2016 Recommended Books List

2016 has been a pretty full year for me, and I suspect for everyone else, too. We had an election this year, and that was certainly a wild ride from start to finish. A lot happened in the world. We lost some pretty amazing people. A lot happened in my life, too, although I'd hope those events were more positive than what happened in the world and the U.S. at large.

I read quite a few books this year, in between school and writing and spending time with family. A lot of those books were amazing, the type of books that take hold of something in your soul. Looking back at the list, it's an odd combination of non-fiction and sci-fi/fantasy, with one lone exception. These are all books that deeply appealed to me in some way, whether that was the premise or the characters or the overall theme of the book. I would highly recommend them all.

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1. Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Summary: Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician--not an easy thing if you're a girl, and harder still if you're Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life.
With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush.

Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.

I read this book way back in February, and I absolutely adored it. In fact, it's pretty much the book that got me started doing book reviews on this blog. Once I read this book, I felt the need to share it with as many people as I possibly could. I've written a much longer review already, but to sum it up: this is a well-written book with amazing characters and an incredibly nuanced view of the Old West. I highly, highly recommend it. 

2. Starflight by Melissa Landers
Summary: Solara Brooks needs a fresh start, someplace where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. The outer realm may be lawless, but it's not like the law has ever been on her side. Still, off-world travel doesn't come cheap; Solara is left with no choice but to indenture herself in exchange for passage to the outer realm. She just wishes it could have been to anyone besides Doran Spaulding, the rich, pretty-boy quarterback who made her life miserable in school.

The tables suddenly turn when Doran is framed for conspiracy on Earth, and Solara cons him into playing the role of her servant on board the Banshee, a ship manned by an eccentric crew with their own secrets. Given the price on both Doran and Solara's heads, it may just be the safest place in the universe. But when the Banshee's dangerous enemies catch up with them, Solara and Doran must come together to protect the ship that has become their home-and the eccentric crew that feels like family.

I read this book in about half a day. It's a fun, fast-moving little sci-fi story with fun characters and a plot that features plenty of twists and turns. It's not the best book I've ever read; and it's not deep and thought-provoking like Under a Painted Sky. But it's a book I greatly enjoyed, and it's the type of fun, inoffensive sci-fi fluff I like to read when my brain needs a break and I don't want to have to critique something too hard.

3. Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood
Summary: Noor Inayat Khan was the first female radio operator sent into occupied France and transferred crucial messages. Johtje Vos, a Dutch housewife, hid Jews in her home and repeatedly outsmarted the Gestapo. Law student Hannie Schaft became involved in the most dangerous resistance work--sabotage, weapons transference, and assassinations. In these pages, young readers will meet these and many other similarly courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis.
Twenty-six engaging and suspense-filled stories unfold from across Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, and the United States, providing an inspiring reminder of women and girls’ refusal to sit on the sidelines around the world and throughout history.

I first encountered this book while volunteering at my local library. It seemed like the type of book I would like, so I checked it out and started reading. And just as I'd suspected, I loved it. This book tells the story of a variety of female heroes during World War II, most of whom are rarely taught about elsewhere. It doesn't restrict itself to any one type of hero, either. Included are women who fought the Nazis nonviolently, like Sophie Scholl and Johtie Vos, and much more literal fighters like Hannie Schaft. Women of color are included in the stories of Noor Inayat Khan and Josephine Baker. The faith and religon that inspired many of these women, such as Corrie ten Boom, isn't overlooked. Each story is concise yet important. This book really is an important reminder of women who were not afraid to do what they knew was right, even in the face of death.

4. Failures of the Presidents by Thomas J. Craughwell and M. William Phelps
Summary: In an effort to put an end to Britain and France’s policy of seizing American ships and sailors, Thomas Jefferson calls for an embargo. The result: 30,000 soldiers out of work, mercantile families bankrupted, and a nationwide economic depression.

