I wasn't an English major, but most of my friends were. I did take linguistic anthropology as well as Greek and Latin medical terminology. I love to look up words and find out etymologies. At one point I read Merriam-Webster's website updates religiously, and actually I don't know why I ever stopped. Also, I LOVE A GOOD MYSTERY.
The Broken Teaglass feels like a book that was tailor made for my friends, my Mom, and my co-workers to all read and discuss in some giant cross country book group. The Broken Teaglass: A Novel by Emily Arsenault
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Billy Webb has just taken a position at the largest dictionary company in the US. Unfortunately the company is in the armpit of Massachusetts, but Billy is gung-ho about his first job out of college. The job is about as exciting as one might expect. His first day of training consists of reading all of the "front matter" of the dictionary. His coworkers field phone calls about Scrabble fights, and none of them talks to any other lexicographer much, until Mona talks to him. Mona is about Billy's age and has been working at the dictionary company for about a year when Billy starts. Together they find a couple of fishy "cits" or "citations"--examples of words in actual use-- in the dictionary's files. The fishy citations alert Billy and Mona to something that must have happened at the dictionary company in the past, something that might have involved an actual corpse. They dig deeper and look for more of the citations...and it doesn't take long before they find them.
This book is fabulous.The plot is fabulous, the characters are fabulous, the setting is somehow both boring and fabulous. The plot has a few twists and turns and surprises, but it's also so easy to just enjoy the simple straightforward path to solving the mystery. And, Billy was a high school football player who majored in philosophy. Mona has her own conflict of identity. At times she seemed on the verge of being Billy's manic pixie dream girl, but it blessedly never happens. Even the side and peripheral characters have interesting and complex lives that the reader at least gets to sample. The Broken Teaglass is a book you want to pull quotes from for Twitter, or your Gmail or Skype or Facebook status updates.
This book seems handcrafted for all the wordsmiths, writers, cross-word lovers, Scrabble-players, English majors, etymologists, etc. But, even if you aren't all those things the mystery may well suck you in anyway. And Mom, this is a book I think you need to read.
I feel like I come down harder on this book than I really meant to do. But, I think that's because I was so excited about it and it didn't meet my expectations.
Katarina Bishop is kicked out of the Colgan academy, framed for a crime (that this one time) she actually didn't commit. Before she's even off school grounds the real reason she's been kicked out becomes apparent (in the form of billionaire heartthrob and burgeoning teen thief W.W. Hale the somethingth.) Hale is the bearer of bad news. Her dad is in trouble and he's refusing to try believe that situation is as bad as it is.
It is up to Hale and Katarina and their junior thief friends to work one of the most difficult heists in the world to keep her dad safe. Katarina has been gone from "the world" and "the family" for three months, and her confidence is shot. Add to the mix a new boy who is...interesting and who Hale is jealous of and doesn't trust and you have what could be an explosive time. I was underwhelmed by this book after really enjoying the Gallagher Girls books. Katarina didn't engage me very well and I liked every other character much more than her. I think that's because--despite the specific description and background-- Ally Carter was trying for that "everygirl" sort of character that we can all identify with and it didn't work for me. I found the inevitable love triangle a little predictable.
I wasn't a huge fan of the audiobook reader either. She wasn't bad, but I wasn't drawn into the story through her voice. That has a big impact on how I like the book. At no point did I feel the tension that should have been inherent in the scenes where Katarina and her loved ones are being threatened or in the scenes where they are pulling off a huge and impossible con job.
But! In concept and secondary characters this book shines. It was one of those escapes where, even though hackneyed a bit, I did feel like I was a part of a criminal underworld I would never even glimpse in real life. I don't want to be an art thief, but it was kind of fun to think "what if." Could be a younger read-a-like to some of Jennifer Cruisie's books, like "Bet Me.'
My rating: 3 (and 1/2) of 5 stars Even though this book is a completely engrossing and resplendent read it didn't get more stars because I have no idea what an airtrack, suicide, 6-steps or any of the rest of these terms mean in relationship to breakdancing. Since these and other breakdancing terms are liberally sprinkled throughout the book without any explanation of what they mean or how the moves look I had a hard go of staying in the story at times. While this technique sped up the action of the breakdancing scenes, it made it impossible for me to envision what they were doing.
OTHERWISE. I totally loved this book. It was a fast paced read with a engrossing main character, Nicole (Raven), who doesn't sound like anyone else in YA ficion that I can think of...and her New York doesn't sound like any other New York that I've read. She has this group of friends that is not bound by anything except maybe age range and love of breakdancing. I like that in a novel (And if you do as well then you should maybe also take part in this book challenge.
Of course, this book is about more than breakdancing. It is about love and friendship and family and living forever vs living as a human. The immortals (Jiang Shi) in the book are conflicted by their immortality and how they attained and keep it. Though none of them, even the leader/mastermind who is hiding things, comes off as evil; their enemies don't come off as evil either. Overzealous yes, evil no. I think that might be my favorite thing about the book, the characters, even those without a lot of "screen time" feel totally realistic and multi-dimensional without a lot of random crap thrown in to make them that way. It is a good story, mostly well told.
