By admin | February 9, 2010
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
If you’ve watched him on television, it would be easy to mistake Jeff Corwin for an intellectual light-weight– a kind of peppy Preppy class clown and animal lover. But such a characterization would surely sell Corwin short. In this November 2009 release, Corwin (who in fact has a master’s degree in wildlife conservation from the University of Massachusetts) tells the heart-breaking tales of the 100 Heartbeat club, which refers to endangered species who have fewer than 100 living members.
By focusing each short chapter on a particular endangered species and alternating success stories of species that have been brought back from the brink of extinction (for instance the American eagle) with tales of species who still very much need to be saved, Corwin is able to teach the basics of wildlife conservation in a very readable and easy to comprehend way. I was fascinated by the plight of tigers in Asia and tales of prairie dogs in the American heartland. I was particularly impressed by the many stories which stress that species can only be saved when many people and all stake-holders join together to take action. While Corwin does not in any way downplay global warming or the terrible urgency of the current crisis, his tone nonetheless is upbeat and invites the reader to participate in preserving our biological diversity, rather than despairing the many species that have already been lost. If you care about wild animals, 100 Heartbeats is Highly Recommended.
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By admin | February 9, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
Sometimes, you meet an author — whether by email or in person — who is just so incredibly cool that you know that hanging out with them would be incredibly fun. Lauren Mechling is one of those authors. I want to go to New York City and just hang out with her for a day. I suppose it helps that I liked her two books, Dream Girl and Dream Life, too. At any rate, I was tickled that she agreed to answer my 10 questions.
MF: So, I’m curious: what was the initial inspiration for Claire and the Dream books?
LM:The inspiration came when I went with a very dear friend to visit her grandmother. She’s a former socialite who now lives in a hotel with a lot of other former socialites, and she has an opinion on every little thing. Her granddaughter is the apple of her eye and I was so amused watching the two of them relate to each other I wanted to play around with this relationship. I also wanted to write a series that was action-packed and funny. Not enough of those these days, in my humble opinion.
MF:I’ve only been to NYC once and didn’t explore much, so I couldn’t help but wondering: how much of Claire’s physical world is real and how much is made up?
LM: It’s entirely real! The only made-up part is how quickly she can get around.
MF: Seriously? You ought to give Claire Voyante tours. I’d sign up for one! Fashion plays a big part in Claire’s life, from Kiki’s vintage clothing (love that!) to current trends… is that something you came up solely for the character or the book, or is fashion something you personally are interested in? (I’m not sure that’s the best way to phrase this question, but hopefully you get what I’m trying to say….)
LM: I DO get what you’re trying to say. And yes, guilty as charged: I’m a sucker for clothes. I especially like the way Claire and the other girls use clothes–not to dress up for boys or to show the world how cool they are because they have 56 pairs of Juicy sweatpants. They use clothes as a way to stand out and be unique and, in Claire’s case, to connect to her family history. By wearing her grandmother’s old frocks, she’s closer to her grandmother. And speaking of her grandmother, one of the things Kiki teaches Claire is it’s worth it to make the effort, even when the same old T-shirt-and-yoga-pants combo seems tempting. I think it affects your mood and the mood of those around you. Walking out of the house in a vintage dress and fun pair of flats is a small way of saying, “Hello, world! I care!”
MF: I totally loved Ian in this book: I actually felt bad that he and Claire are just friends. (I suppose I just have a soft spot for the geeky guys.) Do you have a favorite character or scene?
LM: Oh, that’s so funny that you heart Ian. I have to say, I’m a little in love with Louis Ibbits, the latchkey kid who’s Claire’s old best friend and whose wit is even drier than Claire’s. Plus I love his tortoiseshell glasses.
MF: If you had a magic dream-inhancing necklace, what would you want to see?
LM: I’d want to see all the good and bad things the people I know are up to. I just wouldn’t want to hear them talking about me. That would be too much to bear.
MF: What are the differences between co-writing a book, and solo-writing? Pros/cons?
LM: Writing a book on your own is harder and the ultimate feeling of accomplishment is bigger. That said, I LOVE co-writing. Laura [my 10th Grade Social Climber series co-writer] and I are actually in the middle of a collaboration and it’s so fun. I love having a personal trainer to praise you when you hit a good note and to breathe down your neck and make you write every morning.
MF: You’ve written for newspapers, magazines and novels… do you have a favorite format to write in?
LM: Oh, it’s all really fun and it all fits together. Writing a book is a MAJOR undertaking. And writing an article, be it for a newspaper or a magazine, is so fast and short in comparison. Sometimes you need the instant gratification. and sometimes you want to be playful and expansive or you just don’t want to have to worry about being “accurate.” I can honestly say that doing each makes me appreciate all the upsides of the other format.
MF: Who or what inspires you to write?
LM: Me. I get very unhappy when I don’t write.
MF: Are there five books you think everyone should read?
LM: How about five authors I adore: Barbara Pym, Laurie Colwin, Dorothy Parker, Kate Atkinson and Sarah Waters. I realize these are not YA authors, so I’ll toss in: Norma Klein.
MF: I’m remiss: I’ve only heard of Dorothy Parker. Something to rectify in the future. If you don’t mind telling us, what’s up next for you? (More Claire?)
