Roger Hyttinen | Author

YA Paranormal Author

You are here: Home / Archives for Books and Reading

Books and Reading

My Top 5 Quarter 1 Books

by Leave a Comment

At the end of each quarter, I go through the list of books I’ve read over the past three months and compile a list of 5 of my favorites. This is the list of my favorite books that I read during the first quarter of the year (I’ll be sharing the second quarter list soon).

Last Night at the Telegraph Club book cover1. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

This is an amazing book that takes place in Chinatown in 1954 is about two women, Lily and Kath who fall in love with each other.” This is a dangerous time to fall in love with Red-Scare paranoia threatening their existence, especially Lilly who is Chinese American. So the story kind of revolves around The Telegraph Club, which is a Lesbian bar – a place where Lily and Kat hang out together, after sneaking out of the house. Well, a pivotal event occurs at the bar which changes and shakes up both of their lives. A moving story about discovering where you belong.

Dead Sea Book Cover2. Dead Sea by Mia Kerrick

The story follows Lenny, a seventeen-year-old talented creative kid who loves to sew and dress up in costumes. After an upsetting event during which all of his secrets risk exposure, Lenny, unable to face the potential humiliation, decides to walk into the ocean and never return. Caught in a riptide, he begins to drown but is rescued by the unlikeliest of heroes: one of the school’s biggest and meanest bullies, Kyle. What follows is a transformation of our two characters, especially of Kyle, after the event. Though the book is layered with complexities of identity and societal expectations, ultimately, Dead Sea ends being a beautifully written story about friendship, redemption, and first love.

Echo Wife Book Cover3. The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

I’ve read a couple of other books by this author: Magic for Liars and When We Were Magic and enjoyed both of them. But I’d say that this book is my favorite one of the three.

This book asks the question: How far would you go in the pursuit of perfection?

The story takes place in the not-so-distant future and follows a brilliant and driven award-winning scientist named Evelyn Caldwell whose work involves Clone technology, in which she is able to perfectly replicate human beings using their DNA. Unbeknownst to Evelyn, her husband Nathan has stolen her research and created a genetic clone of her…of Evelyn, named it Martine. The husband made Martine with only the qualities that HE wanted in a woman: more patient, loving, pliable, meek, even-tempered, more focused on him rather than her work, and especially more obedient. So, snake that he is, he leaves Evelyn, moves in with Martine to live life with his wife’s clone, and files for divorce. Things get really crazy when the cheating bastard ends up dead in Martine’s Kitchen and the two “Mrs. Caldwells” end up having to work together to fix the mess.

What you Never Knew book cover4. What You Never Knew by Jessica Hamilton

This is a haunting story told from the point of view of two sisters, one dead and one alive. After the death of her mother and of sister May, June finds out that she is now the owner of Avril Island, a place she hasn’t been to since her father’s sudden disappearance when they were children. Her mother told her that she’d sold the island years ago, so June was more than surprised that it was still in the family and now belonged to her.

Unaware that her dead sister’s ghost accompanies her, June returns to the isolated family island cottage for the first time in decades to find out why her mother lied to her about selling the cabin and perhaps why their father left them one night, never to be heard from again. She begins digging through decades worth of clues and uncovering all sorts of creepy family secrets in the process. What we have here is a wonderfully crafted and thrilling tale about loss, grief, love, lies, betrayal, and dark family secrets that I absolutely loved.

when the stars go dark book cover5. When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

I read The Paris Wife by this author, which I loved, so I thought I’d give this one a go as well. Set in the early 1990s, “When the Stars Go Dark” follows Anna Hart, an emotionally damaged detective specializing in searching for and finding missing children. After a horrendous tragedy in her life, Anna escapes to her hometown of Mendocino to try and figure out her next move and find herself. Once there, however, she’s asked by an old friend who is now the Sheriff to assist in the case of a missing 15-year-old girl named Cameron. Alternating between the past and present, Anna not only uncovers similar disappearances in other nearby towns but also unearths information about a missing child case that occurred while she lived in Mendocino years ago. This is a gritty and gripping mystery with many unexpected twists and turns that illustrates the extent of how trauma can affect someone’s life. Because of its dark subject matter — the kidnapping, abuse, and murder of children — the book is heartbreaking and tough to read. I knew this subject will be a gut puncher- but was woefully ill-prepared for how much. It kinda destroyed me for a few days, truth be told.

My 2nd quarter list will be forthcoming. How about you? Read anything good lately?