A band. Do you know who it is easy to love? A little indie band called the wrens, that's who. They played a very packed Schubas. There was one awkward moment (probably because I was there, as I make things awkward with my very presence) when the mike was turned out to the audience during the last song of the encore "She Sends Kisses" and we collectively froze, then forgot the words to chorus. That didn't ruin the magic of seeing a band that doesn't often tour, and when they do, they put all of themselves into the shows. I've been to a lot of concerts in my life and the majority of them have just been like listening to the album but really loud with the musicians in the room, drunkenly not doing much to entice me to care about watching what they do onstage. This concert of middling aged indieguys from the East Coast was the exact opposite of that experience. Good times were had by all, because this band understand showmanship, and how to vary up sound, texture, distance and style to help make good music.
A discussion. As part of the Year of Dangeresque Reads I joined a Literary Genre Study. Last week I went to the second of the Adult Reading Round Table literary discussions. This one was of Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I went in thinking I was going to spend the majority of any time I spoke defending my position that the book was trite and could have been better. Instead I found myself drawn into a lively discussion about the fact that had it been a genre book it would have been panned by everyone, but because he was a credible literary author he must have made the decisions he did with the book very intentionally, perhaps to point out that very fact? It is hard to say what McEwan's motivations truly were, and that is when the conversation turned to leading book discussions generally. Some of the Librarians present like to introduce information about the author and facts surrounding the novels, some only like to discuss the book without outside information at all, some will bring up the topical info if the discussion itself isn't going well, it seemed like every single person at the discussion had an entirely different style of book club. Which, was really awesome when you think about it. I've had a couple of not-well attended book clubs over the summer and all of this information is serving to make how I lead discussions in the future much better. Of course, taking the info about book clubs geared towards adults and seniors and applying it to Teens is going to take some work.
A plan. I'm forming a plan to do a giveaway this week of the last ARC I reviewed, Laura Ruby's Bad Apple. I haven't exactly decided how this is going to work out so please bear with me until I come up with a suitable book-themed contest.
A convention. I just found out I'm going to Bouchercon! I'm trying to figure out a way to get my mom in just for one day to meet Michael Connelly who is one of her FavieFaves of all time. I'm totally excited about a weekend of whodunits, even though after ALA last week I swore off conventions for a while....oops.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very long time ago on a Livejournal Community called Gothic Babes I saw a post by a writer calling herself WickedWish. She had written and published a book called Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I thought she was interesting and so I paid attention to her journal for a while, because even though her book wasn't a national bestseller and she still worked a dayjob I thought her writing style was interesting enough that she was going to publish something worth national attention. I was, of course, quite right and she's become quite the popular fantasy author. Good on Cherie. Now that I've regaled you with my tale of discovering her so long before you did, let me tell you about this book. It is dark and quick and epic and slippery. The point of view switches pick you up and drop you down into the important parts, there is not a lot of fat in this book. There is also no mercy. Characters you like will die; characters you hate will live. I took away one star because I felt like there was more to this story, that there were some blank pages waiting to be filled in. But there were pirates, and sea monsters, and stone girls and gods and monsters, and murder and mayhem and what more could you as for really? Not much, if you ask me.
I should preface my review by saying it isn't entirely impartial. A few weeks ago the School Media Specialist at one of the middle schools I work with called and told me that Jordan Sonnenblick would be there the next day for their one book one school author visit for "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" and would I like to come hear him speak? Well, I'd been meaning to get over to the middle school around then anyway...so of course I said yes. Confession: NftMD is the first Sonnenblick book I've read. I have a huge pile of stuff to read at any given moment and the stuff I want to read sometimes gets pushed to the back. Plus, at my library "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" is ALWAYS checked out and I'm on hold, alright? The point is that I got to meet Jordan Sonnenblick and he was energetic and passionate and fantastic. And then I got to watch him speak to a big group of 6th graders and when he called two of them out for talking during his presentation you could almost see the middle school teacher he used to be rising up from the depths of the author he'd become. I'm glad I got the chance to meet him before I read any of his books actually. I was far less liable to trip over my own tongue trying to heap on my blundering brand of praise. I mean, I'm the awkward librarian and it only gets worse when I'm a fan. (You should have seen it when I met Caroline B. Cooney, oh man, talk about gauche.)
rating: 5 of 5 stars We all do stupid things. Alex did one of the stupidest. He got angry, got drunk, and decided that this was the perfect time to steal the car and yell at his dad for making him angry.
Luckily for Alex, he didn't get far and the only casualty was the neighbor's expensive* garden gnome.
Alex gets punished, super punished, by being forced to do community service at a retirement home. He's now company for one particular old man for three hours every Wednesday night until he works off 100 hours. And then the fun starts. Let's be honest here folks, none of what I'm telling you about this plot is going to surprise you. It is the feel good tearjerker of my night. And I did cry, whooboy. I bawled through the last few pages there. There are some characteristic Sonnenblick elements, even characters you might recognize, and that is what makes the story great. It is a familiar story, well and humorously told, and in a unique voice. To my mind, that's better than what 95% of books I read even come close to providing.
*$374 seemed expensive to Alex and to me. I think maybe he killed the Travelocity gnome and now we must all roam alone.