LM: Well, I’m working on that above mentioned project with Laura. And yes, I’d really like to write a third Claire book. Se’s really come into her own — she’s so much wiser and less insecure than she was in her first book. I’m dying to know how she’s holding up!
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By admin | February 7, 2010
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
This month we’re reading Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini, a beautiful and inspiring memoir of food, depression, marriage, and family that took us on a journey from the dinner table in her childhood home in Connecticut all the way to the open air markets in sun-drenched Italy. We are so excited to have Paula here in real time answering any questions you might have on Monday, February 22, at 5 pm PST (which is my time zone- she’s in Italy so I really don’t know what time of day it will be for her!). If you’ve read Keeping the Feast, or are curious about it, please mark your calendars and join us as we discuss the book with Paula!
Here is a synopsis of the book, followed by a few discussion questions:
Keeping the Feast is a story of love, trauma, and the personal and marital healing that can come from a beautiful place and its simple traditions. It’s a memoir about what happens when tragedy and its psychological aftershocks strike a previously happy marriage and a couple must stubbornly fight to find its bearings. Most significantly, it is a book about the power of one of the most fundamental rituals – the daily sharing of food around a family table. Food — the growing, shopping, preparing, cooking, eating, talking, sharing and memory of it — becomes the symbol of a family’s innate desire to survive, to accept and even celebrate what falls its way.
SO READERS- let’s get the discussion started! These are just a few questions to get you thinking- you don’t have to answer them all. Please feel free to add your own questions, and respond to each others answers, too.
1. What was your overall view of the book? Did you enjoy it? Was it what you expected?
2. Were there parts of this book that were difficult to read?
3. What aspect of the book did you enjoy most?
4. John and Paula’s marriage was brand new when tragedy struck. It might have been easier to leave than stay, yet they got through it. Would you have had the strength to stay, given the circumstances?
5. What role do you think Rome and rituals played in their recovery?
6. What role does food play in your family? Do you live to eat or eat to live?
7. While reading Keeping the Feast, did you ever get frustrated with Paula? With John?
8. Paula had firsthand experience with depression through her relationship with her mother before it overtook her husband. Were you surprised that she handled her husband’s bouts with depression the way she did, given her history?
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Keeping the Feast. Thanks for reading along with us. And don’t forget to join us on February 22nd for our discussion with Paula!
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By admin | February 7, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
Some bookish and non-bookish musings this Sunday morning.
My email program’s spell check, for some reason, has decided that I speak French. It’s actually quite frustrating that I can’t figure out how to convince it that I don’t actually speak French. And now Firefox is acting up. (So far I’ve misspelled: spell, some, reason, that, speak, quite, and now…. go figure.a)
In case you haven’t heard, Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations has come up with a list of The Best Young Adult Books of 2009, as inpsired by Kelly at YAnnabe’s Unsung YA list. Full disclosure: somehow I was asked to participate on this list, and I did send a book in. It’s still a quite brilliant list, though. And stick around to check out the site a bit.
Oh, and while you’re waiting, why not find out your demigod power? (Me, I’m the child of Grover. Kind of odd, but I think I like it.)
What’s on your mind today?
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By admin | February 7, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Madeline L’Engle
ages: 9+
First sentence: “There are dragons in the twins’ vegetable garden.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
I always remembered this one, from when I read it as a kid, as my “favorite”. Though, if you had asked me, I don’t think I could have pinpointed why. So, I was quite curious to reread the book: maybe I would love it as much as I remembered loving it. And maybe I could finally pinpoint the elusive why.
So. Charles Wallace is having problems. He’s not adapting to school particularly well, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the precocious child that he is. On top of that, something more fundamental is wrong: he’s sick, down in his very cells. Meg, Calvin and Mr. Jenkins (the school principal) together with the cheribum Proginoskes have to work together to battle the evil that’s invading the world and save Charles.
Honestly? I liked the book well enough, but I couldn’t pinpoint why it was my favorite. It was less overtly religious than Wrinkle in Time was, but there were still overtones of the Ultimate Battle. There was a lot about Hate and war and instant gratification versus Doing Ones’ Duty. Maybe that was it: the fact that Duty wins out over Fun and Frivolity. Perhaps I just wanted justification for my innate personality quirks?
I was disappointed in Meg; while she was still the heroine and she still did the most work, she just wasn’t as engaging a character as I felt she was in Wrinkle. That, and I just didn’t get much out of the plot: it seemed to be spinning in circles. Perhaps it was me, but I felt it just had too much narration and not enough action.
Then again, I may just be nitpicking. My 11-year-old self adored this book. And I might just be content to let it stay that way.
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By admin | February 4, 2010
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
When I reviewed The Scarecrow on its release day, I mentioned that Michael Connelly was one of those authors whom I had sold and shelved but never read. I enjoyed that latest release so much that I am now digging a bit into Connelly’s backlist. And The Overlook proved to be an excellent choice. The plot centers on Harry Bosch, an experienced Los Angeles Police detective who wins a promotion to the Major Cases squad and is soon embroiled in the investigation of a doctor whose body is found up on the overlook where the letters H O L L Y W O O D are spelled out on a hillside.
