Read this week (8)

Though I try not to make a big fuss over the new year, I do like joining reading challenges and read the most for them during these first few months of the year. And so I bring back my abandoned Read this week feature. I only use it when I have a particularly heavy reading week, and I want to jot a few notes down about each book before they all start blending together. This was definitely the case this week, as I started intensely on the YA Reading Challenge.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
published August 2010 by Scholastic
YA Reading Challenge

What's to say that hasn't already been said? I'm so glad I re-read the first two. And someday I know I will want to re-read the trilogy. Yep, it's that good. Admittedly, this third book was my least favorite. But isn't that usually the case with series' ends? The trilogy itself reminds me of the Back to the Future trilogy - first two were fantastic, very similar to each other, and hard to pick a favorite. But the third was a little random - much different setting, different problems, but you can't help but like it because of familiar characters. Mockingjay's storyline was a bit too political for my taste (I don't generally read war novels, much too sensitive for that), and all the killing was hard to read, but the character depth achieved was well worth it. A satisfying end to the trilogy.


Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
published August 2010 by HarperTeen
YA Reading Challenge

Will I ever tire of YA paranormal fantasies? Not anytime soon, I suppose. Evie is a sixteen year-old girl working for the government, the International Paranormal Containment Agency, that is. She's gifted with the ability to see through glamours and into monsters, to see them for what they really are, and so she is a rare commodity that this agency has put to good use. Evie's daily life consists of apprehending and putting ankle bracelets on anything from vampires to hags, chatting with her best friend (a mermaid), and watching her favorite teen drama, Easton Heights. She doesn't live a normal teenage life - she doesn't go to high school or have human friends her age or even drive. But she has adventure and plenty of drama and perhaps a little love interest in a newly discovered paranormal who breaks into the agency. Reminded me of the Alexia Tarabotti books because of the action, adventure, and variety of paranormals. Fun, quick, and light.


The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
published November 2010 by Little, Brown
YA Reading Challenge

This, for me, was The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks + Speak (both favorites of mine): major girl power surrounded by the very serious issue of date rape. What impressed and startled me most about this book was how calmly Alex reacted to her situation. The book begins with Alex naked in a boy's bed, obviously hungover with next to no memory of the evening before. As the story progresses, she slowly remembers more about that night, with emotional triggers from friends, songs, and smells. Her confidantes are the ones to suggest she has been date raped, and she has to mull over that idea and ultimately decide if it's true. The setting (boarding school) is crucial to this book, as Alex also needs to figure out what action she should take next. Should she call the police? Tell her parents? The school's administration? But there is a fourth option. The Mockingbirds. A secret justice agency created by the students for the students. The more I think about this book, the more I like it. It saddens me that the students are dismissive of the adults in their lives, that they feel like their problems wouldn't be taken seriously by their teachers or parents. But it makes me proud that they are capable and willing to sort them out themselves. Definitely glad I read this one.


The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
published December 2009 by Egmont
YA Reading Challenge
Shifter Challenge

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about this book. I didn't know much about the story before I picked it up, so I was surprised that the main character was a preacher's daughter attending a Christian school. I'm usually very aware of faith-related books before I start reading them because it requires me to open my mind a little more and not be so judgmental. But I rebounded quickly and was able to suspend prejudices, if you will, enough to get into the story. Grace is a good girl. The only bad part of her life seems to be Daniel, her childhood friend who disappeared years ago but now is mysteriously back in town to finish high school. Grace is inexplicably drawn to Daniel, but whenever she's with him, strange and dangerous things happen. Secrets abound. Promises are made and broken. And Grace questions her world incessantly. The questioning was tiresome for me. The writing too literal. I wanted more magic and mystique. And the story? Not entirely original and not my cup of tea. But I know many people loved this book and are jumping all over the recently published sequel, The Lost Saint, so to each his or her own.


Phew, that was my reading week. I love it when I binge on books. :) Have you read any of these? What'd you think?

Read this week (7)

Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Read about it here.

Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman
This book was #4 on the Top 10 Unsung YA Heroes list, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And the cover blurb by Stephenie Meyer says she recommends this book to just about anyone she meets. I don't know that I'd go that far. I didn't love it as much as others seemed to, but I thought it was fun and a little silly. The story centers on two best friends - one is completely wacky (marches to the beat of her own drummer kinda gal) and the other is shy but loyal, following her friend in all her schemes and obsessions. The latest is a Pride and Prejudice phase, wherein the girls infiltrate the all-boys' private school dance in search of a Mr. Darcy. It's a quick, lightly romantic, clean teen read.

