June Jacket Flap-a-thon

This is totally me being lazy here. I'm in Boston, and I'm on vacation, so I'm putting up the four jacket flaps that I had already set up before we left. Happy July!

Waiting for Normal (Katherine Tegan Books): "Addie is waiting for normal. But Addie's mom has an all-or-nothing approach to life: a food fiesta or an empty pantry, jubilation or floom, her way or no way. All or nothing never adds up to normal. All or nothing can't bring you all to home, which is exactly where Addie longs to be, wiht her half sisters, every day. In spite of life's twists and turns, Addie remains optimistic. Someday, maybe, she'll find normal. Leslie Connor has created an inspirting novel about one girl's giant spirit. Waiting for Normal is a heartwarming gem."

Dragonfly (Marshall Cavendish): "Sworn enemies... Forced to marry... And unite a divided land. Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands is appalled when she is ordered to marry Prince Ramil of Gerfal. And he's not too pleased, etiher. She is used to a life of discipline, ritual, and splendor. He is used to hunting and carousing. They hate each other on sight. But both of their countries are under threat from a fearsome warlord, and the only chance of peace is to form an alliance. When Tashi adn Ramil are kidhnapped, they fear there's no escape -- from their kinappers or from each other. Can they put aside their differences long enough to survived ambush, unarmed combat, brainwashing, and imprisonment? And will the people they meet on their adventure -- including a circus strongman, a daring rebled leader, a sinister master of spies, and the best female fighter they have ever seen -- help them or betray them to the enemy? THe latest novel from Nestle Prize-winning author Julia Golding, Dragonfly is a thrilling mix of fantasy and adventure."

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (Broadway): "What is it about sports that turns otherwise sane people into raving lunatics? Why does winning compel people to tear down goal posts, and losing, to drown themselves in bad keg beer? In short, why do fans care? In search of answers, Warren St. John seeks out the roving community of RVers who follow the Alabama Crimson Tide from game to game. A movable feast of Weber grills and Igloo coolers, these are hard-core football fans who arrive on Wednesday for Saturday’s game: The Reeses, who skipped their own daughter’s wedding because it coincided with a Bama game; Ray Pradat, the Episcopal minister who watches the games on a television beside his altar while performing weddings; and John Ed, the wheeling and dealing ticket scalper whose access to good seats gives him power on par with the governor. In no time at all, St. John buys an RV (a $5,500 beater named The Hawg) and joins the caravan for a full football season, chronicling the world of the extreme fan and learning that in the shadow of the stadium, it can all begin to seem strangely normal. Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is not only a hilarious travel story, but a cultural anthropology of fans that goes a long way toward demystifying the universal urge to take sides and to win."

Other books read:
Mad Love
Alibi Junior High
Cicada Summer
Magic Under Glass
Play, Louis, Play!
Scones and Sensibility
A Thousand Days in Tuscany
Sean Griswold's Head
Runemarks
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The Heart of a Samurai
Gods Behaving Badly
The Trouble With May Amelia
Twelfth Night
Southtown (DNF)
A Corner of the Universe
Pastwatch

Pastwatch

The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
by Orson Scott Card
ages: adult
First sentence: "Some people called it the 'time of undoing'; some, wishing to be more positive, spoke of it as 'the replanting' or 'the restoring' or even 'the resurrection' of the Earth."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I've been trying to wrap my brain around this one ever since I finished. It's so hard to sum up: as one-part dystopian, one part historical fiction, and one part time travel, it has a bit of everything.

The end of the world came, basically destroying most of the Earth. Only a few thousand people survived, and they've been trying to restore the Earth. As part of this, they developed a technology, and a group called Pastwatch evolved from this technology, to watch the past, to learn from it.

As part of this, one researcher, Tagiri, discovers that Christopher Columbus played an important role in the shaping of the current world. Which got her to thinking: what drove Columbus to go west in order to find India? What if he never made it back to Spain, thereby sending more conquerors to the Americas to plunder, rape and enslave the native populations? There's a lot in the book from Columbus's point of view: Card explores Columbus's thoughts, motivations and the amount of conviction it took to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to fund a seemingly crazy trip.

After the Pastwatch researchers start thinking about Columbus's decisions, and after they discover a couple bits of crucial information, they begin musing about how to -- and whether or not to -- influence the past. Eventually, for many reasons -- sometimes this novel was a bit circuitous and confusion, but eventually, if you wade through all of Card's exposition (and he tends to philosophize, especially in his later works), it does make sense -- they do decide to send a team into the past to reshape the course of history.

The novel had an intriguing balance: more than two-thirds was set up, and the pay off was less than one-third of the novel. It makes it a much more philosophical novel than I was expecting, but it turns out to be a good thing. I think it was Card's intention to raise questions about pre-destiny and divine right, as well as acceptance of religion and race. He presents things to think about, but he's very heavy-handed in doing it. More than once I felt like I was being hit over the head with a hammer, and I even agreed with the sentiments he was expressing.

In the end, I was surprised at how much I ended up liking it. For all it's flaws, it's an interesting story.

A Corner of the Universe

by Ann M. Martin
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Last summer, the summer I turned twelve, was the summer Adam came."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It's the summer of 1960, the summer Hattie turns 12. She lives in a small town in Connecticut (I think; I was never really sure), and she enjoys her little life: she helps her mom and dad with the boarding house they live in, in spite of Nana and Papa's disapproval. She wanders around town, talking with her friends -- none of which are her age -- reading, enjoying the lazy summer days. But this summer is different: it's the summer she finds out she has an uncle, Adam, who she never knew existed.

See, Adam, who is 21, suffers from an unnamed mental illness. And in those days, especially for people like Nana who like things just so -- from insisting upon Sunday dress at the girls' lunches she hosts, to the china plates at the Fourth of July picnic -- mental illness was seen as a disgrace, something to be tucked away.

