Omnivorous

Alright, Mrs. B. It's been a while, but things haven't changed much in your Favorite Angle. I'm still the voracious omnivore I used to be. Remember when I used to take out the maximum number of books and return them all by the next day? I still do that. However, it takes me a heck of a lot longer to get through the pile of books than it used to. There are never enough hours in the day.

I'm reading a lot of different things, too (still). Currently in the pile on my bedside table, there's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Tribute, The Amateur Cracksman, and Jinks High all in various stages of being read. And each one of these is a very different genre -- Tribute, by Nora Roberts, is a Modern Romantic Thriller; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is decidedly Non-Fiction, but is both a biography and a scientific novel and was written by Rebecca Skloot; The Amateur Cracksman is turn-of-the-century mystery fiction by E.W. Hortung (a classic), and Jinks High is a Modern Fantasy novel (Not YA, though) by Mercedes Lackey.

The book I just finished reading, however, Clockwork Angel, is Young Adult (I know, you'd think I'd've outgrown this stuff by now, but I still come back for more. Especially when it's well written, and this is.). Written by Cassandra Claire, this book shows a slice of a world she created with an earlier trilogy (although the events in those books happen prior to what happens in this one) where there is very little that stands between the average human and the chaos and death brought on by the supernatural, very little, that is, save a group known as Shadowhunters, descendants of angels. Now, apart from world building -- and she's developed a very rich world in these books, one that the reader can very easily inhabit for the time they're reading the novel -- I find that this book in particular, the message in the story with the mix of mystery and magic appeals to me.

It's set in Victorian London, and creates a very steampunk essence in the use of clockwork and magic and the interplay of era and slightly more modern mores: the head of the "Institute" where the protagonist ultimately finds herself, is a woman and one who wears pants, the female characters are for the most part strong, even if they don't want to be and it's not as if the author hasn't taken into account that if this were the "normal" side of life that things would be different. She in fact uses the characters themselves to point out the differences between the rules they live by and the rules that the rest of society answer to. And shows just how much cachet that other possibility of life and society might have for a young woman that just wants to be normal and fit in.

It's an understandable feeling, really. One I still contend with -- I may revel in being the Odd Angle, but no one really wants to be the odd-man out. We all want to be somewhere we belong, whether that's with family or a cluster of intimate friends. Claire's protagonist, Tessa, finds herself bereft and friendless on the shores of England after traveling from New York looking for her brother. And in looking for her brother, she doesn't just find an unfamiliar country, but also an unfamiliar world, one that somehow, she was sheltered from in her life in New York. (Clare's other series is set in New York City, and I find myself wondering if she'll address why that might be in the next book in this series.) She finds herself in danger and is ultimately rescued by the Shadowhunters and in time comes to understand more about the world she's fallen into -- Alice-like, down the rabbit hole. And ultimately, she rescues herself and cleverly (no spoilers, though).

I really liked this book, and if this were someone's first foray into Cassandra Claire's world, they wouldn't be lost or disappointed for the trip.

So, this would be one I'd recommend to you for the library, Mrs. B. There maybe some themes that might keep it on a slightly higher-level shelf, but I don't think that there's much in here that the principal and the PTA might balk at -- unless of course the Judy Bloom books are gone now and they've said no to Harry Potter: No sex, although there is some young-love-attraction, some violence, magic and the supernatural. And yes, there are vampires, among other things. ::chuckles:: Ahh, the modern obsession with vampires. Something for another day, though, me thinks.

I'd better get going. I've got a few things to take care of, books to devour, work to do and the like, and I've already yammered your eyeballs off (::eyebrows up!::) for a bit now. Good luck, and I hope things are quiet on your Western Front.