Books Are King

so yesterday

2009-05-16T13:52:00.002-06:00

It would appear that I've been slightly, well, absent from my blog of late. For two months. Yeah. Things happen. And don't happen.

It's not to say that I haven't had anything to say. I just haven't taken the time to sit and write what with working a couple jobs and all. And lurving on Kindle. Let's see if we can't play a bit of catchup here.

Month o' Edgy
We have now crested to the backside of the Month o' Edgy. So you probably ought to get on that already. Just sayin'.

Pilates
I've been teaching Pilates at the JCC since about November. Now I'm teaching there quite a bit. Which I like. In the last couple months I've knocked off two more of my certification classes. That means I only have one more. Plus the test. The very nasty test. I may have to actually start learning the anatomy for it. *le sigh*

Instructional Design
I had my first trip to rKansas. That was pretty sweet. Especially since we flew in to Tulsa and then drove to rKansas, thus knocking off two states from my States I Have Never Been To list. While there, we ate lunch at Sam Walton's favorite restaurant. Or at least the one he ate at every Friday evening. And I had The. Best. Country. Fried. Steak. Ever. Seriously. The bread to meat ratio was at least 2.5:1. Instant heart attack, I tell you. And sweet potato fries. Such happiness. My hotel room was rather nice. I can say that because they put free Blue Belle Ice Cream in the freezer. And the Kindle kept me highly occupied and satisfied. Although the first stewardess threw a fit about me using an electronic device while taking off. I don't think it counts. The second stewardess was much kinder. Oh. Which leads to the highlight of the trip . . . I got a nekkid body picture scan at the airport. Don't believe any of the rubbish they tell you about it being quicker. Two families with multiple children each went through the standard security check in less time than I did through that machine.

Reading
I've been doing quite a bit of reading. I have about ten reviews I need to write up and post. Of course, one of the things that's been sucking the life out of me is a manuscript I've been evaluating. I must finish it at all costs today. Really. Because I'd rather read Fobby's most recent manuscript and I can't start that until I've finished this one.

Yard Stuffs
We have tulips this year. We haven't had them before, so I find this to be a bit odd. The irises are slowly starting to come back. The flowering cherry is nice and full and fat. Apparently she likes the annual wassailing. The red oak, on the other hand. She's such a stick. Although she has more than three leaves this year. Even if they're huddled around a branch shoot halfway up the tree. And we've finally potted some plants. That makes me happy. Now all we need to do is dig up the side yard and put in a garden.

That should cover everything for the time being. I'm aiming for more regularity, especially since the Poppa seems to have noticed the lack of posting.

sleeping beauty

2009-03-15T15:33:00.003-06:00

Last night, Dec proposed that we move the puppies' beds. He'd like for Puppatrix to sleep on my side of the room and Puppicent can sleep on his side. He wants this because Puppatrix is a whiner. She sighs and whines and lets you know that she generally discontent. Of course, this is her own fault. If she would just stay under her blanket when we put her to bed, she wouldn't have to bellyache about how cold she is later on.

I, of course, told Dec no. But it has relatively little to do with Puppatrix's whining, especially when you consider that the whining is nothing in comparison to Puppicent's snoring. No, I turned him down because Puppicent, bless her dear little soul, is easily disoriented.

When we first got her, she slept under my nightstand while Puppatrix slept under Dec's. Then Puppicent decided she wanted Puppatrix's bed. So we moved her bed to the same side of the room. A couple months ago, deciding that it was more important that Dec and I be able to actually move around the entire bed, we moved her back under my nightstand. This has been amusing.

You see, the puppies like to lie in bed with me and cuddle as we read. If Puppicent should fall asleep, she has difficulty making it back to her bed when Dec comes to bed. Some nights, she insists that her bed is still in the other corner of the room. And she will curl up on the hard, wood floor, because she knows that's where her bed is. It will then take us a couple minutes to coax her over to her actual bed.

So out of consideration for Puppicent, I have vetoed Dec's suggestion. Because then she would have no idea where she's actually supposed to sleep. Oh. And that way I don't have to recover Puppatrix multiple times during the night.

big fat manifesto

2009-03-10T19:44:00.004-06:00

I fear that I will never understand the gastrointestinal tracts of the puppies.

For example, Saturday evening, Softball decided she wanted to make brinner for her meal, as it was her weekend to cook. Furthermore, she insisted that we mark St. Patrick's Day with the dinner and turn everything green. So we cooked some green flan the night before. And we had kiwi and mandarin oranges in green whipped cream. And we had lemon-lime Crystal Light. And we had green German pancakes.

And then there was the green bacon.

My BiL had suggested that he had seen somewhere online that you can dye your bacon green. We thought that was rather kooky. So we tried it. Or, rather, we made Dec try it. (I'm noticing that if it involves a griddle or a skillet, I won't cook it. Don't know why. Probably ought to see someone about this.) What it comes down to is you put a couple drops on the fat. We then decided to rub it in and press it against the next piece of bacon. By and large, the fat of the bacon remained green. Tomboy and I thought it was cool; everyone else was rather grossed out about it.

So back to the puppies. In the cleanup process, unnamed persons (whose names rhyme with Fleck and Schmomboy) left the garbage can out in the middle of the kitchen after they had left the room. This is the garbage can that has grease-soaked paper towels sitting on the top of it. As is her wont to do, Puppatrix had pilfered some paper towel. I walked in on her hiding under a chair nom nom nomming away on said paper towel. She started nom nom nomming away quicker.

Apparently that was the second paper towel. This afternoon, I walked into the living room to find her throwing up. And what did I find in the pile of neon green vomit? (Did I mention that Tomboy insisted on neon green food dye this weekend?) That's right. It was a formerly-green-dyed-bacon-grease-soaked paper towel, still relatively whole.

I'm baffled because she has eaten since the nom nom nomming and had movements. Where was she hiding this paper towel in her system? I'm thinking she might be part cow and have an extra stomach or two. Not sure though.

The Sandman: Endless Nights

2009-03-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Sandman: Endless Nights
by Neil Gaiman
Graphic Novel. 152 pp.
DC Comics. 2003.

back copy:

Before becoming a New York Times two-time best-selling author, Neil Gaiman revolutionized the comic-book arena with The Sandman. The most acclaimed and award-winning comic series of the last decade, The Sandman is a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy, in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven. The Sandman set new standards for comics literature, and the ten volumes of The Sandman library are seen today as one of the high-watermarks of the medium.

The Sandman: Endless Nights will be a delight to fans of Gaiman's work and newcomers to the graphic novel. Whether haunting, bittersweet, erotic or nightmarish, the seven stories in this book—one for each of the Endless siblings—reveal strange secrets and surprising truths. Each story is illustrated by some of the greatest comics artists from around the world.

Fortunately, I checked this book out from the library at the same time as I checked out Preludes and Nocturnes. had I not done that, I would have never read this one, I enjoyed this one considerably more than the other. There are a couple things I'm going to chalk such like up to. First, the stories are better contained and more interesting, probably because we get to see a little about each of the Endless siblings. Second, the illustrations are in a style that I find more pleasing, even if each story is illustrated by a different illustrator. This was a huge component of my liking this one.

So, I won't completely write off the Sandman series; I just won't actively set about finishing it.

The Last Exit to Normal

2009-03-04T07:00:00.003-07:00

The Last Exit to Normal
by Michael Harmon
YA fiction. 288 pp.
Knopf. 2008.

kindle summary:

Yanked out of his city life and plunked down into a small Montana town with his father and his father's boyfriend, seventeen-year-old Ben, angry and resentful about the changed circumstances of his life, begins to notice that something is not quite right with the little boy next door and determines to do something about it.

further summary:

It’s true: After 17-year-old Ben’s father announces he’s gay and the family splits apart, Ben does everything he can to tick him off: skip school, smoke pot, skateboard nonstop, get arrested. But he never thinks he’ll end up yanked out of his city life and plunked down into a small Montana town with his dad and Edward, The Boyfriend. As if it's not painful enough living in a hick town with spiked hair, a skateboard habit, and two dads, he soon realizes something's not quite right with Billy, the boy next door. He's hiding a secret about his family, and Ben is determined to uncover it and set things right. In an authentic, unaffected, and mordantly funny voice, Michael Harmon tells the wrenching story of an uprooted and uncomfortable teenaged guy trying to fix the lives around him—while figuring out his own.

This is the first book I read on my Kindle. (And I haven't told you how much I lurve my Kindle yet, but I do. And I will. After I finish catching up with these reviews.) I had tagged this book as To Read some time ago, though I don't remember where I found the recommendation. Overall, I found the book to be average. That said, there are some strengths to it to commend it.

For starters, the characters are well drawn. Particularly Miss Mae, Ben's new step-grandmother. She's brusque and apparently rather weather-worn and hardened. But there's a deep and abiding love underneath her tough exterior, and you're thrilled as Ben begins to discover this. (You're also thrilled every time she whacks him with a wooden spoon for some offense, be it foul language, laziness, or smarting off. Even better when she kicks him out of the house for his behavior and makes him sleep in the shed.) You fall in love with Billy, the boy next door who is walking a tough line in his own life. Edward is even extremely likable.

The novel shows amazing growth on Ben's part, and that leaves the book with an overall feeling of hope. Is Ben a punk? Yes. Do you see and understand why he is? Yes.

I'd say the one thing I found distracting was the language. I'm not even sure why. Because this was the language used around school as I grew up. It's the language of ranch hands and cowboys. But it just seemed to be in excess in this novel.

other reviews:
Becky's Book Reviews | Guys Lit Wire | Literature Blog

The Demigod Files

2009-03-03T07:00:00.001-07:00

The Demigod Files
by Rick Riordan
YA fantasy. 151 pp.
Hyperion. 2009.

back copy:

Young demigods, brace yourselves for a peek inside the highly classified Demigod Files! Compiled by Camp Half-Blood's senior scribe, Rick Riordan, these top secret archives include three of Percy Jackson's most perilous adventures and behind-the-scenes interviews with your favorite characters—Connor and Travis, Clarisse, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy. Become an authority on Percy's world with this must-have guide to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

So, we know that I lurve me some Percy Jackson. I had forgotten that this little nugget was to be released until I happened to be at the Devil's Den buying a birthday present for Bruce and saw sitting there, begging to be bought. So I bought it. And enjoyed it. This book consists of a few short stories, some character interviews, and some puzzles. I like that it fleshes the characters out a bit more. What I wonder, though, is if Riordan is using the short stories to move the principals along to where they need to be for the final volume, The Last Olympian. All I know is that I'm glad to have a little bit of Percy to tide me over until May.

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes

2009-03-02T15:59:00.003-07:00

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes
by Neil Gaiman
Graphic Novel. 239 pp.
DC Comics. 1991.

back copy:

Enter a dark and enchanting world of dreams and nightmares and meet the Sandman, master of dreams, and his kin—the Endless. This first collection of Neil gaiman's unique and multi-award-winning Sandman Saga introduces key themes and characters, combining myth, magic and black humor.

bn synopsis:

A wizard attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. Fearful for his safety, the wizard kept him imprisoned in a glass bottle for decades. After his escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On the way, Morpheus encounters Lucifer and demons from Hell, the Justice League, and John Constantine, the Hellblazer. This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings" which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl, Death.

I picked this title up at the suggestion of a few friends because I've found myself interested in Gaiman's writing of late. ejwise said:

Gaiman, for the unitiated, is best known for his Sandman comic book series -- or for the more sophisticated, a graphic novel series. (It was serialized before it was bound into separate volumes based upon its many story-arcs.) This is a must-read!

In terms of story, I think I'd agree with him. The story itself is intriguing. Morpheus himself is fascinating. As I've thought about it over the weeks since I finally finished the volume, I mostly didn't care for the illustration style. And because of that, I found that I didn't particularly care for this book and will likely not carry on into the series.

angels & demons

2009-02-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, Absent sent me this joyous gem:

According to Stephen [King], "Both Rowling and Meyer, they're speaking directly to young people... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."

Oh! how it warmed my little heart.

On the other hand, apparently Meyer's also been channeling Oprah:

Call it the Meyer Effect. Last week, Stephenie Meyer recommended a first novel, The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester (Feiwel and Friends, 2008) on her Web site, and the book has since shot up the sales rankings on Amazon and B&N.com. So what did Meyer say about the book? “It’s the oddest/sweetest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men. I was smiling the whole time (except for the part where I cried).... Prepare to have your heart warmed.” F&F publisher Jean Feiwel called the plug “a stroke of luck,” saying, “You hope something will happen for that debut author you really believe in. But it’s hard these days to make that book stand out in all the noise.” The company went back to press immediately for 10,000 copies. (via PW Children's Bookshelf, 2/5/09)

I guess it is theoretically possible for bad writers to do good things.

dreamquest

2009-02-10T12:46:00.002-07:00

A friend e-mailed me last night at 3:30 because she had a horrid nightmare that I had been shot. She wanted to know that I was doing okay. I appreciate the thought. And I wrote back that I was doing fine and hadn't been shot, though you can never rule that out what with me living in Central City and all, surrounded by the neighbors that I have.

.

Our neighbors are moving. You know, the ones with the troubled child who is now a ward of the state and gets bounced back and forth between the psych ward and the foster system on a monthly basis. I am, oddly enough, sad to see them go. But that's because they are actually a nice couple. And they respect our boundaries (even if their cat didn't and paid the ultimate price for said trespassing). And I'm worried that their apartment is going to go to yet another Mexican family with three cars and a large box truck.

.

I wrote back to my friend at 4:00 this morning. I had gotten up to let the puppies out to take care of business. I typically don't do this because I figure it gives Dec something to do in the middle of the night. Also, I've noticed lately that if I get up and move around, moving from unconscious to semi-conscious to fully conscious, I never get back to unconscious again. And then I'm just plain irritable. And snappy. I've a tendency toward the unpleasant in the best of circumstances; why hinder it even more?

.

This weekend, apparently I fell out of bed. It startled Puppicent when I landed on her bed, to the point that she decided to scout other places to sleep for the rest of the night. For a few hours, apparently, I continued to thrash around. Rather violently. Gasping for air throughout that time. And Dec had to hold me in bed.

.

The next morning, Dec had great joy telling the kids all about my night. And they laughed and made general merriment because of it.

I was not happy.

But I bit my tongue. Because normally I don't remember my dreams. However, that next morning I did. There's a reason I was trying to get away from Dec and was having difficulty breathing.

.

Should anyone else have a dream that involves my death, I'd rather not know about it. I'm rather superstitious about Threes.

InterWorld

2009-02-10T07:00:00.001-07:00

Interworld
by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
YA fantasy. 239 pp.
Eos. 2007.

back copy:

Joey Harker isn't a hero.

In fact, he's the kind of guy who gets lost in his own house.

But one day, Joey gets really lost. He walks straight tout of his world and into another dimension.

Joey's walk between worlds makes him prey to armies of magic and science, both determined to harness Joey's power to ravel between the dimensions. The only thing standing in their way is Joey—or, more precisely, an army of Joeys, all from different dimensions and all determined to save the worlds.

Now Joey must make a choice: return to the life he knows or join the battle to the end.

I enjoyed this book. What I found most intriguing was the alternate reality in which it played out. Essentially, every time a significant decision has to be made, a world splits, each of the two worlds following the path of one of the opposing decisions. That said, the realm of worlds exist on a plane that shifts from magic to science, the bulk of the worlds residing in that center space.

So when Joey inadvertently Walks between worlds, flags are set off as the civilizations existing at the extremes vie to capture Joey (and the other Joeys) to harness his essence to conquer the universe. Through this all, Joey must learn who he is and who he wants to be. (This summary doesn't do the story any justice at all, which I guess would explain why the authors had difficulty summarizing it to pitch it to television producers. A crying shame, really, because this would serialize fantastically.)

Joey is extremely likable. He's flawed in believable ways but emotionally endearing. Whereas the conflict in the plot does seem to stem from his decisions, it wasn't the kind of conflict where I spent the bulk of my time muttering about how stupid he was. I don't know how much of the writing was Gaiman's and how much was Reaves', but I'm starting to understand why people praise it so. (Which makes me look forward to reading Coraline now that I have it.)

As a complete and utter side note . . . Remember how Gaiman won the Newbery this year for Graveyard Book? I found a new reason to love Gaiman after reading his blog post about his experience:

You are on a speakerphone with at least 14 teachers and librarians and suchlike great, wise and good people, I thought. Do not start swearing like you did when you got the Hugo. This was a wise thing to think because otherwise huge, mighty and fourletter swears were gathering. I mean, that's what they're for. I think I said, You mean it's Monday?

"You can tell your agent and your publisher, but no-one else," said Rose. "And it will be announced in about an hour."

And I fumfed and mumbled and said something of a thankyouthankyouthankyouokaythiswasworthbeingwokenupfor nature.

Then I phoned my agent and my publisher, both of whom seemed to have intuited my news already through secret methods, but it may have just been that I was calling them on this particular Monday morning (and, in retrospect, someone must have phoned someone to get my home phone number). (Merrilee-my-agent: "You didn't start swearing, did you?" Me: "No." Her: "Oh good.")

this just in

2009-02-09T10:55:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas me.

from Publishers Weekly:

Amazon unveiled the Kindle2 in an elaborate, and crowded, presentation this morning at New York’s Morgan Library. The new device is significantly slimmer than the original—about as thin as a pencil—has a text-to-speech function that can read the book out loud, and easier and improved navigation. The device also includes improved graphics and more storage—it will hold 1,500 books, Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos said, and its battery will hold a charge for two weeks.

Kindle2 will debut on February 24 and will still be priced at $359. For customers who have a Kindle on backorder, Amazon will automatically upgrade the purchase to the new e-reader. Bezos said for existing Kindle owners, anyone who orders a new one within 24 hours “will be put at the top of the queue.” It was unclear if current Kindle owners will receive a discount for upgrading.

The Magician's Assistant

2009-02-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Magician's Assistant
by Ann Patchett
Fiction. 357 pp.
Harcourt. 1997.

back copy:

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine—who was also his faithful assistant for twenty years—learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well. Sabine is left to unravel his secrets, and the adventure she embarks upon, from sunny Los Angeles to the bitter windswept plains of Nebraska, will work its own magic on her. Sabine's extraordinary tale captures the hearts of its readers just as Sabine is captured by her quest.

I read this book on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm pleased I did as this isn't an author I had heard of before or would have been inclined to pick up.

Before I get into my feelings on the book, I just want to clarify one little tidbit in the back copy: It should read his faithful assistant for twenty years Sabine—who was also his widow. Because this is what Sabine was to Parsifal. What with his being gay and all and marrying her during the last year of his life to make her inheritance easier. Anyway.

This is a character book. I realize that I generally come down fairly harsh on character books. After reading this, I realize it's because they generally aren't done very well. Patchett's language and sense of timing are remarkable. Remember how Ogre likes to talk about how he has layers, like an onion? Patchett proves herself quite adept at peeling back those layers with the right pacing and at the right time.

I can't say I ever felt compelled to read this book, but I noticed that it was written in such a way that all of a sudden I had read forty or fifty pages without being cognizant of it. I think that's a mark of an author who has crafted a fine novel.

It's a character book, so there's not much plot. Though there was a sudden introduction of plot toward the end. And I wasn't happy with it. Because suddenly there was an interesting action, but it was never developed. Giving the author the benefit of the doubt, I'd say it's because she's established these detailed and exquisite character descriptions and we are left to imagine what the characters will do now that something has happened.

First Among Sequels

2009-01-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

First Among Sequels
by Jasper Fforde

Alternative reality. 362 pp.
Penguin. 2007.

back copy:

Fourteen years after she pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, Thursday Next is grappling with a host of problems in the BookWorld: a recalcitrant new apprentice, the death of Sherlock Holmes, and the inexplicable departure of comedy from the once-hilarious Thomas Hardy novels. The Council of Genres is trying to broker a peace deal between certain antagonistic genres: Racy Novel has been recklessly placed between Ecclesiastical and Feminist, and they are at each other's throats. Meanwhile, back in Swindon, the government is reporting a dangerously high stupidity surplus, and Thursday's idle sixteen-year-old son would rather sleep all day than follow his destiny as a member of the ChronoGuard. Not only does she captain the ship Moral Dilemma to the very limits of acceptable narrative possibilities, but Thursday also finds she must face down her most vicious enemy yet: herself.

It has occurred to me, with this novel, that Thursday Next novels stop up my reviewing. I think this is because I like them but I don't know if there's anything more to say than I've said before about Lost in a Good Book or The Well of Lost Plots or Something Rotten. Now that we're five books in, I think that overall I enjoy the alternative reality Fforde has set up. I like how Next functions in that universe. All that said, however, I think I prefer The Eyre Affaire where Next operates primarily in this world or Well of Lost Plots where she operates primarily in the BookWorld. I find the bouncing back and forth a bit irritating.

must reads 2009

2009-01-26T11:13:00.004-07:00

The ALA awards were announced this morning. There are lists floating about, not that I can actually find the listing on the ALA site. (Note: Finally found it.)

I must confess to actually being pleased with the choice for the Newbery this year. And I think this is the first year I've actually read the winning book prior to it winning.

Here is the list:

Newbery Medal
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Newbery Honor Books
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
Savvy by Ingrid Law
After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

Caldecott Medal
The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes

Caldecott Honor Books
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee
How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams illustrated by Melissa Sweet

2010 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer
Kathleen T. Horning, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Batchelder Award
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano

Batchelder Honor Books
Garmann's Summer by Stian Hole, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis, translated from the German by Anthea Bell

Belpré Author Award
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle

Belpré Author Honor Books
Just in Case by Yuyi Morales
Reaching Out by Francisco Jiménez
The Storyteller's Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez

Belpré Illustrator Award
Just in Case by Yuyi Morales

Belpré Illustrator Honor Books
Papa and Me illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez
The Storyteller's Candle/La velita de los cuentos illustrated by Lulu Delacre
What Can You Do with a Rebozo illustrated by Amy Cordova

Carnegie Medal
Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly, Weston Woods Studios, producers of March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World

Geisel Award
Are You Ready to Play Outside? written and illustrated by Mo Willems

Geisel Honor Books
Chicken Said, "Cluck!" written by Judyann Ackerman Grant, illustrated by Sue Truesdell
One Boy written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Stinky written and illustrated by Eleanor Davis
Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator written by Sarah C. Campbell, photographs by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell

Odyssey Award
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian narrated by Sherman Alexie

Odyssey Honor Audiobooks
Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady narrated by Katherine Kellgren
Elijah of Buxton narrated by Mirron Willis
I'm Dirty narrated by Steve Buscemi
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale narrated by Carmen Agra Deedy
Nation narrated by Stephen Briggs

Sibert Medal
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Sibert Honor Books
Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and Rediscovery of the Past by James M. Deem
What to Do about Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! by Barbara Kerley

Wilder Medal
Ashley Bryan, author and illustrator of numerous books, including Dancing Granny, Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum, and Beautiful Blackbird.

the chosen

2009-01-16T13:14:00.004-07:00

Over the last week, there have been numerous articles and sites and what have you posting letters from children to President-Elect Obama. They're cute or endearing or message-laden &c. in their own special ways. But I finally found my favorite one today in a NYTimes article.

Dear President Obama,

Here is a list of the first 10 things you should do as president:

1. Fly to the White House in a helicopter.
2. Walk in.
3. Wipe feet.
4. Walk to the Oval Office.
5. Sit down in a chair.
6. Put hand-sanitizer on hands.
7. Enjoy moment.
8. Get up.
9. Get in car.
10. Go to the dog pound.

—Chandler Browne, age 12, Chicago

harvest 2008

2009-01-11T18:00:00.002-07:00

So I swear that this year I will actually stay current and produce my year-end post in a timely manner. I'm even starting it in March. March, I tell you!

And now that it's January, I can see that I did a good job with this during the past year. Even if I'm not posting the harvest until the ~~tenth~~ eleventh of the month.

This was a good year of reading for me. I managed to hit seventy books. Even if I was having to push through the last book of the year, just finishing it with hours to spare.

I think this is the first time I've compiled stats of what I read. This is, surprisingly, more difficult than I had anticipated it would be. I believe this is due to the fluidity and imprecision of labels. Or at least the imprecision with which I labeled books. For example, in reviewing my reviews, I'm not sure why I classified Percy Jackson and The Shadow Thieves as fantasy but Oh. My. Gods. and Pandora Gets Jealous and Gods Behaving Badly as fiction when they're all about the Greek/Roman gods. And why did I label Suck It Up as fiction whereas, had I actually read it, I would have classified Breaking Craptastica as fantasy? So I believe that for my stats, I'm going to have to generalize the categories a bit to make them easier to assess. Perhaps I'll be more precise next year in my labeling.