And therein lies the central conflict of the novel: Hattie doesn't "get" Adam much of the time, but she likes him, and she understands that all he really needs is love and attention, not to be hidden away. She doesn't understand Nana's (and to a lesser extent, her mother's) embarrassment of Adam. He's her friend, and she wants him to be happy.

It doesn't have a happy ending, however. It's still 1960, and Adam's problem which today could be correctly diagnosed and helped escalates into something not so happy. It's necessary, though, to see the bad in order to see the good: Nana's not as cold-hearted as Hattie things, and everything is infinitely more complex than an 11-year-old would like it to be.

It's a moving novel, slim but effective in expressing one girls search for belonging and understanding of both herself, her family, and the world around her.

Sunday Salon: Vacation Reading

We're off on our vacation: driving from here to Boston and back again, with several pit stops along the way to see both our church's historical sights as well as US history sights, and New York City. It's a LOT OF driving to say the least. Which means: audiobooks!

I tried to get a little something for everyone. (Hubby's excited about Wee Free Men and Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, so I didn't leave him out.)

As for me, I'm not expecting to have a whole lot of time to read, and yet I can't travel without a pile of books. It's just impossible. I'm really excited about my pile.

I may just have to make time to read!

I don't know if I'll be blogging while I'm gone; it all depends on how much time is left over from all the other things we're planning on doing. If I don't, see you sometime in mid_July!

Nerds Heart YA, Round 1: 8th Grade Super Zero vs. MindBlind

8th Grade Super Zero
by Olugbemisola Rhuday Perkovich
ages: 12+
First sentence: "Everyone know's what's up, because it's the first day of school and I set the tone."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Reginald Garvey McKnight did not start the school year off well. Which means, for this eighth grade year, he's stuck in loserville because of an unfortunate vomiting incident on the first day of school. Reggie's content putting his head down and just surviving, even with the constant (nasty) teasing by his former friend Donovan. But then his church youth group does a service project at a local homeless shelter. For many reasons, this moves Reggie, and suddenly what was going to be a low-key year of just surviving becomes something more. And as he gets involved, he finds that he's becoming something more.

I loved the characters of this one -- the ethnic and religious diversity, as well as just their genuine heart -- as well as the issues it discussed. It's very broad: there are issues of homlessness and community responsibility, as well as religion, bullying, race relations, sibling rivalry, as well as a parent that's unemployed. You wouldn't think with so much going on that it would work, but it does. Perhaps because it's a slice of life: the conflict is minimal, though real, and lets Reggie's inner struggle and questions shine. I also liked how it treated everyone (even the bullies) with respect.

MindBlind
by Jennifer Roy
ages: 12+
First sentence: "Open File: C:\MyFiles\genius\first_time.avi (Date: 1/14/99)"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Nathaniel Clark is not a genius. He'll be the first to tell you that. Sure, he's 14 and has graduated from college already, and yeah, so he has Asperger Syndrome, but in order to be a "genius", he needs to have use his talents to make a contribution to the world.

Getting through daily life seems to be quite all he's able to do, with his math, and the friends he does have -- Molly, his bowling partner; Cooper, the boy next door; and Jessa, a friend that Nathaniel wants to be more than a friend -- and keeping everything in check, so he can appear "neurotypical." And that's not even mentioning his stubbornly obtuse father.

As we follow Nathaniel around, we get to know him and his quirks, how he thinks and feels, and experience the world from his fascinating perspective. We learn about his life through flashbacks (he accesses his memories as computer files and watches them like movies). We experience good times, when he's doing well, as well as times when he crashes and retreats into N-world, his own safe place.

It's all very captivating and interesting, but Nathaniel is also more than that: he's a winning character, a sympathetic person: fascinating and engaging and cheer-worthy.

Decision:
It was difficult to decide between these two books, both of which were fantastically written and captivating to read. But, in the end, I think I'm going to go with Reggie and 8th Grade Super Zero for breaking the mold, for giving us a story of a God-fearing, caring, interesting, black boy, who wants to help and not be shoved into any of the black male stereotypes. That definitely is something to cheer about.

10 Questions for Jennifer Roy

I was lucky enough to get Jennifer Roy's book MindBlind for the first round of Nerds Heart YA. I've read Jennifer's first book, Yellow Star, and was more than excited to read MindBlind. (You have to wait until tomorrow to see what I thought of it, though.) And when I noticed that she was still available for an interview as part of the whole Nerds Heart YA event, I jumped at the chance. You can learn more about Jennifer and her books at her website.

(Photo credit: Mark McCarty)

MF: What was the inspiration for writing a book about a teen with Asperger's Syndrome?
JR: The inspiration for Nathaniel, the main character, was my son (an Aspie) as well as all the people on the Spectrum that I’ve met and read about. My son is only nine, so the teen part is fictional. But many of the anecdotes are real!

MF: Was it difficult to get inside Nathaniel's head at times? Or did it flow fairly naturally, once you got the character?
JR: It would have been impossible for me to write from the point-of-view of a person with Asperger’s Syndrome before I became a Mom. But my son has been so quirky, hilarious and – most importantly – honest and open about his thoughts and the way his brain works. I adore and envy the way he processes things! Through parenting and homeschooling him, I’ve kind of "absorbed" his personality enough to create a character based on him. It’s the opposite of how I think (neurotypically), but I had a great time writing Nathaniel!

MF: Nathaniel's father has some major issues with Nathaniel's diagnosis and condition. Why did you decide to include a character -- especially one so close to Nathaniel -- like that in the book?
JR: First, as my son is quick to say, the father in MindBlind is nothing like my son’s real-life Dad! I even dedicated the book to my husband to make sure no one thought I based the jerky dad on him. But I am very aware that denial and anger are common in family members of Aspies and other people with "differences." Although I wanted to whack Nathaniel's father and tell him "get over it and just enjoy this kid," I knew it was crucial for there to be a (sadly) realistic villain.

MF: I wanted to whack his father as well! Though I do agree that a villain was necessary... Which leads me to wonder, do you have a favorite character or scene?
JR: Please skip – I can’t choose!