Bosch is soon joined on the investigation by FBI agent Rachel Walling (who will figure prominently in The Scarecrow) as it is discovered that the murdered doctor is a radiologist who has access to a rare material that is used in very small quantities in cancer treatment but can in larger quantities be made into a bomb. It soon develops that a quantity of this radiological material has been stolen from a safe at a medical center. It further develops that the dead doctor received an e-mail from his wife’s account with a picture of his wife naked and hand-cuffed to their bed and a note threatening to kill her if he does not bring all of the materials up to the overlook. While the FBI busies itself with the apparent national security crisis, Bosch and Walling follow the clues and discover the crime is actually nothing of the sort. As always, Connelly is a master of the suspense novel and The Overlook is a fast, fun read. Highly Recommended.
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By admin | February 4, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Gerald N. Lund
ages: adult
First sentence: “David Dickinson’s eyes were wide open.”
Review copy sent to me by someone at By Common Consent because I volunteered for this torture.
Five ways to ruin a historical novel:
5. Write in dialect: “It be joost fur me, Dah?” If I have to read it aloud to understand it, it’s not worth my time.
4. Too much historical detail, not enough plot. “These full-sized coal carts were four feet wide and eight feet long and could hold the contents of six of the small coal tubs. That was about four tons of coal each. The carts had wheels and axles formed from a single piece of steel. This meant the two wheels did not turn independently, nor did they have an independent braking system. This was where the spraggers come in. If a car got rolling too fast down a grade, it would jump the tracks and smash into the wall.” I really don’t care that much about mining practices in England in the mid-19th century anyway. I swear about 500 pages of this book could have been axed. (Granted, I only made it through the first 50, but I’m just sayin’.)
3. Too much narrative exposition, not enough action. “David still hesitated. He liked Albert Beames, or Bertie, as most of the trappers called him. He was a bit odd looking, with freckles hidden beneath the layers of coal dust, and teeth that were prominent enough that some of the older boys called him Beaver Beames. Bertie was a year older than David and about a stone heaver* [yep, that was footnoted] He was totally devoid of ambition and was baffled by David’s continual talk of becoming a hurrier.” Three words for you: Show. Don’t tell.
2. Having a Message. Okay: I get it. They were Brave and Noble and Faithful. It’d be nice if they were interesting characters, too.
And the number one way to kill a historical novel:
1. Footnotes and endnotes. Puh-lease. It’s fiction, not a textbook. If I really cared what Yorkshire Pudding or Turkish Delight was I’d Google it.
I knew there was a reason I never read LDS fiction.
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By admin | February 3, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
Finally, back to normal. We went, we got all sorts of books, picked up holds (addressed the problem of a lost book — oops!), went to storytime, and I even got my prize for finishing the local reading challenge (a very nice mug full of all sorts of goodies). Happy day!
This week’s loot:
Picture Books:
The Frogs and Toads All Sang, by Arnold Loebel/Color by Adrianne Lobel
Lousy Rotten Stinkin’ Grapes, by Margie Palatini/Illus. by Barry Moser
My Forever Dress, by Harriet Ziefert/Illus by Liz Murphy
Sugar Would Not Eat It, by Emily Jenkins and Giselle Potter
Middle Grade books:
The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales , by Dawn Casey and Anne Wilson
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom, by Eric Wright
YA books:
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Louise Rennison
The Demon’s Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood, by Tony Lee, Sam Hart, Artur Fujita
The China Garden, by Liz Berry
Adult Fiction:
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I’ll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it’s SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I’m going to keep doing it.
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By admin | February 3, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Grace Lin
ages: 10+
First sentence: “Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Sometimes, what you really need in life is good traditional fairy tale. No bells and whistles, nothing super-fantabulous-exciting. Just a quiet, original fairy tale with all the traditional elements: a good-hearted (but not flawless) heroine, an adventure, a budding friendship, a lesson learned. Stick it in China, and you’ve got something magical.
Minli and her family live in the valley of the Fruitless Mountain, working hard every day to scrape by. Her mother is disgruntled, especially when Minli’s father spends the evenings telling her stories about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon. Then one day, Minli discovers that the stories may not be impossible after all, and sets out to ask the Old Man of the Moon how her family can make their fortune. Along the way, she will have adventures, make friends (with a dragon, among others), and learn a few things about herself.
The charm in this book is really in its simplicity. On the one hand, there’s nothing grandiose and it’s very traditional to the point of being predictable. But on the other hand, there were no wasted words, and the plot clipped along at a very quick pace. I realized at one point that this book would make an excellent read aloud: the words just cried out to be spoken aloud. That, and I think the pacing of the book works better as a story told rather than read. Not that I didn’t enjoy reading it — it wasn’t edge-of-the-seat gripping, but it was charming, and I did want to know what happened next. But, to read it aloud to my girls, to give it that added suspension of seeing what will happen next, tomorrow night? I think that would have added a lot to the book.
As it was, though, it’s a story well worth reading.
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By admin | February 2, 2010
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
While I’m sure there are many folks out there who would disagree, I’ve come to feel that Pat Conroy is the best living novelist in the English language. While other writers may be more in tune with the fashions of high brow graduate writing professors (and less readable and engaging for it) and others in turn more in tune with popular marketing, Conroy writes positively enchanting novels which are at once as broad as the whole wide world and as emotionally deep as the Atlantic ocean. I first encountered Conroy’s writing in the late 1980’s when The Prince of Tides was released. I was working at the time as a bookstore clerk. We received an advanced reading copy, which my boss took home and read. She raved about it, so when the title came in I checked out a copy and brought it home. And was almost immediately hooked in that compelling story of three children growing up in the South Carolina low country. I later read and enjoyed Conroy’s earlier works, The Lords of Discipline and The Water Is Wide. Later still I greatly enjoyed Conroy’s subsequent novel Beach Music.
