"Pink" by Lili Wilkinson

Pink by Lili Wilkinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: fiction, young adult
On my TBR list?: no



Summary, from Goodreads.com:

Ava Simpson is trying on a whole new image. Stripping the black dye from her hair, she heads off to the Billy Hughes School for Academic Excellence, leaving her uber-cool girlfriend, Chloe, behind.
Ava is quickly taken under the wing of perky, popular Alexis who insists that: a) she’s a perfect match for handsome Ethan; and b) she absolutely must audition for the school musical.
But while she’s busy trying to fit in — with Chloe, with Alexis and her Pastel friends, even with the misfits in the stage crew — Ava fails to notice that her shiny reinvented life is far more fragile than she imagined.

This book struck the perfect balance for me. It wasn't too sweet with everything tied up in a perfect bow at the end, but it also wasn't part of the current trend to put death, rape, bullying, and other strong topics into every young adult novel. Finding a book that didn't have vampires, witches, or any other supernatural beings in it was nice, too. I don't read that much YA these days, but I do sift through to find books for my kids and I think we are all getting burned out on the magical creatures.

My 15-year-old daughter C1 read this several weeks before I did and had a strong reaction to it. She really disliked several of the characters that she thought were mean and stuck up. Reading it from my perspective as an adult far removed from my teenage years, I can see where she was coming from but I was more forgiving of the characters. I remember what it was like to put on a facade of being SO alternative and too-cool-for-school to cover up the fact that I didn't know what I was doing or where I fit in. Ava's girlfriend Chloe, with her chic 1940s togs and sophisticated literature, was the girl I was aiming to be as a teenager. Strangely, I also identify with Ava's mother Pat who is definitely NOT the image of traditional femininity yet ends up with a daughter who revels in wearing pink and girly clothes.

I think this would make a great mother-daughter book club read, especially if you have a daughter who has been open with you about struggling with her image and where she fits with her friends. The mentions of underage drinking, smoking, and a few curse words in the book lead me to suggest that you don't hand it to a kid under 15.

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"Dash & Lily's Book of Dares" by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: young adult fiction
On mty TBR list: No
Part of a series: No


SYNOPSIS (my own): A couple of teens carry on an old-fashioned correspondence via a red notebook in New York during the winter holidays. I don't want to give away any more than that!

This is the type of book that I would have adored when I was 14. My view of New York was rather romanticized back then; I lived there until I was 10 and spent most of my teen years trying to figure out how I could move back. This book captures the sense of adventure, excitement, and discovery that I associated with New York. It was a welcome diversion to go back to those years in my head.

The character of Dash is a lover of words and well-constructed sentences. I identified with him more than with Lily, who is a fluffy ball of sunshine and optimism. The correspondence between them hearkened back to an earlier time without feeling anachronistic. It made me wish I had someone to exchange long, soul-searching letters with rather than short, perfunctory emails.

The only other book I've read by these authors is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I reviewed back in 2009. While I enjoyed both books, I would be more likely to hand Dash and Lily's Book of Dares to my 15-year-old daughter.


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"The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Genre: fiction, young adult, dystopian
On my TBR list?: Yes, since April 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle. With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.


This book didn't work for me. I was surprised because I enjoyed Life As We Knew It, the first book in the series. At first I thought I was judging it unfairly because I wasn't in the mood for a novel set in a dystopian future, but I also had the third book on hand (This World We Live In) and immediately became engrossed in it. So what was my issue with this book?

I think that the the point of view was the problem for me. Unlike the other two books, the story in this one is told in the third person. That made the book depressing but still removed from my real life. However, when reading Life As We Knew It, the first-person diary point of view made me feel like the events were happening in my world NOW. There were times while reading taht book that I would have to remind myself when I woke up each morning that everything was normal. My teenage daughter had to put the book down because it affected her so strongly. I didn't get any of that with this installment of the series.

Although I am generally not a proponent of skipping books in a series, I would recommend that readers skip this one and head straight for the third book. It picks up shortly after the events in the first book and I didn't get the feeling that I was missing anything.



