Birdish Book Blog

I finally got around to read the Fifty Shades parody ‘Fifty Shames of Earl Grey' by Fanny Merkin (I admit I'm too lazy to look up his actual name right now).

Yes, I know there are probably more parodies of the fifty shades book out there than there are blogs about how bad Twilight is but bear with me for a moment.

I have no idea how closely this parody follows up with the actual Fifty shades plot since I only read the first book and part of the second. Let’s pretend it does stick to the ‘original’ in at least about which events happen.

What I liked in this book was how the author actually called out how dumb everything is THROUGH the characters. Anna sometimes questioned Earl’s weird behaviour and also at one point tells him that his ‘fifty shames’ are actually quite alright and normal and don’t make him special at all. She also calls Earl out on the 100+ page quiz he gives her to answer about her sexual preferences (in the fifty shades books: that infamous contract) among other things.
Since this is a parody lots of things are extremely ridiculous. Not-Jacob (called ‘Jin’ in this one) for example is a huge brony, Anna’s roommate is a student in her thirties who is always drunk or on drugs, Anna herself has a ‘guidette’ as her inner voice (though less vocal and less annoying than in fifty shades) instead of an ‘inner goddess’. And so on. (Also, Earl’s stalkerish behaviour is so extreme that it perfectly calls out the romanticising of creep bullshit like his.)

Most of the tims I as just thinking ‘wow, this dumb … but the original was worse’.

I serously didn’t realise that ‘The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom' by Chrisopher Healy was a book for kids until I had it on my bookshelf.

It’s a really nice book but I doubt that it would get kids to read. I think it’s a book a kid would read if

it’s already into reading.

This is a fairy tale retelling in which four princes need to rescue … well, some people. Mostly kidnapped bards who are actually the original cause of their own trouble because, you see, they never get the details right. Especially about the princes. They always end up being called ‘Prince Charming’ in the stories - which isn’t very helpful considering that they might want a piece of that fame (or at some point that fame actually is no good at all).

What I really liked about this book is that all the characters are so different. And although it’s a book about some guys you also get some cool girls, unfortunately they don’t get much of the actual ‘story’ spotlight, meaning: they don’t get many scenes which I think is unfortunate. Ella is pretty cool and adventurous, Lila is super smart (I instantly loved her!) and Rapunzel is really sweet but also brave in her own way.

The book spoilers itself a bit at the beginning but that’s quite alright. At some point I wondered how the princes could get out of the dire situations they constanly got themselves in but this wouldn’t be a book for kids if it didn’t have a happy end.

Also, the illustrations by Todd Harris are great! Too bad they’re printed in b/w only.

(I know I didn’t write about the princes themselves although they’re the main charcters but I guess people in general spend too much time writing about men.)

I read another book by the french mystery/crime author Jean-Christophe Grangé: ‘The Empire of the Wolves’, which is the cause of Goodreads now recommending books in Turkish to me (although this book is originally in French while some of the characters are Turkish and there’s of course some sort f Turkish mafia and whatnot). This is yet another book that was turned into a movie with Jean Reno as one of the characters. Only that they changed the end because of reasons.
There’s this thing with Grangé’s books and I don’t know if it’s the same thing he does in his other books: the sudden brutality, the detail of the gory things that happen to people in the book. Especially this brutality toward the main characters. The first book I ever read that had descriptions of brutal things happen to characters was ‘American Psycho’. At some point that book almost made me throw up.
Back to what I’m trying to say: Here, it came completely out of the blue.

Anyway, storywise this is yet another youn cop, old cop fling. You get the young guy who digs up a case and the old guy who the young guy seeks out because of his experience.
This book has lots of point of view changes. It’s split up in ‘parts’ whereas each part shares one perspective at a time and is split up in chapters. This was extremely irritating to read in my opinion. I don’t mind POV changes too much but it’s horrible if the characters who get a part of the book from their POV are only supporting characters. /: That was sort of odd. And although nothing in particular annoyed me I do think that the author had trouble with the female perspectives in this book.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 16. February 2014]

‘The Vampire Lestat' by Anne Rice is the second book by her I read and also the second book of the Vampire Chronicles.
I don’t know anymore who summed up this novel like this but I think it’s absolutely true:
Everyone: “Don’t do the thing, Lestat!”
Lestat: “I did the thing!”

