Tag: books

Read

Catching Fire

Suzanne Collins
Matt and I read aloud.
More great manipulation coming from every direction.  It was nice read it over a period of weeks, rather than days.

Graceling

Kristen Cashore
It took about 150 pages for me to really like it, but then WHAMMO! I was all in and various daily chores were put off.  There were a lot of similarities between the main character Katsa and a certain Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games, and a bit of research shows that both books were published within a month of each other in 2008.  The idea of Gracelings were quite interesting and Katsa’s struggle for freedom was meaningful.

I rarely read Goodreads reviews of a book until after I’ve written my own, but this was an exception.  I was quite surprised at the number of people who disliked the book for its purported “message.”  According to several reviewers, this book existed to warn women away from marriage, as the main character is quite adamant she will not marry, due to the fact that she does not want a man to control her.  Many women expressed they they don’t feel oppressed by their marriage and they didn’t like the author pushing the opposite of marriage upon them.  This was interesting to me, as I find people who apply their own feelings to characters in fantasy settings are kind of missing the point of fantasy novels, and, at the same time, from the view of marriage and owning women, they disregard most of human history.  They may be lucky enough to not feel oppressed in their marriages, but I’m not sure women even 40 years ago could say the same.

Galileo’s Daughter

Dava Sobel
Read for Kenton Book Club.
This book had an interesting premise (letters written to Galileo from his illegitimate daughter who became a nun) and I thought the scientist-to-nun ratio was exactly opposite of what it should be.  I was much more interested in the life of a cloistered nun, but the author has a scientific bent and not a social historian’s bent and thus, we disagreed as to what is most interesting. The politics of science and the Cathloc church were interesting and many people in book group liked this book, but I was not one of them.

Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theater of All Possiblities

Rebeccca Reider
Biosphere II loomed large in my young adulthood wonderings.  For some reason, I was fascinated by the idea of living in a completely closed space for two years with seven other people.  When the mission ended, I read that all of the participants had pledged to not share what went on while inside the Biosphere and I was disappointed I would never find out.

But “nevers” have a way of wandering off as time passes and I’ve since discovered that there are books about the Biosphere II mission written by the insiders.  This, however, is written by an outsider and tells the tale of the creation of the Biosphere, which is as fascinating a story as the Biosphere II story itself.  Recommended.

1Q84

Haruki Murakami
I’ve not read Murakami before and this was a fabulous introduction.  I loved the writing and this was one of those books that I just kept reading until I was done, which was unfortunate as it is a very long book.  It came in handy for days spent in airports, though.  I loved every minute of the story.  Until I was done.  Upon finishing the 925th and final page, I felt a bit cheated.  “I just read almost one thousand pages for that story?” I wondered to myself.  Still, the great prose made this a good experience, even if the I felt sold short by the ending. Also, there’s a lot of sex.  A lot.  I find this interesting as most novels just briefly describe the encounter or sort of brush by it in the style of movies from the 1950s.  Do all his novels have so much sex in them?  Either way, I’ll read more by Murakami.  Who has recommendations for what to read next?

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

Jennifer Reese
I have never referred to a cookbook as “hilarious” before, but this was that.  I think I found the book funny because Reese seems to have a very familiar style of cooking, that is, getting a bit overwhelmed in her projects.  So if you lean in that direction, you might enjoy this book just for reading.  There was also a great essay about her mother’s dislike of cooking that pulled a few heartstrings. Also, aside from good reading, I loved the recipes.  The book came from the library and I started to mark recipes to copy before returning.  After about the first five I realized I should just buy the book.  So I did.  I’ve already made: bread, bagels(!) cream cheese, almond butter, yogurt and ginger ale.

Fire
Kristin Cashore

Officially called a “companion book” to Graceling this went in an entirely different direction much to my relief as the person who I thought was the main character tortured animals and that is one of the few things I cannot read about in books.  Happily, after an introductory paragraph he was not seen again until the end of the book.  Here we have another strong woman character, lots of battles, intrigue and perhaps a bit of romance?  Sounds good to me.  I will be interested to see if the next book ties the two companion books together.

Note:  I just checked out some reviews and again with the hating on Cashore’s “anti-marriage, pro-casual-sex views.”  Who ARE these people?  Not everyone’s so into marriage and most people I know are pro-casual-sex.  Neither position means the other one is bad. Also, is it just being called casual sex because the characters are not married?  They are in exclusive relationships.  Is this book such a threat because it’s written for teenage girls?  I’m beginning to wonder if this author popped up on some list: “Read this anti-marriage, pro-casual-sex author and say bad things about her.”

