junior fiction - tally: 6
peak by roland smith
the main thrust of this YA book is the challenge of climbing mount everest. over the years, through different books and documentaries, i've gotten a good grasp of the risks of everest and the thin air and impossibility of helicopters staying aloft, etc. so i didn't learn anything new, but i can see how this story has the potential to draw in reluctant readers with it's real life drama.
starring sally j freedman as herself by judy blume
read as part of the girl detective summer challenge (where readers are encouraged to read at least 1 of the 6-7 books featured in each chapter of Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery: The Teenage Classics We Never Stopped Reading) it's weird to re-read a book from so long ago - i was shocked by some of the language. did i know what those words meant back then? and then there were plot points that made me gasp with adult shock that i doubt i paid much attention to as a twelve or thirteen year old.
the book is set after WW II and sally is certain she's found a retired adolph hitler in miami. but her conjecture is no different than all her other movie-type fantasies she plays in her mind (or out loud with friends) her ignorance is what allows a child to read the book - an adult knows immediately the implications of the situation. for example, in sally's view we are told they've moved to miami for her brother's health, and perhaps the parents want to focus on that. but when douglas confesses to sally that he was chased by a likely pedophile, the mother's inflated worry over a broken bone and her absence at the hospital implies an entirely different worry
harriet the spy by louise fitzhugh
read for the shelf discovery challenge, i choose to re-read this one because i remembered how mortified i felt when harriet not only has her notebook read by her classmates, but that she never gets in back. this time around i was impressed with harriet's perseverance and courage. i could never have faced those taunts like she did. i like how practical her nanny was and really heard the line: tears never bring anything back.
blubber by judy blume
holy crap - i did NOT remember this book's main character as being so off-the-cuff nasty and cold hearted. she may not be the one who gives linda the mean nickname of blubber, but she's hardly the 'bystander' that barbara colorossa talks about. no, she's a full fledged participant. when she finally intervenes in the bullying, it's due to her stubborness, not because she has an ounce of empathy for blubber. yet all this trash talk and teasing struck me as very really for girls in grade 5 - like the female equivalent of lord of flies: eat or be eaten
the cat ate my gymsuit by paula danziger
read for the shelf discovery challenge. i thought i'd read this book before, but no - didn't strike a bell. it's told from the fat girl's point of view which is in contrast to blubber, and this girl's self esteem is so low that she thinks her best friend only talks to her because her mother makes her. by the end of the book, it seems she's lost a bit of weight and gained a little esteem. don't know if that's a good message or not.
summer of fear by lois duncan
read for the summer challenge, i was thrilled to see lois duncan on the list. ever since reading killing mr griffin, i've loved her approach to terror in the midst of everyday teen life. for this book, i knew the ending about 3 chapters in - but i firmly believe i read this book when i was younger and simply forget the title. anyhow, now that i've remembered her, i'll be introducing pepper to her
YA - tally: 5
trouble by gary schmidt
i loved this book until near the end. so wonderfully written, rich in symbolism and emotion, well grounded in interactions between boys.
near the end, the sister was brought into the plot - and i could why: the author wanted to tie up a few loose threads. but i thought her presence really marred the books as a coming of age tale. her loose ends were more for romance (absolutely unnecessary) and vindication (that part of the plot was poorly executed and the reason i stopped loving the book)
that said, it is still a worthwhile read - lots to consider as the main character finds a way to both grieve his brother, AND see his flaws. many revelations come to us as a reader, and to the main character, and not always at the same time. i'm looking forward to talking with pepper about what she figured out, and when, and why she thinks the author constructed the relevations the way he did.
king dork by frank portman
at first i really liked this book: it was fresh, was written in an inventive style, and had a humourous cynicism. but the more i read, the more i felt it was aimed at ME, a person who lived through the 80's and 90's, instead of a current YA reader (it's intended audience). then the plot became a little too fresh: with the nerdy protagonist somehow obtaining two (!) secret/casual girlfriends who hand out oral sex entirely too readily.
