Category: Books

This story blew me away!  Megan Cummins had things going on several levels and I read the story while practically cackling at how good it was.

Note that we will not be hearing great voices like Megan Cummins in the revamped OTS, which will only feature stories written by actual teenagers.

Conference logistics in general were much smoother this year.  It seems Literary Arts learned from the 2015 debacle.  The venues were spread over a large portion of the Park Blocks, and there were more of them, which alleviated the crush of people that made last year’s event uncomfortable.

If you had registered for a workshop (I had) you could even check in at an alternate location.  My workshop with Kari Luna took place in a classroom at Northwest Film Academy.  I was amused by this diagram.

After my workshop, I attended a session titled “Sports Hour,” mostly because I wanted to see Jason Reynolds and Karen Karbo.  Though Lisa Congdon’s The Joy of Swimming also sounded like an excellent book.

Jason Reynolds in his silver shoes.  Just like his character in Ghost.

Lisa Congdon also possesses a mouth, you just can’t see it due to microphone.

Karen Karbo’s wrote the book Hound of the Sea with surfer Garret McNamara.  She had a lot of good stories.  She was not as tense as she looks in this photo.

It was weird seeing Geoff Norcross, as he’s a radio dude.  I learned his sport is crew.

Next was the session “Women First” with Chandler O’Leary, Jessica Spring and Laurie Notaro.  Elly Blue was the moderator and she informed us of the real title of this was “Feminists First,” but that somehow didn’t make it into the program.  We heard about the book Dead Feminists and Laurie Notaro discussed her novel Crossing the Horizon.  I enjoyed the way moderator Elly Blue handled the question and answer period.  Instead of inviting people to the microphone, she asked for people to raise their hands and then called on one person at a time.  This made for a better selection of participants, rather than just the people who could get to the microphone fastest.

The “Out Past Curfew” panel was my favorite.  It helped that I’d read books by (nearly) all the authors.  It also helped that Jay Asher and Jennifer Niven are friends in real life as are Nicola Yoon and David Arnold.  There was great rapport among the panelists and Alicia Tate’s moderation contributed to a spirited and convivial conversation.

The best part was when a young audience member asked  a question about how best to become a writer.  David Arnold invited her onstage, so she could see what it’s like to be on a panel of authors.  Everyone gave their advice (“write stories you want to read,” “write all the time,” “read all the time.”) Jay Asher brought down the house with his advice of, “Writing is a lot about who you know.  So when it comes time to start submitting your things for publication, be sure to say you sat on an author panel with Jay Asher, Jennifer Niven, Niciola Yoon and David Arnold.”

Jennifer Niven made sure there was a selfie of the panel and the audience. She made sure to get all three sides of the room.

My last panel of the day was called “Family Drama” and included Peter Rock, Paula Stokes, Cat Winters, and was moderated by Alison Kastner.  They discussed different aspects of writing their books

Overall, I can say that Literary Arts learned a lot from 2015 and put on a very good conference this year.  Hooray!

The story of a woman with a BRF who enters a hands-on-a-RV contest was perhaps one of my favorite reads this year.  It was saucy in the best ways.

A story of a teenager, two pivotal moments, and the food item that connects them.

Holy schnikies, Batman, I read books in every category this month! That’s unusual, especially the three grownup nonfiction books. Though two of them I had been reading for a while and just happened to finish them in September.

Picture books: Best Frients in the Whole Universe
Middle grade: Full of Beans
Young adult: First & Then (even though was a re-read)
Young nonfiction: Tiny Stitches
Adult fiction: Leave Me
Adult nonfiction: Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley (admittedly, a niche book)
Smart smut: Say it Louder

Best Frients in the Whole Universe
Antoniette Portis
Read for Librarian Book Group
I giggled through this book and enjoyed its general exuberance.

Coyote Moon
Gianferrari/Ibatoulline
Read for Librarian Book Group
Travel with a mother coyote as she searches for food for her family.

The Sound of Silence
Katrina Goldsaito
Read for Librarian Book Group
Yoshio looks for the sound of silence in Tokyo, Japan.

The Storyteller
Evan Turk
Read for Librarian Book Group
Fantastically illustrated tale about the importance of listening to the storytellers.

Lucy
Randy Cecil
Read for Librarian Book Group
I remember liking this, but I can’t remember why.

Full of Beans
Jennifer Holm
Read for Librarian Book Group
Probably my favorite character voice of the year.  It was fun to be transported back to 1930’s Key West, Florida.