Jane Smiley

I’m not sure why I bothered finishing this book as it seemed as if nothing ever happened throughout the entire story. On reflection, things happened and I’m still thinking about them, but during the actual reading it was rather boring. Which is kind of interesting, after the fact. And for that I’ll bump it up a star.

Pittacus Lore

Tom Stoppard

Matt and I read aloud.

When I was in high school, a friend of a friend was cast in a local production of this play. I remember being enchanted by the title, even if I had no idea who Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were. I seemed to have missed out on Hamlet in English class somehow. But the play’s title has delighted me for years. It’s not the best read aloud, due to its absurdist plot, but I’m happy to connect title to plot and I wouldn’t mind seeing a production of it, should one appear.

L.M. Montgomery

This is mostly about the absent-minded, widowed minister next door’s children, though regular Anne characters populate the story. After reading it, I lent it to a friend who was absolutely horrified about the level of neglect of the children and the fact that no one in the congregation (not even Anne or Susan) did anything about it. It’s true, they were starved, ill-clothed and completely without adult guidance. Were it today and they students at my school, I would be on the phone to Social Services within a week, but since they were children from long-ago, I took their neglect in stride.

Kristen Wolf

An alternate version of the Jesus story that I found interesting in some places, but I think the fact that I know the Jesus story made it uninteresting in others.

Green, Johnson, Myracle

Three interconnected stories by three YA authors. All were good and Maureen Johnson was particularly funny.

Kaui Hart Hemmings

Daniel Handler

Sophie Flack.

This was a moderately interesting novel about a NYC ballerina. I wasn’t in love with the story, but the insider information was interesting. It did not, however, solve the ballet mystery I’ve had for years which is: why do dancers wear their tights on the outside of the leotards when rehearsing? This makes no sense to me.

Ursula K. LeGuin

Poems, she means. But I think the title is a play on age too. Some good ones, some of which will be appearing soon on my poetry post.

James Mollison

I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK. Just when you think there is nothing new anyone can do in photography, along comes Mollison, who decided to take portraits of people attending concerts–in London, in the US, in Italy. Then he chose 10 representative images from each concert and knitted them into a panorama of concert goers. The Lady Gaga goers were particularly gaga-eque, and the Katie Perry fans were brightly colored, but I have to say my favorite was the Rod Steward layout, with ten 55-plus men with spiky blonde hair and a good bit of fat on them. It’s an incredibly delightful book to page through, but I found it even more fun when I read the synopsis of the photo shoots, found in the back of the book, and then looked at the pictures. This book is highly recommended. If your library doesn’t have this, seek it out in the bookstore or even purchase it for yourself. It is that good!

Rachel Cohen and David Levithan

Matt and I read aloud.

I think “David Levithan, read aloud” is even more delightful than “David Levithan read to oneself.” I went on a campaign this holiday season recommending this book to people as a very good holiday read, but alas, only Matt experienced its holiday charms. Perhaps you could put it on your calendar for next year…

Rich Burlew

Matt and I read aloud

Tales unrelated to the OOTS story, but still fun. We even got an OOTS version of Hamlet, just after we read and viewed the play.

William Iggiagruck Hensley

Read for Kenton Book Club

I enjoyed the detail of the author’s early years in his small Alaskan village. I was less interested in his fight to retain native lands as Alaska became a state, though I do think it was a very important thing. The natives of Alaska came out a lot better than the natives of the lower 48 states. Overall, an interesting read.

John Green

When I was a young teenager, I went though a phase of reading books where horrible things happened to protagonists: going blind, getting cancer, father’s diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease, boyfriends dying, etc. I suspect that reading these “cancer books” about other teenagers going through really awful things helped me navigate my own adolescence. After all, everything around and including me might be changing, but at least I still had my sight, health and a fully mentally functioning father. So “cancer books” have a dear place in my heart. I myself have had the luck to never have anyone close to me battle cancer (knock on wood) so I can still freely read books about cancer and enjoy them without bringing my own experience to them.

I found this to be a (this word seems wrong, but it isn’t) delightful “cancer book” full of much humor, interesting insight and just the right amount of tugging on heartstrings. John Green has written yet another wonderful book on many levels. The NPR review mentioned that Green “writes for youth rather than to them and the difference is palpable.” Well said. Are you a young adult? You’ve probably already read it? Are you a Nerdfighter? I know you’ve read it. Are you an adult? Put it on you list.