Once was Lost by Sara Zarr
People have had nothing but good things to say about this book, and it made it on YALSA's 2010 Best Books for Young Adults list, but I didn't really love it. I liked it. And I can see how the main character could be relatable to teens, especially those going through similar struggles - issues with God and faith, a mom in rehab and a potentially adulterous father, friends who keep secrets and act differently towards the "pastor's kid." And this all comes about because a girl goes missing, and that's all anyone can think or talk about. Small town. I don't really understand small towns. And the tragedy never really sinks in or seems to be all that important even though it's written into so many of the pages. I just wasn't feeling it.

High Five by Janet Evanovich
What's not to love about a Stephanie Plum novel? Fast-paced, hilarious, with several mysteries all in one. I'm slowly going through the series because they're not really the kind of books you read one right after the other. In this one, Uncle Fred goes missing, and it takes Stephanie two weeks to figure out what in the world happened. Morelli is still an irresistible love interest, but Stephanie chooses chocolate instead. And Ranger is turning on his charm - but he's a bit more man than she can handle at the moment. Though she will work for his morally sound, legally ambiguous company in order to make the rent. It was a refreshing read.

Read this week (6)

Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues #1) by Rick Riordan
I was against this new series of books since I first heard about them a year (maybe even two) ago. They're gimmicky - with trading cards and all sorts of other merchandise and online bells and whistles. And while I will not be reading the rest of the series (blasphemy, I know - I'm a sucker for series), I can understand the draw of these books to students. To me, they're like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys for today's kids. That being said, I did actually enjoy this particular book. The characters are fun and quirky, and the library scenes are great. :)

What Happened to Anna K? by Irina Reyn
Thanks goes out to Nancy Pearl for this recommendation. I have been trying to read more for myself this summer, to remember the kinds of books that I like to read as an adult, and this one is just that. Though I never actually finished Anna Karenina (it's still one of my favorites - one day I'll read it through!), I loved the story and enjoyed Reyn's modern take on it.

Peeled by Joan Bauer
Surprisingly, I've never read anything by Joan Bauer - I've never found the cover art appealing (yes, I'm a snob), and well, it's not fantasy. :x So, I couldn't believe how much I liked this book and wondered why I had not read anything by her earlier. The small town apple orchard/farm life was adorable yet authentic, and while the ghost story got a bit obnoxious, I did appreciate the whole freedom of the press message. High school students can really make a difference, with a little encouragement, and I think this book illustrates that well. Without being too preachy.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
I didn't like this book the first time I read it, but it was so long ago that I had to read it again if I was going to see the movie. And I did see the movie. Not much to say except that I didn't really like either of them. Nothing happened. Dumbledore dies, and it devastates me every time, so I'd rather not read or see it again. Sigh.

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher by Laurie Halse Anderson
My Goodreads review:

Zoe has wild, ginormous red hair that cannot be tamed. While her kindergarten teacher appreciated the help Zoe's hair gave, her first grade teacher insisted that Zoe contain her hair because "school has rules." She eventually comes around in the end when Zoe's hair helps her out during a solar system lesson. This is a cute and inventive book that I think I'd like to read to my future K-1 students - they'd get a kick out of it. I can almost hear them giggling now!

Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson
Excerpt from my Goodreads review:

This slim book weaves the tale of two girls, the present-day Pemba who has moved into a house in small-town Connecticut and the historical Phyllis, previous inhabitant of the house and slave who has an important secret to share. Pemba stumbles into memories of Phyllis' wen she touches a significant object or place in the house, transporting her back to Phyllis' time in vivid details. It's surprising that for as short as this book was how complex a story it told, with believable characters. I especially enjoyed Pemba's journal writings, poems/raps that described her feelings and thoughts in a more authentic voice than the author could have done otherwise.

Read this week (5)

I may have checked out more books than I can read by their due (and in many cases, renewal) dates, so unfortunately, I returned some of them this week. But alas, I persevered and read a couple just in the nick of due date time.


