August Jacket-Flap-a-Thon

It was the month of the questions. I'm not sure if it's a trend -- there has always been flap copy that asked a question of the readers. It just seemed that this month (especially in MG and YA books), I got it a bit more than usual. Which begs the question (sorry): what do you think about flap copy that asks a question? Does it work to draw you into the book?

I tend to find myself wanting to answer the questions...

Sisters Red (Little, Brown): "Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris--the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead. Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts ferociously alongside her. But even as more girls' bodies pile up in the city and the Fenris seem to be gaining power, Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax and Scarlett's only friend--but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they've worked for?"

Possibly, but you're going to feel very very guilty about it all.

The Last Best Days of Summer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): "For twelve-year-old Lucy Crandall, the last week of August is the most perfect time in the world. It’s the week she gets to spend with Grams at the lake house, canoeing, baking cookies, and glazing pots in Grams’s potting shed. Grams has a way of making Lucy feel centered, like one of the pots on her kick wheel—perfect, steady, and completely at peace. But this summer, Grams doesn’t seem to be exactly the person she once was. And as the week turns into a roller coaster of surprises—some good, some awful—Lucy can’t help but wonder: Will things ever be centered again?"

No. Never. You'll just have to live your life off balance.

The Demon's Covenant (Margaret K. McElderry): "Mae Crawford’s always thought of herself as in control, but in the last few weeks her life has changed. Her younger brother, Jamie, suddenly has magical powers, and she’s even more unsettled when she realizes that Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle, is trying to persuade Jamie to join the magicians. Even worse… Jamie hasn’t told Mae a thing about any of it. Mae turns to brothers Nick and Alan to help her rescue Jamie, but they are in danger from Gerald themselves because he wants to steal Nick's powers. Will Mae be able to find a way to save everyone she cares about from the power-hungry magician's carefully laid trap?"

I sure hope so. Because Mae rocks.

Al Capone Shines My Shoes (Dial): "Moose and the cons are about to get a lot closer in this much-anticipated sequel. It's 1935. Moose Flanagan lives on Alcatraz with his family, the other families of the guards, and a few hundred no-name hit men, con men, mad dog murderers and a handful of bank robbers too. And one of those cons has just done him a big favor.You see, Moose has never met Al Capone, but a few weeks ago Moose wrote a letter to him asking him to use his influence to get his sister, Natalie, into a school she desperately needs in San Francisco. After Natalie got accepted, a note appeared in Moose's freshly laundered shirt that said: Done. As this book begins, Moose discovers a new note. This one says: Your turn. Is it really from Capone? What does it mean? Moose can't risk anything that might get his dad fired. But how can he ignore Al Capone?"

You can't. Al Capone SEES ALL.

How to Survive Middle School (Delacorte Books for Young People):"Eleven-year-old David Greenberg dreams of becoming a TV superstar like his idol, Jon Stewart. But in real life, David is just another kid terrified of starting his first year at Harman Middle School. With a wacky sense of humor and hilarious Top 6½ Lists, David spends his free time making Talk Time videos, which he posts on YouTube. But before he can get famous, he has to figure out a way to deal with:

6. Middle school (much scarier than it sounds!)
5. His best friend gone girl-crazy
4. A runaway mom who has no phone!
3. The threat of a swirlie on his birthday
2. A terrifying cousin
1. His # 1 fan, Bubbe (his Jewish grandmother)
1/2. Did we mention Hammy, the hamster who’s determined to break David’s heart?

When David and his best friend have a fight, David is lucky enough to make a pretty cool new friend, Sophie–who just (gulp) happens to be a girl. Sophie thinks David’s videos are hilarious, and she starts sending out the links to everyone she knows. Sophie’s friends tell their friends, and before David knows it, thousands of people are viewing his videos–including some of the last people he would have expected. David may still feel like a real-life schmo, but is he ready to become an Internet superstar?"

Sure. Why not? John Green did it.

Other books read this month:
The Waiter Rant
The Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
No and Me
The Cardturner
A Mango Shaped Space
Under the Tuscan Sun
Mockingjay
Nurture Shock

Running total: 119 books
Adult fiction: 22
YA: 44
MG: 32
Non-fiction: 11
Graphic Novel: 10
Didn't Finish: 6

Nurture Shock

by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

ages: adult

First sentence: "My wife has great taste in art, with one exception."

Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This was my on-line book group this past month, and to be honest, I really had no intention of picking it up at all. I've been trying to make it through stacks of books that I own, or have been sent. Not to mention indulging in rereading.

But, the discussion on the board made me curious, and I cracked it open to read a few chapters.

For the most part, the chapters I read (I dipped in and out, reading the chapters on praise, race, lying, sibling rivalry) were pretty much rehashing parenting advice that I've either heard elsewhere or figured out on my own. (But look: it's backed by science. Therefore it must be credible.) Admittedly, I'm inherently distrustful of these types of parenting books (well, to be really honest: I've been inherently distrustful of parenting books, period, ever since I tossed my copy of What to Expect During the First Year -- or something like that -- fourteen years ago), and so I really wasn't expecting anything earth shattering. I think, for parents who talk and think and use common sense and put their kids best interest ahead of what's "expected" or "right" or what the kids "should" be doing, most of the information in this book will be second nature.

