My Reading Frenzy

What I've Read - What I am Reading - March 15, 2020

I went two weeks again between posts, but have also not been able to carve out as much time for reading, so there are probably as many "reads" and "readings" after 14 days as there usually are after seven. I should have more time this week and am feeling more energetic with the time change. I don't like changing the time twice a year, but I do like sunlight later in the day.

 

 

Read:

• Patina (elibrary book) by Jason Reynolds - I loved seeing the whole track team through Patina's eyes and hearing details about her life that were only ancillary to Ghost's story. I am sorry not to have read this series sooner, but glad to be now. Reynolds has found a really engaging way to draw us into the lives of these four runners. It has taken me some time, but I see how Reynolds likes to explore situations from different perspectives as he did in Look Both Ways. 
• Notes from a Young Black Chef (eaudiobook purchased from Audible) by Kwame Onwuachi - There was so much I did not learn about Onwuachi from watching Top Chef, a point he made in the book, about the way the show is edited to create a persona for each chef that may or may not align with their true personality. His story also caused me to be disappointed that he is no longer a DC chef. 
• I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (purchased Manga) by Yoru Sumino - Think The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews rather than The Walking Dead. I decided it was time to try Manga. Happening upon this book is what made me decide to take the plunge, because the blurb revealed it to be a realistic, almost-romance and the entire story was contained in one volume. I did not want to get myself into an on-going series. I enjoyed the story and appreciated the way manga must be read front to back and each page right to left, then left to right and back again. Once I got the hang of it, it was not an issue and provided an additional layer of mental stimulation.
• Spoiler Alert (egalley) by Olivia Dade - This one takes place in the world of fanfiction and cons (conventions). I purposely chose to read this right after One to Watch because both have been praised for positive portrayal of a plus sized main character. I wanted to compare the approach. I found Dade's characters to be more sophisticated, with more depth. This is in part because there are far fewer characters than the group of bachelors in One to Watch. There were interesting differences in the family dynamic with Bea having a loving family while April's was toxic that added a layer to each woman's expereinces. I also appreciated Dade's clever word play between April and Marcus. This as well as Marcus as a fully fleshed out character made this the novel I liked better, so if you were going to read just one of these I would recommend Spoiler Alert. I am looking forward to Dade's next novel All the Feels, due out in October. I may also look into some of her backlist.

 

Reading:

• A Court of Silver Flames (purchased hardback) by Sarah Maas - I am a bit over halfway finished and enjoying this story immensely. Maas is an excellent storyteller, creating characters I care about and situations that fit well into the sophisticated world she has created.
• Sunny (elibrary book) by Jason Reynolds - Two weeks ago, I was reading Patina, the second in the series, hoping that when it ended, the 3rd book would pick up where it left off. In true Jason Reynolds fashion, he surprised me by revealing what happened in Patina's relay without beginning Sunny's story with hers. This installment may be my favorite so far because I like the use of Sunny's diary entries to tell his story. I also feel more connected to Sunny because the entries show his introspective side which feels familiar to me.

 

Listening:

In order to decide on my next listen, I searched for a list of "best chef memoirs" and found a wonderful list. Many I put on hold at the library or in my Goodreads list, but only found one available when I finished my previous listen. 

• Yes, Chef (library eaudiobook) by Marcus Samuelsson

 

Up Next:

Again, these are at the top of the list, but I have moved books that have come in via library holds as well as new purchases ahead for a few weeks. 

• Lu by Jason Reynolds - This is truly my next read after I finish Sunny because it came in from the library before Sunny and I am in a time crunch.
• The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden - I am eager to read this second installment.
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I read and loved Gideon the Ninth and feel ready for the 2nd book.
• Commonwealth by Ann Patchett - I am making my way through all of Patchett's backlist after being bowled over by The Dutch House. I had previously read Bel Canto at the recommendation of a number of readers, for some reason had not read anything else until recently.
• Four Hundred Souls (purchased hardback) edited by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blair - I think this collection of essays exploring 400 years of the history of African America will be a good companion to read alongside Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Dr. Kendi.

 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

 

 

**A note on the picture. I always use an image from the Prints and Photographs collections of the Library of Congress. I like these because they are interesting, and freely available because they are in the public domain. I mainly choose images of people reading. If you click the image in any of my posts you will be able to see the Library's bibliographic record which includes whatever they know about the image including its creator. There are also usually links to other similar items or to the collection the image is a part of.***

What I've Read - What I am Reading - February 22, 2021

I have been remiss in posting anything here at all, but I am back with an overview of what I have been reading during these long, cold weeks. In addition to what I have read, am reading, and am listening to, I have added an "Up Next" section to preview what I have at the top of my TBR pile.

 

Read:

• The Best of Me (audiobook purchased from Audible) by David Sedaris I am thoroughly enjoying this one. I listened for hours the other day while working on a jigsaw puzzle while the snow fell.

 

• A Rogue of One's Own (egalley) by Evie Dunmore - Yep, romance is my go-to when I need a comfort read. The assurance that it will all work out in the end gets me through the frustrations every time. If only real life were so predictable.

 

• Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King - This is the most recent Mary Russell mystery to have been published. It takes place mainly in Monte Carlo and brings us back to Mrs. Hudson's story. I like these mysteries when I take a break from Elizabeth George and Louise Penny. The more recent novels have not lived up to the fascination I found in the earlier books, but I will keep reading unless they take another downturn. (Next book in the series is due out in June.)

 

• Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness - (library eaudiobook) I have loved watching the revival of Queer Eye over the past five seasons. Jonathan is a force of nature with his positivity and vision for each of their heroes. His book was personal in tone, as if we were sitting together having a chat. 

 

• The Bear and the Nightingale (purchased paperback at a DC independent bookstore) by Katherine Arden - This was recommended to me by a bookseller when I asked for something to follow the Daevabad trilogy. I loved its fairy tale and folklore roots as well as the magical and fierce Vasya. I am looking forward to the continuation of her story in The Girl in the Tower. 

 

• Dangerous Alliance (library ebook) by Jennieke Cohen - Eh, I finished it. The ending was satisfying, but predictable. The rest was also predictable and just ok. 

 

• Deception on His Mind (library ebook) by Elizabeth George - I am moving through these quickly because I can't get enough of definitive mystery solving. But I can take a break now and read one Louise Penny before the next Lynley mystery. This will be seamless, in part, because I have the next George installment in print having found it in a neighborhood Little Free Library and am not therefore beholden to when my library hold comes in.

 

• Fashionopolis (audiobook purchased from Audible) by Dana Thomas - This is not my first read about the dangerous waste associated with fast fashion, but this is the first to give equal time to designers and companies who are trying to shift the industry to sustainable practices. This is an important read for anyone interested in the the environmental impact of clothing production. 

 

• The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win (audiobook purchased from Audible) by Maria Konnikova - I am not sure when I last gave a book 5 stars in Goodreads, but this story earned every star. Wow! I found the mix of poker history, strategies, and play with Konnikova's personal progression to winner to be fascinating. She spends time with poker masters, game theorists, and psychologists as she learns about the world of poker, not only for the book, but also for herself. Some of the most interesting revelations are how what she learns about being successfully at the poker table spills into other areas of her life in positive ways. 

 

• All's Faire in Middle School (purchased paperback) by Victoria Jamieson - While this story does not quite live up to Roller Girl, Jamieson captures the challenges Imogene faces in attending middle school after previously being home schooled, while also exploring the respite the Renaissance Faire provides. This was a fun read.

 

• It Had to Be You (egalley) by Georgia Clark - This was a lovely romance. It could have dived right into some romance tropes, but Clark was able to write the love stories of a new widow, recently out queer woman, and music partners in a way that felt fresh even while the outcomes were expectedly happy.

 

 

Reading:

• Ghost (library ebook) by Jason Reynolds - I realized after watching an online chat between Reynold and Dr. Ibrahim X. Kendi that I have missed a few of Reynolds works, so I am jumping into the Track series with Ghost. I have two others on hold at the library. 

 

 

Listening:

• Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton - I am only about 14 minutes into this listen, but settled in easily as Hamilton explores some of the ways food was important to her family as she grew up in New Hope, PA a town I have loved since high school visits during the annual geology trip. 

 

 

Up Next:

• The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden - see "Read" for my thoughts about the first book in the trilogy. 
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I read and loved Gideon the Ninth and feel ready for the 2nd book.
• Commonwealth by Ann Patchett - I am making my way through all of Patchett's backlist after being bowled over by The Dutch House. I had previously read Bel Canto at the recommendation of a number of readers, for some reason had not read anything else until recently.
• Four Hundred Souls (purchased hardback) edited by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blair - I think this collection of essays exploring 400 years of the history of African America will be a good companion to read alongside Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Dr. Kendi.
• Amari and the Night Brothers (purchased hardback) by B.B. Alston - I admit it, sometimes I buy books for their covers. While the cover is spectacular, as soon as I read that Amari would be dealing with a ticking briefcase from the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, I was in for the premise too. 

 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

 

**A note on the picture. I always use an image from the Prints and Photographs collections of the Library of Congress. I like these because they are interesting, and freely available because they are in the public domain. I mainly choose images of people reading. If you click the image in any of my posts you will be able to see the Library's bibliographic record which includes whatever they know about the image including its creator. There are also usually links to other similar items or to the collection the image is a part of.***

2020 Reading Reflections and Favorites

Wanting to write a post about everything I read in 2020 made me grateful for my diligence in logging everything I read on Goodreads. I was able to pull up my 2020 challenge and look at all the books I read this year, including dates and a look at the cover. I have always told my students the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" applies in many situations as a metaphor, but not when talking about books. Artists, marketers, and salespeople count on book covers being engaging in order to sell them to us. I am highly visual, and almost never buy a book simply for its cover, but the cover does imprint in my brain and help me remember reading it and at least a bit about it, making a walk down book-memory lane much easier. 

 

 

 

 

Here they are - My 2020 favorite reads:

In roughly in the order I read them.