Because Lestat always does what he’s not supposed to do. Anyway, I think this book was way better than ‘Interview with the Vampire’ even though the characters get distracted by themselves - again! Especially how the vampires muse about good and evil all the time can be a bit tedious, mostly when it goes on for several pages. You get not only Lestat’s life story in this book but also the story of Armand and Marius (an even more ancient vampire) and the supposely source of vampirism - two Egyptian vampires.
Also, lots of romance in this one. I’m still puzzled about if mortal!Lestat was actually romantically in love with Nicolas or not but then again, he kissed the guy, they apparently slept in the same bed. I don’t know guys. No one labels this book as m/m romance but I’m pretty sure mortal!Lestat had a thing with Nicolas. Anyway, those two … well wow. That was kind of bitter. And also a bit sweet. Until things went wrong. (Don’t they always for Lestat?)
Sometimes this was extremely frustrating to read because of the endless back-and-forth between the characters. It’s sort of like the author tried to milk the plot for words and while in most cases those extra words actually worked out for the story there are times when it’s just really boring.
(I still don’t geht the Anne Rice concept of vampire love. And I’m asexual after all so I know what liking somone without the desire of going to bed with them is like. Someone explain.)

Anyway, at least no one sparkled.

Edit: I forgot to mention: I really liked the part where Marius told about the old “gods”. That was pretty interesting.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 5. February 2013]

I put off writing about the books I read recently for a while now. Let’s start with 'Interview With The Vampire' by Anne Rice.
Well. Let’s just say that story is probably what you’d expect from an old vampire. I mean, that the narrative sometimes strays, that the main character has some philosophical thoughts that he works into the story he tells. Of course the way he tells it would’ve worked better if it wasn’t for the fact that this is supposed to be an interview. It’s too ‘written’. Too ‘writer’-ish, less ‘dialogue’-ish.
Some years ago I read about how Anne Rice has a way of describing things that put off some people. I can see now what they meant. This is the first book by her I read so I can’t say anything about her general writing style, it’s just that one description in the beginning of the book actually made me laugh:
“The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue, except for two brilliant green eyes that looked down at the boy intently like flames in a skull.”
Apart from this sentence being ridiculously long - flames in a skull? Really? I can’t exactly explain why I thought this was funny but … yeah.

I think the most complicated character in this book was Claudia. Oh, poor Claudia. She had to go through quite some things. I mean, imagine having to stay in the body of a child forever. Even human kids can’t wait to grow up. Sure, she was cruel as hell but at least she actually showed Louis that she felt something for him, unlike Lestat (at least at first).
Btw, the romance: I liked how the vampires actually ‘love’. They are attracted in a non-sexual way (they got no body fluids, remember?) which is very appealing to me because in my opinion romantic attraction isn’t ultimately linked to sex.
Btw, body fluids: … although it says in the beginning of the book how Louis lost his body fluids, he’s still able to cry and (if I remember correctly) sweat? Huh.

Also, Louis was sometimes really annoying but I do wonder what happened to him after the first book. /:
I actually got the first four books of this series in a box set so I’ll read ‘The Vampire Lestat’ sooner or later.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 16. February 2014]

I actually finished ‘The Crimson Rivers' by Jean-Christophe Grangé some time last week (Saturday? or something) but I guess sometimes I have to let things … rest for a while to think about them.
Well, anyway, I read the German translation of the book (the only books I read in English are originally in English anyway. The Crimson Rivers is originally in French.)