That said, here are this year's stats:

Books read: 70
Pages read: 20,706

Nonfiction—Inspirational: 1
Nonfiction—Informational: 3
Nonfiction—Essay/Memoir: 1
Poetry: 1
Short Stories: 1
Graphic Novel: 3
General Fiction—Adult: 4
General Fiction—YA: 23
General Fiction—MG: 6
Fantasy—Adult: 3
Fantasy—YA: 8
Fantasy—MG: 8
Sci Fi/Apocalyptic—YA: 5
Sci Fi/Apocalyptic—MG: 3

2008: 32
2007: 21
2006: 5
2005: 3
2004: 3
2003: 2
2001: 2
1988: 1

Books Edited: 15
Books Evaluated for Publication: 4 (1 evaluated twice)

All in all, not a bad year. I think my best books for the year are Thirteen Reasons Why, The Willoughbys, How They Met, Unwind, Suck It Up, Larklight series, Gods Behaving Badly, My Most Excellent Year, The Graveyard Book, Paper Towns, What I Saw and How I Lied, Vintage, and Swish.

There aren't many that I regret picking up, though my least books for the year would include the books of Ember, Click, Changing Jamie, Girl v. Boy, Gifted, Magyk, Broadway Nights, The Shadow Thieves, Big Fat Manifesto, and A Mercy.

And finally, the year in review . . .

The Well of Lost Plots
I think this may be my favorite Thursday Next book at this point. It's in this one where the world Fforde has created gets truly ingenious. I really love his characters, and Next really becomes likable at this point as she's not out creating her own problems (necessarily, anyway).
Click
I picked this book up because I thought it was an intriguing idea and I like some of the authors. I like that the narrative is employing a variety of short stories by different authors. I just don't think it worked.
Thirteen Reasons Why
This book is rather haunting. Good, but haunting nonetheless.
Slam
I do remember that I picked it up because I like Nick Hornby and I was interested in seeing what he would do when writing YA. Truth be told, I recall being a bit disappointed. The writing was fair enough, it's just that neither the book nor the writing stood out.
The City of Ember
The first book is, in terms of story and quality, the better book in the series. I think that has to do with the fact that apocalyptic fiction relies on the world you create.
The People of Sparks
I think the quality of storytelling and writing is in a bit of a decline. Here, I attribute that to my general Dislike of the Sequel. I can't say I was particularly interested in more of Lina and Doon's adventures. And I guess my problem with this is that I find it a bit on the implausible side that Lina and Doon can be the saviors of civilization yet again. Perhaps it would have been better for the author to spread the glory around a bit.
How They Met
And it's brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you. Then again, I have a tendency to think Levithan is brilliant as it is. The best part, though, is that through this book we discover that Levithan has always been brilliant.
Life As We Knew It
What I like about these books in particular is the idea behind them. I read in an interview with Pfeffer that she intentionally wanted to explore how people respond to cataclysmic events but she wanted to do so without the event being the fault of humans. Hence the asteroid pushing the moon closer to earth. And the books are wonderful because of this.
Repossessed
It's not my favorite Printz book I've read. It does have one of the sharper covers, but that's not necessarily a reason to recommend it.
The White Darkness
I had initial difficulty getting into it because I just didn't like Sym. Fortunately, one thing she had going for her was that I could tell that I would more than likely end up liking her. I had to work at this, because she adores her uncle, who I could tell was a very bad seed from the get-go. And she's very passive, which I find to be an amazingly taxing trait to tolerate. She was also a bit slow on figuring out what was going on. I've noticed that I can handle this in third-person narratives, but I don't take it quite as well in first-person narratives.
The Prophet of Yonwood
In terms of actual writing and storytelling, I felt this book was the weakest of the three. I think that is most evident when you get to the last chapter, which is essentially a required epilogue. And we all know how I feel about those. But DuPrau forced herself into that by leaving too many open threads that needed resolution. And she had to somehow connect this book to the other two, since it's billed as a prequel.
A Really Nice Prom Mess
Initially, I wasn't digging the book. The action was rather blah and I wasn't overly fond of the protagonist's voice either. Fortunately, that all changed when Cameron left the prom with the bisexual Russian pot dealer. Suddenly there was something interesting happening. And suddenly Cameron's voice wasn't quite so irritating and whiny.
The Willoughbys
I'm beginning to feel that you can't lose with a Lowry book. I've always enjoyed her writing. I find her to be insightful and well paced. This book is just as entertaining. I like the "old" feel to it. I like the dry, almost macabre, sense of humor to it.
Pandora Gets Jealous
This book is cute, but it borders a bit on the fluff side. It's still set in Ancient Greece, but the language and attitude is very much contemporary American. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I guess it works well enough. The characters are interesting and seem to work well together.
Unwind
Yes, it's another sci fi novel. And this one is good too. It's dark, there's no denying that. I mean, consider the premise: as a political compromise between the pro-life and pro-choice camps, legislation is passed that prohibits abortion, though when kids turns thirteen, they can be retroactively aborted, but all their parts must be harvested and recycled. Creepy. (Especially since you actually get to have a scene where a kid is being unwound.)
Attack of the Fiend
I find that this series gets better and better with each book. Unlike Harry Potter, Tom continues to grow and learn and piece things together on his own. Yes, he makes some poor decisions, but he's drawn in such a way that you care about his learning curve and the conflict he has with his emotions and his profession.
Magyk
I don't remember much about this book except that I found it to be rather disappointing. And I think I recall corresponding with someone about it (DesMama maybe?) wherein I enumerated its many flaws, but now I can't find those e-mails. Part of me wants to think that the plot was underdeveloped and overly predictable, that the characters were shallow, that there was nothing to stand out about this book. Of course, if it gives kids who are in love with Harry another series to dive into, then go for it.
Broadway Nights
Whatever reviews I had read of this, they made it sound like this wonderfully written, gleeful romp. By and large, I was disappointed. I guess, when all is said and done, the writing was fine. The Broadway trivia was fun. But where I had issues with the book was with the protagonist. Knowing that, it shouldn't surprise you that I'm now going to complain about how I couldn't respect the character because I don't like books where the plot conflict stems from the character's inherent stupidity. I just have no sympathy for a guy who wants to bitch about how much his love life sucks when he insists on only dating guys who already have boyfriends. For years. If you choose to be the other man, you choose to be miserable.
The Battle of the Labyrinth
I love it. Lots and lots and heaps and heaps. Basically, this is one of my favorite series. And I really like where Riordan has taken it. I find the way in which he has given the Labyrinth life and character to be intriguing. I like that Percy is still an utterly likable character. I like that he's being put in positions where he has to make difficult decisions. And I like the end and how Percy has chosen to relate to the characters around him. I'm anxious for the next (perhaps closing?) volume in the series.
The Manny Files
My surprise with this book was the age. I confess that I was expecting it to be an adult novel, taking after Nanny Diaries. But I was wrong. After I adjusted to that massive paradigm shift, I found that I enjoyed the novel.
The Shadow Thieves
I picked this book up from a Devil's Den end stand that basically said if you like Percy Jackson, you should read this. The employee who put up that stand ought to be fired. The premise behind this book has so much promise, even if it is fairly standard—two kids must venture into the Underworld to save us all. The characters the author has created are actually fairly interesting. But somehow, it all just fell apart and failed to work.
Savvy
I really liked this book. It's a fairly simple, straight-forward read, but it settles into just the right places. You get the "extraordinary" ability fantasy elements of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but because the author doesn't take you out of this world, it seems all the more endearing.
Saints of Augustine
This was a slow book to get into, but in the end, I enjoyed it. It's not at the top of my to recommend list, because I really don't recall much more about it other than the impression that I appreciated how Ryan approached their friendship and the tension Sam brought to it because he wasn't able to own up to his homosexuality or how that would affect his friendship.
Heart to Heart
Initially, I thought this book was amazing and had decided I was going to get a copy for the kids to have. I really liked that you had poetry inspired by and about art. Now that some time has passed, I find that my feelings of love and adoration have quelled significantly. There was more poetry in there that didn't impress than there was that did. At least in terms of what I remember. I think the organizational breakdown for the book is a good concept but ineffectively realized.
Zen and the Art of Faking It
This was a cute story. I mean, how can you help but love a boy who finally gets something good from moving every year? Granted, declaring yourself a zen guru can't help but end poorly. But it was a cute story. Nothing to jump up and down about, but cute nonetheless.
Vintage
I'm frustrated that I've taken so long to get around to writing about this book. It's one of the stories I found most interesting this year. And this considering that I am not generally a fan of ghost stories. (Although, I guess that technically there are two ghost stories I've read in the last year that I've really liked.) Even today, there are particular scenes that were conceived so well that I can still visualize them. That's the talent of this author.
If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
I remember nothing about this book. Even the book blurb isn't helping me this time. I apparently Goodreaded it three stars. Perhaps I should downgrade that since it obviously wasn't memorable.
Strays
At this point, I remember rather little about this book. I picked it up because the premise—lonely boy talks to dogs—seemed rather intriguing. And I've enjoyed Koertge in the past. In the end, I enjoyed this book as well. At least that's the impression I have. There was nothing stellar to make it stand out, but it was a good book about learning to find your place in a new pack.
Alt Ed
Again, not much remembering going on here. Although I think that I'm more fond of it now than I might have been when I read it. On Goodreads, I gave it three stars, so it likely was just an average read. It likely had good resolution. I was likely frustrated with some of the characters. Perhaps, though, because The Breakfast Club is one of those movies from my youth, I couldn't help but not be impressed by this novel.
The Dead & the Gone
I like how the second one moves from a rural setting to a metropolis setting. I like how her protagonists rise to meet the challenge of surviving. I like how in the second you already know what's going to happen with the weather, which in some ways made the book even more chilling since you knew what the protagonist and his sisters would soon be coming up against.
Changing Jamie
I'm not sure what to say about this book. I think the story idea is interesting, but I really didn't like the execution.
Something Rotten
It has been well-established that I lurves me some Fforde. This has been my least favorite book in the series. Not that that's bad—it's still Fforde and it's still the brilliant world he's created. But I think I might be burning out a bit on it. I think that's why I just recently finally started the fifth novel in the series. Regardless, you should read The Eyre Affair so that you too can fall in love with the series.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
I had generally overlooked most reviews of this book, partly because the cover just didn't quite catch me. But then I read Abby's review, which did more to intrigue me before it sold me by connecting it to The House of the Scorpion. And it is good. Of course, I have this thing for dystopian/post-apocalyptic sci fi. It's not as good as Scorpion (or at least what my lingering feelings for Scorpion indicate), but it presents an extremely plausible future and sharp questions about bioethics and human environmental responsibility. I like the poetic use of language throughout the book, which even includes poetry to function as chapter breaks.
The Spark
This book has some good inspiration, but I must confess to not liking the presentation. At all. It's set up in a fictional narrative. Cool concept, but it just doesn't work right. I think this is because we are introduced to all these characters who are intriguing and wise and brilliant in their own way, but they each only get a page and a half to offer up some variation of an anecdotal soliloquy. And that was frustrating.
Outbreak
I wonder about some of the connections the author draws between epidemics and social changes, and that's perhaps the best thing I pull from this book. But I don't see too many junior high kids wanting to delve further into research pursuing the link between the Romantic worship of tuberculosis with our current obsession with waifish models as the pinnacle of beauty and health.
The Final Farewell
So let's start with some full disclosure: I love Patricia Wiles. Though I had many authors I enjoyed working with while at Covenant, I can easily—oh so easily—say that Patricia was my favorite. And that's because she's brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Her sense of voice is wonderful. Her dedication to her craft—particularly the revision element of her craft—is absolutely stellar. And she doesn't resent and despise her editor. In fact, she actually takes criticism and praise quite well.
Suck It Up
It's part vampire novel/part superhero novel/part gay metaphor novel. But it's fully enjoyable. The author has done a grand job of creating a character—Morning McCobb—who is so fully likable. And that's nice for a change. I like the snippets of the IVLeague.us website that have been included. (Though I was greatly disappointed to find out that when you log on to that website, it is not the IVLeague website but is merely a redirectional link to the author's website.)
Girl v. Boy
So, let's just get it out on the table. We all know by page five (if not when we pick up the book) that Luisa is going to end up dating the boy writing the male perspective. Fortunately, Luisa and her friends know and acknowledge this as well, though she does her best to ensure she doesn't date Scoop. That said, the one thing I must completely commend the authors for are the red herrings and other diversions to make us believe that maybe Luisa isn't actually dating Scoop. There is one very good diversion thrown in there, and I was impressed by it.
Gifted
I don't think there is really anything touching or tender about it, and it's a far cry from compelling (as evidenced by the five other books I completed during its reading). I also question anyone who claims that the novel is funny. Tragic, perhaps. But certainly not funny. (I found it to lack even a semblance of a sense of humor.)
Larklight
What I find to be most enjoyable about this book is the voice. It is written with a Victorian sensibility that can only be achieved with a twenty-first century enjoyment of the currently perceived absurdity of the Victorian voice. ("I felt a little like saying 'Eeeeeeeeek!' myself, but seeing Myrtle so afraid reminded me that I was British, and must be brave.") This carries through from narrative voice through chapter titles to even the subtitles of the book itself. The characters are also very likable and fun to spend time with. And they're not the cause of the problems. I really like that in a character.
Rapunzel's Revenge
Personally, I'm rather meh about this novel. I think the story is interesting, but I would have preferred the phenomenal, full-fleshed version that I know Shannon can produce. That said, kudos to her for delivering a girl power book with a heroine who actually has some internal power, as opposed to that unnamed-travesty-that-I-have-still-not-cracked-open-regardless-of-the-glee-I-feel-in-all-the-negative-reviews-I've-read-of-it. Most of the graphics are rather cool, but I feel that quality was sometimes inconsistent. Of course, that's coming from a non–graphic-novel-reader perspective. It's not my favorite book out there, but I'm glad it iis out there.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
I find the method of storytelling here to be fascinating. I think the subject of old movies works well, particularly when considering how the author has reinforced that feel by framing each page in black. I can't say I'm gaga over the style of the illustrations or even the quality of the writing, but I can say that I'm impressed with how the illustrations and story work so well together and enhance the overall feel. I don't believe the book earned the effusive praise it garnered for quality (as everything is merely average), but it does merit the attention it has received for its uniqueness.
Gods Behaving Badly
This book is clearly not for everyone (chapter two is Apollo and Aphrodite going at it—bored—in the bathroom). That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much. I'm trying to think of how to describe this book to give it justice. Basically, I found myself laughing. Often. I was so entertained by it. Your main character in this one is Artemis, which was pleasant to see since she's often ignored in mythological retellings for the other more boisterous gods, and she's rather disgruntled and unhappy. Of course, you cram the gods and their larger-than-life personalities into a London town home when they're dying because people no longer believe in them and that's bound to happen. Though, truth be told, Hermes is my favorite god in this book. Of course, that's likely due to him getting some rather choice scenes.
Starcross
Starcross continues the Larklight saga, and it's every bit as enjoyable as the first one. What's especially nice is the quick pacing, especially from the get go. Of course, this is possible because the world has already been set up, and we know how to approach it. Art is still quite enjoyable in all his proper British stiff upper lipness.
Audrey, Wait!
I'm torn on how much I actually enjoyed this book. Let me explain . . . While I was reading this book, I was proofreading a book that also deals with a rocker and his best friend who happens to be his muse and he writes many songs about her not loving him and blah blah blah. Anyway, Audrey is clearly such a better book. But I'm unsure if I liked Audrey on its own merits or on its comparative merits.
Oh. My. Gods.
Overall, I'm left with an average impression of Oh. My. Gods. I take a bit of issue with Phoebe neglecting the good, nice guy, even though he is every bit as much a god as the jerkwad she does go after. I think the overall plot and world development is a bit shallow and unsatisfying. I'm not sure if I even like Phoebe. However, it's nice to read a sports book about a girl. The moments about running are genuinely good in terms of description and feeling. (During these scenes, it made me think of Samantha.) I really liked that this novel didn't constrain itself to the pantheon, as a good portion of the kids are descendants of the minor gods.
Generation Dead
Since I'm still unwilling to pick up the Vampire Craptastica burdening my shelves, it makes perfect sense that I would instead pick up a book about zombies. I found this to be an intriguing book. For starters, I really like the premise—some teenagers are undead, and we have no idea why. I like that instead of being about popularity (like the other zombie books out there), this one is about social integration and community tolerance.
The Maze of Bones
This book is a little bit Westing Game meets DaVinci Code meets Baudelaire Orphans meets Harry Potter.
The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye
For starters, I'm not happy with the flap copy as it's quite misleading. The Fiend (a.k.a. the Devil) is roaming the County, intent on destroying everything in its path. And yes, it wants to destroy Tom, but it has its reasons for sending its daughter Bloodeye after Tom instead. And I really don't see the "critical mistake" that Tom makes. True, he makes a questionable choice, but it really isn't a mistake. Unless all choices that lead to difficult or trying circumstances are mistakes. I always figured that was just part of living life and growing.
My Most Excellent Year
This was such an enjoyable book. Really. I found myself entertained throughout. The flap copy doesn't really tell you much about the plot. Part of that is because what really matters in this book is the characters. Fortunately, unlike the award-winning atrocity that is Criss Cross, this character-driven book has well-drawn characters who you can actually like. It also has wit and heart. As another blog I came across at one point (but can't find now) put it, this is a book about the family you're born with and the family you choose.
Big Fat Manifesto
For starters, I'd say this book is far from hilarious. As a point of fact, I really didn't like this book. At all. Oprah's Kids Reading List be damned. I'm not even sure now how this book ended up on my To Read list, seeing as how I can't find any reviews of it in the blogs I generally haunt.
A Giant Problem
I confess that I wish I hadn't picked up the first book in this series as I feel compelled to complete the series. They should have left well enough alone with the first series. Fortunately, this second book is paced much better without the self-referential crap of the first one. I'm even starting to like the protagonist. Even better, it looks like this series is only going to be a trilogy instead of a pentology.
The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie the Second
For starters, let me say how pleased I am that this book wasn't promoted as a YA novel just because it has a teenaged protagonist. I'd say there's far too much discussion of sexuality for them to consider doing that, but, well, Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging anyone?
The Loser's Guide to Life and Love
By and large, I was disappointed with this book. I'm sure that it likely failed for me because of higher-than-appropriate expectations. The mechanics of the writing weren't bad, but I feel the novel as a whole lacked spark.
The Graveyard Book
I must confess to being very pleased with this book. It has a slow start as far as pacing goes, but the writing really is quite lovely. And the characters are drawn rather well. I like the layout, with the novel being composed of a number of short stories that tie together to reveal the overarching plot and denouement. Overall, it works quite nicely. And I think it is also a rather appropriate seasonal book.
Paper Towns
I really really really like John Green's writing. Paper Towns is no exception. Sure, all three of his books seem to follow the somewhat geeky, antisocial boy who is obsessed with the ever enigmatic and illusive girl. But it works. And it works well. I like the intelligence and wit that Green brings to his characters. Even when his characters are built around one or two primary characteristics, they still feel like they've been fully rounded out. And I find them to be likable.
Do Not Open
As is seemingly the case with all nonfiction, it took me a while to read this book. Unlike most nonfiction, though, that seems perfectly fine for this book. For starters, all the information is typically bundled into two-page spreads. As is the case with most DK books, text is clumped into one- or two-sentence fact bites. And it's interesting. I really like the randomness of it all. Another feature I find intriguing with the layout on this book is the little bubble at the bottom of each spread pointing you to a couple other related topics. Which means that you don't have to read the book linearly.
Out of Patience
Out of Patience is delightfully quirky in the same way that Holes is quirky, though not quite as complicated. And what's not to love about a story that revolves around the history of toilets and plungers and a bizarre curse? Where the local baseball team gets up for the Seventh Inning Stench as the trucks from the local fertilizer company drive by making their deliveries? The characters are realistic and truly likable. I think this is something Meehl does well, as I compare his two books. He creates protagonists that are quirky and lovable and who you really want to succeed.
Mothstorm
Really, there's not much to say about Mothstorm that hasn't been said about the previous two books in the series. I enjoy the voice and writing. I enjoy the story and the alternative world the author has created. It all just makes me quite happy.
The Adventures of You
The point where I'm most befuddled about my feelings is the voice. To preface, the publisher is the same as produced the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I dearly loved in my youth. They were fun and empowering for a reader. This book, as were those, is told in the second person. I find the novelty of that to be intriguing, and so when the publisher sent me the book, I was anxious to read it and see how it worked.
Chains
I picked up Chains because it's one of the NBA finalists. I was looking forward to it because of its author. Unfortunately, I find myself grossly underwhelmed by it.
Runaways
I don't read graphic novels very often as they're just not something I'm all that into. But someone at some point blogged about this series, and it sounded intriguing to me. Basically, you have a group of kids who discover that their parents are super villains who intend to bring about the end of the world. Throughout the series, you get some cross-pollination with other heroes (presumable from the Marvel universe, but my knowledge here is lacking). There's treachery and heroics and all sorts of stuff. I guess it was okay. If nothing else, they were easy Trax reads. I'm sure I know others who would appreciate them better than I do.
Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night
I'm actually a bit surprised that I hadn't read this particular book before, but I'm glad I hadn't. You see, it's nice to come across something that is older. It's oddly refreshing. It's nice to have a story that's told rather straight forwardly. It's nice to have normal characters who aren't riddled with dysfunction and abnormality. The writing is good. The characterization is good. Actually, this is how good the characterization is—Cannon actually got me to be sympathetic toward and like a quarterback. That in and of itself is a feat worth commending. I really like how she walked us through his growth to where he becomes a better, truly likable person.
What I Saw and How I Lied
Despite an intriguing opening scene, I feared I was in for more blah. The beginning is slow. The initial looks at the characters are as through a dirty window. The setting and atmosphere are okay, but nothing to shake a stick at. But then it kicks in. And the book is good. More than anything, Evie turns out to be phenomenal. Her growth and development is unexpected and wonderful. You watch her do hard things, impressed that she's actually able to do them. And yet she redeems herself so that you're not as worried about who she might become.
The Book of Animal Ignorance
This is so my kind of nonfiction book. Trivia. Lots and lots o' trivia. It's smartly written. Entries are brief. It's quite an enjoyable book. And it's instructive. Oh. And the authors are clearly dog people, which means they're good people.
One False Note
When I reviewed the first book in the series, I complained about the alternating first-person chapters, because I hated being in Amy's head. Fortunately, Korman has moved the story to third person, which works a lot better for me as a reader (even if I'm not fond of third-person omniscient or Korman's frequent shifts in character POV throughout the novel). I think it also works better for the story. There's something to be said for following the mystery while observing the action as opposed to being the action.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
I'm glad that Rowling is not letting the Harry Potter universe fade away. As I've noted before, I'm not overly fond of Harry himself, but I do like the universe in which he exists. So I'm glad we get some of the fairy tales that form the core of that universe. I'm pleased that we get Dumbledore's commentary with them; he's so much more likable than Harry.
Swish
To say that I loved this book would be a bit of an understatement. Such joy and amusement while reading. (If you ask Dec, too much joy and amusement, otherwise he wouldn't have told me to be quiet so he could sleep or concentrate on his sudoku.) Derfner has a voice and attitude rather similar to Dan Savage, and I think we all know how much I love Savage. When it comes down to it, Derfner is a good cross between Savage (wit and wisdom) and Sedaris (narrative storytelling).
Science Fair
The story itself has an intriguing premise and quirky characters. But it just doesn't come together in the end. Furthermore, the wit and charm seemed to be largely MIA. When all is said and done, I felt the book was far too long, and I was just yearning for it to be over. (Stupid Must-Finish-the-Book curse.)
A Mercy
It should not take three weeks to read a 165-page book. I picked this book up because I heard Morrison on the Diane Reams show (which Dec tells me is being rebroadcast today). It sounded interesting to me, and because I'd never read any Morrison before, I thought I'd give it a go. To say I didn't like it would be somewhat of an understatement. Truth be told, the only reason I finished it when I did was because I wanted desperately to finish seventy books ~~this~~ last year.

A Mercy

2009-01-01T14:30:00.001-07:00

A Mercy
by Toni Morrison
Literary fiction. 167 pp.
Knopf. 2008.

flap copy:

A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize–winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.

In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.

Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.

There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who's spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.

A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.

It should not take three weeks to read a 165-page book.