• Happier at Home (eaudiobook from the library) by Gretchen Rubin - I have found valuable takeaways in all of Rubin's books, but this one hit exactly where I needed it to, when I needed it to. It was particularly prescient because I was isolated at home starting in March, not too long after finishing this listen. I was able to incorporate some of her ideas that in turn helped make staying at home less fraught with anxiety.
• Almost American Girl (purchased book) by Robin Ha - While I read this one as soon as it arrived in our library in February, it was not until August that I had the opportunity to watch an online discussion between Ha and Malaka Gharib, author of the graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream hosted by One More Page Books, an independent bookstore in Arlington, VA.
• City of Girls (egalley) by Elizabeth Gilbert - This is a work of historical fiction that takes place in 1940s New York City in the glamourous-ish theatre world. It reminded me very much of Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar with a young hero who longs to be New York theatre star. This year I also read Gilbert's Big Magic (non-fiction) about living a creative life. It just barely missed being on this list, though here it is I suppose. Ha!
• New Kid and Class Act (purchased books then gifted to my niece) by Jerry Craft - New Kid was the 2020 Newbery winner, the first for a graphic novel. Class Act is an equally thought provoking companion.
• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (purchased audiobook from Audible) by Lori Gottlieb - Gottlieb chronicles her therapy journey after a sudden break up, while also sharing details of therapy patients she is seeing. And interesting look at therapy from both perspectives.
• The House in the Cerulean Sea (purchased book) by TJ Klune. This might be my favorite read of the year. It is one of the books I specifically sought at the beginning pandemic related isolation. The story of Linus Baker and the magical children he is seeking to help was a perfect mix of humor, heartbreak, and fantasy. I want to read it again to savor all the delights of the family they all become.  
• Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series (purchased book) by Jesse Dougherty - One of my most missed 2020 activities was baseball. We are and have been Washington Nationals fans, which made 2019 the culmination of 14 years of hopes with our first World Series win. It was tremendously disappointing to be deprived of all the celebrations that should have come at the beginning of the 2020 season. Dougherty's book came to me just when teams were cancelling spring training and the season was put on hold indefinitely. I derived great comfort from reliving the triumphant season through this book. I also had the opportunity to hear Dougherty discuss writing the book in  a live Twitter talk.
• Kingdom of the Blind (purchased book) by Louise Penny - Penny's mysteries get better and more sophisticated with every book. This one was particularly satisfying because it finished out a significant story arc. There are two books after this one, which I have not read. I try to stay a bit behind her publications so I do not run out. I have one with me in FL to read soon.
• A Banquet of Consequences (elibrary book) by Elizabeth George - I have found mysteries a great comfort during the pandemic, perhaps for the way they end with the solving of the crime. I read 8 Lynley mysteries this year, but this was my favorite.
• The Goldfinch (eaudiobook from the library) by Donna Tartt - I loved Tartt's The Secret History, I was less enamored of The Little Friend. The Goldfinch was wonderful. I listened to it because I balked at sitting with such a long book. In retrospect I would have torn through it, probably faster than I was able to listen. I had to pause twice because the audiobook was due back at the library before I could finish. In the end, I was on edge for most of it after the initial disaster, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. It did, in spectacular fashion. I loved it.
• Magic Lessons (egalley) by Alice Hoffman - I saw the movie Practical Magic when it came out in 1998, having no idea it was based on a book, which I just read in 2019. I followed in 2020 with the others in the family of books, but this was my favorite, with its overtones of The Scarlet Letter.
• Untamed (eaudiobook from the library) by Glennon Doyle - This was my favorite non-fiction read/listen of the year. Doyle is amazing. She shares her own story in all her books, but somehow is also able to tap into the ways we all feel weak and not enough in our own situations, but then she offers badass wisdom to build us up. I like this one so much I also purchased this book to re-read and re-visit.
• Daevabad Trilogy (purchased books) by SA Chakraborty - Like I sometimes do, I rejected these books because they were too popular, everyone was reading them, I was going to be different. I am a fool because I LOVED them all. The benefit however of my stubborness is having been able to read all three books in a row without waiting. 
• The Year of Living Danishly (eaudiobook from the library) by Helen Russell - Having never lived outside the United States, I appreciated Russell's thorough exploration of her temporary (or so she thought) country. The book is organized by months, beginning when she arrives in January. She explores, in depth, 12 different facets of life in Denmark from work to motherhood to eating to winter to traditions. This detailed look at moving and living in another country was intriguing.
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (purchased book) by Garth Nix - I have raved about this one more than once. It was definitely ending up on this list.
• Return of the Thief (purchased book) by Megan Whalen Turner - While I really liked how Turner wrapped up this six book series, reading it was an important reminder that sometimes it is a good idea to re-read earlier books.
• The Witches are Coming (eaudiobook from the library) by Lindy West - I recently listened to Shit, Actually, West's most recent publication, but this one is so far my favorite of hers. I need regular feminist commentary in my life so I do not get complacent. 
• A Promised Land (purchased audiobook from Audible) by Barack Obama - I was so eager for this one, I pre-ordered the audiobook. I spent much of the book lamenting the loss of dignity and integrity in the White House. (I am looking forward to their return next week.) But I also learned about aspects of law making and running for office I had not known. 

 

What were your 2020 favorite reads?

 

Some 2020 Reading Reflections (based on all my reading, not just my favorites)

1. I need more diversity in authors, particularly in non-fiction. I don't feel I need to diversify in genre as I read:

• fantasy
• science fiction
• literary fiction
• historical fiction
• romance
• mystery
• non-fiction 

In all of the above I read adult as well as YA and some middle grade (mostly realistic). There were also MANY graphic novels and comics in my reading year. These tended to be memoirs, realistic, and fantasy. I will admit I avoid horror, thrillers, crime. They just take the intensity of a mystery up a notch too far for me. 

2. I want to try to tackle more of my TBR this year rather than jumping immediately to new publications. I make no promises about this one. If I decide however that I am most satisfied when I read newer releases, I need to cull my physical shelves of older books I may never get to. They should find a home with someone else.

 

What reflections do you have on your 2020 reading life? What are you looking forward to in 2021?

 

What I've Read - What I am Reading - January 11, 2021

The Beautiful Capitol Building in more peaceful times

I disappeared for a while. Between prepping to be away from home for the next few months and the holidays, I let the blog posts languish. But I am back with renewed inspiration and reading goals.

In my previous reading update, I was nearing my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 185 books, I ended 2020 having read 189. That last week of the year, the time between Christmas and New Year's is a reading heavy time for me. My next post will review my favorite 10-15 reads of 2020. 

I have relocated from DC to FL for some time, no firm plans at this point, but one goal is to avoid seeing live snow this year. I do love being inside and cozy, watching snow falling. (I dislike when it hangs around making walking the sidewalks a slushy obstacle course.) One of my most favorite walks is around the Capitol Building while it is snowing or just after it stops when the whole world is quiet. (The events of the past week, the desecration of this temple of democracy is heart breaking. I shed copious tears watching and reading about the invasion and attempts by some to thwart the democratic process with terroristic methods. I make no apologies for these strong words.) 

 

Read:

December 2020

• Holly Black's How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (purchased book) - I have not read anything by Holly Black that wasn't fantastic. If you are just starting her work, I would recommend The Curse Workers series that begins with White Cat or her most recent The Folk of the Air series that begins with The Cruel Prince. The stand-alone The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is also a favorite of mine.
• I finished A Promised Land by President Barack Obama (purchased from Audible) before driving to FL. I find Obama's voice pleasant to listen to. Add to this, my preference for non-fiction read by the author and this was a 5 star read for me. This is the first of two books about his Presidency. This volume ends with the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. With this installment coming in at 768 pages and ending before the end of his first term, I wonder if he will move more quickly through 2012-2016. I anticipate a fair bit of reflection on his entire presidency at the end of the 2nd book. Whatever the case, I will again purchase and listen.
• Super Fake Love Song (purchased book) by David Yoon - I almost stopped reading this around chapter 3. Early in the novel, Yoon uses some stereotypes of students who play sports, students who prioritize their academics, and musical students that I disliked. I was also turned off by the portrayal of teachers as indifferent at best and hostile at worst. As a high school educator I can speak from experience when I say these types have been a minority in schools where I have worked. But, I chalked Sunny's attitude up to self-absorption and moved on. I am glad to say my faith in Yoon was well placed as Sunny's story progressed. 
• Christmas at the Island Hotel (elibrary book) by Jenny Colgan - This was a well-timed read just before Christmas. Colgan's novels are not without conflict and angst, but the characters are engaging, the settings serve as integral to the characters and their relationships, and the resolutions are satisfying.
• The City Baker's Guide to Country Living (elibrary book) by Louise Miller - I can't rave about this one because of some unrealistic coincidences that served to move the plot along. But I read the whole book and did not feel like I wasted my time. 
• Carry On Warrior (library audiobook) by Glennon Doyle - I have read Doyle's books in reverse chronological order after starting with Untamed (I bought this audiobook and WILL listen to it again now I have finished all her books.)
• Second First Impressions (egalley) by Sally Thorne - This is the 3rd and final book I will read by Thorne. My first was The Hating Game, which I gave 3 stars. Next was 99 Percent Mine, which I did not finish. This one was a 2 star read. The dialogue is unrealistic and choppy. The story was boring and the characters only prompted indifference. 
• For Everyone (library audiobook) by Jason Reynolds - This isn't really a book, but a long poem. It is self-reflective for Reynolds but contains nuggets of wisdom for everyone about living a creative life. I listened to his reading but am planning to buy the print version to reread and reference. 
• The Cold Millions (ebook purchase) by Jess Walter - I agreed to read this novel in order to participate in a small book club with two friends. I read Beautiful Ruins a few years ago, but was unsure about this one because of references to violence in the book's description. I am happy to have given it a try. I don't always like novels that switch from character to character, but these interwoven stories in early 1900s Spokane, Washington were well-balanced and paced. I am looking forward to our Zoom meet up to discuss. The history was also intriguing enough to push me to further research, which is not always the case.