Laini Taylor

This is about the grapic novel-to-text ratio I appreciate. Taylor’s fascination with female-centered mystical Eastern European-esqe settings appeal to me and I gobbled up these stories.

Ann Patchett

Friend Kelly hooked me up with this book!

Five stars for the text, which was an adaptation of a graduation speech Patchett gave at her alma mater. You might think that you don’t want to read a graduation speech, but you would be wrong.

Two stars for the copious amounts of photos inserted into the text. I understand that they were fleshing things out, but I could have done with out the double turning of pages necessitated by two page photo spreads. I also found the photos incredibly cliched. But the writing was magical. I read the whole thing in about an hour or so, which means you should grab and read.

Rachel Cohen & David Levithan

Mostly because the Naomi character was incredibly annoying (what’s up with all her wingdings in place of actual words? Not cool and hip. Nuh-uh!) I did not really like this book. Ely was a bit better, but not much.

Heidi Durrow

Read for Kenton Book Club

Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads Selection 2012

I drank this novel–set in Portland–down quickly and greatly enjoyed the city-specific details. It wasn’t the weightiest book, but I thought it particularly compelling when discussing issues of biculturalism.

Pittacus Lore

YA Sci-Fi that was apparently made into a movie so horrible that Roger Ebert’s review is actually quite funny to read. This book was compelling enough that I put off the planned evening activities to finish it. It had good themes: retaining cultural identity when living within another culture; growing into you powers (in this case the character actually had powers, being from another planet); fitting in and putting down roots. It had teen romance without being sappy and an adult character who was helpful, not harmful. I’ve already got the next book on reserve.

Some books this month, but I neglected to write them down. So sorry.

(with 2011 being the year of the YA novel)

I read 101 books this year. I was hoping to read no more than 70 and completely failed. To be fair, there were a lot of YA novels, which are quick reads. There were also a goodly number of poetry and Shakespeare plays, which are also quick reads, but suffice to say I spent a lot of time reading this year. You needn’t read as many books as I did. Instead, take a gander at the following awards and pick (or avoid) a read for yourself.

(All original reviews of these books can be found on this blog or on Goodreads)

Catherine Fisher

and

Suzanne Collins

and

John Green & David Levithen

Rachel Cohen & David Levithen

Muriel Barbery

Elizabeth Gilbert

Ann Brashares

Mary Shelly

Sherman Alexie

Linda Pastan

Gary Taubes

Shawn Tan

and

Irene Nemirovsky

Kate Morton

David Kirby

Wendy McClure

Wally Lamb

Aimee Bendar

Jasper Fforde

Jonathen Franzen

and

Mark Halprin

Willa Cather

Eckhard Tolle

Tayari Jones

Jacqueline Kelly

David Nichols

Maureen Johnson

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Tim Wynne Jones

Wendall Barry

L.M. Montgomery

Patrick Ness/Siobhan Dowd

Laini Taylor

Octavia E. Butler

Duff McKeagan

Rich Burlew

Read aloud.

A very long book that refuses to follow the advice of its own title. We spend a lot of time with one or another of the split party. This long book and suffered a bit at the end from the “let’s wrap this up now” syndrome, but overall it was pretty entertaining, when read aloud.

Jack Gantos

Read for Mock Printz

This was book 9 of 10 read for the Mock Printz discussion and was the outlier, falling into neither the “grim” nor the “tense” category. I started out loving it, as Gantos has a way of phrasing normal observations into something rather amusing and there is a scene at the beginning involving melting gold statues, a feisty old lady and a bloody nose that is pure comedy gold. But after that, my adoration cooled, due to the main character’s father being a bit of a jerk, a mystery poorly developed and quickly solved, but not resolved, and a very ambiguous ending that left me perplexed as to just what, exactly, the message was. I wanted to like it, but I just didn’t.

Octavia E. Butler

One of the pluses of volunteering at the library is that I find very interesting books that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise when I’m shelving. This book was shelved in science fiction though, in my opinion, it was really historical fiction in which the main character just happened to time travel to 1815.

As mentioned in my review of Jubilee, I find slavery/slave narratives interesting and out-of-fashion. Indeed, this novel was written in 1979. But experiencing slavery from the perspective of a modern-day black person was a fun narrative device that kept me reading. Recommended.