In an effort to install a capitalist government in the Middle East, stabilize the region, and protect America from a possible Iraqi terrorist assault using weapons of mass destruction, George W. Bush orders the invasion of Iraq. The result: More than 4,000 American soldiers and personnel dead; estimated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead; hundreds of billions of dollars spent; the torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction leave American global credibility in tatters.

What were they thinking?

One of my favorite genres of history, so to speak, is the "American history they didn't teach you in school" genre. This book appeals very heavily to that interest of mine, as it not only explores little-known anecdotes from history, but calls attention to the flaws of most U.S. presidents. It's a fairly unbiased book that provides cultural and historical context for the presidents' various decisions, without absolving them of the consequences. This is the kind of history I very much appreciate.

5. On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Summary: Having made him look a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system. 

But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad. 

This is another book I've already done a full review for, back when I read a bunch of SF novels over the summer. I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly, since it takes the story of the "misunderstood military genius" and gives it to a female protagonist. It's well-written and the story moves just fast enough. I've heard that this series (the Honor Harrington series) is based off of the Horatio Hornblower books, and it does seem that way, but the books are different enough, in genre and in writing, that they don't come off as too similar. I look forward to reading the next book, whenever I can find it. 

6. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Summary: How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father? If someone destroyed your city? If everything you ever loved was taken from you?

David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice. 

And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.

This is yet another book that I've previously reviewed on this blog. Again, see that post for my complete thoughts. To make a long(ish) review short, well... This is a book with a very unique perspective on superheroes. It turns genre conventions upside down and tells a heartfelt, enthralling story, and the whole thing is very well-written. As a side note, the sequels are just as good. I'd recommend the whole Reckoners trilogy, which stems from this book; but even as a standalone, Steelheart is awesome, and comes highly recommended by me.

7. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Summary: After Martians invade Earth—specifically, England—a philosophically-inclined writer is set on a journey across the ravaged English countryside as he attempts to find his wife and, with luck, avoid death. 

This is this year's obligatory really old, yet surprisingly good novel (last year's was Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days). First published in 1898, War of the Worlds is thought to be the first mainstream alien invasion story, and besides being groundbreaking science fiction, it also carries some scintillating social commentary. It isn't as exciting or fast-moving as modern sci-fi, but it still carries its fair share of action. The best part of the novel, though—at least in my opinion—is the atmosphere Wells creates with words alone. The scenarios presented in the novel, the hopelessness and fear, were mildly terrifying even to me. They're even sharper when you think of how nineteenth- and twentieth-century readers must have perceived the story. All of Wells's fiction was based on real science of his day, after all.

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So there you have it: seven books I read this year and loved. I'd recommend all of them, especially if you're a fan of science fiction or history. Even if you're not, these are still, in my opinion, valuable books. If you've read any of these or end up reading them in the coming year, I'd love to discuss them. Until then, Feliz Navidad, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year

Book Recommendation: Under a Painted Sky

Summary: Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician--not an easy thing if you're a girl, and harder still if you're Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life.
With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush.

Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.


I'd heard about this book in passing on a list of Diverse YA Books, something I'm always interested in finding more of. When I found out that my local library had it, I thought, "Well, hey, why not?" and checked it out. Back at home, I started reading it...

...And fell in love.

This is one of those books that has everything I could ever possibly want in a novel. It's historical fiction! But with a diverse cast! The leads are teenaged girls of color! It's got a nice mix of humor and serious topics! The plot twists and turns and keeps you on your toes and the characters are wonderful and this is just a great book. I would highly recommend it.

I could just leave it at that, but let's break down why I'm so in love here.

The book is all from Samantha/Sammy's point of view, and she is definitely the most central character. She's unapolegetically Chinese, but she's also American--she was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents and has never known anywhere else. I really, really loved Sammy's narration, because it strikes a perfect balance as the words of someone who's sort of grown up in two worlds. Even so, she's relatable--as someone who hasn't been through a ton of hardship before the events of the book, she kind of allows the reader get acquainted with the Wild West at the same rate she does.

