This is the page I most hope to hear from all of you about, both to open dialogues about books we have read, and to add to my never-ending to-be-read pile. I’ll update this page every Friday, and I’ll post the most recent entries at the top of the page, so if you are playing catch-up, start at the bottom and work your way up.

June 13, 2009

And life is starting to settle down, at least a little, if I can update this page only one day late!

This week I finished Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson. I might have to read it again to really get a feel for it as a whole, but in a strange sense the characters felt a little like… cliches. There! I said it! Not that I did not SOB OUT LOUD during one part of this book, but I was never surprised by what anyone did, or felt, or said. I did not get attached to any of them, and there was not enough action to pull along what seems to be a character driven piece… with flat characters. I read Speak and Fever, 1793 both of which I loved, so I was disappointed by this novel. It rates merely a “meh”.

June 8, 2009

Happy birthday, Tiffany! And WOW, no updates at ALL in May. That should tell you all (all two of you, my loyal readers, Mom and Kath!) what MMMMAAAYYYYY was like. Not to get all high-brow and literary on you, but to put it delicately… MAY SUCKED.

And really, for most of the month of May, I read Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini. All freakin’ 763 pages of it, only to discover at the very, very end (when I was starting to suspect, from the paltry number of pages left and the lack of engagement with Supremo Badass Numero Uno) that this will NOT be a trilogy! Oh, no! There will be a fourth book, making this a COLLECTION. DAMN him. All my fussing aside, I just really, really enjoyed sinking into this world, and am impressed anew at the talent of this young writer. Every once in a while, a bit of dialogue or a description of an interaction would make me think, “Oh, you puppy…” but taken as a whole this series (excuse me, COLLECTION) is a truly astonishing body of work.

I also finished a really enjoyable, spooky little book called All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn. I finished it this last Sunday, over my eggs and oatmeal, and passed it on to my poor, strep-infested, don’t-touch-anything 12 year old, and she read it ALL in one day. Now that is seriously the mark of a great book that really hits the mark. And I just love ghost stories, don’t you?

April 24, 2009

I read Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, in about one sitting, and thoroughly enjoyed it, though if I had to identify a theme, or describe the characters in any depth, I would be hard pressed. DEFINITELY a plot-driven book. I usually really enjoy creepy little books like these… but I did find myself longing for some more meat to the characters. Not a LOT more, but SOMETHING. I like richly drawn characters, and a few choice details can make a character just leap into your head. I felt like I knew the Other Mother more intimately than Coraline, and that is just weird. I would recommend this for the 10-and-over set, based on the creepy factor. That slug in the basement would freak Cody out, for sure.

I finished Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, and must say that I do indeed see why it got rave reviews. I was a little disappointed, though, because I was kind of irrationally hoping for a soap-opera style surprise ending, along the lines of “she didn’t REALLY kill herself, she faked her own suicide to prove a point…” But alas. I have trouble relating to people who quit. And that is all I have to say about that.

And I know you have all been waiting breathlessly, dying to know if I managed to contain my inner dialogue critic long enough to make it through The Gypsy Crown… and I did not. Kicked it to the curb. Sorry, Kate Forsyth! Maybe next time…

April 17, 2009

What the heck AM I reading?? Oh, yeah. There IS life outside avian oncological research, which is a topic not for the faint of intellect.

I am about half-way through Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. Basic premise: Clay Jensen, a high school senior, receives a box of cassette tapes recorded by a girl who committed suicide two weeks earlier. This attenuated suicide-note-by-outdated-technology tells her listeners that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to kill herself, and if they have received the tapes, they are one of those thirteen reasons.

So far, very well written, difficult to put down. However… I want to feel compassion for this girl, and the events she describes, but I don’t. I just feel angry - that may change when we reach the pinnacle of the story, but right now I am just pissed at the colossal selfishness that makes someone commit suicide. How un-PC is that?? Well, you get to have opinions, right? And suicide under most circumstances (nothing is black and white, after all) is either colossally selfish, or the impulse of a truly sick mind.

That’s it for this week, and at the rate I’m going, I’ll be lucky to finish it over the weekend. Sigh. Paying work = less time to read. But paying work also = more money to buy books.

April 10, 2009

You’d think, after the week I’ve had, that reading was the LAST thing I should be doing. You’d THINK. During times of stress, I turn to novels like an alcoholic turns to whiskey. I drown myself in stories, read until I pass out from exhaustion.