Laura Amy Schlitz

This has been on my Goodreads list for years, and I finally read it because I noticed it while volunteering at the library shelving books. This is a fun series of poems/monologues of young people in a medieval village. It’s a quick read and the sidebar historical information is interesting too. I also loved the YA novel this author wrote, A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama.

Ken Kesey

Read for Kenton Book Group

This was a hard read, not because the prose was difficult, but the subject was. I had seen the movie and so I knew where it was going (assuming the movie followed the book) so there wasn’t anything to look forward to and I kept putting off reading my daily pages. Still, it was well written, and I enjoyed the perspective of the Chief, which was not a part of the movie.

Duff McKeagen

Duff–from Guns & Roses (and Velvet Revolver and Loaded)–describes his life as a musician, an addict, and his life of sobriety. The writing is rough and unpolished, but enthusiastic and interesting, especially the details of the early G&R days. I was particularly interested in his journey to sobriety which I can sum up in three words: become a nerd. How could I not be delighted when someone’s path to recovery includes reading, bike riding, martial arts and going to college?

My main quibble with the book was the question of who wrote it. Duff’s name is on the cover, Duff is featured as the author on the back cover. Only on the last page of the book is Duff’s collaborator listed. I felt like the book was mainly in Duff’s voice and he probably did write most of it, but if you are going to use a collaborator (and there’s nothing wrong with that if you’ve got a story to tell) the just put their darn name on the cover with yours.

L.M. Montgomery

Anne begins to fade into the background as her children take over more and more of the story.

Garrison Keillor, ed.

Yep. They were.

Carrie Vaughn

Okay entry into the non-comic superhero genre, though it was no “Soon I Will be Invincible.”

Laurie Notaro

Some funny stories. I recommend especially the one near the end about the dog translator.

William Shakespeare

As I read this, I was amazed at how many turns of phrase that we use in everyday speech originate from this play.

Vera Brosgol

I’ve said before I’m not a graphic novel fan, but despite my “not” I loved this little story. Also, it was pointed out to me later that Central Library has a cameo role in the book. So exciting!

Big thick book that made a lot of very good points in the first 75 pages I read. However, said points are rather depressing and sad and thus I wandered off. Would be worth tackling again in the future.

Wendall Berry

Read for Kenton Book Club

Ah! After slogging grumpily through last month’s selection, this was a breath of fresh air. It was hard to get into at first as I spent a lot of time thinking, “now who is this character again?” But that eventually resolved itself and the characters became known and the writing was just lovely. I hadn’t read Wendall Berry before, but I’ll seek him out again.

L.M. Montgomery

After the scattershot nature of the previous “Anne” book, this was a welcome relief. This time, there was a narrative structure which vaulted this book in to the category of “my favorite book of the series so far.” The cast of characters was varied and interesting and even characters from other books came to visit now and then. There was a very nice narrative arc, unseen in any of the other books. And I greatly enjoyed Anne and Gilbert as young marrieds, though Gilbert at times seems to just fill the “husband” character and not show much of his own character.

Craig Silvey

Read for Mock Printz

Of the grim/tense category that all these Mock Printz books seem to be, this falls into “tense.” I found the writing for this novel very uneven. For example, the story goes along and I’m populating the pictures in my head based on the book and then suddenly it seems that it’s the 1960s. Insert record needle scratching off record. What? Really? Huh. This happened several times: the mother seemed to be a normal book mother and then suddenly she wasn’t, the love interest had a too-convenient part to play. Also, this book takes place in Australia, which normally is a fun thing, but this book had a lot of Australian things that it didn’t bother to translate into American. And there was A LOT of cricket.

So I never really took to this book. But I did like the following passage:

“I take a small incendiary pull. Of course, it attacks my mouth and burns down the length of my throat. I gag immediately, wiping my lips, trying to keep my lungs at bay. I slant my head and pretend to read a label that isn’t there through my clouding eyes. This shit is poison. And I realize I’ve been betrayed by the two vices that fiction promised me I’d adore. Sal Paradise held up bottles of booze like a housewife in a detergent commercial. Holden Caulfield reached for his cigarettes like an act of faith. Even Huckleberry Finn tapped on his pipe with relief and satisfaction. I can’t trust anything. If sex turns out to be this bad, I’m never reading again. At this rate, it will probably burn my dick and I’ll end up with lesions.”