South of Broad is I believe the only book that I purchased in 2009. I pre-ordered it from Amazon and was thrilled to receive it just after its August publication date. As always, Conroy’s writing is lyrical and the story beautifully plotted, highly readable and engaging. As the novel opens, high school senior Leo King is a very busy boy. Rising at 4:30 each morning for his job as a newspaper delivery boy, King is also co-captain of his high school football team, in the first year of racial integration at his public school. He is also on probation for a drug offense which requires him to serve as a sort of caretaker cum servant for an irascible elderly antiques dealer, serves as an altar boy at his Catholic church and has been instructed by his mother (a former nun who is also his high school principal) to make friends with the new kids who’ve moved in just across the street.
As always, Conroy skillfully blends many intricate strands of plot in a novel chock full of deep and well developed characters. South of Broad will follow Leo and his high school friends for more than forty years, chronicling Leo’s rise from delivery boy to featured columnist at the Charleston News and Courier, through a series of tragedies and triumphs that come to a head when Sheba Poe– a high school friend who went on went on to become a very successful movie star returns to Charleston to enlist the aid of her old gang in tracking down her brother Trevor, who seems to have vanished in San Francisco. The novel alternates between these kids’ long ago senior year and the present day, ending shortly after hurricane Hugo strikes Charleston with devastating force.
My only complaint in all these years of reading Conroy’s wonderful novels is that he seems to take a decade or more to write each of them. Conroy addresses this issue to some extent on his web site, where he reveals that he is working on three more novels and is trying to take to heart the many pleas he has received to write more quickly. If you’ve already read Conroy, you obviously don’t need me to tell you how wonderful his books are. But if you haven’t, take my advice and click here to order your own copy of South of Broad right now. I assure you, you will be most pleased to have discovered the wonderful world of Pat Conroy’s fiction. South of Broad– Very Highly Recommended
Buy Now from Amazon $ 16.47
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By admin | February 1, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Lauren Mechling
ages: 12+
First sentence: “You could say I was running behind schedule, though that would be putting an optimistic spin on it.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by the publisher.
Things are looking up for our girl, Claire. She managed to save her friend Becca’s family — the Shuttleworths of Soul Sauce fame — from the doom and gloom in the last adventure through her snazzy black-and-white dreams. She managed to snag a super cool college boyfriend, Andy (though they’re keeping it hush-hush for now). All while managing to take down the snitty bad girls at Hudson High. (End previous book plot summary.)
So, what could get in her way?
Well, lots, actually. Claire’s up and down with her boyfriend. Becca has taken to hanging out with her old prep-school friends, and doesn’t have as much time for Claire anymore. She hasn’t even had any decent dreams of late. Everything seems to be falling apart. But then, Claire is initiated into this super-secret New York club, the Blue Moons, and suddenly everything picks up again. A mystery to solve! Black and white dreams! Socialites! Protests! Murder mystery parties!
Dream Life was much like Dream Girl, but better. Perhaps it was because I knew what to expect out of it — lots of fluff, a bit of action, great clothes and happening hot-spots — but, while I enjoyed the first, found this one to be a lot more fun. I especially loved the minor characters: Hallie, a goth foodie that’s also inducted into the Blue Moons (why couldn’t she have more to do?); Ian, Claire’s geeky comic book side-kick from Hudson (felt like he totally had a thing for Claire… why couldn’t she get the geeky guy rather than the uber-cool college one?); and Louis, Claire’s friend from her former high school, who has a thing for Becca. The three of them made book fun for me. But, beyond that, it’s a book with a winning combination of fashion, mystery and fun.
Can’t lose with that.
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Long time readers of this site will already be aware that I am a bit of a Rita Mae Brown fan. Indeed I have reviewed several of Ms. Brown’s books and have been heard to complain that she only seems to crank out mysteries these days, rather than the non-genre novels I enjoyed so much in years past. Hounded To Death is the sixth novel featuring Sister Jane Arnold, Master of Foxhounds for the Jefferson Hunt in mid-Virginia. Given that this is the sixth installment, I found it slightly irritating that Brown begins with a glossary of fox-hunting terms, though I was a bit grateful for the cast of characters listing, explaining just who is who which also precede the novel. (As I mentioned in this post, it can be difficult to sort out all of the new characters in a Brown mystery.)
As always, Ms. Brown is truly a master of the suspense novel, and once through the first few chapters, the book is very engaging and the reading seems to fly by. (I finished the book in less than 36 hours.) It did seem that Brown rather lazily included only one “red herring” and killed off the villain in less than two paragraphs after the character was revealed as such. These quibbles aside, I did greatly enjoy reading Hounded To Death and also appreciated that Brown has really fleshed out Jane Arnold and the other major characters in this series. According to the jacket blurb, Brown has herself become a Master of Foxhounds and while I do miss her non-genre novels I have to say that it seems as though Brown is writing about her passions and her genuine interests and this does make for a much more satisfying novel. If you are a Rita Mae Brown fan, or have an interest in good suspense novels or fox hunting, Hounded To Death is Recommended.