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"Dramarama" by E. Lockhart

Dramarama by E. Lockhart

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: YA novel
On my TBR list?: Yes, since Dec 2008
Part of a series: No

Summary, from Goodreads:

Two theater-mad, self-invented, fabulositon Ohio teenagers.

One boy, one girl.
One gay, one straight.
One black, one white.

And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP.

It's a season of
hormones,
gold lamé,
hissy fits,
jazz hands,
song and dance,
true love,
and unitards

that will determine their future
and test their friendship.

My thoughts:

Dramarama is the story of Sadye and Demi, two high school juniors who live in a small town but don't fit in. They want to sing and dance and take the world by storm, but they are surrounded by workaday people who don't get them. So they apply to a summer drama camp to give themselves a break from the blandness, and the new environment tests their friendship.

It must be difficult to make the excitement and intrigue involved with putting on a show jump off the page, and this book is evidence of that. I love these sorts of stories but this book didn't have me holding my breath the way movies like "Fame" and "Camp" did or the way the TV show "Glee" does. This is one of E. Lockhart's earlier books that was published before the much-talked-about The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. It was a pleasant read, but it does make me wonder what all the fuss is about over this author. The prose seemed like standard YA fare to me. I'd set my DVR if it showed up as a movie on ABC Family, though.

I am willing to concede that my lukewarm reception of this book could be due to the fact that I am older than the target audience. C1, my 13-year-old daughter, enjoyed it and got a kick out of the fact that she knew all the musicals mentioned. Also, judging by how long I had to wait in the library queue for this book, there must be other teens in my area who identify with Sadye's feeling of being too big for life in a small town. This is one thing that Lockhart has done well; through Sadye she gives a perfect description of what it feels like to have an excitement inside that is waiting to burst out and no one around to appreciate it.

My biggest disappointment was the ending. I won't give it away, but it was too real-life for me. I'm not ashamed to say that I read for pure escapism, and I pick YA books because I am more likely to get a happily-ever-after. Perhaps I am spoiled by reading series books, but I wanted to follow these characters a little while longer and get the satisfyingly tidy ending that I prefer.


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"The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey" by Lisa Papademetriou

The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey by Lisa Papademetriou

Genre: YA, fiction, fantasy
On my TBR list?: Yes

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Brief description: Two girls who are total opposites get zapped into the fantasy book that they are studying for English class, changing the plot and themselves in the process.

I checked this out of the library for myself, but my 12-year-old daughter got to it first. She devoured it in two days and proclaimed that I had to read it. Her enthusiasm was the only thing that got me through this predictable book.

To be fair, the one-dimensional characters probably wouldn't be so predictable to a middle schooler who hasn't been exposed to as much television and film as I have. You have the nerdy girl and the rich airhead, the less handsome guy who turns out to be a better person than the buff hotties, and the wisecracking talking animal thrown in for comic relief. I knew before the end of the first chapter what lesson each girl needed to learn. This would be the perfect set-up for a Saturday night movie on Disney Channel, so I wasn't surprised to find out that the author has written novelizations of Disney series like "Lizzie McGuire" and "That's So Raven".

Not only was the book predictable but it also had an identity crisis. There were a couple dark secrets thrown in that didn't fit the otherwise light tone of the book -- not too dark for a 12-year-old to handle, but dark enough to make you wonder which direction the book is going in. If I had a choice, I would have gone with the more serious tone and get rid of the lame jokes that sound cute coming out the mouths of Disney's young ingenues, but fall flat on the page.

Bottom line: although many YA novels appeal to adults, this is not one of them. Save it for your kids.

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"Chicks With Sticks (Knit Two Together)" by Elizabeth Lenhard

Chicks With Sticks (Knit Two Together) - Book 2 by Elizabeth Lenhard

Genre: fiction, young adult
From my TBR list?: Yes

Book 2 in a trilogy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You know the story: four girls who shouldn't be friends are drawn together through a common interest. In the case of the book, the common interest is knitting. Of course, what would a story about knitting be without patterns in the back? Yes, it is another "novel plus".

I liked this second installment of Chicks with Sticks, but I didn't love it. While the first book felt more edgy with each of the Chicks dealing with serious issues in their lives, this time we are treated to a light story about how the Chicks are handling their relationships with boys. Perhaps my vantage point as an adult makes a difference, but the little dramas felt overblown this time around.