Nova Ren Suma

Read for Mock Printz

Another of the “tense” YA books for Mock Printz reading. I hope all these adolescents are learning to breathe in yoga classes, or they are going to be incredibly tightly wound. This was nicely written and I spent the book engaged with puzzling through it, trying to figure out just what was up. I think it will inspire lively discussion when we get to discuss it. But I didn’t like it. The main character’s sister was quite unlikable and she was the book, so I spent a lot of time in puzzling dislike. “What’s her deal?” I kept wondering. I’m interested to see what others think.

Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd

Read for Mock Printz.

Seemingly all ten of our mock Printz books this year are either grim or tense and this one falls into the grim category, what with a thirteen year old’s mother very sick with cancer and his father living across the Atlantic with a new family and him not getting along with his grandmother and all. But despite it being grim, it was a fabulous story and my favorite Mock Printz book so far. It’s short and there are wonderful illustrations and I highly recommend it for anyone going through a situation that involves loss. Even if loss isn’t currently a part of your life, this book is worth reading for its very moving story.

Laini Taylor

Read for Mock Printz

“This book is awesome! I’m totally giving it five stars!” was something I thought repeatedly as I gobbled up this book, right up until the last page when the author actually used the words “to be continued.” Invoking the “to be continued” phrase automatically breaks my “series rule” which is as follows: The first book in a series must be a complete story on its own; the second book should be a happy surprise, not a given.” Authors that can’t be bothered to come to a clear break in their plot are, in my opinion, lazy and should be rewriting a bit more before publishing.

So, the ending was disappointing, but until then I couldn’t get enough of this book what with the kick ass female character (“This should be a movie!” I thought several times before I remembered how well Hollywood manages to diminish strong women literary characters) wonderful fantastical elements and a very interesting puzzle to unravel. Highly recommended, even with the disappointing ending.

Harlan Coben

Recommended by my friend Maureen with the caveat that this book breaks the “series rule” (The first book in a series must be a complete story on its own; the second book should be a happy surprise, not a given) I read this in a day. Despite my compulsitivity, this book was awful. The writing was bad (though did not approach Twilight-esqe levels) and I feel like Coben’s approach to writing a “teen” book was to read about seven of them and then take every cliche possible and shove it in his book. Let’s count them up. We have: 1)The essentially orphaned, and mostly unsupervised main character, 2)The loud, eccentric best friend who might as well be wearing a jester hat, lest you not get that he’s supposed to be the comic relief 3)The prickly fat girl who wears a defensive shell a mile thick, but is hiding a heart of gold and has a secret 4)much plot development action involving cell phones and 5)a large population of adults who “just don’t get it” 6)Teachers who are all apparently very angry former drill sargents.

You know what else this book set in the present day had? Nazis. Really? Yes really! Because there is no better antagonist than WWII era Germany. But wait, there’s more! A Strip Club. Prostitution. Mysterious White Van. Strange Tattoos. Stranger Tattoo Artists. Thinking over all of these elements put together I feel a building rage at the pure stupidity of this book. One or two of these elements in the hands of someone who can write would have resulted in something worth my time. But at this point, all I can do is warn you away. Go ask a librarian for a good YA book and leave Harlan Coben to the airport-novel-reading adults.

Also? Incredibly dumb character name. Mickey Bolitar! He was born in the mid-90s, for god’s sake, not the mid-50s. In fact, I just checked Wolfram Alpha and the graph of the Mickey distribution shows a dip down to pretty much zero in the mid-90s when this character would have been born. It’s rank is beyond 1000 currently. Mickey Boliter! Stay away! Far away.

Started and did not finish–None

Rich Berlew

Matt and I Read Aloud

Berlew leaves our Order in grave–literally, in one case–disorder by the end of this very thick book of comics.

William Shakespeare

There are too many people! They all have the same name! I have no idea what’s going on! Richard III spends a lot of time telling people how bad he is! But he really is!

As usual, much better when the actors bring it to life.

Jacqueline Kelly

Recommended by my friend Kristen, I liked this book for a variety of reasons. It was set in 1899, rural Texas, but the main character’s family was quite well off. I feel like a lot of books set in the frontier west focus on the poor and struggling, so this was a nice change of pace. The main character was quite engaging, being the middle child with three brothers on either side. The struggles she had maturing into a new life stage were engaging, and her family was well formed for such a large bunch. Also, the writing was very good, especially for a YA novel. And it was funny in places, which always makes reading enjoyable. This would be a great book for someone who has never read–but is interested in–YA fiction.

