Category: Books

There’s a lot of books listed here, most of the month was vacation for me.  And maybe also because I’m a compulsive reader.

Favorites:
Picture: nothing I was crazy about.
Middle reader:  West of the Moon
YA: Perfect Fifths (but only if you’ve read books 1-4 in the series).  If I Stay (which was a re-read) Noggin, which was bizzare and awesome.  Also the first 3/4 of Say What You Will.
Grownup:  Gone Girl.
Nonfiction:  The Family Romanov.

Picture Books

The Pilot and the Little Prince
Peter Sis
Read for Librarian Book Group
For some reason, there were three different levels (and fonts) of text on nearly every page in this book.  It was confusing and made the information very inaccessible.   Overall, a very frustrating book and one that people had trouble coming up with anything nice to say about it.

The Adventures of Beekle
Dan Santat
Read for Librarian Book Group
Cute story of Beekle, who is waiting to be someone’s imaginary friend.

Middle Readers

I Kill the Mockingbird
Paul Acampora
Read for Librarian Book Group
Solid (and short) tale of three friends who plan a gurulla campaign to get people to read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  Good adolescent transition (from eighth grade to high school) group of three friends novel.

Revolution
Deborah Wiles
Read for Librarian Book Group
A big book, but it turns out that most of it’s girth is due to pages that are mostly picture.  Interspersed with  history lessons is an interesting story of a white girl who witnesses Freedom Summer events in her own Mississippi town.  A solid historical fiction read, if reader can get past the number of pages.

West of the Moon
Margi Preus
Read for Librarian Book Group
Aside from being a beautiful book to look at, this is also one of my favorite books read this month.  Beautiful weaving of traditional Norwegian fairy tales with the narrative.  I also enjoyed the historical data in the afterward. 

Young Adult
Second Helpings
Megan McCafferty
We’re back again for another year with Jessica Darling, this time her senior year.  Will the push-pull with Marcus be resolved in a satisfactorily way? (Pre-reading)  I’m guessing no, because there are three more of these. (Post reading) Just as satisfying as the first book.

[I think at this point in the five-book series, the library starts shelving them in the adult fiction section, but I’m putting them here because we started out as YA]
Charmed Thirds
Megan McCafferty
Books three, four and five I read on vacation and they’ve all mostly blended.  McCafferty does a good job letting her characters grow up.  Sometimes the continued inclusion of high school acquaintances strains credibility, but otherwise this is a solid series.

Fourth Comings
Megan McCafferty
Books three, four and five I read on vacation and they’ve all mostly blended.  McCafferty does a good job letting her characters grow up.  Sometimes the continued inclusion of high school acquaintances strains credibility, but otherwise this is a solid series.

Perfect Fifths
Megan McCafferty
Books three, four and five I read on vacation and they’ve all mostly blended.  McCafferty does a good job letting her characters grow up.  Sometimes the continued inclusion of high school acquaintances strains credibility, but otherwise this is a solid series.

The fifth book had the advantage of being a book-length conversation between Marcus and Jessica.  It was the perfect payoff.

Say What You Will
Cammie McGovern
Ah yes, this book.  Which was so incredibly good. I particularly liked the slow build of friendship between Amy (born with cerebral palsy) and Matthew (currently pretending he doesn’t have a pretty extensive OCD problem).  I loved this book a lot (thanks Danielle!) and was excitedly telling people about it before I was done.  Which is a hazard sometimes, because books can turn on you.  This one did. It went on much too long with an entirely unbelievable and unnecessary plot development in the last third of the book.  However, there were so many good things about this book (it was funny, there was friendship and very complex social structures, good and bad times) I can’t not recommend it.

Noggin
John Corey Whaley
Read for Librarian Book Group
16 year old boy dying of cancer chooses to end his life early so his head can be frozen and attached to a better body when technology improves sometime far in the future. He’s thinking it will be 100 years or so, but when he comes back, only five years have passed.  Great conundrums throughout.  A solidly enjoyable read.

If I Stay
Gail Forman
Quick re-read before the movie viewing.  Still good.

This One Summer
Tamaki/Tamaki
Read for Librarian Book Group
Graphic novel written and illustrated by cousins about a girl and her summer at the lake with her family.  Packed with many telling details and a hilarious summer friend.

Grown Up Novels
The Chronology of Water
Lidia Yuknavitch
Read for Kenton Library book group.
Good writing, interesting story.  My edition came with an interview with the author which was enlightening.  Our paperback came with a modesty panel, although I didn’t realize until our discussion that’s what it was.  It was so well integrated into the design that I never noticed that there was a naked breast underneath.  I should tell you more about the book itself than the cover design and extras, but I’m feeling lazy.  Good writing, interesting story, like I led with.

Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
Expertly plotted suspenseful novel. I was hooked.  The diatribe about “cool girls” will stay with me for a very long time.

Nonfiction

The Family Romanov
Cadice Fleming
Read for Librarian Book Group
This was a very good book, an easily readable history of the last Czar of Russia and his family as well as the social and political developments which brought about the family’s end.  I enjoyed how so much history was imparted in a way that did not drag or bog down in details.  I came away from it thinking what a solid read it was.  Then we talked about it a few weeks later in book group and I remembered vividly so many scenes which caused me to revise my initial “very good” to “fantastic.”

Stubby the War Dog
Ann Bausum
Read for Librarian Book Group
World War I dog who becomes a mascot for his unit.  Manages to impart the horrors of war without scarring the children who will read this for either research or pleasure.  Good text-to-picture ratio and compelling story.

With only eight books read, this month, it’s clear summer projects have taken over.  I also enjoy how I read two of each category listed.  Symmetry appeals to me.

Recommended:
None of the middle readers blew me away.
YA:  Fly on the Wall (making this month three of E. Lockheart being on the top recommends list).
Adult Nonfiction: Wild
Adult Fiction: Landlines

Middle Reader
The Thickety
J. A. White
Read for Librarian Book Group
I wasn’t sucked into the world building of this world and thus never really took a liking to this book. It also did that thing that I hate where the book ends abruptly, trying to pull you into the sequel, rather than tying things up and getting you excited about what comes next.

The Great Greene Heist
Varian Johnson
Read for Librarian Book Group
This was hard to start, because of the constant references to this book’s predecessor, which I didn’t have time to track down and read, but once I let go of the fact I was reading the second book before the first, I completely enjoyed it.  It was not believable, in the super fun way that the Ocean’s 11 movies aren’t believable, but so, so fun.  Props for having so many distinct and well-crafted characters (and from so many different backgrounds).  A fun read for the middle school set.

Update!  The Librarians tell me there ISN’T a book before this one. What I attributed to references to the first book were actually a choice the author made to plop us down in the middle of the action and fill us in as the story continued.  Seeing as how I just assumed I had missed a book, I find this to not be a very successful literary method.

YA
Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything
E. Lockhart
Another good entry into the E.-Lockhart-can-really-write-a-good-YA-book pantheon. Gretchen wishes she was a fly on the wall in the boy’s locker room and gets her wish, learning much about the lives of boys, and her own life in the process.  It goes deeper than one might think from this description.

Sloppy Firsts
Megan McCafferty
I found this book odd, beginning with the title, which, I’m sorry, makes me think of the porn term “sloppy seconds” and seems an odd choice for a YA novel.  The main character is full of gripes for the entire book and also seems to hate all her friends but not have the ability to make new ones.  I did think the dialogue was pretty teenaged authentic, as was the level of angst.  Plus, I kind of liked that Jessica Darling was not really that darling.  Despite all these gripes, I was hooked by the end and have already ordered the next in the series.

An aside:  “Darling” as a last name is trending for me right now.  I think this is the third book in as many months using that last name.

Adult nonfiction
The Bookseller of Kabul
Asne Seierstand
Read for Book Group
Good for people who don’t mind reading about a big jerk of a man who rules his household as a tyrant.  Seriously, the bookseller himself was not a great guy, but Seirstand is quiet good at capturing details big and small of an Afghanistani family.  There were points where some of the family’s thoughts were recorded and I wondered how she captured those thoughts, but overall, this was an interesting read.  Although dispiriting from a female perspective.

Wild
Cheryl Strayed
People have formed their opinions and drawn their lines in the sand.  And now I’ve read it, so me too!  You can find me firmly on the side of: liked it!  I loved the writing (that horse scene will stay with me forever) and the pacing and the change and growth.  Though I think it was stupid to attempt a very long backpacking journey without once going backpacking, or even packing up the backpack with all the supplies, I also found that to be quite refreshing.  I myself tend to bog down in preparation mode and maybe I should skip or abbreviate that part of a journey now and then.  So count me as a fan.

Adult fiction
What’s Your Number (AKA 20 Times a Lady)
Karyn Bosnak
Oh how authors must despise the movie/book comparisons that appear once a book has been adapted into a feature film.  But I can’t help myself, I saw the movie first and adored it and could keep from comparing it to the book.

