Descripted

January 2012/February 2012

2012-02-13T21:15:00.002-06:00

Confession: Toward the end of last year, I started to regard writing book reviews as more of a chore than something I really enjoyed doing. I'm not sure why, but it just seemed like one more thing on my never-ending To-Do list. Rather than force myself to continue doing it, I decided I would just back off for a while. Who knows? -- I might decide I miss it in a few weeks and start back up. That being said, I still want to keep up with the books I read and let others know what I'm reading. So, for the time being, I'll just be posting the titles of the books I read (with a link to the book on Amazon so you can learn more about it with minimal effort), the author, genre, and a 0-5 star review. I'll probably do this monthly. If I come across a book I really want to review, I'll jump back on the wagon and write one.

Of course, if you want to know more about my thoughts on any of the books I read, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email: rowbseat13@gmail.com. (Before you ask, "Row B, Seat 13" is a lovely song by my favorite band of all time, Jump, Little Children.)

January 2012

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (Young Adult)
5 out of 5 Stars

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (Young Adult)
3,894,892,038,409,328 out of 5 Stars

3. The Girl Who Couldn't Say No by Tracy Engelbrecht (Memoir)
3 out of 5 Stars

February 2012 (So Far)

4. The Long Run (Kindle Single) by Mishka Shubaly (Memoir)
3 out of 5 Stars

5. Eleven Twenty-Three by Jason Hornsby (Science Fiction)
3 out of 5 Stars

Special Post: Another Year Over

2012-01-01T20:46:00.001-06:00

Well, we have seen another ball drop here at the old blog. Let's recap what happened this time last year:

We changed the name of the blog to Descripted, due to the fact that "Sixty Books" wasn't really accurate anymore.
We started a monthly Descripted Book Club via Google Groups.
I (Chassi) resolved to read thirty books in 2011, while Derrick made the gutsy resolution to read a whopping twelve -- one for each month of the book club.

Now, let's see how that stacks up:

We're sticking with Descripted. Not that it matters. Raise your hand if you care... Didn't think so.
The book club lasted for about four months, although I don't think we ever had a single month where every member read the book and participated in, you know, actually discussing it. I gained the nickname "Book Club Nazi" because I was constantly reminding people to nominate, vote on, and post about books. I tried. I really did. Unfortunately, the club was comprised of real adults with real lives. Truth be told, even if the book club had kept on truckin' after the summer, I probably would've dropped the ball around August because things got crazy at work, with school starting back (job #1) and football season rolling in (job #2). It was a pleasant idea, and I wish we had all had more time to devote to it. I read books I never would have read without the book club (Life by Keith Richards, American Gods by Neil Gaiman) and... kind of... enjoyed them. Sort of. Who knows, maybe we'll try it again sometime when we're all a bit more settled, or perhaps we should give longer time periods... Or maybe I just shouldn't be such an anal-retentive jerk about it. We'll see.
I read thirty-four books, because I'm an over-achiever like that, and Derrick probably read abboouuuttt... .three, unless you count comic books or text books about educational leadership. (But let's give him some credit -- he is a mere internship away from completing his Master's Degree in May!)

As for my goals for 2012, I think 30 is a good number of books to read in a year. I had plenty of time, I read a variety of things, and I didn't feel rushed or tempted to opt for a short, easy book just to help myself meet a deadline. So... 30 more in 2012!

Here's to reading a book that'll change your life this year. Cheers!

--C

Book #34 -- Water for Elephants

2012-01-01T20:19:00.001-06:00

Uhhhhhh, woah. This book was aaaaaamazin'.

Sarah Gruen's Water for Elephants has been immensely popular since is publication nearly six years ago. I'm not sure why I ignored it for so long, but earlier this year, when it was turned into a movie (starring none other than Twilight's Robert Pattinson -- gag), I definitely know why I continued to ignore it. Just didn't seem like my cup of tea.

I recently found out that because I'm an Amazon Prime member, I can take advantage of the new Kindle Owner's Lending Library and "borrow" some select titles for free. I was browsing through the titles, and this one was the first one I came across that I recognized. I clicked to borrow it, mostly just to see how the whole lending thing worked. I had access to it for ten days, so I thought, "Why not give it a try?" So. Glad. I did.

The story is about Jacob Jankowski, a young student in veterinary school during the Depression. After a family tragedy that forces him to miss his final exams at school, Jacob takes off and jumps a train to try to escape his shambled life. He finds himself on board with the Benzini Brothers' Most Spectacular Show On Earth. At first, the shady circus workers he encounters on the train car are threatening -- in the days of the Depression, circuses were suffering, and free-loaders looking for work weren't welcome. When they find out that Jacob has a background as a vet, they realize his talent could come in handy with the show's exotic animals. Jacob land himself a job travelling with the show and soon learns about the strange (and often horrifying) things that go on behind the scenes of a train-circus in the 1930's. He also finds himself falling for Marlena, the beauty that performs with Liberty Horses as one of the show's biggest highlights. She also happens to be married to one of the easily-angered circus bosses. As more and more circuses around the country are closing due to the economy, things get heated, and eventually the Benzini Brothers' train takes a turn for the worst.

This is such a beautiful book. Gruen is a genius, and she absolutely did her research. One of my favorite parts of this book was reading an interview with the author at the end where she talks about how deeply she delved into circus archives from the era and describing that many of the events that take place in the novel -- the ones that are either so strange or so gut-wrenchingly horrid that you can't believe they're true -- actually did happen on train circuses in America. That really adds a lot to the emotion of the book, and I kind of wish I had known it before I read it.

The novel alternates between chapters told from Jacob's perspective while he was on the circus train, and chapters told from Jacob's perspective as a 90-something-year-old man in a nursing home. It's really just... awesome. I want to say so much, but I want you to read it so you find out for yourself.

And I suppose I'll watch the movie soon. Robert Pattinson (and Reese Witherspoon, too... bleh!) make me a bit nervous, but I found out that one of the deliciously evil characters is played by Christoph Waltz, who plays one of my favorite villains ever in Inglourious Basterds, so that alone is enough for me. We'll see how it holds up.

Read from December 22, 2011 to December 30, 2011.

5/5 Stars

--C

Book #33 -- Atonement

2012-01-01T19:37:00.001-06:00

Hmmmm. This is going to be a tough book to review, but I'll do my best.

Ian McEwan's Atonement is a much-celebrated novel that was made into an even-more-celebrated film in 2007. I knew of the film, due to its wide critical acclaim in the award season following its release, but had not seen it before reading the book.

The book begins in pre-World War II England and is centered around the well-to-do Tallis family. There's the always absent workaholic father whose name I don't even remember, and Emily, the mother who is such a poor motherly figure that her children call her by her first name. There are three Tallis children -- Leon, Cecilia, and Briony. Briony is a brilliantly talented writer, even at the young age of twelve, with a very active imagination. So, when she "accidentally" witnesses a couple of awkward, flirtatious situations between her sister, Ceclia, and Robbie Turner (the son of the Tallis family's live-in help), Briony lets her imagination twist the situation into something that it isn't. Later in the novel, a young cousin of the Tallis' is raped. Briony's mind is so skewed that she aides the police investigation with some false information. Obviously, false accusations can easily ruin lives... So the rest of the book is about Briony dealing with her own guilt and seeking atonement (see what they did there?) from those she has wronged.

I should also add that there is a layer of (what appears to be) self-critiquing in this novel by McEwan himself. He uses Briony's writing to discuss the struggles of authors and the guilt associated with "playing God" and determining your characters' fates... Blah, blah, I don't really like all that abstract, introspective crap, so I'm not going to discuss it in the review, although I thought I should mention it so that no one thinks I'm an idiot who just didn't notice it. I did; I just don't care.

Let me start by saying that I think McEwan is a terrific writer. Really, he's got beautiful phrasing, and he's very good at playing out emotions. The novel itself lagged in a few places, but overall, the pace was good. I enjoyed reading the novel, but I did not enjoy the actual novel itself. That doesn't seem like it makes sense, but, as I have said many times -- the ending of a novel will make or break it. In this case, it wasn't really just the ending, but... maybe the lack of an ending? I mean, it ended, but it was utterly pointless. I kept waiting on some giant secret revelation that was going to crack the whole book wide open, but it never came. The latter parts of the novel cover about ten years, and I thought surely something was going to come of all those words on all those pages, but... No. Maybe I'm completely crazy, because there are tons of people who rave about this book, but I felt like I wasted my time. I realize that all books don't have to have a happy ending where all the lose ends are tied -- in fact, I prefer books that aren't like that -- but this one just didn't work for me.

Now...

I'm about to say something I do not ever, ever, ever say, and I will probably never say it again, so prepare yourselves.

Are you ready?

OK.

The movie is so, so much better than the book.

..............Bleh, that leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. But it's true. The film stays very, very close to the plot of the book with only a few minor changes, so it doesn't make up for anything that's wrong with the book. Same plot, same ending, same everything. But somehow, it is a beautiful movie. That's so strange to me, but it's true. Joe Wright, the director, must be some sort of cinematic genius. I have never seen a movie directed so well. I don't want to turn this into a movie review but I do want to say this:

One of my biggest issues with books-turned-to-movies is that you often lose the sense of perspective that you get from being inside different characters heads. Atonement brilliantly worked around this by using a specific cue (e.g. a close-up of a doorknob turning) to signal the beginning of an important event (e.g. the first time Briony witnesses Robbie and Ceclia's flirtation). You watch it from Briony's perspective. Then the movie returns to that same cue and goes through the event from Ceclia's perspective. It's not that clean-cut, but you get the idea. Really well done. For once in my life, I am telling you to watch a movie but skip the book. I must be going crazy.

Read from November 28, 2011 to December 21, 2011

2/5 Stars

--C

Book #32 -- Little Bee

2011-12-11T22:26:00.001-06:00

I have no idea how I'm going to review this book. I know that it was awesome and everyone should read it, but I really can't say much more.

You see, the thing about Chris Cleave's Little Bee is that you're not supposed to tell anyone what it's about. Even the description on the back of the book is lacking:

"We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again -- the story starts there. Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is how the story unfolds."

I'm... not... really sure why they don't want people to say what happens, because A) I don't think it would ruin anything if I were to explain the basic plot of the book, and B) I think knowing the basic plot would make people want to read it more... But whatever. I don't want to get shunned by the Little Bee fan community (if that even exists), so I'll just be really brief, OK?

Little Bee -- that's a person. She's a Nigerian refugee in England who's been in a refugee holding facility since she arrived in the UK.
Sarah is an English woman who met Little Bee on a vacation in Nigeria. (Who goes on vacation in Nigeria? Weird.)
Sarah and her family are the only people Little Bee knows in England. So she's trying to find them.

There you go. That's what it's about. Well, that, and sadness. This book is depressing. Do not say I didn't warn you of that. Even when it's funny, it's ironically funny... like, "I-have-to-laugh-at-the-way-the-world-is-so-that-I-don't-cry"-funny. Which isn't really funny at all. I'm not saying it wasn't good, because it was actually brilliant, and extremely well-written. I think Chris Cleave is on genius-level, and I need to read everything else he's ever written immediately. It's just... sad. It reminded me a lot of Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (which I reviewed in March of 2010). McCann is a brilliant writer, although depressing. Cleaves is the same way. There's something sickening about the way he portrays modern first-world society through the eyes of a teenaged Nigerian girl who has fled from everything she has ever known. At times, I couldn't decide if I agreed wholeheartedly with the point he was trying to make, or if it ticked me off that he was acting like we (as citizens of developing countries) should somehow be ashamed of how our lives have evolved. I'm still on the fence about that, actually.

There's a popular thing on various social networking sites these days know as "First World Problems" -- people post a Facebook status or a Twitter update or something similar with some inane issue they're having that could only occur to someone living a comfortable life in a modern society. It's become sort of an Internet-wide joke, but it really speaks volumes. I actually found myself saying this to Derrick recently: "Our refrigerator isn't big enough." I immediately caught myself and realized how completely ridiculous that statement was and joked that it was the perfect example of a "First World Problem." But seriously, how stupid is that? Our huge electric cooling system that holds our food to keep it from spoiling is not large enough to contain all of the processed food, available anywhere in abundant quantities, which we have purchased from multi-million dollar companies. Ummmmm, ridiculous.

I came across this passage and immediately read it again. Then I got up, got a pen, underlined it, and put a sticky note on the page. It's a quote from Little Bee (the character):

"Imagine how tired I would become, telling my story to the girls from back home. This is the real reason why no one tells us Africans anything. It is not because anyone wants to keep my continent in ignorance. It is because nobody has the time to sit down and explain the first world from first principles. Or maybe you would like to, but you can't. Your culture has become sophisticated, like a computer, or a drug that you take for a headache. You can use it, but you cannot explain how it works. Certainly not to girls who stack up their firewood against the side of their house [...] This story is for sophisticated people, like you."

That really hit me for some reason. It's true. You couldn't even explain the most normal, everyday tasks to someone struggling in a third-world country. It would be absolutely alien. They wouldn't even know what to say or think if I told them my refrigerator was too small. It really makes you think about the things you take for granted. At the same time, I often got the feeling in this book that Cleaves was suggesting that, if you are fortunate enough to live in such a society, you are somehow guilty of suppressing others who are less fortunate. I don't really agree with that, but it's a pretty complex subject to figure out.

Anyway, I've just completely gone off the deep end with this. Maybe that's why they tell you not to talk about it.

5/5 Stars

Read from November 25, 2011 to November 27, 2011

--C

Book #31 -- Scary Mary

2011-12-11T21:50:00.000-06:00

Obviously Dracula inspired me to read something else creepy and paranormal...

In S.A. Hunter's young adult novel Scary Mary, Mary is a misunderstood, bullied high school teenager. Her grandmother (and guardian) is the local psychic, and Mary herself has the ability to hear ghosts. Her "gift" tends to complicate her life, and rumors about her abnormal lifestyle cause her classmates to label her a freak. When Cyrus, the new kid, tries to get to know her, she immediately pushes him away. Just when Mary is warming up to the idea of spending time with Cyrus, Vicky, the classic "popular cheerleader" type in young adult novels crashes the party and sets up a scheme to humiliate Mary. The incident that follows is successful in ruining Cyrus and Mary's budding relationship, but it also brings a powerful, dangerous spirit to Mary's attention. For Cyrus' safety, Mary tries to contend with the spirit herself, at the risk of her own life.

This was a great little story that I read over the course of a few hours. It'll hook you from the beginning. Mary is a great, sarcastic character who is not afraid to stand up for herself. She definitely carries the book. The plot was simple, but captivating. Hunter did a great job weaving together the story of the spirit Mary discovers. I really enjoyed how the story unfolded, and I found myself wondering what would happen next many times. It's not the most complex piece of YA literature in the world, but it's still an impressive story.

Bottom line: Is it ground-breakingly clever in terms of a young adult novel (a la The Hunger Games)? Not exactly. Is it entertaining and well-written? Yes.

I've just found out that this is the first in a series, and I will definitely be checking out the others. You should, too.

4/5 Stars

Read from November 24, 2011 to November 25, 2011

--C

Book #30: Dracula

2011-12-11T21:25:00.002-06:00

I've meant to read this book every October for about two years, but I always wind up choosing something else. I did the same thing this year, but then I decided that it didn't have to be Halloween for me to enjoy a horror novel so I read it anyway.

Bram Stoker's Dracula was originally published in 1897 and is the introduction of the now iconic "Count Dracula" and our quintessential idea of a vampire. There has been a fascination with vampires in pop culture for the last several years -- the Twilight series, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries -- and even going back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Lost Boys. It was nice to read the original version of what a vampire is supposed to be.

The novel is presented in a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and other miscellaneous written artifacts. From the other literature I've read from this period, that seems to be pretty a common style back them. It adds a personal feeling to the plot, so I enjoyed it.

In the beginning, lawyer Jonathan Harker travels to Count Dracula's castle to give him legal advice. While he's there, he notices the Count's strange appearance and behavior. He soon realizes that Dracula is holding him as a prisoner in the castle. Meanwhile, Dracula is also keeping tabs on Harker's fiancee Mina and her friend Lucy. The novel also follows Dr. John Seward, who is the manager of a mental institution close to Dracula's castle. Seward's main patient is Renfield, who routinely eats bugs and small animals. Trust me, it all ties in together eventually.

I was struck by the fact that, for the entire novel to be named after him, Dracula isn't really around for much of the book. He's in the first couple of chapters, and is obviously present and causing mischief in the rest of the book, but as a character, he's pretty absent. You don't get a lot of dialog or much of a glimpse at him as a person. It adds to the creepiness of the story, but I personally like to get inside the mind of villains in books. That's unfortunate, because it would have been interesting to do a better comparison of Dracula to the newer version of a blood-sucking fiend. The more modern idea of a vampire is an over-sexualized, glittering, violent, brooding jerk (see image to the left). Stoker's Dracula is certainly charming, but there's no excessive seduction scenes or bloodbaths. Also, I don't think I recall anyone sparkling. I don't think Stephanie Meyer read this book.

All in all, I really enjoyed Dracula, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. I will say that, like most period novels, it can be hard to follow (just because of the difference in language), and it drastically loses its pace at about the 75% mark. It had me captivated for the first part, then it fell pretty flat. Not terrible, but a twinge disappointing.

PS -- This was my 30th book! I hit my goal for 2011 with this book.

3/5 Stars

Read from November 3, 2011 to November 24, 2011

--C

Book #29: A Clash of Kings

2011-11-02T10:13:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you thought I'd died or disappeared or just given up on reading, but no! No, I was just enjoying the 900+ page second book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I raved about A Game of Thrones on this blog back in August, so I was very excited to continue the journey in A Clash of Kings.

As always, it's really difficult for me to sum up the plot of books in a series without, you know, giving lots of things away. Not to mention, there's always so much going on that you may as well just read the freaking book if you want to know about it. (For real. Do it.) It's hard to believe that Westeros (the world in which the A Song of Ice and Fire series takes place) could get any more jacked up than it was in A Game of Thrones, but it does. King Robert is dead, and rumors are swirling that his son and the new king, Joffrey, isn't really Robert's son, thus having no real claim to the throne. That opens a lot of doors for others to begin vying to be ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Robert's brothers both believe they are the rightful heir, but Joffrey and his mother insist that Joffrey is a trueborn king. The Stark family is in on the battle as well, and the remaining members of the Targaryen family (who ruled before King Robert) believe that they should take back the throne that was rightfully theirs all along. Add a few more backstabbers and scandals, and what do you have? You have A Clash of Kings.

I have to say that I enjoyed A Game of Thrones a bit more than this installment, but there are still three books to come. This book felt like the building block for greater things to come. Obviously, the point of a series is to build on the previous books, but I think this book was more of a transitional book than one that really grabbed you and pulled you in. There's a lot to be explained and set up for the books to come, so the book felt a little lacking. I'm not saying that it wasn't good, because it was -- parts of it were amazing. I'm just saying it builds up a lot of anticipation and then doesn't really deliver... But I'm sure the next book, A Storm of Swords, will deliver, because with a title like that, how could it not?

Really, though. Even with the bit of a lull, this is really an outstanding series. If you're not going to read it, at least watch it on HBO. (Because honestly, it's almost as good as the books. And I never say that.)

Read from September 29, 2011 to November 2, 2011

3.5/5 stars

--C

Book #28 -- The Picture of Dorian Gray

2011-09-28T13:14:00.003-05:00

I can't tell you why, of all the books on my ever-growing list of books I want to read, I randomly chose to read The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was complete impulse. I'm really glad I read it, though, and as it turns out, it was pretty freaking creepy, so it worked nicely as a kick-start into the Halloween season.

Oscar Wilde's (most famous novel, apparently, according to the cover art that I chose) The Picture of Dorian Gray is about exactly what it says it's about -- a picture. Of a guy. Named Dorian Gray. Dorian's friend Basil is a painter, and Basil thinks Dorian is just about the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, so he has him sit for a painting. During one of the painting sessions, Basil's friend Harry is visiting. Harry has a terribly cynical, blunt worldview that he likes to spout off to whomever will listen, and in the course of a couple hours, he has Dorian's head spinning with all these weird philosophies. Harry also can't seem to get over how pretty Dorian is and feeds his ego until Dorian realizes, "Hey, I really am pretty stunning, aren't I?" When the painting is complete, Basil gives it to Dorian as a gift, so that Dorian can remember his youth and beauty as it is captured in the painting. Dorian wishes that he could give up his own soul so that the painting could grow old and ugly instead of his physical self. Well... They always say to be careful what you wish for, right?

I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say that Dorian's life gets pretty bad pretty quickly, and things go downhill from there. The first thing that struck me about this novel was the fact that all of the male characters are totally in to each other. They are literally obsessed with each other, constantly going on and on about how they wish they could be like the other, and he's so pretty, and you're so smart, and blah, blah, blah. Geez. Get a room. When they do talk about women, it is remarkable how chauvinist they are. I wish I had highlighted some of the passages that stuck out, but wow -- these guys hate some women. It was pretty entertaining, to say the least. The Picture of Dorian Gray was originally printed in 1890, so it's not like I expected much better, but I can safely say I have never read something so misogynist. Some bigger issues come up, too, like accountability and morality and all of that, but I try not to get too College-Lit-Class critical when I read, because it kind of takes the fun out of it.

Anyway, this is a great piece of work, and it's well worth your time if you decide to read it. It's not too long, and there are only a few spots where it lags. (Ironically, the only part I found completely boring was an entire chapter that describes a book that Dorian reads and becomes obsessively fascinated by... It sounds like the worst book ever, and I hope it doesn't actually exist.) Even if you disregard all of the thought-provoking philosophy stuff of The Picture of Dorian Gray, there's still an interesting story there. Oscar Wilde definitely did his job there.

I will leave you with a quote found toward the end of the novel (when Harry is speaking to Dorian) that really struck a chord with me, possibly because, for those of you who don't know, it is Banned Books Week -- a week dedicated to raising awareness about the fact that many great pieces of literature are banned in schools and libraries because, essentially, they make people think or feel a way that some Higher-Up somewhere doesn't find appropriate. One of your favorite books is probably on the ban list in many areas. I know plenty of mine are. So, when I read this sentence, I had to file it away with my favorite quotes:

"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame."

Very true, Mr. Wilde.

4/5 Stars

Read from September 19, 2011 to September 28, 2011

--C

Book #27: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2011-09-25T23:19:00.001-05:00

Ah, Harry Potter. How I have missed you. I've been looking forward to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for a long time, because many Harry Potter fans have told me that this book is their favorite in the series. That is no surprise, because this book took the franchise to a new level.

At the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry witnesses the murder of a classmate and faces Voldemort himself, but Harry returns to Hogwarts as an outcast instead of a hero because none of his classmates believe Harry's story. As this book begins, some wizards begin to prepare for a possible war with Voldemort and his Death Eaters by forming the Order of the Phoenix. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic (the "government" of the wizard community) is trying its best to convince everyone that Harry was lying about Voldemort's return. The Ministry begins to interfere at Hogwarts, including passing educational decrees and making faculty appointments that stand in the way of the Order's plan to prepare wizards and witches for defending themselves against Voldemort.

Of course, it's very hard to go into a detailed review without a) spoiling the previous books and/or b) rambling about a bunch of characters that you don't know unless you're familiar with the previous books. My reviews of the later books in any series are always lacking, but that's just the way it has to be.

I will say that there is quite a lot going on in this book. Let's see... There's the building anticipation of a clash with Voldemort's followers, Harry's reputation re-building at Hogwarts, the tyranny of Hogwarts' new instructor, a crazy look into Professor Snape's past with Harry's father, some underlying family issues, some developments with Harry's love interest, some REALLY IMPORTANT PEOPLE DYING, and... I could go on. I mean, this book is heavy -- literally and figuratively. (Seriously, every book is longer than the last one. This one is nearly 900 pages. In hardback. It's like carrying around a brick.)

