Book Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Book: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Published: 2010
Source: Local Library

Samantha Kingston is beautiful, popular, with a gorgeous boyfriend and fabulous besties. Her life seems perfect, until the day it all ended in screaming tires and twisted metal. Then she woke up, into the last day of her life . . . again.

Now Sam is living through the same day over and over, but with the ability to change things. Somehow, she's got to change what led up to that fatal car crash. But to change it, she first must understand it.

What is so appealing about the Groundhog Day structure? It's something about second chances, I think. The ability to do something right this time, or to see what happens if you do something different. Oliver also uses it to explore the consequences of our actions, and how complex that is. Sam is not a particularly nice person. She and her group are the mean girls, the ones who make up the nasty names and decree who's in and who's out. But they're not all nasty all the time. Within their group of four, they are supportive and loving, and Sam has great affection for her parents and little sister. Still, being a nice person to some people doesn't cancel out what you do to others. At the root of the accident that takes Sam's life multiple times are the many-layered consequences of what she and others have done in the past.

Characters unfold gradually. Even though Sam is living through the same day, the same events, in the same pattern, she makes little changes that reveal information to us and cause other characters to reveal information to her. Sometimes this helps with Sam's quest, but more often it helps us to see the same people from different angles, just as Sam is learning to do. This was so effective that I actually worried about what would happen to her friends after Sam was gone. That's an indicator of good characters right there. Her family is less fleshed out, but given that they are less important to the story, I didn't feel the lack.

Okay, I'm gonna be spoilerific here and tell you all that . . .

Last chance to leave.

. . . that Sam does, in fact, die. That what she had to change was not her own death, but someone else's. She had confront the role she had in other people's lives and change it, just a little. Just enough. The final chapter is probably the hardest time I've ever had reading a final chapter. Normally I race through them, wanting to finish, but I kept setting the book down, knowing what was coming. Sam had come to terms with it, but I was struggling, because there were so many good places that her truncated life could go, and knowing that they wouldn't was what brought on the tears. (Overinvested in a book? ME?) Sam goes through a recognizable pattern of denial, grief, anger in dealing with the fact of her own death. Her acceptance of what has to happen at the party is what finally allows her to bring an end to the cycle, not only her own last day, but the cycle of thoughtless actions and cruel consequences that has been hurting others.

Book Review: The Big Splash by Jack Ferraiolo

Book: The Big Splash
Author: Jack D. Ferraiolo
Published: 2008
Source: Local Library

Matt Stevens has a reputation as a guy who can find things out. But he's an independent contracter, see? He's nobody's patsy. That's why he has reservations about taking a job from Vinny Biggs, the school's go-to guy for such contraband as forged hall passes and forbidden junk food. But twenty bucks can buy a lot of root beers.

Matt shoulda listened to his gut. While he's doing the job for Vinny, somebody takes out Nikki Fingers right next to him. Once she was Franklin Middle School's most feared squirt-gun assassin. One twitch of her trigger finger and her luckless victims were standing there with apparently peed pants, a subject of scorn and mockery forever. Now she's been served a taste of her own medicine, but who ordered the hit? To Matt's surprise, both Vinny and Nikki's cute sister Jenny put him on the case. As he starts to detangle the strange web of loyalties, grudges, and crushes that surround the event, Matt realizes that people who are his friends, his enemies, and a little of both may be involved. And if he's not careful, he might find himself staring down a Super Soaker with his name on it.

As a mystery, this worked really well for me. Loads of false leads and secret motives clutter Matt's path toward the truth. I got a little lost toward the end, but it all worked out reasonably enough. Mostly, though, I have to talk about the tone of this book. The softboiled, faux-noir thing has been done with Bruce Hale's Chet Gecko series, but for a different audience, and there it's played purely for laughs. The Big Splash can't really decide whether it wants to be funny or serious about its own tone. Initially, it's pretty tongue in cheek. Matt calls his school "the Frank," kids gather at a backyard shed called Sal's for cheap root beer and PBJs, and hall monitors keep a sharp eye out for rubber bands and chewing gum. Then as we get deeper into the story, the cynicism and meloncholy feel of noir begin to seep in.

This seepage occurs in large part because Ferraiolo's characters are more fleshed out than Hale's. Matt has history with all the people he's investigating, most notably Kevin Carling, who was Matt's best friend until he accepted Biggs' offer to be a "lieutenent" (read: head bullyboy) in his organization. In addition, Matt's home life is hardly the stuff of Nick at Nite. Since his father's mysterious disappearance, his mom has had to work two jobs, leaving Matt to largely care for himself. His tough-guy demeanor becomes less an assumed persona that he can lay aside and more like a defense mechanism against all the blows life has dealt him.