MF: LOL! I would have a hard time choosing as well. Out of curiosity, how did you come up with all the math formulas?
JR: The math and science knowledge that I tapped into when writing this book is all due to having to keep up with my son’s homeschooling. He's profoundly gifted, and suddenly I was learning all the things I didn’t "get" in high school. At warp speed! I sometimes joke that my book is smarter than I am.

MF: What would you like your readers to take away from their experience reading MindBlind?
JR: What I’d like people not to take away from MindBlind is a blanket statement about people – (e.g., all Aspies are gifted, all mothers are understanding while fathers stink) – because each Aspie family is unique. What I would like people to gain is a little validation or insight or compassion or enjoyment. Or all of the above!

MF: Your first novel, Yellow Star, was a novel in verse. What are the similarities/differences between writing that and MindBlind?
JR: Writing Yellow Star, I had to get into the head of a young girl trying to survive the Holocaust. Obviously, and thankfully, I didn't experience that directly. But my Aunt Sylvia did, and it's her true story I wrote about in Yellow Star. Like Nathaniel in MindBlind, I had to put myself in someone else's shoes and view an incomprehensible world through his/her eyes. But, in a more general way, I too have anxiety and confusion about the world and people in it. So in that way, I can relate. The different writing styles reflect the way I felt the characters expressed themselves best.

MF: Who, or what, inspires you to write?
JR: Writing can be hard! So I have to draw inspiration from wherever I can. My favorite author, Madeline L’Engle, was my first literary inspiration. I am one of those "voracious" readers – hundreds of books a year. Being an author has allowed me to be around book people – bloggers, kids, librarians, educators, teens, parents – people who love reading. And, I still get star struck meeting other authors. So, the opportunity to be with book nuts inspires me!

MF: What's the last book you read and loved, and why did you love it?
JR: The last book I read and loved was Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys. It tells the story of a girl who survives WWII in Siberia. The reason I loved it was because my father and his family also made the same journey from Poland to Siberia in 1939. My Dad was too young to remember the details, but when I read Between Shades of Grey, I could finally have an idea what my Grandma and her five kids went through. Frankly, it was horrifying and heartbreaking. But it was well-written with compelling characters, and while I wish, of course, my family hadn't suffered, I'm grateful that Ruta Sepetys helped me understand my family history a bit better.

MF: If you don't mind telling us, what can we expect from you next?
MF: Next up – Book 4 in the Trading Faces series, which is about identical twins who switch places (co-authored with my identical twin sister Julia DeVillers). My character, Emma, is academic and socially awkward, while my twin's character is an outgoing fashionista. The books are cute and fun with a positive message. My sister and I hysterically laugh our way through the books.

On the more serious side, I’m doing another literary book for Marshall Cavendish. It’s set in the early 1950s and incorporates both sides of my family’s history. (My Mom grew up Quaker, and my Dad was a Holocaust survivor. Certainly not typical...) I’ll keep you posted!

MF: Not typical is an understatement! I'll be interested to see the final product. Thank you so much for your time!
JR: Thank you so much for noticing and recognizing MindBlind. We heart nerds back!

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer

by Warren St. John
ages: adult
First sentence: "At some point in the life of every sports fan there comes a moment of reckoning."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

First, a disclaimer: I am a college football fan. (University of Michigan Wolverines. Go Blue!) So, naturally, I was curious about this book. Sure, it's about the Alabama Crimson Tide, but to a great extent football is football is football, and a fan's experience is pretty much the same.

However, reading this book had two effects on me: first, it made me question my actual fan status. See: I'm not nearly the fan that these people are. St. John is a lifelong Crimson Tide fan and became interested in the psychology of sports fan. However, this is not a pop psychology book; rather, as St. John finds a crowd of fans (maybe it's a Southern thing?) that follow the team during the season in their decked out RVs, it becomes more of a travel book.

At first glance, these fans are insane: who in their right mind would spend so much money (one man spent $1.4 million) on a traveling hallway just in order to be near the stadium of their favorite football team. But as the book progresses, you come to admire their dedication to the team and to the game. They are a community: granted, one that meets just for 12 weekends a year, but they have a common bond, which makes the temporary nature of the community irrelevant. They are fans in an intense, life-consuming way. And I wondered: if I wasn't willing to put my allegiance to my team out there as loudly as they are, can I even really call myself a fan?

As the book goes one, I found myself respecting the RVers. They have a dedication to their team -- to the game -- that is unparalleled. They are fully invested in football, which is superficial, yes, but is also something that bonds people together. As St. John travels with the group (yes, he does buy an RV), he also focuses on the game itself. Though, he writes not from a technical aspect, but more from the experience as a fan in the stands. It's a personal experience for him, though he does connect with people who are fans to a greater and fans who are fans to a lesser degree than he is. It's an insightful book, lovingly written; a love story not just to the Crimson Tide, but to all sports fans everywhere.

Which brings me to the second thing the book made me want to do: actually go to a game again. There is something to be said about experiencing the game in a crowd of like-minded people, to be a part of all the fans cheering on their team, experiencing a win (or a loss) together as a group.

If you're not a sports fan, I'm not sure why you'd pick up this book. But if you are, it's a fantastic read.

2011 Once Upon a Time Challenge Finish Line

It's Midsummer, and another Once Upon a Time Challenge comes to a close. I read, this year:

1. Fantasy: Exile, by Anne Osterlund
Enchanted Ivy, by Sarah Beth Durst
Reckless, by Cornelia Funke
Dragonfly, by Julia Golding
Magic Under Glass, by Jaclyn Dolamore

2. Folklore: My Unfair Godmother, by Jannette Rallison
(I moved Runemarks, since after reading it I realized it was mythology and not folklore. Thankfully, Unfair Godmother involved Robin Hood, which counts. Though it also has Rumpelstiltskin, which is fairy tales...)