If you had asked me when I was half-way through if I thought this book was better that the last four, I would've said no. Ask me now, and I will say it's my favorite. The last half, or maybe even just the last third of this book is exquisite. Say what you will about J.K. Rowling, but I think she is fabulous at character development. These are just kids, after all, who are growing into young adults, and Rowling gracefully moves us right along with them. As for the plot... I have said this about pretty much all of the Harry Potter books, but I am continually surprised by the depth and surprises this series has. Rowling's a very, very creative and intelligent author.

Confession: I totally cried toward the end of this book. (That's TWO books in the last couple of months that have made me cry. It's terrible. I need to read happier things.) It was gut-wrenching. I had to reread a few pages three or four times to be sure I was reading it right, and then I cried. And then I felt like crying for the rest of the book, but I toughed it out. From what I understand, the next two are even more of an emotional rollercoaster, so that should be fun. This book ends with some serious "WHAT?!" moments, so I'm very much looking forward to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. SOON!

5 out of 5 stars

Read from August 8, 2011 to September 18, 2011

--C

Book #26: The Help

2011-08-16T20:29:00.001-05:00

When I saw the giant, wall-sized poster for the movie called The Help in my local theatre, I had no idea it was based on a book. I just knew that Emma Stone was on the poster and she was BLONDE, so I thought, "Finally! Something that might make people stop telling me I look like Emma Stone!" I soon heard that it was based on a popular book, but I never thought much more about it.

Fast forward a few weeks, and several friends of mine were talking about the book on various social networking sites, almost all of them using the exact phrase, "can't put it down." Well, that always makes me curious. Multiple people whose opinions I trust raving about the same book. OK. I had just finished A Game of Thrones and had planned on jumping right into the next book in the series, but I was so HEARTBROKEN after the end of that book that I needed a break. I took my happy tail to Amazon, downloaded The Help for my Kindle, and started reading 5 minutes later. Thirty-six hours after that, I had finished the book. Loved it.

The Help is University of Alabama graduate (booooo, War Eagle!) Kathryn Stockett's novel about the relationship between white families and their "help" in the 1960s. The story's narration is done by three people (except one chapter, which is told from an omniscient point of view). The first two narrators, Aibileen and Minny, are black maids for white families in Jackson, Mississippi. The third narrator is Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, who the young, white daughter of an affluent Jackson family who has recently graduated from college and wants to pursue a journalism career. All of Skeeter's friends quit college after they found husbands, and they are now living happily ever after, hiring maids to do their chores and raise their children. Although Skeeter has chosen a different path in life, she still attends weekly luncheons and club meetings with her friends. This is where Skeeter starts to notice just how her friends are treating their "help." When her insufferably vapid friend Hilly begins a community-wide movement to install separate bathrooms for maids to avoid "disease," Skeeter knows she has to do something to open people's eyes to the discrimination and injustices in the South.

I am, as you know, a sucker for a good Southern story, and even more of a sucker for a good historically-based novel. The tumultuous 1960s is a great setting for just about any story, and Stockett uses iconic historical events throughout her story to move the plot along. There are things in this book that will make you sick and ashamed and angry and just about every other emotion under the sun.

As a history teacher, I often feel like there are monumental events in our history that we hear about so much that we take them for granted. "Yeah, yeah, Rosa Parks wouldn't give up her seat on the bus. We know, we've learned about it every year since 4th grade." It almost loses its importance because it's just rote fact at this point. (Not saying I feel that way, but I know plenty of my students do.) There were so many unbelievably brave things that people did to change the way things were, and many of us don't even stop to think about how much of a risk they took just to stand up for what they knew was right. This book pretty much dares you to forget about how much of a sacrifice so many people made in the 60s for racial equality. You see what happens to people who stand up for what's right in this book, and it's heartbreaking. You see how powerful the desire is to fit in and not "associate" with blacks other than to hire the "poor things" as your help, lest you be shunned by your socialite friends.

This book will definitely give you plenty to think about, and I fully agree with the "couldn't put it down" sentiment. Worth your time, for sure.

5/5 stars

Read from August 5, 2011 to August 7, 2011

--C

Book #25: A Game of Thrones

2011-08-16T19:53:00.004-05:00

Where. Do I. Begin?

It has been a long while since a book has devoured every fiber of my being like this book did... Every now and then, you just have that book. The last time I read a book that was that book, it was Pillars of the Earth, back in 2007. That's not to say there haven't been tons of books I loved since then, because there have been -- The Hunger Games and Millennium trilogies, to name a few. Still, nothing has been quite so captivating as the first book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Let me begin by saying that it took me a very, very long time to read this, and that includes listening to the audio book on and off. The copy I have is 800-ish pages, so it's a monster of a book, but I've read longer books in shorter amounts of time. For me, the issue wasn't that the book didn't have me hooked -- it did. It's just not a book I want to pick up for a few pages at a time, or a book I want to read while I'm, say, sitting on a school bus full of loud elementary school children. (Tried it -- major comprehension fail.) You get sucked in to the world that Martin builds, and you don't want to just stop in for a minute and then leave. You want to commit an hour or so at a time to reading, and I think that's something most would have trouble doing on a daily basis.

I will also say that for the first several chapters, I was completely confused. It's hard to read at first, and there are a lot of characters and places and families/houses to get to know. When I was about 50 pages in to the book, I was discussing it with a friend at work, who told me that there's an appendix in the back that lists the members of each house, including servants. MAJORLY helpful. I would actually recommend reading that first, and then starting the book, but even if you don't, it's great to have that to flip back to when you get confused.

OK, so, what's it about, right? Well, I'm avoiding that question because there's a lot going on, and I'm not really sure where to start. The major focus is the Stark family, head by Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell. Winterfell is in the frigid northern region of a kingdom ruled by King Robert Baratheon, who is a longtime friend of Eddard's. King Robert seized the throne from the Targaryen family, whose young heirs still live and want to restore their family's reign. King Robert married a lady from the Lannister family, who are known for their wealth and their shrewd attitudes. (Confused yet?) You obviously have the issue of the Targaryens seeking to win back their power, but at the same time, the Hand (or advisor) to the King has mysteriously and suddenly died. Many in the kingdom suspect foul play, and they begin searching for an answer. Add to that some creepy snow zombies running around outside the Wall that protects the kingdom, and you have yourself one action-packed book.

I really cannot say enough good things about this book. Everything about it is amazing. The Lannisters are deliciously evil, and the Starks admirably noble. There are characters that you will absolutely fall in love with and characters that make you rage. I always think a book is good if I can't stop thinking about how much I hate one of the characters. (Characters I'm supposed to hate, that is -- not like Bella Swan in Twilight. I'm supposed to like her, but I hate her. Not the same.) I laughed out loud several times while reading this, I was totally thrown for a loop more than once, and I will admit that I cried. Only once, but I did. I was totally heartbroken, and it was awesome.

Here are two of my favorite quotes from the book:

"A mind needs a book as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge." -- Tyrion Lannister

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." -- Cersei Lannister

READ IT, I SAID.

5/5 stars

Read from June 30, 2011 to August 4, 2011

--C

Book #24: Songs for a Teenage Nomad

2011-07-29T13:13:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the pause between updates. Not sure why it took me a month to sit down and write this review, but the good news is that I enjoyed Kim Culbertson's Songs for a Teenage Nomad so much that I have no trouble remembering what I want to say about it.

The narrator is 15-year-old Calle, a smart, reasonable teenager with a flaky, unstable mother. Her mother has had short-term relationship after short-term relationship for Calle's entire life, each new man coming with a new city and a new lifestyle. The only man that Calle's mom doesn't seem interested in discussing is Calle's dad, about whom Calle knows absolutely nothing. Songs for a Teenage Nomad opens with the family starting over yet again in Andreas Bay, California.

For the first time in all of their travels, Calle finds a group where she fits. She makes friends quickly, and even though she mostly hangs out with the "theatre kids," she develops a relationship with a popular athlete at school. Naturally, her mom's newest relationship starts to turn sour, and the threat of moving looms yet again. Then a unexpected visitor shows up in Andreas Bay, and Calle's entire world is turned upside down.

Why the title Songs for a Teenage Nomad? Calle loves music -- pretty good music, too. Music is the only thing that she knows will never change, so she keeps a journal of songs and the memories that each song holds. Each chapter of the book begins with a handful of lyrics and a short blurb of Calle's memory of the song. For example, this is the song she and her mother listened to after Boyfriend #7 left. This is the song that was playing when Calle found out they were moving to Nevada. It was a brilliant way for Culbertson to give more background information about exactly how unstable Calle's life had been without boring us with it all in to the first chapter or so of the book.

I really, really enjoyed this book, probably because I liked the connection between the story and popular music. I think particular songs remind us all of a certain time or memory from our lives. I love that Calle keeps a record of it. (The back of the book includes instructions and suggestions for keeping your own journal like Calle's. ) As for the plot, I saw some of it coming just by reading the book description, but don't let that fool you -- there is a lot you will not see coming. :)

There were some very, very eerie similarities between a few random things in the book and my own teenage years. My life was nothing like Calle's, of course, but I'm talking about tiny little circumstances that freaked me out. The first play the drama club does at Calle's new school is Christopher Durang's The Actor's Nightmare. The first play I did in high school as a freshman was The Actor's Nightmare. Calle mentions that she and her friends love the scene in the movie Almost Famous where the characters sing Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." My friends and I reenacted that scene in drama class one day... There were many, MANY other examples, some even creepier (bu would require a lot of explanation). I got to the point where I was seriously freaked out a couple of times, but I guess that just means I was meant to read this book.

Definitely a great read, and it's young adult, so recommend it to all the 'tweens and teens you know. Way better than Twilight.

Read from June 28, 2011 to June 30, 2011

5/5 Stars

--C

PS -- I've been reading George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones for a MONTH. A MONTH!!!!! I'm about 3/4ths done, so hopefully I'll write a review soon. Don't lose faith in me!

Book #23: The Scars

2011-07-03T16:24:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite books of the year so far, although it's not at all like I thought it would be based on the description I read.

The Scars by William Tennant is free on Kindle and also a free audio book from Podiobooker. The Amazon page for the book gives the following description:

"Peter has lost the love of his life, Mags is a young girl broken by abuse, Bernard has a glint in his eye and a slur in his soul and Emma is powered by a hidden past. In 'The Scars' we find life, loss, beauty, darkness, desire and violence.In 'The Scars' we find the saddest of loves."

Nothing in that description is false, but it does leave a lot out. In The Scars, Peter is a fresh-out-of-college literature teacher in England who has recently lost his brand new wife. Bernard and Emma are his fellow teachers who become very close to Peter, but refuse to be around each other due to a mysterious past encounter between the two of them. Peter notices that one of his students seems deeply troubled. He eventually learns that the student, Mags, is being abused by her stepfather. Peter fights to get her the justice she deserves while simultaneously trying to put his life back together after the devastating death of his wife.

So... There are many twists and turns in this book that I'd love to discuss, but I want everyone to read it so badly that I refuse to spoil it. And can I just say, please do NOT read the reviews by the readers on Amazon before you read this book. Not because I think the reviews are unfair, but because they are literally riddled with spoilers. Most of them ruin the entire climax of the book within the first few sentences. So, please, don't read those.

There are some things in this book that are hard to swallow, but, I'm here to tell you, are reality. Regardless, Tennant is a gifted author with a talent for character development. There's a deep connection between the reader and the characters, even the more secondary characters. There is a scene in towards the end of the book where Peter is talking to someone in an online chatroom, and for some reason I found myself thinking that it couldn't possibly be Peter talking -- I knew his character too well to believe he was saying the things he was saying. It was very, very subtle, and it wasn't meant to be obvious to the reader at all, but soon you find out that it was, indeed, someone impersonating Peter online. That's just a small example of how well Tennant describes Peter's personality.

This book sort of has everything -- love, scandal, abuse, justice, death, action, mystery... You name it, it's in here. It's a wonderful book that I think some people might skip over due to the lackluster description, but I hope if you get a chance, you'll check out the Kindle book or the audio book. It is highly recommended.

Read from June 25 to June 28, 2011

5/5 Stars

--C

Book #22: Quid Pro Quo & Zachary Zombie and the Lost Boy

2011-06-26T14:55:00.002-05:00

I like to review the short stories that I read, particularly if they're good, but as you know, I don't like to count them as books. As always, I read two short stories/small books to count them as one, as is the case with this review.

First up is Quid Pro Quo, a short story by Dan Dillard. In this story, there are two families struggling with illness. Louis is a child who suddenly develops life-threatening flu-like symptoms, and Laura is a middle-aged married woman who has been riddled with cancer. The families do not know each other, but they share a common determination to be healthy. Hearsay leads both families to a mysterious man named Steven, who is said to be a healer. Louis and Laura are both "healed" by Steven, but they soon learn that healing comes at a high cost.

This was a jarring, strange little tale that will really make you think. Louis and Laura both thought that the ability to live was all they wanted or needed. As it turns out, quality of life becomes more important than how long they survive. Steven says there is no up without down, no back without front, no dark without light, and so on. There's a cost for everything, and it's interesting to see what Louis and Laura give up for their health, and whether cheating fate was worth it in the long run. This definitely isn't a feel-good story, so don't pick up for a quaint sunny afternoon read. That being said, I really enjoyed it, even though it was kind of disturbing. Those kinds of stories are nice every once in a while, especially when it's just a short story. You can get it for free on Kindle here.

4/5 Stars

Read on June 23, 2011

Next is Zachary Zombie and the Lost Boy: A Story for Demented Children. This is a short story by John H. Carroll, which really is intended for children -- demented or not, I think. I like zombies, and I admittedly have had a bit of Halloween fever lately (I wish it came more than once a year...), so I thought I would use this as the second part of my short story review. I am sad to say I was disappointed.

The story is about a kid named Tobais who gets lost in the woods. He comes across Zachary, a zombie who has actually retained his soul thanks to a witch's spell... So he's kind of part-zombie, part-human. Tobais asks Zachary to help him find his way home, apparently unscathed by the fact that Zachary is a zombie. So, they set out to make it back to the village. Meanwhile, for about a page or so, there's a snobby girl named Anise who longs to be rescued her from her perfectly comfortable lifestyle. Not really sure why that's important, but it's there.

There's really not much going on in this story. It's got some silly, zany descriptions of zombies and their creepy friends, and it's kind of funny in a children's book sort of way. Still, I don't think there was a point. Even kids' books need to have a point. The last couple of paragraphs (in which a prince is introduced), while they do tie in to a previous scene in the story, completely do not belong at all. It sounds like the beginning of an entirely different story.

Maybe I don't read enough children's books and was expecting too much from this. It just wasn't very well-crafted. My kids in the summer program I teach wrote children's stories a couple of weeks ago, and even they understood there needed to be a story arc and a finite ending. Oh, well. This was also free on Kindle, and you can see more about it here.

1/5 stars

Read from June 24, 2001 to June 25, 2011

--C

Book #21: The White Queen

2011-06-26T10:30:00.002-05:00

As much as I enjoy historical fiction, it may come as a surprise that I've never read anything by Philippa Gregory. She's pretty much the queen of historical fiction, best known for The Other Boleyn Girl. After reading this, I think it might be safe to say it's the start of a beautiful relationship between Philippa and I.

The White Queen is the first in a series of books about the Plantagenet royals in England. At the center of this book is the War of the Roses -- the war between the Yorks and the Lancasters for the rightful heir to the throne. The Lancasters were symbolized by a red rose, the Yorks by a white rose -- hence the title The White Queen. (The next book in this series is The Red Queen, written about Lancastrian heiress Margaret Beaufort).

Elizabeth Woodville is the narrator of The White Queen, and she is a very intriguing character indeed. Elizabeth was originally from the House of Lancaster, with both her father and husband fighting in the War of the Roses against the Yorks, who had already placed Edward IV on the throne. Her husband died in battle, and Elizabeth was widowed with two young sons and a difficult set of in-laws. As historical legend has it, Elizabeth stood on the side of the road waiting for Edward IV to pass with his army so that she could ask him to settle a financial dispute between her family and her late husband's family. It is said that Edward was taken by her beauty immediately, and the two were soon married in secret. Yes, a Lancastrian widow and the York King of England. You heard me right. That is history, folks. You can't make up stories any better than what has actually occurred in this strange world of ours.

So, Philippa Gregory takes us from Elizabeth's time as a frustrated widow to her days as the most beautiful queen England ever saw, and then through several more battles for the throne. With the War of the Roses (commonly referred to as "The Cousin's War") as the backdrop, Elizabeth's story makes for a wonderful novel of conspiracy, scandal, revenge, and loss. The fact that the war really is a tangle of cousins, friends, and former allies means that you never really know what side anyone is on.

There's something wonderfully authentic about Philippa Gregory's writing. You lose all sense of the novel being fiction. It often feels like you're just reading Elizabeth's diaries. I guess if you are able to build a name for yourself as one of the best historical fiction authors of your time, you know how to do research. I was impressed that just about every major aspect of the novel is based on historical evidence. Of course she fills in some gaps from time to time and has to choose between a handful of historical theories about what may have happened, but everything from Elizabeth's stunning beauty to her family's reverence of Melusina the water goddess are based on evidence. There's a pretty impressive bibliography in the back of the book that shows just how hard she worked to ensure the accuracy of her work.

One thing I feel like I need to mention is how striking the lust for an honorable title is to these people. Elizabeth was willing to stop at nothing to make sure her son would claim the throne after Edward died. If you know your history, you know that after Edward died, his brothers tried to keep his son from the throne by claiming he was a bastard, and that Elizabeth was no more than his mistress, not his wife. It's one thing to want your family to get what is deservedly theirs, but it gets to the point where her entire family is suffering and at times facing death just for the chance that her son might get to be king. It's not even about right and wrong after a certain point -- it's just pride. It's hard to explain without laying out the entire plot of the book, but it's just such a warped sense of snobbery. I don't get it. Again, that's just the way it was, so it's not a problem with the book, it's a problem with history. It's always been confusing to me, but it is very well-displayed in this novel.

Here's a bit of a warning, though. You may or may not have noticed that the English, particularly the royal English, aren't very original when it comes to choosing names. You have to stay on your toes when you're reading this, because there are several Edwards, a few Elizabeths, some Georges, and more Richards than I care to think about. For God's sake, Elizabeth herself had two sons named Richard (one with her first husband, one with Edward). Richard was also her first husband's name, Edward's brother's name, and Edward's brother's son's name, so that's five Richards already. Throw in the Richards you come across in the names of soldiers and distant cousins, and you've basically got yourself a headache. She does a good job clarifying which one she's talking about, but still... don't read it when you're really sleepy.

Anyway, this was a very pleasant first experience with Philippa Gregory, and I am looking forward to reading her other novels.

4/5 Stars

Read from June 12, 2011 to June 24, 2011

--C

Book #20: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2011-06-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite of the Harry Potter books so far. That's apparently a rather controversial statement, but I don't particularly care.

In the fourth book of J.K. Rowling's massively popular series, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine attend the Quidditch World Cup. Quidditch is the most popular sport in the wizard world, and the World Cup brings together wizards from all over the world... Turns out to be the perfect place for the evil Lord Voldemort's supporters (known as "Death Eaters") to rally together and cause some trouble. The Death Eaters' stunt sends everyone into a frenzy. Meanwhile, as the school year begins at Hogwarts, Harry learns that students from the Belgian and French schools of magic (Durmstrang and Beauxbaton, respectively) will be visitors at Hogwarts to participate in the Triwizard Tournament -- a series of tasks to determine the strongest wizard or witch. Harry is too young to participate, but that doesn't stop a hidden Death Eater from trying to bring Harry straight to Lord Voldemort, who is still seeking revenge.

The Triwizard Tournament is the main reason that I enjoyed this book so much. The selection of school "champions," the clues they are given for each task, the strategies to consider for facing each task... Beautiful. I have to say, it reminded me a little of The Hunger Games... Of course the entire Harry Potter series was written before The Hunger Games... and the Triwizard Tournament is much less violent and cold-hearted. Still, there were some similar elements. Just enough to make me smile.

Another dimension of the Hogwarts' students lives was added in Goblet of Fire, and that is romance. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are 14 in this book, and hormones are kicking in. All three of them are struggling with crushes, and things get complicated when Hogwarts hosts a ball to bring together the students from the competing schools. There's plenty of drama about all of that, but it wasn't overkill. (And by that, I mean, it wasn't the kind of drama you might read in, say, Twilight.) It didn't take away from the story, and I appreciate that.

You find out some interesting things about some of the recurring characters in this book, like Snape and the Malfoy family, among others. I'm really looking forward to seeing how things shape up as far as that goes. I'm kind of sad that I'm over halfway done with the series. That's why I'm reading them about a month apart... Spreading it out as much as I can.

5/5 Stars

Read from May 29, 2011 to June 11, 2011

--C

Book #19: American Gods

2011-05-31T12:18:00.001-05:00

Our book club's choice for June was American Gods by Neil Gaiman, a very well-known science fiction/fantasty author. His books Coraline and Stardust have both been turned into successful movies, and he recently wrote an episode of the hugely popular British television show Doctor Who. Even though his material isn't always exactly up my alley, I still have a lot of respect for his work. I think he's pretty brilliant, so I was very excited to read American Gods.

When we meet the main character, Shadow, he is in prison counting the days until he can go home to his beloved wife, Laura. Shadow learns that he will be getting out of prison a few days early... due to his wife being killed in a car accident. On his way home for the funeral, Shadow meets a mysterious man who calls himself Wednesday who seems to show up everywhere Shadow goes. Wednesday asks Shadow to work for him as a personal assistant of sorts, and, with essentially no other option for moving on with his life, Shadow reluctantly agrees. Wednesday turns out to be the powerful god, Odin, who is on a mission to gather his fellow gods from various regions and mythologies in order to face the "newer" gods of the modern lifestyle. What follows is a strange journey through America to enlist the aid of these gods in the battle against the new gods.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, but I have to say that it lost me a little bit somewhere after the mid-way point. I felt like there was a lot of stuff going on for no reason. Looking back, I'm not sure what the point of half of the book was, as it seems like very little that happened along the way even made a difference. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading about Shadow's journey around America and his interaction with some of the gods, because it was entertaining and well written, but... It was kind of pointless. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone, so let's just say that I thought the ending was pretty anti-climactic. It seems like the entire book moved you toward a specific event that didn't technically happen. My biggest beef with the book could be boiled down to the disconnection of it all.

In a similar vein, there were "Coming to America" vignettes throughout the book that detailed the older gods' (who obviously began as gods in other regions' mythologies) journeys to America. I appreciated what Gaiman was doing by peppering these throughout the novel, but they just didn't seem to fit. Almost none of the gods you read about in these short tales ever show up again in the book. I get that they were there as background information, but it almost seemed like filler... Which wasn't really needed in a book that weighs in at almost 600 pages.

That being said, I really didn't dislike the story itself. I thought the characters were well-developed and likable, even with their flaws. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that likable characters are a huge thing for me. I liked Shadow, and even Wednesday, although he was pretty crooked. In the book, Shadow spends some time living in an apartment in the small town of Lakeside in order to be "hidden" from some shady characters who are on Shadow and Wednesday's tails. I LOVED Lakeside and everyone in it. It was quirky and weird and frozen for most of the year, and the people there were hilarious. What's not to love about a town with a tradition of townspeople entering a contest to guess the day and time that a broken-down car will break the ice on the frozen lake? The town has its dark side, though, with missing teenagers and strange stories from the past, which just adds to the intrigue. I was sad to see Shadow leave Lakeside.

