The Patricia Awards: Books

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.

I knew this was a good book, I didn’t anticipate it would be so quietly funny:
White Teeth
Zadie Smith

Had to return it and then put on hold again, but it was worth it:
Telegraph Ave
Michael Chabon

Maybe you were interested in seeing what the Artful Dodger was up to as a teenager?
Dodger
Terry Pratchett

Most hilarious sports novel I read all year:
Love’s Winning Plays
Inman Majors

Best photo book:
Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows
Cahan & Williams

Best YA historical fiction set in past and present Haiti:
In Darkness
Nick Lake

Best YA set in a grocery store in Australia:
and
Best YA where the push-pull of the characters is particularly dramatic, due to age differences:
Love and Other Perishable Objects
Laura Buzo

Read aloud that had an incredible number of characters:
The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman

Best book about teenagers set outside of Omaha, Nebraska during the 1980s:
Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell

Best YA set on a World War I era Montana homestead:
Hattie Big Sky
Kirby Lawson

Worst sequel I read this year:
Hattie Ever After
Kirby Lawson

Fabulous YA title:
and
Reminded me a bit of one of my high school friends (still alive):
A Love Story Starring my Dead Best Friend
Emily Horner

Funniest picture book for anyone with an older sister:
Tiger in My Soup
Sheth/Ebbeler

Best book I read this year written by an actor who also appeared in a movie in my Top-10 list:
Ash Wednesday
Ethan Hawke

Fabulous dystopian novel full of love and hope:
The Different Girl
Gordan Dahlquist

Most whimsical picture book starring a girl and a flamingo:
Flora and the Flamingo
Molly Idle

YA with a very unsatisfying ending, though upon reflection amusing throughout:
The Whole Stupid Way We Are
N. Griffin

Fun/creepy J-novel:
Doll Bones
Holly Black

Grown-up book I perhaps expected a bit too much from:
The Good House
Anne Leary

Best YA novel with a main character who shares the name of a family member:
Shift
Jennifer Bradbury

Best book set in Brooklyn in the 60s:
P.S. Be 11
Rita Williams Garcia

A picture book for all, but especially the youngest in your family:
Black Dog
Levi Penfold

Solid dystopian, slightly disturbing book:
Maggot Moon
Sally Gardner

Book I felt like I probably read before, but never really was 100% sure, even after I finished it:
The Man of My Dreams
Curtis Sittenfeld

Best book set in an Omaha Newspaper office:
and
Best separation of main characters since Sleepless in Seattle:
Attachments
Rainbow Rowell

Best sour grapes picture book:
Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great
Greg Pizzoli

Best children’s book to use poetry:
Gone Fishin’
Wissinger/Cordell

Best book to turn the objectification of women on its head:
September Girls
Bennett Madison

Best book to have Jacob Grimm’s Ghost as a narrator:
and
Book I was completely in love with until it took an abrupt Chelsea Cain/Gretchen Lowell turn for the last quarter of the book:
Far Far Away
Tom McNeal

Best book to read after you are dissatisfied with the Hollywood end of the movie adaption to find that the book ending is much more in keeping with the characters:
The Spectacular Now
Tim Tharp

Book I didn’t want to read because it opened with raccoons as characters, but which totally won me over:
The True Blue Scouts of Sugarman Swamp
Appelt

Book I adored and whose title I feel does it a gave disservice:
One Came Home
Amy Timberlake

Book I liked, but had to put post-it notes on the front and back because I didn’t want to look at a bloody nose:
Winger
Andrew Smith

Book I was entirely obsessed with and spread my obsession to at least five other readers:
and
Book that caused me to immediately read nearly everything the author has written:
Just One Day
Gayle Foreman

Book with the funniest grandparents:
The Thing About Luck
Cynthia Kadohata

Best book about awkwardly going off to college while your twin sister is spurning you:
Fangirl
Rainbow Rowell

Best book that you should just read and not read about, because it will be that much better:
If I Stay
Gayle Forman

Hottest YA book I read this year:
The Infinite Moment of Us
Lauren Myracle

Best book about an out-and-proud gay kid who wanders back into the closet voluntarily:
Openly Straight
Bill Konigsberg