3. Fairy Tale: The Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey

4. Mythology: Zeus: King of the Gods and Athena: Grey-eyed Goddess, by George O'Connor
Runemarks, Joanne Harris
The Throne of Fire, by Rick Riordan
Mad Love, by Suzanne Selfors
Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips

Heavy on the mythology, which surprised me, and general fantasy, which didn't. My favorite book out of these? Possibly The Fairy Godmother or Dragonfly, both of which were surprisingly good.

As always, thanks Carl for hosting!

The Trouble With May Amelia

by Jennifer L. Holm
ages: 10+
First sentence: "My brother Wilbert tells me that I'm like the grain of sand in an oyster."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It's just a few months after our last adventure with May Amelia, and nothing much has changed. She's still the only girl on the Nasel. She still has a bucketload of brothers, even if her oldest brother, Matti, off and married an Irish girl (in secret because their father would highly disapprove) and moved to San Francisco. It's still a tough life for them.

And things don't get easier in this book. (I hate the cover, by the way. She's too old, and what's the deal with the chicken?)

The land is still hard to work, and when an a man interested in buying their land to incorporate a town comes along, it's up to her to translate for their father. It sounds like a good deal, so they opt in, thinking about all the things they can get with their riches. It sounds like the Jackson's boat has finally come in.

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a book if that were the plot. There has to be conflict, right? And so things happen to May Amelia and her family: her brother loses a hand at the logging company; Matti comes back which creates tension with her second oldest brother, Kaarlo; her cousins come to America, after a horrific event in Finland, and there's finally another girl, which is not exactly all that May Amelia had hoped.

And, most of all, there's her father. I know this is 1900, but her father is so old-fashioned, so male-centric it's painful. There are times when he treats May Amelia so badly that you just cry out for the poor girl. And yet, her resilient spirit and hope shine through. She is hurt, she is sad, but she doesn't stop loving her family. May Amelia is a remarkable girl, and that shines through.

Like Our Only May Amelia, there's not a whole lot of plot; it's essentially just snippets from May Amelia's life on the Nasel at the turn of the 20th century. It doesn't matter, though: Holm captures us with her storytelling, with the spirit of the book, with a captivating picture of a way of living and a community.

Historical fiction at its best.

Gods Behaving Badly

by Marie Phillips
ages: adult
First sentence: "One morning, when Artemis was out walking the dogs, she saw a tree where no tree should be."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

The gods have a problem. They've been stuck in an increasingly run-down house in London for 300 years. They're bored. They're losing power. Sure, they've tried other occupations -- Aphrodite has a bit of a business as a phone sex operator, and Dionysus runs a pretty happening club, not to mention Apollo's stint as a TV psychic -- but it's just not working for them. Things just aren't going well.

Enter Alice, the unassuming cleaner and her would-be boyfriend, Neil. She's pretty shy, as far as mortals go, but after Artemis hires her to clean the absolutely filthy house, she brings some life to the group. (That's helped along a bit, due to some revenge work by Aphrodite: she gets Eros to hit Apollo with an arrow and he falls for Alice.) This leads to some sticky situations, though, culminating in possibly the end of the world. Interestingly enough, Neil finds a role as a hero, and the gods find a new reason to exists again.

It's a unique little take on the Greek gods. Sure, I prefer Percy Jackson, but this one deals directly with the gods themselves. They're dealing with the lack of belief from Mortals (can I say one of my favorite parts was Eros's devotion to Christianity? Very intriguing.), though they don't realize that's what it is until near the end. (Though an observant reader will pick that up, so it's not really a spoiler.) It's not as funny or as witty as I would have liked, but it is entertaining. I'm also not sure the overall story is quite what I would have liked it to be: there's a trip into the Underworld, and the whole "Everyone Believes" at the end seemed a bit forced; but that could just be my devotion to Percy Jackson talking.

There were moments that made me smile, though. And I liked Artemis and Alice and Neil, so there's at least a couple of characters that I could connect with. So, t's a not a complete waste of time after all.

The Heart of a Samurai

by Margi Preus
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Manjiro squinted across the expanse of glittering sea at the line of dark clouds forming on the horizon."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I wanted to like this one. The cover is pretty, it won a Newebery Honor this year, and the cover calls it a "novel inspired by a true adventure on the high seas."

Manjiro is a 14-year-old Japanese boy in the mid-1800s. He's from a small fishing village, and doesn't have much chance for a future. He signs on with a fishing boat, which gets lost at sea in a storm. Eventually, they get washed up on an island, and a while later are rescued by an American whaling ship. Manjiro spends the next 10 years away from Japan, most of it on a ship, learning English and experiencing everything from the freedom of the open sea, to new technology, to racism, to the opportunities that America offers that Japan doesn't. He eventually returns to Japan, to a less-than-amiable reception, but eventually helps the Japanese end 250 years of isolationism.

The story is all fine and good, but the book just fell flat. (At least it was a quick read.) All the things I was interested in: being stranded on an island, experiences on a whaling ship, racism in mid-1800s New England all got glossed over. While there was conflict, there wasn't enough to keep the story interesting enough. And it was basically just a retelling of the years Manjiro was away from Japan, with an epilogue about his time in the government after his return. It would have worked better as non-fiction, if that's all the author was going to do.

It could have been an interesting book. Disappointing.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

by Alexander McCall Smith
ages: adult
First sentence: "Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the food of Kgale Hill."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

People have been telling me for years that I ought to read this book. But as I always figured it was a mystery, I never really gave it much thought. I don't like mysteries, after all. (Ha! Sometimes it's true, but other times it's not.)

The thing is: this really isn't a mystery. Or at least not in the "traditional" sense. Sure, Mma Ramotswe (I had a hard time thinking of her as Precious, even if that was her name) is a detective, doing investigative work for people in her town in Botswana. But it's not a mystery.

It is, however, a lovely portrait of a woman who loves her country, her people, and finds a niche for her self as an independent woman (after a very violent marriage thankfully failed) in her town. She is an observant woman, which helps in her business: she's able to think about human nature (this book is quite down on most Botswanian men; they're mostly no-good) in ways that
help her solve the little cases that come her way.