So... I don't know. I liked it, some parts more than others, but I didn't love it. I feel sort of empty about it. After a killer first half, it didn't deliver for me, and I was really hoping it would. It is far beyond my literary and intellectual boundaries to legitimately criticize him. Maybe his whole vision for this book just wasn't for me.

3/5 Stars

Read from May 8, 2011 to May 28, 2011.

--C

Book #18: The Shepherd

2011-05-13T17:03:00.001-05:00

This is probably my favorite book I've read all year. It scared the crap out of me, blew my mind, and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. Still can't, really. (But not in the same way I couldn't stop thinking about Of Mice and Men... That's a whole different thing. I'm still angry at that book.)

Let me first point out that this is a classic case of why you should NOT judge a book by its cover. That is some ugly stuff. Luckily I got it on Kindle, so I didn't have to look at that every time I picked it up. (By the way, it's not free anymore, but it is a mere $2.39. Well worth it.)

I am going to do a completely terrible job of explaining what this book is about, because just when you think you know what's going on... You're wrong. I don't think I can actually tell you what's going on without ruining the book, and you legitimately must read it, so I'm not going to spoil it for you. I'll just give you some basics:

Francis Ackerman is the worst kind of serial killer -- the kind with mood swings, the kind that gives you false hope for survival, the kind that forces you to play twisted death games, the kind that wants to savor every second of your agony. Want an example? How about forcing a mother to play Russian Roulette with her two young children? Or challenging his victim to a game of Hide and Seek -- if he finds you, you die; if he doesn't, congratulations. Ackerman travels around wherever his hunger takes him, and he winds up in a small, sleepy Texas town. Marcus Williams also finds himself in this town, where he's trying to put his life back together on an inherited farm after his career as a New York City detective falls apart. Marcus stumbles across one of Ackerman's victims, and he naturally goes to the police. The local sheriff brings him in for questioning, and Marcus quickly realizes that the sheriff seems to be ignoring major evidence in the case. Soon enough, Marcus learns about some serious corruption in the local police department. Meanwhile, Ackerman has been watching Marcus, and he believes that they are opposite sides of the same coin. Ackerman feels drawn to Marcus, and he believes Marcus can help him prove that being a serial killer has been his destiny all along.

That's the best I can do... But there's so much going on that I couldn't even begin to scratch the surface. This is probably the only book I've ever read that literally made me shout, "WHAT?!" every couple of chapters. You never see some of this stuff coming. The ending is one of the most insane twists I've ever seen a book take. I kept wondering about a few loose ends and small plot holes that didn't make sense... Then the end happened, and everything made sense.

I absolutely recommend putting this on your must-read list.

5/5 Stars

Read from May 1, 2011 to May 7, 2011

--C

Book #17: 13 Little Blue Enevelopes

2011-05-01T10:30:00.002-05:00

This is one of those books, a lot like House of Dark Shadows, that I decided to read at random, totally loved, and then found out there were sequels and got really mad that I would have to find/buy them.

Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes is a young adult novel about 17-year-old Ginny Blackstone, who is shy, unassuming, and has pretty much never done anything exciting. Her Aunt Peg, on the other hand, was a flaky, nomadic adventurer who often disappeared overseas for months at a time without her family knowing where she was. Shortly before the novel opens, Ginny's family receives word that Peg has unexpectedly died. A few weeks later, Ginny gets a package from her deceased aunt containing thirteen blue envelopes, to be opened in order. They contain directions for Ginny to take a journey through her Aunt Peg's footsteps in Europe. If she follows the plan, Ginny will be taken to places that were special to Peg, meet Peg's European friends, and find out more about herself on the way. The "rules" set out in the first letter are as follows:

Rule #1: You may bring only what fits in your backpack. Don't try to fake it with a purse or a carry-on.

Rule #2: You may not bring guidebooks, phrase books, or any kind of foreign language aid. And no journals.

Rule #3: You cannot bring extra money or credit/debit cards, traveler's checks, etc. I'll take care of all that.

Rule #4: No electronic crutches. This means no laptop, no cell phone, no music, and no camera. You can't call home or communicate with people in the U.S. by Internet or telephone. Postcards and letters are acceptable and encouraged.

So, there you go. A 17-year-old girl, traveling alone in Europe with no guidebooks, no money, and no way to contact people back home -- all while following crazy directions from her dead aunt. That's what's going on in 13 Little Blue Envelopes.

I have to say, I really loved this story. It's an interesting premise, and Johnson is a fantastic descriptor. You can tell she has spent time in Europe, because the way she writes about Ginny's trip makes you feel like you're right along with her. The fact that Ginny herself doesn't know what the next step of her journey will be is what keeps you turning the pages. You find yourself wondering what exotic place Peg will send her next, and what strange characters she'll meet on the way.

This is written for the young adult/teenage crowd, so it's a simple read. I didn't really find the story itself all that juvenile. It has all the elements that a young adult novel should -- adventure, uncertainty, angst, a little bit of a romance... And while we're on the subject of that last one, the guy that Ginny falls head over heels for is really annoying. I don't get the attraction, so I could for sure do without that part of the book.

There's a soon-to-be released sequel called The Last Little Blue Envelope. I won't spoil anything about the first book, but let me just say that there doesn't have to be a sequel. The title of the second book might lead you to believe that 13 Little Blue Envelopes is left wide open with no resolution, but that's not the case. It could stand alone and still be great. I would recommend this as a short, easy read when you're in the mood for something light and enjoyable.

3.5/5 stars

Read from April 24, 2001 to April 30, 2011

--C

Book #16: Swine Not?

2011-04-24T21:11:00.001-05:00

I essentially grew up with Jimmy Buffett. He was always on the stereo when I was little. Appropriate or not, "Margaritaville" was the first song to which I learned every single lyric, and I just loved to show that off to anyone who would listen. I will be the first to admit that I have a giant soft spot for Jimmy and will pretty much accept anything he does with open arms. That's exactly why when I heard he wrote a book about a pig in New York City, I welcomed the opportunity to read it. Dumb? Yes. But it's Jimmy Buffett! Jimmy and his tunes went on every vacation my family ever took, so naturally when it comes time to hit the beach, I always get a Buffett craving. I nominated his book Swine Not? for the book club, and somehow it won.

Swine Not? is about Rumpy, the McBride family's pet pig who makes the move with the family from comfy Tennessee to intimidating New York City. Rumpy quickly learns he's not quite as accepted in the Big Apple as he was in the rural South. The 12-year-old McBride twins, Barley and Maple, have to come up with elaborate disguises and escape routes anytime they take Rumpy out of the house. That's a sad situation for a pig who was used to running around among humans all the time back home. Rumpy becomes lonely and begins searching for his long lost brother, Lukie, who he believes is living in NYC. With the help of the rest of animal world and the McBride family, Rumpy goes on a quest for his brother and some respect from the big city.

This was a very quick read -- a great book to take on vacation since the chapters are only a couple pages long. (The story is told through the voice of Rumpy the pig and Barley, one of the McBride twins. The chapters alternate between their points of view.) It was easy to put down and pick up again when I only had a few minutes to spare at a time. As lyrical as Jimmy Buffett is, I thought it would flow a little better than it did. I'm sure the thing was edited to death after he wrote the original manuscript, but I was still surprised to see it was a bit choppy.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it was pretty juvenile. I feel like it could be on the shelf next to his children's book (Jolly Mon) instead of next to his other adult novels (A Salty Piece of Land, Tales from Margaritaville). The story is obviously about Rumpy the pig, but the other main characters are children. The characters, plot, and writing all seemed way more kid-centric than I expected, although I'm not sure how you'd make a story about a pig any more adult. It'd be like trying to make Homeward Bound an R-Rated movie. The ending was way too "happily ever after" for me, too. I won't spoil it, but I'll just say some pretty unbelievably unlikely things happen. I would've preferred things to be a little more realistic.

This isn't really specific to this book, but can I just go on record and say that I HATE IT when books don't use contractions? It's so unnatural. Even in dialogue sequences, this book would say "did not" instead of "didn't," "could have" instead of "couldn't." That's a pretty minor beef, but it really bothers me. Seems like I've run in to that in several books lately.

So, bottom line -- this was enjoyable, but not great. It wasn't a huge time investment, so I'm glad I read it, but it was definitely just a silly little book about a pig.

But at the end of the day, you know what? It's Jimmy Buffett. It's excellent.

Read from April 20, 2011 to April 24, 2011

2/4 Stars

--C

Book #15: The Film Club: A Memoir

2011-04-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

This was a lovely little book, and I learned stuff, too! Win!

David Gilmour, a Canadian journalist, wrote this memoir about a period of his life that would have any parent shaking in their boots -- his teenage son, Jesse, was failing school and desperate to drop out. David, unlike most parents, realized Jesse was miserable and made him an offer that no kid could refuse: Drop out of school. Live at home, rent free. Don't bother getting a job. Awesome, right? This is the deal Gilmour made with his son Jesse.

Here's the catch: Jesse had to watch three movies per week with his dear old dad -- movies chosen by his dad. Also, no drugs. That's another part of the deal. So, that's how the next year or so of their lives went.

What follows is an amazing journey through film -- which leads David and Jesse to learn more about each other and about life in general. The topics covered in the films chosen by Gilmour for his son open up their conversations to cover everything from women to alcohol to camera angles. Gilmour took a massive chance on his son and found a way to connect with him in the process, which, in turn gives Jesse the purpose in life he wasn't finding in high school.

This is a beautifully written story from the heart of a father who completely, totally loves his son. I can image what kind of reactions he must have gotten when people found out he was letting his kid be a "deadbeat," sleeping until late afternoon and writing rap songs with his saggy-pants friends... But in the end, he knew what was best for his kid, and he was going to give him what he needed no matter how long it took or what strange path it took to get there. Gilmour is a wonderful father, and his words prove how much he cares about his son.

As for Jesse... The book covers his late teenage years, which is probably the most obnoxious period in any person's life, and Jesse's no different. Ohhhh my Goddddd at the draaammmaaaa. There are two main girlfriends discussed in the memoir, and my LORD, are all teenage boys that miserably melodramatic about a chick they dated for a few months? Sheesh. Cannot handle that mess. Anyway, glad he got things straightened out.

One of my favorite things about this memoir is the list of films in the back of the book. Gilmour gives us a list of all the movies he and Jesse watched during the period of time in which their "deal" took place. It's a great resource, because Gilmour chooses some stellar films to share with his son. What a film buff that guy is. Throughout the book, he gives interesting factoids and trivia about the movies they watch -- even down to the decisions directors made about particular camera angles. It was very cool to read those facts about movies I know and movies I don't. I've definitely added a few to my "watch" list thanks to this book. And you can add this to your "read" list. Yay!

Book #14: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2011-03-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! WHY ARE THESE BOOK SO GOOD!?!? It makes me feel like such an insufferable nerd!

In The Prisoner of Azkaban, the dangerous dark wizard Siruis Black has escaped from Azkaban, intending to hunt down Harry Potter. Black is on the loose for the majority if the book, which has magic world and the muggle (non-magic) world anxious and frightened. The plot thickens when Harry learns exactly how he is connected to Black (of whom Harry has never heard before his escape). And, of course, as is usually the case in the Harry Potter series, we learn that things (and people) aren't always what they seem...

STELLAR, RIGHT?! I know. I loved this one. Almost as good as the first one, although I think I will always love Sorcerer's Stone the most. I am continually impressed with J.K. Rowling's ability to be unpredictable even though she's writing for kids.

As always with books in a series, I have a hard time coming up with much to say without ruining the previous books, so... A short but sweet review for this one, but make no mistake: It is a fantastic book.

Read from March 19, 2011 to March 23, 2011

5/5 Stars

Book #13: Practical Demonkeeping

2011-03-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

Our book club choice for March was Christopher Moore's Practical Demonkeeping. I had never read any of Moore's books before this one, but I had always heard that his writing style is similar to the late, great Kurt Vonnegut's. That's why I bought Derrick one of Moore's books as a gift. He has been hooked every since, and now I think I might be, too.

This bizarre novel takes place in Pine Cove, which is a fictional city set up by Moore that shows up time and time again in his books. (Practical Demonkeeping is its first appearance.) Pine Cove is full of strange characters, but the strangest are certainly Travis and Catch -- drifters who roll in to town and stir up a whole mess of trouble. Catch is a demon, hence the title of the book, and Travis is his "keeper," I guess you could say. A tiny man named Gian Hen Gian shows up in Pine Cove around the same time as Travis and Catch, and as it turns out, he and Catch have quite a long history. A long, loooong, long history. Several centuries' worth. Some of the good, unassuming folks of Pine Cove find themselves with quite a task -- sending Catch back to Hell before he eats them all.

Yeah, the plot's a bit odd, but as I said to the book club, I was pretty impressed that Moore managed to keep it from getting too zany. It's Moore, it's supposed to be, uh, off-beat, shall we say? But he walks a wonderfully fine line between intriguing and just dumb. There are a great many characters introduced in this book, some of them major, some of them only appearing for a chapter or two, but each one is special. The characterization of the people of Pine Cove was one of my favorite things about the book. I can see why Moore returns to the city in his books... If I had crafted a town full of all those interestingly weird people, I'd want to talk about it as much as possible, too.

Moore is known for his humor, and I certainly found myself laughing out loud several times. I wish there was a way I could describe his style, but I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression. How about I just say, "Go read a Christopher Moore book!" and be done with it?

4/5 Stars

Read from March 1, 2011 to March 7, 2011

--C

Book #12: Whirl of the Wheel

2011-03-19T13:06:00.000-05:00

Buuuhhhh... The premise of this book sounds promising, but it is poorly executed.

Catherine Condie's Whirl of the Wheel is a young adult book about Connie and Charlie, an English brother and sister who learn that their family is about to removed from their home by the government so that it can be torn down or something... I don't remember. The two then discover a pottery wheel that transports them back in time to their home during World War II. There, they meet another brother and sister who are staying with their aunt and uncle after being evacuated from their home when the bombings took place. Connie and Charlie can move back and forth from the present to the past using the pottery wheel, and at one point, the school pest, Malcolm gets transported to the past with them. I think the main action of the book takes place when Malcolm gets stuck in the past and can't get back, but to be honest, I have no clue what even happened in 90% of the book.

I'm not sure if it was just so boring that I couldn't make myself pay attention to what was happening or if it was just written so badly that the plot was impossible to follow. Maybe both. A few of the Amazon reviews say something similar. And this is a young adult book... I cannot imagine a kid reading and enjoying this.

I liked the idea of present-day kids getting transported to the World War II period, so I guess I can praise the idea behind the book. You should for sure skip this one, though. :-/

Read from March 14, 2011 to March 19, 2011

1/5 Stars

--C

Book #11: The Sculptor

2011-03-13T19:28:00.000-05:00

It's not very often that I read thriller/crime type novels, especially when a psychotic serial killer is involved, but I'm really glad I picked up this book. (FYI, I get freaked out pretty easily and have spent most of life being convinced there is a murderer lurking around somewhere close. Reading these kinds of novels just reinforces that, but it's fun to fuel that fire ever now and then.)

In Gregory Funaro's debut novel, The Sculptor, art history professor Cathy Hildebrant finds herself being questioned a consultant in an FBI investigation of a series of murders. The murderer uses humans as "material" to construct insanely detailed reproductions of Michaelangelo's famous sculptures, even using epoxy and paint to make his victims look as if they are made of marble. As the area's foremost scholar on Michaelangelo and the author of a book on his work, Cathy is the obvious choice for helping authorities learn more about The Sculptor's inspiration. It becomes clear that The Sculptor is not only inspired by Michaelangelo, but also by Cathy's book. As the investigation continues, Cathy becomes more and more personally involved with the case, including being chosen to become one of the murderer's next sculptures.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it was one of those stories that I didn't want to stop reading. The story keeps you turning the pages, and the idea of a serial killer modeling his victims as sculptures is pretty unique, at least when taken to the level that this psychopath takes it. Funaro also did his research for this book, which was pretty impressive. Since Cathy was supposed to be an expert on all things Michaelangelo, Funaro had to become an expert, too. I've learned plenty about Michaelangelo in all my years as a history student, but I learned a thing or two from this book. Books that are good and also teach you something -- what's better than that?

The point of view in this novel switches often -- from Cathy to various members of the FBI to the murderer's victims to the murderer himself. I thought it was really interesting that Funaro chose to have The Sculptor as one of the "narrators" of the novel, since that immediately tells the reader who he is. You don't spend the book guessing who it might be -- instead, you're taken into his head, following his thought processes on what victims to choose and why he chooses them, learning how he operates and what horrors he lived through as a child. When I first read a chapter that was in The Sculptor's point of view, I wasn't sure how I felt about it, since it took the mystery away, but as I read, I found that it added another element of suspense... You know who it is, and you know how close the FBI comes to him. Wondering when they will finally pick up on the right clue is what keeps you turning the pages. The only issue I had plot-wise was the inevitable love story... I guess it added some depth to the characters, but seriously, I don't need people to fall in love for me to enjoy a book.

As far as the writing goes, there are a few little things that bugged me here and there... The dialogue was a little unbelievable sometimes, especially coming from Cathy. The way she spoke sometimes sounded more like a prepared lecture she was giving at a conference than the sort of thing she would say of the top of her head while being questioned... I know she's supposed to be an expert and intellectual-type, but come on, no one talks like that, especially not when they're flustered and trying to piece things together bit by bit. Funaro also does this thing where he adds "Yes," or "No," to the beginning of statements of fact, and he does it a lot. Like, "Yes, the Sculptor was indeed pleased with his latest selection" or "No, Dr. Hildebrant couldn't let that happen, not again." Seems like a minor issue, but he uses it so often that I kind of found myself wanting to start counting "yes"es and "no"s.

But hey, for a first novel, I say A+. Great read.

4/5 stars

Read from March 7, 2011 to March 13, 2011

--C

Book #10: As Quiet As They Come

2011-03-01T17:37:00.003-06:00

(Just like last time I read short stories, I'm counting 2 short stories as one book. This + La Belle et la Bête = 1 book.)

This is a free short story on Kindle that I downloaded a long time ago. I finally got around to reading it, and I'm glad that I did. It is one story from a collection of stories by Angie Chau about Vietnamese immigrants who have escaped the Vietcong in the 1970s.

This particular story is about the very quiet, reserved Viet, and his family. His wife, Huong, was a former model in the Vietnam. The couple has two young daughters, who have quickly and gracefully adapted to life in America.

Although he was a professor in Vietnam, he has a quiet life in America as a postal worker. The reader learns early that although he is soft-spoken and shy, Viet once killed a man. The story takes you back to that moment, and it becomes clear that when his family is threatened, Viet will stop at nothing to stop the threat. Soon, Viet finds himself pushed to the verge of losing control once again.

This is very short, but it packs a very large punch. Chau is talented at putting a lot of emotion into very few words. Her writing is beautiful, and I wished this had been a full-length novel. I want to read the other short stories in this collection soon.

4/5 stars

Read from February 28, 2011 to March 1, 2011

--C

Book # 9.5: La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast)

2011-03-01T13:49:00.009-06:00

Beauty and the Beast was one of my favorite Disney movies as a kid (although nothing could ever possibly beat Aladdin), and I recently got to see the Broadway version when the touring cast came through Huntsville. I saw it when I was browsing the classic Kindle books, so I thought I'd read it to see how it compared to the story I know so well.

As is generally the case with Disney movies, they seemed to have taken a very loose idea from the original work and crafted into something kids would like. I don't really have a problem with the way Disney does things, for the most part (see my post on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). I know they don't stick very closely to the literature or historical themes they choose, but at the very least, they might inspire kids to go back and read the originals just to compare them to the movies they love. Case in point: me.

In Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's La Belle et la Bête, a formerly rich merchant who has become poor stumbles upon a beast's castle. The beast insists that the merchant offer one of his daughters (he has three) in return for his freedom and a trunk full of money. His daughter, nicknamed Beauty, goes to take her father's place in the castle, and she finds that the beast has graciously prepared for her arrival, setting up an apartment for her and coming to dine and chat with her daily. The Beast asks Beauty numerous times to marry him, but she refuses. She longs to see her father again, and the Beast allows her to leave when she promises to return in one week. When she goes home to visit her family, she finds that her sisters have each married handsome, yet dull and uncaring men. She realizes that she loves the Beast regardless of his appearance. She comes back to the castle to find the Beast dying, but when she tells him that she has returned because she wants to marry him, the Beast is revived and turns into a handsome and brilliant prince. Yay.

So... No crazy inventor father for Belle. No Gaston (my favorite character) fighting for Belle's affection. No household items brought to life. No rose quickly losing petals (though the Beast does mention his affinity for roses). No throng of townspeople storming the castle. No wonderfully choreographed showtunes... But all in all, still a nice story. A bit simple, but nice. Definitely worth the hour it will take you to read it.

3/5 stars

Read on February 28, 2011

--C

Book #9: The Hangman's Daughter

2011-02-28T21:49:00.004-06:00

Oliver Potzsch's The Hangman's Daughter was our book club's choice for February.

The book (published by Amazon Crossing, interestingly enough) is written in German, translated to English by Lee Chadeayne. It is set in 1600s Bavaria, where a young boy has been found dead. A strange mark is found on his body, leading a local midwife to be accused of witchcraft. The killing keep occurring, and Jakob Kuisl, the town's executioner, is skeptical of the witchcraft accusation. With the help of his daughter, Magdalena, and the local physician's son, Simon, the hangman is determined to find who is responsible.

As I said in the book club discussion, I have never read a book that completely left me with no clue how I felt about it, but this one did exactly that. I finished it, thought I liked it, decided I didn't, thought maybe I actually did, decided that I in fact HATED it, then decided I didn't know. What?

Maybe I was just disappointed. It all seemed reeaaallly pointless... I spent 2 weeks reading a book that led me to believe it was about one thing, and then I found out in the last couple of chapters that it wasn't about that at all. It kind of irked me. I'd be spoiling a lot by explaining myself further, but just know that the whole answer to the mystery really ticked me off.

I had some issues with the translation and characterization. (Of course, the characterization may have been due to the translation, so...) Just little things that weren't quite worded right or seemed out of place for the time period. As I have mentioned before, as a history major, I try really hard not to be super academically critical of historical fiction, or else I'd never enjoy anything. It has to be pretty glaring for me to get really worked up over, and the inaccuracies in The Hangman's Daughter weren't a big deal at all. The characters (especially Jakob and Simon) felt very nondescript in terms of their time period. My brother pointed this out as well, so I'm glad to know it wasn't just me... They had very modern ways of thinking, not in terms of being "ahead of their time," because I realize that was the point, but in terms of feeling like they could be characters in a book set in 1860 or 1980 or 3014. That may be a good thing, depending on how you look at it, and I certainly realize that Potzsch was attempting to make them seem wiser than the members of their community, but it came across a bit off.

As I write, I guess it seems like I disliked this book more than I liked it... I'm (again) not sure if that's actually the case. I liked a lot of things about the story, especially at the beginning. For the most part, it kept me interested and made me want to keep reading... But, as I've said many times before, a disappointing ending will forever ruin a book for me... Still not over the last chapter of The Lovely Bones, which I read yeaaarrrss ago.

2.5/5 stars

Read from February 1, 2011 to February 12, 2011

--C

Book #8: Life From Scratch

2011-02-28T11:12:00.001-06:00

You know what the best thing about this book is? It's not about child abuse or people heartlessly killing their mentally challenged friends.