 

January 2021

• Act Your Age, Eve Brown (egalley) by Talia Hibbert - I am disappointed there are no more sisters in the Brown family. I hope Hibbert will discover some cousins whose stories need to be told. Funny, romantic, and satisfyingly realistic are three ways I would describe all three of Hibbert's stories of the Brown sisters. [Get a Life, Chloe Brown (#1) and Take a Hint, Dani Brown (#2) - Though there is no need to read these in order.]
• The Lost Love Song (egalley) by Minnie Darke - I read Darke's debut Star-Crossed last January and liked it enough to recommend and send through the mail to a friend. I don't read too many books that take place in Australia, so I appreciate the change of scenery. This one has a number of settings including Edinburgh, which are an element of the story of the lost love song. I liked this one better than the first in part because of the larger cast of characters who are caught up in the story of the song. (An interesting companion read would be Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano.) 
• "The Prince and the Troll" by Rainbow Rowell and "Hazel and Gray" by Nic Stone. These are part of a series of five short stories by YA authors that reimagine classic fairy tales. The other three are "The Princess Game" by Soman Chainani, "The Cleaners" by Ken Liu, and "The Wickeds" by Gayle Forman. I purchased all five stories before their release and am looking forward to finishing the series in the next few weeks. So far I like the innovative twists on tales many of us know well.
• Ready Player Two (library audiobook) by Ernest Cline. Like many others, I LOVED Ready Player One, which I listened to early in my re-discovery of audiobooks after a year or two hiatus. Wil Wheaton, King of the Nerds, was well chosen to read both books and a primary reason I chose to wait for the audiobook from the library. Having just finished listening to this over the weekend, I am still not sure how I feel about it. It was slow to get going with lots of review. I needed it, having read the book when it was released in 2011 and have not seen the movie, but this means it took almost 4 hours into the book before the inciting incident. The action section of the novel was the strongest for me. The ending is where I just cannot decide. I don't think I liked it, but that does not mean it wasn't an appropriate end. 
• Fangirl Manga volume 1 - by Rainbow Rowell, adapted by Sam Maggs, illustrated by Gabi Nam - This is the 1^st of 4 planned volumes and so far I am enjoying the visual adaptation, which I wasn't sure would work...but it does. The story line and dialogue align with the novel so unless a reader is a big fan as I am, there is no need to read both. 
• The Good, The Bad, and the Dumped by Jenny Colgan (elibrary book) - This was an early book by Colgan that seems to have been re-released. I finished the read, but was tempted more than once to stop. This is an example of an author growing and improving with each book. If you are interested in Colgan's work I would recommend staring with the Little Beach Street books or the Scottish Bookshop books.
• Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory by Deena Kastor. I am just finishing this while I am polishing up this post. I started listening on the drive to FL a few weeks ago and have continued both in the car and at home. I was attracted to Kastor's story after listening to What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. I ran my first 5K in October of 2019 in Baltimore after taking up running more seriously at the beginning of 2019 to support a friend who was planning a 10K for her 60^th birthday. The 10K was meant to take place in Richmond in April 2020, which happened only as a virtual event. I chose to defer my registration to the April 2021 event, but depending on vaccine distribution, it may be October 2021 before I participate in another race. Whatever happens I have found inspiration in listening to others talk about their running lives. I doubt I will move past a 10K, but who knows what my running future holds.

 

 

Reading:

• I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow when I was in Florida in April. I think many of the books I read back when I naively believed the COVID isolation period would be short will stick with me because they were of comfort or engagement when we were trying to figure out how to modify our lives to be safe. I began reading Harrow's recently published The Once and Future Witches (egalley) a few weeks ago, but took a break to read other books from the library. I have not gone back yet because it did not draw me in strongly. I am intrigued enough that I will try again before I forget the part I have already read.
• After resisting the call of a book I had decided NOT to read for any good reason at all, I started Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. There's no reason to dwell on regrets for having not picked it up sooner. But I am glad to be reading now. The banter between Gideon and her life-long enemy Harrow is a perfect mix of snarky and mean. Rich with detail the descriptions still fly by as Muir builds this world. 
• Angel Mage (library ebook) by Garth Nix - This is the second of Nix's stand alone novels I am reading after loving The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. The first was Newt's Emerald. I have his The Old Kingdom series on deck for later in the winter, which begins with Sabriel.

 

Listening:

• Since I just finished my previous listen, I have not started another yet. I will need to decide soon for my planned afternoon walk. I am wavering between two. 1. Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith. I saw her live when this book was released. I have listened to her read both Just Kids and M Train finding that I love her laid back style. This one is a short 4.5 hour listen. Might be perfect for a week of walking. 2. The Best of Me by David Sedaris. His work is always hilarious and also read by him but hard to listen to at the gym with other people around since it is only ever a matter of time before I snort laugh aloud. 

 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

**A note on the picture. I always use an image from the Prints and Photographs collections of the Library of Congress. I like these because they are interesting, and freely available because they are in the public domain. I mainly choose images of people reading. If you click the image in any of my posts you will be able to see the Library's bibliographic record which includes whatever they know about the image including its creator. There are also usually links to other similar items or to the collection the image is a part of.***

Is it ok to skip the classics?

This is really a two part question: 

Should we read and study the classics as part of coursework at colleges and universities or as independent readers?        YES!

Should we teach the classics to high school students?        It depends.

(I believe this for the classics of any language or culture, though my experience is with and examples are from American and British literature.)

 

 

 

 

Benefits of reading the classics (from my point of view):

*Please note: The examples I provide come from my experience as an English major, English teacher in the United States, and independent reader and are in no way meant to trace the history of literature in a comprehensive way

• To gain an understanding of the origins of the writings of a country or culture 
  • Beowulf
  • Gilgamesh
  • The Iliad and The Odyssey
• To experience the progression of those writings through the ages
  
  • Shakespeare's plays and poems
  • The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi's poetry
  • Religious texts such as the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Qur'an, the Bhagavad Gita
  • The ideas of the early Greek and Roman philosophers
• To experience the products of great thinkers and writers
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Thomas Hardy
  • Jane Austen
  • Gabriel García Márquez
  • Franz Kafka
  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Margaret Fuller
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • The Brontë sisters
  • George Eliot
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Oscar Wilde

The dangers of the classics are that too often the lists that make up the canon are missing works by marginalized voices including women and people of color, they are not necessarily well-written, and the context in which they were written is often lost on contemporary readers, especially teens. Additionally, when we force students to read texts we have chosen because we think they will be "good for them" we remove the freedom of choice that leads people to become life-long readers. If one of the goals of literature courses is to instill a love of reading, asking students to read what we have chosen from a list of books that are far removed from their experiences and context will not work.

Classics I would toss out:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - Holden is whiny and angsty. This however is typical of many novels featuring teens who are lost and traumatized. What I think is harmful are Holden's attitudes toward homosexuality. There are many contemporary novels that deal with the same topics and themes as Catcher that take place in an era more relevant to today's teens without the problematic parts. Alternatives: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky or The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (there are others, but these are two I have read)
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Only twice in my career did I teach this novel. Both times I was bothered by the use of the "n-word" but did not know how to undertake a conversation with my students about the problems of the novel. That oversight was a weakness in my teaching. But, I was also incensed by the behavior of Tom Sawyer in the last section of the book when he knows that Jim has been freed in Widow Douglas's will. Instead of jubilantly sharing this information immediately, Tom decides to plan an elaborate escape for his own entertainment, thus subjecting Jim to additional unnecessary captivity and emotional turmoil. We can have honest conversations about the history of slavery and racism in the United States with better books. Alternatives: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass or Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - This has many of the same problems as Huckleberry Finn, but adds the classism evident in the portrayal of the Ewell family. Alternatives: To encourage conversations about racial injustice, Monster by Walter Dean Myers or All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brandon Kiely. To encourage conversations about sexual assault, Speak (fiction) or Shout (non-fiction) by Laurie Halse Anderson or The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.

There are a number of other novels I would take out of the high school curriculum for a variety of reasons such as Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (literary blasphemy, I know), and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I may write another post about these, or just ask why if you are interested.

 

 

Classics I would keep teaching:

• The novels 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell and the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller - All three of these works were written to address events witnessed by their authors. Orwell's predictions about our lives under surveillance by our government as well as the rise of communism and fascism have relevance here and now. Miller's play about metaphorical and literal witch hunts is far too relevant to current events. Another contemporary classic I would add here is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. (I would not read this one with freshman or sophomores, but I think juniors and seniors have the maturity to have meaningful conversations about the novel.)
• Any of Jane Austen's novels with Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma as first choices - Austen's commentary on society and the mores that unfairly target women and anyone not of the upper class are still relevant today. Students may feel removed from the time period, but the themes are fresh. If Austen's work seems too removed for students alternatives are: Pride by Ibi Zoboi or Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal.
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Anyone who knows me well knows this is my favorite novel. It is not without problems, but it is beautifully written with a tight structure. I believe it also offers opportunities to discuss sexism, sexual double-standards, hypocrisies of religion, as well as being a portrait of a resilient woman and single mother.
• The Importance of Being Ernest and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I have previously discussed my love of Wilde's satire. I believe the personal relationships, humor, and word play in Ernest are accessible to modern students. Dorian Gray offers a more insidious, but equally compelling look at the superficialities of society.
• Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - This is a novel I first read as a senior in high school, then again in college, and then chose to teach to AP Literature seniors. I have always loved it. Hardy was ahead of his time. Tess is trapped between the old and new worlds in ways that leave her without the resources to thrive in either. Her experiences with hypocrisy, stigmatization of sexual behaviors, and learned helplessness serve to set her up for unhappiness and failure whatever choices she makes. (I am not doing this justice. I would love to go back into an English class to read this again with students.) If I were to teach a course on early feminist literature I would use this and The Scarlet Letter as two texts written by male authors in conversation with Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Indiana by George Sand among others.

 

 

What are the classic works you would toss out? Which would you keep?

What I've Read - What I am Reading - October 19, 2020

This was not a great week for reading as we spent a ton of time at the house painting, fixing, scrubbing, sweeping, trashing, and recycling to get it ready to sell.  