There is one big case that overshadows the novel; a boy is kidnapped, and they think that he's been killed to make medicine. Mma Ramotswe doesn't really want to take on the case, but she does because the police aren't as reliable as they should be. Thankfully, it doesn't end as sinister as it began.

It's a delightful book, full of interesting, quirky characters. And Mma Ramotswe's story is a good one to spend time with.

Southtown

by Rick Riordan
ages: adult
First sentence: "Fourth of July morning, Will Stirman woke up with blood on his hands."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Two things before I get going: I still adore Rick Riordan. And there are things I just can't read about. Serial murderers out for revenge are on that list.

I was 70 pages into this very gruesome book before I realized that I had to abandon it. I can handle lots of swearing (at least reading), I can handle dark and gritty. But the opening chapter involving a prison break pushed me almost to my limits. But when the main bad guy tried to kidnap Tres's boss's 8-year-old, Jem, I realized that was the end of the line for me. I just don't do violence against children: it's one of my secret terrors (secret in that I tend to bury it down deep), and I don't like being reminded that there are bad people out there, and something could happen to my girls at any moment.

I did flip through the rest of the book, reading a bit near the end to see how it all resolved (thankfully Jem is kept safe; sorry for the spoiler, but it was something I needed to know). I know I missed some things, especially between Tres and his girlfriend Maia Lee. But, I'm not sure my life will be worse off for not finishing this one.

You can't win them all.

Sunday Salon: Kidlit Con 2011 (Plus Bonus Bookish Quote)

It's that time of year again: in which I try to figure out a way to get to Kidlit Con. I've gone to the past two, and have had a fun and rewarding time connecting with blogging friends and learning how to do this whole thing better. The full information is up at Chasing Ray, but the basics are these:

DATE: September 16 - 17 (the 16th is a "pre conference", registration for that is $30)

PLACE: Hotel Monaco, Seattle

Before July 1, the registration is $95, after July 1 it's $100.

Can I tell you that I'm really excited for this, mostly because it's on my birthday? I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday this year than with like-minded bookish people! I'd love to see you there!

On a completely unrelated note, Weekly Geeks this week is about our favorite bookish quotes. I try to change mine over there on the sidebar monthly (sometimes I forget), but I do have a couple of absolute favorites:

"A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it." — Mark Twain

"May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenicians, or whoever it was that invented books." — Thomas Carlyle

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." — Oscar Wilde

"When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day." — Jean Fritz

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." — Jane Austen

Also: I've been trying to remember/find a quote from John Green's story in Let It Snow, I think. The one about the happy middles instead of happy endings. Anyone know it?

Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare
ages: adult
First sentence: "If music be the food of love, play on."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This is an insane play.

Girl gets shipwrecked in a town, disguises herself as a boy (probably a good thing, considering the time period), and goes to work for the head guy. Head Guy is in luuuuuv with the most beautiful girl in town (think: Gaston, starting at about 3:15 of this video) who constantly spurns his, um, affections. (At this point, C, who watched the 1980 BBC production with me as I read, said, "He's SUCH a brat and dork!") So, Head Guy sends Girl dressed as guy to woo Beautiful for him, and beautiful ends up falling for Girl (whom she thinks is a guy).

With me so far?

Then, Girls twin brother (whom she thought was dead at sea) arrives in town and suddenly everything become really, really confusing. People think Brother is Girl, including Beautiful, who up and marries him the first time she comes across him (thinking he's Girl (dressed as a guy)). And Girl, who's fallen for Head Guy, is trying to sort things out and get out of Beautiful's obsession with her, and something else happens that involves a really, really, really bad joke gotten way out of hand, and suddenly everyone is happily ever after.

Huh?

Like many of Shakespeare's comedies, this one balances right between insanity and tragedy. There's so much that could go wrong, if people's attitudes had gone a completely different way. Malvolio -- the guy who the really bad joke was played on -- was given a sop at the end, and sent off though his parting words are "I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you." so who knows what could happen next. Besides, all these romances are built upon love at first sight, so who knows how any of them will turn out? I mean, Orsino is all pining for Olivia, but then he realizes she's
married and Violet is a girl and he's all of a sudden "Oh, I love you now, how about we hook up"?

Seriously?

I do wonder if Shakespeare was poking fun at something: love at first sight? Stupid nobles with nothing else to do? It wasn't as funny as some of his other comedies. It was confusing, but lacked the inane hilarity of Midsummer Night's Dream. And the wit of Much Ado About Nothing. It was a lot of silly people running around falling in luuuv.

But, I suppose, that's not a bad thing on a hot summer day.

Runemarks

by Joanne Harris
ages: 14+
First sentence: "Seven o'clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the End of the World, and goblins had been at the cellar again."
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Maddy Smith is basically a nondescript resident of the small village of Malbry in the Middle Worlds. Except for the runemark on her hand, which brands her a bit of an outcast, but she doesn't pay that much attention. She has no friends, except for a wandering traveler that goes by the name of One-Eye whom she only sees once a year at Harvest time.

Then, one day when she's fourteen, her world shifts: all the things she's been taught to believe about the Order and the Word -- the religious organization that rules the Middle World -- are put into question. The End of the World was just a new beginning, and there are powers she has that she never knew. One-Eye sends Maddy on an adventure that will lead to a new end and a new beginning for everyone.

If that sounds really confusing, don't worry: it is really confusing to summarize this huge, 521 page, fantasy. It's based on Norse mythology, something which I found fascinating, and is quite impossible to summarize. It's a sprawling fantasy, in the Grand High Fantasy style: adventure, twists, turns, multi-perspectives, and even a somewhat confusing ending. It's got it all. Maddy is an interesting main character to follow through the world; she ends up being a very powerful character, but because of her age and innocence, she's not quite in tune with all the subtleties of the world. It helps guide the reader through some complex mythology and relationships between the old gods which helps with the flow of the book. It takes a while to sink into the rhythm of the world, and the pacing of the novel, but once the adventure truly gets underway it's enough to keep you involved and interested.