A book chat about The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

by Leave a Comment

Golem and the Jinni book coverI just finished a book entitled “The Hidden Palace,” which is a sequel to The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. This was a book I read a while ago and loved so much that I would check every couple of months to see if the sequel was available.

But I’m not going to talk about the sequel today, but about the first book in this duology: The Golem and the Jinni. I’m not planning on doing a lot of book reviews here, but when there’s a book that I especially like and stands out for me, I want to share it with others.

THE STORY

In the Golem and the Jinni, we have a blend of Arab and Jewish mythology and folklore, resulting in a mesmerizing historical fantasy. The characters of the Golem and the Jinni in this story are some of the most unique that I’ve encountered.

Our story begins when a golem, a creature of Jewish folklore made of clay, is created using Kabbalistic magic by a former rabbi, now turned dark magician. Not yet awakened, she (it’s a female Golem) and her new master head from Poland to America to begin a new life. The plan was to awaken his Golem once they arrived in America, but the man could wait no longer. So he excitedly opens this Golem’s crate and awakens her. But she barely has a chance to get to know her master when he suddenly dies on the ship from a burst appendix.

Now masterless, confused and frightened, she finds herself in New York in 1899. Luckily, a local Rabbi recognizes her for what she is and offers to help her integrate into this strange new society. New for her, that is, as she’s only been alive for a couple of days. Given that he can’t simply refer to her as “The Golem,” the Rabbi names her “Chava.”

The second creature in our story, a Jinni, a creature of Arabic folklore who is given the name Ahmad, is perhaps more commonly known as a Djin or a Genie. The Jinni is a creature of fire and was born in the ancient Syrian Desert over a thousand years ago. He is released accidentally from a flask by a tinsmith. When the Jinni awakens, he notices that he wears an iron wrist-cuff which means only one thing: that he was trapped in the flask by a wizard and has been inside the flask for over a thousand years. The Jinni has no memory of the wizard nor how he came to be in the flask.

So the story follows both the Golem and the Jinni as they try to fit in with their immigrant neighbors while hiding who — or should I say what — they really are. It’s a beautiful tale of two creatures trying to fit into a world they don’t understand.

One night, they haphazardly meet by chance on the streets of New York, and an unlikely friendship develops between the two. But then a dreadful incident occurs involving both of them, and because of it, the two of them retreat into their own world and stop seeing each other. In this way, their relationship is not only interesting but also quite complex.

But things change when a powerful evil — the villain of our story – arrives in town, and we learn he is someone who is a link between the two of them. His arrival threatens both the Golem’s and the Jinni’s existence, bringing them back together once again out of necessity.

I thought it was fun how this ended up being the story of opposites, with the fiery, free-spirited, womanizing Jinni on the one hand and the stoic, overly cautious, almost prudish Golem whose sole purpose is to serve a master, on the other. And even their age is miles or should I say centuries apart, with the Golem being just days old and the Jinni well over a thousand years.
Speaking of the characters, I’d have to say that the meticulous character development is profound and pretty much ongoing throughout the entire novel, making reading this all the more fun.

Though she was only recently brought to life, I love how Chava possesses an all-too-human empathy toward others. On the day of her arrival in New York, she steals food to give to a hungry boy. She is definitely the more emotional of the two creatures and extremely sensitive to the feelings of others, as we see in her caring for her Coworker Anna. This might have something to do with the Golem’s ability to hear the thoughts and know the desires of the people around her.

The Jinni, on the other hand, is wilder, passionate, and much more rash than the Golem. He’s willing to explore his new world, whereas the Golem approaches it more hesitatingly, more cautiously.

But no matter what happens to them, we always need to remember that the Golem and the Jinni are two creatures tied to their natures, no matter how much they may wish to convince themselves otherwise.

In this way, the author brings her characters to rich life, letting all of them thrive in their complexity and near-humanness. However, I did find it especially interesting how whenever these two creatures got together, they always ended up deeply discussing the human condition, an interesting topic for two non-human creatures.

Another thing that really worked for me in this story was the exquisite world-building. It’s apparent that the author did an incredible amount of research for this novel – research into setting both turn-of-the-century life in New York as well as the Syrian Desert of old, research into culture, religion, into the different groups of people represented in the story, into cultural magic as well religious mysticism. The author does an expert job integrating these details into the story while never thrusting an information dump onto us, and at times, I felt as though I really were in another place and time. We also get a riveting look into both the Jewish and the Arabic immigrant subculture communities of the late 19th century.