Best book about a teenager’s upbringing in an Evangelical Christian home:
Rapture Practice
Aaron  Hartzler

Best books with (as Danielle termed it) “sexy ghosts”:
and
Interesting historical fiction:
In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Cat Winters

Picture book that sums up my feelings about the whole carnivore thing:
Carnivores
Reynolds & Santat

Best underdog character of the year:
Out of the Easy
Ruta Sepetys

Good story with forgettable title:
Picture Me Gone
Meg Rosoff

Best historical fiction of the year to include many enjoyable paragraphs about moss:
The Signature of All Things
Elizabeth Gilbert

Best plucky heroine:
Counting by 7s
Holly Goldberg Sloan

Funniest picture book with a cat:
Mr. Wuffles!
David Weisner

Sweetest book with a suicidal, homicidal teenager:
Forgive Me Leonard Peacock
Matthew Quick

Best example of two odd characters finding each other:
OCD Love Story
Corey Ann Haydu

Best basic book of cocktails:
The Cocktail Primer
Eben Kleman

Best book set in a frustratingly unidentifiable time period:
All the Truth That’s In Me
Julie Berry

Best book I spurned several times before actually sitting down to, you know, read it:
Glaciers
Alexis M. Smith

Books Read in December 2013

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.

Three sentence movie reviews: Rock of Ages

Oh Glee, thank you so much for popularizing the mash-up.  Because without which, I never would have seen a delightful combination of the hideous “We Built this City” combined with my favorite asshole anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It!”.  I have a pretty strict ban on Tom Cruise movies, but Tom Cruise playing a somewhat addled Axl Rose-type was not too hard to swallow and Catherine Zeta-Jones,* Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand continually cracked me up.**

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*The “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” dance sequence was incredibly fun, and featured a bevy of delightful 80s “mom” clothes.
**And really, I was already sold because I own(ed) most of those songs either on 45rpm or cassette, but I can say that this was quite a well done movie musical.

Three sentence movie reviews: Saving Mr. Banks

I’m going to spend the first sentence of three telling you that I thought the soundtrack was incredibly intrusive, subtracting a lot from what was otherwise a good picture.  That said, this is a very good movie, with Emma Thompson hitting it out of the park as the uptight, persnickety P.L. Travers.  The supporting cast is also very good,* and the costumes are particularly of good quality.

Cost: $5.00
Where watched:  Regal Tigard Stadium 12 with Mom and Aunt Carol

This is a very good poster.

*Colin Ferrell is in particularly good form and the Edwardian fashions suit him quite well.
**I loved Travers’ form-fitting and structured wool dresses, set against breezy LA style.  The dark green one with the fitted waist and buttons was my favorite, but oh, the camel coat with blue lining she wore near the end?  I covet that tremendously.

The evolving story.

I started in July with a goal to write every day.  After the first three days, I started writing word counts.
 
I kept it up in August,  minus the four days I took off for Cindy’s wedding.  On the 15th I realized my plunge-in-and-write style wasn’t working and did some character development.  Then work started and I had no time to write.
 
I took a writing class in October, and resolved to return to outlining, as that had worked well in the past for me.  My goal was 500 words per day.  I was very good at meeting this goal.
 
Except for a few days, I kept it up in December, too.

Onward to January.  Will I finish my first draft by 1/31/14?  Stay tuned.

What I’ve been up to: collecting rewards and making bread.

I feel like I haven’t been taking very many pictures of late.  Although I’ve written over 475 posts for this blog alone this year, so perhaps a short break is in order.  But here’s what I’ve been up to, aside from reading, writing, watching movies and blogging.

I didn’t realize I had backer rewards coming, but here they are.
 

I made some bread.  It’s from Laurel’s Kitchen Break Book, which is the best book to pick up if you are thinking of taking up whole-grain bread baking in the new year.  This is the milk bread recipe and made two very nice loves.  The book itself teachers you step-by-step what to do to create excellent all-whole-wheat flour bread.  Most “whole wheat” recipes use a bit of whole wheat and a goodly amount of All-Purpose Flour.