Firstly, let me say that the original title, 20 Times a Lady is so much better than What’s Your Number, which was the movie title.  However, the title was the only thing I thought was better in book form than movie adaptation. The two are very different.  I found the book Delilah (she was named Ally in the movie) to be unsympathetic and the things that I loved in the movie (the sister relationship, the interplay between Ally/Colin, the mother daughter relationship) to be almost entirely absent in the book version.  So this is the rare case when I recommend the movie over the book. But I thank Karyn Bosnak for writing the book that could then be adapted into a very good movie.

Landlines
Rainbow Rowell
Oh Rainbow Rowell, you are so brilliant.  Here I am reading a perfectly serviceable portrait of a marriage in trouble and then you go and layer onto that pleasant-but-familiar plot something rather unexpected that completely works.  I also appreciate how different your four books about relationships have been and can heartily recommend them to many, many people. I can’t wait for you to write another one.  Maybe for your next adult novel you will get a cover that is just as good as your YA covers, because this one is not really happening.

I’m not going to count how many books I read this month.  It was a lot.  It had to do with the fact I front- loaded the picture books for July Librarian Book Group, while reading the picture books for the June meeting in June.  Oh, and also getting completely obsessed with E. Lockheart/Emily Jenkins.  Also, there were a lot of middle readers on the Librarian Book Group list and I found them underwhelming, so I kept putting them down and picking up other things.  Anyway, highlights in each category:

Pictures:
Elizabeth Queen of the Seas
Sparky!
Here Comes the Easter Cat

Middle Readers
I didn’t love any of them.  I didn’t really at all like two of them.

YA
Ruby Oliver Quartet that begins with The Boyfriend List
The Disreputable History of Frankie Laudeau-Banks

Grownup
Mister Posterior and the Genius Child
(yes folks, I just recommended nine books and six of them were by the same author.  Who also wrote a recommended book last month (We Were Liars).  She’s a damn fine writer.

Pictures
Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas
Cox/Floca
Read for Librarian Book Group
I love when books tell me a quirky detail about something I never would have known existed.  This is the tale of a very special member of the Christ Church, New Zealand community.  Incredibly darling illustrations and a great story.  Highly recommended.

Sparky!
Jenny Offill
Read for Librarian Book Group
Hilarious picture book about a girl who picks an unusual pet.  People without access to children should just request this from the library so they can experience five minutes of funny.  Or purchase it, if you would like funny to live in your house.

The Noisy Paint Box
Barb Rosenstock
Read for Librarian Book Group
Picture book of Kandinsky’s life which also discusses his Synesthesia.  Nice story of following your own path.

Josephine
Powell/Robinson
Read for Librarian Book Group
Picture book of Josephine Baker’s life.  I found the text informative and the illustrations sub par.  I would also have liked to see a picture of Josephine Baker in the book itself.

Handle with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey
Bruns/Harasimowicz
Read for Librarian Book Group
Young reader nonfiction about butterfly wrangling.  Interesting.

Gravity
Jason Chin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Picture book explaining the concept of gravity.  Very bright and vibrant.

Here Comes the Easter Cat
Underwood/Ruedn
Read for Librarian Book Group
Adults with no children in your life!  Grab this and read it, just for the five minutes of funny.  Great illustrations and fun for any person familiar with cats.

The Cosmobiography of Sun-Ra
Raschela
Read for Librarian Book Group
Pleasantly weird.

Number One Sam
Pizzoli
Read for Librarian Book Group
I was underwhelmed by this, but I think it would be great for early readers and I’m all for the message.

Letter Lunch
Gutieriez
Read for Librarian Book Group
This concept was so bizarre to me that I put this away to read again later, thinking I had missed something.  But no.  Children go searching for letters, in the landscape, in the store, so they can…Eat them?  I still don’t really get it, but the illustrations were very pretty.

Middle-Reader
Caminar
Skila Brown
Read for Librarian Book Group
Story of a boy in 1980s Guatemala caught in the crossfire of politics.  Told entirely through poetry.  I wasn’t overly enamored of the poetry, but the story eventually grabbed me.

The Riverman
Aaron Starmer
Read for Librarian Book Group
This had a great opening chapter and then went downhill from there.  I had problems with the plot, with the alternate world, with the characters. Probably good for middle school readers who like semi-creepy science fiction.  There’s a boy main character.

Stay Where You Are and Then Leave
John Boyne
Read for Librarian Book Group
WWI fiction!  I’m a fan!  Solid kid-navigating-adult-situations kind of book with interesting (although completely normal) characters.  Good for middle school and up.