Buy Now from Amazon $10.20
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf was my book club’s selection for our February discussion. It was also a book we had on tour recently through TLC so I’d read a few reviews before I ever opened the book- although I don’t think that swayed my opinion of it.
Calli and Petra are 7 year old friends and playmates. Calli is a selective mute. You’d think that would make friendships difficult at best, yet Petra understands her, knows what she likes and dislikes, and is able to talk for her and smooth things over for her socially. Friendship is easy at 7, and their friendship was very sweet.
Calli and Petra go missing from their respective homes in the wee hours of the morning on the same day. Both girls’ homes back up to a wooded area where the girls have spent many happy hours playing, so the families think perhaps they are together and for some reason playing in the woods (at 4:30 am?). Calli’s mom, especially, is not very concerned, having grown up in and around those woods. But Calli’s dad, an abusive alcoholic asshole, was supposed to be leaving on a fishing trip with a friend at 3:00 am that very morning, and no one really thinks too much about that (I’m not giving anything away here because the reader knows from the beginning that dear old dad didn’t go fishing). The police chief has a romantic history with Calli’s mother and a rivalry with Calli’s father, so there’s a massive conflict of interest, yet he’s on the case. Small towns do things differently than the big cities, I ’spose.
This book is told in very short chapters with very short sentences in the voices of different characters including Calli, Petra, Calli’s mom, Calli’s brother Ben, Petra’s dad, the police chief Louis. Oddly, all the voices sounded the same to me, whether it was a 7 year old girl, a middle aged cop, or a 57 year old professor. Same vocabulary, same tone- there just was no discernable difference. I guess this bugged me more than it might have had it not been for the fact that the book I just finished prior to The Weight of Silence (American Rust) did that one particular thing VERY well- making the characters really distinct and individual. I’m sure it’s not an easy thing for an author to do but it really goes a long way in engaging the reader.
This book was a page turner and I read it in two sittings (it would have been one, but I had to force myself to put it down and go to bed). I wanted to know what would happen and so I kept going. And throughout I kept thinking, what is the deal with the dad? What the heck is going on? However, the ending was unsatisfying and the writing unsophisticated. The plot was full of so many coincidences that believability went right out the window. Maybe I’m just a much more discerning reader than I used to be, but this one felt very amateurish.
I wonder what the other members of my book club will think..
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
This past Thursday, J. D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, passed away. As I was watching people’s reactions on Twitter, I realized something: I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye. Somehow, for some reason (actually many reasons, some of which I can actually recall but won’t go into here), I managed to completely miss this book.
Which is why Amanda, Heather and Jackie at Farmlanebooks put our heads together (metaphorically, of course), and came up with an idea to have a Catcher in the Rye read-a-long. It’s going to be pretty easy-going. We’re planning on starting Sunday, February 14th and wrapping up around the end of the month. I’ll make sure there are posts after February 14th where you can leave your spoiler comments, questions, and discussion points.
I’m not going to do anything formal with signing up and all that, but if you’re interested in reading along with us — either for the first time or the 20th — please leave a comment and let us know!
I’m quite curious to see what all the fuss is about.
(Oh, and many thanks to Amanda and Jason for the lovely button.)
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
It’s the end of January (finally). It wasn’t a bad month, reading wise. It started out slow, but picked up near the end, I think. And that’s a good thing. On a side note: do y’all like my commentary on the jacket flaps or not? Sometimes, I don’t know what to say and so I’m wondering if I should just leave them to speak for themselves. Something to think about, anyway.
My three favorite jacket flaps from the books I picked up this month:
Odd and the Frost Giants (Harper): “In this inventive, short, yet perfectly formed novel inspired by traditional Norse mythology, Neil Gaiman takes readers on a wild and magical trip to the land of giants and gods and back. In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he’s had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless freezing winter is making villagers dangerously grumpy. Out in the forest Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle — three creatures with a strange story to tell. Now Odd is forced on a stranger journey than he had imagined — a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants who have invaded it. It’s going to take a very special kind of twelve-year-old boy to outwit the Frost Giants, restore peace to the city of gods, and end the long winter. Someone cheerful and infuriating and clever… Someone just like Odd…”
The Year My Son and I Were Born (GPP Life): “With six other children at home, Kathryn Lynard Soper was prepared for the challenges another newborn would bring. But after Thomas’s complicated birth, his diagnosis—Down syndrome—forced her to face her deepest fears and weaknesses, her ignorance and prejudice, and her limitations as a mother and as a human being. Her struggle, coupled with the demands of caring for a fragile baby and juggling her family’s needs, sparked the worst episode of depression she’d experienced in decades. The Year My Son and I Were Born is Kathryn’s brutally honest yet beautiful account of how she escaped a downward spiral of despair and emerged with newfound peace. Antidepressant therapy restored her equilibrium, and interactions with friends and family brought needed perspective. But the most profound change came through her growing relationship with Thomas. His radiant presence shone through her outer layers of self, where fear and guilt festered, and reached the center of her very being—where love, acceptance, and gratitude blossomed in abundance.”
My Most Excellent Year (Dial Books):
“TCKeller: What’s ‘flap copy’ anyway?
AugieHwong: It’s what they put on a book jacket to tell you what’s inside, you rock-head. We can use the one from Liza Minnelli’s bio as a template.