Yes, I chose to read Melissa Ford's Life from Scratch mostly because it pretty much guaranteed that I wasn't going to be insanely depressed for several days after reading it. I needed something light and easy, and that's exactly what I got. I enjoyed reading it, even if it's probably not the most intellectually stimulating thing I've ever picked up.

In Life from Scratch, the 30-something narrator, Rachel, has recently gotten divorced from her workaholic husband, Adam. She pretty much shuts her entire life down for about a year, including quitting her job as a graphic designer. She lives off the money she got from her half of their condo, and she sits around alone in her apartment all day. Awesome. In all her infinite time, she decides to try to teach herself to cook -- something she never learned how to do, because her busy lawyer parents never cooked. Rachel starts a blog to talk about her adventures in cooking, which, of course, also allows her to get some things off her chest about the divorce. Rachel find solace in writing, and her blog becomes very, very popular. Her friends encourage her to hold a dinner party to show off her cooking skills, and lo and behold, she meets a dreamy Spanish dude named Gael. The rest of the book is about Rachel trying to move on with her life, which she hopes will include spending more time with Gael, even though she's clearly still obsessed with Adam.

This book is about as chick-lit as it sounds, although I have to admit, it's very well-written. The plot sounds kind of romance-novel-esque, but it's definitely not. It's not graphic or even sensual, really. It's not really even romantic. It's much more a book about finding yourself and being productive in a way that makes you happy (as opposed to a way that just makes money) than it is about romance.

I'm not a huge fan of Rachel, because, honestly, she's sort of neurotic and insane... Say, for example, creating a fake website to use as bait to figure out Gael's IP address so she can check to see if he reads her blog? Really? Couldn't you just ask him? Or is that too normal? She jumps to conclusions a lot, making huge deals out of nothing... It's really irritating sometimes. She thinks like a teenager. I mean, I've never been in her position, thankfully, so I don't know. Maybe divorce turns you in to a psychotic seventeen-year-old.

Anyway, most importantly, this book made me really hungry. Every time I read it, I was hungry. And I wanted to go into the kitchen and cook something. Not go to McDonalds or open a bag of chips, but cook something. Rachel didn't know anything about cooking gourmet meals, and neither do I, but she did it. I could do that. With all her annoying faults, at least she's inspiring about cooking. Stick to the blog, Rachel!

PS -- The ending? Pfffttt. It's kind of what I was hoping for, but it was still kind of irritating in a "I just read a whole book about a misunderstanding?!?!" sort of way.

3/5 stars

Read from February 23, 2011 to February 27, 2011

--C

Book #7: Of Mice and Men

2011-02-23T21:32:00.007-06:00

:(

:(

:(

:(

:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is essentially all I have to say.

Alright, alright. I'll try to say something constructive. This is my first Steinbeck book ever (how did I graduate high school without reading anything by Steinbeck?), and I apparently didn't know that his entire purpose is to make you miserably depressed. I'm sure it didn't help that I had just finished Roseflower Creek, which was horribly sad, and I really didn't need to read something like this immediately afterward.

I mean... Steinbeck is clearly a brilliant writer. I have no problem with his writing. I liked how the dialogue was written realistically, I liked his characterization, I liked everything EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT IT WAS HEART-BREAKING. :(

A friend of mine who teaches middle school English pointed out that this story is perhaps the greatest example of foreshadowing ever. Excellent point.

I really don't know what else to say. I'm torn because I enjoyed the book itself, and I am actually sort of obsessed with it, because it's all I've thought about for days, but... I don't want to pretend like I loved it, because I actually hated it... but not because it was bad. This makes no sense.

Curse you, Steinbeck.

Read from February 20, 2011 to February 22, 2011

3/5 stars

--C

Book #6: Roseflower Creek

2011-02-20T10:52:00.004-06:00

Ninety-two reviews on Amazon. Seventy-three of them 5 stars. That's got to be a decent sign, and I have to say I agree with those seventy-three people. The odd thing is how it's possible to love a book so much when it makes you feel completely and utterly terrible.

Jackie Lee Miles' first novel Roseflower Creek is written in the voice of 10-year-old Lori Jean, a poor, uneducated girl growing up in 1950s rural Georgia. You learn in the first sentence of the book that she's dead. She goes back and shares the story of her ten short years of life in broken Southern-ese. This mainly centers around living with her abusive, alcoholic, criminal stepfather, Ray, and her mother, who lets Ray walk all over both of them. On top of Lori Jean's terrible home life, there are many other losses, tragedies, and injustices that she has to face along the way.

Lori Jean's narration is so innocent. She has lived through enough hell to make her grow up faster than she should have, but she talks about her life with all the simplicity that a 10-year-old should have. Miles has written this book beautifully, making it sound exactly like a child in rural Georgia was speaking right into your ear, and certainly makes a strong impact... a big, huge impact... the kind that reaches right into your sternum, rips out your heart, grinds it up in a blender, and feeds it right back to you.

Seriously, the whole book is depressing, but the last 1/4th just made me want to vomit. It's not overly graphic or anything (in my opinion), it's just the thought of a child living through that... I know it's fiction, but Lori Jean is a representation of plenty of children who live like this every day. It's blood-curdling. And what's even harder to understand is how forgiving Lori Jean is. She holds no grudge. She looks at the lives of those who have mistreated her, and she says she understands why they act the way they do, because they, too, were mistreated as a child. That's an interesting point of view from a victim, and it could easily be up for a lot of debate. I think everyone can agree that a troubled childhood doesn't excuse anyone's behavior later in life, even though it may influence their behavior. There are apparently some readers of this book who completely dismissed the entire thing based on Lori Jean's forgiveness of her abusers, saying that it excused the abusive behavior. I don't think that was what Miles was trying to suggest. Not only does it highlight the vicious cycle of abusees becoming abusers, but also having Lori Jean forgive shows how big and selfless her heart was. Thanks to Ray, she was the one who was served the largest portion of injustice, but she was still worried about Ray and what had happened to him to make him the way he was. I don't think Miles was trying to excuse Ray's behavior when she writes about how Lori Jean feels sorry for him. I think she's trying to show how innocent she is. She's a child. Children believe excuses. If anything, it makes me even more angry about how many cases like Lori Jean's are out there that get ignored because of people believing excuses. I think that was the point Miles was trying to make, and even if it wasn't, that's how I took it.

This is definitely worth the read. You've been warned that it's depressing and hard to stomach, but honestly, this is going on all around us. Even if you don't want to hear or think about it, it's happening. All those kids like Lori Jean deserve to be noticed, and this book forces you to do that.

5/5 stars

Read from February 19, 2011 to February 20, 2011

--C

Book #5: Dreaming Anastasia

2011-02-19T13:25:00.007-06:00

Question: What is my favorite, favorite, favorite historical topic?

Answer: The Romanovs and the Bolshevik Revolution

Question: What is my favorite, favorite, favorite thing about that particular topic?

Answer: Anastasia Romanov and the theory that she survived her family being massacred.

Question: What is my favorite, favorite, favorite price for books?

Answer: Free

It should come as no surprise, then, that I had a minor freak-out when I ran across Dreaming Anastasia, a young adult novel by Joy Preble, for freeeee on Kindle a couple weeks ago. (Now it's around $7.00. This is why I check the Top 100 Free Kindle books every other day.)

In Dreaming Anastasia, in the present day, a typical seventeen-year-old named Anne is just going about her average teenage life when she realizes that she's being stalked by this dark, odd dude named Ethan. Then she starts having strange dreams about Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov being trapped in some hut with a witch. Odd, since Anastasia and her entire family were killed in 1918. Then, even weirder stuff starts happening -- glowing extremities, freaky weather, getting chased by guys with weapons... Eventually, Anne learns that Ethan has come to her so they can help save Anastasia Romanov from a witch popular in Russian folklore. The book shifts between being narrated by Anne, Ethan, and Anastasia herself, who is writing in a journal from captivity.

The Romanovs have always appealed to me... Probably because, although flawed in several ways, they are such a beautiful family and their story is so tragic. For those of you not familiar with their story, it will be my pleasure to give it to you simply and briefly: Czar Nicholas II, of the Romanov dynasty, was the ruler of Russia for a while. He had a lovely wife Alexandra, four daughters (Olga, Maria, Tatiana, and Anastasia) as well as a young son (Alexi) who had hemophilia. Alexi was sick a lot, and a crazy lunatic named Gregory Rasputin managed to weasel his way in to having some degree of power with the royal family because he claimed he had powers that could heal Alexi. Things went rather sour, and eventually Nicholas II was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the early 1900s. The family was held captive for a while by the Bolsheviks, and eventually they were taken into a basement and killed. Their bodies were burned and buried. Upon excavating the bodies, they never found the remains of Anastasia. So, there are a lot of rumors that she somehow survived or was rescued and lived the rest of her life with a secret identity. There have been a few people who have claimed to be Anastasia, most famously, Anna Anderson, who was later revealed to be lying thanks to DNA.

So. Joy Preble takes this story to a whole new level by adding a few twists... Some family drama, some paranormal activity, some Russian fairy tales. I'm down with it. I'm down with anything Romanov-related. Preble is a high school English teacher (!!!! awesome), and this is her first novel.

I really, really enjoyed this, although I think I can admit that it's definitely not something everyone would enjoy. (I think the intended audience would enjoy it, since it's a young adult book, but I wouldn't recommend it to serious history buffs or probably anyone Russian.) I am definitely biased since I love the topic so much, but everything else about the book was great, too. I really liked Anne most of the time (although she was a little too "Bella Swan"-esque sometimes), and Preble has a very sarcastic tone sometimes that I really enjoyed. Anne's family background and her best friend Tess were great aspects of the story, too. Switching narrators kept things interesting, especially since Ethan and Anne both occasionally pick up on things that the other doesn't.

I would advise history experts or Russian enthusiasts from reading this book because I will admit the historical parts are very basic. The references to Russian culture are pretty obviously American-minded (I mean, what do we know about Russia other than Tolstoy and Fabrege eggs?), and sometimes Anastasia's "journal" entries just sound like a textbook excerpt about the Romanovs -- but! I don't have a problem with that as much as some fancy-pants folks on Amazon apparently do because it. is. a. young. adult. book. It's OK if it's not mind-blowingly enlightening as far as Romanov history is concerned. I'm just glad someone wrote an interesting, entertaining book about Anastasia Romanov so that some teenager somewhere might remember who she is one day, because they probably aren't going to remember it from history class.

...Which brings me to my next point -- My favorite part of the whole book is probably this quote from Anne:

"Normally, world history is not a subject that makes me do back handsprings. Not that I don't like knowing about that stuff. I actually do. But Coach Wicker -- who pretends to teach the class when he's not too busy figuring out football plays on the computer -- is the most singularly boring person I've ever met."

Or maybe it was this (also Anne):

"Why the administration would allow someone to teach honors world history who mispronounces Bogota and can't find Tierra del Fuego on a map because he thinks it's in Peru is a mystery to me."

I will avoid going into further detail there, but let me just say that I totally get those quotes. And I have a feeling Preble being a teacher has a lot to do with why she gets those quotes. I wish her the utmost success and I hope she writes more soon.

Anyway, this book is well worth the $7 it now costs on Kindle, and I would suggest you give it a read. I would also remind you to peruse the free Kindle books quite often, as I have found many a gem.

4/5 stars

Read from February 17, 2011 to February 19, 2001

--C

Book #4: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

2011-02-17T18:45:00.004-06:00

Yaaay, more Harry Potter!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, begins with an elf paying an unexpected visit to Harry's home during Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's summer break. He warns Harry that he should not return to Hogwarts, because his life in in danger. Of course, our brave hero returns anyway to begin his second year of wizardry. Soon enough, there are a series of attacks on the students, staff, and even pets of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that the danger might originate from the mysterious Chamber of Secrets, which many claim is only a Hogwarts myth. So, off they go into harm's way to figure out what's going on.

I have to admit, when I read the first book, I pretty much devoured the first 3/4ths of it in one night. This one didn't quite start off as captivating, but the last few chapters made it all worth it. The way the story of the Chamber of Secrets unravels at the end is brilliant. I have to give J.K. Rowling credit for keeping me guessing up to the end... Not an easy thing to do for me, especially when you're writing a book for children. Even though the plot in this book took a while to get going, it definitely opened the doors for so much more of the series. I'm looking forward to seeing where it's heading.

The new characters introduced in this book are some of the best parts -- Ron's clever little sister, Ginny; the handsome, self-absorbed Gilderoy Lockhart who is hired as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts; the nervous and loving elf, Dobby... They all made the story so much more enjoyable. And of course, my old favorites are back and much more developed. I was glad to see a little more background on Draco Malfoy and his family. And that Severus Snape... I can't wait to find out what his deal is.

As will probably be the case with all of the rest of the books in this series, I'm not going into much detail because I don't want to spoil anything in the earlier books for those of you who have yet to read them. (Which, please, just do it. Now.) I have to say, though -- So far, I am seriously impressed with how well these books have lived up to all their gigantic amounts of hype.

Read from February 12 , 2011 to February 16, 2011

5/5 Stars

--C

P.S. -- Technically, this was Book #5, and Book #4 was The Hangman's Daughter. I'm not going to post a full review of the latter until the end of the month when our book club is done discussing it.

Special Post: Bookshelves

2011-02-04T22:58:00.004-06:00

Just did a little bookshelf re-organizing. Thought I'd share it with y'all since... no one else cares. And you probably don't, either, but this is my blog, so tough.

Most of our fiction:

Nonfiction, Reference, Fantasy, a few random collections that wouldn't fit on the fiction shelf:

And, something I have thought of doing for a long time... A "Favorites" shelf :)

Book #3 -- Life

2011-01-31T21:38:00.003-06:00

The following are the thoughts I posted on the Book Club discussion:

I have to say this first and foremost: I am left with so much respect for this dude. I never really listened to much of the Stones, so all I knew about Keith was that he was a guitarist and he partied a lot and he was Johnny Depp's inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow. If you'd asked me to judge his character based on those things alone, I'd have said he was a lavish rock and roller who did too many drugs and lived a cushy life. After reading this book, I feel really bad for thinking that.

The most striking thing to me is how much he genuinely loves music. It was never about being a famous guitarist who gets girls and money and drugs. Those things might have come with the package, but Keith literally just loves music. There are many times that he just rambles on and on about this chord and that chord and hand positions and guitar techniques, and to be perfectly honest, I have no clue what he's talking about. Even so, I know just from the way he talks about his craft that making music is the end all be all of his life, and I respect that a lot. There are probably plenty of rock stars who are in the business for several reasons, music being pretty far down on the list. Not the case with Mr. Richards. ("I don't think they quite understand what I get out of this. I'm not doing it just for the money or for you. I'm doing it for me.")

As a huge Beatles fan, I have to touch on the whole "Beatles vs. Stones" thing. Those two bands -- both British, both immensely popular in the 60s -- always seem to be regarded as rivals. You're "either" a Beatles fan "or" a Stones fan, not both. I'm not sure why that is, and apparently Keith isn't either. I loved these quotes -- "The thing is not to try to regurgitate the Beatles. So we're going to have to be the anti-Beatles." And they were. Unkempt, glamorous, and tough. The Beatles (at least at the beginning) were clean cut and wholesome. Keith also mentions specifically working with the Beatles to stagger their album/single releases to not step on each others' toes. I love that they never saw each other as the competition, because I never have, either.

And, ooookkkk, how awesome was it to read about the Stones recording at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios? (Which is actually in Sheffield, but OK.) I totally enjoyed reading that. Made me feel a lot closer to the book.

As for Keith himself... I think Helen pretty much summed it up. He is who he is, regardless of how confusing it may be. He's honest to a fault, and he doesn't care who he rubs the wrong way. He'll talk about doing drugs like candy, but he's very honest about how much they messed him up at times. I also liked that he was clear that he never took drugs to get high and/or be more creative. He did drugs because that was how he lived -- just enough to survive. Just like eating. He's not overindulgent about it. Interesting.

Bottom line -- It was a pretty choppy read, since he never seems to have a clear stream of consciousness. (Would you?) There's no rhyme or reason to the order of it most of the time, but I kind of liked that. Before I read the book, I saw a lot of reviewers complain about the lack of editing, but I didn't so much mind it. Yeah, it was hard to follow sometimes. (And at the beginning, he totally did not bother to explain who certain people were. If he says "Mick" or "Brian," you best know who Mick and Brian are or else you have no reason to be reading the book.) But I think it fit the purpose. It felt like Keith sat down in a room with a tape recorder and started talking. And it was written that way, with weird punctuation and run-ons and bouncing from thought to thought. It's Keith telling you his life story, and I don't think I would've liked a cleaned up, polished version. Kudos to him for not letting someone fix it up for him.

And now to expand on that a bit:

Life is insanely long, and I thought I would never finish it by the end of the month. Honestly, though, he's got a lot to say. As I mentioned, it's choppy and hard to follow, and it lacks the whole "plot" thing that usually makes long books easier to read. That being said, this is totally worth wading through.

Keith is quite witty and charming. I laughed out loud several times while I was reading this. Examples:

(On a proposed Arizona law to regulate rock and roll music) "Love to see the wording of the statute -- 'Where there be loudly and insistently four beats to the bar...'"

(On quickly deciding on a band name to save long distance telephone charges) "First track on The Best of Muddy Waters is 'Rollin Stone.' The cover is on the floor. Desperate, Brian, Mick and I take the dive. 'The Rolling Stones!' Phew! That saved sixpence."

His wit, combined with his "tell-it-like-it-is" attitude make Life a really enjoyable experience. Reading about globe-trekking and drugs and inter-band tension could have very easily been boring and pretentious. With Keith, it's not. For example, I don't think I'd have enjoyed reading an account of the Rolling Stones' career written by Mick Jagger. I don't think he would have carried the grace that Keith does. Keith will tell you what he loves and how lucky he is, but he'll tell you what sucks, too. Since we're on the subject, Keith will also flat out tell you why he and Mick Jagger had a testy relationship for the last few decades (thanks to something he refers to as "LVS" -- Lead Vocalist Syndrome). Jagger seemed to lose himself in the fame eventually, and Keith goes so far as to say, "Do you know Mick Jagger? Yeah, which one? He's a nice bunch of guys." The point is that I don't think all rock stars have managed to stay quite as grounded as Keith Richards. Not that he hasn't has his share of "good times" and luxuries -- he certainly has, but he doesn't brag about them. He tells them for what they are -- wonderful experiences. And he'll admit when something that he looked forward to wasn't all it was cracked up to be, such as how hurt he was when one of his all-time heroes turned out to be a jerk: "Chuck Berry was a big disappointment. He was numero uno hero." He doesn't get caught up in hype, even hype for his own rock idols.

All of these things -- from fame to drugs to relationships to parenting (or lack of parenting...) -- have led Keith to be a very wise man. There is some legitimately smart stuff in here:

"Everything has something to do with something.; nothing is divorced. It becomes an experience, a feeling, or a conglomeration of experiences."

"Preaching is tax free. Very little to do with God, a lot to do with money."

To sum up, this was not the easiest book to get through, and it was not the best book I've ever read. What it is, is an honest and realistic account of the life of a rock legend, who deserves your respect for not losing himself somewhere in the last 5 decades of fame.

Book #2: Sin's Daughter

2011-01-06T18:35:00.003-06:00

I'm not really sure what came over me when I downloaded this, because it doesn't sound like anything I would like, the reviews weren't great, and (as someone who admittedly judges books by their covers on a regular basis) that cover is seriously trashy. Should've heeded all of those warnings, because this wasn't really worth my time.

This novella/short story (I'm counting this + the last short story I read as 1 book) is a prequel to Eve Silver's Otherkin trilogy. I'm honestly not sure if this was written and released before the first book, or if was done after. I would wager a guess that it was after, because that would explain the lack of... well, everything. There wasn't any background information, and I felt like I was already supposed to know who the main characters were. If I'd read the first book in the trilogy, I guess I would have.

From what I can tell, these books are about a couple (Amber and Kai) who are both immortal and involved in some sort of "underworld" shenanigans that occasionally bring them to the "topworld." OK. Something happened a long time ago with them, and they fell in love, then they both died... or "died"... then they meet again many years later, although they haven't aged. That's where this story picks up.

It was slow to get started, but then it picked up a lot. I sort of even almost enjoyed it for a while, but then it turned into complete softcore porn. Once Amber and Kai gave in to their "we used to be together, but now I hate you, but really I love you" tension, the rest of the story awkwardly gross.

So, yes. Don't read this. You're welcome.

1/5 Stars

Read from January 4, 2011 to January 5, 2011

--C

Book #1.5: Serial

2011-01-04T20:31:00.003-06:00

Ok, so this is Book #1.5 because it's just a short story, but I have to review it because I have a lot to say about it.

"Serial" is three-chapter horror story written by Jack Kilborn (the pen name of author J.A. Konrath) and Blake Crouch. I found it on Kindle, and I was immediately sold (... well, it was free, so, "sold") by the beginning of the description:

"Jack Kilborn (aka J.A. Konrath) and Blake Crouch turn their attention to the twin golden rules of hitchhiking:
# 1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy.
# 2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be a raving nutcase.
So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2?"

YES!! What a brilliant premise for a horror story.

Fair warning: it's rather graphic, but that's to be expected. It's well-written and always keeps you interested. The authors don't use the trite, over-used murder tactics... These killers have some pretty interesting ideas. It's one of those books that makes you think, "Man, the guy who thought of this is a sick person." But it's awesome.

I'm not going to talk much about what happens in the story, because it's way more fun for you to find out for yourself (download it for free on your Kindle app of choice). What I do want to talk about is how it was written. I didn't know this until after I read the story, but I respected it a lot more when I found out.

The two authors, Konrath and Crouch, decided to collaborate, and after some emails back and forth, chose a loose topic -- hitchhiking. Basically, Konrath was responsible for writing a chapter about a hitchhiker who is killed by the person who picks him up. Crouch was responsible for writing a chapter about a hitchhiker who kills the person who picks him up. They were not allowed to read each others' chapters until the entire story was complete. For the third chapter, where Killer #1 meets Killer #2, Konrath started the text, then passed it Crouch, and the two authors ping-ponged their story until it was done . But I repeat, they had not read each others' first chapters when they finished the story. This is mind-blowing to me. The story got so much cooler after I found that out.

Really, really great short story. Some of the reviews on Amazon are really bad, and I can't figure out why. I didn't see anything wrong with it, nothing boring, nothing cheesy. Can't recommend it enough.

5/5 Stars

Read on January 3, 2011.

--C

Special Post: Name Change, Kindle Lending, Book Club, Etc.

2011-01-03T21:17:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year, folks!

You may notice that we changed the name of our blog. I hate to spring that on you, but honestly, "Sixty Books in 2010" just doesn't seem to fit anymore. Out with the old, in with the new. Since we recently started a book club with some friends and family (mentioned in this post), we decided to change the name of the blog to the name of the book club -- Descripted. As promised, we'll still review the books we read outside of the book club, but this just helps streamline things a bit. The URL for the blog will stay the same (http://sixtybooks.blogspot.com). Even though it's not actually sixty books anymore, our followers won't have to change their bookmarks if we keep the old URL.

I thought I'd mention a few things about Kindle, since I do so much of my reading on my Kindle and Kindle applications. First of all, just in case you aren't aware, there are a few options for accessing Kindle content even if you don't actually own a Kindle. You can download the (free!) Kindle application to various cell phones (including iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices) and the iPad. You can also download (free!) Kindle reading software on your PC or Mac desktop or laptop computers. Click here to download any of these. (I personally have the app on my Droid Eris phone and my computer, as well as owning a Kindle.) Any of these apps gives you full access to the Kindle store, both free and paid content.