 

Read:

I read Megan Whalen Turner's 6th book in The Thief series, Return of the Thief, a book, among others, which I have been looking forward to seeing published. While this was certainly worth the wait, 3 years is too long for me to go between series books. My only dissatisfaction with this final in the series is that there were too many details it would have been helpful to have remembered from the previous book. My own fault of course. I could have reread or tried to find a detailed summary filled with spoilers, but I didn't, so I went into this one without enough recollection and therefore felt a little lost at times. I'd like to reread all six books sometime because I loved them all individually and think the continuity would make them even more powerful.

I also read Serpentine by Philip Pullman, which I thought was a novella. It was a short story in a lovely little illustrated book. I read it twice. The author's note at the end indicated that the ideas just kept pushing at him so he went ahead and wrote it. The story is about Lyra and Pan after The Subtle Knife during which (spoiler ahead) they separate without dying, though it is painful. This new characteristic of their relationship will change the way they experience the world. 

I also finished listening to The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. I did quite a bit of listening while I was painting.

 

Reading:

I found myself with a few down moments over the past week, with only my Kindle on hand so I started The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I sought this book on NetGalley after having read How to Stop Time. I would have discussed this one in my post on time-travel books if it had not been focused on two of my favorite authors of the sub-genre rather than all the time-travel works I have read.

Tonight I will leap back in to The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty to finish this week.

 

Listening:

I started Meaty by Samantha Irby. This is one of her earlier titles, but she says in a forward that the essays have been re-edited and polished up for this re-release. So far it is just as hilarious as I had expected. M. asked a few times why my painting was so funny. I think he might like her work.

I am not sure what is up next after this listen. Any suggestions?

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

What I am Looking Forward to Being Published in 2020 and 2021

Because I have a NetGalley account, I have the opportunity to read books before they are released. Access to NetGalley is available to librarians, educators, booksellers, and bloggers as a way to offer e-gallies to those who are in a position to purchase and recommend books to others. As a librarian and blogger I both buy books for my collection and talk to students about new books I think they will like. And write about what I have read and am reading here.  

NetGalley offers many books, I cannot read everything I have access to. I try to prioritize by reading those I am thinking about purchasing for the collection followed by books in which I have a personal interest. Often new books fit both categories. The site asks members to give feedback by answering a few quick questions with the option to link to an online review or comment directly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books I am looking forward to in 2020:

• Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (October 6): (Ok, so I am three days late on this one, but I wanted to include it anyway because - Eugenides! If you know him from the other books you know why this matters. If not, I suggest starting with the first book. This new one is the 6th in The Thief series that started in 1996. 
• Swamp Thing: Twin Branches by Maggie Stiefvater, illustrated by Morgan Beem (October 13): This is Stiefvater's first graphic novel. I am looking forward to how she handles a different format. Stiefvater is another author whose work I will always buy because I want to revisit and remember regularly.
• His Dark Materials: Serpentine by Philip Pullman (October 15- Yes, a Thursday.): In this novella, Pullman brings us the story of Lyra and her daemon Pan after the events of The Amber Spyglass during which their relationship was fundamentally changed. (No spoilers here.) I am excited for any return to Lyra's Oxford and it is nice to have this while waiting for the 3rd installment in the Book of Dust trilogy (for which there is currently no release date) AND it is illustrated by Tom Duxbury.
• Giant Days - Volume 14 by John Allison and Max Sarin (October 27): Graduation time is here so this will be the last volume of adventures for Esther, Daisy, and Susan (though she still has a few more years of medical school to go). This volume contains a post-graduation story. I wonder if they are experimenting to see if readers want more or if a graceful end is better.
• Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon (November 17): I am happy that Frankly in Love was well received so Yoon could publish another novel. This is also a rom-com in which Sunny tells a lie to impress a girl and hi-jinx ensue.
• How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air) by Holly Black (November 24): This is a prequel to The Cruel Prince, exploring Cardan's days as child in Elfhame. Black is one of my "always" authors. As in, I will always purchase her work because I want to keep her books on my shelf AND this one is illustrated by Covina Rai.
• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (November 24): I loved Ready Player One, therefore I am apprehensive about this one. I don't envy any author who publishes a book that is loved by so many since the pressure to produce an equally fantastic sequel is massive. I did not like his second book Armada, but am hopeful that a return to the world of Ready Player One is better. 

 

 

Books I am looking forward to in 2021:

• Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (March 9): This is the 3rd in trilogy about three sisters. I read the second book Take a Hint, Dani Brown before the first Get a Life, Chloe Brown. There were a few details from the first book in the second, but that did not prevent me from understanding and enjoying the story. I just went back and read the first and everything was cleared up.
• A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport (March 2): Newport is the author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism along with a regular blog and now a podcast.
• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (May 25)- I started with Daisy Jones and the Six then found The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I may jump into more of her back list while waiting for May. I don't know too much about this one, but the blurb says it starts at a party thrown by four siblings.
• Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson (April 6)- Lawson's books are hilarious and healing and a reminder that so many are living with chronic illness or mental health concerns AND she just opened an independent bookstore the Nowhere Bookshop. Both Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy were fabulous to listen to as Lawson reads them. I am so looking forward to this one I will probably use an Audible credit for it.
• The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious) by Maureen Johnson (April 27): Stevie Bell solved the mystery of the century in the Truly Devious trilogy but now there is strange goings-ons at Camp Wonder Falls and the owner asks Stevie for help. I like the idea of an on-going YA mystery series since I read so many of these sorts of books.
• The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (August 17): I like to read romance for the happy ending. The challenges in getting there are what make the reading interesting. Both The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test took the romance tropes and mixed them up with diverse characters and unexpected twists for two charming, unpredictable stories. I think this one will be just as satisfying.

 

What new books are you looking forward to?

What I've Read - What I am Reading - September 21, 2020

This week was more busy than I was expecting, but I had some satisfying reading time anyway.

 

Read:

Late in the week I finished The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai. It was a relatively quick read, but one I almost did not finish. Had it been more difficult to read or longer I might have abandoned it, but I persevered and ended up finding it to be just ho hum. The main character is a children's librarian in Hannibal, MO. She is the weak link in the story. She just wasn't interesting to me. This is why I don't like to do traditional reviews. A character who was difficult for me might not be an issue for another reader. The other main character was Ian who I liked quite a bit. Finding out how the story ended for him is why I stuck with it. 

On Wednesday I picked up a bag of books from school from the carts of new arrivals. I jumped in right away to the graphic novels and read Giant Days: Volumes 10 and 11 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell. Also in my bag was The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown. It is the story of Isabel and Jane, conjoined twins in the 1920s whose parents sell them to a "freak" show where they perform as the Extraordinary Peabody Sisters until a doctor, looking for fame tries to separate them and only one survives. The details about the traveling side show life were well researched and the art was simple but effective for the story being told.          

When I signed into my DC public library account early in the week, I discovered a book that was about to be due that I had not even cracked yet. Eep!  So I read We Met in December by Rosie Curtis over the past two days. It was a fairly standard London romance. My favorite parts were when the two main characters Jess and Alex would amble around London seeing sites and visiting nooks and coffee shops. It was nice to revisit places I have been with them and note down new places for another visit. 

 

Reading:

I am continuing to read The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty because I want to savor this last book in the trilogy. 

I also started A Suitable Vengeance by Elizabeth George, the next in the Inspector Lynley series. I don't usually read the same author's mysteries so close together, but this one came up from the library more quickly than I was expecting and is due back in about a week. 

 

Listening:

I finished Dreams from My Father, written and read by Barack Obama. I voted for and supported Obama as president but this book revealed many things about his early life that I had not known. His early commitment to racial equality is impressive. I also learned a lot about his family, which is diverse and spread around the world. 

My next listen is Eat a Peach by chef David Chang. So far it is an interesting hop and skip through his early life. Since he is from northern Virginia he references many places and characteristics of the area that are spot on about local food, schools, and towns. He has just started describing how and why he started his first restaurant. I have no interest in going into the restaurant business, but I am fascinated by its inner workings from having watched every season of Top Chef and listened previously to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

Yes, comics and graphic novels are REAL reading.

I am not the first writer, nor will I be the last to make the case for the legitimacy of comics and graphic novels as "real" reading.

• "Raising Super Readers: Benefits of Comic Books & Graphic Novels" from Scholastic 
• "The Power of Comics" from the International Literacy Association

The reason I am writing about a topic that has been addressed by experts in reading and the ways our brains get involved in different types of reading is because even colleagues of my own, high school English teachers AND librarians sometimes still want to debate if students are really benefiting when they read comics and other graphic works, which leads them to forbid graphic stories as choice or free reading in the classroom. I believe this is harmful to students who need opportunities to read what they choose rather than what has been assigned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's start with the difference between comics and graphic novels:

from "The Power of Comics" -

"Stylistically, comics and graphic novels are very similar. Comic books are usually about 24 pages and are released in single issues usually once or twice a month. These individual books often form an ongoing story that spans several issues. Like TV shows, they are published regularly and collected in what are called trades. Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Bone are all popular examples of comics.

Graphic novels are basically longer versions of comics. Usually, graphic novels tell one full story and can be a couple hundred pages long. Examples include Amulet, The Witch Boy, and Smile."

 

There is also a fabulous book called Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, who is a graphic novelist, in which he covers in great detail how visual communication works and the ways in which artists use pictures and words to convey meaning.

When I began reading comics, my first was the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. The series was published between 1989-1996, but I did not read any of them until they were complete and I could get them in trade paperback form. I like reading comics this way because I am not usually able to acquire the next installment every month and fall behind. I would prefer to read them quickly to remember the story line. The books tell the story of Dream and his fellow Endless: Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, and Destruction. 

I am glad I began here because these are considered a triumph in cartooning. The series won more than 26 Eisner Awards among many others. Gaiman wrote the story but a variety of artists were brought in for the visuals. This means that each comic book or chapter in the story has a different look. This makes it vital for the reader to closely engage with the art to see and "read" details important to the story. 