What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
My Goodreads review:

This book was just blah for me. Not bad, but not fantastic or captivating. It's set just after WWII, and I'd say that's the strength of the book - the sense of place and time, the fashions, the propriety, and other little details that may go unnoticed. It's a coming of age story of Evie, who is a little dim, in my opinion. She takes a trip to Florida with her veteran stepdad and gorgeous mom where she falls in love for the first time, fairly naively. I don't like knowing more than the main chara...more This book was just blah for me. Not bad, but not fantastic or captivating. It's set just after WWII, and I'd say that's the strength of the book - the sense of place and time, the fashions, the propriety, and other little details that may go unnoticed. It's a coming of age story of Evie, who is a little dim, in my opinion. She takes a trip to Florida with her veteran stepdad and gorgeous mom where she falls in love for the first time, fairly naively. I don't like knowing more than the main character does, and I certainly felt that in this book. And the strange perhaps murder mystery at the end of the story was a bit jarring - I suppose it was necessary since Evie was kept in the dark for most of the story (or just too blind to see what was in front of her), and she needed something to make her see things for what they really are, but I thought this was an odd way to do it. Anyhow, not sure why it won the National Book Award, especially compared to some of the others for 2008, but I suppose those author judges know good writing when they read it.

Little Moon Dog by Helen Ward
I read this picture book at the CCB while working on my faerie bibliography. It's no secret that I love all things faerie - I've even said that if I ever go back for my doctorate, I'd write my dissertation on faerie literature. Though I know Holly Black is the queen of all dark, urban faerie stories, I was actually drawn in by Melissa Marr's writing. But all of my faerie reading since then has been YA lit because that's all that I thought was out there - but it isn't so! While this book does not explicitly state that the summer "visitors" are faeries, their actions give them away. The dog and his owner live a comfortable and perhaps sometimes boring life on the moon. Until the summer visitors arrive and whisk the dog away to have lots of fun and adventures. It's a sweet book with a happy ending - true friendship outlasts the whims of faeries.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
My Goodreads review:

I understand and agree with the hype, but boy did I hate reading this book. Heart-wrenching the whole way through, I found myself physically reacting to the hideous and unforgivable characters and scenes. I did not believe I could feel so strongly for 13 year-old Kyra who is forced to marry her 60 year-old uncle, but my blood did boil. The quote by Gregory Maguire on the front of the book is perfect: "The Chosen One makes the heart race, the teeth grind, and the brow bead up in sweat."...more I understand and agree with the hype, but boy did I hate reading this book. Heart-wrenching the whole way through, I found myself physically reacting to the hideous and unforgivable characters and scenes. I did not believe I could feel so strongly for 13 year-old Kyra who is forced to marry her 60 year-old uncle, but my blood did boil. The quote by Gregory Maguire on the front of the book is perfect: "The Chosen One makes the heart race, the teeth grind, and the brow bead up in sweat." Yeah, it's a heavy book. But the best usually are.

I can't say much more about this book except that you have to read it. Unless you read for pleasure, then I would highly advise against it.

The Fruit Bowl Project by Sarah Durkee
I would not have picked this book up if it wasn't one that I was reviewing for the 2009-2010 Golden Jaguar Award, the reader's choice award at the middle school I will be student teaching at in the fall. And I didn't give it a glowing review. The premise of the book is actually kinda cool - a rockstar visits an eighth grade Writer's Workshop class and introduces their next assignment. They all write the same story from a different perspective. So more than half the book are the students' pieces of writing, from poetry to plays to Broadway musicals to letters to simple prose. While I enjoyed reading many of them, I wonder if middle school students would share my preference. I doubt that they sit around and read each other's work for pleasure, maybe of their close friends, but certainly not 50 kids' writings in a row! I felt like this was a great writing exercise for the author but not such a great experience for the reader. :/


Next week, I hope to be reading more for this and next year's Golden Jaguar Award since summer is quickly flying past me. And eventually I will get to that Libraries in Books entry!

Read this week (4)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
My review from Goodreads:

I finished this book in one day. I was both horrified and intrigued by this plagued world with more undead roaming the earth than the living. An infection has spread across the world, but to Mary and her village, this is the only place on Earth left with survivors. It reminds me of The Giver because of the village's separateness from the rest of the world. It also reminded me of Bones of Faerie, especially when the six siblings and friends set out on the path to escape the dangers of their invaded village. While a handful of characters dominate this story, Mary is the one that evokes the most emotion - she's willful, determined, stubborn, hopeful, curious, and insatiable. I didn't agree with all of her actions, but I understood her choices, as hard as they may have been. This is an excellent dystopia, a scary look at the world depleted by the Infection, with a few left struggling to survive.

