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The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

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  • Title: The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book III)
  • Author: Philip Pullman
  • Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
  • Year of Publication: 2000
  • Pages: 518
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

It has all come to this: The Amber Spyglass continues and completes the story of Lyra and Will with the greatest climax in all of the trilogy and the final denouement. And no, I didn’t get my happy ending, per se, but I did get a promise.

There are more ambiguities, more philosophical ideas, more complex relationships in The Amber Spyglass than the parts before it.

I was engrossed from start to finish; I could not put it down. When I finished, I had a hard time putting my thoughts to words. From the world of mulefas (ultimately quadruped intelligent people with seed pods for wheels), to the world of the dead, to the world of our own, to Lyra’s — from meeting, despising, and befriending the Gallivespian spies (fairy-sized people with poisonous spurs on their heals), to meeting Lyra’s own death, to falling in love — there was so much to say. All of it was worthwhile, all of it added to the complexity and depth of the characters, all of it made me want more.

This trilogy would be a set of jewels in any collection, especially one for young adults. The progression of the story not only takes place in what happens, but in the ideas expressed and the maturity of the prose. I can’t wait to read all 1200+ pages again. 5/5

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

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The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife is definitely a sequel, and reading it immediately after reading The Golden Compass is satisfying in a way that reading it alone would not have been. However, as a stand-alone work it was very good. It maintained the same tone of voice as The Golden Compass without being tiresome or too similar to it. (And I’m still glad to know that there is more to come in Book III.)

Lyra is still our protagonist, and in this part of His Dark Materials, she befriends a boy named Will who is from a different world than Lyra’s, one much like our own. Their relationship grows and strengthens over the course of this part of the story. Lyra and Will, both clever and good-natured prepubescent children, form a friendship with each other when they are both in trying times of loneliness and desperation. But it is not just a friendship of convenience; they sincerely admire and care about each other. In a quiet conversation near the edge of sleep, Pantalaimon, Lyra’s dæmon, encourages Will:

“[Lyra] thinks you’re the bravest fighter she ever saw, as brave as Iorek Byrnison.”
“I suppose I better try not to seem frightened, then,” Will said. He was quiet for a minute or so, and then he said, “I think Lyra’s braver than me. I think she’s the best friend I ever had.”
“She thinks that about you as well,” whispered the dæmon.
Presently Will closed his eyes.
Lyra lay unmoving, but her eyes were wide open in the dark, and her heart was beating hard. (p. 267)

Book II maintained the excitement of Book I, but in a more sobering way. I felt much more panic reading this book than I did the other, and much less bliss. It is still an exciting story and still one I want to continue (forever), but it’s sad. Here’s to hoping for a happy ending! 5/5

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

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Thee Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Thee Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

I started this book around the end of September, back during Banned Books Week. I got several pages into the book and then stopped; it was slow going. I started to read a couple pages each day and put it back down again. I brought it with me on my weekend trip to NYC and could not put it down. Not for one second.

On the hour long flight to the city from Rochester, I had read upwards of a hundred pages. For me, this was huge. I read slowly, making sure I catch every word, every meaning. But I could not read this book slowly after the first hump. It’s just impossible. I wanted to know what was going to happen so badly, so passionately, that my eyes flew across the pages—sometimes in bliss, sometimes in near-panic. So I put it down when I had to, and picked it up at every opportunity. I finished the book the next night, and was pleased to remind myself that it was the first part of a trilogy. “Yes!” I thought. “More, more, more!”

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Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

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Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

Eating alone is not a regular occurrence for me anymore, but it does happen occasionally, and it did happen a lot when I was in college. I expect it will happen more in the future. 

I have a love/hate relationship with eating alone. I like that I can be selfish when choosing foods when I’m alone, especially since my partner is very picky when it comes to fruits and vegetables. (He is trying new things lately despite his aversion to them. I’m very grateful to him for that.) This is also one of the reasons I love eating out: I can be selfish without being alone. (I’m envisioning the deliciously sour and potent lemon tart I had at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Yountville, CA, a dessert reserved for selfish occasions.) When I’m eating alone, I dislike the fact that I have no one to share my joy with, no one to cook for besides myself, no one to Ooh and Aah at my efforts, no one to talk to.

These short stories encompass those feelings through many different voices, some with more love than hate for eating alone than others (and vice versa), and all with different experiences and reasons for eating alone.

As a collection, this book is lovely. The stories can be read individually or in one fell-swoop. I adopted the latter strategy, and I enjoyed it very much. I felt as though I was being let in to these authors’ lives, voyeuristically watching them alone in their homes or out to eat, being let in on the secret of their habits. It’s terribly interesting, and I almost feel guilty for enjoying it. Almost. 4/5

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

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American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I first heard about American Wife through an article in the Books section of the New York Times a few weeks ago. Michiko Kakutani’s article, “First Lady, Second Version,” piqued my curiosity. I have always been interested in the First Lady’s duality of self, especially after I became a librarian. I found it fascinating, and sometimes infuriating, that a librarian could allow herself to stay married to a man like George W. Bush, to whom privacy is exchanged for “security” and the lives of American soldiers are exchanged for oil. This book has helped me reconcile these things, if only hypothetically, and it has helped me view the current First Lady in a more humanized perspective.

Despite the frequent claims that the book is out to smear the Bush Administration, it seems to have done the opposite for me. (They consider it a smear because it contains adequately detailed sex scenes between two consensual adults in three relationships, one of which winds up resulting in marriage. Are we Victorian, all of a sudden?) Maureen Dowd wrote in her Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, “Dreams of Laura,”

Ms. Sittenfeld was not out to sensationalize but sympathize. The portraits of Laura and W. — known as Alice and Charlie Blackwell here — are trenchant and make you like them more.

They become people, not just distant American symbols. They’re closer to the reader than they’ve ever been, and that’s not a bad thing.

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