While visual literacy is one of the reasons comics are good for the brain, it is also where I stumbled when I first began reading. I start by reading just the words and skipping the pictures, assuming I was getting the gist of it, but I wasn't. Facial expressions, gestures, and other body language as well as background details were telling parts of the story that I was missing. It took little time for me to slow down and modify my reading style to engage fully with the story. 

I have continued to read the work of Gaiman, but have added other comics. Some of my favorites have been 

• Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
• Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• Giant Days by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell
• Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona with a changing group of additional authors
• Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, and John Upchurch

Some of these are teen friendly but most are for an adult audience. 

 

When choosing graphic novels to read, I focus on those I have or will order for my high school library.

Some of my favorite authors are:

Raina Telgemeier 

Lucy Knisley

Gene Luen Yang

 

Some recent favorite books are:

Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, which is a graphic memoir and was a National Book Award finalist

The March Trilogy by Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell, which has won Coretta Scott King awards as well as a Robert F. Kennedy book award among others. The idea for Lewis to write about his experiences at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was prompted by "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story," a comic published in 1957. 

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson, a book I enjoyed but is beloved by my 10-year-old niece

New Kid by Jerry Craft, which was the winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carroll, which is a graphic version of Anderson's 1999 novel of the same name. It is powerful reading for any teen. 

 

It would take a novella for me to list and discuss all of the graphic novels I have read over the years, but I believe it is an important format for readers because of the need to visual literacy skills when we are surrounded by images in the news and social media. 

 

What are your favorite comics or graphic novels?

 

How I started reading mysteries, or much love to the somewhat controversial Nancy Drew

In my previous post, I introduced the queens of my favorite sub-genre of science fiction - time travel. 

This time, I'd like to explore my second most read genre: mystery.

My love of mysteries began with the gift of a box of Nancy Drew books that had belonged to my mom. I am not entirely sure how they came to be mine, but I believe that during a trip to Michigan one summer or at Christmas, I was presented with this box that contained a wealth of reading material, not just Nancy Drew. 

As I recall, I started reading immediately. And by immediately, I mean I read the entire 13 hours home in the car. This was when I could read in the car without becoming nauseated. Since then I have switched to audiobooks or sleeping to get me through long car rides. 

I re-read all the Nancy Drew books and would also check others out of the library or ask someone to buy new ones for me. First published in 1930, Nancy Drew's stories were still being written in the 1980s and beyond. In 2018, Smithsonian Magazine  explored the beginnings and history of these popular tales that were not ever written by anyone named Carolyn Keene.

 

 

My favorites were: 

• The Clue of the Broken Locket (1934)
• The Secret of the Wooden Lady (1950) 
• The Scarlet Slipper Mystery (1954)

but while looking through a list on line, many of the titles struck a chord. I don't think there were any I did not like, just some I liked a bit better and re-read more often. 

My first school librarian job was in a middle school. A group of students asked to start a Nancy Drew book club. I agreed to read the first choice along with the club members - this was a mistake. Whichever book we read was not well written or anywhere near as exciting or engaging as it had been when I was a tween. This is not a surprise, since many books written for young people do not transfer well to adult readers. While not a part of the mystery we read, the original version of at least one Nancy Drew story contained overt racism and others contained characters who were negative stereotypes. If schools still have these versions, many of which have been revised to remove these elements I think parents, teachers, or librarians should find a way to engage readers with conversations about the problematic elements. The end of the story is that the students loved the book and had an intense conversation during lunchtime book club, then promptly lost interest and moved on to a Rick Riordan book club. 

When I was ready to move on from Nancy Drew, my father gave me a copy of Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie, this means my first Christie detective was Hercule Poirot, not a bad place to start. I really enjoyed moving to "adult" mysteries and Christie was a good choice since her stories are low gore and horror and high intrigue.

Now, my favorite mysteries are those in series that feature a crime solver I can get to know. The two queens of mystery writing for me are Louise Penny and Elizabeth George. Penny's books often take place in the town Three Pines in Québec. Her sleuth is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Sûreté du Québec. I am drawn to these novels because every character, including all the towns people and Gamache's family and co-workers are complex characters who each take a central role in one or more books and a smaller role in others.

Elizabeth George's books feature Inspector Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard. The stories themselves take place both in London and around the UK. Lynley's partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers features prominently while other characters come in and out regularly. 

Even after having read 14 by Penny and 6 by George I have not yet felt them to be repetitive or possible to figure out until the characters do or only just before. Both series work best if read in order, because the events build from book to book. I started to read the Lynley series because I was going to run out of Penny books, so now I have one more Penny to read before her next is released in September. 

Honorable Mentions go to:

• Tana French - these take place in Ireland and feature various members of the Dublin Murder Squad. My favorite has been The Secret Place. 
• Charles Finch - in these, British gentleman Charles Lennox, a member of Parliament, moves around Victorian London solving murders. There are 13 books in the series currently. I have read the first five and particularly liked A Burial at Sea which takes place on a ship making it a little like And Then There Were None since everyone is trapped with a murderer. 
• Alan Bradley - Flavia de Luce is the 11-year-old sleuth with an expertise in chemistry. The 10 novels, all of which I have read, take place in Bishop's Lacey, a small town somewhere in rural England. My favorite so far is As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust in which Flavia is sent to the same boarding school in Canada her mother once attended. 
• Laurie R. King - Of all the honorable mentions, I may be fondest of these because they feature the husband and wife team of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell with a focus on Mary. The books sometimes take place in parts of England but there is also some exciting case-based travel. I have read 14 of the 16 in the series. My favorites are The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive which work together more closely than the rest in the series. 
• Jaqueline Winspear - The Maisie Dobbs series begins just after the end of World War I during which Maisie served as a field nurse. She is now back in London solving murders and other crimes as a private investigator. There are 15 books in the series; I am caught up and looking forward to 16. A favorite is A Dangerous Place which takes place primarily in Gibraltar in 1937. 

 

Who are your favorite mystery authors and sleuths?

Double, Double Toil and Trouble - So many books about witches

Recently, after having finished reading Magic Lessons (October 6, 2020) by Alice Hoffman, I sat down to start drafting this post, part of which is a list of other books I have read by Hoffman as well as books about witches. I discovered in listing them, that I have read MANY books featuring witches, which means that many books about witches are out there in the world, which made me ask "Why?" To answer this, I am starting with myself. Why do I like to read books about witches enough to seek them out regularly?

1. Many of these books include the history of witch hunts in both the US and around the world

2. For the same reason I read fantasy books in general - the possibility of magic and the supernatural being real leads to exciting day dreams (I have my three wishes all ready to go should I ever encounter a being that would like to grant them.)

3. Maybe it is a cliche, but powerful women are of interest to me. 

The first Hoffman novel I read was Practical Magic. While it was published in 1995, I did not read it until last year and I only did that because a second book had been released and I thought I should read this one first. And though I should have known better, I had seen the movie, and don't often read a book AFTER I have seen the movie, but of course it was far better than the movie, which I liked. This was the first novel Hoffman wrote about the Owens women, but it is not the first chronologically. Magic Lessons takes place first and tells the story of the beginning of the Owens family starting with Maria who is found abandoned in the woods by Hannah Owens who is herself a witch who can "see" that Maria is as well. The Rules of Magic, published in 2017 is a direct prequel to Practical Magic and features Frances and Jet who are aunts to Gillian and Sally. 

While those are three of the most recent witch books I have read, I have also read a surprising number of others that I liked:

The All Souls Series

1. A Discovery of Witches (2011)
2. Shadow of Night (2012)
3. The Book of Life (2014)
4. Time's Convert (2018)

There's just something about witches and vampires that is irresistible entertainment.The first book has been made into a television series and I have heard they are making two more seasons that will correspond to the second and third books.

If you want your witch books to be hilarious, you can't miss with the Tiffany Aching novels by Terry Pratchett. I have read other books by Pratchett, but when I found out he had a young witch character i zoomed through them.

• The Wee Free Men – 2003
• A Hat Full of Sky – 2004
• Wintersmith – 2006
• I Shall Wear Midnight – 2010
• The Shepherd's Crown – 2015

One I read back when it was first published, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009) by Katherine Howe, has a companion novel, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs that I have had in my TBR since it was published a year ago.

There are others on my TBR I am looking forward to. I am on a witch roll.

• The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (October 13, 2020). The Ten Thousand Doors of January by the same author was one of my recent reads. 
• The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan - This one is witches and historical fiction that takes place in Gilded Age New York and London. 

In case you are looking for a different format, I have read two witchy graphic novels in the past few months as well:

• The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner
• The Witch Boy and The Hidden Witch by Molly Knox Ostertag

 

Why are books about magic and witches in particular so popular? What are your favorites?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

As I said in my first blog post back from a hiatus, I do not intend to write traditional book reviews. Instead I want to talk about what a story means to me, in particular what it makes me think about. I'd also like to include a section of additional books that are similar or by the same author. When it makes sense to do so, I will also explore whether or not I intend to purchase the book for the high school library where I work and why or why not. 

My first book is a novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab (who also publishes as Victoria Schwab), which is due to be released on October 6, 2020. I received an e-copy from the publisher through NetGalley. As a librarian, who has money to spend on books, NetGalley is a wonderful resource for reading in order to make ordering decisions. You should keep reading this post to find out why, but I have already placed this book on a list to purchase when it is released.

If you have read many fantasy novels you know that making a deal with a supernatural being almost always causes unfortunate consequences for the mortal. Such is the case for Addie LaRue. Addie's story begins when her parents deem it time for her to marry a much older man who has been widowed with three children. Atypically at age 23 in France in 1714, Addie is not yet married. Having observed others of her age, Addie believes this marriage will result in a loss of autonomy in a life she would not choose for herself. On the day of her marriage, Addie calls upon the dark gods to help her. One answers. The novel tells Addie's story alternating between her day to day life in 2014 and skipping through the years after July 29, 1714. 