Note.  This title is awesome and I would rather it had been used on a contemporary YA novel.  Just sayin’

The Night Gardener
Jonathan Auxier
Read for Librarian Book Group
I really despised this book because the characters spoke in a completely modern way.  Just because Auxier throws in a “dinna” now and then doesn’t make them sound back in the day of the Irish potato famine.  It also was a slog.  However, I’m not sure young readers would be so picky.  So give it to anyone who likes a strong sister/brother narrative, creepy happenings and mysterious figures.

Also, I hope the publishing world works through this foil book cover thing rather quickly.  Much like Tease I had to be careful how I positioned this while reading because it reflected light back into my eyes in an uncomfortable way.

YA
And We Stay
Jenny Hubbard
Emily, having suffered tragedy at her high school, is now attending a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, home of that other Emily, the dead poet.  Our Emily finds her way through the realities of her existence by writing poems and learning about dead poet Emily.  Having lived in Amherst, I didn’t get a huge sense of place from this novel and I sometimes found the Emily/Emily name thing to be confusing, although this was a satisfying read. Points for including my favorite Dickinson poem, which begins, “This quiet dust..”.  Also, I feel as though the title could have been not so forgettable.

The Boyfriend List
E. Lockheart
Footnotes!  So genius!  Perfect for mapping the mind of a smart and funny teenage girl as well a sneaky way to explain to the reading audience who AC/DC and their ilk is, without stopping the narrative.  I adored this book from the hilarious main character, her loving and somewhat self-absorbed parents, plus the very real female friendships.  The back-and-forth jumping around in time chronology was sometimes hard to follow and I got confused about who the various boys were, but I think that made the experience that much more authentic.  This is YA gold!

The Boy Book
E. Lockheart
I read books 2-4 of the Ruby Oliver Quartet in a very short amount of time.  Thus, it all blends together, making three separate reviews impossible.  Instead, I will highlight what I love about this series in total

• Ruby Oliver is a very fun character.  She’s full of life, and has an iron will that keeps her going through all of her many troubles, some which she brings on herself, some which are dumped in her lap.
• Footnotes!  They are the perfect way to capture Ruby’s digressive mind.  E-reader alert!  You might get endnotes, not footnotes.  If you read the actual books you will have the joy of actual footnotes right there on the page. The endnotes are annoying to flip back and forth to.
• Friendship.  Over the course of the four books, Ruby Oliver’s friends wax and wane in a very realistic way.
• Parents.  Her parents are hilarious, both overly interested in their only daughter and completely self-involved.
• Funny sayings.  You too will not be able to think about “Reginald,” “Pod-robots” and many other Ruby-isms without smirking.
• Movie recommendations.  Ruby Oliver loves movies and many of her footnotes are lists of movies that fit a particular category.

The Treasure Map of Boys
E. Lockheart
I read books 2-4 of the Ruby Oliver Quartet in a very short amount of time.  Thus, it all blends together, making three separate reviews impossible.  Instead, I will highlight what I love about this series in total

• Ruby Oliver is a very fun character.  She’s full of life, and has an iron will that keeps her going through all of her many troubles, some which she brings on herself, some which are dumped in her lap.
• Footnotes!  They are the perfect way to capture Ruby’s digressive mind.  E-reader alert!  You might get endnotes, not footnotes.  If you read the actual books you will have the joy of actual footnotes right there on the page. The endnotes are annoying to flip back and forth to.
• Friendship.  Over the course of the four books, Ruby Oliver’s friends wax and wane in a very realistic way.
• Parents.  Her parents are hilarious, both overly interested in their only daughter and completely self-involved.
• Funny sayings.  You too will not be able to think about “Reginald,” “Pod-robots” and many other Ruby-isms without smirking.
• Movie recommendations.  Ruby Oliver loves movies and many of her footnotes are lists of movies that fit a particular category.

Real Live Boyfriends
E. Lockheart
I read books 2-4 of the Ruby Oliver Quartet in a very short amount of time.  Thus, it all blends together, making three separate reviews impossible.  Instead, I will highlight what I love about this series in total

• Ruby Oliver is a very fun character.  She’s full of life, and has an iron will that keeps her going through all of her many troubles, some which she brings on herself, some which are dumped in her lap.
• Footnotes!  They are the perfect way to capture Ruby’s digressive mind.  E-reader alert!  You might get endnotes, not footnotes.  If you read the actual books you will have the joy of actual footnotes right there on the page. The endnotes are annoying to flip back and forth to.
• Friendship.  Over the course of the four books, Ruby Oliver’s friends wax and wane in a very realistic way.
• Parents.  Her parents are hilarious, both overly interested in their only daughter and completely self-involved.
• Funny sayings.  You too will not be able to think about “Reginald,” “Pod-robots” and many other Ruby-isms without smirking.
• Movie recommendations.  Ruby Oliver loves movies and many of her footnotes are lists of movies that fit a particular category.