But the chapter on the science of teen rebellion? That, I found interesting.

Perhaps it's because M is hitting that stage, and I haven't really broached the topics of teenagerhood or arguing. There's part of me that's got my head in the sand: everything will run as smoothly as middle school did, since I honestly believed those would be the terror years. But, the studies that they cited, and the results that were found made me think. Arguing good? To a certain extent, yes, because it's a dialogue of sorts with the teen. Having rules is good, too, but being anal about them leads to lying and hiding. In other words, don't be a pushover, but also listen to your kids and work the rules around what seems reasonable. The studies on the pleasure center in teens brains was fascinating, too.

Typing this up, I realized that, yeah: all this is logical, common sense stuff, too: there's really nothing ground breaking. But perhaps, as parents, what was needed was a one-stop shop, someplace where all this good stuff about parenting, and treating our kids differently from adults (which is really their final conclusion), which includes having different expectations for them, because they're not adults is quite a good thing.

Which, I suppose, I can agree with.

Library Loot 2010-30

I caved and put two books on hold this week. I couldn't resist. *hangs head in shame* There's just so many books I want to read!

Picture Books:
The Heart and the Bottle, by Oliver Jeffers
Say Hello!, by Rachel Isadora
Big Red Lollipop, by Rukhsana Khan/Illus. by Sophie Blackall
Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair, by Lee Fox/Illus. by Jennifer Plecas
Petit, the Monster, by Isol
Where the Sunrise Begins, by Douglas Wood/Art by Wendy Popp
Pingo, by Brandon Mull/Illus by Brandon Dorman

YA:
Cracked Up to Be, by Courtney Summers

Graphic Novel:
Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 2: Research, by Thomas Siddell
The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or The Captive Reader. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins
ages: 14+
First sentence: "I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there! (Though you probably already have.)

NO SPOILERS. Promise.

Like Hunger Games and Catching Fire, this book is very unputdownable. Thankfully, I set aside the day to sit and read, otherwise I'd have been biting my nails and obsessing over the book. Better to get it all over with in one sitting.

And, for the most part, I really really liked the book. I liked what Collins did with Katniss, and the rebellion, and Gale, and especially Peeta. I liked the direction Collins was taking the books, the whole Katniss-as-Mockingjay thing. There were touching moments, some kick-butt moments, she kept me guessing as to where the plot was going, and she generally laid foundation work for something absolutely incredible to happen. There's a lot of good anti-war stuff in there, how rebellions don't always work right, how killing ourselves isn't always the answer.

There are some things I wished she would have done: I missed Cinna, I wished Haymitch had more to do, I wished she had done something more with the District 13 government. Those were minor quibbles, though.

Because, the book fell apart for me. Completely and totally by the last 45 pages. There's a moment near the end -- and if you've read the book, you know where it is -- where I was on the edge of my seat, disbelieving. However, in the pages that followed, Collins made choices -- with characters, with the plot, with narrative -- that completely derailed the rest of the book. It would have been so much better if... but it wasn't. The whole ending was anticlimactic, and took the book in a direction that felt forced. I ended up feeling dissatisfied with the whole book, in the end. I'm not sure what I wanted, really, but it wasn't the ending that Collins gave me.

Which, unfortunately, left me with a less-than-stellar reaction to the book overall. (And am I the only one?) And that's too bad. Because it's a great series: thought provoking and intense. I just wanted something better to end with.

How to Survive Middle School

by Donna Gephart
ages: 10+
First sentence: "The first day of summer vacation is important, because what you do that day sets the tone for the rest of summer."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by the author.

David Greenberg loves making movies: short little funny vids that kind-of riff on The Daily Show. He makes them with his best friend, Elliot, and yeah, they just upload them to YouTube, but it's the making them together that's the fun part.

Or so David thought. That was before the summer before sixth grade, and Elliot decides that what they really need to go is go to the mall and scope out girls. David, however, disagrees, and the friendship is on the rocks. Right before middle school.

Unfortunately -- and in a very stereotypical turn; do all middle schools have to have the bully who is less-than-smart, smokes, and flushes heads in toilets? -- Elliot partners up with the school bully, and they gang up on David. Now, on top of still trying to adjust to his Mom's leaving two years earlier, David has to deal with a best friend-turned-traitor. And this leads to all kinds of trouble: suspensions, detentions, fights... On the other hand, it also leads him to be friends with Sophie, bright, formerly homeschooled, and, interestingly enough, amazingly connected. She finds David's videos hilarious and emails a link to some friends. The link passes around and the video goes viral. David's an internet star!

Now, to just reconcile his popularity on the internet with his increasing loser status in real life.

It was a clever concept, contrasting real life with virtual life, and I think Gephart managed that fairly well. It's a timeless story, adjusting to new situations, trying to make new friends, and what to do when your anchor leaves you. But, sometimes I couldn't help wondering: how relevant will all this be in five, ten years? Will we even know (or care) who Jon Stewart is? Don't get me wrong: I love the show. It's just using pop culture references in a book automatically makes it less timeless than those where the story stands more on its own.