David Nichols

Matt and I read aloud

This was a fabulous read-aloud book because the writing is quite good, the passages through life are very apt and the dialogue is a pleasure to speak. It is an even better read-aloud with your opposite sex significant other, because one of you can do the female parts and the other do the male parts. (I’m sure same sex couples would also have fun too.) Now that I’ve seen the movie I can heartily entreat you to bypass it altogether and just read the darn book.

Maureen Johnson

I’ve been submerged in Shakespeaere, and the long slow and–frankly–very boring book One Hundred Years of Solitude for nearly a month. I’ve just received the Mock Printz list and noticed it contains 10 books all of which look to be rather tense and/or grim. There is going to be a lot of buckling down reading in the next few months. What to do? Realize that I haven’t yet read anything by Maureen Johnson, wander over to the YA stacks and grab the first book I see by her. Then: devour it in a 24 hour period.

I’ve been meaning to check out Maureen Johnson since I began watching the Vlog Brothers, and I found her just as delightful as John Green was telling me she would be. This book had a great premise: Flighty Aunt sends niece a letter and money and tells her to follow the directions of that letter and the 12 following. It was fun and funny and had a plot twist I didn’t anticipate. After clearing my head with this bit of delight I could plow through the last 40 pages of Marquez’ tome. Maureen Johnson was just what the doctor (or perhaps Youth Librarian) ordered.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Read for Kenton Book Club

The nice thing about book club is that I’m forced to think more deeply about why I don’t like books. In the normal order of things, I would have set this book down, bored and frustrated around page 50 and it would have been returned to the library eventually. Because we were discussing it for book group, I wanted to finish it, even though I didn’t like it. First off, finishing it for book group sometimes pays off as with Inez of my Soul where there was a twist at the end that (mostly) made the book worth reading. This book, alas, had no such thing. But as it was such a long book (417 pages) I spent a very long time analyzing what I didn’t like. And here is my list.

1) I think when this was written there wasn’t really magical realism in literature and so it was this new crazy thing that everyone was quite astounded by. However, now that magical realism is everywhere, this book is just a so-so entry.

2)I was not a fan of the very fluid timeline. Several times I found myself wondering how old a character was, which took me out of the book.

3)The characters having the same names? Very confusing. And not in a good way.

4)The writing style (or translation) was not something that drew me in. I found it very flat.

5)I didn’t really like any of the characters. And spending 417 pages with a bunch of people with the same name that you don’t really like is not very fun.

6)I did, however, perfect the talent of falling asleep while balancing the book on my chest while reading this book.

Interestingly, the book club members didn’t really like it either. Reactions ranged from “Well, I’m glad I have read it, though I didn’t enjoy the reading” to “I absolutely loved this 25 years ago and spent this rereading wondering what I liked so much” to “I could have done with 50 years of solitude, but one hundred years was a bit much.”

Despite our dislike, our discussion was rich and interesting.

Rich Berlew

The book that we learn that Xykon is pure evil while Red Cloak is not actually evil, but has instead made a series of increasingly bad decisions.

(In our house this emerged as: “You know, I think Red Cloak is the George W. Bush, but Xykon is the Dick Cheney of the Order of the Stick World.”)

L.M. Montgomery

I sort of get the feeling, reading this book, that L.M. Montgomery was often trapped in rooms with eccentric women who nattered on. I get this feeling mostly because Anne keeps getting trapped in rooms with eccentric women nattering on. Character development was nil here. Anne encounters different people over three years and manages to happily change all of their lives. Except that eight year old boy the author killed off so that another character could have a happy ending. She writes letters to Gilbert narrating her life, but we never hear anything from him. This lack of development of the main character’s fiance seems like a rather large oversight. As their relationship has gotten more serious, we have heard less and less from him. And characters from the previous book are completely missing. What’s up with Priscilla? How is she adjusting to being a minister’s wife? I realize they live in different places now, but couldn’t she even write?

I still enjoyed reading this, but I think Montgomery is coasting a bit. Also, the cover of the edition I read annoyed me. Here is Anne, a B.A. and principal of the school and they’ve got her walking around in dresses the length she would have worn as a fourteen year old. Where is her mature woman dress? Where?