I picked this book up because I heard Morrison on the Diane Reams show (which Dec tells me is being rebroadcast today). It sounded interesting to me, and because I'd never read any Morrison before, I thought I'd give it a go. To say I didn't like it would be somewhat of an understatement. Truth be told, the only reason I finished it when I did was because I wanted desperately to finish seventy books ~~this~~ last year.

Here's the deal. It is superbly crafted. Morrison knows how to put words together and create beautiful images. Case in point:

Reverend Father is the only kind man I ever see. When I arrive here I believe it is the place he warns against. The freezing in hell that comes before the everlasting fire where sinners bubble and singe forever. But the ice comes first, he says. And when I see knives of it hanging from the houses and trees and feel the white air burn my face I am certain the fire is coming.

Exquisite language throughout. The use of multiple narrators is executed with absolute precision and mastery. I still didn't like it.

For all of Morrison's grandiose mastery of her craft, I think that she failed to instill a soul in this novel. And so there was little to pull me forward and through the novel, little to help me engage emotionally with the snapshots of characters portrayed. I guess that's my beef with literary fiction in general—why should I waste my time reading an author who is writing for the sake of writing? Now, this is not what other readers and reviewers of Morrison will tell you in their effusive praise of her work. A few are linked below. So if you like this kind of thing, you're going to love A Mercy.

As a note, on Goodreads I gave it two stars. My actual like of the book would have merited one star. However, it's craft merits five stars. So I compromised at two.

Other reviews:
1morechapter | Powell's Books | Book Chronicle

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

2009-01-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Don't forget about our Twelfth Night Celebration this coming Monday.

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
by Gennifer Choldenko
YA fiction. 217 pp.
Harcourt. 2007.

flap copy:

For Kirsten McKenna, the world is crumbling. Her parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has come under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna. Only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side.

For Walker Jones, the goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin. (Walk keeps telling her, "Don't have to worry, Momma. Before I go bad I'll let you know, send a Hallmark card ready-made for the occasion . . . 'On the eve your son messes up.'")

But Walk is a good kid. So is his new friend, Matteo, though no one knows why Matteo will do absolutely anything that hot blond Brianna asks of him.

Then Kirsten discovers something that shakes her and Walk to their cores . . .

"You knew all along," Walk says.

"No I didn't."

"You're lying . . . You found out and then you told the whole world."

Completed June 16.

I remember nothing about this book. Even the book blurb isn't helping me this time. I apparently Goodreaded it three stars. Perhaps I should downgrade that since it obviously wasn't memorable.

That said, you should probably just check out these other reviews:

Book Addiction | Becky's Book Reviews

Zen and the Art of Faking It

2009-01-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Don't forget about our Twelfth Night Celebration this coming Monday.

Zen and the Art of Faking It
by Jordan Sonnenblick
MG fiction. 264 pp.
Scholastic. 2007.

flap copy:

When the going gets tough—fake it!

Look, I didn't ask to move to Nowheresville, Pennsylvania. I stick out here like a squid on Mount Everest. The way I figure it, blending in won't make people like me. Or solve my huge family problems. Or get me noticed by Woody, the fearless, wild-haired, guitar-rocking girl of my dreams—without getting my butt kicked buy her huge, evil friend.

Blending in is impossible. So maybe it's time to stand out.

Meet San Lee, a (sort of) innocent teenager, who moves against his will to a new town. Things get interesting when he (sort of) invents a new past for himself, which makes him (sort of) popular. In fact, his whole school starts to (sort of) worship him, just because he (sort of) accidentally gave the impression that he's a reincarnated mystic.

When things start to unravel, San needs to find some real wisdom in a hurry. Can he patch things up with his family, save himself from bodily harm, stop being an outcast, and maybe even get the girl? Sort of . . .

Completed June 11.

This was a cute story. I mean, how can you help but love a boy who finally gets something good from moving every year? Granted, declaring yourself a zen guru can't help but end poorly. But it was a cute story. Nothing to jump up and down about, but cute nonetheless.

Something Rotten

2009-01-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

Don't forget about our Twelfth Night Celebration this coming Monday.

Something Rotten
by Jasper Fforde
Fantasy. 383 pp.
Penguin. 2004.

back copy:

Detective Thursday Next has had her fill of her responsibilities as the Bellman in Jurisfiction. Packing up her son, Friday, Thursday returns to Swindon accompanied by none other than the dithering Danish prince Hamlet. But returning to SpecOps is no snap—as outlaw fictioneer Yorrick Kaine plots for absolute power, the return of Swindon's patron saint foretells doom, and if that isn't bad enough, back in the Book World The Merry Wives of Windsor is becoming entangled with Hamlet. Can Thursday find a Shakespeare clone to stop this hostile takeover? Can she vanquish Kaine and prevent the world from plunging into war? And, most important, will she ever find reliable childcare? Find out in this totally original, action-packed romp, sure to be another escapist thrill for Jasper Fforde's legion of fans.

Completed July 19.

It has been well-established that I lurves me some Fforde. This has been my least favorite book in the series. Not that that's bad—it's still Fforde and it's still the brilliant world he's created. But I think I might be burning out a bit on it. I think that's why I just recently finally started the fifth novel in the series. Regardless, you should read The Eyre Affair so that you too can fall in love with the series.

Alt Ed

2009-01-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Don't forget about our Twelfth Night Celebration this coming Monday.

Alt Ed
by Catherine Atkins
YA fiction. 198 pp.
Speak. 2003.

back copy:

Susan Callaway, bullied and overweight, faces daily humiliation at the hands of her classmates—and she's had enough. With her anger about to reach the boiling point, Susan lands in an alternative education class, a sort of group therapy for the nearly expelled. School is bad enough, but facing off with five peers, including her cruelest tormentor, is worse. Now Susan is being forced to do something she's always avoided—talk about herself and listen to what other people have to say about her. She has two choices: find her voice, or be prepared to take the insults in silence. It won't be easy, but alt ed may be just the last resort Susan needs.

Completed June 22.
Again, not much remembering going on here. Although I think that I'm more fond of it now than I might have been when I read it. On Goodreads, I gave it three stars, so it likely was just an average read. It likely had good resolution. I was likely frustrated with some of the characters. Perhaps, though, because The Breakfast Club is one of those movies from my youth, I couldn't help but not be impressed by this novel.

Strays

2009-01-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Don't forget about our Twelfth Night Celebration this coming Monday.

Strays
by Ron Koertge
YA fiction. 167 pp.
Candlewick. 2007.

flap copy:

"So where are you staying?" the dog asks.
"With some people who take care of strays."
"Like the pound?"
"Kind of."

Sixteen-year-old Ted O'Connor's parents just died in a fiery car crash, and now he's stuck with a set of semi-psycho foster parents, two foster brothers—Astin, the cocky gearhead, and C.W., the sometimes-gangsta—and an inner-city high school full of delinquents sure to eat him alive. He's having pretty much the worst year of his miserable life. Or so he thinks.

Completed June 21.

At this point, I remember rather little about this book. (This will also be the case for the next four reviews. But I must get these reviews posted so that I can finish my year-end post.) I picked it up because the premise—lonely boy talks to dogs—seemed rather intriguing. And I've enjoyed Koertge in the past. In the end, I enjoyed this book as well. At least that's the impression I have. There was nothing stellar to make it stand out, but it was a good book about learning to find your place in a new pack.

the winter's tale

2008-12-29T10:13:00.005-07:00

Despite my best intentions, I haven't posted much over the last few weeks. And I really need to. For starters, I have five reviews of books I read earlier this year that I need to get up, if for no other reason than to get my year-end post out in a timely manner. And then there's Christmas. Christmas was good this year. So I should write about it. Until I do, you can catch a preview at Sis's blog.

Right now, however, I must post the invitation to our Fourth Annual Twelfth Night Celebration.

Hmm. It's not supposed to be red. It's supposed to be blue. Pretty, pretty blue.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there at this point in time. What is here or there is that you're invited to the party. In theory, if we're Facebook Friends, I've invited you over there. And if we're not, you'll hopefully receive an e-mail later today. (Though I wouldn't hold my breath.)

So here are the partics.

It's next Monday evening, January 5. It'll start around 7ish and go until around half 10ish.

We'll have cocoa and wassail. Because it's important that you wassail our trees and speak lovingly to the stubborn oak that refuses to grow more than thirteen leaves. Just don't be too loud as I don't want the Weeping Cherry to overhear and get jealous. Because he responded quite well to the wassailing last year and was gorgeous this year.

We'll have a little fire pit with hot dogs and marshmallows for the roasting. Because you know you want to hit a winter barbecue.

Bring along the kiddies. If you want. You can also use this as an excuse to leave them with someone else to watch.

Just come.

For a refresher on the origins of Twelfth Night, check out Absent's post from way back when.

the forgotten carols

2008-12-19T08:49:00.004-07:00

This has been an odd Christmas season for me as I feel like I'm just kinda sorta waiting for Christmas to actually get here. Of course, this may be due in part to work being sporadic to nonexistent this month, giving me plenty of time to scan in old pictures. Well, except for the Pilates and fitness teaching; I've taught quite a bit extra there this month. It's likely also due to the fact that we finished Christmas shopping weeks ago. Seriously. Everything was wrapped and under the tree within a week of putting up the tree Thanksgiving Friday. Which has led to a lot of waiting.

But now we have less than a week to go. Woo hoo! And it's holiday party weekend for me. Woo hoo! Speaking of . . . Our End of Holiday Season Twelfth Night Party is coming up on Monday, January 5. Make plans, as our trees need wassailing. Especially the oak—or is it a maple?—that refuses to grow more than thirteen leaves each year.

Anyway, since there's less than a week, I worry that you may need some holiday joy. I swiped the following from my friend Megan.

And lest we forget the joys of years past . . .

Science Fair

2008-12-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Science Fair
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
MG fiction. 394 pp.
Disney. 2008.

flap copy:

Toby Harbinger, an eighth grader at Hubble Middle School near Washington, D.C., is in big trouble. He made the mistake of selling his dad's priceless original Star Wars blaster to a lunatic who thinks he's Darth Vader and travels with a large, hairy sidekick known as the Wookie. Now the lunatic wants more from Toby, whose only hope of getting out of this mess is to win first prize at the school science fair: $5000.

But others want the prize too—a group of rich students and their super-ambitious, high-powered parents, who will stop at nothing to see their spoiled kids win. What these parents don't know is that an evil mastermind is using them to get hold of top-secret military technology as part of a fiendish plan to destroy the United States.

When Toby discovers this plot, he and his two best friends, Tamara and Micah, try to alert the school authorities, including the fearsome principal, known as The Hornet. But powerful forces are working against Toby and his friends: they're snared in a frame-up and get taken into federal custody, facing espionage charges. Meanwhile, the mastermind proceeds with his evil plan of destruction.

In a desperate bid to escape, the kids find themselves in league with a fairly mad scientist and two bumbling foreign dignitaries armed with cheese so smelly it is used as wolf repellent. With the seconds ticking away and the FBI close on their heels, this bizarre band sets off on a madcap mission to stop the science fair—and save the country—before it's too late . . .

I picked up this book because I rather liked Peter and the Starcatchers by this duo but found my interest in their writing dwindling as the series progressed. So I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to see if it was the writing or the story that had lost me. By the time I finished Science Fair, I realized it was the writing.

The story itself has an intriguing premise and quirky characters. But it just doesn't come together in the end. Furthermore, the wit and charm seemed to be largely MIA. When all is said and done, I felt the book was far too long, and I was just yearning for it to be over. (Stupid Must-Finish-the-Book curse.)

Other reviews (these reviews actually like the book):
Christian Science Monitor | What Mary's Reading | Provo City Library

love that dog

2008-12-15T12:41:00.005-07:00

The puppies don't celebrate Christmas with us. Although Puppicent did unwrap one of the presents under the tree this year. Or, rather, she undid the bow (still can't find it) and licked the wrapping paper.

I love our puppies. They've been particularly more enjoyable over the last couple weeks. For example, when we were loading the car to head up to the Momma's for Thanksgiving, the dogs decided they were joining us. Not only that, they were insistent upon driving.

And they've been such sports when the children (Dec included) have decided to dress them. Even though dogs don't wear clothes. This year, the kids have decided that the puppies really, really, really want to be gangsta.

We had a bit of a panic last week when we woke up one morning and Puppicent had a droopy tail. You must bear in mind that both of our puppies have what may or may not qualify as lethal weapons for tails. Puppatrix's is clearly the more deadly of the two, but Puppicent's is nothing to shake a stick at. At least, prior to Tuesday. When we woke up Tuesday, we noticed that her tail just hung there. Limply. No movement at all. Initially, as we were trying to check her out, she wouldn't let us touch even her hindquarters. We realized that this explained her pacing during the night, considering that she couldn't find a comfortable position to sit or lie down in. This was, of course, a cause of great panic as I feared she might have to lose her tail. And that would be a crime against nature. Because dogs are supposed to have tails.

Fortunately, we were able to get her in to the vet in the afternoon (Dr. Poncé at Avenues Pet Clinic—she rocks). After examining Puppicent, the vet determined that there was still feeling in her tail, so it might just be a broken vertebra or a sprain. We opted not to do an x-ray at the time as the treatment—a honkin' huge pain reliever/anti-inflammatory—would be the same. The horse pill (let me interject here to say how much I appreciate that they make it taste like treats so she'll just eat it out of my hand, unlike her medication she was on when we first adopted her that I had to stick to the roof of her mouth with peanut butter to get her to take it) seemed to ease her discomfort, and a few days later, she began moving her tail again. It still hangs more than it used to, but she has movement again. Which makes me happy. Because dogs are supposed to have tails.

But it was the following two days wherein the puppies may have earned themselves a Christmas treat this year. Dec has this ~~torture~~ game that he likes to play with the puppies that we call Mouse. Basically, Dec says, "Mouse," and the puppies run to the kitchen to try and get at the mouse that supposedly hides under the stove. Now, we have an old house and mice are not new to our domicile. In fact, we've had a number of run-ins with mice, some successful, some not. Regardless, the game throws the puppies into fits, and they'll even stage stakeouts to kill the mice.

On Wednesday, as Puppicent and I were about to leave the office, we watched a mouse scurry along the baseboard. Puppicent immediately went into action, which drew the attention of Dec and Puppatrix. We shut the door and stopped up the gap under it with a blanket as we were pretty certain we don't have any other access points in this room (which, now that I think about it, is a rather disturbing thought). After much teamwork on all our parts, especially considering that Dec and I had to prop up the love seat on its front legs so the puppies could get under it, Puppatrix caught the mouse. And killed it. Which was fascinating in and of itself—she takes the mouse's head in her mouth and then grinds her teeth back and forth until she breaks its neck. Puppicent was devastated that Puppatrix caught the reward and continued to sniff around for the now-dead mouse that was lying at her feet.

Oh. And Dec squealed like an itty, bitty girl because there was a dead mouse in the room while I went and got a bag for its disposal.

On Thursday, Dec and the Puppatrix happened to be in the kitchen when they saw one escape under the stove. So Puppicent and I ran in to help them catch this one. This time, Puppicent caught the mouse, which was slightly more entertaining. You see, Puppicent seems to have more of the bird-retrieval instinct in her. She kinda sorta nom nom nommed on the mouse, trying to immobilize it without actually killing or maiming it. She finally dropped the still twitching mouse on the floor. And if you think Dec squealed like an itty, bitty girl the day before, it was nothing compared to his squeals at this. Puppatrix, in her grand manner that she has, rolled her eyes at Puppicent's amateurish mouse killing, sauntered over to the mouse, picked it up by the head, and ground her teeth back and forth until its neck snapped.

We think the mouse community has gotten the message; we haven't seen a mouse since then.

And I think the puppies may actually get Christmas this year.

Swish

2008-12-07T19:00:00.001-07:00

Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever
by Joel Derfner
Personal essay. 255 pp.
Broadway. 2008.

flap copy:

Joel Derfner is gayer than you. Don't feel too bad about it, though, because he has made being gayer than you his life's work. At summer day camp when he was six, Derfner tried to sign up for needlepoint and flower arranging, but the camp counselors wouldn't let him because, they said, those activities were for girls only. Derfner, just to be contrary, embarked that very day on a solemn and sacred quest: to become the gayest person ever. Along the way he has become a fierce knitter, an even fiercer musical theater composer, an so totally the fiercest step aerobics instructor (just ask him—he'll tell you himself).

In Swish, Derfner takes his readers on a flamboyant adventure along the glitter-strewn road from fabulous to divine. Whether he's confronting the demons of his past at a GLBT summer camp, using the Internet to "meet" men—many, many men—or plunging headfirst (and nearly naked) into the shady world of go-go dancing, he reveals himself with every gayer-than-thou flourish to be not just a stylish explorer but also a fearless one. So fearless, in fact, that when he sneaks into a conference for people who want to cure themselves of their homosexuality, he turns the experience into one of the most fascinating, deeply moving chapters of the book. Derfner, like King Arthur, Christopher Columbus, and Indiana Jones—but with a better haircut and a much deeper commitment to fad diets—is a hero destined for legend.

Written with wicked humor and keen insight, Swish is at once a hilarious look at contemporary ideas about gay culture and a poignant exploration of identity that will speak to all readers—gay, straight, and in between.

To say that I loved this book would be a bit of an understatement. Such joy and amusement while reading. (If you ask Dec, too much joy and amusement, otherwise he wouldn't have told me to be quiet so he could sleep or concentrate on his sudoku.) Derfner has a voice and attitude rather similar to Dan Savage, and I think we all know how much I love Savage. When it comes down to it, Derfner is a good cross between Savage (wit and wisdom) and Sedaris (narrative storytelling).

And when you read other reviews where they talk about how Derfner manages to carry you over a multitude of emotions, it's true. Really, the book was quite good in capturing a range of feelings and experience and juxtaposing them against unexpected backdrops. For example, the chapter about the ex-gays included an insightful discussion of the differences in forgiveness in the Jewish and Christian traditions and what it means to love one's self. Or this snippet from the chapter about teaching aerobics:

"What would you say being gay means to you?" my sociology-student friend had asked.

I had thought for a long time before saying, "It's nothing, and it's everything."

Yes, being gay is just one of a thousand thousand traits that make up my character, no more remarkable than my love of M&M's or my ability to mess up a room in fifteen seconds flat or my failure to understand the appeal of Luke and Owen Wilson.

But I believe that the desire to love and be loved is the strongest force on earth. And in that way, being gay affects every interaction in which I take part—just as being straight affects every interaction in which straight people take part. Every human motive is in the end a yearning for companionship, and every act of every person on this planet is an effort not to be alone. (129)

When all is said and done, Derfner is a pleasant read, with plenty of humor mixed in with thoughts and lessons about life, insecurity, self-worth, and love.

Other reviews:
Hawley Blog | Bilerico Project

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

2008-12-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Tales of Beedle the Bard
by J. K. Rowling
MG fantasy. 111 pp.
Levine. 2008.

back copy:

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers' attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger's new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "Babbitty Rabitty and Her Cackling Stump," and of course, "The Tale of the Three Brothers." But not only are they the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter.

I'm glad that Rowling is not letting the Harry Potter universe fade away. As I've noted before, I'm not overly fond of Harry himself, but I do like the universe in which he exists. So I'm glad we get some of the fairy tales that form the core of that universe. I'm pleased that we get Dumbledore's commentary with them; he's so much more likable than Harry.

The illustrations are the primary drawback I see to these books; I so very much prefer Mary GrandPré's style to Rowling's. (And can anyone explain the actual anatomy of the horse on page 70? I mean, is his leg supposed to be an extension of his neck? It's a minor thing, but it troubles me.)

One False Note

2008-12-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

The 39 Clues: One False Note
by Gordon Korman
MG fiction. 174 pp.
Scholastic. 2008.

back copy:

The race is on to find 39 Clues that safeguard a great power, and fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, are shocked to find themselves in the lead. The search seems to be taking them to Vienna, and they hold a coded piece of Mozart's sheet music that's key to finding the next Clue. But tailed by a pack of power-hungry relatives, Amy and Dan can't see if they are sailing toward victory—or straight into a deadly trap.

When I reviewed the first book in the series, I complained about the alternating first-person chapters, because I hated being in Amy's head. Fortunately, Korman has moved the story to third person, which works a lot better for me as a reader (even if I'm not fond of third-person omniscient or Korman's frequent shifts in character POV throughout the novel). I think it also works better for the story. There's something to be said for following the mystery while observing the action as opposed to being the action.

Korman downplayed much of the historical tidbittery of Mozart. Whereas this helped move the action along more smoothly, I miss the fleshing out of the historical character.

Perhaps the greatest improvement Korman has brought to the series is the diminished role of the Cahill cousins. I think it was important to get some heavy exposure to them in the first book, especially considering that they're the antagonists of the series. But I like not having to focus on so many of them all the time.

In the end, I'm really liking the way the series is progressing and developing. The multiple authors are going to provide some variety, and right now I'm okay with that. (We'll see how I like it after the third book, considering that I already love reading Riordan and Korman.)

Other review:
Help Readers Love Reading

Vintage

2008-12-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Vintage
by Steve Berman
YA Mystery. 200 pp.
Lethe. 2007.

back copy:

In a small town, a lonely teen walking along a highway one autumn evening meets the boy of his dreams, a boy who happens to have died decades ago and haunts the road. Awkward crushes, both bitter and sweet, lead him to face not only the ghost but youthful dreams and childish fears. With its cast of offbeat friends, antique Ouija boards, Vintage offers readers a memorable blend of dark humor, chills and love that is not your typical teen romance.

Completed June 14.

I'm frustrated that I've taken so long to get around to writing about this book. It's one of the stories I found most interesting this year. And this considering that I am not generally a fan of ghost stories. (Although, I guess that technically there are two ghost stories I've read in the last year that I've really liked.) Even today, there are particular scenes that were conceived so well that I can still visualize them. That's the talent of this author.

But.

I think the weakness of the book is that it gives off a self-published vibe.* I know I shouldn't disparage smaller, independent presses, but there's something that just seems to be lacking—spelling and punctuation errors, typesetting irregularities, general feel of the book. I realize that authors publish where a publisher expresses interest; I just feel that it's unfortunate for Vintage because this book is good and really deserves more attention, especially when you consider that it was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award presented by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. (More about this at Under the Covers, linked below.)

Other reviews:
Under the Covers | Elisa Rolle | Milkboys | Shooting Stars Mag

*about Lethe Press:

Lethe Press is an independent publishing house specializing in speculative fiction, books of gay interest, poetry, spirituality, as well as classic works of the occult & supernatural. Named after the Greek river of memory and forgetfulness (and pronounced Lee-Thee), Lethe Press is devoted to ideas that are often neglected or forgotten by mainstream publishers. Founded in 2001 by author Steve Berman, Lethe Press has grown steadily in its first few years. Our books have been finalists for, and in cases won, such awards as the Andre Norton, Gaylactic Spectrum, Golden Crown Literary, and Lambda Literary Awards. Our anthologies have featured the works of many acclaimed and New York Times best-selling authors.

Lethe Books are distributed by several wholesalers, including Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, and Ingram. Our books are easily ordered by libraries and all booksellers, both online and brick-and-mortar. We especially encourage our readers to patronize their local bookstores, in particular their local gay bookstores. It's worth the extra effort to support a community institution run by your neighbors!

The Book of Animal Ignorance

2008-12-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Book of Animal Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong
by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson
Information. 241 pp.
Harmony. 2007.

flap copy:

Fast on the heels of the New York Times bestseller The Book of General Ignorance comes The Book of Animal Ignorance, a fun, fact-filled bestiary that is sure to delight animal lovers everywhere. Arranged alphabetically from aardvark to worm, here are one hundred of the most interesting members of the animal kingdom explained, dissected, and illustrated, with the trademark wit and wisdom of John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. Did you know, for instance, that

when a young albatross takes wing, it may stay aloft for ten years
vampire bat saliva—unsurprisingly, when you think about it—is the source of the world's most powerful blood thinning drug, appropriately called draculin
bombardier beetles fire a boiling chemical spray out of their rears at 300 pulses per second
a bald eagle's feathers weigh twice as much as its bones
a giant tortoise recently died at the documented age of 255
octopuses are dexterous enough to unscrew tops from jars
spider silk is so light that a strand long enough to circle the world would weigh as much as a bar of soap

So meet the water bears that can live in suspension for hundreds of years, the parasite carried by your cat that makes men grumpy and women promiscuous, and the woodlouse that drinks through its bottom. Marvel at elephants that walk on tiptoe, pigs that shine in the dark, and woodpeckers that have ears on the ends of their tongues.

If you still think a pangolin is a musical instrument, that hyenas are dogs, or that sheep are pointless and stupid, The Book of Animal Ignorance has arrived just in time.

