Wrapping up the books read post we continue up the age spectrum to the grownup books.
Grownup books:
Attachments
Rainbow Rowell takes us back to 1999 and an Omaha newspaper newsroom. Eavesdrop in on two employee’s conversations via email. You won’t be the only one who is eavesdropping, and it’s fun to find out just what kind of a conundrum the book character is getting himself into by eavesdropping.
Signature of All Things
It’s very long and very good. Take a journey through the 19th century with the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia merchant/plant importer.
Telegraph Avenue
Or perhaps you would like to take a very long journey (though a fraction of time compared to the previous novel) through current day San Francisco and a record shop owned by two longtime friends? Michael Chabon has a way with description and his characters don’t disappoint.
Love’s Winning Plays
Then there’s this brief bit of funny fiction. If you are into skewering college football and the princely riches that come along with it, this is the book for you. If you are could care less about college football and the princely riches, but enjoy hilarious novels, (as I do) this book is for you.
White Teeth
Another long book. It seems when I’m not whipping through YA in a day or two I enjoy a story that spools out over many pages. This time journey to London and catch some sharp observations.
Grownup–Honorable Mentions
Ash Wednesday
Glaciers
Nonfiction
The Cocktail Primer
Perhaps you would like a clearly written basic book of cocktails? This, my friend, is that book.
Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows
Check out this book of photographs taken over a few decades by a woman who worked as a nanny. They were discovered after her death and are incredible.
You Can’t Get There from Here
Gayle Forman and her husband traveled around the world for a year. They went to unique places, and Forman structures the book with each chapter exploring a different unique part of the world. In the interludes between unique parts of the world, and sometimes within each chapter, Forman writes honestly of how the trip is affecting their marriage.
Quality Graphic Novels
Bad Houses
Hang out in Failin, Oregon and see what some of the residents are up to.
Bluffton
Spend several summers with a group of Vaudevillians on vacation. One of them is a young Buster Keaton.
I love YA. I love that it explores the nooks and crannies of adolescence. I love that it’s even better written then when I was a YA. I love that I can read it quickly. Here are my top YA books I read this year, divided into two categories: A Top 10 (plus honorable mentions) of YA books that have romance as the main (or a large part of their) plot. I also include A Top 5 (plus honorable mentions) of YA books that do not concern themselves with romance.
As before, links will send you to the Goodreads page for the book, with all the information you will need to find the book.
Top 10 YA With Romance
(I should note that I like the romance part a lot, so some might quibble with me as to whether some of these stories are actually concerned with romance.)
Dodger
Maybe you want to catch up with the Artful Dodger? Terry Pratchett has a delightful bit of historical fiction for you.
Eleanor & Park
Both of the title characters don’t fit into their worlds in different ways. They find each other through a love of books and music and their connection helps one support the other. An incredible story by my new favorite author.
Fangirl
The same person who wrote Eleanor & Park also gives us Cath, the incredibly awkward college freshman who is a master at writing fan fiction. So. Funny. And also sweet and dramatic.
If I Stay / Where She Went
The first of this two-book series is gripping and incredible and I think you should just read it, instead of reading a synopsis. It will be that much better, trust me. The second book is also quite good. This is by my other new favorite author.
Just One Day / Just One Year
Man, sometimes a book just catches you and it becomes difficult to go to bed on time, or fix dinner or even go to work, because all you want to do is read. Just One Day was that book for me. And Just One Year was nearly as consuming.
Love and Other Perishable Items
It wasn’t quite as consuming as Just One Day, but nearly so. Having worked in a grocery store, I loved that perspective, and the twin unrequited loves the two leads felt were well written.
Openly Straight
Rafe is gay and out of the closet and fine with it. But when he decides to attend a boarding school for his junior year of high school, he decides not mention to anyone that he is gay. Very interesting setup.
Out of the Easy
What’s a daughter of a French Quarter prostitute to do with her life? That’s the question in this grand bit of historical fiction, set in the 1950s.
September Girls
Sam’s dad drags him to a beach house on an island for the summer and said island is populated with a ton of incredibly beautiful girls, who all seem to be very interested in Sam. The rest of the book doesn’t go the way you are thinking it will.
The Infinite Moment of Us
True confession: This is one of my favorites because it’s very explicit in its description of sex, and what comes before sex. However, that said, I like the way the characters experience sex and what comes before it.
