Graceling and The Golden Spiral

     So, for the first couple of weeks after the semester ended, I couldn't bring myself to read much of anything...I was burnt out. Luckily that feeling didn't last long, and my sister Tristen gave me a book to read: Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I had read it before, but didn't remember much; I really enjoyed reading it again. Here's the tease from the back cover, borrowed from Amazon:

"Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

     When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

     With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more."

   Yup, I want more. Luckily, the author has a prequel, Fire, already out, and the third book, Bitterblue comes out this month. Graceling has been named an ALA Best Books For Young Adults winner, and in 2009 received the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Lit.

     The book I finished today is The Golden Spiral, by Lisa Mangum. It is the second in a series. I read the first book, The Hourglass Door,  two summers ago, and instantly fell in love with the characters and the story line. I was very excited to find The Golden Spiral at the library yesterday afternoon, and dove into it before I even left the library (I didn't mind waiting for my sister, sis-in-law, and the chiluns to finish their selections). To cut to the chase, I  L. O. V. E. D. The Golden Spiral!  Lisa Mangum has a way of writing that just sucks you in and you can hardly wait to find out what happens next.

     Here's a tease from Amazon for The Hourglass Door:

    "Abby's senior year of high school is textbook perfect: She has a handsome and attentive boyfriend, good 

     friends, good grades, and plans to attend college next year. But when she meets Dante Alexander, a

     foreign- exchange student from Italy, her life suddenly takes a different turn. He's mysterious, interesting,

    and unlike anyone she's ever met before. Abby can't deny the growing attraction she feels for him. Nor

    can she deny the unusual things that seem to happen when Dante is around... "

And also one for The Golden Spiral:

"The bank is eroding. The barriers are thinning, and time is running out. The hourglass door has closed, sending Dante back in time to hunt down Zo, Tony, and V. Although giving him up was the hardest test she ever faced, Abby knows that Dante is the only one who can stop the others from destroying time itself. But almost immediately, things start to change, and Abby's worst fears are realized when Zo begins targeting her past. With each change that ripples into her present, Abby's life continues to spiral out of control. Her relationships with Jason, Natalie, and even her family are threatened to the breaking point. Zo's power is greater than Abby ever imagined, but as she struggles to free Dante, she receives help from an unexpected and unlikely ally. Will Abby's love for Dante be enough to turn the tide?"

     I was happy to find out that the third book, of the series, The Forgotten Locket, is also already out. Yay! It will be happy reading for me!

Enjoy your summer reading!

Happy Reading!

Tru

A Quote To Ponder...

      "What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree, with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millenia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

                                                                 ~Carl Sagan

Love this quote! Thanks, Shaun, for sharing it with me.

Happy Reading!
Tru

Archetypes in Literature

            For this final post focusing on Warrior Heir, I thought it would be fun to talk about Archetypes. Wikipedia lists this definition: “An archetype is a universally understood symbol, term, or pattern of behavior; a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated. Archetypes are often used in myths and storytelling across different cultures.”

(to read more about archetypes, click here)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

            Carl Jung, a Swiss philosopher, first applied the term “archetype” to literature. He recognized that there were universal patterns that showed up in all stories and mythologies regardless of the culture and time period they came from. Jung hypothesized that part of the human mind contained what he called a collective unconscious that was shared by all members of the human race; a type of universal, primal memory. He discusses his findings in his book, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.  Joseph Campbell, who developed the Hero’s Journey Monomyth, took Jung’s ideas and applied them to world mythologies; that’s why the archetypes and the Monomyth share so many similarities and work so well together.

Read more about Carl Jung here:

http://www.carl-jung.net/archetypes.html

            The term archetype can be applied to an image, a theme, a symbol, an idea, a character type, even a plot pattern.  Archetypes can be found in myths, dreams, literature, religions, fairytales, and folklore. There are a lot of different types of archetype; we will only focus on a few of the character archetypes.

            1. Hero: The Hero must pay a price to obtain his goal. Our hero, of course, is Jack Swift, and the price he had to pay was to give up the normal life he’d known for one of danger, intrigue, magic and warriors,

            2. Mentor: The Mentor is a character who aids or trains the hero.  In Warrior Heir, the mentor character is Leander Hastings, the mysterious wizard who specializes in training warriors.

                        3. Threshold Guardian: The Threshold guardian is the first obstacle to the hero on his journey. The Threshold Guardian archetype is the wizard Wylie from the Red Rose House. Wylie’s the wizard Jack has to fight in the graveyard as he’s retrieving Shadowslayer from behind his grandma’s headstone.

            4. Shapeshifter: The Shapeshifter changes role or personality, often in significant ways; the Shapeshifter’s alliances and loyalties are uncertain. The role of Shape shifter is filled by Jack’s ex-girlfriend, Leesha Middleton, who turns out to be a wizard from the White Rose sent to keep an eye on Jack.

            5. The Shadow: The worthy opponent—the villain. This archetype is filled by more than one person in our story. It is the entire power-mad Wizard Houses of both the White and the Red Rose. They are all after Jack to either force him to their side, or to destroy him before the other House can persuade him to join them.

            6. Trickster: A clown, a mischief maker, a source of comic relief.  This is filled by Jack’s friend, Fitch. He’s a little mild as far as tricksters go, but he gets the job done.

            7. Damsel in Distress: The vulnerable woman who must be rescued by the hero. There isn’t a clear Damsel in Distress in our story. Sometimes it’s Aunt Linda, sometimes it’s Jack’s mom, Becka, who is clueless about the Weirlind world.

            I hope you have enjoyed learning about some of the different methods you can use to add depth to your reading experience. I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you. Try applying some of them to your favorite books, and make them more than just an ordinary pleasure-read!

            Remember....”Fairytales, fantasy, myths and parables are the only universal language which crosses over barriers of race, culture and time.”

                                                                                     ~Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language

Happy Reading!

Tru

P.S. There are more books in the Heir series, with new ones on the way!