This is so my kind of nonfiction book. Trivia. Lots and lots o' trivia. It's smartly written. Entries are brief. It's quite an enjoyable book. And it's instructive.

Oh. And the authors are clearly dog people, which means they're good people.

What I Saw and How I Lied

2008-12-05T07:00:00.001-07:00

What I Saw and How I Lied
by Judy Blundell
YA historical fiction. 281 pp.
Scholastic. 2008.

flap copy:

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was rally a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between loyalty to her parents and feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is . . . who?

After my experience with Chains, I was not looking forward to continuing forward with the NBA finalists, especially considering that I've been avoiding the Lockhart book since its release. Fortunately, when the NBAs were announced, What I Saw came out as the winner.

Then I started the book. Despite an intriguing opening scene, I feared I was in for more blah. The beginning is slow. The initial looks at the characters are as through a dirty window. The setting and atmosphere are okay, but nothing to shake a stick at.

But then it kicks in. And the book is good. More than anything, Evie turns out to be phenomenal. Her growth and development is unexpected and wonderful. You watch her do hard things, impressed that she's actually able to do them. And yet she redeems herself so that you're not as worried about who she might become.

I really liked this book in the end. I liked the characterization and the setting, especially as Blundell managed to turn post-War Florida into a character itself. So I'm pleased it won the NBA, spurring me to read it.

Other reivews:
Becky's Book Reviews | YA Books Central | The Virtual Loft

Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night

2008-12-04T07:00:00.001-07:00

Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night
by A. E. Cannon
YA fiction. 133 pp.
Delacorte. 1988.

flap copy:

Cal Cameron, high school jock and superhero comic book fanatic, is an insider at Scenic View High School. He's popular and he does the "right things." But Cal's life isn't as perfect as it looks. His cranky old granddad practically lives in Cal's back pocket, and Cal resents his brilliant sci-fi nut brother whose friends go to restaurants dressed as their favorite science-fiction characters. It is his emotionally distant father, with whom Cal has nothing in common, who saddens him the most.

But at the beginning of his junior year, cal's popular facade disappears. his heart isn't in anything—not even football. It's a time of crisis for Cal Cameron.

Enter Marti Jeffs, who has legs "like Charles Atlas" and isn't ashamed of them. Brand-new at Scenic View High, Marti doesn't seem to care what anyone thinks about her. Cal, who has made a career of being "in," is fascinated by Marti. They become friends, but Cal is careful to pursue their relationship away from high school because Marti is so unlike Cal's friends, and around her Cal acts like a different person. Cal feels as though he's leading a double life—Cal Cameron by day, Spider-Man™ by night.

This provocative and engaging novel, winner of the Fifth Annual Delacorte Press Prize for an Outstanding Young Adult Novel, introduces a remarkable, appealing hero, and A. E. Cannon, a highly original and witty writer.

I have a tendency to be rather forthcoming with my thoughts about the books I read. Occasionally, I have thoughts about how unabashed I may have been. For example, sometimes an author will come across my blog. When that happens, I reread what I've written about their book. With the most recent time this has happened, I reread the review to discover that I didn't say anything positive about the book. And I felt bad about that, because the book wasn't bad; it was just mediocre. But more than that, I felt bad because I've met this author before (maybe a couple times even) and she is wonderful and nice. So I decided that I would remedy this by reading one of her other books.

Hence Cal Cameron. I'm actually a bit surprised that I hadn't read this particular book before, but I'm glad I hadn't. You see, it's nice to come across something that is older. It's oddly refreshing. It's nice to have a story that's told rather straight forwardly. It's nice to have normal characters who aren't riddled with dysfunction and abnormality. The writing is good. The characterization is good. Actually, this is how good the characterization is—Cannon actually got me to be sympathetic toward and like a quarterback. That in and of itself is a feat worth commending. I really like how she walked us through his growth to where he becomes a better, truly likable person.

Fobby tells me that he thinks I'll also like Charlotte's Rose, despite my strong misgivings toward pioneer stories. (Really, if you have read as many pioneer manuscript submissions as I have, you'd have your misgivings about pioneer stories as well. Just ask DesMama.) So maybe I'll pick that one up sometime soon.

Runaways

2008-12-03T07:00:00.002-07:00

Runaways
Vol 1 (1–6): Pride & Joy
Vol 2 (7–12): Teenage Wasteland/Lost and Found
Vol 3 (13–18): The Good Die Young
Vol 4 (1–6): True Believers
Vol 5 (7–12): Escape to New York
Vol 6 (13–18): Parental Guidance
Vol 7 (19–24): Live Fast
by Brian K. Vaughan
Graphic Novel. 7 vols.
Marvel.

back copy, vol 1:

At some point in their lives, all young people believe their parents are evil . . but what if they really are?

Meet Alex, Karoline, Gert, Chase, Molly, and Nico—a group of teens whose lives are about to take an unexpected turn. When these six young friends discover their parents are all secretly super-powered villains, the shocked teenagers find strength in one another. Together, they run away from home and straight into the adventure of their lives—vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy.

I don't read graphic novels very often as they're just not something I'm all that into. But someone at some point blogged about this series, and it sounded intriguing to me. Basically, you have a group of kids who discover that their parents are super villains who intend to bring about the end of the world. Throughout the series, you get some cross-pollination with other heroes (presumable from the Marvel universe, but my knowledge here is lacking). There's treachery and heroics and all sorts of stuff. I guess it was okay. If nothing else, they were easy Trax reads. I'm sure I know others who would appreciate them better than I do.

thirteen reasons why

2008-11-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Lo and behold, I'm actually posting a Thanksgiving commemoration this year. But considering the fit I've been throwing here, there, and everywhere because of the overly early preponderance of Christmas crap this year—pre-Labor Day Christmas merchandise? really?—I figure I ought to express my gratitude for what I've got that's good.

Of course, you should bear in mind that I started this post on Wednesday with the intention of setting it to post automatically on Thursday. That obviously didn't happen. Instead, things got busy on Wednesday and didn't let up on Thursday or Friday. By the time Saturday got here, Number Thirteen had spent two or three days being an utter asshat (attempting to destroy Number Five in the process), and I wasn't sure if I was still grateful for him. Fortunately, spending time in retail therapy and watching four episodes of Housewives and one episode of Daisies have remedied that.

Anyway, long story short, here are things I'm grateful for.

Social Networking
So, this year, I've become seriously addicted to Facebook. For starters, I like the process of reconnecting with old friends and being able to shoot off that occasional message. I'm also addicted to Scrabble and playing with Absent and Samantha. And if it weren't for LinkedIn, I wouldn't have continued the contact that got me my current work. And since work equals something to do with my time with the added bonus of money, this is a good thing.
My Garage
I know that it's odd to be thankful for a garage, but I am. Reason the first, it's unusual to have a two-car garage in downtown Salt Lake. It's even more unusual to have one the same size as the house. Reason the Second, I don't have to scrape my windows in the winter. Reason the Third, Dec and I finished the organizational cabinets last weekend. And they are suh-weet. Everything is now behind closed doors. Bikes are hung on the wall. (Okay, so that part was accomplished in July, but still, it's even cooler now.) We have designated workout and sewing areas. In theory, it should remain clean.
Friends
Initially, I had thought I was grateful for old friends, but I realize that it's not just old friends I'm grateful for. I like my high school friends and college friends and mission friends and ballroom friends and NYU friends and gay friends and blog friends and work friends. Even if many of these friends have drifted more into acquaintances, I'm still grateful for the interconnectedness of life and social relations. And leading back to Facebook, I'm grateful for the nostalgia and diversity of friendships.
Softball
I have never been known to be an athlete, but softball has shown that maybe, just maybe, I might have been able to find some athletic endeavor that thrilled me. And that's a nice discovery about myself in the last couple months. More importantly, though, softball seems to have provided a bridge between us and the kids' mom. I mean, it helped that during that period of non-scheduled work I was able to attend pretty much every practice and game and assist the coach. And she was able to see that I do care about the kids' welfare. Oh, and I was able to befriend her friends, who I speculate in turn convinced her that I'm not the Devil Incarnate.
Traditions
I love traditions. Maybe it's a Taurus-stability thing, but, in the end, it's just one of those things. So at this time of year, I really like the tradition of going to my parents' for Thanksgiving. And I like putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. And I like our holiday party. (Psst. Twelfth Night. Monday, January 5. Save the date.) And I like the gift giving. And getting. But mostly the giving.

Oh. And I think we may have stumbled onto a new tradition this year. We took the kids to a movie at the Gayway on Friday. (Bolt. Surprisingly entertaining.) Afterward, the kids wanted to wander here and there and what not. Princess had to go to Build-a-Bear. While we were there, I noticed that they have a Toys for Tots thing going on. So I decided that the girls could build a bear for Toys for Tots. And I think it's something we should do each year. Not necessarily Build-a-Bear, mind you, so much as finding something where we can donate as a family.
Living Downtown
This really is one of those things I'm becoming increasingly more grateful for. I like that I can walk to the grocery store and the library. I like that I can walk to the park. I like that I can take Trax to work. To both jobs, actually. And I like it. Lots. I like the energy and the feel.
Books
Is there really anything to say here? Books rock. They do so many wonderful things.
DVR
I honestly don't remember how I lived life before Tivo and DVR. Watching television when you want to watch it as opposed to when someone else tells you you're going to watch it. Only watching the commercials you actually want to see.
God
I'm grateful for God and His presence in my life. I realize my conception of God may not coincide with others', particularly that of my home teacher. But I find it comforting to trust in the overarching goodness and love of a God that should tie us together and help us lift each other up to a higher place.
The Puppies
For as much grief as the puppies, Puppicent in particular, can be, they're good girls, and they bring an added level of joy and love to our house. And entertainment. You should come over some time and play Mouse with them. Really. It's a riot. And it's always entertaining how they have decided they're mini people. Who drive. To Thanksgiving dinner.
My Family
I have an awesome family. Sure, there's the occasional hiccup, but by and large, my family is good. This is witnessed to me continually, particularly as we've had to deal with Dec's family this last year. Or as I've heard stories of other friends' families, like my friend whose sister donated thousands of dollars to the Yes on 8 campaign but who still thinks she ought to be invited to his and his partner's wedding. So I'm grateful for my family and for all they do for me.
My Parents
My parents are the backbone of my family. They've loved us and raised us. And I think we've turned out pretty swell.
Dec
There's a lot that Dec brings to my life. He's a calming influence. He makes me a little bit kinder than I'm naturally inclined. He's a good person with a lot of love. So I'm grateful for him.

wg26: a stranger came ashore

2008-11-26T10:15:00.003-07:00

It's a Weekly Geeks bloghopping activity . . .

Dewey's instruction:

1. Using the WeeklyGeeks category here in my blog, find 5 Weekly Geeks you don’t know. The easiest way is probably to look at the Mr Linkies in my weekly Saturday posts.

2. Visit each of your 5 new blogpals and snoop around their blogs to find at least one thing you have in common.

3. In your blog, write a post, linking to your 5 new blogpals, about what you have in common with them.

4. Come back and sign Mr Linky.

5. As you run across other Weekly Geek posts (or deliberately seek them out) if you see anyone mentioned who has something in common with you, pay them a visit.

Fortunately, since I'm just finding my inner geek, I can hit any number of new blogs.

Fathers Who Read by Book Dads. I must confess that this was going to be my natural first stop if for no other reason than, well, the anatomy involved. Completely sexist, I know, but there is a grand dearth of guys who regularly blog about books (authors excluded). Really, the only other two I've come across are Theric and ejwise. Even Guys Lit Wire is split between male and female contributors, with the bulk of the posts being contributed by the women. So I'm thrilled to find Book Dads. I like the diversity of titles they have in regards to fathering and fatherhood. I like their voice. (They're not cynical or antagonistic like other bloggers you may know.)
It's All About Books by Suey. This is likely cheating a bit, since I've been reading Suey for a couple weeks now after she first came to my blog. But I like her. And can you even say anything bad about somebody who loves John Green?
Bride of the Book God What I like here is that she has a tendency toward, well, darker titles. And had it not been for her, I might not have discovered Rape by Joyce Carol Oates. Because I really like Oates, even though she's gritty. As to whether or not I'll find myself in the right mind to approach this title is another story. But Bride peaks my interest in it.
Reading Room by Gautami Tripathy. I don't have much to say here. I like her blog because she keeps things simple. Really, her small snippets about books are far more intriguing than many long posts I regularly read. She also has a poetry blog, in case you might be interested.
Reading in Appalachia by Icedream. Again, this is a blogger who I started reading a few weeks ago. What caught my eye as I was scanning through her blog again today was a snippet about Tomorrow, When the War Began. But I really must refrain from adding more books to my list. Right now, anyway.

Breaking Craptastica

2008-11-19T19:48:00.006-07:00

Breaking Dawn
by Stephenie Meyer
YA fantasy. 754 pp.
Little, Brown. 2008.

Warning the First: This will not be a review of the book so much as a review of the drama and chatter surrounding the book and movie.

Warning the Second: I do not have kind feelings for this series, as I consider it to be, well, smut and an egregious offense against humanity and all that is holy and good. So if you would like to read a review by someone who is much more diplomatic about the content of this book, I'm sure you can google one. Though, personally, I think Jocelyn at Teen Book Review does a nice job, as does Alisonwonderland at So Many Books, So Little Time.

Okay. So I've been procrastinating this post for eons. You see, I haven't read the book. And I don't have any intention of reading it. I mean, come on! The Washington Post describes the book as "frankly, dreadful."

Money quote from the review: "Reader, I hurled."

Besides, I see no reason to wade through 750+ pages of dreck for 15 pages of anticlimactic climax. And since Bella doesn't turn into a harpy and Edward and Jacob don't hook up, there's nothing in it for me.

This does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that I don't know what happens. Because I do. There are some stellar recaps out there. The best is, by far, Cleolinda (Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Midnight Sun Part One | Midnight Sun Part Two), though there's also a wicked cool one over at lion_lamb hobbled together with screen caps from a Robert Pattinson (the actor portraying Edward in the movie) television interview. How unfortunate that the recaps are far superior in their quality than the actual series of novels. Not to mention some of the delectable spinoffs that fill in the backstory. An excerpt:

saint_renegade: CAN YOU IMAGINE HIM SCRAPBOOKING?
oxymoronassoc: YEAH I CAN
oxymoronassoc: ALL SPREAD OUT ON THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR
oxymoronassoc: SUPER INTENSE
saint_renegade: ~HUNTING TRIPS~
oxymoronassoc: CUTTING OUT SNOW ANGELS AND S--T
oxymoronassoc: GOING TO GET STICKERS THAT MATCHED
saint_renegade: WHERE ARE MAH STICKERS!!!!!
oxymoronassoc: EMMETT WOULD STEAL THEM
oxymoronassoc: "LOOK AT THIS S--T IT'S A BATHTUB STICKER? WHO THE F--K NEEDS THAT?"

I guess, more than anything, I'm upset with what it's done to publishing standards. One attendee at one release party summed it up perfectly:

"I like that it was written by a mom, not a writer," Maggie, 18, said through fake fangs. "It's the perfect book. It's what everyone wants—a model boyfriend who glows. It's relatable."

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a bar set so low for a book before. And yet it failed to even clear that one. That's right, the book was so poor that fans attempted to organize a grand protest of its quality by . . . wait for it . . . returning the books. You can only imagine my glee when I first heard that.

Of course, with great glee also comes great horror, as there must needs be a balance in all things. You see, fandom is rather odd, primarily because it brings the loonies out of hiding. For example, somewhere out there is a fifteen-year-old girl who found a boy and slept with him just because his name is Edward. And she got pregnant. Now, as is appropriate in situations such as this one, said girl was going to place the baby for adoption. But then she read Breaking Craptastica. And she decided to keep the baby. And she named her Renesmee Bella Stephenie. Seriously. Fortunately, the girl's mom managed to bitchslap some sense into her by informing her that she would have to repay the couple for all the medical bills they had covered, and the baby girl was adopted by her new parents. And because they are sane, rational people, when they changed her surname, they renamed her Lily Anne.

Of course, you may be wondering why I am choosing to write on this now. For starters, I've stored up all these links about the book, and it just seems a tragedy to let them disappear into the ether without first sharing them. But, more importantly, the movie opens this weekend. Initially, I had sworn that there was no way you would catch me at this movie.

However, there are mitigating circumstances.

First, a movie is actually the right length, if not a little long, to cover the actual plot of the novel.

Second, I'm in love with the actors, particularly Pattinson, who acknowledges in his EW interview:

''I got sent to media training and my agent got back messages like, 'He's resisting the media training,''' he says with an amused shrug.

The joy of this is that he is on record with such precious gems as:

Q: "What's it like kissing the most gorgeous man alive, Robert Pattinson?" - Ceejay
Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan): His teeth are pretty sharp. It's great. I like it. It's cool.
MTV: People are also debating whether Edward and Bella will French kiss.
Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen): It's more of a Chilean kiss.
Stewart: What's that?
Pattinson: That just wasn't funny. Whenever we kiss, I just try to kill her all the time.
Stewart: And I love that. She's a total sadomasochist, if you think about it.
Pattinson: And I'm just gay.
Stewart: Or impotent.

Or even:

"When you read the book," says Pattinson, looking appropriately pallid and interesting even without makeup, "it's like, 'Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.' I mean, every line is like that. He's the most ridiculous person who's so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn't do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there."

(That said, Pattinson is rather hot, and Edward is rather hot, so why would they totally creep him out on the movie poster?)

Third, after having seen some bootleg clips of the movie, I have discovered that the Entire Bloody Thing is dialogued with that three-words-pause style you see in the trailer. So bizarre. If you think about it, this movie just may be so bad that it crosses around the backside to good and highly entertaining.

Fourth, and of the utmost importance, Dec is decorating for some of the theater-sponsored Twicrap premiere events. (Even though I forbad it.) Which means he can go to the party and movie for free. And he can take me. The pivotal word, of course, is free. Because there is no reason to spend good money (or bad money, even) on this nonsense. I'm still debating whether or not to go. Do I really want to catch the premiere at midnight? Will I be able to enjoy it with the type of person who actually wants to see it at midnight and is willing to pay extra for that privilege? Will I be subjected to violence for laughing at the appropriately inappropriate moments? Will I be disappointed in humanity if all the other attendees are women in their mid-thirties as I fully anticipate them being?

So I guess we'll see if I go see Twicrap or not.

wg25: the gift

2008-11-17T18:32:00.003-07:00

So. I'm a bit erratic in posting. I'd like to be a bit more consistent. I'd also like to connect a little more to the book blogosphere. So I've decided I'm going to start participating in Dewey's Weekly Geeks.

My objective is to post on Sundays, though we'll see how well that works. For example, you'll notice that today is Monday. But yesterday was spent editing a paper for a friend and then pushing the Boy through his remaining homework assignments.

Anyway, here's what's up this week:

1. Think about the books that you and people in your life love. It’s best to use more obscure books, because we’ve all heard plenty about the more popular ones.

2. Come up with categories, based on relationship, personality, or whatever else you like. I think this is easier to do once you have your books in mind; you can then just assign categories to those books.

3. Post your own gift giving guide! Add short blurbs about the books, just enough so that your readers can determine if it’d be a good gift for people on their list. Don’t forget to come back and sign Mr Linky.

4. Visit other Weekly Geeks, and if you like their guides, maybe add links to the bottom of your own.

I'm not sure of the categories I'd like to assign. Essentially, I look at this as an opportunity to peddle some of my favorite titles.

for English Major Types: The Eyre Affair
Okay. I know that not everyone digs this book. However, I love how it sets up an alternate history with time travel and book travel and all sorts of other fun stuffs. And through it all, books are Way Important. And people go to Shakespeare productions with the same manic furor reserved for athletic events and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I find the wit and voice to be charming. Sure, it takes me a little to get into each book, but it's always worth it in the end.

for Editor Types: The Well of Lost Plots
Because you will never look at the submissions pile the same way again.

for Greek Mythos Types: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Again, it's not everyone's cup o' tea, but I find it to be engaging. I like how Riordan has brought the Greek mythos to a contemporary American scene. Plus, I can never begrudge a series of books that has managed to convince the Boy that there are books out there worth reading that have nothing to do with dragons.

for More Mature Greek Mythos Types: Gods Behaving Badly
As I mentioned in my review, this book is Hi. Lar. I. Ous. Seriously. And I've even converted one soul already. Just remember that when I say more mature, I mean that the bawdiness will surely make some blush. But Hermes is worth it.

for Anglophiles: Larklight
I received this as a birthday gift, and I highly recommend everyone turn around and give it to others. Similar to Eyre Affair, this imagines an Anglocentric alternative history, this time with space travel and the Brits colonizing the entire galaxy. Art is funnier than snot, likely because he's a Victorian-era lad with a cheeky sense of humor. And there are illustrations.

for Potterphiles in Withdrawal: The Last Apprentice series
This series doesn't have the same type of magic as Harry Potter. However, the prose, story, and characterization is infinitesimally better. Tom is the seventh son of a seventh son and is therefore more attuned to the Dark than your average citizen. As such, he is apprenticed out to the local Spook, whose job it is to bind witches and bogarts and fight all sorts of evil. It's superbly done, and with five books out, I believe we're near the end of the series.

for Picture Book Aficionados: To Every Thing There Is a Season by Leo & Diane Dillon
This is only The Best Picture Book Ever. Seriously. The text is simply the verses from Ecclesiastes. But the illustrations are phenomenal. Each couplet is depicted in a different historical tradition. Oh! how it makes the art history major in me gush. But really. You should have this on your shelf. I mean it.

Chains

2008-11-16T16:08:00.004-07:00

Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson
YA historical fiction. 316 pp.
Simon & Schuster. 2008.

flap copy:

As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight . . . for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

I picked up Chains because it's one of the NBA finalists. I was looking forward to it because of its author. Unfortunately, I find myself grossly underwhelmed by it.

For starters, I just wasn't able to connect to the story or Isabel. I realize that part of this is because the protagonist is a slave and is, therefore, unable to effectively control her own life. Typically with a story like that, though, you are able to connect a bit more with the protagonist's character and thoughts, but I found that to be lacking even. Plotwise, it was slow. In terms of supporting characters, I feel the book lacked nuance; characters were either good or they were bad. I guess you did get some middle ground with the minor minor characters, though.

On the plus side, the voice seemed unique and consistent throughout. And the typesetting is phenomenal. Actually, the typesetting is really the only thing I feel is truly worth commending this novel. Otherwise, truth be told, it was just a female version of Octavian Nothing, which holds the distinction of being one of the more boring books I've ever read.

Other reviews:
Abby (the) Librarian | Becky's Book Reviews | Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Adventures of You

2008-11-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Fabulous Terrible: The Adventures of You
by Sophie Talbot
YA fiction. 231pp.
Chooseco. 2008.

back copy:

In six short months, your entire life has gone into turnaround . . .

"Oh my God. Emily, I got in!!!

Trumbull Woodhouse! THE most exclusive, most expensive, most amazing all-girl boarding school has just accepted YOU! It's the school that turns out famous CEOs, notorious movie stars, and even a Nobel prize winner. And you? You're just this girl from Hatterly, South Carolina. Just some orphan kid with a dysfunctional foster family and a secret.

What secret? You see things. Things from the future. Whole scenes, actually—like movies in your brain, only then they turn out to be real. You used to think everyone got them . . . but then people started to think you were crazy. So you stopped talking about them, and now your episodes are getting worse. How are you going to hide them living with a bunch of strangers 24/7?

You try to stay below the radar and fit into your new life, that's how. But an unknown enemy tries to undermine your every effort to belong. Meanwhile, you begin to suspect your new alma mater has a past as strange and difficult as your own. A society sworn to uphold the founder's deepest secrets has become divided. A war for power seethes just under the campus's placid calm. And a mysterious missing book of predictions is about to change your world forever . . .

I have mixed feelings about this book. There are some things I rather like. There are some things I find intriguing. There are some things that drive me crazy. It's been a week since I finished it, and I'm still not sure how I really feel about it.

Let's just get this out of the way . . . Spelling and punctuation is often a disgusting mess. It's not the worst I've seen this year, but it's downright lamentable.

The plot is sloooooooooow. Aside from the introductory parts, you really don't have anything happen until maybe fifty pages form the end. However. Once that plot starts, it's actually quite interesting. Sure, it's a take on Harry Potter, but the environment works. And the premise that's finally explained is interesting enough that I'm considering reading the second book. (I don't see it listed online, though the third book is.)

The characters are conceived well. I think the author has done a good job of taking stock characters and tweaking them just enough that they're clear and interesting individuals.