YA With Romance–Honorable Mentions
All the Truth That’s In Me
Far Far Away
Hattie Big Sky
In the Shadow of Blackbirds
OCD Love Story
Top 5 YA No Romance
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Leonard has plans to murder a classmate and kill himself. Not at all as horrifying as it sounds.
One Came Home
Aside from the title, which I hate, I loved everything about this book which has a little bit of everything in a not-overwhelming way.
Shift
Kinda mystery, kinda adventure. Good bicycle book.
The Different Girl
The kind of book that will probably stick with me for a very long time.
The Thing About Luck
Tragically funny in that way that books can be sometimes.
YA No Romance–Honorable Mentions
In Darkness
Winger
Just because you are over eighteen doesn’t mean you won’t love these books. Or maybe you have a young reader who is interested? The links in the title will take you to the Goodreads page for the book, which lists all the information you will need. If you are my friend on Goodreads, it will also be easy to see my review.
All lists are in alphabetical order.
Picture Books
A Long Way Away
Take a long journey through space. If you liked following that kid in the Family Circus as he wanders around the comic strip, this book is for you.
Mr. Wuffles!
Mr. Wuffles is a cat who spurns all toys except for one. But this toy is not like any other. Find out why.
Year of the Jungle
Suzanne Collins (she of the Hunger Games and the Gregor series) tells us about the year her dad went to Vietnam. Good capture of a child’s sense of time and making sense of what she can.
Tiger in my Soup
Fabulous illustrations and fun for all the little brothers out there. And the big sisters who might recognize themselves.
Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great
The title says it all. See the world through Goat’s eyes.
Picture Book Honorable Mentions:
Carnivores
Xander’s Panda Party
Juvenile Chapter Books
I’m not the biggest fan of these, so I didn’t even have five for my list. But the four I had were good.
Counting By 7’s
My library lists this as YA, but I put it in the “J” category because the girl is 12 and I think kids tend to read about children older than them, not younger. I loved this main character and how she just kept on chugging through her troubles.
Doll Bones
If your middle-school student (or you) likes to be creeped out by stories, this is a book for him/her. Also a good depiction of middle school kids being at different places in their maturity.
Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse
Great story told using poems. Perfect for introducing elementary school kids to different forms of poetry.
P.S. Be Eleven
Not a story set in a New York City Public School (P.S. 11) as I first thought, but a story of three sisters in Brooklyn in the 1960s. Very well done. It’s also the second book, so you might want to read One Crazy Summer first.
Here we have the Patricia Awards for books! Looking for a good book? Have at it. All reviews can be found by searching this blog, or on Goodreads. Note that I probably misspelled a few author’s names. So sorry.
Top reads in each category this month:
Picture:
Mr. Wuffles! (Funny picture book for cat lovers of all ages)
J-book:
Bluffton (Graphic novel with intriguing subject. Also pretty.)
YA:
OCD Love Story (It was another good YA month, but this was weirdly delightful)
Grown-up fiction:
Glaciers (Spurned several times, without reading it. Actually reading it was grand.)
Non-Fiction
The Cocktail Primer (Because a girl needs a solid cocktail book in her collection.)
Picture Books
Mr. Wuffles!
David Wiesner
Read for Library Book Group
I put off reading this, because I thought the title was dumb, but come to find out the title is all part of the author’s nefarious plot to write a hilarious picture book. Minimal dialogue in English (though a goodly amount of alien dialogue as well as some “ant” and “ladybug” dialects) and very apt pictures of a cat on the prowl make this book a winner.
If You Want to See a Whale
Julie Fogliano, Erin Stead
Read for Librarian Book Group
Dreamy pictures, fun.
Year of the Jungle: Memories From the Home Front
Suzanne Collins
Read for Librarian Book Group
In a strange bit of kismit, I happened to read this book the same day I watched the movie Platoon for the first time. This book accurately captures the unknowing of a six-year-old with a father off to war for a year. The photograph of Collins on the final page slew me.
J-Books
Flora and Ulysses
Kate DiCamello (sp)
Read for Library Book Group
This book had me from the first sentence of the first chapter. It was hilarious and enjoyable, with just a bit of snark.
Bluffton
Matt Phelan
Read for Librarian Book Group
Solid graphic novel about a boy who befriends vaudevillians including a young Buster Keaton and his family. An interesting story, and beautiful to look at.
The Real Boy
Anne Ursu
Read for Librarian Book Group
A quick reminder that j-chapter books are not my favorite.