the author draws lots of parallels between his main character and holden caulfield (and peppers the book with comments about catcher in the rye - some quite funny) so he's clearly trying to create a new, current, model for the coming-of-age novel. but, i sort of hated it (hmm. i remember hating catcher as well... another parallel) anyhow, in retrospect, i found rather misoginistic: girls only valued for their physical assets, girls interchangable in sexual fantasies (and then real life). god help us if this is the real life attitudes of boys.
the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky
i'll quote a passage which will tell you most of what you need to know about this book: "(it's)very easy to read, but very hard to 'read well'. "
and the remaining thing to need to know about this book? i'm buying it. i will read it over and over.
it made me sob. sob.
leviathan by scott westerfeld
so this is steampunk. i've only vaguely heard of the genre so i didn't know what to expect. it's like a science fiction book that starts grounded in a historical event. so some true and some outlandish. in this case, it's the start of WWI where the british are known as Darwinists and the germans are Clankers. one group champions the use of layered organisms, the other favours machines. each group strongly distrusts the other group's technology.
this is the first of a trilogy and i plan to continue
guardian of the dead by karen healey
this book started well enough - magic in the midst of some troubling murders in new zealand, all with a back drop of a shakespearian play - but grew tiresome quickly. it seemed as if the author could only describe the maori mythological creatures as beautiful, and that's all. oh, and they were naked all the time - just naked, no further description there either.
on reflection, i wonder if this was trying to capitalize on the sucess of twilight by giving the settling and ghouls a maori twist. whatever. didn't work
graphic novels - tally: 3
kill shakespeare by conor mccreery and anthony del col
i must confess that my knowledge of shakespeare is not as wide or deep as this graphic novel series requires. all the known characters are there and they harbor many of their known character flaws but the nature of the plot - two opposing forces battle to aquire the quill of the godhead Shakespeare - mixes them so throughly that i get confused as to who is who, and from which play. written in shakespearean language, many of the most famous lines are re-worked into dialogue. their familiarity is a constant, but i rarely can peg from which play that phrase is plucked. i'll need to 'brush up (my) shakespeare' (the song from kiss me kate) before i can continue with this series :)
i kill giants by joe kelly and ken niimura
a little girl's mother is dying of cancer so she's invented a rich fantasy life to avoid the reality of her fear and pain. in this world, she carries an indestructible weapon in her little heart purse and can kill giants when they appear. stubborn and defiant, she rejects both bullies and potential friends. it was a hard story to read right now when my dreams are currently full of the anxiety of leaving my children hungry and defenseless after armageddon... when the black clouds pours into the horizon, it's not fear i feel, but relief that my baby will not wander alone, a motherless child.
shenzhen: a travelogue from china by guy delisle
interesting concept: a graphic novel as a travelogue. you learn a lot of cultural tidbits, in words AND in picture (like the image of the public restrooms, for example) he's honest about the loneliness and monotony of traveling alone in a country that doesn't communicate in english, and i think that's an important detail which is forgotten when romancing the idea of international travel.
i'll be leaving this book out for the children to pick up and peruse - looking like a comic strip, they'll eat it up :) and i plan to pick up his other graphic travelogues
novels & short stories - tally: 4
when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris
another hit out-of-the-ballpark from david sedaris. does he ever write a bad story?
i call him talented because i DO believe lots of it is made up, and that takes creativity. no one can have THAT many interesting jobs (working with cadavers at the medical examiners office), or know that many weird people (the costumed landlord from the walton's era, or the mean yet-always-welcome-in-their-apartment neighbor) or have such crazy things happen to him (um, that's ALL his stories)
the last section was an extended story about quitting smoking (the engulfed in flames part) and it was not only laugh out loud funny, but might be worth lending to my mom with the hope she'll be inspired to quit again.
wildflower hill by kimberley freeman
i wasn't offended by this book; i finished it in 2 days so there must have been enough of a story to keep me going (actually, it was easy to skim through, which was enough attention it derserved) split between the past and present, i had an mild interest in the past's plotline, but only boredom with the present. it just read like a danielle steele romance. and, now that i reflect on it, a lot of VC Andrews too. kind of an outlandish plot, people behaving in ways that simply wouldn't occur in reality, larger than life villians, revenge served up satisfactorily... this book will probably be a commercial success - but i'm not it's target audience
alone in the classroom by elizabeth hay
odd book - at first you think it's about the narrator's aunt but three-quarters the way through, the plot switches it's focus back to the narrator. the whole story feels told from a distance - pieces of it coming out in dribs and drabs, never really knowing how one character feels about another, numerous time shifts between the near present and distant pasts.