Another thing that felt overblown was the magical quality of knitting. (I am a knitter myself, so don't send me hate mail!) Again, in the first book it felt natural because Scottie discovered knitting when she needed something to calm her and make her take the focus off of herself. In this book, it seemed hokey.

The bottom line is that this is a YA book that is probably best left to the kids. My 12-year-old daughter enjoyed the book more than I did and wants me to hunt down the third book. The issues are much more urgent to her age group than they are to a 40-something woman like me.

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"A la Carte" by Tanita S. Davis

A la Carte by Tanita S. Davis

Genre: young adult fiction
From my TBR list?: Yes
Available on audio?: No

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Summary: A high-school senior and aspiring chef using cooking to help face the challenges in her life, like trying to figure out if her best friend is really a friend at all.

Most people aren't lucky enough to have the same best friend throughout their lives, so I think that this is a story that most teens can relate to. The main character Lainey has a friend who has basically been her only friend since elementary school. Once they hit high school, she is forced to reexamine their relationship, especially when it starts to jeopardize her relationship with her mother.

A big component of the book is the cooking. Lainey has always dreamed of being a famous chef. Luckily, her mother owns a restaurant so Lainey can experiment to her heart's content. There is even a few references to not using food as comfort that are thankfully written with a light touch. This is another "novel plus" with recipes at the end of every chapter. They are all vegetarian, so this might be a good book to hand to a vegetarian teen who has a little experience in the kitchen.

"A la Carte" reads like a more mature version of the Middle School Survival books that my 12-year-olds love. In this book, however, the lesson isn't as obvious and the ending isn't as pat. Davis does a good job of portraying the push and pull that can occur between a mother and a teenage daughter even when the daughter is a "good girl". The story is also a good illustration of what it can feel like when you outgrow a friendship.

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"Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Genre: young adult fiction
From my TBR list?: Yes

Book #1 of a trilogy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Even though this book deals with the aftermath of a fantastical natural disaster, I wouldn't call it sci-fi. It is more about how family members cope when all they have to rely on is each other. For me, it brought up the question of how I would react in a similar situation.

The author doesn't sugarcoat events as much as I would have expected in a young adult novel. There are deaths and bad behavior, and the main character Miranda isn't exactly a Pollyanna. There isn't a magical ending, either, that would make everyone live happily ever after. My 16-year-old daughter couldn't finish the book because she kept crying and she isn't an overly emotional girl. That is a testament to Pfeffer's storytelling; she made us both feel like the situation in the book could really occur.

I didn't find out that this was the first book in a planned trilogy until until after I finished it. My policy is to wait until all books in a trilogy have been published before I start reading. If you are like me, then you may want to wait until April 2010 when the third book, "This World We Live In", is published. However, I think that this book is wrapped up in such a manner that it will be nice to revisit these characters next year, but I'm not tearing my hair out wondering what happened.


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Time to Tackle the Indies

A few weeks' ago, I had an idea of making May a sort of "indie sweeps week" on my blogs. Several of my online friends are creative people. They write novels, record podcasts on a variety of subjects, and create video web series. I'm not in a position to contribute monetarily to their efforts, so I thought that I could help them by putting out the word. I've never seen book bloggers mention podcast novels (also known as Podiobooks) so I'm not sure that the two worlds even cross. My plan for this blog was to do several posts about some of these books throughout the month of May to bring more attention to them.

Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans. I've been working so much overtime that I've barely been reading, never mind writing. However, May isn't over yet, so who says I can't start in the middle of the month?

The book I'm spotlighting today is one of my 16-year-old daughter's favorites, Nina Kimberly the Merciless. M has corresponded with the author, Christiana Ellis, several times and even dressed as the main character for a school project. If you have a teenage daughter who is into fantasy, this book would be a great choice.