As in many books in which a character lives for hundreds of years Addie has mastered a number of languages, traveled the world, and met a series of historically significant people. However, Addie's experiences differ from those in other books in one important way. This difference has serious implications both positive and negative for the way she moves through history. The "long life" trope is not new, but I appreciate the way that Schwab has set things up differently for Addie. 

I spent the most time while reading this novel thinking about:

1. the nature of human connections. This is something I believe every novel is about in some way, but Addie's experiences across time and special circumstances (sorry to be vague, trying to avoid spoilers) force her to be creative in the way she keeps herself connected, which in turn gives her strength. 
2. what I would do with the years if I were granted long life. I'd love to learn languages, travel, write, read, and meet people. All that thinking and wishing made me realize that I don't need 300 years. I can do all those things with joy and passion in the time I have. 

I believe my students will like this story for a number of reasons:

• The story begins in 1714 when Addie is 23, an age which may seem far distant to a 14 year old, but an age at which most teens feel they will be on the path they have set for themselves. I think one lesson they may observe is that a well-lived life is going to have twists and turns, some joyful, some not.
• Addie is fully the agent in her own life. After making the deal that will allow her choose the life she wants works out differently than planned, she adjusts and lives.This will appeal to teens, many of whom are working to free themselves from the constraints of expectations they have not set for themselves.  
• Addie's unnaturally long life takes her through some significant historical moments that may interest readers who have only seen these events in a history class. This is by no means a work of historical fiction, but there are some nice tidbits mixed with Addie's personal experiences. 

Other books by Schwab I have read and would recommend:

 

Which of Schwab's have you read or are planning to read?

One "New to Me" Author and One Old Favorite

This week I read both The Duff by Kody Keplinger, a "new to me" author and The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black, a perennial favorite.

I got The Duff for my Kindle because it was super inexpensive and there has been quite a bit of hype related to the release of the movie. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the story. "DUFF" stands for "Designated Ugly Fat Friend." Early in the story, Wesley Rush, a womanizing type, tells our heroine Bianca that she is the DUFF for her friends and he is going to chat her up so her gorgeous friends will like and sleep with him. I was concerned that Bianca would fall for this guy who would cause her to seek a makeover and wham, bam: no more DUFF.

This is not what happens. While Bianca and Wesley do become involved, their relationship is more sophisticated than this. One of its strengths is they each accept the other as is. This is also the book's strength. While Bianca and Wesley struggle with family issues they become a support for each other in a sweet and completely un-saccharine way. It is lucky I had a snow day from work today because I stayed up much too late reading this.

Another powerful element is that Bianca's two best friends Casey and Jessica are true friends who do nothing but support each other. Nice to see a realistic portrayal of female friendships that do not involve trying to tear each other down.

I will hold off on seeing the movie until I hear how close it sticks to the book, but I am thinking I want to read both Midsummer's Nightmare and Lying out Loud to see if Keplinger's later efforts live up to her early promise.

It should be no surprise that I loved The Darkest Part of the Forest. I have met Holly Black and raved about her Curse workers series, and have only good thoughts about Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and The Iron Trial, which she wrote with Cassandra Clare. Again we have a story featuring a strong heroine who is flawed and real. In this case, she must work to save her town from the Folk who would destroy Fairfold in a power struggle. There's also a nice side of romance for Hazel and her brother Ben. This story really embraces what we mean when we talking about needing diverse books. The characters both human and faerie are not all white and straight, but the story is not about their differences, but rather about their experiences. And given my strong, sometimes negative feelings about trilogies, specifically the second book in trilogies, I am happy to say the end of this story makes me think this is a stand alone.

Stiefvater does it again!!

I have raved about The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves  by Maggie Stiefvater and feel the same about the third installment, Blue Lily, Lily Blue.  Given my feelings about trilogies, I am glad this is a four book series. The two middle books in a quartology (I think I may have made up this word and I like it!) do not seem to suffer from the same weaknesses as the middle book in a trilogy. While I love Stiefvater's stories, it is the beauty of the writing that draws me in most. Her descriptions are haunting or mesmerizing, or peaceful. Whatever she is going for, she achieves.

Sigh, feel like waiting for the 4th is taking an eternity.

Gabi and David

I had been eyeing Gabi: A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero even before it won the William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens. I love the cover, which did its job in pushing me to want to know how the cover reflects the story. Metaphorically perhaps we should not judge books by their covers but literally I do and you do and so do all readers. If we did not, publishers would not put any effort in and all books would come in brown paper wrappers. This was the only book I paid for while I was at the ALA Midwinter conference, the award announcements gave me that extra little push to pick it up right away.

Gabi is a wonderful and complicated person, in other words a teen human being. She is confused by the mixed messages she gets from her Mexican/American community, and the media, and her mother, and her father, and her friends. She has a strong sense of self that is derailed when her family tells her she has the wrong friends or is making the wrong choices. One of her healing outlets is her journal and her poetry. The story is told in the form of her journal that begins with her senior year in high school and end just after graduation.

I liked Gabi a lot. She remarkable well with a number of issues in her life, from her father's drug addiction to her best friend's pregnancy. However, on top of all that is another friend coming out to his hostilely un-supportive family, a wayward brother, the arrival of a new sibling, a hypocritically, hypercritical aunt, college application and acceptance stress, school work, and a love life. I felt like all this was unrealistically dramatic. Perhaps one or two fewer wrenches might have given Gabi the opportunity to deal with each in a deeper way. I am not one to believe teens have it easy today, but YA literature plays an important role in helping teens in anguish. Giving Gabi less to contend with would have, I think, made it easier for readers to see themselves.

Dave Smith in Scott McCloud's The Sculptor has a number of issues himself. For one, he is a frustrated sculptor who had some early success, but has lost his muse. This sets him up perfectly in this "deal with the Death" story. There were many times I wanted to shake Dave and maybe even slap him and say "What are you doing?!?" He spends a bit too much time in a "Woe is me" mindset, but this just means I probably wouldn't be friends with him, not that I did not enjoy his story. Had I been paying more attention to the plot and less to the amazing, and detailed art, I might have seen the twist coming at the end, but my immersion in the blue and white drawings left me surprised by how it all turns out. For this I am glad. I dislike a fabulous twist ending that I can see coming.

Two really good books I am glad I spent some time with this cold weekend.

 

Three on a Theme - Wonder, Wings, and Wow

Recently I read three books with a similar premise. In each book the main character has a characteristic that sets him or her apart from others. The three books, in the order I read them are:

1.  Wonder by R.J Palacio

2.  El Deafo by Cece Bell

3. The Strange and Beautiful Lives of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Both El Deafo and The Strange and Beautiful Lives of Ava Lavender were honored yesterday at the American Library Association Youth Media Awards. El Deafo was recognized as a Newbery Honor Book and The Strange and Beautiful Lives of Ava Lavender was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. I was there in the audience when all the awards were announced. It was invigorating to be in a huge room surrounded by people who love and celebrate books. Wonder was published in 2012 and therefore not included in this years awards (I am just a bit behind on my TBR pile.)

I liked Wonder, but did not sob as so many others I know did. Maybe I was ready and resisted. Auggie is a great kid who was born with a "craniofacial difference" caused by an anomaly in his DNA. He has endured numerous operations and always felt his differences keenly. The book begins with the decision for  him to attend public school for the first time. As one might anticipate, some of his experiences are uplifting and others are not. Some kids bully him and others befriend him. In fact a great deal of what Auggie experiences is fairly typical for anyone in a new school in 5th grade. What I liked best about the story is the avoidance of saccharine, contrived feel-goodness. I think the other kids' initial reactions to Auggie are realistic. Some are horrified by him and others get to know him and cease to be put off by what makes him different.

What I did not like, was the ending. I felt like the change in some kids' attitudes and behaviors toward Auggie was to see him as a mascot rather than really embracing him. Practically speaking this is better than being cruel to him, but it still makes him an object rather than a person.

El Deafo was fabulous. Hands down, no ifs, ands, or buts this was a really interesting look into life as a kid with a difference. This is really more of a graphic memoir ala Tomboy by Liz Prince than a novel. At age 4 Cece contracts meningitis and loses most of her hearing. She now has to adapt to life as someone with hearing impairments that affect every day interactions including those with family, friends, and teachers. El Deafo is the superhero name Cece gives herself and later shares with friends. This is again a story about someone who is starting in a new school which is difficult enough without hearing impairment. This one reminded me a bit of Smile by Raina Telgemeier because of the detailed attention to day to day life. 

AND then there is Ava Lavender, who is born with wings. This is definitely magical realism in all its glory. I really liked it, and am still thinking about it. Probably too much like a former English teacher, looking for the symbolism. I will say, after reading, the title is haunting. I am almost at a loss to say what this story is about, but like most YA novels it is about the search for self, but in this case that self has wings. I did feel like there were some overtones of Chocolat by Joanne Harris and Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. These similarities are mostly connected to the experiences of Ava's mother and grandmother who get a fair amount of page time, which I enjoyed as an adult reader of YA.

Overall I appreciated the experience of reading about those different from myself. Certainly one of the benefits of reading diverse books!

Graphic novels vs. illustrated stories vs. comic books

I am sure there is an official definition that differentiates between graphic novels, illustrated books, and and comic books. I do not intend to refer to one of those definitions, instead I will provide my own based on recent reading.

Here in Washington, DC there is an excellent comic book store called Fantom Comics. They used to be located in Union Station, which made me happy because it was easy to get to, but then one day, they were not there any more. I was sad. I went home to look for information on-line and discovered they had moved to Dupont Circle, not as convenient, but when I visited the first time, I understood. The new store is probably four times as big as the old one giving them space to have a wide variety of stock like:

• a whole wall of current and new release comic books
• almost a whole wall of trade paper backs
• a big chunk of the same wall devoted to graphic novels
• a section of children's books, mainly graphic easy readers and novels
• and a variety of special interest displays that change

The place is amazing. I was already moving toward reading comic books more regularly. I am doing so even more now, but also exploring books that have been around for years that I am just discovering. In the area of comic books I am reading Saga by Brian K. Vaughn, The Runaways also by Brian K. Vaughn, and of course Neil Gaiman's newest, Sandman Overtures. This is just a short list but will serve to illustrate what I think a comic book is. Comic books are generally released episodically or serially, meaning the reader only gets a part of the story each month, or every few months in the case of Gaiman. The books do not stand alone, but usually make up one part of a larger story. They tend to have a large array of characters who each step forward to be the focus in one or more books. It seems to me, that like TV shows comic books last as long as there is demand and until then the writer does not necessarily have an ending in mind.