The point where I'm most befuddled about my feelings is the voice. To preface, the publisher is the same as produced the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I dearly loved in my youth. They were fun and empowering for a reader. This book, as were those, is told in the second person. I find the novelty of that to be intriguing, and so when the publisher sent me the book, I was anxious to read it and see how it worked.

I'm not sure if it does. You see, second person more directly places the reader in the protagonist's body. With the CYOA books, this worked because the reader was able to make decisions that affected the plot that he or she was reading. This book, though, is a straight narrative told in that voice. I personally found myself conflicted because this character was now imposing her values on me. And there were decisions she made that I strongly disagreed with, but I had no choice but to go through with them. She was much more passive than I, and she withheld information from others when I wouldn't have. As a reader, this left me with a bit of anxiety. It's one thing to identify with a character, but it's quite another to be a character.

When all is said and done, I'm left feeling that this story might have been better told in first person. I think it would have flowed more naturally and been more compelling.

Even so, as I said, I'm mixed on my review. I think I'll give the second book a chance to see how it fairs.

Mothstorm

2008-11-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mothstorm; or, The Horror from Beyond ~~Uranus~~ Georgium Sidus; or, A Tale of Two Shapers: A Rattling Yarn of Danger, Dastardy and Derring-Do upon the Far Frontiers of British Space!
As Told by Art Mumby, Esq. (with the Usual Interpolations by Miss Myrtle Mumby) to Mr Philip Reeve (Purveyor of Scientific Romances to the Discerning Gentry) & Illuminated Throughout by Mr David Wyatt ('The Devonshire Da Vinci')
MG fantasy. 387 pp.
Bloomsbury. 2008.

flap copy:

Say it isn't so! A sinister cloud has appeared on the edge of the Known Universe, and it seems to be moving closer. The nearest planer, Georgium Sidus, has but two human inhabitants: the missionary reverend Cruet and his daughter, Charity. Their last communication? 'Great danger—imperative that—' And then nothing. To determine the nature of the threat and rescue the Cruets, Art, Myrtle and family decide to bravely go where only one man and his daughter have gone before.

But the mothy evils they discover within the monstrous cloud are far beyond anything their imaginations could concoct (and that's saying quite a lot). Lucky, then, that Jack Havock is hot on their heels to help in battle to save the Universe . . . again.

So, after much waiting, I finally got my book. Not from the Devil's Den, mind you, but from your good old-fashioned neighborhood independent bookstore.

Really, there's not much to say about Mothstorm that hasn't been said about the previous two books in the series. I enjoy the voice and writing. I enjoy the story and the alternative world the author has created. It all just makes me quite happy.

If anything, I'm just disturbed that I can't seem to come across any reviews of it online. That's just not right. It must needs be more popular than it is.

gods behaving badly

2008-11-08T12:44:00.003-07:00

Now, we all know that Puppatrix and Puppicent are delightful, generally well-behaved dogs.

However.

They've had a couple incidences of late that are a bit frustrating. For example, I've started contracting with a new company. They bring their contractors in-house to work (all projects are group projects). It's been rather enjoyable for a number of reasons—walking/Traxing to work, balanced liberal work environment, learning new things even if they are technical writing/editing related. My current project manager lives around the corner from me. So now not only do I know one of my neighbors, I know that she's actually really nice. And she has puppies of her own.

Well, last night, she was out and about with her puppies. They stopped outside our fence to chat for a minute. Getting our puppies to quiet was quite a feat, but it finally worked. I ought to have realized that was the calm before the storm. You see, Dec somehow broke the gate to the driveway earlier this week, and it doesn't quite close as tightly as it used to. Apparently there's enough of a gap for Bellatrix to slip through. And start mounting one of PM's dogs. So Dec had to get out and grab Puppatrix back as I restrained Puppicent who had not realized there was a way out. Personally, I just find myself rather embarrassed.

Worse than this, though, is their fixation with the cat next door. A couple weeks ago, the dogs really wanted to go out at about one in the morning. I heard them making the There's an Animal Outside noises; Dec heard them making the I Have to Go RIGHT Now noises. So he let them out. And they darted. And they were successful. Neighbor cat = no more.

The cat didn't die immediately. It wouldn't let us near it after the dogs were finally pulled off it and sent back inside. But it wasn't there in the morning. The neighbor came by the next day to see if we knew anything about what had happened. I told him. They had to put the cat down because it supposedly had a broken spine. Can a cat still jump onto a three-foot-high box with a broken spine?

So, those were naughty puppies. We figured it would be over, except the Crazy Neighbor Boy has apparently gotten another cat. Sure, this cat isn't allowed outside the house, but that doesn't stop it from sitting in its window sill and watching the puppies through our kitchen window.

night of the soul stealer

2008-11-02T14:04:00.004-07:00

Hallowe'en fell on our weekend to have the kids this year. This was actually fun. Well, I say that now that it's over anyway. A week ago, not so fun.

You see, along with having the kids for Hallowe'en meant that we were responsible for the kids' costumes. Truthfully, I think we were going to be responsible for them even if it wasn't our year—their mom doesn't sew and we both do. And this year, the girls wanted homemade costumes. Because Dec has done that for the Boy the last couple of years. Tomboy wanted to be an evil sorceress, and Princess wanted to be a protector of the throne. Fortunately, those are the same costume, just with different accessories.

Initially, Dec borrowed a dress that we were going to use for Tomboy, but he couldn't find one that fit right for Princess. So we bought material for her dress and both of their cloaks. It was all going to be grand. Until we didn't start sewing their costumes.

So, last Friday, I cut out cloaks and sewed them together. As will make the Momma proud, I stayed up until two in the morning. This was because I knew I had to spend Saturday working on the dress if we were going to get it sewed and fitted to Princess while we had them last weekend. And I was not looking forward to the fitting. Though others caution me otherwise, I still think it will be nice once the girls have hit puberty and we don't have to try and fit dresses to their oddly shaped prepubescent bodies. (Seriously, their waists are the same size as mine. So not fun.)

But that didn't happen according to plan, though I did have a dress put together by Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, too much time was spent helping Boy with his homework to figure out how best to fit said dress to Princess. However, with the initial fitting, I did discover that the dress actually hung on her in such a way as to hide the fact that she's got a round belly and no other curves.

So Monday morning, Dec and I went to the fabric store to get material for a dress for Tomboy. You see, I never liked the dress we borrowed for her. The navy of the dress clashed with the navy of the cloak, and since they were both velvetlike materials, eww. Plus, the clinginess of the dress made Tomboy look pregnant, and I just wasn't happy with the narrative we'd have to create to explain a ten-year-old, pregnant, evil sorceress.

Continuing on, then, Dec and I spent an hour and a half at the fabric store. The bulk of this time was spent arguing over material and color. FWIW, I won. Because I'm always right. He will claim compromise, but you must bear in mind that fuschia is more similar to plum than it is to navy. A good portion of our time there was also spent trying to find our pattern and fabric samples that we had left in our cart but that some domestic ho bag had decided to walk off with. Oh, and then there were the snarky comments made in reference to some women's capacity to mother children considering said woman was allowing her daughter to take every single spool of serger thread of the rack and play with them like dolls. And not chide her for her misbehavior. (What can I say? When the bitch comes out, the bitch comes out.)

I then spent the next two days sewing at my mom's, so that we could surprise Tomboy with her dress and figure out how to fit and finish Princess's dress.

In the end, it all rocked out. Their haul was good, even if, ultimately, it was insufficient to cover the candy tax for their costumes. :) And I'm even posting pictures to prove it.

Oh. You may be wondering about the Boy's costume. He didn't get one. You see, he's thirteen. And as I was raised, Thou Shalt Not Trick-or-Treat After Twelve. So I invoked said rule. He connived and manipulated himself around the rule by arranging a Hallowe'en sleepover with his friend ("We've been planning this for months") wherein they trick-or-treated anyway. Punishment will be forthcoming. When he least expects it. (Though I don't imagine I'll wait until next Hallowe'en to mete out said punishment like the Momma did with Lil Bro when he violated the Rule.)

king & king

2008-10-30T15:32:00.003-06:00

I've kept a good portion of my feelings in regards to Prop 8 out of my blog. This is primarily because the whole thing makes me quite irritable and rather unpleasant to be around. However, I came across this article in Publishers Weekly. I've included the first few paragraphs here; the remainder of the article describes a bit of the censorship history of the book.

‘King & King’ Dragged into California’s Proposition 8 Vote

Eight years after its original Dutch publication, controversy continues to swirl around King & King, a picture book by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland about gay marriage that has become embroiled in the outcome of California’s Proposition 8. The proposition seeks to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state, following a California Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that held such marriages were valid under the state’s constitution. Backers of the proposition are running commentary about the “immoral” message in the book in television and radio ads in California.

Nicole Geiger, founder of Tricycle Press, bought the book at the Bologna Book Fair in 2001 and published the American edition the next year. Geiger said she was “devastated” when she found out that King & King is now being cited by backers of Proposition 8 as an example of the type of books that will be used to negatively influence the lifestyle of children. “I immediately sent a personal donation to the ‘No on 8’ campaign in the hope that people will delve a little deeper into this civil rights issue than a TV or radio commercial,” she said. Sales of the book, which has sold 18,000 copies since it was published, have been above average during October. “I’m terribly proud of King & King,” Geiger said, “and saddened by any association with this innocent children’s book by politically motivated attacks on the civil rights of fellow Americans.”

Out of Patience

2008-10-21T16:18:00.004-06:00

Out of Patience
by Brian Meehl
YA fiction. 292 pp.
Delacorte. 2006.

flap copy:

Twelve-year-old Jake Waters is mortified by his dad's dream of opening the American Toilet Museum. Jake's heard enough about antique toilet seats, royal chamber pots, and vintage plumbers. Toilets have caused enough turmoil in Patience, Kansas, already.

You see, Patience is cursed. Has been ever since 1877, when Jeremiah Waters installed the first flush toilet west of the Mississippi. The Dolphin Deluge Wash-Down Water Closet caused a mighty big stink, and since then Patience has been drying up like a cow pie in August. Sure, Jake likes playing work-up baseball with his pals Howie and Sira, but he's tired of waiting for the curse to finish off their tiny town.

Jake wants out of Patience.

Sure enough, when Jake's father brings an ancient relic back home for his museum, it triggers the curse's last promise: "The day the Plunger of Destiny returns, the final destruction begins!" As clouds of doom gather, Jake is torn between the urge to run and the desire to do the one thing that might save Patience: solve the mystery of what happened the day Jeremiah Waters last sat in the water closet of doom.

Join Jake and his friends as they try to flush out the truth in Brian Meehl's twisted tale of pipe dreams and toilet trouble.

I got this book a while ago because it sounded quirky and fun. Then it ended up on the To Read Pile of Doom, and eventually settled down to the point where it finally winded up shelved and unread. While I was shelving the books I've bought and read in the last few months, I remembered that I had this book as I put Suck It Up, also by Meehl, in its place. This weekend, because I finished a couple books and Mothstorm still hadn't come in from the Devil's Den and I was just having a hard time getting into Inkdeath, I decided to pick this off the shelf.

I'm so glad I did.

Out of Patience is delightfully quirky in the same way that Holes is quirky, though not quite as complicated. And what's not to love about a story that revolves around the history of toilets and plungers and a bizarre curse? Where the local baseball team gets up for the Seventh Inning Stench as the trucks from the local fertilizer company drive by making their deliveries? The characters are realistic and truly likable. I think this is something Meehl does well, as I compare his two books. He creates protagonists that are quirky and lovable and who you really want to succeed.

Anyway, I recommend this book to those who enjoyed Suck It Up or Holes.

Do Not Open

2008-10-18T15:54:00.005-06:00

Do Not Open
by John Farndon
Illustrated informational. 256 pp.
DK. 2007.

back copy:

Psst . . . Hey you. Yes, you.
I dare you to open me!

Inside you'll find the incredible truth about secret stuff you're not supposed to know: weird history, strange science, mysterious places, random happenings, freaky facts of nature . . .

How do you crack a safe?
Can it rain frogs?
Could you join a secret society?

From DNA to the CIA, hackers to hoaxers, time travel to telepathy: it's all in here.

So open me up . . .
Go on, you know you want to.

As is seemingly the case with all nonfiction, it took me a while to read this book. Unlike most nonfiction, though, that seems perfectly fine for this book. For starters, all the information is typically bundled into two-page spreads. As is the case with most DK books, text is clumped into one- or two-sentence fact bites. And it's interesting. I really like the randomness of it all. Another feature I find intriguing with the layout on this book is the little bubble at the bottom of each spread pointing you to a couple other related topics. Which means that you don't have to read the book linearly.

The merit I see in that is the way it will be able to appeal to younger readers who are just going to find the information and illustrations intriguing. For example, there were a couple weekends when the Boy swiped the book off my nightstand. And he read longer than our minimum standard without even wondering how much time he had left. I think the randomness really catered well to his mind and its desire to go ADD on him.

Another advantage I see in this book is that as I was reading, a number of the little factoids struck me as interesting launching points for longer works. So, if you want a collection of writing prompts, this book has a nice little secondary function as one.

Other reivews:
Abby (the) Librarian | Many a Quaint and Curious Volume | The Imperfect Parent

NBA finalists

2008-10-15T15:58:00.003-06:00

The National Book Award finalists were announced today. On the plus side, I now have a list of other books to read while I wait for the stupid Devil's Den to get off their duff and get Mothstorm in, which I ordered ages ago. I ought to have been able to purchase it yesterday. Stupid Devil's Den. On the minus side, it means I might actually have to read another Lockhart book, even though I really don't like her writing.

Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature categories were announced. I'm only including the youth list here.

Young People's Literature:
Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Knopf)

Paper Towns

2008-10-13T13:17:00.005-06:00

Paper Towns
by John Green
YA fiction. 305 pp.
Dutton. 2008.

flap copy:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificent Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Printz-medalist John Gree returns with the brilliant wit and searing emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers.

I really really really like John Green's writing. Paper Towns is no exception. Sure, all three of his books seem to follow the somewhat geeky, antisocial boy who is obsessed with the ever enigmatic and illusive girl. But it works. And it works well. I like the intelligence and wit that Green brings to his characters. Even when his characters are built around one or two primary characteristics, they still feel like they've been fully rounded out. And I find them to be likable.

What I like most about Paper Towns is the journey encapsulated herein. The book is told in three parts with the first being a ruckus night about town, the second being a more plodding exploration of identity and image, and the third being another ruckus night, this time a road trip. The themes of identity and interconnectedness are explored quite well throughout. I think this book can safely claim a spot in my top ten list this year.

Oh. And apparently the book isn't released until October 16. Go figure. I would say shame on the Devil's Den for getting it to me a week early, but I'm not really complaining.

Oh. Also, as per usual with Green, there is language. And underage drinking. Be forewarned if you're sensitive to those things.

Other reviews:
Becky's Book Reviews | Presenting Lenore | Biblio File | Wantz Upon a Time | LibrariAnne | Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Graveyard Book

2008-10-11T18:57:00.004-06:00

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
YA fiction. 312 pp.
HarperCollins. 2008.

flap copy:

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breath-taking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

There is, apparently, this cult of Neil Gaiman out there. I only know this because every now and again I hear whispers of this master who must be worshiped and adored. Having never read anything by him previously, and seeing this book in the Devil's Den, I asked Sean where I should begin. Of course, he hadn't finished Graveyard yet, so he recommended something else. But then I saw that he loved and adored this book, so I got it.

I must confess to being very pleased with this book. It has a slow start as far as pacing goes, but the writing really is quite lovely. And the characters are drawn rather well. I like the layout, with the novel being composed of a number of short stories that tie together to reveal the overarching plot and denouement. Overall, it works quite nicely. And I think it is also a rather appropriate seasonal book.

Now, if you're into audiobooks, Gaiman apparently narrates the official audio. Or you can even go to his site and download video of him reading the entire novel while on his book tour.

Other reviews:
Books & Other Thoughts | Cecily | Boingboing

interview with the vampire

2008-10-07T21:47:00.002-06:00

I did not watch the presidential debate tonight.

I didn't watch the first one either.

Nor do I expect to watch the last one.

There are a couple reasons. For starters, I caught some five minutes of each of the debates so far. That was enough time for me to remember that I can't really stand to listen to either candidate speak. I find McCain to be grating and condescending; Obama to be lethargic and boring. (This was not the case with the Veep debate, which I found to be quite entertaining. Hell, I could even listen to Palin. That might have to do with my anticipation of how Fey would interpret her a couple nights later, but still . . . )

The primary reason, though, is because of my disgust with the notion that this is even a presidential candidate debate. Aside from the fact that the candidates seldom do more than recite talking points, it only includes two parties. According to Wikipedia, there are four more candidates who appear on enough ballots to garner enough electoral votes and conceivably win the presidency.* Yes, at this point in time, these third-party candidates won't make enough headway to actually win, but I think the media does the nation a disservice by not presenting these candidates' voices as well.

So I'll read through the transcript in the next couple days and continue to do my research on the positions of all the candidates as I try to educate myself prior to the election.

*Independent Party: Nader/Gonzalez
Libertarian: Barr/Root
Constitution: Baldwin/Castle
Green: McKinney/Clemente

chickens in the headlights

2008-10-07T12:10:00.002-06:00

Just a couple of amusements for your lunch hour . . .

Via M:

There is now no longer a need to worry about sending out drunken e-mail.

Via Towleroad:

The world's greatest video spoof.

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love

2008-10-06T07:00:00.001-06:00

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love
by A. E. Cannon
YA fiction. 255 pp.
HarperTeen. 2008.

flap copy:

Ordinary, boring Ed works a loser summer job at Reel Life Movies, where he doesn't even have his own name tag. He's stuck with "Sergio." Ed's only consolations are his two best friends. Shelving DVDs isn't so mind-numbingly dull with Scout cracking jokes, and after hours Ed hangs out with the superbrain, Quark. Life starts to look up when the girl of his dreams saunters into Reel Life. Ed knows he doesn't have a chance . . . but maybe, just maybe Sergio does. All he has to do is pretend to be a smoldering Brazilian stud for the rest of his life. Simple, right? But . . . Ed's new dream girl has her own secrets, Scout wants to be more than Ed's best friend, and his buddy wants Scout for himself.

Star-crossed crushes make for hilarious misunderstandings as Ed guides his life toward disaster in this fresh, contemporary twist on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

By and large, I was disappointed with this book. I'm sure that it likely failed for me because of higher-than-appropriate expectations. The mechanics of the writing weren't bad, but I feel the novel as a whole lacked spark.

For starters, this is yet another novel told in alternating character views; it doesn't work here. I'm inclined to think it ought to have been told solely from Ed's perspective as Scout's, Ellie's, and Quark's perspectives really didn't bring much to the table. I think the multiple perspectives also stripped the novel of the magic it should have inherently pulled from Midsummer Night's Dream. Instead, it just seemed to be trying too hard to be a take on MND.

The other area where I believe it failed me is in its locale—my neighborhood. I realize that people seldom think their own neighborhood is magical, but that hasn't stopped authors from turning ordinary neighborhoods into magical places. This book made my neighborhood feel even more blasé than my daily experience with it. That's not good.

So, in the end, there are other local authors and novels with whom your time would be better spent.

top ten

2008-10-05T13:36:00.003-06:00

Though I read the Weekly Geek challenges, I seldom do them. However, I think this is one worth doing. Even though I'm doing it a week late.

Anyway, for Weekly Geek #19, the challenge is as follows:

1. Compile your list of favorites. Please be sure that books you choose actually were published in 2008, or at the very earliest in the winter holiday season of 2007. Sometimes books that come out then are left out.

2. Come back and sign Mr Linky with the url to your top books of 2008 post.

3. If you happen to see any non-WG bloggers making similar lists, please grab the url and come put it in Mr Linky for them. Let them know you’re doing that, please, in case they have some sort of objection; if they do, they can ask me to remove their link. I’ve already seen a couple favorites of 2008 posts, which is another reason I wanted to get started early.

4. Feel free to make changes to your list if you read something new in the next few weeks. After about October 25, I can’t guarantee your changes will be reflected in the master list. We’ll probably start compiling lists around then.

5. Please consider whether you’d like to help me compile lists.

That said, here is the list of books I've enjoyed so far that were published this year. Bear in mind that I fully anticipate this list changing as I'm just about to break open Inkdeath and I have on order Mothstorm and Paper Towns.

2008 Top Ten (thus far and not necessarily in order but likely close)

How They Met by David Levithan
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
Wrath of the Bloodeye by Joseph Delaney
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
Suck It Up by Brian Meehl
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Vintage by Steve Berman
Attack of the Fiend by Joseph Delaney

Oh. And in case you're interested, Weekly Geek #20 is your opportunity to do the same thing. And you might even be able to get loot from it, if I'm reading the guidelines correctly.

1. Please post about the project in your blog, asking your readers to make their own lists. Please refer them to Weekly Geeks #19 for the details.

2. You can tell your readers that next week I’ll be giving away another box of 11 books from Hachette. ONLY bloggers who have made a top books of 2008 list will be eligible to enter. That means you, too, of course! By the way, I also have two other giveaways going on right now, one that’s open until the 6th and one that’s open until the 8th. Just in case you want to enter those.

3. Your readers who make lists should go back to Weekly Geeks #19 to leave their urls in the Mr Linky by October 11th. I’m not even going to put a Mr Linky in today’s post just because I don’t want the urls left in more than one place. That might confuse me and my wonderful helpers, Renay and Jackie. The url in the WG #19 post counts as an entry for the Hachette box of books, so if you already left your url there, you’re all set.

4. Every time one of your readers leaves a comment on the Weekly Geeks #19 post saying they heard about the top books of 2008 project from you, you get a bonus entry in the drawing.

The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie the Second

2008-10-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie the Second
by Drew Ferguson
Coming of Age. 258 pp.
Kensington. 2008.

back copy:

Being Charles James Stewart, Jr., AKA Charlie the Second, means never "fitting in." Tall, gangly and big-eared, he could be a poster boy for teenage geeks. An embarrassment to his parents (he's not too crazy about them, either), Charlie is a virtual untouchable at his high school, where humiliation is practically an extracurricular activity. Charlie has tried to fit in, but all of his efforts fail on a glorious, monumental scale. He plays soccer—mainly to escape his home life—but isn't accepted by his teammates who basically ignore him on the field. He still confuses the accelerator with the brake pedal and has failed his driving exam six times. He can't work on his college essay without writing a searing tell-all. But what's freaking Charlie out the most is that while his hormones are raging and his peers are pairing off, he remains alone with his fantasies.

But all of this is about to change when a new guy at school begins to liven things up on the soccer team—and in Charlie's life. For the first time in his seventeen years, Charlie will learn how it feels to be a star, well, at least of the field. But Charlie discovers that even cool guys have problems as he embarks on an unforgettable, risk-filled journey from which there is no turning back . . .

For starters, let me say how pleased I am that this book wasn't promoted as a YA novel just because it has a teenaged protagonist. I'd say there's far too much discussion of sexuality for them to consider doing that, but, well, Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging anyone?

Anyway, I found that I really enjoyed this novel. Yes, it's told in journal format and what not, but Charlie has a rather captive voice that actually comes across as a legitimate seventeen-year-old boy. And the awkwardness . . . Pitch perfect. There wasn't a grand, sweeping plot, but the action worked with the voice to create an enjoyable and interesting narrative. And I like how it approached the element of first love in a way that was neither overly romanticized nor quashed.

the measure of a man

2008-10-02T12:06:00.003-06:00

Last night, while measuring the girls so we can start working on their Hallowe'en costumes, we discovered that my waist is the same size as theirs. I'm not sure if this is something we should be concerned about.

A Giant Problem

2008-10-01T07:00:00.001-06:00

Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: A Giant Problem
by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
MG fantasy. 154 pp.
Simon & Schuster. 2008.

back copy:

Talk about out of the frying pan, into the fire! I was pretty sure that my freaky stepsister and that freaky field guide of hers would ruin my life. But now it looks like they're going to ruin all of Florida, too! Okay maybe that's not fair. Maybe all these STUPID GIANTS would be waking up anyway, but if it wasn't for her and that book, I'd be home playing video games and this would be someone else's GIANT PROBLEM!

I confess that I wish I hadn't picked up the first book in this series as I feel compelled to complete the series. They should have left well enough alone with the first series. Fortunately, this second book is paced much better without the self-referential crap of the first one. I'm even starting to like the protagonist. Even better, it looks like this series is only going to be a trilogy instead of a pentology.

Other review:
The Trades

the next thing on my list

2008-09-30T18:00:00.000-06:00

So I came across this meme on Cleolinda's blog ~~today~~ mid-September. Since I hadn't composed a non-book post in a while, I thought it might be a fun meme to pass along. But trying to think of ten things has been rather difficult.