The Inn Between
Marina Cohen
Read for Librarian Book Group
Clever book that is slightly too obvious about showing its hand.

First & Then
Emma Mills
Read Aloud with Matt.
I really enjoyed hearing this the second time; the first time through I was enjoying it so much I skimmed.  Matt liked it too.

Jackaby
William Ritter
Good historical fiction/fantasy where the young Miss Abigail Rook, having fled her family’s Victorian expectations, arrives in New Fiddleham, New England. There she encounters R.F. Jackaby, a sort of Sherlockian character. Gaining work as his assistant, she helps investigate a serial killer in this fantastical mystery.

Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivian Thomas
Hooks/Bootman
Read for Librarian Book Group
Illuminating nonfiction about the man who developed a procedure to help blue babies survive.  It does not shy away from the racism Thomas faced in his quest to be a doctor.

My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante
When friends on Goodreads give books five stars, I notice.  So I was very interested to read this book, the first in the Neapolitan Novels  I found it rough going.  Though I had been warned to power through until the main characters hit 13, I found I had to power through the entire book.

I found the fierce, stark, angry prose too confessional for me. The plot was meandering.  This is a good read for those interested in the frenemy relationships between girls, or those who would like to be transported to a poor neighborhood in 1950s Italy.  Be warned though, that this book ends abruptly.  Almost as if someone needed to make a very long book into two very long books.

Leave Me
Gayle Forman
Can a woman who is a mother leave her children to save her own health?  My observations of the current climate say the answer is no.  And thus, I’m guessing Gayle Forman will get a lot of aggro about her main character, Maribeth, who suffers a heart attack in her early forties and flees her young twins and husband so she can mend.

I happen to think women have completely overextended themselves trying to fulfill today’s version of “mother” and so I was interested in Maribeth’s journey which involved the city of Pittsburgh, a rouge heart doctor, a search for her birth mother and (my favorite) healing through swimming.

As I have with Forman’s other books I  devoured this and enjoyed the way she plays with alternate paths that lead to greater understanding.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
Sarah Vowell
I enjoy Sarah Vowell books with a lot of Sarah Vowell in them.  When she weaves herself into the story while telling us about the history she’s interested in.  This book had a lot of history and not as much Sarah Vowell.  Thus, it was slow going.

The Tiredness Cure
Sohere Roked
I was feeling tired and this book offered a range of potential fixes, all from an English naturopath’s perspective.

Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley
Schrader
For those who want to know the inspirations of Mankato people and locations from Lovelace’s many Deep Valley books.  This well-researched book includes photos, biographies and clippings of Mankato/Deep Valley’s people and places.  It’s good to read before taking a Betsy/Tacy visit.

Say it Louder

Heidi Joy Trethaway
Finally we have Book Four in the Tattoo Thief Series.  I’ve waited a long time to see what happens with drummer Dave, who has just discovered how terrible his longtime girlfriend is.  In kicking her to the curb (a kick that was quite well-deserved) he finds himself interested in Willa, a scruffy tattoo artist by day and graffiti artist by night.  Can Dave, with his not-quite-professional drumming skills–keep himself in the band and convince Willa to trust him?  Many complexities ensue, and the path is laid for a fifth book (hooray!) in the Tattoo Thief series.  Bring on the babysitter drummer!

 

I really enjoyed this story about kids on a choir trip.  It stuck with me.

Why hello, Middle Grade Month of August.  I’ve been prepping for the 6/7 grade Family Book Group I will be running in the autumn.  Thus, a lot of middle-grade reading.

Picture books:  none read this month.
Middle grade:  A lot of good choices, but I’ll go with Save Me a Seat
Young Adult: I am Princess X
Young Nonfiction: none read this month
Adult Nonfiction: no recommendation
Smart Smut: no recommendation
Adult Fiction: none read this month

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle
Fox
Read for Librarian Book Group
Delightfully creepy in that safe, middle-grade way. It was good enough  I didn’t even mind so much that it was yet another book that took place in Europe during WWII.  Children are sent away to a castle in Scotland so they can remain safe for the duration.  Unfortunately, Rookskill Castle seems to not be the safe place they were hoping for.

Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
John David Anderson
Read for Librarian Book Group
Follow three boys as they attempt to give their favorite teacher a party.  This book is funny, with true emotion and deeply felt relationships between the boys themselves and the boys and the teacher.