I just finished reading an ARC of Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin. And I use the word "reading" very lightly. Mostly, I had to skim because the whole thing was confusing and nightmarish. The basic plot was a matrix style thriller where the main character, Sophie Blue, is fighting everyone in the town including her mother to keep herself from being used as a mule for the matrix style 'virtuality' developed by all the teens parents and all the students were given up as test subjects. The scenes were short repeated burst in which it was impossible to tell the difference between reality and 'virtuality' and the point of any of it was never really revealed. I put down the book after my marathon skimming session (mostly I skimmed over anything that seemed like it might actually give me nightmares) and I felt like my brain had been rewired.
This book is definitely something that 12 years ago one of my best friends would have handed me and told me it would CHANGE MY LIFE. And then I would have read it savoring every word but not understanding anything. I would have given it back to him the next day with minuscule detail memorized to claim as favorite parts, but in reality I would never want to touch it again.
So what I'm saying here is that there are probably teenagers who would be all about the matrix style challenges and paranoia this book throws at them. But, while the writing is tinged with humor the ever shifting character and the lack of any true thread to follow (yes you are given clues to why all of this is going on, but the are never coherent enough, for instance: there are two versions we see of the best friend and I'm still not sure which one was the true, if either was.) The constant chapter shifting from character to character makes the book go quickly, and adds to the confusion. It also inhibits any real character development beyond "Kenny is nice" and "Sophie is scary." The best scenes are the ones were the brother and sister interact with each other and you actually feel calm for a second. Then it all starts up again.
The book is set to come out 8/1/09. So far the cover art for it is impressive, a comic style drawing of Sophie, the main character, making it seem like an enticing read. I'll ask the opinions of my teens before I buy it for my library though.
So one of my resolutions is to try and blog more. I have been sent a number of ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) of books for 09, and I'll be reviewing them as I read them here. Unfortunately the first one I read, which has the great title "No More Us For You", was a little less than what I would want from a novel, but it had it's high points too. The possible cover art is cool. The descriptions of the exhibits at the art gallery are awesome. The characters are detailed and have good but not overwhelming quirks. But, David Hernandez, the author, does a little too much telling and not enough showing in his writing. And the ending feels sort of clunky and unresolved (not that all novels need to be resolved, but this one needed something more than what it gave me, though I did like the very last few pages.) The characters though, all the females seemed to be the same person and I forgot who was who. All the guys also seemed similar, but a little more varied, and actually fairly realistic in the way they handled the WAY TOO MANY BAD SITUATIONS THROWN AT THEM AT ONCE. Not that life is necessarily a series of good situations with one or two thrown in...but man, what a rough two weeks to a year for these characters. And the most interesting character, the mysterious "Vanessa" REMAINS ENTIRELY TOO MYSTERIOUS. Which, whatever, when you know someone for 2 weeks you don't necessarily know everything about them. But in books when stuff is hinted at like that it feels like someone is angling for a spin-off or sequel (or, perhaps this book is the spinoff or sequel, this thought just occurred to my tiny peabrain.)
Anyway, something I like is a blog/email that I follow called "I heart daily." I <3 I heart daily because it is all optimistic and upbeat, and about liking things. And sometimes when you read a bunch of stuff you don't really enjoy, and you find fault even in stuff you do enjoy, and then you write about it on the internet (and by you, I mean me) it can feel like you never have anything positive to say. But the world needs criticism too. So reading and promoting I <3 Daily makes me feel like I'm making a contribution to liking things. Like a giant hug through the internet from me and I <3 Daily to you.
So, happy New Year kids. Tomorrow I'm going to try and post the good, the bad, and the OMG of 2008 lists for you. Oddly, I realized that I can't think of a single album in 2008 that I loved and had to have. I also can't think of a single movie that made me want to go back to the theater again and again. But, books man. Books. I have a lot of those I loved, and some I liked, and some that made me go meh.
rating: 5 of 5 stars I should mention that this review, like all my reviews, may contain spoilers. On the other hand I don't know what you know about the books and what you consider spoiling to really be so...read at your own risk.
This book picks back up the pacing and adventure and general mythically proportioned deliousness of the earliest book. No big surprise there. What is surprising is the dark direction these books are taking. Each book has grown significantly more violent, scarier, and subsequently more interesting. Unlike Harry Potter, where there was no real death toll until the final book and even that seemed second thought and too strategic, these deaths are at random, and drive home that what these half-god mortals are doing is DANGEROUS. As you might expect, the Labyrinth plays a huge part in this book. All the while the Titan Kronos is growing in power and the monsters around the world are waking up and coming out to fight. Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and a new totally mortal friend, Rachel Dare go into the depths of the Labyrinth to try and figure out a way to save Camp Half-blood, and to save the world from a destruction from the Titan who only seems to grow stronger and stronger. And the Gods are getting more and more directly involved. And it turns out that Hades has a son, and that son has some SERIOUS POWER. Lots of interesting new characters and ancient greek mythology keeps the last book just as much of a page-turner as the last. Well played Rick Riordan, well played indeed.
Here are the books I've started and am slowly but surely working my way through:
Ingrid Law's "Savvy", which is very very cute, but on the bottom of the bookstack because I bought it and Ingrid Law signed it so it isn't going anywhere.