The rest of the characters aren't quite as fleshed out as Sammy, but they're very appreciable all the same. I especially appreciated Petey--actually, I just really loved the book's wholehearted acknowledgement of the fact that the inhabitants of the West during the cowboy/Gold Rush era were very diverse. You had all types of people: men, women, black people, white people, Mexicans, a ton of immigrants from everywhere from China to Ireland... Historical fiction is great, guys, and it gets better when the writer is willing to acknowledge that people of color existed in the past, too.

Besides having a diverse cast, the book has a solid, compelling story, and some great twists toward the end. There's also a little bit of romance, which isn't my cup of tea, but it's subdued enough that it didn't ruin the overall experience for me. Without giving too much away, the ending is bittersweet and gives you just enough closure, while still leaving it open for the characters to live the rest of their lives. And while the book doesn't shy away from serious topics and events, its tone never becomes too dark.

So, in conclusion, I greatly enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it, particularly to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. If I end up doing another "Recommended Books of the Year" post this December, Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee will definitely be on it.

Gracias, y adiós!

The Comparison - Part 4

*Warning: Spoilers. Probably nothing that I haven't yet spoiled in the rest of this series, but you never know.*

Well, here we are, in the final installment of The Comparison--where I finally get around to the actual comparing of the two things I set out to compare. I've talked about Treasure Island (in two separate installments, no less!) and about its less-well-known adaptation, Treasure Planet. I've given an overview of opinion on both pieces of media, and now I'm going to compare and contrast them. As with both of the preceding reviews, this will be divided up into Plot, Characters, and Setting. So here we go with the thrilling conclusion...

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First up: Plot.

As I mentioned in the last post, Treasure Planet is a movie, and not a particularly long one, so it didn't have the space to really stretch the story out the way the book did. This is actually a common thing; most book-to-movie adaptations have to cut some details for the sake of time. (Unless you're Peter Jackson, in which case you add details in order to take up more time. I'm still bitter.) Generally the question isn't whether the adaptation cut anything, but what they cut and how well they did it. 

In this case? I think Treasure Planet did a good job of condensing the plot. 

For one thing, they cut out the overly-long beginning, which I was really glad for. In the movie, Billy Bones shows up, he gives Jim the map (actually gives it to him!), mutters a vague warning about "the cyborg", and dies. Bam, we have kickstarted the plot.

This continues throughout the movie: everything that happens happens for a reason, to advance the plot somehow. Either it contributes to what's going on, or it gets cut. And it works.

Probably the biggest difference of all from book to movie is that the movie added an emotional subplot/arc that was not there in the book. This actually tied in well, I think, with the direction the adaptation was going. See, if you'll remember, back in my first Treasure Island post I talked about how Long John Silver's betrayal doesn't seem to have a lot of emotional effect on the characters. I also mentioned how the author didn't seem sure of how he was trying to portray Silver/build up the betrayal. Of course, both of these things were done fairly well, and I think in the context of the longer book they worked out. However, these creative decisions wouldn't have worked for a simplified, faster-paced version of the story, and I think the screenwriters knew this. Thus, I really like how it worked out in Treasure Planet.

You see, in the movie, the first mention of Silver we hear is Billy Bones telling Jim to "beware the cyborg" just before he croaks. Shortly afterward, we see a mysterious cyborg-looking shadow lead a group of pirates in burning the Benbow Inn. Thus, when we first meet John Silver, he's already been established as a very shady, if not outright villainous, character. That makes it all the more touching/suspenseful to watch him and Jim form a father-son bond, and that, in turn, makes his subsequent betrayal all the more terrible.

As a side note, in the movie, I feel like Mr. Arrow's death was tied into the greater plot in a way that made more sense. In the book, as I've said, Arrow is a drunk loser who falls overboard during a rainstorm and nobody cares. In the movie, Mr. Arrow is an upstanding first mate--a good friend and confidant of the captain--who is killed by Scroop, who then makes it look like it was indirectly Jim's fault. This ties into Jim's arc and his relationship with Silver, but it also establishes just how far Scroop is willing to go as a villain, and it's a genuinely tragic moment, since Arrow was such a great guy.