Franny Billingsley

Read for Mock Printz

I sort of didn’t like this book from the beginning and now I’ve read it to the end and can clearly state that I don’t feel it was a good book. Let us examine the ways.

Setting. This book was ostensibly set in early 20th century small English village, though none of the characters struck me as anything other than modern in their thoughts, actions or deeds. If one of them would have pulled out a cell phone and started texting, I don’t think it would have registered as something out of the ordinary. Also, there is a magical realism element to this novel, but it felt forced, as if everyone was trying very hard to talk about the witches, etc. but the effect was neither magical nor real to me.

Writing. The cover tells me it is a “beautifully written” book, but I found the style quite grating. The repetitive sentences were, I believe, supposed to give me insight into the tormented mind of the main character, but instead inspired a lot of tormentation of my mind. Perhaps the overwroght-ness would appeal better to a teenager. Also, I found the names of the magical elements rather immature in nature: Mucky Hand, Boggy Man. Grownups went around saying those names and I think grownups would not want to be uttering toddler-type names for long.

Characters. I got pretty clear pictures of the main ones, but things were a bit hazy with the narrative and everyone else sort of faded into the background.

Narrative. By the time the plot had wrapped itself up, nothing was a surprise to me, because so much of it had been hinted at before.

Tim Wynn-Jones

Read for Mock Printz

When I received the list of ten books to read for the Mock Printz discussion, I groaned. A cursory check revealed them to all be grim/tense. I’m a fan of grim/tense, though not for 10 books in a row. After wading through Chime, I got ready to force myself through this book. Happily, I was reminded that not all the books we read are bad.

This one fell into the “tense” category, but it was tense in a way that made me cast off my other reading and just rip through the book. The characters were great, incredibly likable, not perfect and street smart. I loved that it was set in Canada (authors live in Canada too? I had no idea!) and encompassed both city and country. This would be a great read for a reluctant boy reader and girls will like it too. There is mention of sex/amateur porn in the beginning, but it’s alluded too and not graphic. Overall, a very good read and so far my favorite of the Mock Printz books I’ve read.

Wm. Shakespeare

If you could sort my Goodreads Shakespeare reviews and read them all at once you would find they all say the same thing: Bor-ing! Boring, boring, boring! This one too. However, it does help to read them before we see the play as I discovered when we abruptly moved our tickets up a week and I hadn’t read the fifth act. My mind wandered a lot more during that act then the others because I didn’t know what was coming. So I will keep reading these boring plays before seeing them brought to life by actors who know what they are doing.

Robert Sharenow

Read for Mock Printz

In my normal reading life, I’ve been avoiding books about the Holocaust. I know that this period in world history provides a lot of drama and pathos and many themes to explore, but I’m tired of reading about it. So I avoid. But my Mock Printz booklist is apparently not aware of my “No Nazis” rule and so I read this book set in 1930’s Berlin. I remarked earlier that my list of ten Mock Printz books are all either tense or depressing. This falls into the depressing category, with a bit of tension thrown in. Despite these marks against it, I liked the book. It was well written and I felt the plot brought to life the decreasing freedoms the Jewish people of Germany experienced in the 1930s. I’ve read about it in the history books, of course, but the main character’s experience made it much more real. It was especially interesting to see the difference for the main character, who did not look Jewish and found it much easier to move about the streets, with his sister, who looked very Jewish and experienced much more harassment.

The boxing sections were interesting too. I was particularly taken with the idea of “the 300.” That would be 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 50 pull ups and 50 minutes of running. In the book, Max Schmelling proscribed that daily fitness routine for aspiring boxers. Inspired, I attempted a 300 of my own, and like the main character’s experience, my first 300 lackluster, clocking in only at was 51.

I felt that there could have been more illustrations and–contrary to my usual feelings–I would have liked some sort of epilogue. But this was a good read and I finished it ahead of schedule which I take to be a good sign. This is another “good for boys” book. If they are Jewish or into boxing I suspect they would like it that much more.

Kristen Wolf

This was a promising book. A friend recommended it most forcefully. I started it, but got bogged down in other books that come with deadlines to finish so this went back to the library. Another time.

Matt de la Pena

Recommended by Fabulous Librarian Deborah, I initially had to put down this YA novel because it was a bit too gritty for me. I get excited when I read YA literature that tells stories of other classes and cultures, yet the characters reminded me of the students I volunteered with at a middle school. Were they doing some of the things these characters were? Also, after all these years, I still feel uncomfortable with teenagers drinking. It throws me right back to my high school awkwardness around the issue. I didn’t drink and I just wished that everyone else wouldn’t either.