It also felt very Neil Gaiman-esque. I can't quite pinpoint why: perhaps it's because it's so sprawling, or perhaps because it's just got that dark, gritty undertone that Gaiman is known far. Whatever the reason, it reminded me of Gaiman's work, which is never a bad thing.

That said, I don't think I truly loved it. It was interesting, and I'm glad I read it, but it was lacking that spark to make it truly great.

48 Hour Book Challenge: Finish Line

So, shall we do stats, this lovely Sunday morning?

Start time: 7:30 a.m. Friday

Finish time: 7:30 a.m. Sunday (yes, I know this is later than that, but I had to get A breakfast.)

Hours spent reading: 20.5

Hours spent blogging/social media: 3 (my husband took the laptop in for some repairs during the middle, and I loathe the dinosaur downstairs. That really cut into computer time.)

Total time 23.5 (and that included getting K's pictures taken and going downtown Friday evening to watch the Riverfest fireworks. Hooray for Hubby's help!)

Books read: 9 (I wanted a dent, I got a dent. It's still a big pile on the shelf, though.)

Favorite reads: Waiting for Normal, Dragonfly and A Thousand Days in Tuscany

Things learned: It really does help to take breaks every couple of hours. That, and getting outside helps for me. I thoroughly enjoyed taking Friday evening off and watching the fireworks with my family, and my total time didn't suffer for that. That, and eating an entire box of Oreos, while good, is not something I really should do anymore.

I always look forward to this weekend: it's so nice to get away (maybe someday I'll actually get away away; we were talking yesterday about things I'd like to do for my 40th birthday if we had the money...) and do nothing but focus on the books for a couple of days. However, I always enjoy coming back to real life when I'm done. I guess extremes are good for appreciation.

As always, thanks Pam! It was a blast.

Sean Griswold's Head

by Lindsey Leavett
ages: 12+
First sentence: "Nothing creates a buzz like an Executive Deluxe day planner."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Payton Gritas has been sitting behind Sean Griswold pretty much every day since third grade (it's an alphabetical order thing), but has never really noticed him. Then, she's thrown a bombshell at home: her dad has had MS for the last six months, and they've not bothered to tell Payton. No, he's not dying, but his life is going to change, and she's not happy that they excluded her from the loop.

Her parents insist upon her going to counseling when she gets sullen around them (completely understandable, though), and the counselor (it really is just the high school counselor) suggests Payton pick a Focus Object to write about as a way to work through her feelings. Payton, for lack of a better thing (well, there were probably better things, but there wouldn't be a book if she chose a pencil sharpener), she picks Sean Griswold's head. At first it's just an exercise, but with a little pushing from her friend Jac, soon an exercise becomes a crush. And it turns out that Sean Griswold may just be as interested in Payton as she's becoming in him.

This is a sweet little book. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, the romance is sweet, and the crisis is, thankfully, not cancer. It's interesting to see a different disease tackled, one that changes lives as much as cancer does, but in a different way. It's refreshing to have a good, positive family dynamic, one in which they're dealing with mistakes, sure, but for the most part, the family is healthy and intact. It's nice to see first love blossoming, and to deal with Payton's awkwardness. She's not fat, she's not anorexic, she's smart but not nerdy: she's just a good half-Latina girl who's trying to adjust to the fact that her dad has MS, there's nothing she can do about it, and by the way the boy who's sat in front of her for years is actually really pretty cute. And nice. And fun.

Sweet without being cloying, a disease book without being issuey. Gotta love that.

Scones and Sensibility

by Linday Eland
ages: 10+
First sentence: "It was upon turning the last delicate page of my leather-bound copy of Pride and Prejudice that my transformation into a delicate lady of quality was complete."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me for the Cybils (2010, I think.)

Polly is a twelve year old girl, with aspirations to live in the nineteenth century, stuck in the twenty first. She is also a bit of a budding matchmaker. And a lover of All Things Austin.

My thought process as I read this book went something like this:

"Oh, Polly's talking like she's in an Austin book. Though maybe it's more like Anne Shirley. I loved Anne Shirley. Maybe this will be cute."

(reads about 30 pages)

"Okay, this stilted dialogue out of a 12-year-old's mouth, even one who's going through an Anne Shirley phase sounds a bit, well, forced."

(reads about 30 more pages)

"No, not forced. Dang annoying."

(reads about 30 more pages)

"I wish Polly would just shut up now. And stop trying to set everyone else up. This is just like Emma but not nearly as well written."

(reads about 2o more pages)

"GAH! She's driving me INSANE! I quit."

(Reads the end to figure out if what I thought would happen, happens. It does.)

The end.

A Thousand Days in Tuscany

A Bittersweet Adventure
by Marlena de Blasi
Ages: adult
First sentence: "Ce l'abbiamo fatta, Chou-Chou, we did it," he says, using the name he gave to me, clutching the steering wheel of the old BMW with both hands, elbows out straight like wings, shoulders hunched in glee, wheezing up a conspiratorial laugh."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

A friend of mine loaned this to me last October, when I was effusing about my reread of Under the Tuscan Sun. I let it sit on the shelf for months, figuring I'll get to it when the time is right.

When I started it yesterday, I despaired: perhaps I was destined to like only one book about Tuscany. But, where Frances Mayes book is about a love of a house and finding a place, de Blasi's book is about a love of the people and the food of that place. It took me a while to understand what de Blasi was trying to tell me, but by the end I was hooked, luxuriating in the descriptions of the food, and submersing myself in the stories of the people.

She and her Venetian husband, Fernando, uproot their somewhat comfortable Venetian lives and head for Tuscany, somewhat on a whim: they need something new, something different to feel alive again. It's scary and intimidating and exhilarating all at once. And once they got to their rented house in Tuscany, they find so much more than they bargained for: a friend in Barlozzo, an old curmudgeon who has opinions about everything, and yet is generous with his time and knowledge about the countryside and its charms (especially food-related!). They find a community in the town they're living in, friends, kindred spirits, family. They find solace in simplicity and rusticness. (Okay, not a word, but you get what I mean.)