This was okay. I felt frustrated with the characters, the world building was a bit uneven and I thought the illustrations were rather poor. That said, if you have an awkward boy who is into fantasy, this might just do the trick.
YA
Forgive me, Leonard Peacock
Matthew Quick
Read for Library Book Group
Why not spend a day with Leonard Peacock, a teenage boy who is planning on killing a kid at his school and then himself? Well, probably because that sounds rather grim. However, I would encourage you to actually read the book and spend the day, because Leonard Peacock is quite the interesting character and many things do not go according to plan. A sweet, heartfelt book.
OCD Love Story
Corey Ann Haydu
Aside from a marvelous cover* this book has a crackling first chapter. And then it’s just a good, solid read. I especially appreciate how the adults grow and expand as the book goes on, though I have to wonder just why, exactly her parents let the main character drive.
*I KNOW! But I can’t not judge a book by its cover, at least in part. I just can’t.
Bad Houses
Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil
Great graphic novel that balances several plots with a deft hand. Or rather, hands, as there is an author and an illustrator to think of.
All the Truth That’s In Me
Julie Berry
Read for Librarian Book Group
Captivating narrative of a teenage girl kidnapped from her village (though the time period and location flummoxed me) kept for two years, then returned, having had her tongue cut out. I liked the narrative structure of short chapters addressing “you” with the you in question being Lucas, the boy she had a crush on. I felt it meandered a bit in the middle and could use some tightening, but Berry kept dropping clues here and there like breadcrumbs which made for a very satisfying read when all was said and done.
Oh, but the cover! I may have to do a blog post on horrible YA covers. When the main character could be found guilty of “fornication,” there is no reason to depict her with her hair down in full sultry-eyed makeup. It just doesn’t work. At all.
Hostage Three
Nick Lake
Read for Librarian Book Group
I never really took a liking to the main character and thus this book was more of a slog than a gripping drama. I also was not at all fond of the tricks the author used near the end of the novel. Points for capturing the zeitgeist though. (Somali pirates.)
“Grown-up” books
Romeo and Juliet
Wm. Shakespeare
Why is this the easiest play to read? Is it that we are all exposed to it so early and so often? The explanatory notes for this play seem to be shorter and there are no expanded notes in the back. This is the only Shakespeare I’ve ever whipped through.
Glaciers
Alexis M. Smith
Read for Kenton Library Book Group
This book was on the Lucky Day Cart at the library for some time and I always passed it by because the book itself is tiny and then, on top of that, the pages have huge margins. For some reason, I decided that the book was not worth reading because of its small size. Enter the January Book Group Selection. Because I had to, I read it and it turned out I really liked it. It was wonderful how the author managed to write such a complete story using so few words. Also, it’s set in Portland AND set in the Central Library. When I finished it, I almost started reading it again, it was that quietly delightful. What a great find.
Nonfiction
March Book 1
John Lewis
Read for Library Book Group
Solid graphic novel with eyewitness testimony to the emerging Civil Rights Movement.
The Cocktail Primer
Eben Klemm
Here is what I was looking for in a cocktail book: I wanted one with a list that basically said: if you just want to have a basic setup at home, here is your list. I wanted to learn about cocktails, what parts of them are important, how they relate. I wanted a good, basic text. You have no idea how few cocktail books fit this description. Most of them have hundreds of cocktails in them and the organization is terrible. There is no learning, just long, long lists of ingredients.
But this book was just what the doctor ordered. There is a very good “Getting Started” chapter that discusses how to set up your home bar, how to pour, shake, stir and serve. There is a breakdown of the essentials of a well-stocked bar, discussing which Whiskies and Tequilas etc. are important to have on hand. There is also a list of three different lists of liquor to have on hand from “Hey, I just got a cocktail book” to a more complete setup. Klemm also walks through the list of equipment you need and gives a recipe for simple syrup and cocktail cherries.
After that comprehensive introduction, there are six more chapters each focusing on a drink and some offshoots from that drink. We begin with the chapter on the Martini’s Children, and work our way to high balls. Each chapter gives us the makeup, complexity, sweetness, acidity, strength and level of refreshment of each family of drinks. There is also an explanation of when you might want to drink said drink.