10 Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't
According to Cleolinda, the key to filling out this meme: be really, really specific. Fortunately, I imagine my readership is small enough that I don't have to be quite as specific; I just have to come up with ten things.

1. Performed in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 2002 Olympics.

More on this later in the alphabiography, but it was pretty cool. I even got national TV time—like three or four seconds' worth—looking into the distance with a hope-filled face as we entered the Valley, my daughter riding on my back.

2. Used a barbed-wire fence as a safety net while training for the NYC marathon.

I've written about this before here and here and here. I just figure that others have run the marathon a.k.a. Event of Stupidity, so this was my way to stand out and be unique.

3. Had foot surgery in Portugal.

I can see the jealousy in your face. But that's because you lack commitment. You see, if you were willing to save the sidewalk from a cartful of 17 cases of Book of Mormons as they careened off the 1-inch lip at the bottom of the ramp (don't ask me—I assume it's a Portuguese thing), then you too could have foot surgery in Portugal.

4. Been dragged by a group of scouts during a klondike race.

And people wonder why I hate camping and scouts and teenaged boys . . .

5. Attended a movie premiere with Julia Roberts.

One of the perks to living in NYC and having friends with connections. The movie was Mona Lisa Smile. The movie was okay. I was surprised to discover how short Roberts is. And that's she's actually much prettier in person.

6. Hitchhiked in Wyoming in the middle of winter.

Some things aren't wise. But freshman heading home for Christmas aren't known for their wisdom.

7. Saw Wicked. On Broadway. With the original cast.

I've boasted of this before; I just want to ensure people seethe with jealousy.

8. Marched in the Rose Bowl Parade.

This was a high school thing. I was in the Wyoming High School All-State Centennial Marching Band. If you don't believe me, I still have the uniform and a drum head to prove it.

9. Survived the New York City Blackout of 2003.

Okay. So the blackout hit a far larger area. But even so, I got to watch the black smoke billow out of a nearby generator. And I got to play card games with my roommates. By tea lights. In our undershorts. (It was NYC in August. Trust me, undershorts is overdressed without A/C.)

10. Filled this meme out first.

Some may see this as cheating, but I'm having issues coming up with something else.

Big Fat Manifesto

2008-09-30T14:43:00.003-06:00

Big Fat Manifesto
by Susan Vaught
YA fiction. 308 pp.
Bloomsbury. 2008.

flap copy:

Feeling sorry for the Fat Girl?

Let's take care of a few myths right now, before you even start to stereotype:

Myth Number One. Speak gently to poor Fat Girl. She can't help her terrible disability.

Myth Number Two. Poor Fat Girl needs to be educated about her problem.

Myth Number Three. Poor Fat Girl laughs to hide her tears.

Myth Number Four. Poor lonely Fat Girl can't get a date.

Myth Number Five. All poor Fat Girl wants to do is lose weight.

Writing a column every week in the school newspaper about what it really means to be fat, Jamie Carcaterra—high school senior, star of her school's production of The Wiz, and features editor of The Wire—offers readers a searing and hilarious account of her full-size fight to change the thinking of a very thin world.

For starters, I'd say this book is far from hilarious. As a point of fact, I really didn't like this book. At all. Oprah's Kids Reading List be damned. I'm not even sure now how this book ended up on my To Read list, seeing as how I can't find any reviews of it in the blogs I generally haunt. Even more, any blogger who does mention it (at least the bloggers I'm finding on Technorati) couples it with The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things and Fat Kids Rules the World—two books that I truly despise, the former because all it has going for it is an awesome title and the latter because I think the book would have been better had the protagonist succeeded in flinging himself in front of the subway at the beginning of the book.

I do remember that one of the primary reasons I picked up this book is because of one of my biases (like I said before, we're all bigots in one regard or another, and I do recognize mine) and I thought that perhaps by entering into the psyche of a fictional character I might be able to learn some sympathy or empathy. That is the value of fiction, after all. But it didn't work. I found very little to redeem Jamie. Sure, her loud-mouthed aggressive manner is a front for her issues that she refuses to consciously acknowledge—thought the novel itself does highlight them—but I just found I couldn't like her. And I never got past her weight (she weighs nearly double what I weigh but doesn't have my height) or her judgment of her boyfriend for getting bariatric surgery. Truth be told, the more interesting and meaningful story would have focused more on Burke and his decision to get the surgery as well as the complications and aftermath of that decision.

My Most Excellent Year

2008-09-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park
by Steve Kluger
YA fiction. 403 pp.
Dial. 2008.

flap copy:

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 . . .

This was such an enjoyable book. Really. I found myself entertained throughout. The flap copy doesn't really tell you much about the plot. Part of that is because what really matters in this book is the characters. Fortunately, unlike the award-winning atrocity that is Criss Cross, this character-driven book has well-drawn characters who you can actually like. It also has wit and heart. As another blog I came across at one point (but can't find now) put it, this is a book about the family you're born with and the family you choose. T.C. and Tick are best friends. Actually, they're more than best friends; they're brothers. And they decided that when they were in first grade some time after T.C.'s mom died: ". . . that's when I knew for sure that I wouldn't be sad forever. Well, anybody who can pull off something like that for you isn't just a best friend—that's brother territory. So Augie told his mom and dad that they had a new son, and I told Pop the same thing. Screw biology."

Anyway, so the book employs various forms to narrate the story, including diary-assignment passages, memos, e-mails, IM logs, and what not. And there's just a lot of good stuff in here. Even when considering how improbable a lot of the book may seem, it still has an authenticity that makes it believable. That's also assuming you ignore the first and last few chapters where the characters reveal they're writing this memoir as a junior-year writing assignment about their freshman year yet the rest of the book is essentially written with present-tense knowledge instead of past-tense knowledge.

One of the criticisms that I've seen crop up is about the lack of drama with Augie's coming out:

I must further confess that although I consider Augie a delightful character, I found one aspect of his coming out a bit implausible. Everyone around him greets his being gay with complete acceptance. This is very nice to see, but really? No one from school gives him a hard time? There's no weirdness from the male best friend with whom he regularly shares a room? Still, I do love the way Augie is open about his feelings, and notices everything about Andy

Except, well, T.C.'s words:

I'm five weeks older than Augie is but he's a lot smarter than I am, except that he doesn't know he's gay yet. I don't see how he couldn't. I guess he figures that because he loves women like Audrey Hepburn and Judi Dench so much, he's automatically going to wind up with one. (Shh. What he really loves is their clothes.) But Augie is the best at everything he does and I'm betting that once he puts 2+2 together, he'll have a steady boyfriend before I even get this new girl Alejandra to think about kissing me. (22)

Anyway. It's an enjoyable read with plenty of humor and good writing and not so much angst.

Other reviews:
The Ya Ya Yas | Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye

2008-09-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye
by Joseph Delaney
YA fantasy. 511 pp.
Greenwillow. 2008.

flap copy:

Thomas Ward has spent two years as the Spook's apprentice. He's faced unimaginable peril, and survived. But a new danger has emerged: an ancient water witch, Bloodeye, is roaming the County intent on destroying everything in her path. To strengthen his skills, Tom is sent to the far north to train with the demanding Bill Arkwright. Arkwright lives in a haunted mill on the edge of a treacherous marsh, and his training methods prove to be harsh and sometimes cruel. Will Tom's new bag of tricks be enough to overcome a critical mistake that leaves him confronting Bloodeye on his own?

For starters, I'm not happy with the flap copy as it's quite misleading. The Fiend (a.k.a. the Devil) is roaming the County, intent on destroying everything in its path. And yes, it wants to destroy Tom, but it has its reasons for sending its daughter Bloodeye after Tom instead. And I really don't see the "critical mistake" that Tom makes. True, he makes a questionable choice, but it really isn't a mistake. Unless all choices that lead to difficult or trying circumstances are mistakes. I always figured that was just part of living life and growing.

Anyway. I love this series. The writing seems to improve with each book. Each book seems to have impeccable pacing, and I wonder how Delaney learned to do that. It must be a natural gift since I can think of no other author who consistently does that. The characters are so well portrayed, it's rather scary. Even his stock characters (you know, the ones that are supposed to be flat) have some dimension.

So, yeah. I like this series. Heaps. You should too.

the river between us

2008-09-22T12:47:00.000-06:00

I think it should be noted that I've been mentally composing this post since early Friday but, due to the kids and my Pilates walloping/certification course I've been in all weekend, haven't had time to sit down and write until now. I debated whether I would actually write it up after the, well, discussion erupted among friends. But I feel to post it anyway. So, just so you know, this is not a response to said discussion though it is somewhat related.

One of my old friends got married on Friday. I was invited to the reception and was looking forward to attending. Until I came across something on her Facebook profile. (I guess social networking can have its drawbacks.) You see, she supports Proposition 8.

Now, I have many bigoted friends. Actually, truth be told, all my friends are bigots. I'm a bigot. When it comes down to it, everyone is a bigot in some regard or another. It's just that, generally, we choose to associate with people who share our particular style of bigotry or who at least can set it to the side for social niceties. And some of us do our best not to politically bludgeon others with our bigotry.

So come Friday morning, I found myself rather irritated about my friend's party for her nuptials and the fact that I would be going to it even though she believes I shouldn't get the same thing. I had thought to perhaps go but refuse to take a gift because, well, why should I give her loot that she'll just use against me? By mid-morning I had nearly decided not to go. I let Dec know that I was leaning in that direction, which he was fine with seeing as how he didn't want to go in the first place since he doesn't even know her. Although he did throw out the thought that we could go as a big gay happy family and let our presence rub it in their noses that gay families exist. Oh, so tempting. Because I'm childish that way. But our mere presence wouldn't leave any impression unless we made some kind of monster scene, and I didn't feel like doing that. So, by the time I had finished my Pilates course for the day, I had decided we wouldn't be going. (Although my resolve was challenged when I got home to discover that the present Coworker had dropped off for me to deliver should I ultimately decide to go was packaged in a Victoria's Secret bag. Oh. So. Tempting.) We took the kidlings bowling instead.

Come Saturday evening, I was glad that I had decided not to go. You see, on Saturday, we went to another friend's birthday dinner at Pizza Factory. And everyone was grand and sweet and loved the kidlings. More important, to me at least, was something the Birthday Girl said toward the end of dinner. She noted that the family in the booth behind our table kept looking at Dec and I and glaring and muttering at us. Because how dare the fags come out in public. With children, nonetheless. And all she wanted, more than anything, was to tell them to crawl back into their cave from whence they came. But she couldn't figure out how to go about telling them that. At least not without making a monster scene. So instead she just glared at them with evil crusties.

And that was when I knew I'd make the right decision. Because when all is said and done, I think that what we all really want is to know which friends have our backs and which friends are putting knives in them.

Generation Dead

2008-09-13T11:30:00.000-06:00

Generation Dead
by Daniel Waters
YA fiction. 392 pp.
Hyperion. 2008.

flap copy:

Phoebe is just your typical Goth girl with a crush. He's strong and silent . . . and dead.

All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same. Termed "living impaired" or "differently biotic," they are doing their best to blend into society again.

But the kids at Oakvale High don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws to protect the differently biotic from the people who want them to disappear—for good.

With her pale skin and goth wardrobe, Phoebe Kendall has never run with the popular crowd. But no one can believe it when she falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids: not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has realized that his feelings run much deeper than friendship. he would do anything for her—but what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?

Since I'm still unwilling to pick up the Vampire Craptastica burdening my shelves, it makes perfect sense that I would instead pick up a book about zombies. I found this to be an intriguing book. For starters, I really like the premise—some teenagers are undead, and we have no idea why. I like that instead of being about popularity (like the other zombie books out there), this one is about social integration and community tolerance.

The writing is pretty good. The chapters are told in alternating perspectives, and it works in this novel. Even when the reader is thrown into the head of one of the antagonists (though I found him to be a rather pathetic person). The action is very slow moving in the book—probably intentional and appropriate, given the general portrayal of zombies herein. But the tension grew steadily throughout.

My major complaint with the book is that not a single story thread or conflict is resolved in this book. Not one. That irritates me. Yes, there's a sequel coming out in May, but that's no excuse not to resolve anything in this novel. Unless, of course, the author intended these other conflicts to be mere red herrings. If that's the case, I feel a bit betrayed as a reader.

One of the things I do like about this book is that Tommy has a blog. And unlike Suck It Up where the actual website merely bounces you back to the author's page, Tommy's blog is an actual blog.

Other reviews:
Miss Print | The Book Muncher | Teen Book Review | Persephone Reads | NYTimes

The Maze of Bones

2008-09-11T10:59:00.003-06:00

The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones
by Rick Riordan
MG fiction. 220 pp.
Scholastic. 2008.

back copy:

What would happen if you discovered that your family was one of the most powerful in human history? What if you were told that the source of the family's power was hidden around the world, in the form of 39 Clues? What if you were give a chance—take a million dollars and walk away . . . or get the first Clue? If you're Amy and Dan Cahill, you take the Clue—and begin a very dangerous race.

This book is a little bit Westing Game meets DaVinci Code meets Baudelaire Orphans meets Harry Potter.

Westing Game. So Grace Hill, the last matriarch of the Cahill clan, in the last five minutes of her life decides to pull out The Other Will. Only a tenth of the people who attended the funeral are even invited to the reading of the will. Those who do attend are informed that they can take a million dollars or a clue that will lead to other clues that will lead someone on to become the most powerful person in the world. Oh, and did I mention that anyone in the history of the world who has even been a mover and a shaker is a Cahill? It's true. And this series will introduce readers to some of these people from the past.

DaVinci Code. So the whole point is to follow the clues and find the prize before any of the other teams. (Many of the readees took the money; those who took the clue may be working alone or in pairs or as a family totaling seven teams.) Our first Cahill that we're hunting down is Benjamin Franklin, which takes us to Philadelphia and then on to Paris. And there are riddles and puzzles and danger and all sorts of stuffs to confront.

Baudelaire Orphans. The book and the series (I presume) follow Amy and Dan Cahill. Their parents are dead (killed in a fire even). They're Grandma Grace's favorite descendants, even though she has pawned them off on their great aunt Beatrice and has never told them anything about the extent of their family or this little inheritance game. That they realize; I suspect she has been giving them information that they just don't realize they have. Because Grace is shrewd that way.

Harry Potter. The Cahill family has broken into four branches—Ekaterina, Janus, Lucian, and Tomas. The founders were siblings and apparently had a fairly nasty falling out. And their descendants do their best to maintain the rivalries.

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this book. Dog Ear claims the writing in it is better than Riordan's Percy Jackson series; I completely disagree. I think this book lacks some of the substance and wit that you find in Percy Jackson. I don't like the alternating chapter viewpoints in this book. I'm really not fond of Amy; her primary weakness is aggravating and unbearable, particularly since you have to live inside her head for half the book (I think I wouldn't mind it so much if I never had to be in her head). In some regards, Amy and Dan's traits are fairly gender stereotypical—quiet v. loud, books v. math, reserved v. pluck.

On the other hand, I love all the Benjamin Franklin stuff, and I'm looking forward to the W. A. M. in the next book. I'm fascinated by the premise behind the series and can't wait to see what Gordon Korman does with book two. (That said, I do think 90 days between release dates is too long to sustain interest in and build the series in the way that Scholastic wants to.) I'm intrigued to see how the series plays out as a whole. I like the online component and may actually participate in that and get cards. (And they tell you what branch of the family you're from. I'm Ekaterina, which is essentially the Ravenclaws. You know, the smart ones.) I like the anagrams and number games you find in the book.

Other reviews:
Dog Ear | Mystery Books

Oh. My. Gods.

2008-09-02T07:00:00.000-06:00

Oh. My. Gods.
by Tera Lynn Childs
YA fiction. 264 pp.
Dutton. 2008.

flap copy:

If Phoebe Castro can keep her grades up and have another stellar cross-country season, her dream of attending USC with her best friends is only a track scholarship away. She's made all her plans, so it's a complete shock when her mom announces she's marrying a mysterious stranger and moving them halfway around the world—to Greece.

Phoebe's stuck on a secret island in the Aegean, attending the super-exclusive Academy, where her new stepfather is the headmaster and the kids are anything but your average students—they are descendants of the Greek gods, superpowers included. That's right, Greek gods are no myth! If Phoebe thought high school was hard, she knows this is going to be mortal misery.

Securing that scholarship seems like Phoebe's only ticket out of Greece, but training and maintaining her grades will be grueling, even without a sabotaging stepsister from Hades and a gorgeous guy—what a god!—who just might be her Achilles' heel. One thing is for sure—summoning the will to win and finding her place among the gods could be Phoebe's toughest course yet.

The Greek gods get a makeover in this romantic odyssey of mythic proportion.

So it would appear that I'm kinda sorta in this Greek mythology mood this year. If my count is correct, this is the fifth related book I've read this year. And I have another series on my shelf that I can start if I want, which I might, considering how much the Boy liked it.

Overall, I'm left with an average impression of Oh. My. Gods. I take a bit of issue with Phoebe neglecting the good, nice guy, even though he is every bit as much a god as the jerkwad she does go after. I think the overall plot and world development is a bit shallow and unsatisfying. I'm not sure if I even like Phoebe.

However, it's nice to read a sports book about a girl. The moments about running are genuinely good in terms of description and feeling. (During these scenes, it made me think of Samantha.) I really liked that this novel didn't constrain itself to the pantheon, as a good portion of the kids are descendants of the minor gods.

Oh. My favorite part of the world is how Childs deals with high school cliques:

The second floor hall is full of students, and from the outside they all look normal. I see all the standard cliques. Populars here and nerds there. Jocks in a huddle and cheerleaders all around them. Freaks glaring at everyone from the corner and geeks trying to avoid getting knocked down. Stoners, burnouts, prudes, and skanks. Nothing unusual.

"Look at that group." Nicole points across the hall.

Clustered around a set of lockers, a group of girls with perfect hair, heavy makeup, and suggestive clothing cling to boys with metrosexual taste in fashion and gel-spiked hair. Miniskirts and tight T-shirts abound. Not so different from the populars at Pacific Park.

"Steer clear of them," Nicole warns. "The Zeus set. Power, privilege, and partying. They make Paris Hilton look like a Vestal Virgin."

Surfers are, obviously, Poseidon's; geeks are Hephaestus. But the best—"the Hades harem":

The group just rounding the corner look like your average Goths—black hair, black clothes, black eyeliner—but with an edge. Pretty fitting for the god of the underworld's descendants.

In the end, it was an okay book, a library read.* According to this interview, there's a sequel in the works. That might be a good thing, as there were some loose ends and plot points dropped in the novel that never did anything.

Other review:
Becky's Book Reviews

*I actually checked this book out from the library. I know! Miracles never cease. And my fingers didn't fall off from touching pages that have been touched by countless others. Will this be the turn of a new leaf? Will Dec be able to breathe and not relax about figuring where to put in another bookshelf? Likely not. But you never know.

Audrey, Wait!

2008-09-01T07:00:00.001-06:00

Audrey, Wait!
by Robin Benway
YA fiction. 313 pp.
Razor BIll. 2008.

flap copy:

Audrey, Cuttler's life hasn't been the same since that song, "Audrey, Wait!" hit the airwaves. All she wants to do is go to concerts, hang out with her friends, and maybe score a date with the cute boy who works with her at the Scooper Dooper.

But now, her ex-boyfriend's song about their breakup is at the top of the charts and she's suddenly famous! The paparazzi won't leave her alone, the tabloids are trying to make into some kind of rock goddess, and the Internet is documenting her every move!

Will Audrey ever be able to have a normal life again? Get ready to find out, because it's time for Audrey to tell her side of the story

I'm torn on how much I actually enjoyed this book. Let me explain . . . While I was reading this book, I was proofreading a book that also deals with a rocker and his best friend who happens to be his muse and he writes many songs about her not loving him and blah blah blah. Anyway, Audrey is clearly such a better book.* But I'm unsure if I liked Audrey on its own merits or on its comparative merits.

I like the premise. I like Audrey's voice. I like the final resolution. I like the boy Audrey starts dating over the course of the novel.

For much of the book, I really don't like Audrey; too much sulking and woe-be-me-ing. I really don't like her best friend or the fact that when Victoria abuses Audrey's popularity and meets with producers and agents on her behalf and behind her back when Audrey has explicitly said she's not interested Audrey still apologizes to Victoria for not falling all over her and thanking her for making her life suck just a little bit more.

So I may or may not have liked this book. I guess we'll really know in a few months. Regardless, every other review I've read has showered nothing but praise on it, so maybe you want to visit some of those.

Other reviews:
Becky's Book Reviews
Interactive Reader
The Ya Ya Yas

*A choice moment from the other novel:
The main character discovers that his wife is having an affair with a younger, tattoo-covered rocker and tells his brother. His brother's response: "'No!' [Brother] gasped and put a hand over the center of his chest as if he actually felt pain. 'I can't believe it.'" Yes, this book has unintentionally coded the main character's brother as gay. I mean, really, clutching his pearls at the horrifying news? Oh. And did I mention that the brother is the drummer in his rock band? And he's mid-thirties? And single? And we've never seen or heard of him going on a single date? Ever. Not in this book. Or the previous one.

Heart to Heart

2008-08-30T07:00:00.001-06:00

Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art
ed. Jan Greenberg
Poetry. 78 pp.
Abrams Books for Young Readers. 2001.

flap copy:

Like valentines sent from one heart to another, the poems inspired by the images in this unique collection offer a special look at art and poetry. Written by forty-three distinguished American poets, these specially commissioned poems expand on twentieth-century American art, highlighting not only the strength and diversity of the works, but also exploring the story of our national experience throughout the past century. The poems combine with the artwork of such artists as Edward Hopper and Kiki Smith to create a distinctive connection between image and word.

The paintings, lithographs, sculpture, mixed media, and photographs gathered here represent the most important artistic movements of the past century—from American modernism to abstract expressionism to pop art. Prompted by these works, the poems narrate, describe, and explore; they vary from such topics as dreams, childhood memories, and issues of race and gender to reflections on the artist and the visual structure of the images. Each poem allows the reader an opportunity to see the works from a new and exciting perspective.

Whether playful, challenging, humorous, or sad, each poem and image connects the reader and the viewer, the writer and the artist, and celebrates the power of art to affect language. Pairing the work of some of America's most prominent poets, from Jane Yolen and Siv Cedering to X. J. Kennedy and William Jay Smith with the best of American art, from works by Jacob Lawrence and Georgia O'Keeffe to Jackson Pollock and Louise Bourgeois, this book will delight and inspire readers of all ages.

Completed June 8

Initially, I thought this book was amazing and had decided I was going to get a copy for the kids to have. I really liked that you had poetry inspired by and about art. I also read this a little while after we'd finished going through a pretty solid poetry unit with the Boy.* Following that assignment, I felt compelled to find poetry books for the kids to have so that they could broaden their minds a bit and start to become intelligent and worthwhile persons. (I'm sure people who knew me when are rolling their eyes at my advocacy of poetry. Or they're on their knees repenting since The End Must Surely Be Nigh. Either or. But exposure to editorgirl will do that to you.) So I was excited when I found this book that married poetry with my other academic love—art.

Now that some time has passed, I find that my feelings of love and adoration have quelled significantly. There was more poetry in there that didn't impress than there was that did. At least in terms of what I remember. I think the organizational breakdown for the book is a good concept but ineffectively realized.

Even so, I'm pleased that this book won the Printz honor if for no other reason than it puts a book of poetry (much of which is not bad even if I'm not interested in reading it again) in the canon for kids to come across.

*Let me just say how cool the Boy is. One of his assignments was to choose his five favorite poems and write an analysis of them. Oh. But your favorite poems can't be Dr. Seuss. Or Shel Sivlerstein. Or a nursery rhyme. Or something we've studied in class. These are seventh graders, for crying out loud. As if they're truly aware of any poets aside from these. So I spent a weekend with the Boy (the weekend before the assignment was due, mind you) just trying to find poetry that he liked. Fortunately, Absent had earlier given me a picture book of poetry about dragons by Jack Prelutsky, and since the Boy lurves dragons, that took care of one.

But, to return to how cool the Boy is, I'm sure he's the only one who showed up back in class with a poem I'm sure the teacher had never studied (I don't think very highly of the intellectual prowess of the kids' teachers, truth be told), turning in an analysis of Gerard Manley Hopkins's "As kingfishers catch fire," which he chose of his own free will and volition. (Yes, I adore the poem, but he rejected heaps of poems that I adore, including some phenomenal stuff by Langston Hughes that I thought he would like.) True, he didn't select it because of its poignant religious imagery (though he did write about that in his analysis because we had a good discussion about it) or because Hopkins is a god among poets; he chose it because it has fire in it. I say, go with whatever gets the assignment done. And be cool in the process.