One quote that I thoroughly liked (she's talking about her former profession as a food writer), and think is a good example of the goodness of simplicity:

Enticed neither by swirls of kiwi puree forced from a plastic bottle nor by teetering constructions built from a puff of pastry upon which rested a grilled lamb chop upon which was piled a roasted pear, the pillar secured by spears of asparagus, which leaned fetchingly against it, a few hard-cooked lentils strewn casually about with petals of a zinnia, I've always wanted food that sent a current straight to my loins. I'd find it exhausting, having to break down a still life before getting to my supper... And so it was that as chefs began to decompose the very molecular structure of food, recasting it into ever more bizarre forms and substances, it became harder and harder to stay excited about my job.... And now I'm wishing could I scoop up all those men and women who began their chef lives as purists and bring them here to wander these markets, to stand in front of the burners with some of these chefs who change their menus every night so as to reflect that morning's market, and who are not quietly amazed by this fact as a proof of their own genius.

While the book is slow to show it's charms (at least for me), it's like an old friend, sitting down over a glass of wine (for those who drink wine, anyway), talking about everything and nothing all at once. It speaks to your soul (well, at least mine), and invites you to look at what you have and need, to reflect upon what is truly important.

And what better kind of book is that?

Dragonfly

by Julia Golding
ages: 12+
First sentence: "The Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands had sixteen rituals to observe from the moment of waking to when she broke her fast."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.

This book has a lot going on; I'm going to do my best to summarize it without giving too much away. A lot of the enjoyment I had with this book was because I didn't know where it was going next.

Taoshiri was just a goat girl in the furthest reaches of the Blue Crescent Islands until, one day four years ago, she was chosen to be the fourth of the Four Crown Princesses. She was surprised, of course, but accepted the Mother Goddess's will, trying to be the best princess she could. Then, because of impending war with a bloodthirsty emperor, she's sent to Gerfal to marry the crown prince Ramil. Not exactly something Taoshiri wants to do, especially when, once she gets there, she finds Ramil to be uncouth, rude, and plain unattractive.

Then -- because you know these sorts of things have to happen -- they were kidnapped, thrown into all sorts of unpleasant situations, forced to fight for their lives and their countries.

I won't give away much more than that, because the twists and turns are quite delightful. As is the relationship between Taoshiri and Ramil. But, I think what really made this novel (which I'm still trying to decide whether it was too wordy or just right, and probably wasn't all that well-written, but I really didn't care), was the layers of political positioning and religious discussion that went on. It was never spelled out, exactly, but Golding spent a lot of time with religious tolerance and prejudices, with an underlying heartfelt plea for understanding. Much of the conflict in the novel comes from the snap judgements people make about different cultures, in this case the Goddess-worshiping Western culture of the Islands (as opposed to the God-worshiping Eastern cultures). Golding also flips the racial divide: the strangers are the fair-haired, fair-skinned ones, standing out in a darker culture. Though there is some brutality in the Eastern religions, one is never led to believe that worshiping one God (or Goddess) is better than the other, something which I found refreshing.

As for the politics, Golding spent time balancing the love story with the duties a ruler has to make for the good of the state. It was an interesting balance, and I think she managed to play it all out quite well.

One final note: this is a fantasy only because it's set in the past, in a made-up land. There's no magic, just adventure, wits, and some grand action. Which made it a lot more fun that I was expecting.

Play, Louis, Play!

The True Story of a Boy and His Horn
by Muriel Harris Weinstein (Illustrated by Frank Morrison)
ages: 8-10
First sentence: "There isn't a jazzman in New Orleans who hasn't tapped my brain about Louis Armstrong."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.

First off: I'm calling this fiction because it's written from the perspective of Louis Armstrong's first trumpet. But the story, based on the diaries that Armstrong kept, is all fact.

You would think that a story written from the point of view of an inanimate object wouldn't work, but it does. Somehow, the best person to tell Louis's story is not Louis, or his family, or even the people he encountered, but the thing he loved the best: his horn. Affection for music and for Louis and for New Orleans came through loud and clear, making the book upbeat and cheerful when it could have been depressing.

The story begins with Louis when he's about six, and just discovering the world of music. He's poor, yes, but he's an optimistic soul. It follows his life all while he was growing up, through his first big break, and then tapers off. Weinstein handles excellently the balance of being simple enough for the age group while still being interesting to read.

In short: a lovely introduction to one of the most brilliant jazz musicians. My only complaint was that it didn't come with a soundtrack.

Magic Under Glass

by Jaclyn Dolamore
ages: 12+
First sentence: "The audience didn't understand a word we sang."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.

I have to admit: I've had this on my shelf for a long time. But, ever since the whole cover controversy, I really didn't have much desire to read it. I guess because it was so popular, or maybe it was because it had come on the heels of the Liar cover controversy, but I really had no desire to read this one at all. I didn't toss it, however, choosing to let it linger on the TBR shelf.

I'd like to say I was pleasantly surprised by the book, and in some ways, I was. I thought it was a clever premise: Nimira was a respected singer and dancer in her country, before she ran away because of troubles at home. She became a "trouser dancer" in a new land, plying her art for pennies. Then she meets Hollin Parry, who hires her as a singer for his automaton pianist. However, it turns out that the automaton is really a captured fairy prince, someone she falls in love with and finds she needs to rescue from the organization of sorcerers determined to declare war on the fairies, wiping them out once and for all.

But, it just kind of hit the middle ground and stayed there. I never really connected with Nimira as a character (maybe I was tired?), or ever really felt the growing attraction between her and the prince. It was unevenly paced, ending with things left unsolved. It felt unelegant, choppy, and committed the sin of telling more than showing me what was going on.

Disappointing.

Alibi Junior High

by Greg Logsted
ages: 11+

First sentence: "

Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher for the Cybils (2010, I think?)

Every kid, at some point in their lives, has imagined what it would be like to be a spy. Or the kid of a spy. Right?