TCKeller: Or not.
AlePerez: This is positively mortifying. They were just supposed to be classroom essays! I can’t believe the entire world is about to find out how I played Anthony like a violin for five months.
TCKeller: I let you do that. Hey, why don’t we open the flap with a quote about the 1918 Red Sox–
AugieHwong: No way, dude. If you’re looking for a warm-up act, we open /with Bette Davis in All About Eve.
AlePerez: Hello? Jacqueline Kennedy would be a far more appealing, not to mention intelligent, choice. Besides, I outrank both of you.
TCKeller: Oh, yeah? I have a Carlton Fisk rookie card.
AugieHwong: I have Angela Lansbury’s autograph.
AlePerez: I have a Secret Service agent.
TCKeller: Guys! Why don’t we just forget the flap copy and start at the very beginning?
AugieHwong: A very good place to start….”
Other books read this month:
Calamity Jack
Dream Girl
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Saving Maddie
Wrinkle in Time
Front and Center
Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart
Unfinished Angel
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Carter Finally Gets It
Running Total: 13
Adult fiction: 2
YA: 5
MG: 3
Non-fiction: 2
Graphic Novel: 1
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Brent Crawford
ages: 13+
First sentence: “In the back room of the Pizza Barn, with only two weeks before the start of high school, my boys and I are at the Freshman Mixer.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Carter is not exactly what you’d call a suave person. He’s got ADD, and he has a stuttering problem, especially around girls he’s attracted to. He rides a bike. He can’t quite do a gainer off the diving board. He’s on the football team, but in one of the less glamorous positions. And yet, here he is, starting high school, hoping it’ll be all that he’s ever wanted: (in his horny 14-year-old boy case) sex, preferably with a hot chick.
The book chronicles Carter’s ups (such as they are) and downs (and, hoo-boy, are they spectacular) over the course of his freshman year as he tries (and tries again) to figure out how to go about this whole high school business. I have to say that as a mom, I cringed: if 14-year-olds are anything like Carter (and they probably are), then why am I letting my daughter out among them? But, as a reader? As a reader, I found myself warming to Carter and his doofishness. He’s so adorably clueless that I think you can’t help but love him (eventually) and cheer for him. It helps that Crawford is a captivating writer; he got 14-year-olds spot-on (which is part of the reason I’m anxious about my daughters….), and he treats his characters (all of them: from Carter’s “boys”, to his older sister and parents, to the upperclassmen that Carter interacts with) with intelligence, affection, and, most of all, humor.
Because, whatever else this book is (a coming-of-age story, a high school book, a guy book), it’s funny. Carter, mostly inadvertently, is hilarious. It’s a combination of things: Carter, the character; the situations he gets himself into; and the way Crawford writes about it all.
At any rate, I grew to really like Carter. I still may not let my daughter go to high school, though.
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Lynn Truss
ages: adult (but it’s not inappropriate for anyone really interested in punctuation)
First sentence: “To be clear from the beginning: no one involved in the production of Eats, Shoots & Leaves expected the words “runaway” and “bestseller” would ever be associated with it, let alone upon the cover of an American edition.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
I am just geeky enough to truly love this book.
I loved it when it came out — Hubby bought it for me in hardback (and its sequel) — and, even though I haven’t picked it up in years, I found that I still laugh hysterically at the examples, and I find myself still being a complete and total stickler when it comes to punctuation. (Am I the only one who edits my friends’ Facebook statuses, if only in my head?)
So this is not quite a review. More of a love letter to Truss and her oh-so-funny look at punctuation. (And yes, I’ve gone back and checked and double-checked to make sure it’s all right. And it’s probably not.)
I think what I loved most was her examples. Sure, she pulled examples from literature, but she also would just throw things in as she went along. Like this (it’s my favorite):
Assuming a sentence rises into the air with the initial capital letter and lands with a soft-ish bump at the full stop, the humble comma can keep the sentence aloft all right, like this, UP, for hours if necessary, UP, like this, UP, sort-of bouncing, and then falling down, and then UP it goes again, assuming you have enough additional things to say, although in the end you may run out of ideas and then you have to roll along the ground with no commas at all until some sort of surface resistance takes over and you run out of steam anyway and then eventually with the help of three dots … you stop.
How can you not love that? Or this:
So it is true that we must keep an eye on the dash — and also the ellipsis (…), which is turning up increasingly in emails as shorthand for “more to come, actually … it might be related to what I’ve just written … but the main thing is I haven’t finished … let’s just wait and see … I could go on like this for hours …”
I also loved that, while it’s funny and accessible, you actually learn things. Or, at the very least, you’re reminded of things. Like the uses of apostrophes (or not). Or when to use the dash versus when to use parentheses. Or exclamation points! Or… (yeah, those things, too.)
Most famously of all, the apostrophe of omission creates the word “it’s”:
It’s your turn (it is your turn)
It’s got very gold (it has got very cold)
It’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht (no idea)
But, learning aside, the best part of the book is really the geeky part. Truss is persnickety about punctuation, and it makes me laugh.
Now there are no laws against iprisioning apostrophes and making them look daft. Cruelty to punctuation is quite unlegislated: you can get away with pulling the legs off semicolons; shrivelling question marks on the garden path under a powerful magnifying glass; you name it.
Sticklers, unite!