Here's my favorite part -- For example, let's say I read 22% of a book on my Kindle, and I find myself waiting in line at the post office (happens more than you might think, since I work across the street from the post office and seem to constantly have something to mail). Let's say I just walked across the street from work without my bag, so I don't have my Kindle. I have my phone in my pocket, though. I take out my phone, open my Kindle app, and choose "Sync to furthest read location." Within seconds, it automatically takes me to where I left off on my Kindle -- 22% into the book. Suddenly the fifteen minutes in line at the post office isn't so bad... I get to be that obnoxious hipster who never puts her phone away. Oh well.

Kindle has also just announced the lending option, which I was really excited about until I did a little more research. I'm now only marginally excited, but I guess it's better than nothing. Kindle lending is basically exactly what it sounds like. If you have purchased a book on Kindle (or any of the Kindle apps), you can "lend" it to another person who uses Kindle for ten days. Most books are available to lend, although not all of them are. (None of the free ones are, but why would you lend a free book anyway?) This is a free service, but it does have its downsides. While your friend has the book you "loaned" them, you don't have access to it. After the ten days is up, you have your book back automatically, and your friend loses access. That's not really a big deal, because chances are, if I loaned you something, I've already read it, and ten days without it won't kill me.

The real problem is that it's only for ten days, and after those ten days, the book cannot be re-loaned to that person or anyone else. Basically you can lend each book one time and only one time. So, if you lend a book to a friend (let's say, Life by Keith Richards, which is, oh, I don't know, 584853948 pages long) and that person can't finish it all in ten days. Too bad, guess you'll have to buy the book to finish it. Or, if you lend a book to Friend A, and they totally love it and say, "You should loan it to Friend B, too!" Too bad, Friend B is left out of the sharing party. But I guess you can't really blame Amazon for that. If you let everyone lend willy nilly, eventually there'd be a big enough community of Kindle users who were willing to share, no one would ever need to buy a book again. The other devices similar to Kindle (eg. the Nook) have lending systems that work very much the same way. So, having the option to lend at all is better than nothing, but I guess it's not as amazing as I thought. You can go here to read more about Kindle lending and learn how to loan your books.

Lastly, I'd like to give y'all a heads up that the first book the Descripted Book Club will read for 2011 (chosen by a vote from all of our members) is Life by Keith Richards. Don't ask me how that happened. Be looking out for reviews by both Derrick and me sometime this month... probably towards the end of the month, since apparently this thing is longer than the Bible.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful beginning to 2011!

--C

Book #1: Sweetie

2011-01-03T20:39:00.004-06:00

Ahhh, my first book of 2011. It was a lovely way to start the new year.

Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie takes place in smalltown North Carolina, where a young girl named Sweetie occasionally comes out of her rugged, earthen lifestyle in the mountains to attend the local elementary school. The entire town thinks Sweetie is either crazy, evil, or both. The town has been gossiping about Sweetie's family, holed up in the woods, for decades. Melissa, one of Sweetie's classmates, is also an outcast. Although Melissa comes from a well-to-do family with a pretentious, overbearing mother, she doesn't fit in with the other students because of her weight and a nervous stutter. Over the summer, the two girls, against all odds, form a bond that, the story proves, is impossible to break.

This is a classic tale of unconditional friendship. Even though it's the story of two pre-teen girls, the issues are very adult -- it would touch a person of any age. It's definitely a coming-of-age story that teaches an important lesson about where you should put your loyalties. Even though Melissa loves Sweetie more than anything, there are times with the stigma associated with Sweetie and her lifestyle make Melissa turn away in attempts to become more popular. It seems like juvenile subject matter (it's not -- this book is not written for young adults), but it's the underlying message that's important.

It reminded me a little of Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. It's sort of the adult version of the same basic idea. I loved it. Magendie certainly has a way with words, and she tells this story beautifully. I highly suggest downloading this one on your Kindle -- it's free right now, but well worth much more than that.

4/5 Stars

Read from January 1, 2011 to January 3, 2011

--C

(BONUS) Book #41: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2010-12-30T22:34:00.004-06:00

And I thought I'd have trouble getting to forty.

Unlike my feelings for the Twilight series, I have never had anything against Harry Potter. It never particularly interested me, but as I mentioned in my very first post here, I will pretty much read just about anything. (Except Frankenstein, apparently.) Most of the reason I've never read the series so far is that I didn't have the books. I didn't want to read them when I was younger, so I had a lot of catching up to do. I am notoriously thrifty, yet for some reason don't frequent libraries, so asking me to invest in, like, eight giant books is pretty much like asking me to give you a kidney. Lo and behold, I happened to mention that I'd like to give the series a go, and my mother-in-law told me she bought the first five books for her classroom back when she was a 3rd grade teacher. She has no use for them now, so home with me they came. Merry Christmas to me!

Everyone knows that Harry Potter is a giant phenomenon, which, admittedly, does turn me off a little bit. Maybe that's the small portion of hipster in me, but when something is off-the-charts mainstream like that, I am immediately skeptical of the hype. I never understood the people waiting in line at midnight for copies of the books as they came out, or people dressed as Harry in line to see the movies, or those crazy folks who play Quidditch...

... But it is so easy to see how those people became crazy Potter addicts. It's horrible, and I am mostly ashamed to admit it, but... ohmyGod, where has this been all my life? I loved it. I read it in a matter of hours. I was grinning like a child when I finished it. I HATE MYSELF.

Really, I feel terrible for liking it so much, but I shouldn't! J.K. Rowling, unlike many over-hyped series authors, is actually extremely talented. She's clever and funny, and she does a really good job of not dumbing the plot down. It's obviously written for kids, and that often means (as was the case with The Secret of Platform 13) that I figure out plot twists early. Not this time. No, no, I was screaming, "WHAT?! What? WHAT?" at the end. Ask Derrick. It was embarrassing. It really was. But honestly, a couple chapters in and these people feel like your best friends. It's so good. Ugh.

Ugh!

5/5 Stars

Read from December 29, 2010 to December 30, 2010

--C

Aaaaaannnnddd, We're Done

2010-12-29T22:35:00.005-06:00

Honestly, there were a few times throughout 2010 that I doubted Derrick and I reaching our goal...

But we did it! Both of us! I hit forty, he hit twenty, and you lucky readers were blessed with sixty brilliant and thought-provoking reviews. We all win at life.

I believe I speak for both of us when I say that this little challenge was totally worth it. For the last four years or so, I've pretty much always been in the middle of a book, so I would've read a lot in 2010 regardless; however, this pushed me to read much more than I would have otherwise. I'm not gonna lie -- it's been a crazy year for me. Six months of student teaching, two months of debilitating 24/7 migraines, a summer full of job-searching, a wedding in November, and working two jobs... I'm definitely glad I had something pushing me to make time to read. There would have been plenty of times this year that I would have said, "Oh, forget it, I'm exhausted" and skipped that twenty minutes of reading before bedtime... But there was that little voice. That gnawing, annoying "... but will you make it to forty books?" in the back of my head. It kept me going, and I'm glad it did. Even though there have been a few lemons in the bunch, I'm glad I read every book that I read. Even if I hated it (looking at you, Stupid Christmas), it made me think. Thinking is never bad. Broadening horizons is never bad. I'm even glad I read Twilight. Now I can back up my hatred of Stephanie Meyers with cold, hard, sparkly facts.

I'm certainly going to do this again in 2011, although, I admit, I'll be lowering the number of books I'm challenging myself to read. Not because I don't think I can read that many -- it's clear that even with a whole lot of life in the way, I can get the job done -- but because I think it had more of an effect on the books I chose than it should have. There are a lot of pretty thick books on my shelf I've been wanting to read that I put off because I knew they'd take a couple weeks to get through. This especially applied to what I chose to read these last three or four months. I don't want to put off reading books I'm dying to read because of a limitation I've placed on myself.

Derrick and I are doing a bit of a twist for 2011 -- We're still planning on reading and reviewing books here. One book per month will be in association with a book club we've begun with friends and family. The rest will be on our own, just as they were this year.

My goal for the year? Thirty. Twelve of those will be determined by our book club. The other eighteen... Those are all mine.

Any of you have reading goals this year?

--C

I totally agree. I'm extraordinarily happy that we both attempted this and completed it. Rolling into December, I was a bit worried, but we made it, and it was tremendously rewarding.

Unfortunately, next year I may be sticking mostly to the 12 books selected by the book club. I am going back to school in January, so most of my reading time will be taken up by textbooks and, no doubt, scholarly articles. It just wouldn't be fair to subject you to that.

So, dear readers, as we bid 2010 adieu, I thank you for listening to my ramblings, putting up with may apparent zombie fetish, and giving me a creative outlet.

Cheers.

--D

P.S. Be on the lookout for a name change in the near future.

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (20)

2010-12-29T21:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, another Christopher Moore book. What can I say? I'm hooked. Plus, it fit the season. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror is perfectly fun romp through Moore's recurring town of Pine Cove during the Christmas season.

Many settings, characters, and motifs from Moore's earlier books make an appearance here:

Raziel - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Theophilus Crowe, Molly Michon, Gabe Fenton, and Valerie Riordan - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Robert Masterson, Jenny Masterson, and Mavis Sand - Practical Demonkeeping and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Tucker Case and Roberto the Fruit Bat - Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Those familiar with Moore's writings will also find slight allusions to some of his other works, like the French irreverence from Fool, the Rastafarian speak from Fluke, and Raziel's affinity for Spider-Man from Lamb.

The story begins with the accidental murder of a Santa-suit-clad jerk that takes place days before Christmas. Of course, it iswitnessed by a twelve-year-old boy on his way home from a friend's house, and of course that boy prays for a resurrected Santa so that Christmas can be saved. The problem is that Raziel has to perform this Christmas miracle because of a lost angelic bet, and Raziel doesn't have the brightest of heavenly glows. He brings the faux-Santa back to life as a zombie (and the rest of the Pine Cove graveyard with him) on the night of the Lonesome Christmas party, and chaos ensues.

This book, like every other Christopher Moore book I've read, was hilarious. From the pot-smoking constable to the pilot with a giant talking fruit bat to the bar owner with her affinity for burros with wiffle ball bats, the characters teeter on the edge of the ridiculous, and the plot is one absurd twist after another. This is a must-read for Moore fans or just someone who wants a riot of a Christmas story. If you do pick this up, definitely pick up the version 2.0 of the book (pictured), which includes a follow-up chapter with a Lonesome Christmas party tale for the following year. Christmas will never be the same.

5/5 Stars
--D
~FIN~

Book #40: House of Dark Shadows

2010-12-29T15:12:00.004-06:00

Well, I certainly ended the year on a good note.

House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo is the first book in the Dreamhouse Kings series. The King family -- Xander, David, Toria, and their parents -- pick up and move from Pasadena to boring, rural Pinedale, California. The kids (especially Xander) aren't very excited about it, and living in a motel isn't helping the situation. Soon enough, Xander's parents fall in love with a giant, old fixer-upper house in the middle of the woods. Xander is immediately creeped out by the house, but his family just thinks he's paranoid. Soon enough, the entire family is staring to have second thoughts, what with all the creepy sounds, giant footprints left in the dust, and shadows lurking all over the house. Things get even weirder when Xander and David discover a passageway that leads to a hidden wing of the house, which holds passageways of its own... to different time periods.

I completely loved this book. It's safe to say I'll be reading every book in this series as soon as I can get my hands on them. From about ages 7-11, I was totally obsessed with R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books. I read every one that they carried at Bookland. (They still had Booklands back then. In Cullman, Goosebumps were on the back wall, bottom two shelves. Trust me.) I kept my 10 favorites stacked neatly in the right corner of my classroom desk. This book took me back to those days. It's obviously written for an older audience, but still. I totally felt like 3rd-grade me, all excited and creeped out.

I can't say anything bad about this book, except that the ending is totally not an ending. That's probably why instead of saying "The End," it says "NOT the End." At least he's honest. I wish I had the next one sitting here waiting on me. I'd never heard of this series, which is surprising since it seems to have been out for a while. I'm excited to read it, since there's a pretty hefty historical aspect involved. The portals in the houses are just dripping with history lessons. You don't get in to that much in the first book, but I can feel it. It's coming.

READ THIS!

5/5 Stars

Read from December 26, 2010 to December 29, 2010

--C

Book #39: The Secret of Platform 13

2010-12-26T22:00:00.004-06:00

This is my second Eva Ibbotson book of the year. The first was The Star of Kazan, which I liked although I found the pacing a bit off. I found this book, The Secret of Platform 13, in a double-book special at my favorite used bookstore; it also includes Ibbotson's book Island of the Aunts. I decided to give it a try since I enjoyed the plot of Kazan so much. I'm happy to report that the pacing problem isn't an issue in this book.

The Secret of Platform 13 is about a mystical secret land called "The Island," which has creatures such as mermaids, hags, harpies, mistmakers, ogres, and wizards. The Island can be reached through Platform 13 in England. You can only pass between the two realms for the period of exactly nine days, which comes only once every nine years. When the story opens, the platform is open, and the infant prince of the Island is taken through the opening by his nannies who want to visit England. The prince is stolen by a snobby, vapid debutante who longs for a baby of her own. When the nine-day opening is over, the nannies have to return to the Island to report to the King and Queen that their son has been stolen and cannot be retrieved for at least the next nine years. The novel picks up again nine years later when the platform opens again, and a group of "rescuers" have been chosen to go through the opening to bring home the prince, who has lived his whole life having no idea he is a member of the royalty in a land he doesn't even know exists.

This is a great little story with wonderfully painted characters and a great setting. Judging from the two books I've read, Ibbotson is a master at creating whimsical atmospheres for her stories. Definitely perfect for kids, but completely enjoyable for adults, as well. As a half-way intelligent 23-year-old, I will admit that I figured out the plot twist by about the fifth chapter, but it really didn't take away from the story for me. I knew what was coming at the end, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book. It's a great combination of reality and fantasy, since parts of the story take place in both worlds. There's a sense of familiarity when the "normal" people of England are discussed, but as soon as the book switches to the adventures of the rescuers and all of their powers and spells, you're immediately sucked into a great fantasy world.

I will say, though, that there are some striking similarities between this book and The Star of Kazan. Both involve infants being raised by people who are not their parents, and thus people not being who they say they are. Both involve an elaborate rescue plot. Both, for some reason, involve musical instruments playing a major role in the rescue mission (which I think is a completely random thing to have in common). There are a lot more, but I don't want to ruin any of the book. It was weird, but I suppose a lot of childrens' writers find a formula that works and they stick to it. I'm OK with it, but I did think some of them were a little eerie.

Slight sidenote: There are a ton of people reviewing this on Amazon calling this book a Harry Potter wanna-be, and an equal number of people screaming about how this book was written way before Harry Potter. The latter is definitely a valid point. Not having read the first word of a Harry Potter book, I'm not at liberty to say what their similarities are, but I do know the basic premise of Harry Potter, and I have to say, I don't really see any reason for the comparison. But just in case you're thinking the same thing, it is important to know that this was written pre-Potter explosion. Just throwing that out there.

I would certainly recommend this to a reader of any age, and I would encourage you to put Eva Ibbotson on your list of authors to look for when you're perusing the bookstore.

4/5 Stars

Read from December 22, 2010 to December 26, 2010

--C

Book #38: Stupid Christmas

2010-12-26T16:53:00.003-06:00

The combination of "holiday," "Kindle," and "free" sucked me in to this, and I will never, ever forgive myself for it.

The "author" (I think "editor" is more appropriate), Leland Gregory has scoured... some sources?... to find real-life zany Christmas-related stories and placed them into this collection. Sounds fun, right? It's not. There are a lot of problems, here.

First of all, there are no sources. I was a student of history. I live for sources and citations and footnotes. It's just how I roll. When you try to tell me something happened, especially if that something is hard to believe, you better be able to prove it. This entire point of this book is to collect outrageous incidents. There's a lot in this book that's hard to believe. It all supposedly actually happened, yet here's no reason for me to believe that it did. I mean, I'm not saying Gregory completely leaves out any trace of a source, because a lot of times he'll throw in "According to [insert random newspaper title here]"... But come on, you're writing and publishing a book. And getting paid for it. Make the effort to throw in an issue number and a date and some way for me to find what you're talking about. Geez. FYI, his book Stupid American History (which has the same basic purpose as this book, except it's about American History) is also free on Kindle right now. From what I understand in the reviews, he doesn't cite any of that either. SERIOUSLY, a history book with no citations?!?!??! OH MY GOD. That might just be the history jerk in me, but it really bugged me, and this is my review, so there.

Second, there are a disturbing number of "stories" in this book that have very little to do with Christmas. Sometimes it's just stuff that happened in December. December events are not equal to Christmas events.

Third, the incidents in the book aren't even interesting. I mean, yes, people are stupid and it's fun to read about the dumb things people do, but most of what was in here was just useless. There are probably close to 100 little tales in here, and only four or five were interesting enough for me to even remember. The one that sticks out the most for me was a Wal-Mart who set up a large Toys for Tots charity donation box near the exit of the store (so that customers could purchase a toy, then drop it off as a donation on their way out). When the Toys for Tots representative came to pick up the box, it was empty because the Wal-Mart manager told his employees to reshelf all merchandise unless there was a receipt with it to prove it hadn't been stolen and then donated. That's not actually funny, but it is stupid. And horrible. But honestly, there are only a few good ones in here. Most of them are just about drunk people doing dumb things and being arrested for it, so I suggest just picking up your local paper if you want to read about that.

I guess I was hoping for a nice collection of Christmas factoids and strange holiday traditions, like maybe where all those verses in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" come from. (Obviously not in the book, and I just realized I'd like to know more about it. I think I'll look that up.) I absolutely got what I paid for here, so I totally deserved it... but I invested several hours in reading this tripe.

Let's end this on a positive note: Each incident was only a couple paragraphs long, so it was great to read when I had a few minutes at a time to spare. I read it intermittently at the same time I was reading my last few books. That was nice. I guess.

Read from December 10, 2010 to December 25, 2010

1/5 Stars

--C

Book #37: The Christmas Journey

2010-12-26T16:31:00.007-06:00

Donna VanLiere decided that the version of the birth of Christ in the Bible wasn't good enough, so she rewrote it.

OK, that sounds crass. Really, though, The Christmas Journey is VanLiere's attempt at putting more emotion into the Christmas story. As she explains in the introduction, the scriptures are rather concise. They don't mention the conversations Mary and Joseph had or the labor pains or the stench of the stable. VanLiere adds all of this to her version.

I'm not going to summarize the plot, since you should really know this story unless you have legitimately been living under a rock.

This reminded me of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent for obvious reasons -- it takes a few nondescript Bible verses and elaborates. This is much shorter, coming in at 96 pages. (The beginning of the book is the actual scripture from Luke.) VanLiere's version of the Christmas story was a bit more humanized, and she was successful in adding some emotion and description into the story. I don't think it was enough, though. I would've liked to read something a lot more like what I read in The Red Tent... I wanted a full story, with background information on Mary and Joseph and dialogue and maybe some embellishments... Although, I'm sure the reason there weren't more embellishments is VanLiere's hesitation to add untruths to a story that most of the world is very, very familiar with. Whereas Dinah -- the center of The Red Tent -- is a lesser known Biblical figure, I'm pretty sure most people who know about the Bible are familiar with Mary and Joseph and that Jesus fellow. I guess you don't want to step on many toes there, and The Red Tent was clearly pushed as a fiction book. The Christmas Journey isn't so much.

Anyway, it's very simply written, and it's a nice, quick read for Christmas Eve night. The intro mentioned that VanLiere originally wrote this as a narrative to read during a church service (I think it's rather long for a church service reading, but maybe she's a Baptist). My thing is that I don't see the need to bother adding "emotion" and description to a story if you're not going to just take it and run with it. I'm sure there are a lot of people who'd love this slightly more human version of the birth of Christ, but it didn't do a whole lot for me.

2/5 Stars

Read on December 24, 2010

--C

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols (19)

2010-12-22T17:18:00.000-06:00

I decided a while back that my last book of the year would be Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (more on that in my next review). As you know, my last book was The New Dead a collection of zombie-related short stories. What better to segue between the two than a book of zombie Christmas carols (with an introduction by Christopher Moore!).

This is just a small, simple book where the author has taken the liberty of assuming the the Zombiepocalypse has happened, and that all of the traditional Christmas songs have been rewritten accordingly. With songs like "I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus," "Have Yourself a Medulla Oblongata," and "Deck the Halls with Parts of Wally," this book is a hilarious new take on those classic songs from your childhood.

The best part of this book, though, may be the drawings that pepper the pages between carols illustrated by Jeff Weigel. Imagine a giant zombie reindeer with a glowing nose or a zombie boy unwrapping a present as a zombie puppy licks his face. I wish I could show you some of these pictures, but I'm entirely frightened by zombie copyright lawyers, so here's a link to a Google search that includes a few.

This book was tons of fun for me, but if you're a traditionalist who looks for reasons to get offended, skip it.

4/5 Stars
--D

The New Dead (18)

2010-12-22T13:00:00.000-06:00

The New Dead is a collection of zombie stories (save a few that, for some reason, made the book while having nothing to do with the living dead) edited by Christopher Golden. I'll be honest--I picked up this book in part because I'm a big Max Brooks fan, and Golden included one of his World War Z tales in the collection. Still, I do like stories about the undead.

This collection left me with mixed feelings. Some of the stories were really good.
1. "Lazarus" by John Connolly, the story of the "original" zombie.
2. "What Maisie Knew" by David Liss, an interesting take on zombie tales where zombies are bought, sold, and used much like Rosie from the Jetsons.
3. "Copper" by Stephen R. Bissette, the story of a group of ex-soldiers trying to survive.
4. "Life Sentence" by Kelley Armstrong, where a man in search of immortality turns to undead research.
5. "Family business" by Jonathan Maberry, where a young man follows his brother on the quest of a zombie bounty hunter and discovers things about himself and his family along the way (my second favorite story in the collection)
6. "Second Wind" by Mike Carey, where a re-animated stock broker builds himself a neo-homestead and discovers a new dynamic of zombie-human interaction.
7. "Closure, Limited" by Max Brooks, a tale of psychological rebuilding in a post zombie world.
8. "The Storm Door" by Tad Williams, my favorite of the collection, about an occult specialist who discovers a dark secret.
9. "Twittering from The Circus of the Dead" by Joe Hill, a story written through the eyes of a Twitter-using teen girl in the midst of a zombie filled circus.

Others weren't so great, including one that didn't have anything to do with zombies. What? Really? A collection of short stories about zombies that includes a short story that's NOT ABOUT ZOMBIES? I don't get it.

Still, this was a good collection over all. If you're into zombie fiction and looking for a book that you can read in segments (which is my favorite thing about short story collections), this is a great choice.

3.5/5 Stars
--D

Book #36: A Cure for Dreams

2010-12-21T13:23:00.006-06:00

Well, since I enjoyed my last book of Southern pleasantries so much, I stayed in the same vein for my next book.

This book reads like an old-fashioned story. You kind of feel like you're sitting on a porch swing drinking sweet tea listening to some old lady tell you about her life. That was undoubtedly author Kaye Gibbons' intention, and she executed it quite well. Gibbons is known for writing about women, and this book is no different. She tells the story of the life of Betty Davies, a young Southern woman who was very close to her overbearing mother, Lottie. The story is set during the Depression, a time period when many young women were married in their teens. Betty is slow to mature in terms of finding a man and starting a life of her own. Instead, she spends most of her teenage years in their small farming community with her mother and her mother's friends, all of whom have had their fair share of plight.