I bet most people saw ‘The Crimson Rivers’ movie with Jean Reno. Let me tell you something right away: they switched the character of Niemans’ ‘partner’ with some other guy because in the book the second policeman is actually a guy named Karim Abdouf, who is arabian. Or not. Actually, I have a problem with the description in the book concerning him. Apparently he has dreadlocks and (as described) ‘dark skin’ but is arabian. Now, don’t get me wrong, I guess arabian people can totally have dreadlocks. No problem there. At some point though he is more described as a person of colour. Which would also be absolutely fine. It’s just that it’s not very clear and that’s a bit annoying. Maybe it’s a problem with the translation, I don’t know.
Anyway, for most part of the book the characters actually stay apart from each other in their investigations which made it quite interesting for me when they actually finally met and why. Unfortunately they didn’t really investigate the case together which was a bit disappointing but probably better because these two guys are actually a bit too similar in their behaviour. The big difference was how they actually did things. Niemans was quite the ‘powerful’ guy who could order other people around and even made them do stuff that I don’t think the police actually would do in an invenstigation (I admit I don’t know a thing about how the police investigates things but I don’t think combing through an university library in search for books about ‘evil’ stuff counts). Abdouf on the other hand was passed as an undercover agent most of the times because of how he looked which was quite annoying. They’re both no stranger to using pressure to get what they want.

I don’t have much of an experience with mystery/crime novels so I can’t really say if this was a good example for one. I thought it was an interesting book and at times a bit gore-y. Ugh. (You guys do remember that part about the eyes? Yeah well. I could’ve lived without the descriptions in the book.)
Also, the ending was a bit … disappoinging. /: But then again, everyone enjoys different kinds of endings.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 10. February 2014]

I did mention that I read ‘The Wise Man’s Fear' by Patrick Rothfuss, right? Actually finished it some time ago.
It’s the second book of the Kingkiller Chronicle and it suffers a lot from the sequel disease, despite being book two of a trilogy. Someone once called the second book of a trilogy a ‘bikini’ novel. (That was the author Ingrid Pointecker btw. I have no idea if that was her own idea or if she got it from somewhere.)
So yeah, while the author’s writing is still entertaining, it proves perfectly that you can never completely trust a first person narrator. And in this case, this is very annoying!
This becomes extremely clear when Kvothe meets the fairy … fae… supernatural being ‘Ferulian’ in a ‘off the map’ forest and then runs after her to have sex with her. She sort of tells him how good he was despite it being his first time.
???
Err. This proves once again that Kvothe is a very unreliable narrator because the way the story progresses he never talks about if he ever had a physical relationship (without sex). This makes it hard to believe that he knew how to please Ferulian, which makes her praise for him weird.
Kvothe is quite the hypocrite too if you ask me. He’s extremely proud of his Edema Ruh parents and heritage but he can’t accept that MAYBE some rumours about them could be true. Once again the work of an unreliable narrator because if you, as the reader, trust his every word then the Edema Ruh are always wrongfully accused of vile acts and thievery - which makes them seem like saints because wow, according to Kvothe they never did anything wrong and are perfect human beings. Say what?

Oh by the way, despite this book being over 1000 pages long it’s actually an easy read. I’m not an extremely fast reader but I still managed to read this book in under one week.

Also, I liked the Adem: they were kind of … different.
BUT.
Yes, there’s a but: the thing about how ‘men have more rage’ is super dumb. This comes from the misconception that men are naturally more aggressive. I think this is utter bullshit that the author took from our society that teaches men that they have every right to be angry while teaching women that they’re not allowed to show their anger. And there I thought that Rothfuss was at least claiming to be a feminist.
Well. At least it’s nice that every Adem can become a mercenary if they want to, gender being unimportant. GOOD FOR THEM. Also, the thing about showing emotions with their hands and stuff is very interesting.

This got longer than I thought it would. Huh.

So yeah, it wasn’t as good as the first book but it wasn’t unreadable either.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 22. January 2014]

I finished the last two (so far) Nightrunner books ‘The White Road' and 'Casket of Souls' by Lynn Flewelling.
I’m very much pleased about how ‘The White Road’ ended. I’m quite curious though about what happened to Ilar after all of that. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would turn up again. But then again… well, they were and the shore of Plenimar… hmm.

Anyway! ‘Casket of Souls’ takes the main characters back to Rhíminee, which means more efficient nightrunning and thieving and stuff. YAY. There are two main plots though one is once again a political plot. Still, it’s pretty good in my opinion. :D

… well, now it means waiting until April for the (probably) last book of the series.
Sorry for the short post but when it’s about a book series it’s hard to make longer posts without explaining all the things.

