described.

This is definitely a shorter book than Hatchet, but it's just as good a read, taking only a couple of hours or less.

Other books in the series:
Hatchet
Brian's Hunt
Brian's Winter
Brian's Return

The Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

The Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
Aladdin Books
Copyright Date: 1987
978-1416936473

According to the cover of The Hatchet:

ALONE

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present -- and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent's divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair -- it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.

For twenty years Gary Paulsen's award-winning contemporary classic has been the survival story with which all others are compared. This new edition, with a reading group guide, will introduce a new generation of readers to this page-turning, heart-stopping adventure.

Gary Paulsen's Hatchet is a Newberry Honor award winner, among other honors, and it's also turning into quite the lasting book, being reprinted again and again. Enjoyable for all ages, the text is suitable for older children on up, although there are a few scenes that are more suited to slightly older children, such as early teens, as there is a death in the first chapters.

Essentially, the book seems to be a 'coming of age' story, as Brian has to learn (quickly) what he is made of, and what he is capable of doing in order to survive alone in the wilderness, with a hatchet as his only tool. Somehow he's got to find shelter and food. With a lot of luck, he manages it, even though he doesn't have much in the way of wilderness knowledge.

At just under two hundred pages, The Hatchet is quite the quick read I found, finishing it in only a couple of hours, but I also found that I couldn't put the book down until it was finished (when I picked up the next book, The River). This was all true even given the knowledge that Brian had to survive because there are more books about his experiences after the adventures of The Hatchet.

I'm almost certain I hadn't read the book or any of its sequels before, although some of the early scenes are familiar. It's not just Brian's actions that are of interest, but also his thought processes and the self-knowledge he gains through his experiences as he grows up mentally in order to survive.

From what I can see, this should make the next books just as interesting.

Although it's been a few years since I read it, I'd bet that if you liked The Hatchet that you'd also like My Side Of The Mountain and it's sequel The Far Side Of The Mountain by Jean George.

The other books in this series:
Brian's Winter
The River
Brian's Return
Brian's Hunt

Library Loot

Library Loot is kindly hosted by Marg and Eva. I only found the meme earlier this week and I'm finding already that it helps me to go borrow books from the library rather than to buy them (even though they're right there in front of me at work).

This time the books are all kids/teen books: the series by Gary Paulsen starting with Hatchet. Thing is, there's really no clue as to the reading order (aside from Hatchet being the first book).

I ended up borrowing the lot because I've been selling the books to people at work and I have no idea about them. It only helps that the jacket blurbs look interesting as well (besides, I'm a sucker for this type of survival story), and I've enjoyed the Jean George book My Side Of The Mountain. So, they're kid's books. It just means that they're quick reads. I've already finished Hatchet and I just borrowed them a couple of hours ago. Makes a nice change from Laurell K. Hamilton, or academic articles on the medieval world.

The books:

• Hatchet
• The River
• Brian's Return
• Brian's Hunt
• Brian's Winter