That said, David is a great character, and his trials and tribulations will be real to the age group this is intended for. So it's a bit pop culture-heavy, and a bit too stereotypical. There's a singing hamster and an 11-year-old who gets to be famous for 15 minutes. It's fun. And sometimes that's all you can ask for out of a book.

A Mango Shaped Space

by Wendy Mass
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Freak."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Mia doesn't quite know how to deal with her world. She seems normal from the outside, possibly the most normal in her family. She likes to paint, she has been best friends with Jenna since forever, and she does okay at school. Except she has a secret: sounds, numbers and letters have a color for her. You wouldn't think this was a big deal, but back in third grade, when she tried to tell people, everyone -- adults and kids alike -- thought she was making things up. So, she stopped telling people, quietly bearing the burden of being a... freak.

Then she hits eighth grade and things start to fall apart for her. She finally admits the color "thing" to her parents, they take her to a series of doctors, finally diagnosing her with synesthesia. On the one hand, this is good: Mia is no longer a freak, or alone in dealing with the challenges that synesthesia brings. On the other hand, Mia delves into an intense regimen of self-discovery, inadvertently shutting out her family, her friends, her schoolwork, and (perhaps most of all) her cat, Mango.

It's an interesting growing up story; Mia has so much to deal with on her plate -- from the usual teenage stuff, to sibling stuff, not to mention all the colors which color her life -- that there's just so much to juggle. On the one hand, it's a very teenagery book, and because of that, Mia was a bit much to handle. There were some issues that never got resolved for me (as a parent, admittedly), and the story just didn't quite gel as well as I wanted or hoped. On the other hand, the descriptions of what Mia sees was so vivid, so amazing that it almost made me jealous I can't see the world that way. My "normal" world seems so boring in comparison.

Which is one of the reasons I like Wendy Mass so much: she takes something not-quite-mainstream -- like synesthesia or astronomy -- and weaves a story around it in such a way that makes you want to have a similar experience, even if the story isn't all that great.

Which is why I keep reading her books.

Sunday Salon: Savoring

I've been rereading Under the Tuscan Sun, enjoying it as much as I did the first time around. I am finding myself savoring the language, and feeling myself being pulled to Italy, to slow down, stay a while and enjoy the language, the landscape and the food. (I am also finding myself wishing there was more than one sense employed when reading; I want to touch, smell, and hear this book as well!). I don't normally consider myself an Italy person (preferring France and England and China in my literary pursuits), but this book is written well enough that it pulls me there.

When they arrive it will be the soft, slow Tuscan twilight, fading after drinks from transparent to golden to evening blue, then, by the end of the first course, into night. Night happens uickly, as though the sun were pulled in one motion under the hill. We light candles in hurricane shades all along the stone wall and on the table. For background music, a hilarious chorus of frogs tunes up. Molte anni fa, many years ago, our friends began. Their stories weave an Italy around us that we know only through books an films.

This book demands you slow down, you enjoy the prose, you savor each moment as it unfolds.

Which has got me thinking about savoring. Too often, and sometimes with good cause, I find myself propelling through books, either because I'm clamoring for the next development in the story or because I just want to finish it. I vary rarely slow down and enjoy the scenery, so to speak.

I'm not sure I'd want to do it all the time, but I find that right now, in these lazy late summer afternoons, this is what I really need. You could say that I'm savoring it.

Is there a particular book (or books or genre or author) that just demands you savor?

Bookish Madlibs

Ooooh, a meme! It's been forever since I've done one. But this one, seen yesterday at Melody's Reading Corner, was just too much fun to pass up. The point is to answer the questions using book titles you've read in the past year.

In school I was: The Girl Who Chased the Moon

People might be surprised I’m: (Confections of) a Closet Master Baker

I will never be: Front and Center

My fantasy job is: Heist Society

At the end of a long day I need: Eat, Pray, Love

I hate it when: (there's) Much Ado About Nothing

Wish I had: French Milk

My family reunions are: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

At a party you’d find me with: Charles and Emma

I’ve never been to: The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

A happy day includes: A Song for Summer

Motto I live by: Running out of Time

On my bucket list: Turtle in Paradise

In my next life, I want to be: The English American

Library Loot 2010-29

One the one hand: I really like that my TBR pile is shrinking rather than growing. On the other hand: I want, I want, I want, I want....

There are too many books and not enough time!!

(Week 3 of my ban on checking out books...)

Picture Books:
I Want Two Birthdays, by Tony Ross
Little By Little, by Amber Stewart and Layn Marlow
The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear, by David Bruins and Hilary Leung
An Octopus Followed Me Home, by Dan Yaccarino
Sheep in a Jeep , by Nancy Shaw
Happy Birthday, Good Knight, by Shelley Moore Thomas/Illus. by Jennifer Plecas
Penguin, by Polly Dunbar

Middle Grade:
The Owl Keeper, by Christine Brodien-Jones
Noonie's Masterpiece, by Lisa Railsback

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or The Captive Reader. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

The Cardturner

A Novel About a King, a Queen, and a Joker
by Louis Sachar
ages: 12+
First sentence: "Ever since I was a little kid, I've had it drilled into me that my uncle Lester was my favorite uncle."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This book is about bridge. The game. I know squat about bridge (except for that it's a card game), and yet I found myself fascinated by this book. Sure, it helps that it's written by Louis Sachar, and it helps that our main character, Alton, is quite likable, and it helps that there's more to it than bridge, but really: the book is about bridge. There's no getting around it. There's bridge terms, and lots and lots of descriptions about bridge games, and at first you won't get it, but by the end you'll want to play a hand or to, just to see what everyone is talking about.