Two historically accurate and interesting but also very very long mysteries. "Speaks the Nightbird" and "Mistress of the Art of Death" are the titles that should have warned me they'd be hard to get into (I've been reading both those since July.)
Emma Bull's "Finder",Someone on a list serve told me it was the saddest book they'd ever read. I haven't gotten to that part yet, but I like the premise so I hope to get the chance.
The Brothers Torres is a great book, but since it is not a part of the Mock Printz group I'm reading I also put it toward the bottom of the pile after getting a few delicious chapters into it.
Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday. I really want to like you, Adam Rex, but you make it so DIFFICULT. Why are the characters so clever, but yet I just find myself putting down the book every time I make it only a few pages in? Dear John Green,
You are brilliant. Everyone knows you are brilliant. Witty and clever and well read and musically compatible to the point that I believe you and I would make beautiful babies together if I were single and you were single and somehow we were to meet and I was actually able to speak in coherent phrases. But I'm pretty sure I read this book when it was "Looking For Alaska." I still can't put it down. It is the #1 book at the top of the pile. Still, I kind of think it is time to write a book not about a boy lusting and questing after an unattainable ideal of a girl while palling around with quirky friends. Just a thought. xoxox The Awkward Librarian
Finally I just finished "Bog Child" by Siobhan Dowd which I really wanted to care about because in high school I got really caught up in the sheer dumbfounding craziness of the Irish conflict and also I majored in anthropology, specifically biological anthropology, at Indiana University. The writing was well done, but it felt like two separate stories instead of one coherent life. And the dream sequences were kind of ridiculous. Also I have the copy with the cover bearing a ridiculous pretend photo shopped shirt. Who are we trying to fool here? And what exactly are we trying to censor?
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. New York: Miramax Books, 2006. Genre:Modern Mythology, Modern Fantasy, YA Year: 2005 Series:Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Plot:Percy Jackson doesn't get along in any school, but he can't go home to his smelly stepfather and his loving but weak mother. When he temporary vaporizes his pre-algebra teacher (something I'm sure most 12 year olds dream of often) he starts to figure out that he is beyond not normal. So he gets sent to a summer camp where he learns that he's not normal, in fact, he's the son of a greek god! And he's not even safe at the summer camp, so he must solve a pretty big problem with a little help from his friends. Percy is only 12 years old but he travels the country on his very first hero's quest meeting a strange cast of characters every where he stops. Appeal characteristics: The book has some of the best modern characterizations of gods I've ever seen. Percy is the essential misfit superpowerful hero and his two best friends who aid in the quest might seem familiar too (a brainy girl and a awkward but loyal boy both roughly his same age and also misfitted in some way.) The actual character behind the characters doesn't need to be developed through a lot of exposition as it shows itself in ever step of the adventure. The book pulls you into the story and is a real page turner that makes a good start to the winding plot of what promises to be an epic series. Red-flags: Some god on god violence, also use of the term "half-bloods" to describe the half mortal/half god children which both reeks of Harry Potter and is also generally somewhat offensive. Some of the scenes could be scary to younger children.
Read Alikes:Neil Gaimon's American Gods or Anansi Boys and Mur Lafferty's Heaven are all in the same vein. Mur's takes place mostly off earth though, and both are more mature than Percy Jackson and don't have the advantage of series. Holly Black's "A Modern Faery Tale" series has a similar feel as well with mortals dealing more with all Irish Mythology than Greek. I haven't read Spiderwick Chronicles (also by Black with Tony DiTerlizzi) but from the reviews I think it has many of the same appeal elements of modern fantasy: misplaced person meets with mythological creatures much to the disbelief or disdain of adults for a ton of adventure. Fantasy is such an awesome genre, especially for YA readers. I also found a booklist on the Readalike.org page about twisted fairytales, which while not exactly the same, is in the similar idea of fantasy novels.
For some other thoughts I had about this book you can check out my Livejournal entry.
Today's post is going to be a short set of reviews for two illustrated novels and one audiobook. After I review the books I'm going to give you a little comparing/contrasting action. Ohhhh, sassay!
Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007. Genre:Realistic YA Fiction, Journal, Illustrated Plot Summary: Arnold Spirit Junior is a poor reservation Indian. He was born with water on the brain and had seizures for most of his life. Both parents are alcoholics as are most the people on the rez. But, he's got a best friend named Rowdy and a dog named Oscar. Then one day he realizes he can't go to the poor rez high school anymore and switches to the white high school far past the reservation lands. And then Junior has to deal with all the usual problems of reservation life, plus not fitting in at a white high school, and not fitting in on the reservation, and the fact that merely getting to school every day is an epic adventure. Who knows if there is money for gas, or if he'll get a ride from a drunk relative, or if he'll be walking or just staying home that day? But despite all of the odds being stacked against him, Junior still manages to be (perhaps foolishly) optimistic and he FIGHTS. Interminable Arnold Spirit Junior. Geographical Setting: Rural Washington State Time Period: contemporary Appeal Characteristics: The odds are so stacked against Arnold Spirit Junior that it would be easy for this book to come off as whining self-pity. The straightforward way the story is told combined with the humor and the general buoyant nature of Junior's outlook keep that possibility a distant one. The story is absolutely a page-turner. It has elements of first love, high school, basketball heroism, family, and friendship. Forney's drawings are simply funny and perfectly suited Junior's narrative voice. It is easy to forget this is a diary and just become enraptured by the story and the art. Red Flags: Lots of people die, violence,alcoholism and the general unpretty picture of reservation life. Also 14 year old boy talks frankly about masturbation.