The Eternal Smile by Derek Kirk Kim and Gene Luen Yang
This graphic novel is actually three short stories, unrelated to each other except perhaps by theme. This book has been getting rave reviews, but I was left feeling "eh." I enjoyed the first story, about a boy in a fairy dream world, with him as the prince out to kill the Frog King in order to gain the princess' hand in marriage - with a rather unexpected twist in the end. The next two stories also had those strange twists, but they were not so unexpected as the first. They're life stories and they're sweet and sometimes heartbreaking, but I don't know why they were there together. Perhaps if this was instead an anthology of such stories, I'd feel better about it. But the similarity to Yang's American Born Chinese - three seemingly unrelated stories - was too distinct, yet it failed in connecting the stories. The illustrations, however, were wonderful, and I would go back just to look at them. Especially those in "Urgent Request," two-toned drawings in rounded panels about a woman who hates her job and seeks refuge in a make-believe world where she aids and meets a Nigerian prince - that story could have stood alone.


Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell
I started this book weeks ago and was too angry to finish it until now. Angry because the main character Nikki despises the library yet works there as a student library assistant anyway. But I'll get into this in my forthcoming "libraries in books" post. Here's an excerpt from my Goodreads review:

Nikki is starting eighth grade at a new school, Westchester Country Day Middle School, where she feels like she does not fit in at all. This book is her diary, complete with love poems, comics, and sketches, reminiscent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

It's a cute book for 6th/7th grade girls. New kids at school. Those wanting to fit in with the popular crowd. Kids that feel like they have embarrassing families. Nikki writes about her everyday life, which to her is filled with catastrophic and life-changing events on a daily basis. From first crushes to best friends to mean girls and annoying little sisters - I looked back on my middle school days, and while the pop culture references were a bit much, I could definitely relate. Warning: Nikki loves the Tyra Banks show... and writes about it constantly! This gives the book less lasting power, but it's relevant for the right here, right now.



Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
I tried to read this book this week, but after fifty pages, I gave up. Darcy is obnoxiously rude and sarcastic - yet a lovesick puppy. Zombies invade balls and carriage rides across towns. The sisters are trained in combat, carrying daggers in their stockings. There is a target audience for this book - and I do not belong to it. My students, however, have read and presumably enjoyed it, if not were at least amused by it. My younger sister, I'm sure, would love it. I'm not a fan of the gimmicky zombie appeal - the cover alone makes me cringe. But like the vampire craze of last year, zombies have invaded the current book market.

Read this week (3)

Not so much reading happening this week... lots of movie-watching though. Tons of knitting and crocheting too. And a little too much shopping. But I'm okay with that. I visited my family this weekend, so I was busy busy busy. Anyway.



Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith
I liked this book better than I liked the companion novel Tantalize. But that's not saying much. I had a hard time accepting the fact that a person could adjust so well to being a blood-thirsty vampire, to forget all about what it was like to be human and to want to feast on any old hot-blooded being in the room. And to accept this new lifestyle without so much as a complaint or thought to why this is happening. Beh. I wasn't convinced. And I certainly didn't enjoy the angel falling in love with the vampire. I'm not religious in any way, but even this seemed awkward and just wrong to me. I suppose I prefer the benevolent, vegetarian vampires. I really don't like the violence or disregard for human life. But that's just me.

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
This was the last of Shannon Hale's books that I had yet to read. This graphic novel is co-written by her husband and illustrated by Nathan Hale, who is not related to the couple in any way, which is a neat little coincidence. It is the revised story of Rapunzel with a Wild West twist - I'm not a fan of the Western, but this book was great. The mother who locks her in a tower is sufficiently evil, and the world is magical yet familiar. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of fairy tales, original and retold, adventure stories, and hero stories. And to any girl 9+ who needs a few more girl power stories in her life. I think it also has a wide appeal in age range and gender - I'd go as young as third grade and know a few high school students who would enjoy it as well. Oh! And I love the fact that it's larger than a normal book or graphic novel at that, almost a foot tall, I would say. I liked having more of the story on one page - which I never really thought about before. The colors are also vibrant, and the pages sleek and shiny, another preference of mine.


So, I'm hoping to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and The Forest of Hands and Teeth this week since I have to return them to their libraries (yes, I go to more than one library) by Wednesday. I've got another busy weekend ahead of me, so that might be all I get to read, unfortunately. I wish I could get back into audiobooks, but I've been loving lots of new music lately, so it wins. The summer's going by too fast - I have loads more reading to do! And sometime soon before I forget, I'd like to blog about library representation and stereotypes in books because I've read quite a few recently that touch on this topic. And I need to start blogging earlier on Sunday because I'm just about brain dead. The zombies got me.