Oh. And he has the makings of becoming a fairly decent poet himself, should he wish to pursue that. As part of this unit, he had to write a poem. His mother and step-father accused him of stealing it from the interwebs. Fortunately, I've paid enough attention to his interests and creative writing prowess to know that this was his work.

Saints of Augustine

2008-08-29T07:00:00.001-06:00

Saints of Augustine
by P. E. Ryan
YA fiction. 308 pp.
HarperTeen. 2007.

flap copy:

Sam Findley and Charlie Perrin. Best friends. At least they used to be. But a year ago Sam cut Charlie out of his life—no explanation, no discussion, nothing.

Fast-forward one year, and both Sam's and Charlie's lives are spiraling out of control. Sam has a secret he's finding harder and harder to hide, and Charlie is dealing with an increasingly absent dad and a dealer whose threats are anything but empty.

As told in alternating chapters from Sam and Charlie during the sticky Florida summer before their senior year, the ex-best friends are thrown together once again when they have no one else to turn to.

Completed June 7

This was a slow book to get into, but in the end, I enjoyed it. It's not at the top of my to recommend list, because I really don't recall much more about it other than the impression that I appreciated how Ryan approached their friendship and the tension Sam brought to it because he wasn't able to own up to his homosexuality or how that would affect his friendship. In the end, it was a non-issue. However—and perhaps this is one of the thinking points for this novel—was it a non-issue because of who Charlie is or because of Charlie's own loneliness during the past year and his newfound appreciation for the what he and Sam had?

Saints of Augustine was a finalist for this year's Lambda Literary Award in the Children's/YA category. (Apparently Hero won the award; though I think this is the best book of the five titles in the running for the award in this category, I still don't think it should have been in this category. Coming-of-age story does not equal YA novel.)

eats, shoots & leaves

2008-08-28T19:24:00.002-06:00

I'm in the process of reading and evaluating a manuscript. It's taken longer than it ought. In fact, I'm late in turning it in because . . . well . . . the manuscript is horrendous. The plot is abysmal, the character is whiny and angsty blech, and the spelling is worse than a fifth grader's.

However.

I have decided that I must look at the silver lining of spelling humor.

"She said Emma is in a comma, which is good because she can heal better and pain free, but bad because comma's are always scary."

I think, amen, brother. A. Men. Better to be in a comma than to be in a full stop.* I mean, commas are just a pause, a connection between this and that. But full stops are permanent. Fin.

I'm not sure why the character thinks commas are always scary. A bit daunting perhaps, but not scary. You want scary, you should try semi-colons.

*I'm using British terminology here because I don't even want to get into other meanings and unintended interpretations of period.

The Shadow Thieves

2008-08-28T07:00:00.001-06:00

The Cronus Chronicles: The Shadow Thieves
by Anne Ursu
YA fantasy. 424 pp.
Aladdin. 2006/

back copy:

Something extraordinary is about to happen to Charlotte Mielswetzski.

It's not the very cute kitten that appears out of nowhere. It's not the arrival of her cousin Zee, who believes he's the cause of a mysterious sickness that has struck his friends back in England. And it's not the white-faced, yellow-eyed men in tuxedos who follow Charlotte everywhere. What's so extraordinary is not any one of these things. It's all of them.

When Charlotte's friends start to get sick, Charlotte and Zee set out to find a cure. Their quest leads them to a not-so-mythical Underworld, where they face Harpies that love to rhyme, gods with personnel problems, and ghosts with a thirst for blood.

Charlotte and Zee learn that in a world overrun by Nightmares, Pain, and Death, the really dangerous character is a guy named Phil. And then they discover that the fate of every person—living and dead—is in their hands.

Completed May 25

I picked this book up from a Devil's Den end stand that basically said if you like Percy Jackson, you should read this. The employee who put up that stand ought to be fired.

The premise behind this book has so much promise, even if it is fairly standard—two kids must venture into the Underworld to save us all. The characters the author has created are actually fairly interesting. But somehow, it all just fell apart and failed to work.

So instead of reading this, go back and reread Gods Behaving Badly.

The Manny Files

2008-08-27T07:00:00.001-06:00

The Manny Files
by Christian Burch
MG fiction. 296 pp.
Aladdin Mix. 2006.

back copy:

A man might be our nanny. A male nanny. A manny. No wonder that's what he wanted us to call him. This was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. I wanted to rush to the bathroom to pee, but I didn't want to miss Lulu's reaction to the news of the man nanny.

Even though Keats Dalinger is the only boy in his family, he sometimes feels invisible. But he's sure that under the manny's guidance he can emerge from the shadows of his larger-than-life sisters and live up to the manny's challenge—scribbled on a coconut in Keat's lunch bag—to "be interesting."

But Keat's older sister Lulu finds the manny embarrassing, not interesting, and is keeping a record of all the crazy things he does in hope of persuading their parents to fire him. Who will teach Keats how to be interesting if Lulu gets her way?

Completed May 19.

My surprise with this book was the age. I confess that I was expecting it to be an adult novel, taking after Nanny Diaries. But I was wrong. After I adjusted to that massive paradigm shift, I found that I enjoyed the novel.

Keat is just so likable. You sense his real concern about losing the first nanny he's actually liked and who actually seems to like him and try to draw more out of him. More than anything, I appreciated his absolute innocence. The main demonstration of this innocence is that unlike everyone around him, he has no concept that the manny is gay. Or, for that matter, that his uncle is gay. So he doesn't pick up on the adult romance that blossoms there until it's an actual relationship. I liked this because that's really how a kid's world is—massively egocentric and innocent. It's adults—like Dec's brother-in-law (you know, the squat latino who knocked up Dec's sister for a greencard, out of wedlock, mind you)—who freak out about the Gays and their Corruption of Everything Holy and Oh! the Damage They Wish to Inflict upon Children. Kids only recognize that there are adults in their lives who love them and want them to be all they can be.

The writing isn't stellar, and there isn't much of a plot, but overall I had a pleasant experience with the book.

Starcross

2008-08-24T18:38:00.004-06:00

Starcross; or, The Coming of the Moobs; or, Our Adventures in the Fourth Dimension: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel, and Curious Hats
As Narrated by Art Mumby, Esq. (& Miss Myrtle Mumby) to Their Amanuensis, Mr Philip Reeve, & Illuminated Throughout by David Wyatt
MG fantasy. 370 pp.
Bloomsbury. 2007.

flap copy:

There is an old saying: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Take the holiday that Art Mumby, his mostly irritating younger sister, Myrtle, and their mother take to Starcross, a hotel which advertises itself as the finest sea-bathing resort in the entire Asteroid Belt. The fact that there are no seas anywhere in the Asteroid Belt should be the first sign that the place is not what it seems.

Sure enough, Art and family quickly find themselves grappling with French spies, Yankee rebels, and man-eating starfish, not to mention an awful lot of sinister top hats. With stops to the future and back to prehistoric Mars, it's all Art can do to keep his head about him. Which is all the more important, considering everyone else is losing theirs.

Starcross continues the Larklight saga, and it's every bit as enjoyable as the first one. What's especially nice is the quick pacing, especially from the get go. Of course, this is possible because the world has already been set up, and we know how to approach it. Art is still quite enjoyable in all his proper British stiff upper lipness.

I'm looking forward to Mothstorm's release on October 14.

Other reviews:
B. E.
Abby (the) Librarian

Repossessed

2008-08-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

Repossessed
by A. M. Jenkins
YA fiction. 218 pp.
HarperTeen. 2007.

from the flap copy:

Don't call me a demon. I prefer the term Fallen Angel.

Everybody deserves a vacation, right? Especially if you have a pointless job like tormenting the damned. So who could blame me for blowing off my duties and taking a small, unauthorized break?

Besides, I've always wanted to see what physical existence is like. That's why I "borrowed" the slightly used body of a slacker teen. Believe me, he wasn't going to be using it anymore anyway.

I have never understood why humans do the things they do. Like sin—if it's so terrible, why do they keep doing it?

I'm going to have a lot of fun finding out!

This is another book I read ages ago (March 8). Consequently, I'm now left with fading impressions. I remember that it read fairly well. It wasn't my favorite book I've read. To be honest, I'm not even sure why it won an award as it didn't stand out to me as something phenomenal.

I like the idea behind the plot in that a Fallen Angel decides to hijack the body of a kid who was stepping out in front of a car and about to die anyway. He then gets to finally have a human experience. I like that this "devil" character actually ends up doing a lot of good in the lives he touches, albeit that wasn't his intention. Yes, he was a bit obsessed with sex (which is the great criticism that I recall coming across from other reviews I had read), but I didn't think it was as bad as the other reviewers made it out be. Besides, so few teenage boys aren't obsessed with sex.

Anyway, it's not my favorite Printz book I've read. It does have one of the sharper covers, but that's not necessarily a reason to recommend it.

Other reviews:
The Book Muncher

Broadway Nights

2008-08-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

Broadway Nights: A Romp of Life, Love, and Musical Theatre
by Seth Rudetsky
Fiction. 339 pp.
Alyson. 2007.

back copy:

Mr. Conductor, if you please . . .

It's been said (actually, it's been sung) that when a Broadway baby says goodnight, it's early in the morning. But what about those nights? The thrill of being on stage, the adulation, the applause, the stage door fanatics . . .

Stephen Sheerin has no such life. Sure, he dallies on the Great White Way, but when he does have a job it's beneath the stage, subbing in the orchestra pit. Other parts of his life are the pits too—including his love life. Why does he always date men who already have boyfriends?

But now Stephen has been given the chance of a lifetime: to be the music director on a brand-new, Broadway-bound show. He couldn't be happier. Trouble is, Stephen doesn't do happiness well.

Completed May 4.

Whatever reviews I had read of this, they made it sound like this wonderfully written, gleeful romp. By and large, I was disappointed. I guess, when all is said and done, the writing was fine. The Broadway trivia was fun. But where I had issues with the book was with the protagonist. Knowing that, it shouldn't surprise you that I'm now going to complain about how I couldn't respect the character because I don't like books where the plot conflict stems from the character's inherent stupidity. I just have no sympathy for a guy who wants to bitch about how much his love life sucks when he insists on only dating guys who already have boyfriends. For years. If you choose to be the other man, you choose to be miserable.

What's truly unfortunate is that he gets the guy in the end. And not a guy who was dating someone else, but an actual good guy. He so doesn't deserve him.

So, the Broadway setting was entertaining and fun, but overall, the book was an exercise in not throttling the protagonist.

Other reviews:
Pop Culture Book Review
Gratuitous Violins
LGBT Book & Video Blog

Attack of the Fiend

2008-08-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

The Last Apprentice: Attack of the Fiend
by Joseph Delaney
YA fantasy. 532 pp.
Greenwillow. 2008.

flap copy:

I see your future clearly. Your master will be dead, and you will be alone. It would be better if you had never been born.

Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who banishes boggarts and drives away ghosts. But now a new danger is threatening Tom's world: the witches are rising and the three most powerful clans are uniting in order to conjure an unimaginable evil.

Tom and the Spook set out to stop the witches before they unleash the demon. But when Tom finds himself on his own, he wonders if he has the courage and cunning to defeat the most powerful enemy he has ever encountered.

Completed April 19.

I find that this series gets better and better with each book. Unlike Harry Potter, Tom continues to grow and learn and piece things together on his own. Yes, he makes some poor decisions, but he's drawn in such a way that you care about his learning curve and the conflict he has with his emotions and his profession.

Ooh! I'm excited! I just discovered on Devils Den Online that the fifth book, Wrath of the Bloodeye, will be released August 26.

Thomas Ward has spent two years as the Spook's apprentice. He's faced unimaginable peril, and survived. But a new danger has emerged: an ancient water witch, Bloodeye, is roaming the County intent on destroying everything in her path. To strengthen his skills, Tom is sent to the far north to train with the demanding Bill Arkwright. Arkwright lives in a haunted mill on the edge of a treacherous marsh, and his training methods prove to be harsh and sometimes cruel. Will Tom's new bag of tricks be enough to overcome a critical mistake that leaves him confronting Bloodeye on his own?

That gives me something to look forward to reading.

Other reviews:
TeenZone Blog

Magyk

2008-08-20T07:00:00.001-06:00

Magyk
by Angie Sage
MG fantasy. 564 pp.
Katherine Tegen Books. 2005.

flap copy:

The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

The first book in this enthralling new series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. Magyk is an original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.

Completed April 27.

I don't remember much about this book except that I found it to be rather disappointing. And I think I recall corresponding with someone about it (DesMama maybe?) wherein I enumerated its many flaws, but now I can't find those e-mails. Part of me wants to think that the plot was underdeveloped and overly predictable, that the characters were shallow, that there was nothing to stand out about this book. Of course, if it gives kids who are in love with Harry another series to dive into, then go for it.

Other reviews:
Good Books for Kids, Tweens, and Teens

Gods Behaving Badly

2008-08-19T07:00:00.001-06:00

Gods Behaving Badly
by Marie Phillips
Fiction. 292 pp.
Little, Brown. 2007.

flap copy:

Being immortal is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve Greek gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London town house—and are none too happy about it. Even more disturbing, their powers are waning.

For Artemis (goddess of hunting, professional dog walker), Aphrodite (goddess of beauty, telephone sex operator), and Apollo (god of the sun, TV psychic), there's no way out—until a meek cleaner, Alice, and her would-be boyfriend, Neil, turn their world literally upside down. When what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills, Alice and Neil are caught in the cross fire, and they must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed—but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Gods Behaving Badly is that rare thing: a charming, funny, utterly original first novel that satisfies the head and the heart.

For starters, had I known I could get the book with this cover instead of the other cover, I would have. But that's a given.

This book is clearly not for everyone (chapter two is Apollo and Aphrodite going at it—bored—in the bathroom). That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much. I'm trying to think of how to describe this book to give it justice. Basically, I found myself laughing. Often. I was so entertained by it. Your main character in this one is Artemis, which was pleasant to see since she's often ignored in mythological retellings for the other more boisterous gods, and she's rather disgruntled and unhappy. Of course, you cram the gods and their larger-than-life personalities into a London town home when they're dying because people no longer believe in them and that's bound to happen. Though, truth be told, Hermes is my favorite god in this book. Of course, that's likely due to him getting some rather choice scenes, such as when he goes to meet Alice to escort her to the entrance to the Underworld.

"Alice Joy Mulholland?"
Alice turned.
"Hermes?"
"Yes," said Hermes. "How did you know?" . . .

"I don't understand," said Alice. "What do you mean, how do I know? You know me. You said my name."
"That doesn't mean anything," said Hermes. "I know everybody's name."
"But you do know me," said Alice. "I clean your house."
Recognition bloomed.
"Of course," he said. "Sorry. Out of context." . . .

"You did hit your head," confirmed Hermes. "But that's not what killed you."
"What?" said Alice.
"It was a lightning strike," said Hermes.
"You mean," said Alice, "you mean I am dead."
Hermes cocked his head.
"Best to make sure," he said.
He reached inside her chest and pulled out her heart.
"Yup," he said. "Definitely not beating."
He put it back.
Alice screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed, and as she screamed she became aware that the screaming wasn't exhausting her or relieving her or even making her throat sore. The scream was having no effect on her whatsoever.
Eventually she stopped screaming.
"Are you done?" said Hermes, who had been standing still, watching her, all this time.
"Yes," said Alice.
"Good," said Hermes.
He took a pair of earplugs out of his ears. . . .

"If you're a god . . . does that mean that the others are too?"
"The others? You mean the rest of the family? Yes, of course. You're pretty slow on the uptake."
"So Apollo—he's a god too?"
"God of the sun. In practice that means he has absolutely nothing to do. Sun goes up, sun comes down. Child's play. Why?"
"I . . . He . . . I . . ."
"Did you shag him?" said hermes. "I wouldn't worry about that. Everybody shags him. Even I've shagged him. That was during a very boring decade. Oops, nearly missed my turn." . . .

"Please, can you just do something for me?" Alice pleaded. "Neil—the man I told you about—APhrodite knows who he is. So does Ares. And, well, Apollo, but . . ."
"I can't believe you didn't figure the god thing out for yourself," said Hermes. "Weren't the names a dead giveaway? No pun intended."

Or when Artemis finally realizes that Alice is missing.

"Why is the house so filthy? Have you seen Alice anywhere?"
"Yes, I saw her," said Hermes, coming to the threshold of the kitchen and leaning against the doorway. "A couple of weeks ago. I took her down to the underworld."
"What?" said Artemis. "Why did you do that?"
"Well, because she's dead," said Hermes.
"Dead?" said Artemis? "She can't be dead! Damn it! I've been so preoccupied. I should have known something like this would happen if I didn't supervise her properly. But she seemed so trustworthy! Stupid mortal. What did she go and die for?"
"It's not her fault," said Hermes. "Zeus killed her. Lightning bolt. On the day he got out."
"Zeus!" said Artemis. "How did he find out about her? I told her not to go up to the top floor."
"She didn't," said Hermes. "If you want my opinion, it's got something to do with Apollo."
"What?"
"Well, she was on that program he did," said Hermes.
"She what?"
"—and Aphrodite got me to bring her in—"
"Aphrodite?" said Artemis. "What's she got to do with anything?"
"—and Apollo was acting all weird around her the whole time she was here, and then they kissed, and then he tried to rape her—"
"Hermes, how do you know all this?"
"It's my business to know."

Eros is another delightfully portrayed god in this book. But, then, he's also converted to Christianity.

"Eros, do you have the power to read minds? You've never done it before."
"No," said Eros. "It's just that, unlike you, I am familiar with feeling guilty. It's one of the things you have to learn if you're going to be a Christian."

Anyway, I found the book to be thoroughly entertaining. Yes, it can lead a bit toward the crass side. Ooh. So basically,

Bridget Jones's Diary : Pride and Prejudice :: Gods Behaving Badly : Greek Mythology/Orpheus

I think that sums it up rather nicely. The last twenty to thirty pages seemed to peter out a bit, both in terms of humor and style, but the rest was fun.

And, a special treat for Samantha, it is good to be a Scrabble master.

"Scrabble? Why didn't you say that in the first instance?" He sat forward eagerly. "Are you gifted?"
"Not really," said Alice. "I did come third in the British national under-sixteen championship."
"You are too modest," said Mr. Kunmanara. "At last this is something which can be of some use! Leisure, entertainment, these are the lifebloods of the dead community. You cannot yet imagine, Miss Mulholland, how very boring it is to exist here. A person of advanced skill at board games—this is a rare find indeed! Believe me, you will find yourself endlessly in demand."

Other reviews:
Becky's Book Reviews
Readers' Blog
Adventures in Daily Living
Indelible Inc

l is for

2008-08-18T07:00:00.003-06:00

legos

So one of the keepsakes that I failed to mention are Legos. I lurve me some Legos. And not for constructing. To me, they're models—you put them together and then they stay together forever and ever and ever. As I think about it, the Blackpool/Scandinavia tour was the Best. Tour. Ever. merely because we went to Legoland, which is truly the happiest place on earth. And they have really cool models there. The entire park, even.

For as long as I can remember, I have always gotten a set of Legos for Christmas. Sometimes it was a big set. Sometimes it was a little set in the stocking. Of course, I remember the year I didn't get Legos for Christmas. I kinda sorta threw a fit. I was 22 at the time. I now get between two and three sets each year for Christmas. Life is good. And it provided Sis with the opportunity to raise a ruckus about Santa's sex discrimination, leading to her now receiving a couple sets each year as well.

And I don't really play well with others with the Legos. I'm reminded of that one year that after I had put my set together, my brother put the battery in to see how it worked while I was away from the set. Not a pretty sight. I was 26 at the time. I think I may have scared his wife.

And Dec would be more than happy to tell you about the set that I got for Christmas two years ago that is still sitting in its box in the garage because I haven't put it together yet because we're not really collecting this set and so we don't really have a place to display it despite its awesome coolness and the Boy wants it and keeps asking if he can put it together and my answer is still an unequivocal no. Like I said, Does Not Play Well with Others.

All that said, I have managed to whittle down my Legos collection over the years. This is primarily because bookshelves are for books, so as I acquire more books, the open space where Legos are allowed to camp keeps getting smaller. Granted, I do have one shelf that is dedicated entirely to Hogwarts Castle. And the shelves below house things like rarely used DVDs and never-touched leather-bound books, so the Legos get to sit in front of those. Unfortunately, the Riddle Cemetery across the way is going to have to come down in the next week or two. Perhaps I'll just push the books on the reference shelf back.

This post has been brought to you by Linda Eder and David Levithan and Lois Lowry.

Linda Eder has the vocal chops of Barbra and Bette and Celine but also has the advantage of being less well-known, meaning I can be all sorts of My Taste Is Better Than Yours Because I Listen to Linda. But seriously, she has a beautiful voice and knows how to use it to give power to her music.

I'm pretty certain I've sung effusive praises aplenty for both Levithan (who is a god) and Lowry (who is a miracle worker). Their sponsorship of this post should, therefore, not surprise you.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

i am hamlet

2008-08-17T11:53:00.002-06:00

I only check in to McSweeney's occasionally. After reading this, I very much need to repent of that.

HAMLET
(FACEBOOK NEWS FEED EDITION).

BY SARAH SCHMELLING

- - - -

Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.

Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.

The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.

Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.

Hamlet's father is now a zombie.

- - - -

The king poked the queen.

The queen poked the king back.

Hamlet and the queen are no longer friends.

Marcellus is pretty sure something's rotten around here.

Hamlet became a fan of daggers.

- - - -

Polonius says Hamlet's crazy ... crazy in love!

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet are now friends.

Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.

Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.

Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests.

Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family

The king commented on Hamlet's play: "What is wrong with you?"

Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.

Polonius is no longer online.

- - - -

Hamlet added England to the Places I've Been application.

The queen is worried about Ophelia.

Ophelia loves flowers. Flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers. Oh, look, a river.

Ophelia joined the group Maidens Who Don't Float.

Laertes wonders what the hell happened while he was gone.

- - - -

The king sent Hamlet a goblet of wine.

The queen likes wine!

The king likes ... oh crap.

The queen, the king, Laertes, and Hamlet are now zombies.

Horatio says well that was tragic.

Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, says yes, tragic. We'll take it from here.

Denmark is now Norwegian.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

2008-08-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

The Battle of the Labyrinth
by Rick Riordan
YA fantasy. 361 pp.
Hyperion. 2008.

flap copy:

Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse.

In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth—a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this latest book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

Hmm. I'm surprised I haven't written about this book yet (read May 9, because I got this for me for my birthday). Because I love it. Lots and lots and heaps and heaps. Basically, this is one of my favorite series. And I really like where Riordan has taken it. I find the way in which he has given the Labyrinth life and character to be intriguing. I like that Percy is still an utterly likable character. I like that he's being put in positions where he has to make difficult decisions. And I like the end and how Percy has chosen to relate to the characters around him. I'm anxious for the next (perhaps closing?) volume in the series.

Of course, in looking up other reviews, I have come across some very distressing information: apparently they are in pre-production of a movie adaptation of The Lightning Thief (tentatively slated for November 2009). This in and of itself isn't terribly distressing. What is terribly distressing is that Chris Columbus is helming the project. You know, the man who butchered and destroyed Harry Potter. *sigh* I weep.

Other reviews:
Vagabond Voice
Becky's Book Reviews
Book Bits

twilight

2008-08-16T20:01:00.000-06:00

I would totally go see this iteration of the movie.

the stupids step out

2008-08-16T10:05:00.002-06:00

It has come to my attention that I really ought to start reading the Letters to the Editor section of other newspapers. If I don't, I fear I will never find anything to disabuse me of the notion that Utah is Land of the Ignert and Home of the Stoopid.

Spitz won medals hard way

I am happy for Michael Phelps' success in the swimming events at the Beijing Olympics. But it is difficult to compare Phelps to swimming sensation Mark Spitz and the seven gold medals he earned at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Spitz did not have the technological advantage of super-speed pools and laser-sleek swim suits. Nor did he wear a streamlined swimming cap to cover his hair when he won his medals (he also swam those events with a mustache).

Spitz won his medals the old-fashioned way, and it has taken more than 30 years of innovation and technology for anyone to come close to his Olympic success.

Mark D. Reese
Salt Lake City

Really? Really? Phelps is winning his medals the "old-fashioned way," just like Spitz. Because the old-fashioned way is to swim faster than the other swimmers in the pool. The record that Phelps is beating is one of quantity, not quality.