All of this would have been enough, but the book is also rather droll and delights in details I, myself find important. For example, when discussing shakers, Klemm writes, “The metal-on-metal set is a little more efficient for chilling drinks and makes a nicer shaking sound, depending on whether you prefer a heckita-heckita-heckita to a shooka-shooka-shooka, but the pint glass on metal is a bit better when you’re getting started because you learn how much you are pouring.” He also takes a wry turn with the realities of home bartending. On one way to make the Gimlet: “It’s quite nice, actually, especially if you’ve run out of simple syrup.”
Now that I’ve bought the book, I will have to go about working my way through it.
Great American Dust Bowl
Don Brown
Read for Librarian Book Group
A concise explanation (with pictures and primary source documents) of what the Dust Bowl was and how it came about. Good for younger children and lazy former History majors who don’t really enjoy wading through nonfiction.
I managed to delete my November book post, goodness knows how. Happily, I had already published all the reviews on Goodreads, and I keep a list in my diary of the books I read. So it was just a matter of checking the diary to list the books, finding and copying the reviews from Goodreads et voila! November book post, recreated. As you can see, I was busy this month. That Elizabeth Gilbert book alone was pretty thick.
Picture books
Train
Elisha Cooper
Read for Librarian Book Group
Before the Librarian Book Group, I would have found this book very adequate. But now I’m pickier. In this book we travel across the country on different trains: commuter rail, passenger train, freight train, overnight train, and high-speed train.
My first problem was that there were recognizable details in the book (Chicago, for instance) and yet a refusal to name the towns. Also, I feel uncomfortable if I can’t identify the time period and until we got to the high-speed train, it wasn’t clear we were in the present. There are some solid descriptive words, but also descriptions that miss their mark. With the freight train, the train is described as “containers the color of tomatoes and eggs.” Yet there are pictures of train cars that are not the colors of tomatoes and eggs. And it may just be a West Coast thing, but in my opinion the dominant color of the freight train is a very bright mustard yellow.
Also in the freight train section there are two pages about the freight train’s speed. “The Freight Train rolls slower than slow.” Is the train really going slowly, or is a larger point being made about the vast landscape?
This is not at all clear. If the train is traveling slowly, than why? And what’s the difference between a passenger train and an overnight train? Both have passengers and both take journeys that are overnight, as anyone who has traveled from New York to Chicago knows.
I laughed out loud when we got to the high-speed train. Because while I would love for the US landscape to be crisscrossed with high-speed trains, the closest we have is the Acela from Boston to DC. And it’s not really high-speed so much as a bit faster than normal train speed.
Carnivores
Aaron Reynolds and Dan Santat
Hilarious story of a Lion, a Wolf and a Shark trying to reform their image.
J Books
Eruption!
E. Rusch
This is a gripping book, on the surface, at least. It’s about the scientists who run the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP). They fly to volcanoes around the world and help local scientists make the calls to evacuate, as well as assist how the volcano will blow. Interesting program. Not-so-gripping text. I had to keep forcing myself to finish it.
The Year of Billy Miller
Kevin Henkes
I’m going to chalk up my indifference to a general dislike of j-books, rather than anything the author did or didn’t do in writing this. I didn’t like the huge jumps in time, though, they were very disjointed.
YA Books
Openly Straight
Bill Conigsberg
Read for Librarian Book Group
Wow. So we’ve made it though the era where just being gay is enough to drive the narrative and now we’re in the era of parsing of the gay narrative. Very cool, especially in such a smartly-written book as this. What happens when a happily “out” kid wants to spend the last two years of high school just being a kid, not the gay kid? Not so much in the closet, says our main character Rafe, as in the doorway.
Really good stuff here. Funny in places and worth the read.
Side note: A Separate Place is having its moment in the zeitgeist it seems, I’ve read two books in the last two months that mention it. Same with Boston accents. What’s up with that?
Rapture Practice
Aaron Hartzler
Read for Librarian Book Group
I don’t have children myself, but I imagine that one of the many things that parents feel a general sense of terror about is “what if my child doesn’t share my values?” I mean, here they’ve given birth to them (or possibly adopted them) and raised them with all the values and supports of the life they have built for themselves and what if, despite all that nurturing and good examples and shared DNA, their child turns and heads down a different path, perhaps one they don’t approve of? It’s frightening.