Well, Cody Saron knows first-hand. The son of a CIA operative, he's traveled the world, is home-schooled in not just the usual subjects, is fluent in five languages. He's comfortable and happy traveling with his father. Then one of his father's jobs goes bad, and he ships Cody to live with his Aunt Jenny, in rural Connecticut. To go to regular school. To assimilate.

Which turns out to be the most difficult assignment of his life.

He has to deal with teachers (predictably obnoxious and clueless, especially the male gym teacher), bullies (again, predictable: perhaps there's a reason everyone goes in for picking on the new kid?), girls (*sigh*) and (most interestingly) the Army vet next door, Andy, who was involved in military intelligence in Iraq before losing an arm in battle and being sent home. The best parts of the book are when Cody's in operative mode: there's someone sneaking through the woods at night, and he teams up with Andy to figure out what's going on. It makes for a bang-crash ending, that feels quite rushed, but is exciting nonetheless.

That said, the dialogue felt a bit wooden, and the situations Cody found himself in once getting to Connecticut, were not at all innovative. And the ending was just too out of nowhere.

But, the spy stuff? That was cool. Just not enough to make the book memorable.

Waiting for Normal

by Leslie Connor
ages: 11+
First sentence: "Maybe Mommers and I shouldn't have been surprised; Dwight had told us it was a trailer even before we'd packed our bags."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by publisher for the Cybils (2008, I think).

Some people just shouldn't be parents.

Seriously. That's what kept running through my brain throughout this whole book.

Twelve-year-old Addie has spent her whole life waiting for normal. She almost had it, once, when her mom was married to Dwight, and her two half-sisters were just born. But then her mom, who's an "all or nothing" sort, divorced Dwight, and abandoned Addie and her two sisters. True, it was only for three days, and Addie was managing things okay, but she told Dwight, and the State took her sisters away from her and her mom gave custody to him. Which was okay, except the money he sent to Addie and her mom never seemed to go very far, and they ended up in a trailer on the corner of a couple of streets, underneath a train overpass.

Which was okay; Addie made new friends with the owners of the gas station next door (and at school) and was doing fine. Except it just wasn't normal. She wanted to be with her sisters, and with Dwight -- who was reliable, unlike her scatterbrained (which is really too nice) -- but she also felt a responsibility toward her mom. And Addie's just finding it hard to be torn like that.

Connor captures all this pain and heartache and hope in such simple and eloquent language, you can't help but hope for Addie at the same time your heart is breaking. Addie's so resilient, and as the reader, you can see her hope and faith and optimism just shining through. Even when she can't. My heart broke for her so many times while reading this -- how can anyone be so selfish and unthinking? -- and yet, this was more than just another Bad Mom Book. (Though it was that.) Connor takes something that is so horrible and so difficult and infuses it with humor and light (and yes, it does have a happy ending) to take the edge off the difficult situations this child has ended up in by no fault of her own.

It's a hard book to read, but a good one. And one which will make you grateful for all the good you have in your life.

Cicada Summer

by Andrea Beatty
ages: 10+
First sentence: "Some people think the cicadas bring trouble when they come to town."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher for the Cybils (2008, I think.)

Lily is invisible. Not really, but she's as good as: she never talks, she never looks people in the eye. She's been shuffled off to the side in the two years since her brother Pete's accident, which Lily feels responsible for. She's been carrying around the guilt and as a result, has all but shut down. On the other hand, she is a grand observer, and when a new girl, Tinny, comes to town, Lily observes some pretty strange things about her. This creates a mystery, and it's up to Lily, the silent observer, to figure everything out.

I remember throwing this one at C about a year ago, and she loved it. So much that she asked me to read it so she could talk to someone about it. (Bad mom moment. Sorry.) I agree: it's a good, solid novel for a 10 year old girl. It's got mystery and a little bit of suspense, and nothing is too heavy-handed (even though there is Death and Grief), which is a relief. (I do get tired of heavy handed Death and Grief books.) The resolution is nice, and Lily's an interesting character to get to know. On top of that, it's a summer book: sunshine, heat, water, small town. And Beatty knows how to go for mood; you can feel the summer radiating from this slim book.

A good, quick read.

48 Hour Reading Challenge Starting Line

And I'm off. Wichita's Riverfest starts today, and I think we may head out to see the Twilight Pops Concert and the fireworks, but other than that, Hubby has taken off work and is managing the kids this weekend so I can do nothing but read, read, read.

Here's the pile of books that I'm going to be picking from. I don't hope to get through them all, but my goal is to make a dent.


Hope to see you around!

Mad Love

by Suzanne Selfors
ages: 12+
First sentence: "When you're sixteen, summer is supposed to spread before you like a magic carpet, waiting to carry you to new, exciting places."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher

From one vantage point, it looks like Alice Amorous has a charmed life: her mother is the Queen of Romance Fiction, she lives in a quaint apartment in the College Hill area of Seattle. It should be good. Except that her mother has been hospitalized for mental illness, and it's up to Alice to hold down the increasingly shaky fort.

Then she meets Errol, a strange boy (wearing black hoodies in the middle of the Heat Wave of the Century qualifies, I think) who claims he's Cupid and wants Alice to write his story. Of course she doesn't believe him: mental illness runs in the family, she must be going mad, right? Which terrifies her.

Much of the book is given over to convincing Alice that Cupid is really who he says he is. There's some side stories, a distraction in the form of a Cute Skateboarding Guy, and conflicts with Alice's neighbors as the lies and stories she's surrounded herself with slowly fall apart. The characters are quirky and interesting and clever, as is the idea of melding mythology with writing romance fiction.

Sure, it gets a bit melodramatic at the end, but I was kept guessing as to where Selfors was going with the book, and delighted that she didn't go for the easy road out. It's always nice when a book ends well. I was thinking though, as I finished it, that the book doesn't really qualify for a romance (though there is one). It's more about love in general. And the song that went through my head when I finished was this one:



It's what makes the world go round, after all. And this book is quite full of love.