Seventeen-year-old Alton is not exactly what you'd call an overachiever. He was going to get a summer job -- really -- but then an opportunity fell in his lap: his great-uncle Lester Trapp is a bridge player, but he's blind. He needs someone to sit with him and let him know what the cards are and then play the cards he tells him to. It's an easy job; not fun, but easy. Except, after a while hanging around Trapp and the game, Alton begins to realize something: it interesting. It's intriguing. And what if -- 40 years after he last tried -- Trapp could win a national championship? Of course, there's some bumps along the way (not to mention a breakdown, death, a romance, and a little bit of underhandedness), but it all manages to work out in the end, for the best. Call it fate, or call it synchronicity, but it works.

It works, primarily, because of the narration. For starters, because Alton's about as clueless at bridge as we are (I'm assuming you're as clueless as I am), it helps that he stops and explains it as we go. Amazingly, it doesn't halt the plot, but it's woven into it almost pretty seamlessly. (It does stop it a little, but I was interested in it; Sachar does provide an out: you can skip the explanation sections and just read the summary box if you want.) It helps that Alton is a pretty genial kid; funny and self-deprecating, and yet somehow determined to win his great-uncle's respect. You can't help but root for a kid like that. It's actually filled with likable characters (the only people I really didn't like were Alton's parents who were a bit too money-digging for my taste, but thankfully got marginalized as the book went on), which is one of the reasons it was a delight to read.

I enjoyed the book, and yet I wonder about its success: really, who's going to want to read a book about bridge? Especially in the YA crowd. I'd recommend it, saying, "Trust me. Yes, it's about a card game that no one really plays anymore, but it's actually, surprisingly quite good."

Promise.

Al Capone Shines My shoes

by Gennifer Choldenko
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Nothing is the way it's supposed to be when you live on an island with a billion birds, a ton of bird crap, a few dozen rifles, machine guns, and automatics, and 278 of America's worst criminals -- "the cream of the criminal crop" as one of our felons likes to say."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by the publisher

Perhaps it's just been too long since I read Al Capone Does My Shirts, because I just didn't find this one nearly as charming as I did that one. It's not that I didn't enjoy reading it; Choldenko still captures the mid-1930s very well, and the characters are still just as interesting as before. It's just that this one is missing the novelty, the endearing charm, that made the first book so enjoyable to read.

The book picks up right where the first left off: Natalie is off to her special school; Moose is still trying to figure out inter-personal relationships, especially between his on-island friends and off-island friends, not to mention what to do with girls; there's tension between the convicts and the guards and their families. The main source of conflict in this story isn't with Natalie and her disability, however. It's with Moose's choice to get Al Capone to help Natalie getting into her school. There's a lot of lying and covering up of the truth, not to mention sneaking around, in this book, which makes things more than slightly uncomfortable.

It is an interesting journey for Moose as he figures out that trying to handle things on his own doesn't always work. In addition, there's more middle school awkwardness, and a bit of a romance as well. However, the tough lesson he has to learn is that he can't please everyone all the time, and that attempting to has dire consequences. It's not a pretty lesson, either.

The ending was a bit overly dramatic for my tastes, however: it involved an escape attempt on the part of the convicts and Natalie using her quirkiness with her autism to save the day. It wasn't bad, per se, just, well, more action-movie than middle grade book.

I guess you can't win them all.

The Demon's Covenant

by Sarah Rees Brennan
ages: 14+
First sentence: ""Any minute now,' Rache said, 'something terrible is going to happen to us.'"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

First step: read The Demon's Lexicon. Second step: come back and read this. Because there isn't any way I can write this part without spoiling the first book.

Picking up a month where we left off... Alan and Nick are back in Mae and Jamie's life, primarily because Gerald -- new leader of the magician's Obsidian Circle -- is trying to recruit Jamie to be part of the circle. This, for many reasons, completely freaks Mae out, and so she calls the Ryves brothers back to help keep Jamie safe. Except, Nick isn't exactly the safest person in the world, being a freed demon. That creates its own problems: Alan is making bargains with magicians and demons, Mae is finding she's falling in love with both the brothers, Jamie is actually becoming friends with Nick. And there's a whole lot else going on that's completely impossible to sum up.

It's slow getting started, but picks up about a third of the way into it. At one point I was flabbergasted, wondering where on earth Brennan was going with the storyline, how it all would work out. It's one of those instances where the right narrator makes the book; it's from Mae's point of view this time, and that makes all the difference. Especially when the book all comes together in the end.

Also, as Charlotte pointed out, Brennan does write some very swoon-inducing prose. Very much so. Very, very much so. But she's not just skilled in writing swoon; the book is SO much better than that. There's angst and surliness, yes; but, there's also mystery, and adventure, and magic, and surprise zombies (it's not a party until someone brings the surprise zombies), and an ending that will -- I promise -- leave you begging for the next installment.