Graphic novels on the other hand have a full story arc just like a non-graphic novel. They are    stories that are told  textually and visually. One recent read is Mercury by Hope Larson that I enjoyed immensely. A little bit historical fiction, a little bit fantasy, and really unique art. I also picked up This One Summer by cousins Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. The story revolves around friends who meet up each summer when their families visit Awago Beach. They grapple with the issues that appear in many YA books: Who am I? And where will be my place in the world?  (Really versions of the same "search for self" theme.)

What these two types, comic books and graphic novels, have in common is that visually the story takes place in panels, or squares that move across the page in a pattern. This is also what makes them different from illustrated books in which the story is told in standard text format, supplemented by pictures on the same page or on a separate page. A gorgeous recent example is Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle, a version of the Sleeping Beauty story. The illustrations are all black and white with gold and simply amazing.

I've read lots of other graphic novels and comic books recently and with so many amazing choices these days I don't see myself giving up this genre any time soon.

Queen of the Tearling

These days there is lots of flutter around Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, especially now it is going to be made into a movie starring Emma Watson as Kelsea. I liked the book, but I have already read it, in the form of The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. Sure, some of the details are different, but the essentials are the same. 

 

 

 

1.  Teen girl is the "chosen one." 

• Kelsea is the Queen of the Tearling, which she knows and trains for her entire life.
• Elisa becomes queen through marriage; her husband dies and she is thrust into power, but her belly jewel (more on that later) designates her as the "chosen one."

2. In order to claim her power teen must prove herself to the nobles and people of her land.

• Kelsea stops the lottery that selects tributes to be given to the Red Queen, thus winning over the people and earning the respect of important people who will protect her.
• Elisa destroys the invading sorcerers then journeys to face her enemy directly winning over the people and earning the respect of important people who will protect her.

3.  Teen starts out a bit overweight and out of shape. 

• Kelsea's sword training and sensible eating whip her into better shape.
• Elisa's hard travel and physical exertion whip her into shape.

4.  A jewel is essential to her supernatural power.

• Kelsea's jewel hangs on a necklace and resists removal by any but her. (She even has a twin jewel she must earn.)
• Elisa's jewel is embedded in her bellybutton. It falls out when she has claimed her power through her own strength.

Key significant differences:

• Kelsea's transformation is thus far limited to one book. (Looks like there will be a second book...Invasion of the Tearling, and no second book is happy without a third so I have to anticipate that.)
• Elisa's transformation takes three.

A bit of a wake up to adults who believe adults should not read YA...if you have read this, you have read YA. Apart from a few shallow attempts to "adult-it-up" (a few expletives, references to slavery, rape, pedophilia) and the adult fiction price, Queen of the Tearling is indistinguishable from a YA story.

I enjoyed Queen of the Tearling, but I don't think there was anything new there. I may be interested enough to see the movie, but I doubt I will read subsequent books. I liked Girl of Fire and Thorns more.

• Elisa is a more engaging hero. 
• The bad guys are badder.
• A bellybutton stone is more interesting than a magic necklace.
• The world building is more thorough. Too much is left out of Queen of the Tearling about how they all ended up in this land thrown back to a more primitive society than what they left. (Presumably this is meant to lure me to the next books, instead it just irritated me.)
• While the books are shorter, this forces a quicker pace. I could have enjoyed the slower pace of Kelsea's story if there were some internal growth requiring the slow down...but there wasn't.

My overall recommendation is to go with Carson's books, but if you are a school librarian looking for something similar to engage your readers, Queen of the Tearling is a fine choice, especially with the promise of more books. There is no reason not to put this in a high school library and maybe even a middle school.

Raina Telgemeier - Sisters

This past Saturday the Library of Congress held its annual National Book Festival. Because of some difficulties in negotiations with the National Park Service, the festival was moved from the National Mall to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. I heard mixed reviews throughout the day but more positive about the move than negative. Because of the indoor venue, the festival's hours were expanded to 10pm, but all events were condensed into one day.

One of the evening events was a graphic novels super session. As I had been at the festival since 8:30am and it was my birthday, I only stayed to hear one author. And I am glad I did.

Raina Telgemeier is the author of Smile, Drama, and most recently Sisters. She spoke generally about her books and her start as the illustrator of the Babysister's Club graphic novels. She also brought a few kids up to help her read a chapter from Sisters. This was a really sweet portion of the presentation, as was the question and answer session during which mostly children asked a wide variety of questions about her ideas and topics and even her teeth, a story she tells in Smile.

The answer I found most interesting was about how she picks which stories from her own life to tell. For both Smile and Sisters she chose just one small part of her greater experiences. The difficulties she had with her teeth spanned about 4 years of her life, but she was really focused in the book about her orthodontic adventures. In Drama, the time span was through one musical production during her middle school years. She spoke about wanting to capture the experiences of the behind the scenes kids. (I can tell you from experience that as an adult director, having reliable, creative, and wonderful kids painting the sets and moving them during the production has a tremendous, positive impact on the entire production.)

Sisters, is specifically about a road trip Raina took with her mom, sister, and brother the summer she was 14. More generally it is about Raina's relationship with her sister, told through flashbacks. It is really a well-done story, bringing in Raina's feelings about her now-teenage cousins and younger brother as well.

I highly recommend all three of Telgemeier's books for middle school in particular, but they are not too young for freshmen and sophomores perhaps, and would probably work well in 5th grade too.

Summer Reading 2014 - Part II

I ran through books quite quickly this summer - or in the three weeks of it I had since I did not get a full summer vacation - I know- boohoo - no one feels sorry for me, and I do not either. The work I did with teachers in July was gratifying and renewing in a way that July usually is not.

After the books I covered in Summer Reading 2014 - Part I, I jumped into 6 more, without a dud in the whole stack:

1.  Lexicon by Max Barry - At one point I owned two copies of this book. I waited quite a long time to read either one, though it was on the top of my TBR pile as soon as I bought it the first time. I am partly sorry I waited so long and partly so mind-blown by it that all regrets have faded. The premise is that words are powerful...what a concept. If any of my former English students are reading this, I am not crazy, words are powerful and this story illustrates that they can even be deadly. Set in the not too distant future, Emily escapes her life on the streets by attending a super-secret school that teaches its students how to be "persuasive." Barry explores the issues of persuasion and the power of language in a way that makes the read a bit wary of those who may seem a bit too glib or at ease with command. A powerful and provoking exploration of mind manipulation and psychology.

2.  Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt - Upon being called to the reading of a will for a man she does not know, Bekah finds herself with a house, siblings, and magical powers. I just never get tired of well-done stories about magic, mostly because ever since Harry Potter I have been sad not to have magic powers. Romance, adventure, and humor are mixed together in this story that was originally published as a Kindle serial. Not sure how I feel about the concept and am glad I did not have to wait to read this entertaining novel.

3.  Champion by Marie Lu - This is another book I had on the shelves for quite a while but put off reading...for no good reason. This is the third in the Legend series. The Republic of America faces certain annihilation by the Colonies if doctors cannot find a cure for a virulent plague the Colonies believe the Republic has created and unleashed. Day, as hero of the people, and June as a Princeps-Elect, put their nation before their relationship. I love YA dystopia and have no probelm with the idea that 17-year-olds will save us all. Fantasy and dystopia are all mixed up anyway. 

4. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - This is considered a classic of children's literature, winning the Newbery in 1979. The story is a bit dated, and reminded me of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, a 2013 publication. I like the concept of each, that a group of people must use clues to solve puzzles that will lead to prizes and glory (not too far from the concepts of Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but without the borderline creepiness). The most significant difference in The Westing Game is that the participants are a mix of children and adults. The story is clearly for children as the main character is a child and the novel is short, but it does not talk down to the reader in a way I think too many middle grade and YA books do today.

5.  Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg - I have read two other books by Flagg and see them as very close to ideal for summer reading. They are not saccharine and overly cheerful, but there are moments of reading when a tall, cool, glass of iced tea (unsweetened for me - I am a Jersey girl after all) and a rocking chair on the porch would round out the experience perfectly. The two main characters here are Norma and her aunt Elner, both residents of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, a location for other stories, but I have not read any of those, only Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe andThe All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. I think I'll save reading another by her for the dead of winter when I need to feel summery.

6.  One Plus One by Jojo Moyes - This is the first novel I have read by Moyes, though I have been tempted to purchase others in the past. I will be reading more now. Tanzie is a maths genius. Her half-brother Nicky does not fit in at school. Jess works two jobs to keep the family afloat in a not-very-nice suburb of London. The bulk of the novel revolves around the three days they spend traveling with one of Jess's cleaning clients trying to get Tanzie to a math Olympiad competition where she could win enough money to cover the cost of a private school to which she has been admitted but they cannot afford. Throw in a smelly dog, a fair amount of vomiting, and some romance and you have a story worthy of a satisfying summer read.

Now I am going to get back to reading as I return to work soon and will miss having so much time to indulge in good books!

Summer Reading 2014 - Part I

As I did not work in a school this year, my summer was significantly shorter than in the past.  I still managed to fit in quite a bit of reading in three weeks. I consider my summer reading anything I read during my three free weeks in August, not what I read in July in the evenings after working 10 hours a day.  (Sadly, I read very little because I was mostly exhausted those nights and just sat on the couch watching Dr. Who - David Tennant, in all his dreamy-ness.)  I can remember a few of the books I read then I will include them on this list. 

I started my 6 day vacation in Maine with The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. There has been lots of buzz about this one as AJ owns an independent bookshop. It also came recommended by a colleague in the 5 minutes we had to chat about books in July.  I figured if this was the one she could call to mind it must be memorable, and it was. Highly recommend for its nice story as well as the bookshop anecdotes.