Kinney, Jeff, and Ramon de Ocampo. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Greg Heffley's Journal. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 2008. Genre: Realistic YA/Children's Fiction, Journal, Audio Recording Plot Summary:Greg Heffley is the middle kid in a typical middle class family. He's in junior high and struggling to shed his little kid image. The book chronicles some of the trials and tribulations of the school year, but it is NOT a Diary. It's a journal. Time Period: Contemporary Series:Diary of a Wimpy Kid Appeal Characteristics: Ramon de Ocampo's reading doesn't detract from the story. Greg is a funny kid and shares his experience of being a somewhat trouble making middle child tween with awkward humor and defiance of authority. Nothing to big or serious ever happens in this book. Red Flags: The full effect of the book is lost without the illustrations. There really isn't much done to make up for that loss in the audio book and it is way too bad. What seems harmless in the paper book version makes Greg seem insufferable and his parents seem reluctant at best.
Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. New York: Amulet Books, 2008. Genre: Realistic YA/Children's Fiction, Journal, Illustrated Plot Summary:The further adventures of Greg Heffley. More hijinks and shenanigans ensue. The overall plot is still not as important as the relationships and each individual story. Time Period: Contemporary Series:Diary of a Wimpy Kid Appeal Characteristics:The artwork is the main draw of the book. The comic-like style is light and funny. Greg's exploits and family or school stories are a guilty pleasure told by a middle child who just doesn't quite get the real difference between right and wrong. Red Flags: Don't let kids think that this story gives them permission for bad behavior. This series is mostly squeaky clean as far as parents are concerned. Here's a video I found of some kids who really like "Diary of A Wimpy Kid"
And now for the part that is going to make me completely unpopular with the masses, as opinions sometimes do.
The comparison: if you have the gift of vision, please read Diary of a Wimpy Kid instead of listening to it. I know I'm particularly persnickety about audiobooks, but sometimes I have a good reasoning. At first glance Diary of A Wimpy Kid and Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian have a lot in common. But, on closer examination that similarity ends at genre and format. Wimpy Kid is definitely for a slightly younger (read:immature) audience, doesn't deal with any serious social issues or even notices that other people might exist (therefore precluding social issues entirely), and is generally meant to be a short light hearted read not to be taken seriously. Except, it is the number one graphic novel on Amazon and that is something to take seriously. I understand the appeal of this book, but I'm not really fully on the bandwagon. It isn't that I'm opposed to purely escapist fiction where the most troubling incidents result in a light grounding from caring parents, but I do object to the fact that Greg doesn't ever seem to learn any life lessons, ever. And I think that is an important part of most YA and kids lit. They don't have to beat you over the head with the lessons, obviously kids are way to smart for that.I do think having Greg show remorse for some of the semi-terrible things he does instead of just remorse for being caught would occasionally be a good idea. On the other hand Alexie's book is so chock full of life changing events and Serious Lessons that at times the message would be overwhelming if it weren't for the saving grace of Arnold's outlook and narration.I shouldn't have read these books the same night;Alexie's right after Kinney's. Alexie's story is a cohesive story all geared to a more mature audience while Kinney's is geared towards the tricky age of middle school and each diary entry is its own short story. It probably wasn't fair to the Wimpy Kid series that I would hold it to such high scrutiny afterwards. Especially since the audiobook of the first one left such a bad taste in my mouth and I really like Forney's art better than Kinney's too. But, Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian made me really feel for the characters and stayed with me after I read it. Diary of a Wimpy Kid just made me feel sorry for Greg's friends and family and I haven't really thought about it much since. But don't get me wrong! Any book that makes kids want to read is still marked as an amazing piece of literature in this blog.
The past few weeks have kept me busy and unable to update this site. I also realized that I started to stray some from the more professional reader's advisory purpose of the site with the quickfire review challenge. On the other hand I had fun with that so I'm not apologizing.
Anyway a quick preview of what I'll be reviewing here, on Library Thing, and on the Reading Sarah Livejournal.
I've been on a series Chris Crutcher kick here lately so Deadline, Whale Talk, and Stotan! are all on the list. Harmless by Dana Reinhardt The Hollywood Nobody series by Lisa Samson
I'll also be doing reviews of two illustrated novels and then comparing and contrasting them. This may not be fair, but I read them both over the course of one night and it really struck me how very different Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is from Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Before I go I'd just like to say that Freaks and Geeks, a short lived tv series by Judd Apatow was much better the first time I watched. I can re-read the same book a thousand times, I have seen Princess Bride probably 200-300 times, and this is not an unusual trend for me. So it is very sad that other than the character "Bill" no one and no plot is truly holding my attention for a full second viewing. Oh, and also, Kung Fu panda was adorable, energetic, and funny. I understand why it gets the criticism it gets, but I throughly enjoyed it. Skadoosh!