After a few weeks of separation, I nosed back into the pages and found that I couldn’t let go of the characters. The main character’s struggle–and his various ways of dealing with–not fitting into either world was gripping and I was incorrect in my prediction of what was up with his dad. There was one rather loose end left untied which I would have appreciated some clarity about, but otherwise, after my first reaction, I greatly enjoyed this book.

Tayari Jones

I thought the shift in narrators mid-book was a particularly brilliant strategy. Up until the shift the book is interesting. How does it work when your dad has an entirely different “real” family and you are the secret family? But once we shift to the legitimate daughter’s point of view the tension mounts as we explore the realities of her life.

I will be investigating this author’s other work.

Gemma Whelan

Read for Kenton Library Book Club

Oh dear, this book was a steamin’ heap of first novel cliches! Dead sister inspiring guilt? Check! Sexual abuse of main character? Check! Inability to deal with various aspects of life because of it? Check! Strained relationship with remaining sibling? Check! I sighed through every page and if it wasn’t a book club book, I would have put it down. Interestingly, the author came to book group and chatted with us about the book. I enjoyed hearing about how she came to write this book. Talking with her, I could see how attached she was to her character and the novel itself, which she wrote over a period of ten years. I enjoyed her chatting, much more than I did the book. Based on this chatting when her next book appears, I’ll dip into it and see if the second novel is more to my liking.

Laurie Notaro

There were clunky parts to this story and details that didn’t quite match up. For instance my drug counselor boyfriend pointed out that drug tests are not like pregenancy tests. They come about in a different manner. However, I greatly enjoy reading people’s imaginings of the afterlife and Notaro’s was sparkly and interesting. It’s a fun book that one shouldn’t think too deeply about.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert is a funny man. Aside from the fact that he clearly loves movies, his writing style and general giddiness is one reason I love to read him. In this, he makes an argument for cooking with “the pot” by which he means a rice cooker. Apparently it’s a one-pot cooking wonder. There’s a line about men who cook in the introduction that slayed me and his argument was enough to convince me to buy a rice cooker, although I haven’t done so at this juncture. Perhaps when I do get one, it won’t die early on like the last one did.

L.M. Montgomery

Anne becomes a B.A. and we follow her through her college years. They go by fairly quickly in many very short chapters of three pages or so. As I was reading a chapter per day, it took forever to finish this book. Future chapter-per-day readers take note: combining several chapters together will help this seem to be shorter than four years. Though this was an enjoyable tale, I feel like Montgomery only has enough juice in her to develop one character per book. In this book it was Priscilla Grant, the somewhat spoiled, full-of-fun housemate of Anne. Everyone else remains shadows who flit through, including Roy Gardiner, whom Anne almost becomes engaged to. If there is any character I should have a good picture of it is him.

Aside from that (rather major) failing, it was still an enjoyable, entertaining book, and much more fun to read on a daily basis than Fiona, Stolen Child.

Gary Soto

Half the poems are from teenaged girl’s points of view and half are from their teenage boy counterpart. Only one poem did I find “keepable” so this book was not for me, but I’m not really the demographic.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt has a very chatty writing style that I found enjoyable to read. However, I wasn’t so much into self improvement when I was reading the book, and did not make much progress. I was not able to renew it, so back it went. I might pick it up again later when improvement to self is a more interesting idea.

I initially judged this edition to be published in the early-to-mid-80s due to the Regency Romance type cover and was surprised to find the edition to be published in 1994. Note that it assures me right on the cover that this edition is “complete and unabridged.” Um, yes, that is what I’m looking for.

It’s a tossup which is my favorite part. The tagline “Mom’s fishing for husbands–But the girls are hunting for love” is such a groaner and also not actually reflective of the story, as Matt exasperatedly pointed out before we were even halfway through our reading of the book.

Or perhaps I love most that Elizabeth Bennet, someone who in the novel does not yet have one and twenty years, is depicted as someone closer to my own current age cohort which is mid-to-late 30s. Quick, grab her Darcy, before middle age begins! Also, would Darcy have ever kissed her hand like that? I think not.

This edition, aside from meeting the high standard of delivering the complete and unabridged book, did contain an excellent introduction titled “The Life and Times of Jane Austin” which I found quite interesting and informative. So just one more reminder to never judge a book by its cover.