So lies the central conundrum in Hartzler’s memoir. It begins with an excellent first line: “Something you should know up front about my family: We believe that Jesus is coming back.” And Aaron believes it too. The early chapters cover his younger life when he exalts in the same Christian beliefs that buoy his parents. Those are great chapters, showing the love of his family and the love of Jesus. And then Aaron grows older and problems arise. His mother discovers he’s been listening to Rock & Roll music (actually adult contemporary, specifically Peter Cetera and Amy Grant singing “The Next Time I Fall”) on the sly. Rock music is not something that is acceptable to Aaron’s family and his parents force him to pray for forgiveness.
This is where the book diverges from an interesting introspection on growing up conservative Christian in America. Hartzler writes, “I don’t want to disobey Mom and Dad, but the truth is, I don’t think what I did was wrong. As much as they believe this music is rebellious, I don’t. That’s the funny thing about belief: No one else can do it for you.”
Aaron’s journey through high school is a rocky one, though it’s mostly an internal journey as he does his best to present a facade of belief to his parents. But his facade is built upon confusion and questioning of the beliefs and practices of the parents who he loves deeply. For many of us, being a teenager was about figuring out who we are in a world that offers us so many promises and choices. Hartzler writes carefully and tenderly about his adolescence and his narrative is heartbreaking at times. I mean, the kid had to sneak around to go to a movie. Not an R-rated movie, ANY movie.
This is a great book, sweet and funny and sad all at once. I’m hoping for a second memoir about his college years, because I’m betting that would be fabulous too.
In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Cat Winters
Read for Librarian Book Group
I hate to lead off by judging a book by its cover but I hated this cover. The girl looks like a young Amy Adams, which is distracting, and in no part of the book was she wearing a white dress. In fact, the point was made several times that all her clothing was brown, black, or navy blue. So I think this might be one to recommend with the book held at one’s side.
That said, this book has a lot of good stuff. Historical fiction (1918 influenza epidemic specifically), Ghosts (spiritualist movement), romance, mystery, and adventure. Oh, and anagrams. There are even historic photos, which I mostly found distracting, but which might be something of interest to other people. Overall, a good solid story. Although I found it hard to get started. The author dumps a bunch of things in your lap and you have to sort through them as best you can.
Out of the Easy
Ruta Sepetys
Read for Librarian Book Group
Everyone loves an underdog. And what better underdog than the smart 17-year-old daughter of a French Quarter Whore in the 1950s? Great setting, solid characters, good struggle. A fine, fine book with some tears at the end.
Picture Me Gone
Meg Resoff
Read for Librarian Book Group
I think this book might be lost among other books. It’s a quiet story about Mila, a girl with a keen sense of observation and a knack for stringing facts together. When her father’s best friend goes missing, she’s curious and eager to help.
The above makes the book sound like she’s a teenage gumshoe, but she’s not. She’s just a kid who pays attention and tries to make sense of the world. It’s interesting to see what Mila observes, especially in contrast to her father, who is not terribly tuned in.
Rosoff is not interested in using punctuation, a stylistic quirk that annoys me. The page does look invitingly easy to read, but sometimes it’s hard to tell what is dialogue and what is not. Mila is also a child who calls her parents by their first name, which is not expressly stated. That, combined with the lack of punctuation, makes for a bumpy beginning before settling in to what was a very good book.
Counting by 7’s
Holly Goldberg Sloan
Read for Librarian Book Group
I work at an elementary school and over the years I’ve met hundreds of children. The vast majority of them lie in the great bell of the bell curve, but there have been a smattering of outliers over the years. They’ve been weird, because that’s what it means to be hanging out on the edges of the curve, and for some of them I’ve taken a deep breath, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best for them in middle school. Because their weird makes them fabulous kids and will make them fabulous adults. But sometimes weird isn’t the best thing to bring along for your adolescence.
So it is for the main character of our book. She’s twelve and she’s delightfully weird. I totally fell in love with her. She has no friends, but has such a stalwart attitude, and such high hopes for middle school, that I couldn’t do anything but love her. Things happen and her plight is a bit worrisome, but she just keeps going.
This is a great YA book for adults. I’m not really sure the YAs themselves will like it. The writing struck me as an older YA, but I’m not sure the older YAs will want to read about a 12-year-old girl. Perhaps the audience is other highly advanced 12-year-old girls? But forget the YAs. You grownups will love this.
Also. In the acknowledgements, Sloan listed 7 teachers who made a difference in her life. I would like to add my list. Mr. Widermire (McKinley Elementary), Mr. Kaufman (West Jr. High), Mrs. Brown (West Jr. High), Ms. Clark (Borah High School), Mr. Sullivan (Borah High School), Mrs. McCurdy (Borah High School), Dr. Cottrell (Cottey College).