Movies Christensen, Pernille Fischer, et al. Soap. [Culver City, CA]: Strand Releasing, 2006.
Charlotte is a beautician who just left her boyfriend and moved into her own place. Her downstairs neighbor is Veronica, a pre-operative transwoman who earns her living via domination. The two don't mix at all, but events seem to conspire to throw them together and a really sweet story develops between two strong personalities. The story is told in soap opera style with titillating narration breaks between acts. Veronica is a huge soap fan and knows exactly what she wants. Charlotte is prickly and strong-willed but waffles on her love life. The second viewing of this the movie was much slower moving then the first time, but the story retained its sweetness throughout. This movie contains scenes of sexual violence and harsh language. In Danish with English subtitles.
Albums She & Him. Volume 1. Chapel Hill, NC: Merge, 2008
Ever since Zooey Deschanel sang the duet of "Baby it's cold outside" with Will Ferrell/Leon Redbone in "Elf" I have wanted her to come out with her own album. Fortuitously she was paired with M.Ward to make a song for a different movie and in the end they came out with a full album. Some of the songs are covers, some remind you of your parents music or their parents music even, but almost all are strong, and this is by far the best album involving an actress to come out in a long long time. Too bad her latest movie is "The Happening" which looks to be a movie I'll never see.
Webcomics Questionable Content The artwork in this comic improved exponentially in its first few years. It is, as Jeph admits, glacially paced, but not worth the ribbing it gets from his fellow webcomic author John Allison. One of the funniest things to me, being an avid webcomic fan, is the friendcestuous nature of webcomics. If you ever see a guest comic week at a webcomic you'll see some of it, or just read a few weeks worth of Overcompensating. Basically all the webcomic dudes know each other and alternatively tease, flirt with, and abuse other webcomic authors. Anyway, back to QC. At this point it is the one I've read the longest and most consistently and the only one I've been able to spread like a virus to friends and family. Despite the slow moving quality of the storyline, the jokes hit more often then they miss. Also it has the ingredient voted Most Likely To Ensure a Successful Webcomic: an adorable side character. In this one the adorable side character is an AnthroPC named Pintsize. Good stuff.
Anders Loves Maria Anders <3s Maria, Maria <3s Anders but they both do stupid impetuous acts that constantly threaten their relationship. Often humorous and always very human, Anders <3s Maria is overall one of the best comics on the web. My main problems with the comic generally are that sometimes it is unclear who characters are or are supposed to be (especially when they are the same character but younger or older.) Also, she goes back to earlier threads and time periods with know warning or explanation making the story hard to follow, and of course the general fact that I want the lead characters to be a happy family. Also, I was a little outraged a bit ago when Rene was being harassed because of webcomic level celebrity status. She gave her harassers exactly what they wanted by putting Anders <3s Maria on indefinite (and possibly permanent) hiatus. But, I'm not Rene and I can't get too down on her for worrying about her safety and retreating to metaphorically lick her wounds. I don't know the details of the story, and since the comic is back up and running I don't really care that much. I wouldn't have cared at all probably, except for despite the problems pointed out earlier I really love the art and the story and atmosphere that Rene creates with each new installment and it became a bit of a web-addiction for me and I was angry to be cut off. So, I'm glad Anders <3s Maria is back and I recommend it to anyone over the age of 18 or at least mature enough to handle the sometimes explicitly sexual artwork and language.
Minus This webcomic is pretty and makes me happy every single time I read it. It shines with muted innocent deviousness and stellar recognizable art.
Plot Summary: The Mob:The crow clans have met at the gathering tree for their yearly Gathering to find mates and catch up. Things are different this year. And three young crows manage to be the saviors of the families. The Plague: A mysterious plague has decimated the flock and many others around it. The main characters from The Mob are back in different roles for this continuation of the series which involves crow on crow violence. Human interaction is becoming a key to survival. The Judgement: The collective is still after Kyp and he chooses to take his motley flock and flee. As the Chooser all decisions and responsibilities fall to him and he must be wise beyond his years to lead them to the giant meeting known as Urkana which may only be a legend.
Geographical Setting: Where the crow flies.
Time Period: Contemporary
Series: Feather and Bone
Appeal Characteristics:This series is interesting because it is told only from crows point of view. Their distrust of humans, their old ways, their rituals and their conflicts are all somewhat alien how humans would approach them. The book is sometimes funny, often suspenseful, and full of myths and side stories.
Red Flags: The first book is the strongest of the three. The second book has some issues at the end with suspension of disbelief and the third book is convoluted and maintaining interest -especially with so many new characters- becomes difficult. Also some violence/death from natural causes.
Castellucci, Cecil, and Jim Rugg. The Plain Janes. New York, N.Y.: DC Comics, 2007. Genre: Graphic Novel, Coming of Age story Plot Summary:
Jane is in the line of fire during a bombing in Metro City. Her parents freak out and move her to the boring suburbs. She was one of the popular girls in her old high school, but in the suburbs she wants a new identity. So she befriends a group of girls who all have names that are some variation of Jane and who all a bit socially misfitted.There's Jayne, the semi-goth avant garde art nerd, Polly Jane the tomboy sports nut who can't seem to actually make a team, and and Jane a brainy science geek. Main Jane (as our hero is known) has a great idea for a guerilla art initiative similar to the guerilla girls.