Which begs the question: how long do we have to wait, and what can we do to make Sarah Rees Brennan write faster?

Sunday Salon: Books at the Top of My List

I figured since, last week, I did the bottom five, I should probably give you my top five. It's only fair. To make it easier -- since I really do have a hard time choosing what I truly, truly love (is that just me, or does your favorite list change from year to year?) -- I think I'm going to pick one book from each year I've been blogging. (Yeah, that'll be six, but I have to narrow down my favorites, somehow.)

America's Women, Gail Collins (2004-2005): This was actually a book group read for my in-person book group. And I was blown away. Not only by the subject matter -- Collins delves into history (or herstory?) in a very in-depth way -- but by the fact that this book was so readable. Up to this point, I wasn't that interested in history books; history was boring, history was dry. But, this showed me that history could be interesting, fun, and memorable.

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (2005-2006): One of the things I'm proud of is getting on the Percy Jackson bandwagon before he got really big. I picked this up on a whim -- even with the horrid hardback cover -- at my library, and couldn't put it down. It's not deep, but it is clever and I thought, from the outset, that Riordan's use of Greek mythology was brilliant. I'm just glad that my girls (well, M and C) love it as much as I do.

Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher (2006-2007): I don't usually write letters to authors. (Well, unless I want to interview them, anyway.) But I finished this book -- I won the ARC in a giveaway -- and I was blown away. Literally. It's one of those books that changed the way I see people, affected me deeply, and I needed to share that with the author. It's not for everyone, but I do recommend it, and loan my battered ARC out, whenever I feel it's right. Because it's an amazing book.

Dracula, Bram Stoker (2007-2008): I avoided Carl's RIP challenge for years, because horror and mystery are not my "things". For some reason, though, this year I decided to sign up for it, and I picked Dracula as one of my reads. (Possibly chalk it up to being interested in vampires due to Twilight...) I was amazed. Completely and utterly blown away. I was reminded that I did, once, love horror (I went through a Poe phase), and that it's not the gore that I love but the mood. That spine-chilling, goose-bump inducing mood. And Dracula has that in spades, which thrilled me to no end.

My Life in France, Julia Child (2008-2009): I love food books, and so I knew going in that I would like this one. I wasn't prepared, though, for just how awesome Julia Child was. Determined, focused, funny, amazing. I loved her joy, and how that joy -- of love, of life, of food, of France -- came through in her stories. It did lose a little steam near the end, but by that time I was invested: I am, unabashedly, a Julia Child fan. And I would happily read this book over and over again.

My Most Excellent Year, Steve Kluger (2009-2010): I adored this book. Hands down. As much as I adored The Casson family books by Hilary McKay. (They should be on this list; but the reasons why are similar to the reasons for this book, so I excused them.) I fell in love with the characters, and I want to move in next door to them and be their friend. I want them to take me in, and let me bask in their awesomeness, their quirkiness, their uniqueness. I was charmed the entire time I was reading about them, and I feel that, somehow, my life is better for having visited their world. It's become a comfort read, something to pick up when I'm feeling down, because I know, without a doubt, that I will be happier when I finish reading.

So, what are some of your all-time favorites?

No and Me

by Delphine de Vigan
(Translated from the French by George Miller)
ages: 14+
First sentence: "'Miss Bertignac, I don't see your name on the list of presentations.'"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by the publisher.

It started out as a school assignment. Lou, who's the youngest in her class and who hates presentations, picked exploring why young women become homeless as her social economics class project. She decided to do some interviews, and as a result met No: 18 years old, and homeless for the past three years.

Over the course of the assignment, Lou develops a bond with No, and -- mostly because of some difficulties in her own home life with her parents -- takes No under her wing. She wants to help No, to make her life better, and so she invites No (with her amazingly trusting parents' permission) to live with them. And for a while it really is better.

One of the things I liked best about this book was that it was unflinchingly honest. Without giving anything away: there isn't a happy ending. No doesn't "reform" and suddenly become a productive member of society. The book addresses the issue of homelessness (as well as rape, neglect, death and French welfare) without being maudlin, but also without talking down to the characters or the reader. It's very matter-of-fact: these things happen. Sometimes we can help. Sometimes that help isn't wanted. Sometimes it all doesn't work out the way we want it to. But, don't give up trying to help.

All that said, I'm not sure I quite connected with the book. While on an intellectual level, it was interesting and honest, none of the characters were terribly sympathetic. Lou is one of those precocious kids -- uber smart and quirky -- and while it works in this context, especially since she's an idealist who is eventually jaded (the "growing up" process inevitably involves disappointment of some sort, because one cannot grow without it, I suppose), it's not exactly endearing. There's her parents: you feel sorry for them, but there's not much else. There's Lucas, Lou's older friend (he's been held back a couple of years, so they're in the same class), and while he has the potential to be interesting, he's never really given the chance. Then there's No: wounded, yes, but also highly petulant, which made her unsympathetic. I wanted to feel sorry for her, and I did to a certain extent. But pity isn't enough to make a character work.

And, like always happens when I read a book in translation, I had to wonder what I missed by reading it in English. I'm sure there were some subtleties, some peculiar Frenchisms, that may have made the book that much better for me that I missed by not being a native French speaker.

It's a good book, an interesting book, but not a breathtaking book.