Graphic Novels
Boxer
Gene Luen Yang
Read for Librarian Book Group
Man, history is a bummer. And this comes from a person who enjoys history so much she majored in it in college. I loved the way this book (and the companion Saints) brought the nuances of the Boxer Rebellion to life. It did a great job of having me wanting both sides to win and lose because the whole thing is so massively depressing. I’m really ready to sit down and sing Kumbaya with the world and just all get along.
Unless, of course, women are going to be marginalized and mistreated as they are throughout this book, Red Lantern Brigade notwithstanding. Subjugation of women makes me want to spit and perhaps foment a rebellion of my own. Ideally using words and not weapons.
“Adult” books
Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare
So this is like Romeo and Juliet in that they end up dead, but not like Romeo and Juliet in that there isn’t any good fighting, or secret plans that go awry or feuding families or even a fun, bawdy nurse. It took a very long time for me to read to the end. Luckily, the play as performed is a bit more entertaining. But overall it is a Romeo and Juliet as played by boring politicians.
You Can’t Get There From Here
Gayle Forman
Forman and her husband set out for a year of travel to the fringes and we get to go along. In nine segments we meet all sort of interesting characters and people. A solid travel book with the bonus of glimpses into things that would later work their way into Forman’s novels. Unlike Forman’s novels, the book wasn’t compulsively readable, but it was quite enjoyable.
The Signature of All Things
Elizabeth Gilbert
My Thanksgiving present to myself was the shunting aside of other reading obligations to dive into the very thick production of fiction by Ms. E. Gilbert. When an author has written something that I greatly enjoyed and then suffered a backlash for writing that very same something, I get protective of them. So I was nervous for this effort, because I worried that maybe Eat, Pray, Love was going to be it for Gilbert. (Although if she had only written The Last American Man, that would have been enough.) But no! This was great! I could tell from the first paragraph that this would be a feast of fiction and it was. Gilbert has the talent of co-opting the 19th century novel style while still being enjoyably readable for a 21st century audience. Her characters are wonderful, the lengthy book zips along and so deft is the mastery of her craft, I happily read multiple pages about a topic I care little about (ahem, moss.) Well done!
I’m thinking October 2013 will go down in the annals of reading history as an incredibly spectacular month. Because it was this month that I discovered Gayle Forman. I not only devoured four of her books, (one of them twice) but also passed them along to five, yes five, people. Plus, there was a new Rainbow Rowell book that was a fabulous fun read–that one was also passed along–and other good YA. This includes one YA with, well, a lot of what we think those YA kids are up to all the time. And I read some great picture books and a solid Book Club Book. I read a lot this month. And it was good.
Picture Books
Journey
Aaron Becker
Read for Librarian Book Group
Picture-only book of a girl with a red crayon who draws a door in her bedroom wall and escapes into another world. She explores a forest, city, the air and encounters mildly troubling pirates, of a sort. Beautiful, soft-focused landscapes. I had some problem with some of the city pictures. The close-up views didn’t seem to match the macro views. People not as picky as me might not even notice.
A Big Guy Took My Ball
Mo Willems
Read for Librarian Book Group
Elephant Gerald and Piggy learn about relative size. Funny interactions.
Locomotive
Brian Floca
Read for Librarian Book Group
Take a ride on one of the first steam engines to cross the country. Pictures are quaint, in that comfortable Garth-Williams-Laura-Ingalls-Wilder style and the historical information is interesting, as are the workings of the machine. I even found my self exclaiming aloud, “ah” at least once as some bit of knowledge was passed on to me. I found the “verse” (if that’s what it was?) a bit distracting, but not overly so. For what it’s worth, the Librarians reported it was a fabulous read-aloud.
Xander’s Panda Party
Author
Read for Librarian Book Group
The kind of rhyming prose that inspires glee in me, rather than a chugga-chugga-sing-song thing. Very darling illustrations. I felt for that Panda, man. I’ve thrown parties. I know how it goes.
Daisy Gets Lost
Chris Raschka
Read for Librarian Book Group
I wasn’t much of a fan of the blurry watercolor style, but laughed aloud at some points.
How to Train a Train
Jason Carter Eaton
Read for Librarian Book Group
Whimsical illustrations of how to choose and capture a train of one’s own.