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By admin | January 31, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
I’m going to top last week’s pathetic loot because this week I didn’t even bother going to the library because I’m sick as a dog (where on e, instead sending K with a friend. All they brought back were my holds, so that’s what we have for the week.
This week’s loot:
Middle Grade books:
The Lost Conspiracy, by Frances Hardinge
YA books:
In the Coils of the Snake: Book III — The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, by Clare B. Dunkle
Going Bovine, by Libba Bray
Adult Fiction:
Storm Glass (Glass, Book 1), by Maria V. Snyder
The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I’ll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it’s SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I’m going to keep doing it.
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By admin | January 27, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Beth Pattillo
ages: adult
First sentence: “The taxi pulled up outside Christ Church, and I climbed out of the backseat, but the scorching July heat stole my breath and the threatened to press me back inside the cab.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by a publicist.
Claire is one of those long-suffering heroines that readers tend to either really identify with or supremely hate. Since her parents’ deaths when she was 18, she has done everything in her power to help her younger sister, Missy. Claire sacrificed her education, getting a GED and foregoing college. She sacrificed a good job: most recently she was an office manager for a pediatricians’ office, and has been recently laid of. She’s been unlucky in men, settling for Neil, a sports enthusiast who, while nice enough, may not even know that Claire’s off to Oxford, in her sister’s place, for a week-long seminar on Pride and Prejudice.
It’s only once Claire’s across the pond that all she’s sacrificed comes plainly into view. She meets James — suave, polished, gorgeous, rich — and immediately falls for him. In addition, she meets Harriet, of the Formidables (a society devoted to keeping Austen’s secrets), who lets Claire on a big secret: she has the original copy of First Impressions, the novel P&P is based on. As Claire reads on — noting the substantial changes from the final novel — she finds similarities to her own life (funny how that happens), and ends up doing some major soul searching. It’s a happily-ever-after, but not the one that you were expecting.
I should be jumping and cheering: the average Joe gets the girl! (Sorry. Spoilers there.) Claire goes with the normal, the everyday, and finds happiness. Yet… Claire is so insipid that I could hardly stand her enough to get through the novel. She eventually finds a backbone, but not before she goes through pages and pages of waffling. Sure, she’s still grieving over the loss of her parents — or rather, she’s suppressed the grieving process in favor of responsibility — but we’re never really given much of a chance to connect with her on that level. But what really bugged me was the significant changes to the P&P story. Sure, it’s nice to imagine that a copy of First Impressions could be out there, and sure it’s plausible that the story would be radially different from the final P&P, but it just didn’t work for me. At all. Period. I skipped those pages, cringing at the attempt to capture the magic that is Jane Austen.
As the characters in the novel eventually figure out: some things are better left untouched.
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By admin | January 25, 2010
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Everyone eats. So perhaps almost everyone could benefit from reading Righteous Porkchop which is both a well-researched and highly readable hands-on primer about factory farming, and Nicolette Hahn Niman’s highly personal memoir of her personal journey of activism on behalf of farm animals. Ms. Niman was an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation when she elected to take a position with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Waterkeeper Alliance. Ms. Niman (at that time Ms. Hahn) was a longtime vegetarian and was deeply committed to animal welfare when she was hired to organize and lead a campaign against factory farming.
As Ms. Niman soon learned Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) have over the past twenty to forty years quite changed the face of rural America. Those who have read books such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation (my review here) probably do have some idea of the horrific conditions under which food animals are raised these days, although one point which I know I did not learn in that volume is that corporate factory farms very routinely violate environmental laws and are one of the largest sources of pollution. Ms. Niman takes her readers along on her many trips to CAFO’s where the excrement of hundreds or sometimes even thousands of animals is simply pumped untreated into “lagoons” which are basically just lakes of liquefied shit.
Readers will get a crash course in pork, poultry, beef and fish factory farming and learn just why these farms are so bad both for the animals produced there and for the humans who work there as well as those unfortunate enough to live nearby. The stench is horrific, and the “lagoons” almost inevitably leak into and contaminate ground water and often lakes and rivers as well. What was most shocking for me to learn is that while this pollution is very definitely illegal, it is nonetheless rampant pretty much in every state with significant agriculture.
While the facts Niman educates her readers on are indeed horrifying, Righteous Porkchop is nonetheless a very uplifting and positive read. While Niman is herself a vegetarian, her husband– Bill Niman founder of the well-known Niman Ranch meat company is not. And unlike some hardcore vegans, Niman, who enjoys cheese, butter, milk and other dairy products is by no means opposed to the use of animals for food. Her concerns are that animals be treated humanely and that large factory farms not be allowed to externalize the costs of their pollution, which would allow independent and smaller farmers to compete. Niman eloquently shoots down many of the myths perpetuated by the large corporate producers and their political supporters. She also provides some advice for consumers who wish to stop supporting and perpetuating factory farms.
If you eat, Righteous Porkchop is Very Highly Recommended.
Buy Now $17.27 from Amazon
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By admin | January 25, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
And along comes a challenge to help me with it. It’s the POC Reading Challenge. It’s an easy one, too: sign up for a level — in my case, Level 3 (7-9 books) but I’m aiming for Level 4 or 5 — and commence reading books. I’m going to keep a running tally here (starting now).
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By admin | January 25, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Here are ten words I never thought I’d be saying…”
Support your local bookstore: buy it there!