My Life Next Door
Huntley Fitzpatrick
Fairly normal teen romance with daughter of uptight trust fund state representative falling for second son of very large family next door.  A goodly amount of interesting wrinkles made this a fun read, though I never doubted what the ending would be.  I also couldn’t help nothing that the author is the mother of a large family and couldn’t help but wonder how many of the snide comments made to the mother of the large family in the book were comments she has experienced herself.

Addendum.  In posting this review I noticed a sequel is in the works and found myself much more excited than this review might indicate. And I think this book is sneaky that way.  It seems to be pretty standard, but in the end it’s compelling.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Laudeau-Banks
E. Lockheart
I’ve put off writing this review because this book hit every one of my “perfect” buttons and the main reason I loved it, I can’t even tell you because it will spoil the plot.  But here are the things I can tell you about.  I love Frankie:  Smart.  Beautiful by way of awkward, so she’s aware of the difference.  Really spot-on writing, both from the adolescent perspective and layered adult commentary, which doesn’t overwhelm the plot.  Various hijinks.  A lot of main character processing and observing.  Fun with words.  Made me want a sequel, while simultaneously hoping that Lockheart never writes a sequel because this book is so perfect as a stand-alone.  When I told the librarians I was obsessed with E. Lockheart’s Ruby Oliver they all squealed that I must read this book.  And they were right.

Grownup
Macbeth
Wm. Shakespeare
Bad dude.  Badder lady.  Looking forward to seeing the stage play.

Mister Posterior and the Genius Child
Emily Jenkins
Who’s on an E. Lockheart/Emily Jenkins kick?  Me!  That’s who!  Told from the perspective of Vanessa, a third grade girl at a private school called Cambridge Harmony, it was so chock full of solid detail and observations it immediately transported me from my summer vacation, right back into the school year that had just ended.  I felt like I was back at work again.  Yet I persisted.  This book was funny, in a “safe for public transportation” way meaning you will smirk, but the guffaws will be kept to a minimum.  I also loved the adults’ reactions to Vanessa’s actions and comments as they tell you much more about what the adults are wrapped up in.  This was a really solid novel.

My favorites:
Picture books:  Maple
Middle Reader:  The Nightingale’s Nest
YA: We Were Liars, Mostly Good Girls
Grownup: Nothing wowed me.

Picture Books
Junkyard
Mike Austin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Great transformation picture book.  Reminded me a little of the Boston Harbor Islands.

Maple
Lori Nichols
Read for Librarian Book Group
Very fun growth of tree (Maple) and girl (also Maple).  If you are like me you will exclaim aloud the name of the second tree when it makes its appearance.

Big Bug
Henry Cole
Read for Librarian Book Group
Good comparison of big/small.  Great colors.

Middle Reader
The Nightingale’s Nest
Nikki Loftin
Read for Librarian Book Group
There is much to discuss with young readers in this book, so I heartily recommend it for classroom book groups.  Early-teenaged boy dealing with loss encounters a girl also dealing with loss.  Full of magical realism, vivid scenery and memorable characters.

Hidden
Dauviller, Lizano, Salsedo
Read for Librarian Book Group
Good entry into the Holocaust for upper elementary.  It’s  a graphic novel and the large heads were somewhat distracting, but I think they helped put some distance from the Holocaust for the young minds who will be reading this book.

YA
Mostly Good Girls
Leila Sales
I adored this book because it perfectly captured the general hilarity of two best friends.  The conversations between them are worth the read.  It’s teenager girl patter to a T.  Also, it does a nice job of capturing the subtle transitions that happen as friends change and grow.  Very well done.  I’m disappointed that Multnomah County Library doesn’t have her 2011 book called Past Perfect, because I can’t get enough of Sales writing.

The Here and Now
Ann Brashares
Girl time travels from the future to the present to live permanently with other time travelers because things aren’t going so well in the future.  I found it only mildly successful from the sci-fi aspect.    Overall, it didn’t blow me away.

We Were Liars
E. Lockheart
Read for Librarian Book Group
There are books that are good and then there are books that take you along an interesting path only to suddenly spin around and point you in another direction. And you realize the bits of this and that you’ve been encountering on said path are actually clues and wham/wham/wham/wham they all suddenly drop into place and you are reading an entirely different book that is even better than the one you thought you were reading.