Also, Vinny Bigg's organization is pretty funny until you realize the implications. The various hits carried out, from Nikki's Super-Soaker antics to a revenge hit on the apparent perpetrator, are downright nasty. What else can you call stripping a kid naked except for a chocolate-smeared diaper? Funny? Yeah. The stuff of years of therapy? Oh, yeah. I wrestled with that, trying to reconcile my adult horror with my memories of middle school. Is it exaggerated? Sure, but not by much, and for kids going through it, maybe not at all. The meloncholy tone may resonate with kids who are starting to deal with changing friendships and difficult choices.

I really hope that Ferraiolo writes more Matt Stevens books. Meloncholia aside, I really enjoyed this one, and I'm deeply curious about the larger mysteries that were set up in this novel.

Book Review: Mudshark by Gary Paulsen

Book: Mudshark
Author: Gary Paulsen
Published: 2009
Source: Local Library

He's like Encyclopedia Brown, but with a cooler nickname. Twelve-year-old Lyle "Mudshark" Williams is a master of observation, noticing what nobody else bothers to see and putting all the pieces together. This has made him the go-to guy for missing items and various conundra in his very crazy school. Missing your homework? Check the bushes by the step where you were sitting this morning. Lost your brain? (Don't worry, it's plastic.) Try the pool where you were swimming yesterday, and where nobody will now go in the deep end. Yep, Mudshark knows all, sees all, and doesn't even charge.

But that's before the librarian gets a Psychic Parrot. All of a sudden, Mudshark is dethroned in favor of a bird that burps before each prediction. He wouldn't be human if he didn't admit he was kind of annoyed by this. But when the principal asks him to solve the mystery of the missing erasers, Mudshark discovers that if the parrot solves it before he does, he's not the only one who could suffer.

I always enjoy Gary Paulsen, but I'm used to him as an adventure writer. Mudshark reminds me that the guy can be very, very funny. This book captures and exaggerates the life of a school, from the terrifying science lab to the equally terrifying lunches, from the mysterious custodian to the "wonderfully unhinged" librarian (hee!). Besides all that, there's the general level of kookiness you get when you confine three hundred under-twelves in one building for nine months. My favorite sections were the principal's announcements that served as hilarious chapter headers, keeping us up-to-date on the missing gerbil from room 206, the rapidly deteriorating state of the faculty restroom, and various other seeming one-off jokes that play into the story at a later date. This slim, fast-moving story is a sure thing for fans of Encyclopedia Brown, Wayside School, and Paulsen's other work.

Book Review: The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti

Book: The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Author: Deb Caletti
Published: 2009
Source: Local Library

Raised in a houseful of women with thoroughly stomped-on hearts, Quinn has grown up with the warnings about men ringing in her ears. Watch out for the red flags. Bad boys are not wounded, misunderstood, or secretly sweet--they're usually just jerks. If a guy wants to kiss your corpse back to life, he has some issues of his own. There is no such thing as Prince Charming.

She's heeded the warnings when it comes to her own romantic life, but she can't quite apply them all to her charming father, who dotes on herself and her sister Sprout in their regular visits. Then, just after getting dumped by her safe and boring boyfriend, Quinn discovers that her father has stolen treasured items from every woman who's ever passed through his life. Smarting from this double betrayal, she becomes determined to return them all.

She and Sprout meet up with their older half-sister, Frances Lee, and together they set off on a journey through the Pacific Northwest and the wreckage of their father's romantic past. Also riding along is Jake, Frances Lee's boyfriend's brother. Quinn fights her attraction to him, but can't deny that there's an irresistible pull. But on a road trip that's all about romantic disasters, does she dare get involved?

It would have been pretty easy for this whole book to be nothing more than "men bad." Baaaaad men. Ought to castrate the lot of 'em. And sometimes it does cross over into that territory. But Caletti saves it from this in two ways. First she shows some very good men. These include Andy, the devoted husband of their father's first ex, and Jake, whose bad-boy exterior (tattoos and guitars and naked first meetings, oh my!) turns out to be a cover for a warm and level-headed person who's nuts about Quinn exactly as she is.

Second, Caletti intercuts the narrative with testimonials from a variety of female characters on their own romantic mistakes, and shows that while getting involved with a jerk might be the first mistake, the second is to ignore that little voice inside that says, "This isn't right. You don't deserve this kind of treatment." If men were all bad, then women would be merely victims, and that's not the case. As this novel shows, both people in a relationship bring a certain measure of responsibility to the table, and it's when one or both forget that little fact that trouble happens.