I didn't realize it until after I finished the book, but another novel by Gibbons, A Virtuous Woman, was featured in Oprah's Book Club. I'd like to read it sometime; I think Gibbons has a gift for writing about strong women, although I can't think of a single positive male character in this book. They were all stupid or crooked or cruel or deadbeats. Or all of the above. There's a lot to be said for celebrating women, but I hate it when men are made out to be the bad guys all the time. Not saying that would be the case in all her books, but it would've been nice to see a decent male in here somewhere. I had some small issues with the writing style, especially in the beginning, but I think I just needed to get used to it. Not only does it feel like it's coming straight out of someone's mouth, it really does feel like it was written in a different time, which is quite an accomplishment for a modern writer.

The story itself wasn't as good as the writing. I found it a little lacking, but it certainly wasn't boring. I guess it just leaves you wanting more. Though it takes you through three generations of women, it's a short book. Hard to tell as much as the reader wants to hear in 170 pages.

3/5 stars

Read from December 16, 2010 to December 21, 2010

--C

Book #35: Where the Heart Is

2010-12-17T11:11:00.003-06:00

Y'all know that on occasion I love a book full of good ol', down home Southern charm. The Florabama Ladies' Auxillary and Sewing Circle and The Cracker Queen have been a couple of my favorites this year. Billie Letts' Where the Heart Is fits right in.

The book is about Novalee Nation, a Tennessee-born seven-month pregnant seventeen-year-old with $7.77 to her name. She's also got a superstition about the number seven. She's been abandoned by practically everyone in her life, and she's headed west to start her life over before her baby comes. Things go sour pretty quickly, and she winds up stuck in Oklahoma. Southern hospitality kicks in, and she relies on the kindness of strangers to get her life back on track. There are many, many bumps along the way, and Novalee goes through more as a teenager than a lot of people do in a lifetime.

I really enjoyed Where the Heart Is. There's a lot of sadness in this book, but it's also so funny. I laughed out loud more than a few times. But I mostly loved this book because the characters were so likeable. You've heard me rage a few times this year about books that had characters that I just didn't like, and it ruined the whole book for me. That's not the case with this book. Other than the handful of characters that you're not supposed to like, this book is full of good people. Crazy people, but good people... People who took Novalee in and loved her even when her own family didn't, people who knew exactly what she needed when even she didn't know. That's refreshing. And I especially liked Novalee. She's tough and clever when she has to be, but really, she's just a kid. She's so innocent sometimes it breaks your heart. I'm realizing as I type this that I apparently got a little over-invested in this book. Oh, well. That's OK.

Is this a ground-breaking peice of intellectual literature? No, it's not. But it's good. It's well-written and endearing, so don't let the fact that it's promoted as one of those "feel-good" books or whatever. It's better than that. Don't let the movie fool you either. It happened to come on TV the day I finished the book (strange, huh?), so I watched it, and it wasn't terrible, but it doesn't touch the book. I do love Natalie Portman, though... Dang. What a stunner.

Anyway, get yourself this book for Christmas. And you can pretend it's from me.

4/5 Stars

Read from December 7, 2010 to December 15, 2010.

-C

The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White (17)

2010-12-15T14:37:00.001-06:00

Yes, this is the book on which the animated movie was based, but don't let that fool you. The Sword in the Stone is the first book in The Once and Future King series written by T.H. White. I have been told of the classic nature of this series, but I have never taken the opportunity to read it. Now that I've had a chance to read the first in the series, I look forward to the rest.

The Sword in the Stone tells the story of a young Wart (King Arthur) and his boyhood adventures. The actual story of Arthur, though, sometimes takes a back seat to White's storytelling ability. From his descriptions of ancient Britain and his apt comparisons to the modern day Britain, one can clearly see the world White paints for the reader. Throw that in with the near-satirical commentary on how modern humans relate to animals in their nature, and you have an excellently crafted piece of writing.

As with many books I've "read" this year, I listened to the audio version of this book. Neville Jason, the narrator, brings even more life into the story through his interpretations of the many memorable characters in the book.

Overall, if you're a fan of Arthurian legend or well-written, description-heavy books, you'll enjoy this read. If you're more of a fan of following the action, this may not be a good choice.

3.5/5 Stars.
--D

Book #34: S*** My Dad Says

2010-12-12T21:18:00.002-06:00

Hah! This book is hysterical.

For those of you not familiar with the premise of S*** My Dad Says, let me give it to you in a nutshell. After some less-than-ideal life situations, Justin Halpern (the author) moved back in with his parents when he was in his late 20s. His dad (Sam) is quite a character -- never afraid to speak his mind, full of vulgarity, not particularly sympathetic, but (as far as I'm concerned) a great father. Justin heard so many off-the-wall comments that he decided to start documenting them via the social networking site Twitter. His Twitter was initially just followed by a handful of his friends, then it grew and grew and grew until he had hundreds of thousands of readers. Cue book deal, and here we are. The book has gotten insanely popular, and there's even a sitcom based on the Halperns now.

I have actually been following Justin's Twitter for close to a year. It's hilarious in and of itself, but I hadn't really planned to read the book. I guess I expected it to just be a book of quotations that I'd already read on Twitter, so I didn't really give it much thought. After a recommendation from my sister-in-law (and her lending me the book -- that definitely helped), I decided to give it a go. I'm so glad I did.

First of all, Justin Halpern is a writer, (I believe he went to school for screenwriting), so he clearly has the chops to pull off a book like this. It's not just a collection of quotes. Each chapter of the book is about an incident in which Justin's dad displays his colorful personality. Then there will be a couple pages of Sam's one-liners, and then another chapter. The chapters are in chronological order, so you get to read about Sam's parenting from childhood through adulthood.

I laughed out loud more times than I can count while I was reading this. I can't even explain the beautiful dysfunction of this family, but it's so awesome. Yes, Sam Halpern is vulgar and blunt and often inappropriate, but he clearly cares very much about his family. Everything he does is with the intention to better his son, even if it means being brutally honest. So, while this book is hilarious, it's touching in its own way.

Can't recommend this enough. It's an easy, fun read, and you'll definitely be reading an extra chapter every night just because you don't want to stop.

5/5 Stars

Read from December 5, 2010 to December 6, 2010

--C

Book #33: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

2010-12-12T20:46:00.006-06:00

Believe it or not, I've never seen the animated 1951 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. I've seen Tim Burton's 2010 re-imagining a few times, and I even did my own twist on a Mad Hatter costume for Halloween this year. (I would add that I won 3rd place in a costume contest for that, but that would be rather indulgent of me, wouldn't it?) I've been meaning to read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for a while, so the final stretch of my 2010 reading list seemed like a great place to squeeze it in.

I have to say, I'm pretty surprised at how different it is from the movie. Granted, I haven't read Through the Looking Glass, which continues Alice's adventures, so I could be missing some elements there. I'm not sure how closely the animated version sticks to the book, but I really expected the general idea I had of the story to be more similar to what I read. Let me tell you, I'm fully aware of how sad it is that I'm comparing a book to a movie instead of the other way around. It's even sadder that there are a billion children in the world that probably don't even know the movie(s) are based on a book. The kids I teach love the 2010 version of the movie, and I guarantee you that if I walked in today and told them it was a book written over 100 years ago, they would all be floored.

That's unfortunate, because it's really a fabulous little tale. It's pretty short -- if you speak Kindle-ese, it's only about 1,100 "locations" long. If you don't speak Kindle-ese, too freakin' bad. Go pick up a hard copy and see how long it is.
My favorite thing about this book was Carroll's plays on words and the whimsical feeling of the story. It's no wonder this is a kids' classic. It's also no wonder he chose to call the world he created "wonderland." He paints some amazing pictures, and his characters are so entertaining. Weird, but entertaining.

It was, however, written in the 1800s, so it does have a different writing style than what most kids today are probably used to. It's kinda like trying to read Dickens... There are just some things that didn't seem to flow, but that's just modern writing messing with my head. I would certainly recommend picking up this classic when you get a chance, and for goodness' sake, make sure every child you know knows that the movie has some deep roots.

4/5 Stars

Read from December 3, 2010 to December 5, 2010

--C

Special Post: Librivox

2010-12-06T21:51:00.004-06:00

When I read my last book, Diamond as Big as the Ritz & Other Stories, I used some pretty diverse methods to finish it. I originally found the paperback on the bookshelf (no doubt from one of Derrick's zillion English classes), and I read some of the book in hard copy. I also downloaded a Fitzgerald short story collection on my Kindle that had all of the stories in Diamond as Big as the Ritz, plus some more. I read parts of the book on my Kindle and some parts on the Kindle app on my Droid Eris. Then, one day at work, I had to cut the white edges off over 500 4x6 photos (don't ask), one at a time, so I clearly needed something going on in the background to entertain me during this menial task.

Lo and behold, LibriVox! Free audiobooks! At LibriVox, volunteers record themselves reading books, chapters of books, or short stories and post them online. You can click to play through your computer's (or phone's) media player, or you can download them to put on your mp3 player. Any book in the public domain is accepted on LibriVox. In the U.S., that generally means anything published before 1923, or something that's had the copyrights otherwise lifted. So, it's great for classics, but not much else. Pretty much anything you could find for free on Kindle or in Project Gutenberg.

I downloaded the short stories in Diamond as Big as the Ritz and knocked out "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" while I was cutting all those pictures. So, thanks, LibriVox, for making that task a little better.

Anyway, ENJOY!

Book #32: Diamond as Big as the Ritz & Other Stories

2010-12-06T20:23:00.005-06:00

While browsing the bookshelf for my next victim, I ran across this collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories. Since I just got married at the Ritz Theatre, I took it as a sign. (Yes, that's about how complicated my selection system is these days.)

I like Fitzgerald. I enjoyed The Great Gatsby the second time around, and I loved his short stories that I read in my college English classes. I'm a big fan of 1920s-era history, so his niche is clearly right up my alley. Here's the thing about Fitzgerald, though: he is much, much better in small doses. The lifestyle at the center of his writing is so exhausting. I can only deal with so many pages full of some useless rich party guy whining about that one chick who didn't dance with him.

OK, I'm over-simplifying, but if you've read enough Fitzgerald, I think you catch my drift. It's fun and whimsical to read one short story full of lavish parties and fretting over the length of your evening gloves. Two or three (or five) of such stories in a row is just annoying. I mean, don't these people DO anything? Anything useful? Aren't there Model Ts to assemble or something? Dang.

Anyway, I do have good things to say. It's clear why "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" is the collection's namesake. It was the best short story by a mile. It was what Fitzgerald described as one of his "fantasy" short stories, seeing as how it's full of impossibilities. It's a great little story about a young man who visits the family of a rich classmate who lives atop a single diamond that is literally the size of the Ritz Carlton. That family has a lot of stranger things in their lives, as it turns out. It's a fabulously written story with a twist that comes from nowhere and even more bizarre ending.

My other two favorites in this collection were "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (the perfect 1920s-era Mean Girls-esque chick-gets-her-revenge story, I think) and "May Day" (the epitome of the exhausting lifestyle I was talking about -- during the historic May Day riots of 1919, some rich folks are too caught up in their own petty business to care).

The others were mediocre at best: "The Ice Palace" (Southern girl moves to the north, whines about it) and "The Offshore Pirate" (spoiled girl is sailing to Florida, gets hijacked by "pirates," falls in "love" with the captain) and "Jelly Bean" ("aw shucks" sort of guy pines over a swanky girl).

There are some very, very repetitive themes here. That's his thing, though, so whatever. I have a feeling I'd have much better things to say about these stories if I'd read, say, one per month instead of all five of them in a couple of days. It truly all boils down to the fact that I get really frustrated with the uselessness of these characters when I'm overloaded with it. It's kind of the same reason I don't read books in a series in succession. I don't want to get tired of the characters or the plot, so I split it up over time. Might have been a good choice here, too.

3/5 stars

Read from December 1, 2010 to December 3, 2010

--C

Book #31: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

2010-11-28T20:12:00.002-06:00

With the exception of Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, this was my favorite book that I read as a child. Unlike Number the Stars, which I've read probably five or six times since then, I haven't read this book since the 4th grade at good ol' East Elementary. In fact, I forgot about it altogether until that movie, Night at the Museum came out. I guess the museum setting reminded me of this book, but I couldn't remember the name or the author. I remembered which teacher I had when I read it, and I remember that I loved it. It took a lot of Googling vague plotlines to figure out what the book was, and even longer to actually come across a copy. I finally did, at my favorite used bookstore in Cullman. The final stretch of my 40-book journey seemed a perfect time to re-visit From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, because, let's be honest -- I'm crunched for time, and it took me 3 hours to read this. There. I said it.

E.L. Konigsburg's book about two childhood runaways is every bit as awesome as my 10-year-old self remembers it, and certainly deserving of the Newbery it received in 1968. Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid feels trapped in her boring, controlled life as the oldest sibling in a middle-class Connecticut family. She carefully plans to run away as a way of making those around her appreciate her a little more, and she hopes to come back "different." She chooses a partner in crime -- her younger brother Jamie, who has conveniently saved every penny he's ever earned. The siblings leave home before school one day and wind up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. There, they discover a mystery that leads them to the eccentric Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

I don't remember if I realized it then, but now I can see that Claudia reminds me an awful lot of myself as a kid. Not nearly as evil (seriously, you can ask my oldest nephew all about that), but dramatic, calculating, clever, and manipulative. Maybe that's why I liked it when I was a kid, even if it was subconscious. When I was ten, I thought running away and hiding out in a museum like they did would've been the coolest thing in the world. Re-reading this book today, I still want to run away to the Met. I bet the security is a bit more intricate these days, but still. Sleeping in the antique beds, bathing in the fountains... And then finding a centuries-old mystery to solve? Man, count me in.

I love the way E.L. Konigsburg laid this book out -- it's all written as a letter from Mrs. Frankweiler to her lawyer. She tells the story as Claudia and Jamie told it to her. She adds her little asides every now and then, and she's a very brassy character, indeed. There are some simple illustrations peppered here and there that add just enough without making it too juvenile. If you've got a kid, they have to read this book! They have to! And so do you!

4.5/5 stars

Read on November 28, 2010

--C

Special Post: The Home Stretch

2010-11-28T14:12:00.004-06:00

Well, we're only a few short days from December. Maybe it was all the million things I had going on, but I'm of the opinion that 2010 flew by. That means I have a mere 32 days to read 10 more books. Derrick only has to read 4 more. (Jerk.) I know some of you might be a bit concerned for me, but, hey. Don't worry. I got this. I work better under pressure, OK?

Admittedly, we have both slacked a bit over the last 11 months, especially recently. We have a pretty decent excuse, though:
We got married on November 20. :)

We just want all of our faithful followers (all... two of you?... one of you?... none of you? Who cares?) to know that we are well aware of our commitment, and you shouldn't give up on us yet. We won't disappoint you. And I plan on coming back for more in 2011.

Book #30: Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story

2010-11-28T12:31:00.004-06:00

Oh, Wally Lamb. He never, ever, ever fails to delight me. He can do no wrong.

As most of you probably know, I am a much, much bigger Halloween enthusiast than I am a Christmas enthusiast. I'm not that girl that starts listening to Christmas music on November 1st or begins to look for an excuse to put up the tree before Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, Christmas decorations/music/commercials/references before Thanksgiving really tick me off. I guess it's because Christmas seems to get closer and closer to stepping on Halloween's toes, and I just can't have that. So, it was a bit unnatural for me to choose a holiday-themed book to start reading the day before Thanksgiving. (I think I was just itching for some Wally Lamb, to be honest.) I'm so glad I read it, though; it was a perfect little nudge into the holiday season for me.

Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story is Wally Lamb's short novel set in 1960s Connecticut, narrated by 5th grader Felix Funicello. Last name sound familiar? It should. Felix's cousin is Annette Funicello, America's favorite Mouseketeer who went on to star in a string of beach movies and become a sex symbol. Felix's family owns a bus-stop lunch counter that has no shortage of Annette Funicello memorabilia. There's a lot going on in Felix's life aside from his famous cousin -- a quirky substitute teacher for his class at the local parochial school, his mother participating in a nation-wide baking competition, a strange new Russian classmate, some perplexing questions about the facts of life, and an upcoming school Christmas program.

I love books narrated by kids, especially if it's a book intended for adults. It's great to laugh at the innocence. Lamb is great at this particular aspect of the novel. For example, he somehow perfectly embodies a confused child trying to figure out what the dirty jokes, innuendos, and filthy language he encounters could possibly mean. I've always said this about Wally Lamb -- he is incredible when it comes to "becoming" his characters through prose. It's insane. Insanely good.

I saw a handful of reviewers on Amazon say that this book may not have been enjoyable to readers who wouldn't appreciate it as a walk down "memory lane" -- meaning, readers who weren't around for the 1960s. Well, I wasn't, and I enjoyed it all the same. I'm pretty sure if you were ever a child, you'd appreciate this book. Those incidents in your childhood that were, at the time, mortifying which you can now look back at and laugh? Yeah, they're all in here.

Don't be discouraged by the Christmas theme of the book. Actually, it starts out in October, and honestly the only part about Christmas is the last chapter or so about the school Christmas program. Definitely a great read any time of the year, but for me, it did help ease me into the holiday spirit. I can't recommend this book enough. It'll only take you a few hours to read. Come on. Do it!

5/5 Stars

Read from November 24, 2010 to November 28, 2010

--C

Book #29: Alentejo Blue

2010-11-26T19:25:00.007-06:00

Monica Ali's Alentejo Blue is set in rural Portugal, and it's one of those books that ties several different characters and plot lines together into one. It reminded me a little of Let the Great World Spin, although it wasn't nearly as good. Or interesting.

This isn't a particularly long book. I can normally knock out a book of this length in 3-5 days, but I had to force myself to finish it. When I did manage to make myself read it, I often found I had turned the page and had no idea what I'd read. Maybe I'm too dumb for this book (although I really don't think that's the case), but I found it pretty pretentiously and unnecessarily complicated. Like... She would talk about things without really talking about them in a "read between the lines" sort of way, when, really, why can't you just say it? I get the intrigue that it's supposed to add, but it was just waaaaay too much in this particular instance.

There were some characters that I really liked in this book, but they happened to be the ones that lasted for a chapter and then never got mentioned again. The really boring ones were the ones who had several chapters devoted to them. Even the interesting parts about the boring characters got dropped. I don't even get the logic behind the plot of this book at all. And really, in the end, you realize that none of it had a point. I don't think it even made a statement about the Alentejo region, which I think is what the purpose of the book was supposed to be.

Whatever. I am rarely scathing with a book review (unless it's Twilight, but come on, who expects anyone to say anything good about Twilight?), but dang. Skip this one.

1/5 Stars

Read from November 5, 2010 to November 15, 2010

--C

Book #28: Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move

2010-11-05T20:48:00.003-05:00

I've said it before,and I'll say it again: I'm a sucker for a memoir. I. Loved. This one.

Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move is Katherine Lanpher's collection of essays about her decision to leave her familiar life to live in New York City. The move came after Lanpher's divorce from her actor-husband (who was "married to the theatre") and several years as a Midwestern journalist.

(Those of you who are fans of Air America, the progressive talk-radio network, may recognize her name. She was Al Franken's co-host on The Al Franken Show/The O'Franken Factor.)

Lanpher discusses a variety of issues in the book -- her brother's accidental death, her marriage, her parents, her love of reading, and her time as a newspaper journalist, to name a few. Every chapter is a complete joy to read. She's a witty, intelligent, strong woman who reminds me a lot of Lauretta Hannon (whose memoir The Cracker Queen I reviewed back in July).

Lanpher writes beautifully, which is not surprising since she's a successful journalist, but that kind of writing is a different ballgame. She's got lovely phrasing and knows how to make you smile, even when she's discussing something depressing. Another thing that really struck me about her writing is how well she ties the beginning and endings of chapters together. She often begins chapters with a seemingly obscure anecdote or reference, and then at the end, she'll string everything together beautifully. It makes a bigger impact than you'd expect.

This is way up on my recommendation list.

5/5 stars

Read from November 1, 2010 to November 5, 2010
____________________________________________________

Sidenote: I tried really, really, REALLY hard to read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft during the week of Halloween, but I failed miserably. I spent/wasted several hours staring at my Kindle trying to make myself enjoy the words I was reading, but I couldn't do it. I've always said that I'm one of those people who can read anything (I really thought I was after four Twilight books...), but apparently I'm not. I so am not.

--C

Book #27 -- Mockingjay

2010-10-26T18:42:00.004-05:00

Derrick has already given you his thoughts on Suzanne Collins' final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay. Now it's my turn. I waited over 24 hours to gather my thoughts on this, and I'm still not sure I'm ready to review it. I'm going to try anyway. I'm going to try not to be too specific in case anyone reading this hasn't read the first two (and if you haven't, you should be ashamed), but there may be some spoilers.You've been warned

In Mockingjay, Katniss finds herself in the center of a revolution. The rebels are using her as the "face" of their cause, and the Capitol (the old regime in Panem) is determined to get rid of her. She's adjusting to a new way of life now that she's living outside of Panem's law, and she's also dealing with the fact that she feels personally guilty for so many deaths. Then there's the whole Peeta/Gale thing, and the fact that a lot of her former "team" members are being held and tortured by the Capitol. You know, basically the same thing every seventeen year old deals with. No big deal.

Despite the fact that there's a lot of stuff going on in this book, it's somehow still pretty slow. I read both of the first books in a couple of days each, in that "couldn't-put-it-down" fashion. This one took me... oh... almost a month. The pacing just seemed a little off. It seemed like the first 3/4ths dragged and the last 1/4th was rushed. Or that there just wasn't so much of an ending at all? I don't know, I'm so conflicted about this.

I wouldn't say that I'm disappointed, it's just that it feels a little empty. But I think it's supposed to. It is empty. There's no sense of hope and triumph and "yaaaay, it all worked out!" Strange for any book these days, but especially a young adult book. I was sad when I finished it, for sure. Much like Derrick said, I think the more I think about it, the more I understand why things happened the way they did, but man... I got so invested in all of these people that I wanted a little better for them.

Obviously, I still recommend the entire series, and for God's sake, if you've read the other two, don't skip the last one. But don't expect an epic feel-good ending, 'cause it ain't there.

Here's what I found the most interesting, though. At the end of the book, in Collins' acknowledgments, you will find this:

"... Jason Dravis, my longtime entertainment agent, I feel so lucky to have you watching over me as we head for the screen."

Well. That's intriguing.

3.5/5 stars

Read from October 5, 2010 to October 25, 2010.

--C

Drawing a Blank: Or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams (16)

2010-10-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

I picked up Drawing a Blank by Daniel Ehrenhaft for next to nothing on the clearance shelf at BAM! one day last summer, and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. For some reason, when I was looking for my next read, I picked it up, and I'm glad I did.

The book centers around Carlton Dunne IV, a loner who is more at home in his published comic strip than in his own life. His mother has died, his step-mother has left, and his father has shipped him off to a boarding school, where he suffers the tortures of adolescence. Soon, however, he is drawn into a world shadowed in his comics where he learns things about his father, his family, and himself along the way.

With it's 17-year-old protagonist, you would think that the target audience would be high school students, but I found that it would probably fit better into a middle school classroom. I could see myself teaching this to 7th or 8th grade students (or possibly 9th), but nothing much higher than that. The chapters are short, which makes for a really quick read, and the comic panels sprinkled throughout add an element of creativity and depth.

Overall, I'm really glad I picked up this book. I may even try to work it into a lesson some day.

4/5 Stars

--D

Fluke by Christopher Moore (15)

2010-10-12T19:04:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I went with another Christopher Moore book. I loved Fool so much, I pretty much had to.

Fluke was quite a bit different than Fool or Lamb, though. The satire in this book is much more subtle, but definitely there. This book actually reminded me a lot of some of Kurt Vonnegut's books, with a humanist slant and a dash of sci-fi.