I finished Flightby Sherman Alexie, which I think I actually liked BETTER than The Absolutely True Diary. I’m confused by the blurbs, though, when they refer to it as “funny” or ”hilarious”… UM, NO… Sarcastic, witty, biting - all yes. But funny? No. I’m going right now to hand this to my 18 year old son, but I would not recommend it for readers under 15.

I also finished Ghost Soldierby Elaine Marie Alphin, which was a very enjoyable read, and an interesting look into the civil war from a kid’s perspective. I’d give it a B, I guess. Solid read, but nothing astonishing. The characters were pretty flat, truthfully, which always leaves me “meh”, but the pacing of the story was very good.

Oh the bedside table this week are The Gypsy Crownby Kate Forsyth and A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which is one of the very most best books I have ever read with an autistic protagonist). The The Gypsy Crown is actually on probation with me - I started it last week, then ran across the phrase “Hold yer horses!” This story is set in England, in the year 1658. “Hold your horses” entered the English language as an expression in America, some time in the 1800s. So. One would NOT expect even the most forward-thinking surly flunky to whip that one out in England in 1658. I am giving this book one more chance, but that kind of stuff ANNOYS THE HELL OUT OF ME.

Oooooo, my first cliff-hanger! Tune in next week to see if that was an aberration or if the book is riddled with lame-ass dialogue….

April 3, 2009

I finished Feed (see below), but more interestingly, so did Cody. He reads as avidly as I do, and I value his opinion enormously, and his take on Feedwas merely “meh”. The use of voice that I found so authentic and enveloping, he found irritating, which brings into question again the labelling of a book as “young adult”. No WAY could you call a book that drops the f-bomb that much a middle grade book, but given Cody’s reaction, I might think about suggesting it to my adult friends rather than Cody’s.

I also finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societyby Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Set immediately post WWII, this story is told entirely through letters to and from the main character, a young English woman and author who lived through the Blitz in London, and finds herself compelled to discover and tell the story of the Occupation of Guernesy by the Germans. My Katie chose this book almost at random for our mother-daughter book club, and once again her luck has held. This book is so deftly done - the main character’s voice is so engaging and funny that she leaps off the page, and yet parts of this book will have you in tears. An excellent read.

March 27, 2009

I finished Abundanceby Sena Jeter Naslund some time around 2:00 a.m. this morning. This book of historical fiction was loaned to me by my very dear friend Kristy, who reads as avidly as I do, and is possibly my favorite person on the plant to parlay book with. Abundance tells the story of Marie Antoinette from her marriage at age 14 to her death upon the scaffold at 38.

Timing is everything, isn’t it? In these frightening and uncertain times, it is good to remember that while our IRAs are anemic and college funds are non-existent, most of us continue to have the amazing good fortune to STILL BE BREATHING. I’ve sure been on a roll lately, because this is another true gem with perfect pacing and riveting detail. A+

I’ve just started Feed, which is also by M.T. Anderson (see The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing below). My respect for this author now borders on worshipful - his voice in this novel could not be more different than in Octavian, and is astonishingly authentic. I’ll report more when I am finished, but I also have a confession to make…

March 20, 2009

I’ve just finished The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, by M.T. Anderson. This book is a perfect example of confusion over what makes a book “Young Adult”. Don’t get me wrong - this is an amazing book, even a necessary book. The subject matter is often wrenching, but not beyond what I would expect a young adult to handle. But the structure and content of the language move Octavian out of the reach of all but the most determined and well-educated young adult readers. My personal lexicon is no slouch, and, on average, I had to look up 4 or 5 words per chapter to fully understand the passage, and the authentic-to-the-age structure of the language demanded all of my considerable skills as an experienced reader. A GREAT book. But not one I would recommend to my teenagers.

I also just finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Another award-winner, this IS a book I would - and will - recommend to everyone I know over the age of 12. I sit here, staring at the screen, trying to come up with the right words to honor this magnificent book. I read it in one sitting and then quite literally sat clutching it to my chest, filled with ecstasy and despair. Mr. Alexie writes of razor-sharp truths that resonate in your chest like a gong. He is pitiless and deeply compassionate, and absolutely brilliant. And my professional self wept, because I don’t have a book like that in me. Yet.

This is my “to be read” stack, which needs to be re-thought. I never seem to get to the ones on the bottom, because I keep succumbing to temptation at the library and adding to the top without ever making it all the way through. Included in that stack are my “should reads” which tweak me every time I look at them.