J-Books
The Thing About Luck
Cynthia Kadohata
Read for Librarian Book Group
Summer is 12, was born in Kansas, still lives in Kansas, and travels the combine circuit with her Japanese grandparents and her brother. Excellent characters, amusing throughout and quite educational, if one does not know the ways of the combine circuit.
YA Novels
Lola and the Boy Next Door
Stephanie Perkins
If you remember the friends we made in Perkins’s earlier book, Anna and the French Kiss, they appear as minor characters here, which I find fun. Lola is a girl who likes to make an impression. She likes clothing, movies and her rocker boyfriend. She navigates her last year of high school as best she can, with the support of her best friend and her two dads. Then the boy next door moves back next door after a hiatus and things go haywire.
Good adolescent uncertainty, fun urban setting, excellent descriptors of heartbreak. I sometimes found the plot details a bit too convenient, but not overly distracting.
Just One Day
Gayle Forman
I could make some new shelves on Goodreads for this book. How about these:
read in fewer than 12 hours
or
read everything by the author immediately afterward
Maybe it could go on a shelf called,
bought the book, bought the sequel IN HARDCOVER then checked two additional copies out of the library to lend out.
Or maybe
passed on to five people within a month
All of those descriptors would work.
Take the Before Sunrise concept, but set it in Paris with an 18- and 20-year-old. That is plenty pleasant enough, but then Ms. Forman takes an amazing turn and the book becomes about identity and Shakespeare and how we make choices in our lives. There’s great friendship stuff in here, and incredible characters and I just want you to set down what you are reading and pick up this book. It’s that good. Really.
Did I mention there was a sequel?
Just One Year
Gayle Forman
We’ve spent time with Allison in Just One Day, now let’s see what’s going on with Willem’s story. Forman is in fine form, and it’s fun to see the story from Willem’s perspective and follow on his journey. When I have both books back in my possession–they’ve been lent out for more reading–maybe I’ll comb through the books and set the story in chronological order, from a her-and-his perspective.
That’s all I probably need to say, because if you’ve read the first book, there is no way you can’t read this one.
Fangirl
Rainbow Rowell
I read a lot of YA fiction in the years I was actually a YA (which in the book world means “teenager”, not Young Adult, which I place in the 18-24 category.) Anyway, even with my copious amount of reading YA novels, by the time I left for college I can only recall reading two books set in a college setting. One was a novel set at Smith that made me want to attend a women’s college. (Which I did.) The other was the story of a couple and the only other fact about that book I can recall was that the female protagonist did not live in the dorms because she had to take her cat with her to school and no cats were allowed in the dorms. (I left my cat at home.)
The point is that, when I left for college, I had no idea what “college” was because no one wrote about what it was like to be in college.
Enter this book, which I would love to whisk back to 1993 and hand to myself. Though I would be confused by many things in this book–Who is Harry Potter? What is this fan fiction thing they speak of?–Rainbow Rowell captures the awkwardness of being a college freshman.
I loved this book, though I never really loved the Simon Snow (think Harry Potter and you’ve got the gist of Simon Snow) fan fiction. I loved Cath’s awkwardness, the pain of separating from her twin sister, and the trouble managing a new environment. This book is funny and tender and gets points for being set in Nebraska.
Catching Jordan
Miranda Kenneally
I’ve been reading A LOT of incredibly outstanding YA Fiction. Which is very good, but can also be bad for the psyche. How will I ever manage to write something as good as, well, pretty much every YA I read this month? So it was wonderful to read this, which I found pretty awful. I feel bad saying it so plainly, because I enjoyed seeing Kenneally at Wordstock. And I want to read a few more of her books, because I sense they are better. This was a great concept–girl high school football quarterback and her dreams–executed almost entirely with torturous declaratory dialogue. It made me feel so much better about my own fumbling on the page. This is not the review I would want to read as an author, but hey, what can I say?
If I stay
Gayle Forman
This is an incredibly moving book and you will do yourself a favor if you just pick it up and begin reading. Don’t read what it’s about, just read. Mind where you will be when you finish reading it, though. I don’t recommend the Max Train.
Bonus Portland setting, if you are a fan of that.
Where She Went
Gayle Forman
Were you wanting more from If I Stay? Here’s your second book. As with the first, I recommend picking it up and reading. Don’t read what it’s about. Just read.