The writing quality was excellent, and the story was well crafted, if a bit like a roller coaster. The beginning of the book is a bit of an uphill climb, as it takes a while to get going. Once it does, though, it's a fast-paced, up-and-down ride with plenty of twists and turns and a nice coast into the end.

Fool is still my favorite Christopher Moore book, but Fluke was a good read.

4/5 Stars
--D

Fool by Christopher Moore (14)

2010-10-11T20:10:00.001-05:00

This was almost my second review of a book by Christopher Moore. His book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff was the last book I read before we started the blog, and I loved it. However, it wasn't until I read Fool that Moore cemented a place in my top five authors, putting him up there with my other two favorite satirists, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Mark Twain.

Fool is Moore's take on a classic Shakespearean tale with the punchy satire of Vonnegut and the riotous British comedy of Eddie Izzard. It follow Pocket, King Lear's court fool across five acts set in the early 13th century. The key to its humor (humour?), though, is the blend of medieval society and Shakespearean language with modern memes and cheeky British wit. I found myself laughing hysterically on several occasions (be sure to read the footnotes!).

Like the last few books I've read, I read this on in a mix of traditional and audio, but both were great. The audio version was great because, as an American, British slang is funnier when I hear it spoken. However, the audio version did not include the footnotes, and I often found myself reviewing chapters I had already heard just to read them.

All in all, Fool is one of the funniest book's I've ever read, and Christopher Moore is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I cannot suggest this book enough.

5/5 Stars
--D

Book #26 -- Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery

2010-10-06T19:40:00.004-05:00

A historical fiction Kindle freebie! Yes! This book is the first of a series, and undoubtedly this is offered for free on the Kindle so that you feel compelled to buy all of the other ones after you read it.

In Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery by James R. Benn, Boston cop Billy Boyle finds himself drafted into the army in the middle of World War II. His uncle is some dude named Dwight Eisenhower (heard of him? I haven't), so he manages to land a desk job instead of being sent to the front lines of battle. He goes to London and is stationed at the Norwegian headquarters there. He quickly learns that there is a German spy somewhere within the Norwegian headquarters. Soon enough, there's a murder to solve. Even though he's naive and unprepared, Billy has to put his police training to work to help the U.S. Army in the middle of World War II.

I enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure everyone would. Toward the beginning, there's a lot of political/military talk that I can take with the bat of an eye after five years of history courses, but it might be a bit confusing to someone who's not interested in history. Some of the background information kind of seemed like they were written like a textbook instead of a story.

Billy isn't the strongest of characters to carry an entire series, if you ask me. He's rather "aw, shucks" and "dang, this crap is hard," which I guess is supposed to make him relatable and endearing, but I have no patience for... um, anything, so he kind of just got on my nerves. There's enough going on that it didn't ruin the book for me at all, but unless he toughens up a little, I'm not sure I could handle him as the protagonist for a whole series.

This is one of those rare books where the sub-plots were more interesting to me than the main plot. The whole spy-murder-conspiracy business was intriguing until they started figuring it out, and then I was just like, "... OK." For a book set in the middle of a war with so many opportunities to include some crazy, twisted, mind-blowing vigilante stuff, I felt like the route Benn took with the plot was lacking. Especially the ending.

If I stumble across these books in the future, I may pick them up... And who knows, I may get a wild hair for some World War II fiction one day and actively seek out another book in this series. For now, I'm going to say this was a decent piece of historical fiction and move on to the much-anticipated Mockingjay.

2.5/5 Stars

Read from September 23, 2010 to October 4, 2010

-- C

The Hunger Games Trilogy (11-13)

2010-09-26T15:20:00.001-05:00

I started The Hunger Games last Monday, and really didn't spend much time with the actual book in my hand. The Audible version, narrated by Carolyn McCormick instead made my hour-plus commute much more enjoyable than usual.

I don't plan to go into too much detail where plot points are concerned, as Chassi has already hit the main points in her posts on The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and I want to save the meat of the Mockingjay review for her since she's the reason I read this series in the first place.

I will echo her sentiment that the world Collins builds in the trilogy is very reminiscent of the world of Lois Lowry's The Giver, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The way Collins plays on the (dis)connectedness of those in the districts and the power and control of those in the Capitol makes for a heart-felt and finely crafted world. My only complaint in this area is the lack of a map, but that just may be the fantasy novel lover inside of me.

The story itself is extremely compelling, playing on both the action and the emotional aspects and motivations of the characters. In places, it brings in quite a bit of social commentary, which is always a plus in my opinion. My complaint here is the tired trope of so many YA books with female heroines--the woe-is-me, Team Peeta-Team Gale love triangle. A little less focus on that and a little more focus on the social aspects would have served the story well.

As far as the end of the trilogy, parts of it seemed a bit rushed. At first, I was disappointed in the final chapter of Mockingjay, but the epilogue saved it for me. In fact, the more I reflect on the book, the more I understand why Collins had to end it the way she did.

Overall, this was a great trilogy, especially for young adults, but with plenty to offer for older readers as well.

4.5/5 Stars

--D

Book #25 -- The King's Nun

2010-09-24T14:37:00.003-05:00

As a historian of sorts (a degree in history and social science education counts as being a historian, right?), I was drawn to this book because of its historical theme… Oh, yeah, and also because it was in the big box of $1 books at Books-A-Million. Admittedly, I knew as soon as I read the description on the back that it very well could have been a cheesy, terrible romance-esque novel, but I’m proud to say that it wasn’t. My $1 and I are pleased.

Catherine Monroe's The King's Nun is about a young soon-to-be nun named Amelia who is chosen by her abbess to lead King Charlemagne on a tour of their monetary when he comes to visit. The monetary is in need of some financial aide, and Amelia’s job is to convince the king to give them some dough. When King Charlemagne arrives, Amelia realizes that she’s met him before, only she didn‘t know he was the king back then. Juicy, right?

King Charlemagne is impressed with Amelia’s intelligence, and soon he sends for her to come to the palace to advise him on some family issues. She’s not too thrilled about it, but she and the king become very close over the course of her stay at the palace. Not close like that, you gutter-minded animals, but, you know, emotionally close. Sort of. But eventually the king has to go to war with those dirty Saxons, and Amelia goes on with her life. I’d say the vast majority of the novel doesn’t even taken place with Amelia and Charlemagne in the same place.

Anyway, this easily could’ve taken a turn for the trashy side, but it really didn’t. There are no gratuitous sexual scenes, no mention of “loins,” and no trite happily-ever-after ending. I like that. Because of the subject matter, it kind of reminded me of The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, which is hands-down my favorite book ever. Monasteries and royals and history and all that.

I feel like I should mention one tiny thing that bothered me, even though I know I’m a total snob and this wouldn’t bother most normal people. The chapters go back and forth between Amelia’s point of view and Charlemagne’s point of view, which is totally fine. The problem is that Amelia’s chapters are written in the first person and Charlemagne’s are written in the third person limited. Why does that bother me? I don’t have a clue, but it did. I’m cool with bouncing to different view points (in fact, I think most of my favorite books do that), but aaarrgghhh, keep it in the same person.

All in all, it was a quick, entertaining little story, and I think it was well worth my time. I dare say it might have even been worth more than I paid for it.

3 out of 5 stars

Read from September 14, 2010 to September 22, 2010

--C

Book #24: Far from Xanadu

2010-09-12T21:35:00.004-05:00

When I read Between Mom and Jo by Julie Anne Peters in June, I said I'd be adding her to my list of authors to look for in the bookstore. Luckily, I happened upon another of her books shortly afterward. As I mentioned in my last review, Peters generally writes about LGBT issues, sooo... not for everyone, I suppose, but I think she's brilliant.

In Far From Xanadu, the narrator, Mike is a buff teenage softball player in a small farm town who falls madly in love with Xanadu, the new girl at school who has a checkered past. Xanadu and Mike become best friends instantly, and Mike holds on to the hope that one day, they'll be more than friends. The problem, of course, is that Mike (whose full name is Mary-Elizabeth) is a girl. And Xanadu is straight.

What could have been a trite, predictable teenage story about forbidden/unrequited love or whatever (*cough*TWILIGHT*cough*) is actually a powerful novel about finding and loving yourself. Mike's got a lot more going on in her life than just the situation with Xanadu, especially within her own family. Her father recently committed suicide, her mentally unstable and morbidly obese mother hasn't spoken to Mike since the suicide, and her older brother has failed miserably at running the household and business in their father's place. Everything around her is in shambles, but she's struggling to find a way to pick herself up by the bootstraps and do something with her life. She thinks her ticket to happiness might be Xanadu. What she needs to figure out is how to be her own ticket to happiness.

I'm telling you, Julie Anne Peters is a master when it comes to writing emotions. I said the same thing when I reviewed her last book. You feel everything her characters feel -- it's incredible. It's a great read for anyone, I think, because I'm pretty sure everyone can look back at their teenage years and relate to Mike's situation. Maybe not as extreme, but, you know, teenagers are dramatic no matter how extreme or not-so-extreme the situation may be. What I really like about Peters' books is that I can absolutely see how integral and maybe even life-changing they could be to a teenager who is struggling with being "different," whether it's sexuality or something else. Any author that can use his/her gift to help other people is A+ in my book, and I think Peters is a master at that.

5 out of 5 stars

Read from September 5, 2010 to September 13, 2010

--C

Book #23: In the Weather of the Heart

2010-09-12T12:37:00.004-05:00

So, I finished this book a week ago, but I've been putting off reviewing it. I'm not really sure what to say about it.

In the Weather of the Heart is Valerie Monroe's memoir about struggling through her husband Keith's addiction to cocaine and prescription medication. His addiction is spurred by the bizarre suicide of his identical twin brother, who was also a severe addict. Monroe writes about getting through her Keith's rehab, his lack of parenting to their young son, and their crumbling marriage.

As you may know, I'm a sucker for a book (especially a memoir) about addiction or abuse or murder or suicide. My heart is black and made of stone like that. I figured this book was right up my alley, but I was kind of left feeling empty. I have enormous respect for Monroe and her husband for getting through such a difficult time, and it was inspiring to a certain degree, but I didn't have that feeling of triumph and love-will-conquer-all or whatever when I finished this. It was actually really depressing. I know what you're thinking: of course it was depressing -- the guy's twin brother killed himself and then he became addicted to drugs. I get that, but I think it was Valerie and Keith's relationship that depressed me. It didn't sound to me much like they actually loved each other before any of this happened. I guess I kind of felt like they didn't have a marriage worth much in the first place, so why fight so hard to keep it? I don't know. You see why I put off this review? My thoughts don't even make sense.

Even though it was what bothered me about the book, Valerie and Keith's relationship (or lack thereof) is actually the heart of the book. I think the point may have been that Keith's addiction eventually made their marriage better. Hm.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book, and it's beautifully written. I'm by no means passing judgment on either one of them as individuals, since I have literally no business judging the actions of attitudes of people in this kind of situation since I've (thankfully) never been there. I think they're both brave and wonderful people in their own ways, but I just didn't get much from the book.

3 out of 5 stars

Read from August 29, 2010 to September 5, 2010

--C

Book #22: The Star of Kazan

2010-08-29T19:05:00.003-05:00

Hello, all. It's me, Slacker Central, with my first book review in a month! Working mighty hard toward that 40 book goal, aren't I?

No, seriously. Sorry about my disappearance. I had this whole job search/wedding planning thing going on. I started this book a month ago, read half of it in a couple days, put it down for weeks, and then finished the rest of it in two days. Weird how that works.

So, The Star of Kazan is a young adult book by Eva Ibbotson about a young girl named Annika who was found as an infant by a couple of servant women. The two women, Ellie and Sigrid, convince their masters (three haughty professors) to let them raise the child as their own and teach her to cook, clean, and run the household. She grows up happy and industrious in Vienna, but one day her entire world is turned upside down when her birth mother comes to retrieve her and take her to a land known as Spittal.

As it turns out, her mother is Austrian nobility, a 'von Tannenburg,' and Annika suddenly goes from being raised as a servant child to living the life of an aristocrat. She doesn't adjust too terribly well to her new lifestyle, and she misses her family and friends. Not long after Annika is taken to Spittal, an old family friend back in Vienna passes away and leaves Annika a worthless trunk of keepsakes. Everything isn't exactly what it seems when it comes to the unexpected inheritance, and Annika has a lot of unanswered questions about her past and her future.

I liked this book a lot, but it has one big, fat problem: pacing. It starts out really slow and stays really slow until, I would say, more than half-way into the book. At 405 pages, it's pretty hefty for a young adult book (although it does have a few illustrations thrown in here and there). To go that far without really picking up the pace of the plot is a good way to make your readers put the book down for, oh, say... three weeks. Which is exactly what I did. It just seemed like a lot of backstory. In hindsight I understand that it was necessary backstory, but there had to have been a better way to execute it.

The last 1/3rd of the book is totally worth it, though. I read it in a few hours and didn't want to put it down. The end made this book great. Also, the characters in the book are all likable, even the ones you eventually learn that you shouldn't like so much. I think Ibbotson does a fantastic job of keeping you guessing as to who should and shouldn't be trusted. As a more mature reader, you obviously pick up on a bit more than a 10- or 11-year-old might, but keeping the intended audience in mind, the character development is impressive.

I would recommend this book, especially to an older elementary school kid, but I think most adults would enjoy it, too. You've been warned, though -- it's tough to stick with it through those first 250 pages.

3.5/5 stars

Read from July 27, 2010 to August 29, 2010

--C

Book #21: The Cracker Queen

2010-07-27T10:54:00.005-05:00

You've got to love a slightly crazy Southern woman. Look at Dolly Parton or Paula Deen. Kinda nutty, questionable decisions (whether it's multiple plastic surgeries or multiple sticks of butter in one recipe), annoying accents, but completely lovable. That's what this book is all about, and that's what a "Cracker Queen" is all about.

The author of The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life, Lauretta Hannon, describes in the first few pages exactly what her term "Cracker Queen" means to her:

"The Cracker Queen is a strong, authentic Southern woman. She is the anti-Southern Belle. She has a raucous sense of humor and can open a can of whup-ass as needed. [...] The Cracker Queen knows loss and hurt; these things have made her beautiful, resourceful, and, above all, real."

I think my maternal grandmother may have been a Cracker Queen. Actually, I'm sure she was. Lauretta Hannon believes that she herself is a Cracker Queen, and this is her memoir of growing up in the South in a family full of fellow Queens. The introduction to the book goes into great detail about this honorable title and why it's important. The rest of the book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Hannon describes her childhood, including her parents' strained and violent marriage, her mother's alcoholism, and the death of her father. The second part is about Hannon in adulthood and how she carried the ways of the Cracker Queen into her professional and personal life. The third (and very short) part reads like a self-help book -- how to become a Cracker Queen yourself, including the attitudes and traits you need to accomplish it.

This book reminded me a lot of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, just because it shares Jeanette's story of growing up poor in a not-so-great home. The tone behind The Cracker Queen is humor, but there's a lot of sadness in this book. Some of the events that Lauretta describes are heart-breaking, but her attitude helps her persevere. It's overall a very positive book, because her purpose is to show the reader that no matter what's going on in your life, your attitude can change your situation. You can either wallow in self-pity, or truck on through life and try to have fun while you're at it.

Other than the fact that we share a Southern heritage, Hannon and I also share a career in education. She's not a teacher, but she works with students in universities. Hannon is now a writer, humorist, and contributor to National Public Radio, but from what I understand, she still works in marketing at a small technical college in Atlanta. There's a lot to be said for working with students (even college students), especially at a school where your students may not come from the best situations. I've been there, and it really does change how you look at things. There's a quote in Part II of this book that stuck out for me:

"The truth is that the bad days at work are the best, too, because they remind me of the urgency of our mission. It goes far deeper than education: We are soul warriors."

There's a lot of truth in that. Kids all over the world could stand to take a tip or two from a Cracker Queen. They may have grown up poor, in bad homes, and gone through far too much for a child to have to go through, but your life can turn around. I think that's what's at the heart of this book. I'd recommend it to anyone, Southern or not.

Read from July 25, 2010 to July 26, 2010

5/5 stars

--C

Book #20: No Mercy

2010-07-25T09:39:00.003-05:00

Ah, my first Kindle book. If you know anything about me at all, you know that I can pinch a penny better than anyone in the world. I would guess that 90% or more of the books I own are used, and you all remember how I raved about Big Lots' fifty cent book sale. You obviously can't buy used books on the Kindle, but they do have a selection of books for around $1 and many for free (especially classics). This was one of the cheap ones. It was decent, but I'm glad I didn't pay much for it.

No Mercy centers around Jonathan Grave, the owner and main employee of a company that essentially exists to do illegal things. Not bad illegal things, but illegal things. Jonathan is a former army specialist with experience doing rescue missions in just about every environment. So, naturally, he now makes his living as a hired vigilante. If your kid gets kidnapped by thugs who warn you not to get the police involved, you call Jonathan Grave.

And that's exactly what happens in No Mercy. The book opens with Jonathan rescuing a college student named Thomas Hughes, who is being held captive on a large property in rural Indiana. Jonathan doesn't know why Thomas was captured in the first place, but he finds out soon enough. It turns out to be a long, twisted, complicated story that involves some of Jonathan's own friends, homeland terrorists, and a lot of other things. I'm not quite sure exactly what was going on, to be honest. Matters are complicated even further when local police have to clean up the mess Jonathan left when he rescued Thomas. As far as the sheriff is concerned, even though Jonathan was a hero and saved the victim, he still has to be punished for taking the law into his own hands. So, the books takes us through Jonathan running from the Indiana police, all while trying to solve the problem that got Thomas kidnapped in the first place.

It took me forever to read this, considering the pace at which I usually read. I juuuust wasn't into it. Parts of it were really good, but then it would get boring and weird again. I felt like the logistics of the whole situation were really complicated, but I think part of it was that it just wasn't that interesting to me. I don't have trouble following a complicated conspiracy plotline (I mean, hello, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy), but only if they're interesting. Maybe this particular plot just wasn't my thing, because I don't think Gilstrap is a bad author. The situation just didn't really grab me.

Apparently he's written an entire series of books with Jonathan Grave and his crew, which is cool. I liked Jonathan. He wasn't afraid of anything, and he had very clear definitions of right and wrong. He didn't care that he had no authority to kill bad guys. He did it anyway, because they were bad guys. Makes sense to me, but to a lot of characters in the book (and probably a lot of people in the world), you let the cops or the FBI or the military worry about bad guys. Your job is to report them, not kill them. So, there's a lot of line-blurring when it comes to good and evil in this book. I liked that. I also liked that Jonathan's sidekick, Boxers, referred to their Hummer as the Batmobile. That was awesome.

Here are two of my favorite quotes from the book, which I marked with my handy "Clippings" gadget on the Kindle:

"Protesting others' decisions is always easier than making your own."
"A career is a poker game. You can't expect to win every hand. Sometimes you have to fold to preserve resources for the future."

All in all, I didn't love this book, but I still don't think it was bad. Just, you know, not generally my thing. If you like, say, Tom Clancy or any kind of crime thriller, then pick this up for sure.

Read from July 7, 2010 to July 25, 2010.

2.5/5 stars.

--C

Special Post: EXCITEMENT!!! (Part II)

2010-07-07T18:43:00.007-05:00

Last time I got really excited about something book-related, I made a special post about it I think I should do it again today.

I unexpectedly received a graduation present from my brother and sister-in-law in the mail today. Lo and behold, the Amazon Kindle!

I am beyond excited. I've been fiddling with it for the last hour. Truth be told, I've only read a chapter or two in the book I started a few days ago, so I thinking pretty seriously about scrapping it so I can read something on the Kindle.

Book #19: Petropolis

2010-06-28T14:48:00.004-05:00

The story at the heart of Petropolis begins in Siberia shortly after the end of the Soviet Union. This book has a lot to do with post-Soviet life, Russian immigrants in America, and the stereotypes that go along with all of that. I notice that on Amazon, many of the whopping nineteen people who have reviewed this book mention how well Anya Ulinich captures the feelings of a Russian immigrant in America. The fact that there are untranslated Russian words and some "in" jokes and references throughout the book tells me that perhaps Ulinich meant for her audience to have Russian ancestry, but my all-American self still enjoyed it.

The book is about a young promising artist, Sasha, who is of mixed Russian-Jewish-African heritage. She's dark-skinned with wiry hair, which makes it impossible for her to fit in with her pale classmates in frigid Siberia. Normalcy is even harder for Sasha to achieve thanks to her neurotic mother and absent father (who emigrated to America without his wife and child). As Sasha becomes a teenager, she makes some poor decisions, and her mother sends her away to an art school in Moscow. Sasha is completely unhappy there, and she holds on to a gnawing need to find her father in America. Still a teenager, she sees an advertisement for a mail-order bride company, and soon, she's in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Once she gets to America, Sasha's life becomes even harder. She's not only looking for her father, but also the happiness that she thought would come with life in America. The book takes you through all the stops along Sasha's journey to happiness, but I had a bit of a hard time sympathizing with her sometimes. Even when things were looking up, she seems to always find a way to be miserable about something. Sasha (and so, obviously, the author as well) realizes this about herself. A lot of the characters in the book are this way. I can't think of a single couple in the book that actually liked each other. They all seemed to just co-exist until they absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. It bothered me as I was reading it, but now that I'm looking back on it, I think that was part of the bigger picture of the book -- the way people just "settle" for things instead of finding what makes them truly happy.

Hmm. Heavy.

It's a good book, and Ulunich is a talented young author. This is her first book, and I would be interested to see if she continues to write about Russian/Soviet characters or takes a new path.

Read from June 25, 2010 to June 28, 2010

3/5 stars

--C

Book #18: Here Today

2010-06-24T18:39:00.004-05:00

From about 3rd grade - 6th grade, I was all about some Babysitter's Club books. I had a zillion of them, including the "journals" from after Dawn moved away, and the BSC Super Specials, and The Complete Guide to the BSC, which was basically an encyclopedia about all things BSC. I even had a necklace and ring with BSC engraved on it that I got from a book order in the 4th grade.

I think it's safe to say I think Ann M. Martin is a genius. Imagine my joy when I found her award-winning book Here Today at Big Lots for $0.50. I told you, I love that Big Lots book sale. Since I'm on a young adult kick for some reason, I think this is appropriate.

Here Today is set in 1963, and the narrator is Ellie, whose full name is Eleanore Roosevelt Dingman. Her younger siblings' names are Albert Einstein Dingman and Marie Curie Dingman. As you might have guessed by their awesome names, the kids' mother (Doris) is a bit of a ditz. She's vain, domestically challenged, and flighty. The worst of Doris' problems, though, is that she has big, fat stars in her eyes. She's constantly looking for her "big break" into show business, which is hard to come by in the small town where the Dingmans live. Their father is a construction worker who is often away for days at a time, leaving Doris at home with children that she has very little interest in raising.

As the oldest child, Ellie has to pick up her mother's slack -- cooking, cleaning, taking care of Albert and Marie, and practically everything else that requires a person to be responsible. On top of that, she has to deal with ridicule from her classmates because of who she is and where she lives (the "outcast" neighborhood of Witch Tree Lane). A group of girls at school terrorizes Ellie and her friends daily. The book explains how Ellie copes with being forced to grow up too fast at home and feeling like she's two inches tall at school.

Here Today is written for grades 5-8, but I think there's something for everyone in this book. Ann M. Martin is fabulous (duh), and Ellie's strength is enough to hook anyone into the story. You just want to strangle her mother for doing this to her. Also, I adored the fact that it was set in 1963. What a year. I wrote an entire research paper on 1963 my junior year of college. Most notably, JFK was assassinated and MLK gave the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The death of JFK is played out beautifully in the book. I loved reading about through the eyes of a 6th grader who had no idea how to deal with it. My mom was 13 years and 1 day old when it happened -- it made me think of how she must have felt.