Verdict

This book is fabulous! It’s one of the most surprising and engrossing books I’ve read in a while, with plenty of action and drama to keep me interested in what happens next. It’s a wonderfully rich and fascinating story of mystical creatures, old magicians, and ancient cultures with a unique, well-developed plot that was all brought together into a marvelous conclusion. So in this way, it was both a plot-driven and a character-driven story.

But not only was it engaging, but it’s also a remarkable study of human nature and includes such themes as religion, diversity, duty, choice, desires, loneliness, free will and freedom, religious faith or the lack thereof, tradition, and loving our neighbors.

So if you’re in the market for a unique and compelling story and don’t mind a bit of “woo-woo,” this book might fit that bill.

Book Update on New Novel – Ghost at the Prom

by Leave a Comment

I’m currently putting the finishing touches on the fourth book in the Ghost Oracle series, which will be entitled “Ghost at the Prom.” (Though the name is subject to change). I hope to have it up and for sale within the next couple of weeks.

In this book, Nick, our sixteen-year-old psychic medium, runs into an angry ghost at the prom who appears to be aggressively haunting another high school kid. Nick decides to help, and of course, things get pretty messy for our young medium.

The fifth book in the series should be about sometime later this year. I have most of it already written, so all that’s left is the editing process. After that, I’m planning on only one more book to wrap up the series. However, I may write a Nick Michaelson standalone novel from time to time.

The cover for the new book is below.

Ghost at the prom blog

How I Read So Much

by Leave a Comment

Cute business cat wearing glasses reading notebook book

A question that I receive a lot is how I manage to read so much. I typically average about 150 – 175 books per year, sometimes more, sometimes less.

What’s funny is that I don’t go out of my way to read an excessive amount of books — it kind of just happens. However, I will say that I make a point of reading every night for at least one hour. So that is my first tip: Be consistent. I have built reading into my schedule so that at the same time every evening, I’ll sit down and read for my designated hour. Adding your reading time to your daily calendar or schedule can help with this.

Another reason is that I rarely watch a lot of television. Now, I have nothing against television. It’s simply not a priority for me. Personally, I derive much more enjoyment from reading a book or practicing the piano than watching tv. Some people enjoy heading out to the pub every night, also something that I don’t often do. So in this way, my next tip is: Prioritize your reading time.

Increasing your reading speed can help you read more, and the best way to increase your speed? Read more. Studies indicate that the more you read, the faster you read. As you gain more reading experience, your speed will naturally increase. So the next tip is: Read more to get faster.

I stopped reading for quite a while a few years back. I used to enjoy a lot of young adult and urban fantasy novels. The problem is, is that my hoity-toity, artsy-fartsy friends loved to trash the books I enjoyed, telling me I should read more “adult” books — more serious classic literature and non-fiction. So I did. And… they bored me to tears. So I stopped reading completely for quite some time. Thus, my tip here is: Read what you enjoy. Otherwise, you won’t be motivated to read. These friends, by the way, are now former friends.

This leads me to my next tip: Bail on books you don’t like. If you’re reading a book that’s just not clicking with you, leave and instead pick up a book you will enjoy. There’s no law or rule that says you have to finish a book. If it sucks, ditch it or “DNF” it (DNF stands for “did not finish” and has turned into a verb over the years).

Read more audiobooks. I manage to burn through quite a few audiobooks during the year, probably about 2-3 per month — and this is from someone who works from home and doesn’t commute to work. Whenever I’m cooking, cleaning, or out for a walk, I turn on an audiobook and fall into a story. This way, I get to enjoy many additional books without having to carve out time for reading. Now there are those who say listening to audiobooks isn’t reading. To them, I say rubbish! Consuming a story is consuming a story, no matter how you do it. It can also be argued that writing a novel on the computer isn’t “writing,” it’s “typing” because writing involves a pencil and paper.

Always have a book on your person. I never go anywhere without a book, especially if there’s a possibility of having to wait. Anytime I have a doctor’s appointment, dentist appointment, a morning at the DMV, I ensure that I have my Kindle or a physical book with me. Of course, you can also read books on your smartphone if you’re so inclined.

I also keep a TBR list. This is a list of books that I want to read (TBR = to be read). This way, when I finish a book, I don’t need to agonize for days over what to read next or try to find a book online that sounds interesting. I have a file on my computer, so whenever I hear about a book that sounds interesting, I add it to my list. I also belong to the Book of the Month Club, so that’s one book per month (sometimes more!) that’s moved to the top of my list.

So there you have it. Some ideas on how to read more. How about you? Do you have any tips to share?