But instead of focusing so much on feminism the Plain group just wants people to appreciate art and to stop being so afraid all the time. Their work gets the entire town in a tizzy though and dire consequences are potentially awaiting them if they are caught.
Geographical Setting: Metro City, Suburbs, High School Time Period: Contemporary
Appeal Characteristics: The art in this book is good, but simple and focused mainly on the characters and not impressive backgrounds. The message is uplifting and shows teenagers making a difference in their community. The story is told mostly through a series of letters from Main Jane to another bombing victim that she is connected to through his "art saves" sketchbook. There are serious moments and issues in the book, but the story is overall a story of coming into ones own and the tone reflects the story and characters. The ideas for the P.L.A.I.N stunts are pretty cute. The other characters are not as well developed as Main Jane, but the story, though character involved, is more idea driven then character-driven. As with most graphic novels it is a quick and gratifying read.
Read-alikes: Many of Minx's publications seem to be in the same vein. Though "Breaking Up" by by Aimee Friedman (Author), Christine Norrie (Illustrator) published by Graphix is similar in the fact that it is a group of four friends dealing with issues of friendship and high school and all of the group of friends have special talents.
Red Flags: Independent thinking teenagers bucking authority. Some language, implied violence. Somewhat flat characters.
Iron Man 2008 Directed by Jon Favreau Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges. Rating: 4 of 5 sarahs approve
As comic-book superheroes go Tony Stark aka Iron Man is perhaps one of the less well known, but at least in this movie, one of the most interesting. In the first few minutes of the movie we see Tony in an envoy charming the U.S. army and then watching those same people die as the convey is attacked. The violence in this movie isn't too much for younger audiences, but might be more than small children can handle. The plot, while somewhat filled with thin pro-America propaganda, is well suited for a super-hero story with heart and character and lots and lots and lots of neat gadgets. The technology in this movie is outstanding and in many instances beautiful. Additionally it is sometimes the technology that adds character and heart to the script. In fact, a movie with nothing but the electronics and robotics would be worth seeing. As an added bonus the special effects are not super-obvious and extremely well done. Hurrah! A note about the plot going deeper than was perhaps meant. Tony Stark's father worked on the Manhattan project and founded Stark Weapons. Albert Einstein has been documented after Hiroshima as regretting his recommendation to start the Manhattan Project. Tony Stark after seeing that how the weapons he designed were being used by both sides and actually feeling the effects of one of them loses his naivety about weapon design, and that is one of the best moments in the film Robert Downey Jr. is completely well-suited to play pompous womanizing genius Tony Stark. Gwenyth Paltrow is wonderful as his poorly named assistant Pepper Potts. *BEGIN SPOILER* Kudos to the writers for not letting Pepper give into stark so easily. I love that they are not a happy couple, but a more complicated professional relationship at the end. *END SPOILER* Bridges is so likeable that he's almost unbelievable in this film, and that almost makes it even better. Terrence Howard....is in this movie.
So this is generally a good movie for most audiences and really only has some language, violence, and mild womanizing/sexual situations to watch out for with the kids. Go forth and enjoy. And for a more personal opinion see my livejournal.
Portman, Frank. King Dork. New York: Delacorte Press, 2006 Genre: YA Fiction
Plot Summary:
Tom Henderson and his best (only) friend Sam Hellerman (they became friends from unbreakable Alphabetical order, and that's forever) spend most of their time avoiding the psychopathic normals and thinking of clever band names (instead of actually writing and practicing music.) When Tom finds a copy of his dead father's copy of "Catcher in the Rye" with a secret code found in the pages it turns his entire world upside down. There are some wacky hijinks, an accidental assault, a dangerous assault, and an actual useful therapist along the way. Geographical Setting: California (High School)
Time Period: Late 1990s Age Level: 10th grade and up
Appeal Characteristics: Despite being a deeper character study and blatantly filled to the brim with 10th grade vocabulary terms this book is a fast-paced, (surprisingly)light, and humorous read. Tom Henderson is the anti-heroes anti-hero. The book deals with serious subjects, but humorously through the eyes of an introverted 14 year old. Tom parent's try hard, but fail to understand him. His best friend can't be trusted despite the sacred bonds of alphabetical order. Their band is never going to get off the ground and Tom has the worst and weirdest nickname ever. All of the elements of plot, setting, and style fit together nicely to form a brilliant character study. One of the best bits is character evolution, when new information or characters or settings come into play it is easy to see Tom integrating it into his character or the characters around him. Read-alikes: Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: Pocket Books, 1999. Thematically and attitudinally these two books are extremely similar. The anti-hero coming into his own, the humor, the musical references, the first time sexual encounters are all very similar in these two books. Red Flags:language, sexual situations involving high school students, inept parenting, and violence. Don't look for any sort of actual conclusion to this book. Also, the now-trendy name dropping of 70s mod rock can be extremely tedious unless you are really into that era of music.