Library Loot 2010-28

I've had an absolutely crazy week. It's the last week before school starts, and the girls have been needy (and bored) and I've spent more time entertaining them (and keeping them from fighting) than reading. On the upside, I didn't check out anything I didn't need to... Here's to school starting next week!

Picture Books:
Weezer Changes the World, by David McPhail
Hattie The Bad, by Jane Devlin/Illus. by Joe Berger
Lulu the Big Little Chick, by Paulette Bogan
v, by Susan Stevens Crummer/Illus by Dorothy Donohue

Middle Grade:
100 Cupboards, by N.D. Wilson

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or The Captive Reader. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

10 Questions for Tom Angleberger

I'd seen buzz about The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, and knew I had to read it. After patiently waiting until I got my hands on a copy (and reading it), I knew I needed to interview the man behind this concept. Enjoy and be sure to visit Tom at his blog.

MF: Tell me how you came up with the idea to write a story about a mystical folded piece of paper that gives advice? TA: Well, after seeing Fukiami Kawahata's famous origami Yoda I wanted to make my own. But his is for experts only and I'm actually terrible at origami.

But I messed around and came up with a super simple Yoda and by chance it fit right on your finger. It was a finger puppet, so obviously an imaginative kid would walk around and make it talk to people. And the rest of the story just came naturally from there.

MF: Obviously, Yoda is a copyrighted character; I'm assuming you didn't just get to use that character without permission? How did you get that from Lucasfilm? TA: Lucasfilm is awesome!!! They've been great. They said yes to Yoda and to everything else I've wanted to do, like having a teacher character that looks a lot like Jabba.

MF: Since the book was a "case" file, each of the chapters were written in a different voice? Did you find it difficult switching between voices?
TA: Yes and no. Tommy really is my natural voice. Some of the others I have to work at.

MF: Why did you decide to write the book in this particular way, rather than from, say, Dwight's perspective?
TA: If we knew what was going on inside Dwight's head, the heart of the story would be gone.

MF: Did you set out to write a story for middle grade readers, or is that just the way the story unfolded?
TA: Yes, I love writing for mid-graders because I loved reading so much when I was one.

MF: Fess up: which character were you most like when you were a kid?
TA: Well, this is more of confession than you realize. Although I was a lot like Dwight, I also have a lot in common with Harvey! He's my dark side!

MF: I loved the drawings in the book; they added just the right touch. I heard that you were responsible for them. True? How did you come up with the ideas for them? TA: Yes, most of the drawings inside are mine. I spent a long time looking at my old yearbook and doodling to get the different characters. For the rest of the doodles, I really tried to draw what Kellen would think was funny.

MF: Is being a writer something you've "always" wanted to do? Or is it just something you fell into?
TA: I started a novel in the 7h or 8th grade, but never finished it -- thank goodness! Then I wrote comic books in high school and started comic strips in college. Then short stories and a failed novel. Finally I started writing for kids and found my calling.

MF: What are your five favorite books? (At least today.) TA: Newest Favorite: When the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Old school favorite: Lizard Music
Favorite mid-grade fantasy: Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series
Favorite mid-grade sci-fi: Sword of the Spirits trilogy by John Christopher
Favorite mid-grade comedy: Helen Cresswell's Bagthorpe books

MF: So, if you don't mind telling us, what can we look forward to from you next? TA: I am just finishing up a book with a very long title: Horton Halfpott OR the Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor OR the Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset.

MF: Sounds fascinating. Thanks for your time!
TA: THANKS!!!

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day

by Winifred Watson
ages: adult
First sentence: "Miss Pettigrew pushed open the door of the employment agency and went in as the clock struck a quarter past nine."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This book totally and completely charmed me.

It the story of basically twenty-four hours in the life of Miss Guinevere Pettigrew -- forty years old, spinster, very bad governess -- which she inadvertently (she answered the wrong ad at the employment agency) ends up spending with London socialite Delysia LaFosse -- scatterbrained, sweet, and very indecisive -- and it changes her life. Instead of being dowdy and proper, she experiences how "the other half lives", and learns to let her primness and dowdiness go.

There's so much to enjoy: from Miss Pettigrew's initial hesitance with the entire situation, her realization that she's very much out of her element, to her brazen embracing of that life, and her guiding poor Delysia through it. Miss Pettigrew is not really educated or even all that witty, but she's got a good head on her shoulders and isn't afraid -- after an adjustment and acceptance of her present situation -- to use it.

The book isn't as delightfully funny as the movie (yes, I saw that first), and there's a tad bit of racism in it that made me slightly uncomfortable (it was written in the 1930s, but that's no excuse), and I do have to wonder at the "make yourself up and the world will be better". But for the moments of pure pleasure, and because thoroughly charming that everything is forgiven. Especially since I read the book with a huge smile on my face.

Completely and utterly charming.

Sunday Salon: Books at the Bottom of My List

I've seen this floating around (I really should join in the Top Ten Picks at Random Ramblings; maybe when the girls go back to school...) and I knew I'd have something to add. (Of course I do.) The basic premise: what are the ten WORST books you've ever read?