I adored both Dairy Queen and The Off Season. Really, I did. But… maybe it had been too long since I read those books. Maybe I really wasn’t in the mood for D.J. (which surprised me, because she is one of my favorite characters). Maybe there was something just off about this book, because while I enjoyed it, I just didn’t love it like I did the other two books.
We basically pick up where we left off in The Off Season: D.J.’s back at school after taking a month off to help her brother Win after his injury. It’s not easy being back: for one thing, she can no longer hide on the sidelines. For another, basketball season is starting and there is major pressure on her to pick a college and verbally commit. Not to mention her coach breathing down her neck about showing “leadership skills”. This is all overwhelming for D.J., who’s used to just basically sliding by.
Perhaps it was this waffling D.J. that grated on me after a while. While I recognize that she’s always been shy as a character, for some reason the arc of this book — with D.J. finally realizing how to believe in herself — was a bit much for one book. Granted, there was a sub-plot with a love triangle between D.J., her former boyfriend Brian, and her current boyfriend Beaner. Again, while it was enjoyable, there was too much waffling and agonizing for my taste. Then again, it may be just that it’s been too long since I was in D.J.-land. I do wonder if I had read this right after the other two, then maybe I would have liked it more. Because I do think it’s a fitting stopping point (not really an end…) to D.J.’s story.
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By admin | January 24, 2010
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
Apparently my daughter’s feet grew. Overnight. While she slept.
This morning she announced, ”Mom, I can’t go to school. My shoes don’t fit.”
Me: ”You have lots of shoes. TRY A DIFFERENT PAIR!”
Her: ”I did. None of them fit.”
Hmmm. They must have fit yesterday, because she went to school. She wore shoes. Why didn’t she tell me when they were just starting to feel snug? I don’t know. I guess she thought I would let her stay home, or perhaps go to school in flip flops, but no. Not happening.
A couple pairs of shoes were just purchased in December, 5 or 6 weeks ago, and she had wiggle room. They’ve barely been worn.
“Mom, when we get shoes, we need to get pants too. Everything is short.”
Couldn’t this growth spurt have taken place before Christmas? She could have gotten lots of clothes under the tree!
Oh well, we’ll be shopping this weekend, searching for bargains, because I have the ‘no money after the holidays’ blues.
But this is what we’ll do with our old shoes..
Sports Chalet is asking for people to donate your old shoes, (gently worn shoes), to those in need in Haiti. It’s so simple, just drop off your old shoes at the nearest Sport Chalet Store, which collects to the end of the month.
Tell your friends and the people in your neighborhood – help spread the word.
For store locations nearest you call 1.888.9CHALET or go to www.sportchalet.com.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Have your kids outgrown their shoes? Donating your gently worn shoes is a good way to help that doesn’t cost a lot, and a nice way for your kids to do something for the kids who’ve lost everything in the Haiti earthquake.
Off to scour the ads for sales…
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By admin | January 24, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
I’m a little late to this party, but since Kelly at YAnnabe made the suggestion that I throw my hat into the ring, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So, my two cents about the best YA books you’ve probably never read.
The Order of the Odd-Fish, James Kennedy: I keep plugging James’s book, but you aren’t reading it. Why? Seriously, people, read this book.
Nothing But Ghosts or House of Dance, Beth Kephart: if you haven’t experienced the lyricism that is Kephart’s writing, you really ought to.
Flygirl, Sherri L. Smith: a quietly feminist book, one that makes you want to stand up and cheer!
Secret Keeper, Mitali Perkins: a book about love, a book about India, a book about sisters. Almost perfect.
Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath, Steven Goldman: Clever, snarky, and geeky extraordinaire. Can’t go wrong with that.
Saving Juliet, Suzanne Selfors: Yeah, it’s fluff. But it’s fun fluff, and it’s fun to see how it works with the Shakespeare.
Fly By Night, Frances Hardinge: Fuse #8 loves Hardinge, and for good reason: she’s a fabulous writer.
There you have it: my thoughts. What’s the best unsung YA book that you’ve read recently?
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By admin | January 22, 2010
Submitted by Book Nut
by Sharon Creech
ages: 8+
First sentence: “Peoples are strange!”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Some books stick in your mind because they have a brilliant plot. Some because they have created a fabulous world. Others because they have great characters, ones that you want to take home to your mother.
And others, still, because the voice — the way the narrator speaks to you, as a reader — is so unique, so endearing, that you can’t help but love the book.
The voice of Angel, the title character in this sweet little book, is wonderful. It’s not just the word choices that Creech uses, though that is a lot of it. Some of the words that just endeared me to Angel: peoplealities, surprisements, mishmaseroni, glompsing (I really love this one!), struddles. How can you not love a character who uses words like that? But if it was just a sprinkling of fun words throughout the book, it probably would have been more annoying than endearing. No, it was everything about Angel: from his/her irritation with yet love for the people in her (I’m not sure if it was a his or a her, but it felt like a her to me…) Swiss/Italian village, to Angel’s gradual acceptance of the crazy American girl — Zola, who is just extramarkable — and the village’s slow awakening to the sense of community.
Sure, I got all of that out of this as an adult, but I think what kids will see, and probably come to love, is Angel. It’s such an endearing character, and a captivating voice that it will keep practically anyone turning pages. The rest is just frosting.
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