Side note: For a number of reasons I recently purchased a Kindle. I read the above on it after purchasing it for a reasonable price. I spend far too much money on books. I also check a fair number out of the library and buy from used stores. What I have balked at is paying over $10 for an ebook. Most of what I have I have gotten for free as review copies, or inexpensively when Amazon offers a deal. It seems that if I am going to spend over $10 I want a paper and cardboard book to show for it. $10 seems like a good threshold for new-ish books, when a hardback is significantly more expensive and a paperback is upwards of $11. I have been pleased with my purchase and found it very convenient when we were in and out of hotels and the car. I have also adjusted well to reading in a different format which will also come in handy on the Metro. My bag of books stayed right in the trunk (and became a bit fuller during the journey) until we arrived home to VA.

The second book I read was Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches. I will admit I made an effort to avoid vampire books after the atrocities perpetuated by Stephenie Meyer - though it was Bella more than the vampires I found offensive. By the time I realized what a large role vampires play in this one, it was too late and I was hooked. There was a bit to much "I am enthralled by this vampire and am therefore his for all eternity" on the part of the heroine, but the story moved along well and the world-building was thorough and consistent. I purchased the second book in the series, Shadow of Night (which I am happy to say involves time travel to Elizabethan England) as an ebook as well, but the 3rd I picked up at an independent bookstore I love in Madison, CT called RJ Julia. I just began the 2nd book, making myself wait until I had read all the books I brought to VA from DC in order to avoid taking them back unread. 

Because we were so busy in ME, I only read those two books. As soon as we returned to VA, I began Isla and the Happily Ever After, by Stephanie Perkins. I loved Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door. Perkins suffers from depression and took a bit longer to finish this story than she anticipated. While the book was certainly worth the wait, I do not feel it was as strong as the other two. But what I did especially like was that while it is still a YA love story, she moved away from the formula of the first two in a way that made it more difficult to predict how the relationship between Isla and Josh would turn out. Anna, Etienne, Lola, and Cricket put in an appearance but are only a side story in Josh and Isla's relationship. I had pre-ordered the book from Hooray for Books in Old Town Alexandria where I went to see Perkins as well as Ellen Oh, Victoria Schwab and Megan Shepherd in January and picked it up on our way out of town. I felt like it should be my next read since I had already waited so long. 

One book I can now recall reading in July was My Salinger Year, by Joanna Rakoff about the year she spent working for JD Salinger's agency. One of her jobs was to answer his fan mail with a form letter indicating that Salinger had requested not to receive any letters. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is that Rakoff had not read any of his work before getting the job and put if off until she had been there many months. This makes her before and after reactions to the fan letters an intriguing part of the story. I like Salinger's work, but never reacted to it the way many of my students did to Catcher in the Rye. Rakoff's insights into publishing were enlightening as well.

That is probably enough for Part I...I'll discuss the rest of my summer reading stack in my next post. 

 

Summer Romance

Throughout the year I like to read books that feature love stories, but there is something satisfying about reading a romance in the summer time. Maybe it is the warm nights and sunny days that turn one's thoughts to smooching. Or perhaps it is the humidity that turns a reader to steamy books.  Whatever the case, I have read a fair number of romantic tales since June. Four in particular:

1.  Landline by Rainbow Rowell for which I patiently waited and was not disappointed.

2.  For Once in My Life by Marianne Kavanagh which was sweet and a tad predictable.

3. Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenhoff, a YA romance with an interesting twist. 

4.  So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti another YA, without much to recommend it. 

I have loved everything by Rainbow Rowell, her previous adult novel Attachments and Eleanor and Park as well as Fangirl. As I have said previously, Rowell is a master of the slow lead up to the first kiss, or the bells and swelling of the heart that indicate a character is in love. She captures those unsure moments before both parties are able to acknowledge they are in love. Landline however is a bit different. While there is some flashback to the beginning of the romance, this story is really about a relationship falling apart, and the desperation to fix it, aided by a magic telephone.  Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but Rowell is talented enough to make it believable without asking for suspension of disbelief beyond tolerance. I enjoyed the story, though I did root for the wrong outcome for a bit, but that's just the cynic in me...I knew how it would turn out in the end. 

As far as I know, For Once in My Life is the first novel from Kavanagh. While the eventual end was predictable, the getting there was more convoluted and unexpected than I would have thought at first...teaches me a thing or two about assumptions.  Tess and George's romance is not the usual summer romance fodder, which is the main reason I enjoyed it. I am not against a predictable romance so long as it is well-written and the twists and turns toward the happy ending let me live vicariously in their world for a time. I am also a sucker for a story set in London.

Guy in Real Life is a YA romance that truly surprised me.  Lesh is a metal head who falls for a lovely dungeon master named Svetlana. They are an unlikely pair in their high school world, but there are any number of stories of star-crossed teen lovers. What made this story interesting is Lesh's foray into a massive multi-player on-line role playing game in which he becomes Svetlana, asking the question: Does Lesh want to be with her, or does he want to be her? Brezenoff simply touches this question lightly, but his dip into questions of gender roles without it being the focus of the story adds a layer of interest I found myself thinking about well after finishing the story.  I will be looking for what Brezenhoff does next.  

In So Much Closer, Brooke moves to NYC, ostensibly to live with her estranged father, but really to be with the boy she knows she should be with.  Brooke is annoying; Scott, the boy she follows is shallow, despite Colastani's weak attempt to give him depth; and the issues of leaving home, parental relationships, and finding oneself are left without a real look. I think the story had potential, as can be seen in the two characters who save the tale: Sadie and John. I will probably not read anything else from this author, but perhaps later books are better.  

A satisfying ending

to a series came in the form of City of Heavenly Fire, by Cassandra Clare, the 6th book in The Mortal Instruments series.  I have enjoyed all of the books in this series and The Infernal Devices series which for now is only 3 books. It is no surprise after the success of these books (with a movie version of City of Bones, which I do not think did well at the box office) that she is working on a third series, The Dark Artifices, centering on characters introduced in City of Heavenly Fire.  It seems she is also working on a new series with Holly Black, the first book due out in September.  

Reasons I like the series:

1.  Excellent world building, no inconsistencies (like how Luke asks Leia if she remembers her mother and Leia says she remembers she was very beautiful, but in Episode III, Padme dies only minutes after the twins are born, thus making it impossible for Leia to know anything about her mother. - Poorly done George Lucas.) 

2.  The books are so rich and detailed about the history of the Shadowhunters, and their nemeses the Downworlders you could read them more than once and probably should to understand all the intricacies.  (Hard to believe there are critics who think YA is light and simple.)

3.  Great mix of fantasy, romance, and adventure. 

4.  These books did not remind me of any others...unique and addictive.

Veronica Mars in all her glory.

I came to Veronica Mars fandom a bit late in the game. I have watched all three seasons of the TV show and the movie in 2014. Just yesterday I finished the book. My only regret is not spreading out her fabulousness....now I have to wait for another movie (wouldn't that be awesome) or the next book, which is due out in October. 

Veronica Mars, show, movie, and book, are great, not because they have well-wrought plots, but because of Veronica and the rest of the engaging characters.  The book was comforting in that not a word of dialogue felt out of character for anyone...I could picture each of them speaking and behaving just as the book described. This is perhaps the benefit of the show and movie coming before the book. The writer's job just meant staying true to the characters' roots, it doesn't hurt I suppose that Rob Thomas has been at the helm of all three projects. This does not mean Veronica, Wallace, Logan, Mac etc. are not free to grow and change, but that they develop naturally as a result of maturity and experience rather than at the whim of the plot. The only glaring flaw in the book, for me as a reader, was the lack of any references to Duncan.  Surely after 9 years he would have found some way to let them all know he is ok. 

I was also disappointed in Veronica's treatment of Piz in the movie.  If they were a couple through college and law school, he certainly deserved a more dignified and compassionate end to the relationship that what Veronica dished out.  She has never been characterized as heartless toward the good guy, in fact quite the opposite, one of her flaws as an investigator is her heart and passion for the job getting in the way of her good sense sometimes.

I am glad to have taken the advice of the Internets and started watching the show, but now where am I going to get a good dose of sassy blonde and witty banter while I wait until October?  Suggestions accepted in the comments!

Trilogies....again

It can be no surprise that I have again finished the third book in a trilogy...two actually.  It is nearly impossible these days to read YA without being sucked into a trilogy. Last night I finished The Selection series by reading The One and the day before, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy with Dreams of Gods and Monsters. One of these trilogies is one of my favorites of recent years...the other, I am not really sure about, even after having finished.  

Laini Taylor is a strong world builder and I have loved all three books, beginning with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, [which I listened to courtesy of SYNC (which provides a free audio book a week through the summer - awesome!) as a way of re-reading it, just before the second book was released] and continuing with Days of Blood and Starlight, which I reread sort of by accident, but am glad I did. I could go on and on gushing about these books, but that is not helpful to readers. Instead I will say, that characters are believable and evoke a range of emotions in the reader. The world Taylor has built has consistent rules that are not muddled when the author needs the way out of a tough spot; she clearly had the entire trilogy set out before beginning so there is a clear path in the narrative that ends, not without surprises, but with no convenient plot contrivances. This sounds quite clinical, but these characteristics are part of why I loved the series so much. Not for nothing, the love story is stirring and each and every character is crafted carefully.

On the other hand, I liked The Selection series by Kiera Cass less. The trilogy began well, as I discuss here. It seems I did not review the second, The Elite, but remember liking it less than the first, and sadly now, the third book less than that. And in this case, it wasn't even the whole book, just the end which tied up the relationship between America and Maxon a bit too neatly.  Here be spoilers:  I feel the death of both the king and the queen was a bit much. This makes Maxon's ascension to the throne too easy. We have been set up to believe he and America will rule well together despite their youth, but I think the queen could have been allowed to live as a strengthening and guiding force without hindering their work. Losing both parents and a variety of others in one fell swoop, just pages from the end, was too much.  

I'm off to hunt for the next great YA trilogy.