Koja, Kathe. Kissing the Bee. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
I'm not going to tell you much about this book. It is so well written that it almost doesn't even matter what it is about. And after reading a bit of what I believe is her personal blog, I think Kathe Koja is someone I will be reading more of in the future and probably will wish sometimes that we were friends.
This is a book about the senior year of high school. It is about growing up or just getting older. There are friendships and there is love. This is a book about bees and butterflies. This is a book that you should read, especially if you are in high school, but even if you are not.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2006. Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York:Little, Brown, 2007.
In my Materials for Youth class we had to give a booktalk to the class. The booktalking assignment fell on the two weeks around Halloween and I think seven people chose vampires/horror books as their theme, and all of those people tied in Twilight. Which is the least horrific vampire novel ever written. So for my valentine's day post I'm giving you a review of the most absurdly romantic books ever written. Talk about giving people unrealistic expectations about love! As a side note I'd like to say that I don't think erotic/romantic vampire stories should count as horror, as my friend Adrienne likes to point out (repeatedly), "Dude, It's all just a metaphor for sex!" Yes, yes it is Adrienne. One big giant cautionary tale about waiting until you are ready for sex and then you will get eternal life, or you'll die early from hiv/aids, I mean, depending on how closely you look at the metaphor. Just as a warning though, I wouldn't look at it too closely, judging from Stephanie Meyer's writing style I'd say she just read one too many sexy Anne Rice novels, and a few more of Laurell K. Hamilton's later Anita Blake books, had typical romantic goth high school fantasies about the Toreadorclan. Anyway, the book starts off with the main vampy dude Edward, and all his pale brethren trying to fit in as a normal family "The Cullens" in a small Washington town. Our heroine, Bella, is an annoyingly self-deprecating waif with divorced parents. At the beginning of the tale she's just moved in to a different state and school with her dad after her mom has a new exciting beau she wants to get to know better or something. Edward pretends to hate Bella when they are lab partners because he looks 17 and being normal means going to high school. The tale gets complicated because both characters are extreme and stubborn and generally given to making problems because their lives are too easy and fun except when other vampires happen by and want to kill Bella. Oh, and Bella wants to be a vampire because Edward is going to be immortal without her (does this make her a bug chaser?) Edward doesn't want her to be a vampire (shock.) Three (soon to be four) books of this with more plot twists, like a hot best male friend for Bella, oh la la! Anyway, the best part of these books are that they are huge, but a really smooth easy read. And I did find myself wanting to read more and immediately reserved the second two books after finishing Twilight.. They are fun, fast-paced, have a great setting and side characters and follow an entertaining formula once you get to parts where Bella quits feeling sorry for herself because she's a nerdy klutz and not preternaturally beautiful (I like Anita Blake's, "I'm cute, but I don't compare...whatevs!" attitude much better.) I'm looking forward to book 4, and possibly renting the movies when they come out, and if you like a good romantic vampire story (and I do) please feel free to indulge in this guiltiest of Young Adult fiction pleasures. Just, don't go thinking the preternatural creatures in these books are going to scare you. Unless you are scared of self-induced drama queen vampires, then they might.
Pre-review thoughts. I'm writing this about two weeks after finishing the book and about two minutes after reading Harry Siegel's rant/review. The book is neither as good as Harry claims it is touted to be, nor as vile as he claims. Harry's point is that Foer steals stylistically from other authors. And? I tend to believe people always steal from each other, especially ideas. I'm always hearing about how nothing truly new can be created anymore. It's all been done before. But I, like so many others of my age, find amusement and comfort in the appropriation and recontextualization (or the stealing and making your own) of words. We quote the Simpsons ("D'oh!")and The Princess Bride with alarming frequency ("You keep using that word! I do not think it means what you think it means!") We title our blog entries with song lyrics. Our myspace "who we want to meet" reference last night's "The Office." And when we feel really creative we interweave other people's poetry into our own prose, and we do it almost as an automatic response, like blinking in the sun when you walk out of a building. Actual review. Oskar Schell lost his dad in the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. He spends all of the book trying to figure out the last living puzzle his dad put together and by doing so work through all of his issues with his dad's death. The entire book is this sort of personal journey, a bit overblown and occasionally too detailed and slow. There are extremely enjoyable bits (the fan-mail responses are some of my favorites.) And some incredibly not enjoyable bits (the stream of consciousness letters got old after a bit. I stopped caring about Oskar's grandfather five minutes into his first ravings.) I liked the puzzling bits, and Oskar's determination. The turn of phrase, which Siegel seems to despise (or at least dismiss offhand), are now a part of my vocabulary ("Heavy Boots" means I'm sad, and now when I like something I describe it as being "100 dollars.") I like the omniscient mother who let's Oskar be Oskar (though I do agree with Siegel here that in real life I would find Oskar a small but too precious and tiring prat.) The story is best unfolded slowly. It took me several weeks to finish, just taking it in chapter by chapter as a soothing bedtime story. I like the wrap up of the book. It ends bittersweetly. This book and a book I reviewed earlier, Maynard and Jennica, both make me have somewhat warmer fuzzier feelings then I ever have had in the past about New Yorkers and New York in general.
The Broken Teaglass: A Novel by Emily Arsenault