Nina Kimberly the Merciless is a comic fantasy novel about the daughter of a barbarian horde leader. At the start of the book, we find that Nina's father was killed 10 years' ago and she was left in the care of the royal family of a neighboring kingdom. Nina is now a teenager who is ready to fulfill her destiny as an adventurer. However, she is living in a quiet back-water kingdom where nothing ever happens. So she decides to leave the kingdom and find a quest to fulfill and a handsome hero to stand by her side. However, due to circumstances explained in the book, Nina is stuck bringing Lewis, the doltish teenaged king who has grown up with her and thinks that they are in love with each other.

Indie authors usually offer several ways for you to get a taste of their work before you buy, and Ellis is no exception. The story was originally released in serial form as a podcast, complete with music and sound effects. This is the way my daughter and I listened to it. On 15 May 2009, the story was released in print and offered on Amazon (although as of this posting, there is a glitch in Amazon's system that says the book is out of print). You can also try the new audio version that is more like a traditional audiobook (no music or sound effects) or even download a PDF version of the text. If you go to Ellis' page about the book, you will find links to the different options.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a story about an empty lot in Cleveland that is transformed from a junk heap to a community garden. Each of the 13 chapters is told from the perspective of a different participant. The community members are a regular Rainbow Coalition: black, white, Latino, Indian, Korean, etc.



The first two chapters explain how the garden gets started. The line about the young Asian girl trying to get her dead father to see her by planting seeds made me cry! I was also touched by the old lady who didn't even know why the girl planted the seeds but wanted to help her, anyway.



This is a book aimed at young adults, but I don't think you have to be a teenager to enjoy it. I think it is the perfect little story to read in February as you are preparing to resurrect your own garden.


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The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci

The Plain Janes is a graphic novel published by Minx, which is the DC Comics imprint aimed toward teenage girls. The story is about a girl named Jane who survives a bombing of a cafe in her city. This freaks her parents out so much that they move the family to a small suburban town. She immediately identifies with a group of misfit girls and sets about making friends with them, while trying to make sense of what happened to her. The main way Jane manages to cope is through art and beautifying the world around her.

I have three daughters and a son and they all like this book. It is a quick read, but that doesn't meant it isn't deep. This book touches on a lot of issues without beating the kids over the head with them -- fitting in, showing kindness to strangers, and dealing with fear, to name a few. The art is black and white, crisp and clear. I'm not a fan of the hairy R. Crumb/Harvey Pekar underground art style, and this is the opposite of that.

The book has a tentative ending. It is conclusive enough to feel like an ending, but there is still a vague feeling that there should be more story. It isn't the cliff-hanger ending that you get with a standard comic book, but it does leave you wanting to spend more time with these characters. I guess that is good because there is already a second book, Janes in Love. I've read that a total of five books are planned, and I say bring 'em on!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist is an example of the different levels within the genre of young adult novels. Oftentimes I believe that if a book is labeled YA, then it is safe reading material for my 15-year-old and doesn't require a pre-reading by me. I forget that there is a wide range of suitability within the YA genre, just as there is in the world of adult novels. This book definitely belongs on the adult end of the young adult shelf.

The story, authored collaboratively by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, is done in an alternating "he said, she said" style. It chronicles the meeting of a bass player and the daughter of a record company executive at a nightclub and the all-night adventure that follows. They both are trying to get over their exes, who also showed up at the same club. Will Nick and Norah let themselves fall in love, or will they go a-begging back to their former lovers?

This is the kind of book that I would have read when I was 18 and thought that it made me cooler than my peers. The prose has that hip, mile-a-minute, name-dropping cadence that is familiar to fans of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Gilmore Girls. It is the sort of writing that makes you feel like you are in with the In Crowd if you get all the references, but also makes you feel totally behind the times if you don't.

Another aspect that would be totally over my daughter's head is all the talk about sex. A major part of the text is devoted to how Norah feels about her sex life and her embarrassing lack of experience. I'm not necessarily a prude; my girl M is going to be 16 in a few weeks and I have been slowly introducing her to more mature books and movies. On her own, though, she tends to keep herself out of the deep end of the pool. In the parlance of this book, M is a straight edge. I honestly don't think she would understand much of it.