This book is like that.

And I loved it.

And I really wasn’t able to do much after I finished it.  It took some digesting.

Going Over
Beth Kephart
Read for Librarian Book Group
I’ve not ever read any YA novel set in Berlin Wall-era Germany.  So that was interesting.  The Romeo and Juliet-style story (the wall kept them apart, not their parents) was interesting and the book had solid subplots.  I was interested to note that I didn’t feel terribly attached to the characters, yet I found myself in tears at the dramatic conclusion.

Tease
Amanda Maciel
Read for Librarian Book Group
A book about cyber bullying (and slut-shaming) but from the perspective of one of the perpetrators.  I found the stubborn resistance of taking responsibility by the main character to be an effective hook that kept me up past my bedtime reading.  Overall, a very engrossing novel that is quite successful at what it’s doing.  There was talk in the book group discussion of wishing it would have delved deeper into why slut-shaming/rape culture is the way it is, and, I agree I agree we need a book about that too, but this is not that book and this book is a good book for what it is.

That said, the foil cover was really distracting as I was reading by lamplight.  I had to hold to book a certain way so the light didn’t reflect back into my eyes.

On the Count of Three (aka The Burmudez Triangle)
Maureen Johnson
What happens to three best friends when two of them fall in love?  Filled with authentic teens, great long distance romance, and much awkward falling apart of friendship.

Grownup Fiction
The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
Thomas/Graham
The first Veronica Mars novel!  I found the writing clunky, but enjoyed continuing to live in the Veronica Mars world.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz
Read for Kenton Library Book Group
This was a plodder for me.  I did not enjoy the jumping back and forth between characters.  I wanted more of Oscar, and more of his sister, not so much traveling back in to his mother and grandfather’s time.  That said, I liked learning about the Dominican Republic and I thought the characters were great.  There was a goodly amount of non-translated Spanish, which I found difficult, but interesting.  In the book group there was a vehement discussion if including non-translated Spanish did a disservice to the reader.  I figure if you want to read about Dominican culture, you probably need to wade through some Dominican slang.

Good stuff this month.  Except for one YA that I felt very ambivalent about, the rest of these books were ones I would shove at you with varying levels of excitement.  If I had to pick just one, I would tell you to read This Song Will Save Your Life which hit every single teenage-girls-are-awesome buttons.  I’m mildly obsessed with Leila Sales, the author.

Picture books
The Scraps Book
Lois Ehlert
Read for Librarian Book Group.
Book about the author’s process in making her books.  Full of fun detail.

Middle Readers
The Crossover
Kwame Alexander
Poetry! And Basketball!  A tale of a middle school basketball star with a twin brother (who also plays) a dad who is a former pro-ball (in Europe) player and a mom who is the principal of the middle school.  The story unfolds in many short poems.  Very excellent.

Young Adult Books
Grasshopper Jungle
Andrew Smith
Read for Librarian Book Group.
For the first half of this book I was completely in love with the horny stylings of the narrarator.  The Iowa town was great, the friend/girlfriend were great, the love triangle was fabulous and I loved the descriptions of the school and teachers.  It was also funny on every single page.  But somewhere in the middle I suddenly didn’t love it as much and by the end I was just at a simple “like” which was too bad because it was headed toward five-star status.  But you should read it if you like gonzo plots, adolescent boys being very frank about sexual desire, adolescent boys who are trying to figure out their feelings–possibly romantic–for their best friend*, sci-fi stylings, or books about small town Iowa.  Also if you like funny.

Overall, I recommend. Maybe because I read it so fast I lost interest?  I can’t put my finger on what happened.

*This angle right here was enough for me to read the book.  Boys thinking they might be attracted to other boys, but still love girls isn’t something I see a lot of.

The Theory of Everything
Kari Luna
This won the Oregon Book Award for YA and I can’t say I loved it.  Was she hallucinating or was she experiencing breaks in the fabric of the universe?  It wasn’t super clear to me and I felt uncomfortable.

This Song Will Save Your Life
Leila Sales
My favorite kind of tale:  girl finds her “thing,” boy is superfluous. It reminded me a lot of the movie Whip-It in all the best ways.  This is a fun read and will resonate with anyone who has felt out of place in school, but at home when music is playing.

Grownup Books
Lessons from the Borderlands
Bette Lynch Hustead
Read for Kenton Library Book Group.
Essays written by a woman living in Eastern Oregon, who grew up poor in Idaho.  There were things I could relate to, which makes for good essay reading.