Well, going through my lists and posts and memory (such that it is), I wasn't able to come up with ten books that struck me as terrible, no-good, horrible, and you couldn't pay me to read them again. But I did manage to come up with a few. Five to be exact. (There could be more books, but most are more "meh" than anything else, so I didn't include them.)

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte: When I read this, all I could think was, "Good Heavens! It's a complete train wreck." I finished it; it's very seldom that I actually finish what I think is a bad book, but I didn't enjoy the experience. I didn't like the characters, I found the plot creepy, and there's no way you can pay me enough to read again. In short: It was a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad book. And I don't get the appeal of Heathcliff. Not at all. (Could someone please why they like him to me?)


The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell: This one gets love from people, and out the outset it's a very good science fiction book. There's a lot about imposing on a new people; illusions to what the English and Spanish did with native populations, forcing their religion, introducing diseases. And I was enjoying it, for the most part. But then I got to the end! The end is SO important in a book, people, and I was sickened by the end of this one. Absolutely sickened. Killed the rest of the book for me, and I will avoid it like the plague.


Blue Bloods, Melissa de la Cruz
To be fair, I got about a third of the way through this book, and I bailed. So it's not really one I finished. But, it's more fluffy than I can handle: all who you know and what you're wearing, and no plot or character or depth. M read the whole series -- she was in the mood for "crap" -- and said my fundamental problem is that I'm not a teenage girl. Well, then. That explains it.


Rules for Saying Goodbye, Katherine Taylor
It's "deliciously witty" they told me. It's "affecting". It "winks at real life." It'll be fun. Yeah... like root canal is fun. It was painful. It was depressing. It was msierable people. The main character was unsympathetic. The plot was And -- oh, yeah! -- it was supposed to be satire. Yeah. I don't get satire. Especially when it looks like this.


The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown
A caveat: I liked Angels and Demons. Really. Thought it was fun. Dumb, but fun. Granted, I read that one first, which, I think, makes all the difference. Not only was this one pretty much exactly like the first one, it was even dumber. I think Brown tried to go for some self-aware humor, but the whole "Indiana Jones in tweed" thing got old really, really fast. And it was so earnest: it's all real, honest. (It's just fiction, people. And lousy writing at that.) I always wondered how many people went to the Louvre afterward and whispered knowingly, "She's down there!"


Bonus play: Hamlet, William Shakespeare: I don't get it. In spite of my English professor friends' attempt to convince me of the brilliance of this play -- it seems to come up every single time we go see any Shakespeare play -- I just. don't. get. it. Hamlet annoys and irritates me. He's wishy-washy, indecisive and a jerk. Poor Ophelia, getting mixed up with the self-absorbed bad boy. (Well, he's not good.) Though I don't quite understand why she'd want to off herself just because he doesn't like her anymore. (Yeah, yeah, it's been explained to me. I just don't get it.) The play starts out boring and then eventually dissolves into incomprehensible. Thankfully, they all end up dead. (Sorry: spoiler alert.) That part, at least, makes sense.


So, what books are on your worst list?

Library Loot 2010-27

Week two of my no-library policy, and I'm doing pretty well. Only picture books and one non-fiction.... maybe I can make it??

Picture Books:
What If?, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Handiest Things in the World, by Andrew Clements/Photographs by Raquel Jaramillo
Lulu's Pajamas, by Lucie Papineau and Stephane Jorisch
Pantaloon, by Kathryn Jackson/Illus by Steven Salerno
The Falling Raindrop, by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin
Good Night, Tiptoe: A Tilly and Friends Book, by Polly Dunbar

Non-Fiction:
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or The Captive Reader. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

The Last Best Days of Summer

by Valerie Hobbs
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Lucy sat on the porch steps with her arms hugging her legs and a big black bag over her head."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Shall we talk titles for a bit? Because I love the title of this book. It's the sole reason I picked it up. It evokes so much: the lazy, fun summer days, hanging out at the pool or just being slow and bordering on bored. But there's a bittersweet element to it, too: summer's finally coming to a close, the magical time where everything is hot and sultry and lazy will give way to the scheduled and the rigid and, eventually, the cold. How can you not love a title that makes you think of so much?

Then again, maybe loving the title of the book -- it is only the title after all -- sets up the book for a fall. (Not necessarily, but in this case it did.) Our twelve-year-old protagonist, Lucy, is riddled with all kinds of doubt and confusion: she wants to be popular like her best friend, Megan (or does she?). She is embarrassed by Eddie, the 13-year-old boy with Down Syndrome, with whom she's developed a friendship of sorts (or is she really his friend? She is getting paid to play with him, after all.) She longs to spend time with her Grams out at the lake, expecting everything to be perfect (or will it be?). She hates her parents, especially her overprotective mom, who just doesn't understand (or does she?). This last, best week of summer is Lucy trying to figure out being twelve.

Except it all came off much like an after-school special. I'm not sure if it was too much tell and not enough show (Lucy felt angry. Lucy felt disappointed. Lucy sulked. Lucy wanted to go home. Yeah, yeah, yeah), or if it was the saccharine nature of the story (accept yourself for who you are, and accept others for who they are. Oh, yeah: and being popular is overrated), but it just fell flat on its face. Which is really too bad: Hobbs is dealing with some good subject matter here. There's disabilities, there's early-onset dementia in a loved one, there's the awkwardness of moving from a child to a teenager. But it didn't work -- in a big way -- for me.