Sheesh.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2008-08-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
MG graphic novel. 533 pp.
Scholastic. 2007.

flap copy:

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks—like the gears of the clocks he keeps—with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the train station, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

With 284 pages of original drawings, and combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Brian Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience. Here is a stunning, cinematic tour de force from a boldly innovative storyteller, artist, and bookmaker.

So whereas I did not read Rapunzel's Revenge because of Theric, I did read Hugo Cabret because of him. I find the method of storytelling here to be fascinating. I think the subject of old movies works well, particularly when considering how the author has reinforced that feel by framing each page in black. I can't say I'm gaga over the style of the illustrations or even the quality of the writing, but I can say that I'm impressed with how the illustrations and story work so well together and enhance the overall feel. I don't believe the book earned the effusive praise it garnered for quality (as everything is merely average), but it does merit the attention it has received for its uniqueness.

In the end, I'm glad Theric wrote up a review that actually made me want to read this book.

Other reviews:
Theric
Abby (the) Librarian
Becky's Book Reviews

Pandora Gets Jealous

2008-08-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

Pandora Gets Jealous
by Carolyn Hennesy
Early YA fiction. 253 pp.
Bloomsbury. 2008.

flap copy:

Pandora Atheneus Andromaeche Helena (or Pandy, for short) has always been a little too curious for her own good. So it's hardly a surprise when she discovers a simple box, said to contain something so terrifying and horrible that no one must ever, ever open it. Pandy knows she shouldn't bring it to school, but it's sooo neat and way cooler than showing off her dad's liver in a jar (again).

Of course, the box accidentally gets opened, seven kinds of evil and misery are unleashed into the world, Athens starts to crumble, death and destruction are everywhere . . . You get the picture. Hauled before Zeus, Hera, and the rest of the immortals, Pandy is ordered to collect all the evils within six months or officially become the most unpopular maiden in Athens—oh yeah, and ruin the world forever, too

Because of the Percy Jackson books, I've been going through a bit of a mythology phase. Again. Granted, part of that this time was because the Boy was finally interested in something that didn't have to do with dragons, so I wanted to find more books to keep him engaged. I figured this book wouldn't be the next thing for him (come to find out, The Fire Thief series is).

This book is cute, but it borders a bit on the fluff side. It's still set in Ancient Greece, but the language and attitude is very much contemporary American. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I guess it works well enough. The characters are interesting and seem to work well together, at least from what I remember (I finished reading this April 2). More than likely, I'll read the subsequent books in the inevitable series.

Other reviews:
Confessions of a Bibliovore
Young Adult (& Kids) Book Central

k is for

2008-08-14T13:00:00.002-06:00

keepsakes

I must confess that the latest delay in the alphabiography has been due to an absolute and utter lack of something—anything—to go in this post. I finally scrounged something out of the dictionary yesterday, even though I wasn't thrilled with the topic.

But then, before it was set to post this afternoon, I had a brainstorm. So I postponed the post to give me time to rewrite it. You should be thrilled. :)

Anyway, I have collected odd things over the years. Normal people collect things like mugs and spoons and shot glasses. I collect books, which we're all aware of, though I'm not sure if we're aware of the extent to which I collect books.

For example, I have an international Harry Potter collection. The idea behind it is that I should have Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from each country I've been to. Granted, I have to go back and somehow find and pick up the books from the China Tour. And it's no longer a representation of places I've been. Yes, this is one of those oddities that others contribute to because they find it to be odd.

Even so, my luggage was always heavy coming back from tour because I bought books. Often times these were coffee table books, even though I don't have a coffee table whereupon to display said books. But I buy them anyway. (I even bought one last month at Hoover Dam. It's filed away on a shelf where no one will ever see it, but I have one nonetheless.)

I also managed to collect weird little trinkets while on tour. The great advantage of vacation/unemployment is that I've been going through these boxes of trinkets. And I've been throwing the trinkets out. Finally. I mean, do I really need a Gettysburg cannon replica? Yea. Didn't think so. So what used to consume three boxes in the garage I have managed to whittle down to one. Right now, our justification for keeping the box is that there really isn't a place to display trinkets in our house; that doesn't really jive with our decorating style. And our house is small. But in our next house . . .

The other thing I'm trying to decide what to do with are my trophies. I don't have many, but I do have a half dozen or so. In looking at them, I wonder What's the point? Trophies only really seem to have value during the awards ceremony. It has to look like you're actually giving the winner something. Because, really, medals would make so much more sense.

Other keepsakes I've been routing through have been photos. I'm very much looking forward to when they're finally all scanned in. But they do bring about good memories. High school. Freshman year. Mission. Ballroom. So many fun times. It's a bit of a shame that I've inherited my mother's camera shyness; I might be in more pictures were I not so averse to being in them.

The final, and perhaps oddest, keepsake I've been ferreting through the papers I've written. Yes, I believe I have kept nearly every paper I have ever written. That includes papers from high school. Tangent: I took a creative writing class my senior year of high school. My poetry sucks. In a major way. There's a good chance I just may post it so you can see how terrible a writer I was. I can never hope to follow in the footsteps of Levithan, who is a god among us. Fortunately, I've even managed to come across a number of the electronic files. So I've been compiling everything into a single document. (I'm using this as an excuse to learn how to use InDesign.) I had initially thought to then publish it in a nice little book and put it on my shelf; it would save space and eliminate a box from the garage as well as be cool. But thus far I've only imported all my graduate school papers. The file's at 265 pages. Yes, I realize that undergraduate papers were shorter, but there are more classes. In the end, I've no idea what I'm going to do with this undertaking. Most likely I'm just going to enjoy the fact that I have weird keepsakes.

This post has been brought to you by Kelly Clarkson and Gordon Korman.

I know that many would question my adoration of Kelly. Okay. I don't really adore her, but I do like her. And I think she has some great music. She's pretty much the best thing to come out of American Idol.

On the other hand, I have nothing but praise and adoration for Korman. He so rocks. More than anything, I love to recommend Son of the Mob. Oh, and in so doing, I must read the first chapter aloud to people. You may not realize this, but that's a huge compliment, because I don't believe in being read aloud to or in reading aloud to others (just ask Dec). Perhaps my second favorite novel by Korman is Schooled. Regardless, you should read these two novels.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

rules

2008-08-14T10:52:00.002-06:00

Today, while walking the puppies, we passed a group of kids (likely part of a day camp) who were on their way to the community garden. The first few kids actually walked in something resembling a line; however, that order quickly gave way to chaos the farther toward the back the kids walked. So we walked to the side of the first group but were then forced to walk through the kids. The puppies anymore are generally well behaved (even if they won't behave for Absent when we're gone because they're mad), so this wasn't a big deal. And a few of the kids reached out to pet the puppies, which this morning wouldn't have been a big deal either.

Except that the leader caboosing the group yelled out, "Don't touch the dogs!" with a slight sense of panic in her voice. Now, on one level, as the guardian for a group of young kids (one of whom looked an awful lot like S-Boogie, which caused me to miss the Fob clan terribly), I understand her concern. But I wish that, when I paused to answer her question about how far it was to the garden, I had taken a moment to say the following as well:

I appreciate your concern about the kids petting my dogs. But I wish that instead of commanding them not to touch the dogs (with a tinge of fear in your voice, which in turn may lead to the kids developing a fear of dogs), you would have instead told them to ask before touching the dogs. Because the dog's owner may not want them to pet the dogs. Or the owner might also know if the dog is skittish around kids, or unfriendly. Or the owner might think it's fine for kids to pet the dogs, because it's good for the dogs and the kids. Or, like me, the dog's owner might think it's fine to pet the dogs, but because of how I'm trying to train my dogs, I prefer to have my dogs sit before receiving attention, especially because it make Puppatrix less anxious. Before we teach fear of dogs, it would be nice if we could start teaching respect.

Rapunzel's Revenge

2008-08-14T07:00:00.001-06:00

Rapunzel's Revenge
by Shannon and Dean Hale
ill. Nathan Hale
YA graphic novel. 144 pp.
Bloomsbury. 2008.

flap copy:

Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the person she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the girl played in her grand villa and lush garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the ridiculously huge garden wall. Year after year, things just seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally managed to sneak over the top of the wall and was horrified to see what lay beyond . . .

Newbery Honor–winning author Shannon Hal teams up with husband Dean Hale and brilliant artist Nathan Hale (no relation) to bring readers a swashbuckling and hilarious twist on the classic story. Watch as Rapunzel and her amazing hair, along with a mysterious outlaw named Jack, gallop around the wild and Western landscape, battling creatures and outrageous villains, righting wrongs, and changing their world forever.

I picked this up at Devil's Den while looking for the Larklight series. I'd like to say that I picked it up at Theric's suggestion, but that wouldn't be true; his post merely reminded me that I had heard about and become interested in this book a couple years ago at a writer's conference at UVSC. Oh, and that it has now been released. (But, in all fairness, I did purchase The Invention of Hugo Cabret because of his suggestion. Not that this book was shelved anywhere near the children's section. Nope. It was by the café.) When Shannon mentioned this project, I recall her talking about how much she enjoys graphic novels but felt that there's a dearth in graphic novels to appeal to girls. (Given the explosion of the graphic novel market in just the last two years, I imagine this may no longer be the case. Any comment here, Fobby or Theric?)

Personally, I'm rather meh about this novel. I think the story is interesting, but I would have preferred the phenomenal, full-fleshed version that I know Shannon can produce. That said, kudos to her for delivering a girl power book with a heroine who actually has some internal power, as opposed to that unnamed-travesty-that-I-have-still-not-cracked-open-regardless-of-the-glee-I-feel-in-all-the-negative-reviews-I've-read-of-it. Most of the graphics are rather cool, but I feel that quality was sometimes inconsistent. Of course, that's coming from a non–graphic-novel-reader perspective. It's not my favorite book out there, but I'm glad it iis out there.

Other reviews:
The Reading Zone
Bookwyrm Chrysalis
Children's Bookshop

Larklight

2008-08-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

Larklight; or, The Revenge of the White Spiders; or, To Saturn's Rings and Back: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space
As chronicl'd by Art Mumby, with the aid of Mr Philip Reeve and decorated throughout by Mr David Wyatt
MG fantasy. 400 pp.
Bloomsbury. 2006.

back copy:

It was just another normal morning in space when disaster struck. My sister Myrtle (who is quite irritating, as girls generally are) and I faced the most awful peril, and we hadn't even had breakfast. . . . This is the story of what happened next, and our Dreadful and Terrifying adventure to save each other and the known Universe.

I doubt there are words to describe how much I loved this book. So, so, so much love. Coworker and her husband bought this for me for my birthday. And then finally gave it to me this past weekend. I'm trying to decide if I should be upset at how long they withheld. Because, really, it's that entertaining.

Basically, the book takes place in Victorian England. However, it's a Victorian England wherein Sir Isaac Newton has discovered how to travel in space. So the Brits, true to form, have spread their empire and colonized the entire galaxy. ('Pish,' I told her. 'We do not rule Jupiter, only a handful of its satellites.') They live in an odd house—Larklight—that is in orbit around the moon. The adventure begins when they're expecting a visitor, who, upon his arrival, turns out to be a giant spider. ('Now come, Art,' Father chided, adjusting his spectacles to peer up at the beast as it came creeping towards us across the ceiling. 'It is hardly a spider. There is some superficial resemblance, to be sure, but you will observe it has at least twelve legs, whereas our earthly arachnidae have only eight . . .') And thus begins the adventure. And such a fun, fun adventure. With space pirates. And the British Royal Navy. And the Universe Expo's Crystal Palace.

What I find to be most enjoyable about this book is the voice. It is written with a Victorian sensibility that can only be achieved with a twenty-first century enjoyment of the currently perceived absurdity of the Victorian voice. ("I felt a little like saying 'Eeeeeeeeek!' myself, but seeing Myrtle so afraid reminded me that I was British, and must be brave.") This carries through from narrative voice through chapter titles to even the subtitles of the book itself. The characters are also very likable and fun to spend time with. And they're not the cause of the problems. I really like that in a character.

After I had gotten about halfway through the book, I had decided I was going to give this book to the Boy and go purchase a hard cover copy for myself, because I knew I'd be buying the second book and heaven forbid my books in a series don't have matching binding. But then I got to Devil's Den today and discovered that the second book is being released in paperback next month. So I changed my mind. But then I discovered that the third book is coming out in October. So I'm going to get them all in hardcover. Because I'm not waiting a year for the third one to be released in paperback; I'm not particularly known for my patience.

Other reviews:
B. E.
Abby (the) Librarian
Becky's Book Reviews

pay the piper

2008-08-11T20:23:00.003-06:00

The job hunt continues. It makes me slightly less pleasant than usual. I guess I ought to have warned everyone who has not been through an Edgy job hunt before about that, because it only gets worse.

But I've started broadening the scope of what I'm applying for. Last week, I added State jobs to my list. I'll be honest, part of this is because I like the idea of the 4/10/40 Alternative Work Week. For those not familiar, Gov. Huntsman has put State employees on a four-day work week. The rationale is to save energy and ker-ching ker-ching by closing State offices one day a week. Now, there's a lot of debate about whether or not this will actually save money, but I'm all for giving it a go. Because I'm okay with three-day weekends, personally.

Of course, most people would rather bitch about the inconvenience of it all as opposed to issues that might be of more substantial concern. For example:

Tough-luck Fridays
Public Forum Letter

While the governor has the opportunity to be home for dinner every night, our children, due to the new four-day workweek for state employees, will be deprived of special health care assistance on Fridays, according to the new list of Friday closings ("Don't Wait Until Friday to...," Tribune, Aug. 4).

Our veterans who gave so much to assure our freedom will have to wait another day for services. During this serious economic time, the department handling financial assistance and Medicaid will be closed for its long three-day weekend. Those who may desperately need assistance will have to wait to apply for food stamps until the office opens the following Monday. I respect the governor's desire to have this dinner hour with his family, but remember, there are those in need out there for whom dinner hours may not even exist.

James F. Oshust
Salt Lake City

I'm just wondering if the bellyachers like this person also complain about how they can't get their desperately needed food stamps on Saturday. Or Sunday, for that matter. Because, really, what's the difference? Is it my problem if you are utterly incapable of working out your schedule?

Others like to bitch about how inconvenient it is for State employees who will have to leave their children home unattended or in daycare longer. My confusion here, though, is that most of these complaints come from people who also bemoan how the gays are destroying the American family by seeking legal recognition—with its accompanying benefits and responsibilities—for their families. I guess my question here is Shouldn't Mom be home with the children anyway?

My favorite complaint, of course, was the letter (oh, that I had saved it) wherein the writer worried that because of their regular three-day weekends, State employees were going to go inactive from their religious congregations. Do I even need to respond to that? I didn't think so.

Yes, the 4/10/40 is a bit odd and surely has some kinks that we'll need to adjust to, but it might do some good things as well. Personally, I'm for seeing what happens.

Gifted

2008-08-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

Gifted
by Nikita Lalwani
Fiction. 273 pp.
Random House. 2007.

flap copy:

Rumi Vasi is 10 years, 4 months, 13 days, 2 hours, 42 minutes, and 6 seconds old. She's figured that the likelihood of her walking home from school with the boy she likes, John Kemble, is 9.2142, a probability severely reduced by the lacy dress and thick woolen tights her father, an Indian émigré, forces her to wear. Rumi is a gifted child, and her father believes that strict discipline is the key to nurturing her genius if the family has any hope of making a mark on its adoptive country.

Four years later, a teenage Rumi is at the center of an intense campaign by her parents to make her the youngest student ever to attend Oxford University, an effort that requires an unrelenting routine of study. Yet Rumi is growing up like any other normal teen: her mind often drifts to potent distractions . . . from music to love.

Rumi's parents want nothing other than to give Rumi an exceptional life. As her father outlines ever more regimented study schedules, her mother longs for India and forcefully reminds Rumi of her roots. In the end, the intense expectations of a family with everything to prove will be a combustible ingredient as an intelligent but naïve girl is thrust into the adult world before she has time to grow up.

In her stunningly elegant debut novel, Nikita Lalwani pits a parent's dream against a child's. Deftly pondering the complexities and consequences that accompany the best intentions, Gifted explores just how far one person will push another, and how much can be endured, in the name of love.

Gifted recently received the Desmond Elliot Prize, and the Chair of Judges said:

Gifted is a book of extraordinary range; it is touching, tender, funny and at the same time truly compelling. It covers the issues of duty and family loyalty, and the demands of an extraordinary talent, while holding at its heart the story of a young girl struggling with the agony of first love and her own, very particular, identity. Above all, it has a wonderfully bittersweet charm and for that reason Desmond Elliott would have loved it.

Unfortunately, I rather disagree with this assessment. I don't think there is really anything touching or tender about it, and it's a far cry from compelling (as evidenced by the five other books I completed during its reading). I also question anyone who claims that the novel is funny. Tragic, perhaps. But certainly not funny. (I found it to lack even a semblance of a sense of humor.)

I realize that my disappointment with the novel stems from broken expectations. Somewhere somehow I had gleaned that this is a YA novel, which it certainly isn't. I was looking forward to a story about a maths genius, but Rumi's awkwardness merely engendered pity and not camaraderie or desired association. Were it not for the occasional passage narrated from the perspective of Rumi's parents, I would have truly despised them. And there was nothing that could be considered an active plot; character studies have a tendency to bore me.

Perhaps if I were taking my Post-Colonial LIterature class again, I could find a way to really sink my teeth into this novel. Instead, I can merely commend the cover artwork. (Which, by the by, is totally cool. Those little amoeba things are made entirely of numbers.)

Other reviews:
Hidden Side of a Leaf
Sepia Mutiny
Caribousmom

Girl v. Boy

2008-08-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

Girl v. Boy
by Yvonne Collins & Sandy Rideout
YA fiction. 311 pp.
Hyperion. 2008.

flap copy:

Fifteen-year-old Luisa Perez isn't looking to win any awards for school spirit. In fact, she and her friends make it a point to avoid all activities considered "extracurricular." So when her English teacher volunteers her to be an anonymous columnist for the school paper, Luisa's first impulse is to run. But, unlike her high-school dropout sister, Luisa does want to go to college—it may be her only ticket out of a life spent working at the cowboy-themed diner where she waitresses part time—and it would be nice to have something to put on her applications.

Her first assignment is to cover her high school's latest fund-raiser, which pits the girls against the boys. Luisa will cover the events from the female point of view, while another anonymous writer provides the male perspective—or, at least, that's how it begins. The two columnists soon find themselves engaged in an epic battle of the sexes—a battle that Luisa is determined to win, even if it mens risking the best relationship she's ever had.

So, let's just get it out on the table. We all know by page five (if not when we pick up the book) that Luisa is going to end up dating the boy writing the male perspective. Fortunately, Luisa and her friends know and acknowledge this as well, though she does her best to ensure she doesn't date Scoop. That said, the one thing I must completely commend the authors for are the red herrings and other diversions to make us believe that maybe Luisa isn't actually dating Scoop. There is one very good diversion thrown in there, and I was impressed by it.

Even so, the writing was a bit on the meh side. And I don't think the vitriol that passes between Luisa and Scoop does anything to bridge the gender chasm. I also felt that most of the characters lacked a sense of being and self.

Regardless, I'm sure that when all is said and done, I will still have enjoyed this book far more than I will the travesty released last weekend.

don't think of an elephant

2008-08-06T13:20:00.002-06:00

So, I know I've likely said something somewhere sometime about the waste of oxygen I find Paris to be.

However.

I might have to vote for her for president.

Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Adfunny videosFunnyOrDie.com

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Suck It Up

2008-08-04T07:00:00.000-06:00

Suck It Up
by Brian Meehl
YA fiction. 321 pp.
Delacorte. 2008.

flap copy:

Dear Reader,

Are you up to your neck in bloodsucking vampire stories?

Tired of those tales about dentally enhanced dark lords?

Before I wrote this book, I thought all vampires were night-stalking, fang-popping, bloodsucking fiends.

Then I met Morning McCobb. He drinks a soy-based blood substitute called Blood Lite. He believes staking should be classified as a hate crime. And someday he hopes to march in a Vampire Pride Parade. He was also the first vampire to out himself and tries to show people of mortality, like you and me, that vampires are just another minority with special needs. Trust me—this is like on other vampire book you'll ever feed on.

So, as my buddy Morning says, "Pop the lid and suck it up."

Portia Dredful
(aka the author)

The undead get a madcap makeover in Brian Meehl's funny-bone-chilling tale, as creatures of the night shape-shift into creatures of the twenty-first century.

I read this book at the behest of Fobby, and I'm glad I did.

It's part vampire novel/part superhero novel/part gay metaphor novel. But it's fully enjoyable. The author has done a grand job of creating a character—Morning McCobb—who is so fully likable. And that's nice for a change. I like the snippets of the IVLeague.us website that have been included. (Though I was greatly disappointed to find out that when you log on to that website, it is not the IVLeague website but is merely a redirectional link to the author's website.)

My one gripe with this book is PoV shifting. Nossa. The author has a tendency to switch point of view without warning, and I find that so irritating. Especially when it comes without warning or you only realize it at the second or third sentence into the new PoV.

Despite that, I still recommend this book. It's definitely far better than the quasi-porn travesty people picked up to read this weekend.

all that remains

2008-08-03T13:00:00.001-06:00

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers: I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, you may want to pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

The Final Farewell

2008-08-03T07:00:00.001-06:00

The Final Farewell
by Patricia Wiles
YA fiction. 246 pp.
Covenant Communications. 2007.

back copy:

Growing up can be hard. Especially if you live in a funeral home and your friends have either moved away, turned away—or passed away. Now that Kevin is getting close to graduation, the decision he always thought would be simple are becoming increasingly difficult. Everyone seems to be changing, including him. He wonders if he really should serve a two-year Church mission—or if he should accept the scholarship he's been offered in the field he loves. After all, the scholarship is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and he feels like he has nothing to say when he goes out with the local missionaries. Kevin needs help to find an answer. However, just when he thinks he has made up his mind, a disaster strikes that could change everything. Get caught up in the whirlwind of a young man's life in The Final Farewell of the Kevin Kirk Chronicles.

A few months ago, Puppicent was going through this Eat Edgy's Books phase (which led to the previous policy known as Lock Puppicent in the Laundry Room While We're Out [which has since been replaced with the Chain Puppicent Up Outside Because She Still Isn't Controlling Her Bowels policy]). During her book eating, aside from taking out Deathly Hallows, she also destroyed my Kevin Kirk Chronicles. I recently had these replaced and realized that I hadn't yet read the final book in the series. So I did that on Thursday.

This is perhaps the most difficult book review I've written.

So let's start with some full disclosure: I love Patricia Wiles. Though I had many authors I enjoyed working with while at Covenant, I can easily—oh so easily—say that Patricia was my favorite. And that's because she's brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Her sense of voice is wonderful. Her dedication to her craft—particularly the revision element of her craft—is absolutely stellar. And she doesn't resent and despise her editor. In fact, she actually takes criticism and praise quite well.

As an example, for her second novel, she had submitted a manuscript that was, well, good but not great. Bordering a bit on the meh side of things, perhaps. We spent about an hour or so talking about it on the phone and had come to the conclusion that there were likely too many things going on and things just weren't clicking quite right. So she set out to work on it. About three weeks later, I received her revised manuscript in the mail. And it was magnificent. She had done far more than we had talked about on the phone because she was brilliant enough to recognize what needed to happen. Even if that meant that she and I both lost some of the parts we dearly loved about the initial manuscript.

So I think she's grand.

Unfortunately, I don't think this novel is grand. It's the fourth and final book in the series, and so it's suffering from End of Series Doom I suspect. And it has an epilogue (and we all know how I feel about those). And there just seems to be too much going on with inadequate focus on the more important action scenes. The humor and voice are still good, so it's an enjoyable read that I recommend, it's just that I think the earlier books in the series pull through better.

nasty book

2008-08-02T19:00:00.001-06:00

Yes, it's true. I have purchased the craptastic final tome of the abysmal quadrology. (And clocking at 754 pages, how can it be anything but craptastic?)

But I have justified my purchase so:

We all knew I was going to buy this book.
We all knew I was going to read this book.
We all knew I was going to hate this book.

Initially, I had not wanted to contribute to her numbers.

However.

It's kinda like voting in a presidential election in Utah—my vote doesn't matter. So I have decided to purchase it this week when we know it's going to go to the top of the bestseller list instead of buying it later and contributing to its stay at the top of the bestseller list.

Furthermore, I have bought it someplace dark and seedy and where its purchase cannot be traced back to me.