Story of a Marriage
Andrew Sean Greer
Beautifully written tale from the perspective of a woman living in San Francisco in the 1950s.  There were a couple of surprising turns I didn’t see coming.

This is Between Us
Kevin Sampsill
Reading this I couldn’t help but think repeatedly, “Is this how guys think?”  Because if it is, I have vastly underestimated the amount of time they are thinking about sex.  And that’s with studies being published telling me they think of sex every six minutes or so.  This book is a tale of a five years of a couple’s life.  A lot of sex.  A lot of thinking about sex.  I found it rather hot, though weird that the guy who wrote it is the guy who introduces the authors for readings at Powell’s.

Whew!  A lot of books fiction and non-, and all reading levels this month, thanks to Spring Break.  If you want to check out just my favorites look for Beyond Magenta (nonfiction about transgender youth) Handbook for Dragon Slayers (middle reader that’s full of fun) Rules for Becoming a Legend (novel about a small-town high school basketball sensation and his troubles) and the Warmth of Other Suns (fascinating nonfiction about the great migration of African Americans out of the South to points north and west.)

Young Adult
Insurgent
Veronica Roth
Ah the second book, where the trilogy either comes together or falls completely apart.  It was the latter in this case.  “Really?” I found myself asking multiple times.  I could give you specific examples that would contain spoilers, but I just don’t care that much.

The Port Chicago 50
Steve Sheinkin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Compelling tale of 50 African American Navy men during World War II.  Examines segregation, racism and workplace safety factors.  Well written.  And frustrating.

Charm and Strange
Stephanie Kuehn
Read for Librarian Book Group
I was lukewarm about this winner, especially because it beat out Sex & Violence which was one of my favorite books this/last year.  I found the writing to be claustrophobic, which made me want to keep reading, but I found the back-and-forth between present and past to be confusing and characters weren’t fully developed.  Also, plot points wandered off in places.

Beyond Magenta
Susan Kuklin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Highly recommended!  Interviews with transgender teenagers of all stripes.  Great for educating yourself about how these teenagers navigate adolescence and early adult life, as well as introducing transgender issues.

Middle Reader
Searching for Sarah Rector
Tonya Bolden
Read for Librarian Book Group
This book was confusing, mostly because it tried to tell Sarah Rector’s story, which was interesting. I think the framing device was not right as (this is not really a spoiler) it seems Sarah Rector was never actually missing.  I found it good for details about striking it rich off of oil in Oklahoma, the former slaves of Indians and also the many swindlers who wanted to take the money, but the whole book never gelled.

The Handbook for Dragon Slayers
Merrie Haskell
Read for Librarian Book Group
Great middle reader of a girl (who happens to be a princess) finding her way in the world despite her limitations.  Good setting of somewhat medieval Europe (but with dragons.)  I’ve already recommended to a smart fifth grader who keeps reading YA books I think she would appreciate more in three or four years.  It would also make a nice companion to Amy Timberlake’s One Came Home

Zane and the Hurricane
Rodman Philbrick
Read for Librarian Book Group
Boy from New Hampshire visits his grandmother and gets to battle through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  I found this to be gripping and full of rich, vivid detail.  It’s also short, which makes it good for kids who aren’t into the whole book thing.

Grownup
King Lear
Wm. Shakespeare
Ah Shakespeare, how your words don’t move me and instead drive me to a live performance. I wasn’t a fan of Lear, big old meanie, so you can guess how much I liked this.

It occurs to me if someone strung together all my Shakespeare Reviews they would be a prime target for making fun of.  Fear not! I actually enjoy the performances!

Rules for Becoming a Legend
Timothy S. Lane
Our boy Timothy S. Lane has written a firecracker of a book about basketball and small town living and how the two intersect. So maybe you aren’t a fan of basketball?  This book is still for you.  You’ve got three generations of well-written characters to spend time with. You’ve got layers of small-town gossip, rumor and action.  You’ve got a compelling story, not just of basketball, but also relationships and heartbreak and legend.  You’ve also got a great sense of place in “Columbia City” the town standing in for Astoria, Oregon.  Just as Friday Night Lights isn’t just about high school football, and Rudy isn’t just about Notre Dame football and Hoop Dreams isn’t about inner city basketball and The Art of Fielding isn’t just about college baseball, this is about a lot of things besides basketball.  And even if it was just about basketball, it’s so well written, you wouldn’t be too sad if it was.