Bread making is a good skill to have if you want to save money and control your ingredients.  It’s also kind of magical.  This started as two cups of milk, a quarter cup of honey, some yeast, flour and salt.  A bit of mixing (with a mixer) and a few hours of rising and deflating and shaping and there is delicious bread waiting for me to eat.

Two tips should you embark on the bread journey:
1) Buy some vital wheat gluten (Bob’s Red Mill carries this product) and add 1 tablespoon per cup of flour.  It makes all the difference.
2) If you don’t have a warm place for rising (our house is mostly pretty cold) turn the oven to 170 and when it comes to temperature, set the timer for 10 minutes.  Then shut off the oven.  The heating turns the oven from a cold cave to a warm environment and if you turn on the light to the oven the temperature will be maintained.

Three sentence movie reviews: Platoon

This movie was released just as I was starting to pay attention to what was going on in the world, so I remember the buzz, but there was no way I was going to be allowed to watch it due to violence and my parents’ ambivalence about the Vietnam War.*  Fast forward twenty-seven years and I can now say I understand what all the fuss was about.  I realized I’m coming late to the party and all y’all have probably seen it, but this had everything a great picture should have:  acting, setting, plot, a warts-and-all view of the war itself, as well as a smattering of war porn.**

Cost:  free from library
Where watched:  at home.

Thanks to Jan and her Best Picture Movie Project.  Without her watching this, I never would have motivated.

*For a long time, I thought my dad was too old to go, but when Bill Clinton ran for president, I realized my dad joined the National Guard to avoid the draft.  This was something that was not really loudly proclaimed, especially since so many people made fun of Clinton for what was essentially begging to be in the National Guard.  Though now that we’ve had a president who joined the National Guard and didn’t even bother to show up, I can proudly say that my father actually did his National Service to get out of going to a crappy war, unlike a certain member of the Bush family.
**Because who wouldn’t want to die in such a dramatic movie fashion as Willem Dafoe?

Three sentence movie reviews: Enough Said.

I wasn’t really ready to be uncomfortable for as long as I was during this movie, so that was a surprise.  However, I loved the romance and the chemistry between Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini and also Toni Collette* was there too, which made for some great acting.  There was a nice parallel story of sending your child to college, so overall, this was a very good film.

Cost:  $3.00
Where watched:  Laurelhurst with S. North.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2013/posters/enough_said.jpg

*Speaking in her real accent.

Three sentence movie reviews: Pain and Gain

I’ve discovered Filmspotting, a podcast where they have long (long, long) conversations about movies and I find this podcast enjoyable.  Recently, there was controversy when one host picked this film to be in their top five while the other host was incredulous that it was liked at all.  Having now watched the film, I can say it was NOT an enjoyable example of the dumb criminal film* as what was amusing at the beginning turned quickly into the movie equivalent of the criminal’s “stupid” repeatedly banging me on the head with a chair.**

Cost:  $2.00 from Videorama
Where watched: at home with Matt.

*Good “dumb criminals” movies: Fargo, To Die For.
**Matt rather enjoyed it, though.

Too many music distributors.

I really would like one, compact thing, with witch to access all of my music.  Instead I have a menagerie.

Here’s the stereo, which plays the radio, CDs, cassette tapes and also records, if I hooked up the record player.
 

Because the stereo doesn’t really get good radio reception, I also bought this radio which I love! It’s small (notice it tucked away next to the stereo in the above picture) and the knob gives a satisfying “click” when I turn it on.  The reception is superior, which is great because I listen to the radio a lot.
 
Unless you factor in podcasts.  With the new phone, I found an app that gives me podcasts I love.  Because I don’t like to walk around the house with ear buds in my ears, I bought this Bluetooth speaker.  It stores nicely in a drawer.
 
And then, if I want to listen to any non-CD, non-cassette music, I have the iPod, which is old.  It doesn’t even have all of my music because it doesn’t all fit (the rest is stored on my computer.)  I could listen to the podcasts via iTunes on the iPod, but I find iTunes incredibly unfriendly (and I know I’m in the minority here, but iTunes just doesn’t work the way my mind works) so I don’t get the podcasts through iTunes.

Someday I would like to have a compact stereo system with speakers that can play in different areas of the house, and my music/podcasts on one device.  But right now?  I straddle many worlds.