[originally posted on tumblr on 17. January 2014]

So, I finished a couple of books since my last update:
From the Nightrunner series (aka, what am I doing to myself?): ‘Traitor’s Moon' and 'Shadows Return' which were both quite heartbreaking at times though interesting to read. I especially liked reading about Aurënen though the murder plot there was a bit … yeah, well. Something different than any story that could be done in a proper city like Rhíminee.
Shadow’s Return was quite dark and aaahhh, quite sad. D:
Okay, I have to admit, that they’re keeping Sebrahn in the fifth book is a bit annoying.
Oh btw, I got all the books now except for ‘Glimpses’, which is an in-between-book with short stories. I hope I’ll get it soon. <3

[Originally posted on tumblr on 14. January 2014]

I finished Lynn Flewelling’s second book of the Nightrunner series ‘Stalking Darkness' in record time.
Okay, I admit I was curious about the main characters becoming a pair but then there was also EVERYTHING ELSE. I mean, the main plot was sometimes as elusive as the main quest in the Elder Scrolls games but it did come back in the end and everything added up. Yay.
This book got me to worry over characters in a way I rarely worry ALTHOUGH I know there are more books with those guys in them! As the main characters! Gosh, this author had me gasping for breath. Yet another fun read.
Oh, and also: BEKA IS AMAZING. I love that girl!

I do admit though that the author’s flowery language is a bit weird but I love the characters enough to overlook that. As well as UNCLE SEREGIL EXPLAINS THINGS.
His info dumping tendencies got me thinking of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. You know, the original Sherlock Holmes. Seregil sure is a lot like Sherlock in some ways. I mean, the way he lets Alec figure out things isn’t very much unlike how Sherlock Holmes sometimes lets John Watson look for clues. Even if only to stimulate his own thoughts. The big difference though is that Sherlock Holmes didn’t take John Watson on as his … well, sort of apprentice. :’)
Also, do I really have to mention the chaos at the Cockerel in Seregil’s room? I’ll just say: persian slipper.

[originally posted on tumblr on 8. December 2013]

The first of the 'Kate Daniels' series. It's the sort of novel of that type of urban fantasy that is a lot less romantic about magic and stuff. It's a fantasy/crime novel with a very strong female character. Although you get that Kate (the main character) is special, it's nothing that pops up all the time, which means it's not too bothersome. You also get some fun shapechangers who are not anywhere near 'Twilight' niveau, speaking of twilight, the vampires in this novel are really gross. Well done, Ilona Andrews. Well done.
I want to read more of that series. It’s only too bad that Kate was the only female main character - maybe that’s different in the other novels of the series? (In retrospect: the characters who have most scenes are Kate (she’s a first person narrator), Curran, Derek and Dr. Crest (who is also male). Then you got the villain who only gets significant page time at the end of the novel. Also a guy.)

[Originally posted on tumblr on 14. November 2013]

I finished ‘The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern last week. It took me long enough, phew.
So yeah, this book - it’s one of those books that were written during Nanowrimo. At least the first draft. About the book itself: I had no idea what to expect. It’s a story about two people who have to fight each other. Well, not in a way of wielding weapons or something, but by using their magic powers - not to kill each other but to proof that their magic is ‘better’ than that of their opponent. As for the circus: its purpose is to serve as a ‘battle ground’ for the participants. I have to give it to the author: lots of wonderful ideas for a circus. It’s not ‘one’ show but actually a place with numerous tents that contain different attractions like actual magic shows and stuff like that. I remember that the author wrote in a pep talk she did for Nanowrimo that the circus was her ‘ninjas’. (If you’re unfamiliar with that: ‘adding ninjas’ means adding something random, something new to your story. This should help if you get stuck.) It evolved into much more than just ‘ninjas’.
Anyway, this book also has a nice lovestory.
One thing though: I kept reading the name ‘Friedrick’ as either ‘Friedrich’ or ‘Frederick’ because … err, well, if you speak German you will recognize the problem I had with the name (no matter if this is an actual name or not).
I wasn’t sure what to think of the book at first - it was a bit slow in the middle but the end was very interesting.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 14. November 2013]