Hyperbole and a Half
Allie Brosh
The kind of funny that shouldn’t be read on the train because it’s hard to contain your laughter.  I love the internet, because without it, I very much doubt this would have been published in a book.

The Warmth of Other Suns
Isabel Wilkerson
Read for Kenton Library Book Group
Much like the book the Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, I groaned at seeing how very large this book was.  And much like the Mitfords, I loved every minute of it.  Wilkerson tracks the great diaspora of African Americans living in the South to all points north.  Demographically, this happened between 1910 and the 1970s.  Wilkerson interviewed over 1200 people who migrated  and her book combines the personal narratives of three people while she sets the stage with historical data and bits and pieces of other people’s stories.  It’s compelling, engrossing, frustrating and heartbreaking. It patiently makes the point, over and over again how we are not a country that gives every citizen a chance to succeed. And it made me wonder how much more successful we would be if we did give everyone the same chance. This book was life changing and I highly recommended it.

Picture Books
Thomas Jefferson: Life Liberty & the Pursuit of Everything
Maira Kalman
Read for Librarian Book Group
She makes pretty pictures.  And she talks about Sally Hemmings in an age appropriate way.

Little Poems for Tiny Ears
Lin Oliver & Tommie dePaola
Read for Librarian Book Group
I loathed these poems.  And the illustrations weren’t my type either.  Way too cutesy.

Baby Bear
Kadir Nelson
Read for Librarian Book Group
Pretty illustrations.  Text was not fabulous.

Hi, Koo
Jon J. Muth (sp)
Read for Librarian Book Group
Eh.  It bugged me his Haiku were not 5-7-5.  I liked the illustrations.  Cute little “find the alphabet game” incorporated in text.

Dream Dog
Lou Berger & David Catrow
Read for Librarian Book Group
The illustrations were very Seussian (though I found the father to be leaning toward a slightly offensive stereotype) and I liked the dream dog.  I was not at all happy with the ending.

Not a huge turnout this month, due to falling into Veronica Mars, Season 2 and not climbing out until a few episodes into Season 3.  Also not a huge month for really awesome things.  I read some solid reads, but nothing I raved about.

YA Fiction
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
Meg Medina
I read this at the same time I was reading Sonia Sotomayor’s book and kept confusing the two, which was both amusing and maddening.  Aside from this book’s awesome title, it really hit on the many ways a threat by a peer can affect a teenager’s life. It was interesting to see how the main character’s responses were interpreted by the adults in her life, as well as the role that social media played in the attack.  Very well done, if hard to read at times.

Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
Evan Roskos
Read for Librarian Book Group
I love this title and I love this main character who was so willing to YAWP (as Walt Whitman did) through his troubles.

Midwinter Blood
Marcus Sedwick
Read for Librarian Book Group
This was the Printz award winner and I think I was grumpy when I read it because I kept thinking, “they picked THIS?”  However, grumpiness aside, it’s kind of a cool book which begins in the far future and works its way back to the distant past.  Each chapter is a different era with new characters, however, all the characters are linked.

The Living
Matt De La Pena
Read for Librarian Book Group
This book has everything!  Let’s make a list right now:  class commentary, racial tension, smidgen of romance, strange illness, natural disaster (s!), survivor tale, heartbreaking sadness, corporate malfeasance, horrible destruction, rogue players, and escape.  And it all worked!  At least for me.  It was fast and fun to read and I’ll just tell you right now, there is a second book to look forward too.

Mister Orange
Truus Marri
Read for Librarian Book Group
The story of a boy living in New York City during World War II.  His father is a grocer, and, as delivery boy for the grocery, he makes friends with an artist he calls Mr. Orange.  Nice setting, good insight into living in a large family.

Divergent
Veronica Roth
Expectations were low, and I enjoyed this distopian novel about a girl who must prove herself.  It’s kind of every “good” girl’s dream: to go off and join a band of fighting ruffians who get around town by jumping on and off freight trains.  Plus, there’s a hot guy.  Not the best I’ve read, but not the worst, either.

“Grownup” Nonfiction
My Beloved World
Sonia Sotomayor
Read for Library Book Group
One of the book group participants observed that he never imagined he would read about a Supreme Court justice buying underwear.  This was a very good point, and the charm of this book.  You get all sorts of insights into Sotomayor’s world and I’ve never had that kind of insight into other members of the court.  I especially appreciated hearing her views about affirmative action, which is a topic I feel like I hear white people complain about a lot, but the people benefiting from the programs voices are often squelched.

I was often confused about which person in her life she was referring.  There were a ton of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends that were briefly described and then not mentioned again for some time.