Bottom line? Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is a quick and enjoyable read about that lovely and confusing rush of emotions at the beginning of a new relationship. As far as being YA, I think it stretches the boundaries of that genre. It reminds me a bit of the British show Skins, which is about teenagers but not something most parents would let a teenager watch. I know that I will be waiting a few years before I hand this book to M.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The title of Neil Gaiman's latest novel for kids was confusing to me until I saw the acknowledgments at the end. When Gaiman said that he owed a debt of gratitude to Rudyard Kipling, the title made more sense. Kipling's The Jungle Book was about a boy raised by animals and Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is about a boy raised by ghosts.

The story starts with a toddler whose family is killed (don't worry, the murder is not described in detail). He manages to get away from the murderer and wanders into the neighboring graveyard, which has been closed to new burials for over 30 years and is now a nature preserve. The spirit of his mother manages to ask the other ghosts to protect her baby before she disappears. As the saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child." In this novel, it happens to be a village of ghosts.

The book reads like a series of short stories. The boy, nicknamed Bod, can't leave the graveyard because the man who killed his family is still on a mission to find him. So each chapter jumps ahead to a different stage in his life. The reader sees Bod when is he is five, then when he is eight, then ten, then fifteen years old. He has a foot in both worlds so he learns how to read and write as well as how to haunt people. At first is seems as though the mystery of who Bod is and why someone would still want kill him after all these years will not be solved, but it all comes together in the end.

The Graveyard Book is sadder than I expected it to be, although there are some amusing bits. It is recommended for ages 9-12, but I think some kids in that age range might be too sensitive to read it. The loss of parents and friends would be too much for at least one of my kids. However, if your kid loves a little spookiness in her books, give this one a try.

Taking the New Classics Challenge

When I was a preteen who carried a book everywhere she went, it was way before the internet and blogging were mainstream. Now that I am reading more often, I am pleasantly surprised to find that there are tons of blogs devoted to this pursuit. Last week, I discovered a popular blogging activity called a reading challenge. Someone comes up with guidelines and a timetable to read a certain category of books, and other bloggers sign up. It reminds me of knit-alongs, another activity that has traveled through the blogosphere like wildfire.

So to dip my toe into the online book-enthusiast waters, I am going to take up the New Classics Challenge. The list was compiled by Entertainment Weekly as part of their EW 1000, a list of new classics in various media from the past 25 years. The challenge is to read six books from the list that you haven't read before by the end of the year. I've included the entire list below with the ones I've completed in bold type:

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

I was disheartened, but not truly surprised, to find that I hadn't read very many of the books on this list (7 out of 100). Many of them are of little interest to me because they sound depressing. However, I managed to find six titles out of the bunch that I will try to finish before 31 January 2009:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book)
Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
On Beauty
Love in the Time of Cholera

I tried to pick the least depressing books on the list. I don't mind shedding tears at the end of a good book, but I dislike a sad and unsatisfying ending that haunts me for days. I'll be reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao first because I already have it. Wish me luck!

The more exotic, the better?

At times, the fact that something comes from another country makes it seem more glamorous or of a higher quality than it really is. For instance, I am in the middle of watching a British TV series on DVD that is of the "Murder She Wrote" or "Matlock" mystery variety. This type of show would normally not be on my viewing schedule, but throw in a few British accents and I am captivated. There are times, however, when I am reminded that schlock can come from any country.

My daughter M has become interested in manga and has been borrowing books from some of the guys on her bus. I decided to pick up a couple random volumes to see what she was reading. (I do try to put in a few hours on the "good mom" side from time to time.) The first one was Midori Days. Even my attraction to Asian culture would not allow me to gloss over the fact that this is a series aimed at the gross humor of 13-year-old boys.

Midori Days is about a teenage boy named Seiji who longs to have a girlfriend. Since he is seen as a bit of a tough guy, none of the girls will have anything to do with him. His right hand is even nicknamed "the devil's right hand" because he has such a powerful punch. One morning, he wakes up and finds that his right hand has turned into a tiny naked girl. It turns out that while Seiji was wishing for a girlfriend, there was a girl named Midori at another school who had been pining for him. Midori became so sad about not having Seiji that she fell into a coma and her spirit turned into a miniature version of herself attached to Seiji's right arm.