this author is accomplished, and i've read and enjoyed her before so i can know - with confidence - that it is a deliberate choice to write the book so opaquely. to mirror our own lives of uncertainty? to reflect the true way we receive information about our ancestors?
the book starts with a murder, is driven forward by secondary characters, and ends with a deep desire for the narrator to know her parents. was that the point? in the second last chapter she writes: ...when i finally returned to the material of my mother's life, i came at it sideways, through the story of parley burns...
and the parts, buried in the secondary story, where the narrator connects with her mother were the most moving. yet that story seemed secondary to the murder until the very end, and the book shifts focus. at least for me. and maybe that's the point: the most fantastic story you'll know - and want to know deeply - is the story of yourself
a sense of an ending by julian barnes
i've never read a book by a male author, featuring a male narrator, that was so introspective. it opens with a group of high school chums discussing of history and it's purpose (loved this line: isn't the whole business of ascribing blame a kind of cop-out? we want to blame an individual so that everyone else is exculpated. or we blame a historical process as a way of exonerating individuals ) and then narrows when the main character, retired now, tries to deconstruct his own memories about a specific time.
in many ways it was like a philosophical treaty. can we re-remember events of our past and be forgiven? why do we spend so much time looking forward to our futures, and never think of how, once there, we'll look back on now? when new memories of old events surface, can we trust their authenticity? (and why do those neurons suddenly unblock, refire and come back to life?) as we age, and the witnesses to our past fall away (and with them, corroboration) can we trust our memories?
everything about the narrator is fully believable - right down to his obsession with an old girlfriend, his need to re-explain himself to his ex-wife, and his dissection of each detail in an email or encounter. i easily, and often, forgot he was an author's character, and not a true person confessing his frailties. in this way, he was very comforting to read.
non-fiction - tally: 4
the authenticity hoax by andrew porter
sometimes you read a blurb about a book which excites/intrigues you, but when you finally get it - it's nothing like you thought it would be. this was such a book. i pushed my way through - it's MY choice for this month's book club, after all - but found little cohesion between his chapters on history, philosophy, art, and plagerism. i thought the 'hoax' of authenticity was now - not a continual presence in human development. and the author had a broader definition of authenticity... more aligned with stature and wealth than the granola and yoga i was expecting.
the only part i really enjoyed reading was the deconstruction of the organic foods industry - years ago when organic food started being touted and THE ONLY food we should be eating, i was very aware of a class distinction. afterall, even the organic farmers will tell you this is NOT a sustainable product for the whole world. therefore eating organic - to me - was a sign of elitism: there's a limited amount of good health going around, and i get it. usually people are galvanized to spread health as a right for all mankind: sports grants for underprivileged children, vaccinations and clean water for the third world, petitions to drug companies to provide AIDS drugs to africa at cost... but organic food, by it's very nature, is limited. to eat organic to declare yourself as deserving better than the rest of the world. it doesn't get any more elite than that.
nerds: who they are and why we need more of them by david anderegg
i found a lot to like in this easy to read book. in contrast to the authenticity hoax, the author has a premise and continually references it as he builds his evidence. his tone becomes a little too casual/hip towards the end (sort of emulating his disliked 'man of conversation') but i learned alot from this psychologist:
* the nerd/geek stereotype is a luxury that is related to how long a culture has been literate
* in 2004, the US graduated more sport-exercise majors than electrical engineers
* a study asked kids what superpowers they'd like and categories appeared: aggressive kids wanting to blow things up, socially isolated (read nerdy) kids wanted to be invisible or fly, and popular kids wanted powers that were more like adolescent projections of themselves: to be the best at cheerleading, to have the power of the coolest car.