There are a couple of iffy teacher moments here–things that I think really good teachers would not do.  However, the various scenes are so vivid (it turns out you can pick your friend’s nose) I’m going to let them slide.

Save Me A Seat
Weeks/Varadarajan
Read for Librarian Book Group
The alternating perspectives of two fifth grade boys: Joe, suddenly solitary after his friends move; Ravi, newly arrived with his family from India. Ravi was quite popular in India, partially because of how smart he is.  He assumes that he will be just as popular in his new school.

Ravi is wrong.  Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan get so much right:  the difficulties of not being able to learn like everyone else does; the difficulties of making new friends; the problems with pre-judging people; supportive families and how they both help and harm; parents not getting it.

This was a well-written book, but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth as to what we value in U.S. culture.

Maybe a Fox
Appelt/McGhee
Read for Librarian Book Group
This is the second book I’ve read this year from the perspective of a fox.  Like Sara Pennypacker’s Pax, this was engrossing, heartfelt reading.  I could have done with a little more development of fox culture (what is is this Kennan thing?) but overall, it’s a good meditation on grief and people’s roles in others lives.

Full Cicada Moon
Marilyn Hilton
Yet another story told through poems.  I did not find the poems particularly powerful as poems, but they did a good job of telling Mimi’s story of moving to a small Vermont town in 1969.  She’s half black and half Japanese.  Also she wants to be an astronaut.  You can see how there might be problems.

My Lady Jane
Hand/Ashton/Meadows
Let’s first discuss what I didn’t like about this book:

The cover.  In the acknowledgments section the authors write of their delight at the cover and I’m glad they are happy.  But it does nothing to depict what is on the inside of this book.  In fact, the two people I asked, both said they thought it had something to with the 1960s. Something about the center part and freckles says flower children, not pseudo-pre-Elizabethan England.

Moving past our cover judgement, my other dislike is that this book doggedly follows the classic chaste romance plot arc, so much so that I knew what was going to happen before it did.

Now that we’ve gotten past those things, I must say that this book was weird in such a wonderful way.  It begins on the acknowledgements page, where the three authors (again: weird) dedicate the book to everyone who knows there was room for Leonardo DiCaprio on that door. Inside Titanic reference!  They also dedicate it to the people of England and apologize for ruining their history.

The authors create a historic fictional fantasy world in which Lady Jane Grey (she of the nine days rule and subsequent execution by Queen Mary) is hastily married off to the younger son of Lord Dudly (just like in real life) but Lord Dudly’s son in the book spends his nights in human form, reciting poetry and his days as a horse.

Yes, as a horse! In the world of this book, some of the people assume animal forms!  Nothing on the cover or the plot synopsis indicates anything about this interesting wrinkle in made-up history.

I found this aspect delightful and enjoyed reading, despite the conventional chaste-romance plot.  And so I recommend this book for you!

I am Princess X
Cherie Priest
Resistance was high, namely due to the title and the mix of graphic novel/traditional narrative.  For some reason I can deal better with all graphic novel or all traditional narrative, but when combined there is some sort of anti-synergy that happens.

But all that resistance dissipated by the end of the first chapter.  This book has a great setup:  two girls create Princess X in fifth grade and spend all of middle school writing and illustrating adventures.  Then one girl dies and all the Princess X stories are lost.  Flash forward three years to when the surviving friend is walking around town and to her surprise, finds a Princess X sticker.

How did the sticker get there and who else knows about Princess X?  Follow along to find out.

Tattoos on the Heart
Gregory Boyle
Father Boyle is executive director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles and has spent his life working in the projects and with gang members.  This is a collection of stories about his experiences.  The stories are short, more like vignettes, and they are collected together in several themes.

I enjoyed this book, but I think Father Gregory is a probably a better in-person storyteller than an on-the-page writer.

The Fifteenth Minute
Sarina Bowen
We continue on in the Ivy series, this time with Lianne, an actress famous for being a sort of female Harry Potter, and DJ, whose on a weird kind of probation and isn’t sure how long he will last at Harkness College.  This is a run-of-the-mill M/F love story.  That also deals with rape accusation.  While I think Bowen threads the needle somewhat well, it’s worth pointing out that rapes that go unreported are much more common than false accusations.

Patchett tells us the story of a recently retired woman visiting her daughter living in a Swiss Zen center.  Q&A and stuff here.

What if your parents leave Chicago to live in the country and raise Ostriches?  Find out in this issue of One Teen Story.