Read this week (2)

I should have said before but I'll say now that this is not a book review blog. There are many of them. There are also many professional review journals out there. Although I could write reviews and snappy annotations, I'd rather focus on my own reading experiences and reflect on the books I read. Perhaps this makes my blog less useful to the world, but it's sure worth it to me. This also means that I will periodically talk about a book in its entirety - including spoilers for those who have not read the book. Anyhow, just wanted to clarify my purpose in this grand ol' blogosphere. Onward!



Stargazer by Claudia Gray
This is the sequel to Evernight, a book that I abhorred getting through. I can't remember why I disliked Evernight so much, but the feeling stayed with me. For the first few nights reading Stargazer, I felt like I was reading a teen romance, which made me slightly uncomfortable and not eager to keep reading. Oh, how I pine for you, you vampire hunter you, even though I will soon turn into a vampire and you will more than likely have the urge to kill me. Bianca and Lucas' relationship bored me and irritated me, but Balthazar! He kept me interested in the story, and oh how I wish I could have followed him instead of Bianca, who's definitely not good enough for him even though he may have had a misplaced crush on her. Towards the middle of the book, I actually did want to keep reading as the pacing picked up and the story wasn't half bad. But the ending! Awful. Truly terrible. Sure, I'll become a vampire hunter too... even though, um, I'm kinda a vampire myself. What hypocrisy! What ludicrousness! If there is another book in this series, I will not read it. No, I do not want to even fathom what could happen next. Okay, fine, I'll probably read it. I'm hooked, what can I say?

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
This is the first book in the Nancy Drew series, which I gobbled up as a child. I read this for my African American Youth Literature class (even though I am no longer taking it - eh, I need a summer too, ya know) for the sole purpose of pointing out the blatant racism in the original edition. I must say, I wasn't all that surprised. It was written in 1930 by a white woman - I don't think she was too worried about sounding racist in one measly paragraph. She wrote what she knew and what the attitudes of white people were at the time. I read a later, revised edition which completely changed the one black character, turning him into a racially ambiguous, tall, skinny caretaker. Other revisions include the treatment of Nancy's nanny from one as servant in 1930 to almost a mother-figure in the later edition. I don't know why I liked these books as a child. Nancy is a rich girl with amazing luck and all the opportunities in the world - a real crime-solver and independent gal. Maybe I just liked the mystery aspect. Anyhow, I won't be reading any more old Nancy Drews anytime soon, though the new graphic novels do intrigue me.

Moon Over Star by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
I also read this book for African American Youth Literature and watched the video below of the Obamas reading it to elementary students. I didn't have much of a reaction to it. Little girl lives on a farm with her family, and they are watching the first moon landing on TV. What was interesting to me was a comment made in my class that the family in this book was not written in the text as being African-American and that it could be that the illustrator made that decision on his own. Whether or not this happened, I don't know, but it does seem to be a possibility. That's so interesting to me that if you don't illustrate your own book, you're leaving a whole lot of the story up for interpretation by the illustrator since there is not usually communication between author and illustrator, from what I've been told. Craziness! Anyhow, this video is sweet:



The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale
I finished this book this morning in bed, weeping for nearly two hours. Love it. Love love love it. Can't say enough how much I loved it. It was written so wonderfully well, I can't even believe it. This is exactly what I want in a book. And I'm glad I don't get it all that often because it's too much for my little heart to handle. Oh, the emotions. The laughter and tears - I don't care how silly it sounds - I was an emotional wreck. This is definitely not a book to be read in public! What surprised me the most is that I should not be able to relate so well to Becky, the main character, but oh how I felt everything she felt. Maybe it's not a relating thing so much as an empathy thing. She's a middle-aged Mormon mother of four - if you looked her up in the thesaurus, I'd be right there in her antonym list. We have nothing in common. I have more in common with Felix than I do Becky! And maybe that's it. I can look at Becky through Felix's eyes even though I can also be Becky since she narrates (and maybe that's one tiny quibble I have with the book - does Becky narrate or not? seems like it at times, but then not so much). Nonetheless, I enjoyed her character very much - a learning experience for this exceedingly cynical gal. I also really liked the organization of the book, the idea to split the story into three parts, three types of kisses, and the book-ended beginning and ending. When I started the second part of the book, I wanted to come back and quote just about every chapter beginning - they were so well-written and engaging! Okay, well I could gush and gush about this book, but I think I need more time to let it sink in. And I could use some sleep too.

I've started a knitting project, so I don't know how much time I'll fork over to reading next week, but I suppose we'll just have to see. Until then...