The Infinite Moment of Us
Lauren Myriacle
Read for Librarian Book Group
Holy shit! There is a lot of well-described sex in this book. And I love it! I’ve been frustrated with YA’s usual tactic of fading to black as things really get going, because I think well-written sex scenes are what teenagers need. Otherwise we are leaving them with either trashy romances or porn as their guiding stars. And both of those are horrible guiding stars. Myracle manages to capture a range of emotions: joy, exploration, confusion, worry, physical yearning. There was even a horribly sexual relationship to compare and contrast with. The book also comes with strong characters and also a goodly amount of tension that is not sexual. Very well done.
(psst. the horrible Boston accent of a minor character was incredibly distracting. The Boston accent is something that all writers–and actors,* for that matter–should stay away from. We know what it sounds like. We don’t need for your to try to get all Zora Neale Hurston on us with it.)
*natives are exempted. I’m looking at you Damon, Affleck (Ben,) & Affleck (Casey.)
“Grownup” Books
The Secrets of Mary Bowser
Lois Lavine
Read for Kenton Book Group
Interesting historical fiction about a slave who was freed, sent North to Philadelphia to be educated and then slipped back South to be a spy during the Civil War. Good details, and overall a solid book that goes on a bit too long.
Saints
I would love if all of human history was so ably translated into graphic novel form. People would be a lot more interested in history.
Good book, though depressing. I look forward to filling in the holes with Boxers.
Luckily, the availability date was a mere three days from the date I finished the first book. But on that day the book was still in the Powell’s warehouse. So I marched over and asked them how I could get the book from the warehouse to my own hands and the nice lady arranged for it to be transferred. She even patiently listened to my story of woe: finished first book/next book not out yet. Apparently she hears that tale a lot. How do I know this? “I hear that a lot.” she told me.
So it was that a few days later I ran over to Powell’s at 9:00am and picked up my book. And so it was I began reading the book during my lunch break. And so it was I finished the book by the evening’s end. And thus came to pass, that I lent the books out. And thus came to pass that a lot of teachers at a certain school in which I work also became fans.
I hate this cover, by the way. HATE IT.
Shoot. Here it is the end of October and I haven’t yet written book reviews for September. Except Bluebird, which was so hideous I immediately wrote the review before time could smooth out the edges and I didn’t think it was so bad. So these will be short reviews, which is too bad, because there were some good books this month.
Far, Far Away
Tom McNeal
Read for Librarian Book Group
A fairy tale set in Nebraska narrated by the ghost of Jacob Grimm. Incredibly awesome. A five-star book. Until, unfortunately, it morphs into a grim Chelsea Cain-type thriller at the end. I wasn’t so much a fan of that. Still, worth the read.
Primates
Ottaviana & Wicks
Read for Librarian Book Group
Graphic novel featuring three women who work with primates. Interesting.
The Spectacular Now
Tim Tharp
I read this immediately after I saw the movie so the two melded a bit, for better or for worse. Great main characters, interesting setting, a look what can happen when alcohol is more than a social lubricant. To me, the book ending was much more satisfying than the movie.
The True Blue Scouts of Sugarman Swamp
Kathi Appelt
Read for Librarian Book Group
“Ugh. Raccoons are characters?” J-fiction is not my favorite and I never read books with animals as main characters so I wasn’t too thrilled to tackle this. But guess what? The book is great. The multiple character viewpoints (animal, human, mythic) are interesting. The plot is gripping and multifaceted and it would make a great read aloud, especially if you like to do different voices. Top notch.
Etiquette & Espionage
Gale Carriger
Read for Librarian Book Group
Fun Steampunk take on finishing school. It’s more of a “finishing” school. As in finishing people off. The world was not fully developed, but it was entertaining.
Winger
Andrew Smith
Read for Librarian Book Group
Very, very funny. Best 14-year-old Junior in high school. It captured well the wanting of adolescence. My only problem was the cover, which featured a picture of a bloody nose on the front and a comic version of the same bloody nose on the back. I had to put post-it notes on both sides. Other than that, I was a fan. Many people were not thrilled about the ending, but I was okay with it.
Bluebird
Bob Staake
Read for Librarian Book Group
Nope. Not a fan. I was charmed at first, by this picture-only picture book, though I found it a bit tough to follow the narrative on some pages. But the library has it in the “Parenting” section of children’s books for a reason and that reason has to do with the ending. Good for helping a child understand death, I guess, as long as your belief about death involves floating up into the clouds.