I read 'Transformation' by Carol Berg like a madperson and finished it today. Um. Alright, I have no idea why I even picked up this book. I think because someone on Goodreads wrote about ‘homoerotic subtext’ in their review? I couldn’t see anything there. What I read instead were many three dimensional characters, nicely built cultures and an interesting but simple fantasy world. So yeah, that’s a good reason to pick up this book and I’m curious about the other two books. It’s apparently a trilogy.
I have no idea if I should write about the plot since it’s a bit complicated in my head. I’ll give it a try.
Err, so, you have Seyonne - the first person narrator. He’s a slave and gets bought by the rpince of the empire that conquered his country. He becomes the prince’s writing slave and learns that there are people who are posessed by demons in the empire who try to overtake it. Seyonne is from a race (or whatever you would actually call it) that fights demons and because of some circumstances he didn’t know at first he decides to do everything he can to stop the demons from possessing the prince.
Well, at first it’s a bit strange but in time the characters learn to respect each other and also start to care for each other. I guess this is where some people see the ‘homoerotic subtext’ because apparently to some people you can’t care greatly for someone who isn’t your brother or sister without being romantically in love with them or something. Anyway, I really liked the story and how it developed and if you’re into fantasy stories with demons and magic and stuff: go ahead and read it.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 9. September 2013]

Some ‘Reaper Man' reading progress:
I LOVE ALL THE NAMES.
I mean seriously, Windle Poon? Ridcully? Bill Door?
Ohgawd.
I had to laugh so often already because of this book. It’s amazing. Unfortunately I’m not really much in the mood to read so I didn’t get far yet. Only about 100 pages. I especially liked how Windle Poon is too stubborn to stay ‘dead’. Or, well, wherever his mage colleagues put him. And stuff. Hahah.

Also, Death being kind of ‘idk about this name thing’ was super hilarious. There’s no Mr. Sky. Why not?
Aww.
Sometimes I feel like the subplots are sort of random and then all of sudden they make sense in the story. This is really great. I need to read more Discworld novels, obviously. I really love the humor!

[originally posted on tumblr on 25. August 2013]

I finished Sergei Lukyanenko’s newest addition to the ‘Watch’ saga, from what I gather this will probably be called ‘New Watch’ in the English edition, the German translation is called ‘Wächter des Morgen’. (Since I have no idea how the Others call themselves in the watches the English version I have troubles trying to translate this title. Plus, because it sort of looks like wonky grammar in the title I have the idea that this is somehow means ‘guardian of tomorrow’ instead of ‘guardian of dawn’ or is maybe some sort of clever double-title that looks rather horrible.)
ANYWAY. 

The book overall is about prophecies this time. I took the time to think about the books some more and I figured out that they are all pretty much the author showing off the world to the reader while the main character has some adventure. Of course there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s only that you sort of get one thing at a time. So, over the course of 5 books you get introduced into the world of the ‘Others’, magicians, witches, vampries, shapeshifters and so on. The main appeal of this series for me was how the people who served the light were by no means ‘the good ones’ but as well creatures who took advantage of normal humans. Also, the magic system is quite appealing, although during a battle it’s simply people standing in front of each other with their magic shields up and them trying to bash each other’s head in with some more magic.
Anyway, I think the main character is past his date of expiry already because ever since he became more powerful, his struggles became a bit less interesting. Maybe that’s just me, but only having morale problems and ‘I have to play detective while my superior plays a Merlin archetype character’ isn’t really all that interesting to me.
Okay, we get a real troublesome fellow in this book because that’s the twilight itself attacking people for something and yet… the sense of immediate danger never quite comes across.
Like I said in my previous post about this book: The story is split into three story arcs.
The first story is about the discovery of a prophet and the so called ‘tiger’ hunting after him. This is to prevent him from people learning about his so called ‘main prophecy’ which will only come true when humans hear it. They figure out how to avert a tragedy and the light has a new prophet.
The second story is the main character, Anton’s investigation of how the prohpet Erasmus Darwin could evade the twilight and manage not to be killed when he was about to speak his main prophecy. Anton then runs into the witch Arina (she was one of the important characters from the fourth book) who also investigates prophecies and lets himself be carted off to Taiwan because of a case of the twilight ‘tiger’ being fend off.
The third story is simply about Anton figuring out all the prophecies (except the taiwanese one) and trying not to die. There you go.