* popular kids always have nicknames and it's a quick way to put someone else at ease. in fact this is how george bush got the press on side, he gave them all nicknames and made them feel a part of his inner circle
* with the trend of older boys and men participating in beauty culture (the yoke of women for ages) the same sexism toward smart is NOT sexy is now reaching the males of society
* america was founded on the premise of the rejection of europe (seen as a 'man of thinking') for the new frontier and the 'man of action'. lately you could say america now values the 'man of conversation' because social skills seem to play such a dominant role in business, politics, entertainment
* every decade has it's mental illness du jour and aspergers seem to be this one's. but the label is applied widely and falsely when someone doesn't meet arbitrary social requirements. look at bill gates who's been labelled aspergy: married with children, wide circle of friends, hugely succesful, but unable to look into someone's eyes for long enough... that alone gives him the aspergy label
* until 1973 homosexuality was seen as a mental illness for goodness sake. the decision of what is a disorder and what is normal changes as time goes on. labelling what threathens you as a mental illness is a passive aggressive act
* more than ever, we are a visual society. most college students will identify freud as an old man with a cigar (because that is the photo in the book) and (get this!) will discount his theories based on his decrepit age. meanwhile, freud was a young man when he was most productive
and now the main thrust of the book: children.
children are being exposed to this word 'nerd' and nerd bashing and it's happening earlier and earlier every year. it will have consequences
* children do see things are either/or, black or white. this is because categorical distinctions must be simple before they can more to the more complex. so the term nerd must be assigned a position - and it is a negative one
* children give value to everything: think of how a child has positive or negative feelings about each number. very little is considered neutral. the term 'nerd' cannot live in a gray area. and once a child decides being a nerd is bad, they will avoid all nerd-stereotyped behaviors
* children first perceive the 'nerd' insult as akin to being a baby - the biggest insult to budding autonomy. this is why being close to, or listening to your parents (and by extension - your teachers) is nerdy: a baby requires help and guidance from adults
* as the superman/clark kent comics will attest, glasses are nerdy. and those glasses are such a strong indicator, they alone keep his secret identity intact
* the deepest nerd anxiety occurs between the ages of 11 to 14
* middle school kids label math and science as nerdy subjects and let them slide only to discover that doors they closed in middle school stay closed once they hit high school and university. maturity allows older teens to accept people different from themselves, but by then it is too late to catch up on math skills
* nerds are simply less self conscious as individuals
* what about the anger? even adults participate in nerd-bashing (sometimes to make their own children feel better through comparison, sometimes to portray themselves as young and hip). where does this rage come from? the author proposed a brilliant theory: the self aware child/teen is forced to conform and then notices that guy didn't conform and gets to keep wearing track pants / playing with dolls / etc and it drives them batty. they lash out in frustration
stuff white people like by christian lander
a list of 150 things that white, liberal, north americans are into - and when they pegged me to a T it was laugh-out-loud-repeat-paragraphs-to-rob-and-children-funny! like: white people's propensity to have hyphenated last names, adore arrested development, noam chomsky and david sedaris, and buy t-shirts from threadless (umm? my whole collection...)
the author had me by point 6 with his rant about organic food: "never mind the fact that if the entire world were to switch to 100% organic food tomorrow there would be mass starvation and famine. white people don't care about this. as long as they aren't eating pesticides"
hear, hear!
twelve steps to a more compassionate life by karen armstrong
i have to admit i didn't like this book right from the start when the author's first sentence is a comment (brag?) about winning a TED prize. in case we, the readers, can't see the value of this prize, she then goes on to describe other people that have won the same prize. with the 'wish' that TED will grant, she starts a foundation for compassion - and this is where i really start to dislike the book: she then implies the first step in leading a compassionate life is to log on to her foundation's website (!) and register with their charter! in other words - ok, my words - superficially inflate the author's pet project's statistics. which she'll likely use to request further funding.
although the author is a religious historian that has found value and meaning in every religion she has studied, she does give alot of ink to far east philosophers - specifically Budha and Confucious - and seems to go out of her way to define words in their spirital practises, and then use these words excessively.
but even a bad book can give you insight. so the most useful thing i take away from reading this book is this: when embarking on a discussion/argument, are you ready to switch sides? if you aren't open to that result, you will not truly hear what is being said. good advice.
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