Terry Goodkind's "The First Confessor (The Legend of Magda Searus)"

The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus

If you are unfamiliar with Terry Goodkind or "The Sword of Truth" series, then I feel bad for you. It is far and away my favorite series, and I've read the entire thing - there are at least a dozen books - about 5 times. If you've seen the show "Legend of the Seeker" (it ran fortwo seasons on the CW), it was loosely based on the first book in the series. Personal note - it was ok, but the series is really better suited for a network that doesn't have to sensor it, like HBO is able to do with Game of Thrones.

The Sword of Truth series follows the lives of Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell, a war wizard and the last of the Confessors (a race of women created with the power to extract the truth from criminals) as they fall in love and fight to protect the land they live in (and eventually rule) from tyranny. I would love to delve into the multitude of reasons that I love the series, but you'll just have to read it. (The second you get to the Mord-Sith, you'll understand). 

The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus, is (what I hope anyway) the first book new story line that introduces the reader to the origins of the Confessors. For people familiar to the series, a lot of the characters will be familiar from past references to them, such as Magda, Merrit and Baraccus. It also starts with the original banishing of the Temple of The Winds. For those new to the series, since this is an origins book, it has the fairly unique quality of being read first without being lost. Anything that you might need to know from the other books is explained in this story.

I originally thought that I would miss Richard and Kahlan, but the characters in this story have such a power on their own, that you don't find yourself pining for the others at all. Magda is every bit as well-developed as Kahlan or Cara, and is a welcome addition to Mr. Goodkind's cast of strong, powerful heroines, as Baraccus, Merritt and Alric Rahl are to the men.  

I look forward to the next installment in the telling of this tale and finding out more about the war between and The New World and Emperor Sulachan's forces from The Old World.

J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"

The Catcher in the Rye on Amazon

The Catcher in the Rye... The Catcher in the Rye... my how you disappointed me.

Let me start by explaining that this is one of those books that has been on my "to read" list pretty much forever. It's on the American Classics list and we never read it in high school. 

Like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", I had no idea what it was about, other than the main character's name - which, btw, is Holden Caulfield. I only knew that tidbit from the movie "The Good Girl", where Jake Gyllenhaal plays a young guy obsessed with the book and makes everyone call him Holden. "The Good Girl", for the record, is ten times better than "The Catcher in the Rye". 

It's safe to say that I was pretty pumped going into this book. I don't know what I was expecting, but being an "American Classic", I guess I was hoping for some kind of deep plot, character development... something. The name led me to believe it would be Steinbeck-esque. Nope! 

The book is essentially about a couple days in the life of an angsty teen flunkie back in the 50's or one of those similar post-prohibition pre-hippy decades. He flunks out of school and mopes around, drinking and trying to get laid while avoiding going home. He contemplates suicide a few times, along with some other random flights of fancy, until eventually, his little sister talks some sense into him. The end.

It's basically the literally version of Nirvana and Salinger is the Kurt Kobain of the written word. 

While discussing my disappointment with a fellow bibliophile, I was told that when you're an angsty teen, you really connect with the book. It resonates with that lost rebellious part of you. I suppose, but if that's true, and "The Catcher in the Rye" makes the American Classics list for it, then I'm petitioning the addition of "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret." and everything else Judy Blume ever wrote.