And of course--spoiler warning here--the ending of the movie is vastly different from the book. Flint's trap is a big difference (that wasn't present in the book), as is the treasure being destroyed and the last-second escape from the treasure horde place.

Silver still gets away from the good guys and escapes justice in the book, though.

(There you go. I just told you the whole ending. Now you don't have to watch the movie.)

Next up: Characters.

The characters in Treasure Planet are mostly similar to those in the book. However, there are some differences here worth talking about, so here we go.

First up: Jim Hawkins. Jim Hawkins, in the movie, is older than his book counterpart. (He's fifteen in the movie, if I'm remembering correctly.) He's very smart, but he's also reckless and sullen, feeling he has no future worth considering.

The main difference with this character is probably his recklessness. As I said in my first Treasure Island post, I feel like Jim's impetuousness wasn't a very consistent character trait. This isn't the case in the movie; Jim is very reckless and while it sometime helps him or works out in his favor, other times it's purely self-destructive. It's also part of his character arc: over the course of the movie he learns to harness his impulsiveness and think through his actions more.

Next is Dr. Delbert Doppler, who as far as I can tell is a composite character, a cross between Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey from the book. He's got Trelawney's naivete about the workings of the world, but he's also got Livesey's intelligence and doctorate. (He's not a medical doctor in the movie. So that's different.) He occasionally functions as comic relief, but he's also a character in his own right. (He's also, in the movie, an alien that kinda looks like a dog. It's a little weird.)

I already talked about Captain Amelia, who's different enough from her book counterpart that she counts as her own character. I don't want to repeat myself, so all I'll say is: I really like Captain Amelia and I'm glad she's in the movie. She's a great character.

The other female character in the movie is Jim's mother, Sarah Hawkins, the sole proprietor of the Benbow Inn. Yes, that's right: the movie removed the character of Jim's father, and they did it for a few good reasons. A) Jim's dad doesn't do much in the book other than get sick and die in the beginning. B) Jim's abandonment issues concerning his father tie into his emotional arc and the relationship he has with Silver. C) It's just all around a more economical use of a character. In my opinion, anyway.

And then, of course, there's Silver, the villain.
Silver is... well, he's actually pretty similar to his book incarnation. He's smart, fast-talking, eloquent, ambitious, murderous, and he hides it all under an exterior that's kind, friendly, and respectful of authority. However, in the movie, his relationship with Jim is a lot more pronounced, and a lot more integral to the story. Also, as far as I can tell, he never knew Captain Flint personally in the movie.

And... I think that actually wraps it up for the Characters section. I'm running short on space here, so let's move along to Setting.

The settings... well, whether you're in the book or the movie, the settings are beautifully imagined and communicated to the audience. The scale is much larger in the movie (they're travelling between planets, through space), but that comes with the territory in a sci-fi film. Obviously the movie is inherently more visual, but if you've read the book you know that Robert Louis Stevenson held nothing back in his descriptions of his settings. (Especially the island itself.) So I actually think the book and movie are pretty similar in that respect. And I think it's somewhat indicative of the overall spirit of the adaptation: there are several changes in terms of aesthetic and scale, but the overarching plot and characters are pretty similar to those in the book.

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So that's The Comparison! I have to say, I'm glad this series is over, but I haven't regretting writing it. (Remember, folks, this was originally all supposed to be one post.) Actually, I'm largely glad this is over so that I can get to posting about other things. I've got some good things in the works, including a book review and a particularly relevant history post. So stay tuned for that stuff... and feel free to come bug me over at my newly minted Facebook and Twitter pages! And as always, feel free to leave any thoughts, questions, or critiques in the comments section.

Until next time: adiós!