This book is up there on my childrens/young adult recommendation list. I definitely think you should pick it up. Perhaps at Big Lots, for $0.50! Now maybe I should read something meant for, you know, a grown up.

Read from June 23, 2010 to June 24, 2010

5/5 stars

-- C

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (10)

2010-06-23T14:47:00.003-05:00

I need to preface this review by saying that I am an exorbitant Vonnegut fan. I started Vonnegut my senior year of high school with Breakfast of Champions and have since read almost all of Vonnegut's ample catalog. When I was working for my local paper, I actually wrote a Vonnegut review which he signed and is now hanging on the wall of my classroom. I just thought you needed to know that I may be a bit biased in this review, but, at the same time, that dedication to one author should tell you a lot about Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s ability to enrapture an audience by revealing the missteps of our society while making you laugh along the way.

Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of short stories, much like his other collection, Bagombo Snuff Box. It does a nice job of showing how Vonnegut and his writing matured over the years, and how he became one of the preeminent satirist and humanists in literature. His ability to build a world where humanity's, society's, and government's faults are highlighted with humor is unparalleled.

Some of the more memorable stories include:

"Harrison Bergeron," the story of a society in the year 2081 where people are handicapped according to their abilities by a government agency.

The namesake, "Welcome to the Monkey House," where people are forbidden to reproduce and are required by law to take a drug that numbs them from the waist down and a group that struggles to free society from this law.

"Report on the Barnhouse Effect," which is the story of one man who has learned to control an unseen "force" that turns him into a human weapon and his fight against government control.

"EPICAC," the story of a computer that learns to love.

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," which tells the story of a family that can never die.

And much, much more. With 25 stories spread over 300 pages, Vonnegut lays bare all of society's ills with his trademark humor. If you're looking to get into Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House isn't a bad place to start.

5/5 Stars

--D

Book #17: Between Mom and Jo

2010-06-23T14:30:00.004-05:00

I picked up Between Mom and Jo by Julie Anne Peters during one of my several trips to various Big Lots in North Alabama in the last few weeks. (They must've bought out the stock of some bookstore that went out of business or something, because they have a ton of books which they were selling 2/$1.00.) I had never heard of her, but the book was a National Book Award Finalist, so why not?

Apparently, Peters has written quite a few young adult books that have been critically acclaimed, and this wasn't her first National Book Award finalist, either. I looked her up and found out that most of her books are for children or young adults and deal with gay/lesbian/transgender issues.

Between Mom and Jo fits right in with Peters' other books, as it's about a kid named Nick who is growing up with two moms. Erin, who Nick calls "Mom," gave birth to Nick after being artificially inseminated. Jo is Nick's "other" mom and Erin's long-time partner. As you can probably imagine, it's not easy growing up as the kid of two lesbians. Nick is tormented at school because everyone knows about his non-traditional family. Although the family has their share of problems, including Jo's struggle with alcoholism, Nick is happy. Then, his happiness is ruined when their family is broken apart. Nick finds out that life without two moms is even harder than life with two moms.

Peters is a very talented author who manages to capture the attitude of a "tween"-age boy perfectly. Nick goes through various emotions, -- from elation to misery -- and you can feel each one of them as you read. Your heart breaks when his does. It's a very touching story, and a great piece about "non-traditional" families. I can certainly see this book reaching out to a kid in Nick's position and giving him/her hope. I will definitely be reading more of Peters' books. Adding her to my (ever-growing) list of authors I look for when I'm at the bookstore.

4/5 stars

Read from June 20, 2010 to June 23, 2010

-- C

Book #16: How to Eat Fried Worms

2010-06-20T21:00:00.002-05:00

Alright, so somehow this book escaped me during my elementary school career. I'm working in a summer program at an elementary school right now, and next week is "How to Eat Fried Worms Week." Naturally, I had to read the book to prepare. I know it's not quite the same caliber of the other books I've reviewed, but let me be completely straight with you: My goal for 2010 is 40 books. Technically that means I should have read half of that by the end of June to be on target. Most of the other books I've read this year have been over 400 pages long, so I think I deserve to count a 100-page children's book if I want to. So there.

The problem is that I'm not really sure how to review a children's book. I mean, what do you want me to say? It's cute? I don't know. In the book, four best friends make a bet that one of the boys, Billy, can't eat fifteen worms in fifteen days. If he does, he gets $50 from Alan, another boy in the group. It quickly becomes clear that Alan and Joe will do everything they can to make Billy lose the bet, while Tom will do anything to help him win. The book details each of the fifteen worms, how Alan and Joe try to trick Billy into losing, and how, eventually, Billy learns to enjoy eating worms.

It's cute. It's funny. Kids should like it. Um...? What else can I say? There's no undertone or social commentary to analyze, so I guess that's it. I will say that I think everyone should read a good children's book every now and then. I've read and review several young adult books this year (the Twilight "saga," the Hunger Games series, Stargirl, etc.), but this is my first children's book. It was a good one. Go for it. I knocked it out on the drive from Florence to Cullman.

Read on June 20, 2010

5/5 stars for a kids' book

--C

Book #15: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

2010-06-20T20:06:00.003-05:00

The Millennium series is over. This is so depressing.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the much-anticipated sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. I have previously raved about TGWPWF, so I think everyone knows how I feel about these books. Stieg Larsson has yet again crafted a beautiful book, and the entire series was tied up very well.

When we last saw the main characters, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, they were both in pretty bad shape. TGWKTHN picks up immediately at the end of the previous book and jumps right back into the story. I won't go into much detail because I know a few folks who are still reading either this book or the last book.

The first two books were pretty much non-stop action/shocking discoveries/something cool, but this book is admittedly much, much slower. The first couple hundred pages are actually very calm and more of a "catching up" type thing, but the last 1/3 of the book more than makes up for it. It took me a while to get through the first half of the book, but I read the last half in a couple of days. Part of the reason for the slow pace is the fact that there are about 84,095,890,850 characters to either introduce or re-introduce. Investigators, lawyers, journalists, general thugs. There are so. Many. People. I found myself trying to remember where they had been mentioned in the other books, and I searched high and low online for a character list. (Didn't find one. Who wants to make one for me?) What's worse, they're all freaking Swedish. They all sound the same to an uncultured American like myself. Ekstrom, Erikson, Erlander, Bublanski, Blomkvist, Malin, Malm. SERIOUSLY? It was really hard for me to keep straight who was good and who was bad, especially because some characters had 50 pages or so in between mentions. I essentially just gave up trying to remember who was who and tried to figure it out with context clues. That's my one complaint about this book, although I'm not sure how that could've been avoided when you've created such a awesome and intricate world as the one that Larsson has created with this series.

Salander is just as amazing in this book as she is in the other two. I can't say enough about how much I totally love her. She's easily of my favorite characters in any book I've read, ever. This book shows us a lot more about her, but it also introduces another awesome female character who I love -- Annika Gianinni. She was introduced in the earlier books, but only as Mikael's sister. In this book, her skills as a lawyer are used, and she is incredible. Love her to death.I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that there is, at one point, a trial, and it was easily my favorite part of the book, mostly thanks to Gianinni. So great.

When it comes down to it, I liked TGWTDT and TGWPWF better than this book, but it's really hard to compare them all to each other. Even though they're all part of the same series, they all have such different hearts. This book ties everything together beautifully, and although it does have some fantastic action sequences, it's not as thrilling as the other two. Still, after you've read the other two, you're so invested in the characters that you don't need the non-stop action to keep your interest. The characters do that themselves.

Read from June 6, 2010 to June 19, 2010

4/5 stars

-- C

The Devil's Toenail by Sally Prue (9)

2010-06-17T16:18:00.000-05:00

I'm really glad this book only cost me 50 cents and precious little time.

There are a few good things about The Devil's Toenail. First, the chapters are short. I don't think there's a chapter that's over four pages long. That, and the short length of the book make it a pretty quick read. Second, the narrator uses the word "prat" a lot. I don't know why, but I like that word. Third, there's a Johnny Tremain moment about halfway through the book.

That's about all of the positive comments I can make, though. The plot is annoyingly simple and irritatingly trite. The story is about a boy who finds a "Devil's Toenail" (actually, a fossil of a Gryphaea). The fossil supposedly give him special powers that allow him to fight back against the tyrannical Daniel, the leader of their middle school "gang" of friends. Of course, as the story goes on, he finds that the real power in inside himself.

The book has gotten rave reviews from middle school students, so who knows? Maybe it's good if you're into Disney and Nickelodeon, but it's definitely not for me.

1/5 Stars

--D

Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves (8)

2010-06-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

Do you remember that book that you read over and over again when you were in elementary school? Mine was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, a book that takes the reader on a fantastic, sci-fi style journey of a young Meg Murry as she discovers herself and her family. Interworld is much the same.

The story follows the exploits of a teenage Joey Harker, a young man who's biggest worries are talking to girls and navigating the city with his horrible sense of direction. Soon, though, Joey is swept away into another world, or is it? I don't want to go too far into the plot, because it's full of clever concepts and twists. I'll just say that Joey's journey, much like Meg's, takes him to places most people could never imagine and positions him to make decisions that will affect the rest of his life and the lives of many others just like him.

Neil Gaiman is one of the premiere young adult novelists. He's adept at wielding a story that is captivating for young adults and not-so-young adults alike. As the latter, I would usually prefer my books to go into the "why" of things, explaining how the sci-fi and fantasy elements actually work, but if I try to put myself into the shoes of a teen, I can see why Gaiman and Reaves chose to leave those elements unsaid. Even without those elements, though, the story is easy to follow and quite fun.

For adults, Interworld is a good choice for a quick, easy, and fun read. Just take into consideration that the book isn't really intended for adults. For teens, though, I would highly recommend this book.

4/5 Stars

--D

FreedomTM by Daniel Suarez (7)

2010-06-06T17:59:00.001-05:00

FreedomTM is Daniel Suarez's follow-up to his immensely popular book, Daemon, which if you don't remember I slathered with praise in my last review. The book picks up right where Daemon left off, in the middle of humanity's struggle to survive in a world that has been hijacked by a computer daemon created by the recently deceased video game designer Matthew Sobol.

The familiar cast of characters returns, with The Major, Agent Phillips, Jon Ross, and Peter Sebeck locking in a battle for the future of society. The Major and Phillips are still on their mission to stop the daemon, Ross has gone rogue (literally), and Sebeck is still on his quest to prove that humanity deserves salvation. As the daemon grows, the characters grow with it, and the technology becomes more and more advanced.

Where Suarez excels in this book isn't in the futuristic technology (it's still there, but not as surprising and mind-blowing as it was in Daemon), but instead in the geopolitical and societal implications of the daemon and how government and private businesses are poised to fight it. The novel builds a slow crescendo to an inevitable battle between the daemon operatives and their "real" world contemporaries, all the while making you question your allegiances.

My only complaint is that the ending of the book left me wanting more. Sure, I can fill in the future with my imagination, but I'd love to see a third book come out of this series. (It still may. Suarez gave himself options with the way he closed out the book). Still, if you liked Daemon, you'll like FreedomTM. I know I did.

4.5/5 Stars
--D

Book #14: Catching Fire

2010-06-06T09:09:00.002-05:00

You all remember how much I completely loved The Hunger Games, so it should come as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed the second book in the series, Catching Fire. It was everything I hoped it would be.

There's not a lot I can say about the plot without ruining it, especially because I know of some folks who frequent this blog who are planning to read it soon (Derrick), but let me assure you that it is brilliant. The narrator, Katniss, picks up where the last book left off, and she now finds herself in a serious situation. Some of her behavior in the Games was interpreted as acts of "rebellion" towards the Capitol -- the totalitarian government of Panem. The Capitol is unhappy with Katniss for her behavior, and they immediately begin monitoring her to watch for more signs of rebellion. Soon, Katniss learns that the people of Panem, after watching her in the Games, have begun to see her as a role model for fighting against the Captiol. Katniss realizes that she is the catalyst for revolutions taking place in many of the Panem's 12 districts. The Capitol develops some interesting ways to punish her for her role in the rebellion.

Just like The Hunger Games, this book is smart, captivating, and beautifully written. There are things in this series that make my stomach turn, and Katniss acting as the crusader against all of the unjust things in Panem absolutely makes you love her. I loved Katniss in the last book, but I love her even more in this one. Suzanne Collins adds some toughness, some sarcasm to Katniss in this book, which makes sense after all that she went through in The Hunger Games. She's a bit hardened, but that just makes her even more awesome. The whole world that Collins created with this series is so impressive, and the plot twists are brilliant. These books are just so smart. I have a really hard time remembering that I'm reading a young adult series when I'm reading these books. She's also really good at making you not want to put the book down. It seems like the last sentence in each chapter is one of those, "Whhhhaaaaaat?!" moments. I don't know how many times I told myself I was going to read "one more chapter" and wound up sitting there for another hour... or two.

So, if you're looking for a great series to read, right now I would recommend this one. They're pretty quick reads, but there's so much packed into these pages. More bang for your buck, I guess. The third book, Mockingjay, comes out toward the end of August, so get to reading.

Read from June 2, 2010 to June 5, 2010

5/5 Stars

--C

Special Post: EXCITEMENT!!!!

2010-06-02T17:54:00.006-05:00

Just had to post to share that the gift Derrick ordered me for graduation came via UPS a few minutes ago. How excited am I?! VERY. (See?)

The third book in Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (which, oddly enough, I mentioned in the review I posted earlier). It came out a couple weeks ago, and my cheap self was going to wait on the paperback. I literally just started a new book an hour ago, but as soon as I'm done, I have a date with Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist! Thanks, D!

Book #13: The Killing Circle

2010-06-02T14:50:00.002-05:00

I don't usually read thriller-ish books, but I found this for $3 at Books-A-Million. It sounded interesting, so why not? I liked it, although the more I think about it, the more I think it wasn't really very good. I feel like it's one of those books that, had I written this review 3/4 of the way through the book, I would've had a lot more good things to say about it than I do now that I've finished it. Does that make sense? No. Well, fine.

The Killing Circle is about widower Patrick Rush, a TV critic for a Toronto newspaper. Patrick actually wants to be an author, so he begins attending a small, quirky writing workshop. The members are asked to bring pieces to read aloud at each weekly meeting. A young woman named Angela brings a story about a little girl who is haunted by a killer called "The Sandman." The entire group gets sucked into Angela's story, which she builds on at each meeting. Then, Toronto begins to be terrorized by a serial killer... whose method of operation sounds an awful lot like the killings in Angela's "Sandman" story. Eventually, members of the writing circle begin to notice a strange figure stalking them. Then the members begin to disappear, and so does Patrick's son, Sam. Patrick is desperate to figure out who (or what) is responsible for the murders and how it all relates to Angela's story.

I have to say, the author of this book, Andrew Pyper is a wee bit pretentious sometimes. There's no way I can explain why I think that, but for some reason, writers who write about writing can be extremely pompous, especially if they're writing about the writing process. That whole,"this is what I do, so I know what I'm talking about" sort of attitude. I don't know... This is clearly the most nonsensical review I've ever written, but I think if you read it, you'd see what I meant. That being said, Pyper is definitely a talented writer, and the book moved along very well. It held my interest, and there were definitely some twists and turns that I did not see coming. I feel like the ending was seriously lacking, though. There wasn't really much of an ending, actually, in terms of the central plot of the book... Not in a, "he left this wide open for a sequel!" sort of way, but in an, "oh... so that's all?" sort of way. There was a certain plot twist close to the end that I think was intended to totally shock and amaze the reader, but even though I didn't expect it, it still wasn't really that impressive.

I guess I've kind of dogged this book, but I would actually recommend it. I mean, it's not mind-blowing like Steig Larsson's Millennium triology or anything, but it's worth a few days' time. Up until the last couple of chapters, it's great. After that, it's decent. So there you go.

3/5 stars

Read from May 27, 2010 to June 1, 2010

--C

Book #12: The Red Tent

2010-05-27T21:31:00.002-05:00

Ah, another book that I never would have chosen for myself but ended up loving. There have been a lot of those lately. I must be really bad at picking books for myself. I'm glad other people are apparently good at doing it for me.

This book is about Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. You know. Jacob. From the Bible. Duh. You hear a lot about Jacob's 12 sons, especially Joseph, but you don't hear much about his daughter. I had myself a bit of a refresher course (been a long time since confirmation classes...) and read a few books in Genesis. Genesis 34 tells a very brief portion of Dinah's story. I read this after I read the book, and I'm glad I did, because it's a bit of a spoiler. It's way better if you don't remember what happened. Anyway, the Bible doesn't ever say exactly what happened to Dinah.

That's where Anita Diamant steps in. The book is separated into three sections, the first of which focuses on her mothers stories -- she was raised not only by her mother, Leah, but also by her aunts (Jacob's other wives). Then, she begins to tell her own story. It's written beautifully, and it certainly holds on the tone of Biblical stories without being difficult to read. The entire book focuses on women, whether it's Dinah herself or her mothers or the women that she helps in her role as a midwife. The title The Red Tent refers to the tent where women gathered during menstruation and childbirth. They were separated from the men and thus developed an entirely different bond and way of life inside the tent, which and environment that Dinah loves and often longs for later in life. Again, with so much emphasis placed on Jacob's sons, it's nice to read a story that imagines what Dinah's life may have been like. It's a great idea for a book, and Diamant executes it brilliantly.

By the way, the author page of this book lists other books by Anita Diamant: Choosing a Jewish Life, The New Jewish Baby Book, The New Jewish Wedding, Living a Jewish Life. Hm. She must be a Muslim. Anyway, I don't know why she hasn't written more novels -- she's very good at it. Although the book is based on a Biblical story, it certainly isn't a religious book. I'm fairly certain that most women could find a lot about this book that they love.

Read from May 21, 2010 to May 27, 2010

4/5 stars

-- C

Book #11: Breaking Dawn

2010-05-21T20:38:00.006-05:00

Siiiiiiiigh.

Let's start this as positively as possible: This series is over. I'm done. My irrational, morbid need to read books that I don't even like is satisfied. That's the best part about this book.

This was by far the hardest in the series to get through. As I've mentioned, although I find the Twilight "saga" atrocious, I have to admit that they're at least entertaining. I read each of the first three in a couple days' time, but this one... I just wasn't interested. I kind of wanted to quit about 500 or so pages in, but of course I couldn't let myself do that. Something about the plot just didn't really interest me. That's why it took me so long to read... That, and the fact that I may or may not have thrown it across the room a few times, mid-paragraph.

Picking up where I left off in my snarky review of Eclipse, let me try to explain what's going on in Breaking Dawn. (Also, if you haven't read this series yet, you're not going to, so stop pretending like you'd care if I spoiled the ending for you... which I'm about to do.) Let's do this as simply as possible: Bella and Edward get hitched. They go on a honeymoon, and even though Edward is "afraid" to try, Bella eventually convinces him... that their marriage should be consummated, let's say. Well, guess what? Vampires can get you pregnant. They can and they will. Bella's knocked up, and apparently half-vampire babies are a) really strong and like to break your bones internally and b) ready to be born in just a few weeks. Bella dies (yay!) during childbirth, but Edward "saves" her (boo!) by turning her into a vampire. So Bella's a vampire, and she has a half-vampire daughter who she brilliantly names Renesmee. Yes. Really. A hybrid of her mother's name (Renee) and Edward's mother's name (Esme). Yes. Seriously. (And the kid's middle name is Carlie. Like Carslile + Charlie. Yes. Seriously.) Who should be upset about this? Jacob. But he's not, because as it turns out, Renesmee is his soul mate, or will be when she grows up. Yes, that's how werewolves do things. So, everyone is one big, happy family for two seconds, and then the Volturi decide to ruin the party because some idiot tells them that Renesmee is a full vampire, and full vampire babies are against the rules. They come to kill everyone, but then they realize she's half-human, and they're all, "...Oh. Well this is awkward." They're still mad and kinda want to kill everyone anyway, but they get talked out of it. THE END.

Look, I just told you the whole story in one paragraph. Why did I need to read 754 pages? I don't know. Here's what I learned, though. You know that I hate Bella. More than I have ever hated a character in a book before, ever. Again -- she has no redeeming qualities, yet she has people practically killing themselves for her. But... I found myself missing Bella's whiny, dramatic narration in the middle of the book when, for some reason, it switches to Jacob's narration. (None of the other books have any other narrator than Bella.) Honestly, I only thought Bella was annoying. Jacob. Oh. Jacob. Even the titles of the chapters he narrated were annoying: "Why Didn't I Just Walk Away? Oh Right, Because I'm An Idiot." Yeah. Anyway, I will say that the most bothersome thing about this book is obviously the child's name. I mean, come on. But the part that had me (literally) throwing the thing across the room was the part about Jacob "imprinting" on Renesmee. (That's the wolf term for finding your soulmate, basically.) I don't know. It's all just so ridiculous, but I think it's supposed to be. This is a series about vampires, and it's written for pre-teens. I don't know why my expectations are so high. Maybe I'll let go of my hatred for Twilight and say, "You know, at least it encouraged kids all over the world to read."

Orrrrrrrr, maybe I won't.

P.S. -- When Breaking Dawn first came out in 2008, I kept hearing about how all the hardcore Twilight fans hated it, and they were even returning it to bookstores after they had read it in "protest." I thought, "Well, I'm never going to read this crap," so I looked up spoilers about it to see why everyone was so mad. I kept reading that Bella died, but not knowing anything about the series, I didn't know what that meant. I vaguely recalled those spoilers when I started reading this. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that "dying" just meant becoming immortal. Boo.

1/5 stars

Read from May 13, 2010 to May 21, 2010

--C

Book #10: The Hunger Games

2010-05-12T12:48:00.005-05:00

So, I totally read this book in about 28 hours. The Girl Who Played with Fire is certainly a tough contender in the Best Books I've Read This Year battle, but this one gives it a run for its money. I have to give a big, fat "thank you" to my sister-in-law for recommending this book, because there is literally no way I ever would have picked it up otherwise. It sounds more like something Derrick would read -- not really my style. But oh. It is magnificent.

What used to be North America is now known as Panem. It is divided into twelve districts and ruled by a harsh government known as the Capitol. To ensure the citizens in the districts are always aware that the Capitol controls them completely, there is a yearly contest known as The Hunger Games. In the Games, one boy and one girl (between the ages of 12 and 18) from each of the districts are taken to an arena in which they fight to the death. The last child remaining is the winner, and their district will be rewarded. The children participating in the games are expected to use whatever they can -- wit, charm, combat, hunting, deception, whatever -- to make it out alive. And everyone in the nation is watching the whole thing on television.

I can't explain how insanely awesome this book is. It's written for young adults, but make no mistake about the content -- it's deep and sophisticated and brilliant. It's so twisted that at times it reminded me of a scaled-down Palahniuk book, but the bizarre society aspect reminded me a little of The Giver by Lois Lowry (one of my all-time favorites). So... it's like The Giver meets meets The Most Dangerous Game (the short story by Richard Connell) meets the reality show Survivor. Except it's better than all of them.

The narrator, Katniss, is a tough 16-year-old from the poorest district (District 12) who finds herself fighting against 23 other teenagers in the Games. This character easily carries the plot of the book, and you're fighting right there with her the entire time. The sheer weight of the situation, the strange celebratory feel of such a horrible event, and some unlikely alliances make The Hunger Games the best book I've read in 2010. This is the first book in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and I can't wait to get my hands on the second book. The third comes out in August, so start reading now.

Read from May 11, 2010 to May 12, 2010

5/5 stars

--C