One thing that I probably didn’t notice in the other books but I’m sure is there is the main character pondering about Russian societe as it is at the time the book was written at. It’s sort of the author’s critique. Of course for me, as someone who lives in Central Europa and also in a rather rich country with no severe society problems this is a bit hard to understand. Not hard to imagine but also not easy to understand. Another thing is that the main character so suddenly starts pondering about things that it takes you out of the story. Not all of sudden but rather it slows down at some point.
Maybe to me the author lost his touch a little but I can see that this work is important to him. Although it’s urban fantasy which at least doesn’t require a massive amount of world-building, the magic system is very detailed in this books. The author really thought about where the magic comes from, why the ‘Others’ can use it and so on. You get little explanation here and there about these things. It’s hard to say if there will be another book - maybe if the author finds something else to explain. Anyway, some re-occuring characters were a bit … exhausted in this book. Especially Geser (the main character’s boss).

Well, I’m between liking the book and not being sure about reading any more of the author’s books. Also his misinformations about women were coming through again.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 15. August 2013]

Did you guys ever see the movie ‘Jumper’ with Hayden Christensen?
The book 'Jumper' by Steven Gould isn’t anything like it. According to some Goodreads users they actually adapted the second book. Either way, this book has nothing of the lightheartedness of the movie.
It pretty much starts out with the main character getting beaten by his drunk father and him running away and having other horrible experiences while doing so. He tries figuring out his ability to teleport, which he then calls ‘jumping’. The thing with the teleporting is, that the main character, Davy, has to have a good memory of the place he wants to ‘jump’ to, so simply looking at a picture won’t do. Later in the book though it’s alright to use binoculars (probably because you can’t see endlessly far away with them).
Probably one of the few things they got right in the movie is that Davy stole money from a bank, only that he felt endlessly bad about it in the book. Oh, and he loves books. He loves books so much that when the police starts investigating him (because he jumped a police officer who abused his wife away), the very first thing he saves are his books.
But yes, there is a love story in this book. Millie is actually a few years older than Davy and even comments on it with Davy arguing that the social construct of it being okay if a man is older than the woman is bullshit. I have to draw my imaginary hat for the author there because he brings up a thing that is still a problem in reality (it says 1992 in the beginning on the book so I assume that’s when it was published first - and we STILL this issue with our society!). Millie is actually a really, really great character who has a life outside of meeting Davy - who she meets at first only on the weekends and not even every weekend until she gets to know about his teleporting ability. She’s very intelligent too. Actually, that was one of the best pulled-off love subplots I’ve read so far.

The book suddenly takes a turn when Davy meets his mother aand … well, I don’t want to at least spoiler the thing that happens next.
It takes another turn when Davy decides within good personal reason to go after terrorists. This goes so far that the NSA tries to get him. He then jumps NSA agents to various places in the Middle East.
Anyway, this portion of the plot shows how easy it is to suddenly be a wanted person, although, let’s just put it like it is: Davy is quite unique with his teleportation ability. (Nope, there are no other teleports in the first book.)

What I liked most about this book was how the characters’ emotions were portrayed. I mean, you get a male teenager as your main character (he turns 18 in the book) and he actually shows emotions. In our societey emotions seem to be bad for men or something. When you read really old books, like, let’s say ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ or ‘The Count of Monte Christo’ (I can really only name the ones I read) you’ll see how sentimental the male characters actually get.
Also, I LOVED Millie. She’s a person in this book, not just a name or only the love interest for the main character. Every character in this book though is anything but flat.

So yeah, I liked it, even if the terrorist theme confused me at first. You know, since I was never affected by any of this on a personal level it often left me with confusion. I mean, I know that terrorism is absolutely wrong but that’s a thought and not a feeling. Well, this book helped me with this a bit. Also, considering how old this book is I’m really sad that people still have to go through all of this.

Oh, also, have these things I thought were very interesting:

Davy’s self-awareness that shrugging so much is actually weird. It happens so often in books and movies that you often start to wonder.

…
The second one I can’t seem to upload because it turns the picture sideways. WHY TUMBLR.

It says: “We saw a bad movie after dinner, so bad it was funny, and amused ourselves with whispering alternative dialogue.”

So essentially you get Mystery Science Theatre there. :) Gosh, I actually also did that with friends and it’s hilarious. I love finding something like this in an actual book.