As you can imagine, having a live girl attached to your right arm is a perfect set-up for all sorts of infantile jokes. There are stories showing Seiji's growing affection for Midori, but they are stuck in between stories about Seiji trying to take a bath or use the bathroom without Midori seeing his boy bits. Let's not forget the problems of finding clothes to fit a tiny naked girl. Even the real Midori is naked. If your child is in a coma and you are going to have different doctors coming in to check her, wouldn't you put a nightgown on her? I mean, come on. I made M return this without reading it. I would not recommend it.

Light reading?

I have three poetry books sitting on my bedside table. I have a list of classics that I should read. Yet, in the midst of my post-Potter depression, I don't feel like tackling any of that. It all seems so heavy.

What do I want to read? I long for a good old-fashioned girl book. Something written by Janet Lambert or Elizabeth Headley. Something with a title like "Cherry Ames, Student Nurse". Something light from a bygone era with a happy ending. Often they are unrealistic and politically incorrect, but I love reading these precursors to girls' series like The Babysitters' Club.

Unfortunately, my local library cleared out those sorts of books years ago. I guess I can thank the local librarians for saving me from myself. Onward to Jane Austen, I suppose.

Weeping over the end of a series

I have paused my assault on the classics to participate in the final ritual of the Harry Potter phenomenon. In other words, I'm reading the last book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I've never participated in any of the hoopla surrounding Harry Potter: the websites, the midnight release parties, the cosplay. My interest has been confined to the actual books and the movies based on them. I enjoyed the thought of so much hoopla over a series of books, though. That kind of spectacle is usually reserved for TV shows or movies. It was interesting to see millions of people rushing to get a book in their hands.

Anyway, I'm only halfway through "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and I've found myself crying more than I did with the previous six. I don't think it would be a spoiler to say that there are more passages describing feelings of grief and loss in this book than in the rest of the series. Could it be that I am just reacting to that? I wonder if there is also a little sadness at the fact that this is the last book mingled in there. It has always been difficult for me to get to the end of a series. When you spend so much time with characters, it is hard to let them go.

My next task will be to figure out what to read after this. Should I try to find a book in a similar style to ease the transition? If I read another book involving magic right away, it might suffer in comparison. Perhaps I should go for a totally different genre. I don't know if I want to dive into a 19th-century classic right away, though. I think I'm looking for a non-fantasy book in 20th-century language. I'm sure I shouldn't have too much trouble finding that :-).

Book Review: "I Am The Messenger"

Ed Kennedy, the main character of this young adult novel, is an unlikely choice for a hero. He is a 19-year-old stuck in a dead-end job with no apparent desire to make a change.

He lives in a shack with a stinky dog that he inherited from his father, an alcoholic who died recently. Ed spends his free time playing cards with friends who also seem to lack motivation. He has no love life to speak of, unless you count his hopeless pining for his best friend Audrey. Yet the role of hero is thrust upon Ed when he happens to stop a bank robbery. A mysterious entity notices him and that's when the cryptic assignments start arriving, written on aces pulled from a deck of cards.

Given the setting, this story could have been depressing. Thankfully, it wasn't. Ed's relationships with his friends are the kind that many of us have had at one time or another. As long as everyone shows up to play cards at the appointed time, he doesn't ask too many questions. The snippy exchanges between Ed and his mother ring true, as well. She yells, he accepts it. She's always been that way, so he just overlooks it. Ed knows his life isn't great, but he isn't exactly wallowing in self-pity.

The tasks that Ed is given range from sweet to scary to heartbreaking. The author makes the lesson in each task clear to the reader without being preachy. There is a twist to the ending that may seem frustrating at first, but it becomes more satisfying the longer you sit with it.

This was Mr. Zusak's debut novel and it was originally published in his native Australia in 2002. There is a bit of Australian slang in the book but it isn't too difficult to figure out the meaning from the context. The writing style is conversational; I could hear Ed talking in my head and it flowed naturally.

This novel won the Book of the Year Award from the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2003. I do have to warn parents, though, that this is more of a teen or young-adult book than a children's book. There is one scene in particular that might be frightening to a young girl. There is also some talk of sex that, while not graphic, is certainly frank enough that I wouldn't hand the book to my 14-year-old daughter without being able to discuss it with her.