But isn't that title lovely?

The Girl in Hyacinth Blue

by Susan Vreeland
ages: adult
First sentence: "Cornelius Engelbrecht invented himself."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I first read this book when it initially came out, back in 1999. I think I was drawn to it because it was Vermeer, and back in those days I was very much into art and artists. It was only three years, after all, since we had gone to the National Gallery and seen the Vermeer exhibition, which was a remarkable (if crowded) experience.

I hadn't looked at it or even much thought about it since then -- I remember liking it, but that's about it -- and so when a friend brought me a copy, having picked it for our in-person book group, I was more than happy to read it again.

It's basically the story of a painting of Vermeer's -- one of a girl swathed in hyacinth blue, sitting, looking out a window, her sewing forgotten -- as told backward through time, beginning with the present and ending with the painter and subject. It's a collection of short stories, each one standing uniquely on their own, but work that much better as a collective whole. (As an aside: like novels in verse, I tend to like short stories better if they're linked to each other somehow.) There are female and male protagonists, there are art lovers and those for whom the painting is an afterthought. There are villains and saints, lovers and merchants. It's an eclectic bunch. But, perhaps, that's the point.

I think the most interesting thing about this novel is the way the people interact with the art. Perhaps it's best to explain this through my favorite story, Morningshine. This tells the story of a farmer's wife during a winter flood in a small town in the Netherlands. She's trying to make things meet, while her husband's away repairing the dikes, and she discovers that someone has left the painting and a baby in their boat. She falls in love with both, and takes it as her personal mission to save them. She adores the painting, finding solace and satisfaction and peace in the simple beauty of something so unnecessary. The art touches her life, intersects with it, making it better. Of course, she ends up selling it: they are poor, after all, and the flood has all but devastated the potential to have crops that year. Better sell something unnecessary than starve. But for the fleeting days that she had the painting, her life was better, somehow.

It's all like that: simple stories about simple people. The writing is simple, too: not simplistic, but almost poetic; it felt like every word had a use, something which always impresses me when I come across it. It's not an earth-shattering book, in much the same way that Vermeer's art isn't earth-shattering. That doesn't mean it's not very nice to experience. Because it is.

Sisters Red

by Jackson Pearce
ages: 13+
First sentence: "Strangers never walk down this road, the sisters thought in unison as the man trudged toward them"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I've been telling people that this book is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with werewolves. There's kick-butt action: Scarlett and her sister, Rosie, after a devastating attack on their family which killed their grandmother and left Scarlett, physically scarred, have become Hunters. They know what the wolves, the Fenris, look for and how they attack, and they've made it their personal mission to keep their small Georgia town safe. There's a bit of romance: Scarlett's old friend Silas comes back into town, and even though he's five years older than 16-year-old Rosie, there's an attraction there, especially with Rosie, that she can't deny. The problem is, however, that Rosie owes her sister her life. Can she really "throw" it away on a romance, when there are Fenris out there? There's an interesting twist on werewolf lore: some of it you'll have to discover for yourself, since it's part of the plot. But, Pearce takes the idea of a wolf prowling and attaches it to a woman's greatest fear: sexual predators. The Fenris only attack women, usually pretty and young, always late at night, and generally ones who are alone. It's enough to make anyone question the monsters that lurk in the dark.

On top of it all (as if that weren't enough), Scarlett and Rose have an interesting dynamic as sisters, and as characters. Pearce takes the sister relationship and ramps it up a notch: they love each other, they're of one heart, they're all they have, but Pearce explores the dynamic of differences, which makes the characters develop in unique and interesting ways. It also helps that the sisters alternate narratives, so, as a reader, we get a peek into both sister's minds and hearts. It made the book that much more interesting.

And, really: what more can you ask for in a book?

Nothing, I tell you.

Sunday Salon: Odds and Ends

Happy August! Only two more weeks until my girls are back at school, and so I thought, since things have been piling up this week, on the linky side (and otherwise), I'd just give you a linky roundup.

Registration and hotel information for KidLitCon 2010 is up. Go check it out, and, seriously, think about coming. It's a whole lot of bookish geeky fun. Also, the deadline for proposals has been extended to

So, I've finally jumped on the Castle bandwagon. I was doing some poking around -- mostly because M adores Beckett's clothing and wants something like her blue coat for her birthday -- and discovered that Richard Castle's got a Twitter account and has been doing a mystery this summer. Very cool. Did some more poking around and discovered that Hyperion, which admittedly is run by Disney who owns ABC, has put out the first Nikki Heat book. Written by Richard Castle. Now, this may just be me, but I'm not quite sure what I think about a real book written by a fictional character. Then again, it does prompt the question: who's the ghost writer, and are they any good? (As an aside, Nathan Fillion's tweets are highly amusing...)

Estella's Revenge, the e-zine, is back! Well, almost. It's scheduled to go live this week. Hooray!

And, I found this interesting -- beware of spoilers, though: Kristen Cashore gives advice and insights into writing intimate scenes. Fascinating stuff.

And finally, it's been making the rounds, but as a lover of all things Jane, I can't pass it up:

Enjoy!