Book Review: Exposed by Susan Vaught

Book: Exposed
Author: Susan Vaught
Published: 2008
Source: Local Library

After her first relationship went down in flames last year, Chan Shealy is sooooo over real boys. That's why Paul is so perfect. He's online, hundreds of miles away. Just a long-distance thrill, a cute boy to talk to and flirt with, one she knows will never sleep with a cheerleader or lie about her all over the school. Plus, Paul is perfect in other ways too. He helps her get set up with a strength-training program that helps with her competitive twirling. He loves Emily Dickinson, Chan's favorite poet. He's hot and fun and thinks she's the sexiest thing ever. It doesn't take long before Chan's so wrapped up in Paul that her schoolwork, her relationship with her family and friends is suffering.

Paul is pushing her further than she wants to go, getting her to do things for him, and the camera, that she never would have considered. But Chan talks herself out of her doubts. Paul is perfect, right? Totally perfect. Plus her parents would go crazy if they knew what she was doing. She's not a baby, she knows what she's doing.

Then Paul crosses the line, and Chan has to face the fact that all his perfection might be a bigger lie than anything her ex ever did.

This book will make you incredibly uncomfortable. That's a given, considering the subject matter. But seriously, I was deeply uncomfortable as Paul coaxed, sweet-talked, and even lightly blackmailed Chan into creating sexy videos, and even managed to justify charging others for them so Chan always felt as if she were in control, even while it was obvious to me that she wasn't.

I grew up on the cusp of the Internet revolution. When I first got online, at about Chan's age, video chat was still confined to Star Trek. Recently, I was talking to older co-workers about Facebook and how even though I know, intellectually, that anybody can get on there and say anything, it still feels like a fun clubhouse where you can try things out in safety and privacy. If I have a hard time remembering this, how much easier is it for a sixteen-year-old to gloss over all the little things that are not quite right.

I had some nitpicks. Vaught has a trick of making up fake names for services we're all very familiar with. For instance, BlahFest is the MySpace/Facebook clone that Paul first uses to connect with Chan, and PortalPay is the secure payment website that funnels Chan's cut to her. We all know what they are, why not just call it that? There was a very slight subplot about her father's weight issues, which felt out of place in the midst of the rest of the novel. If it was a larger plot that was cut down, it probably should have been cut down completely. It didn't do much to support or feed into the main plot, except to provide an excuse for their mother to get uptight about Chan's changing diet.

But overall, this is a creepy and thought-provoking book, well worth the read.

Reading Roundup June 2010

By the Numbers
Teen: 25
Tween: 18
Children: 17

Sources
Review Copies: 10
Swapped: 1
Purchased: 2
Library: 37

Standouts
Teen: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Just like its heroine, this book is so much more than it seems. Review someday soon.
Tween: Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen
Brave kids, creepy scary stuff, and oh yeah, talking bridges. There's a reason the woman's worshipped.
Children: My Rotten Life by David Lubar
I don't think there's many writers who could acknowledge that boys have fairly tender feelings, and then have a scene where a thumb gets glued back on. You might be able to drive a truck through the plot holes, but it's so much fun to read, who cares?

Because I Want To Awards
Longest Awaited: A Wizard of Mars by Diane Duane (We are talking YEARS here, people.)
Shoo-in For Standout Until the End: Hate List by Jennifer Brown (Not sure what it was. Something about the very, very end felt a little skewed, like it went a couple of degrees the wrong direction. Anybody else?)
The Closest You'll Ever Get to Virgin Noir: The Big Splash by Jack Ferraiolo (Virgin as in without the alcohol. Sickos. Review soon)
For Your Favorite Monty Python Fan: The Brain Finds a Leg by Martin Chatterton
Encyclopedia Brown, Eat Your Heart Out: Mudshark by Gary Paulsen
Don't Just Save This for Halloween-Time: Are You Afraid Yet? The science behind scary stuff by Stephen James O'Meara
For Your Readers in Snicket-Withdrawal: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

Book Review: A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

Book: A Conspiracy of Kings
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Published: 2010
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

Sophos never really wanted to be king. But due to an agreement his father made with his uncle, he doesn't have any choice in the matter. He also never wanted to be a slave. But after being kidnapped and pressed into service on the estate of the king's worst enemy, he doesn't see any way out. When he finally escapes slavery, it's a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. He's got enemies on all sides in a country exploding into war, and nobody's making the decisions for him anymore. All his life, things have just sort of happened to Sophos. It's time for him to take control and for once to be the one who makes things happen, for himself and for his country.

Honestly? I squeed and danced my fangirl dance when I heard this book was coming out, because, hey, Megan Whalen Turner. But underneath that, I went, "Really? Sophos?" Because he didn't impress me all that much in The Thief. He was sort of a naive little boy, looking on goggle-eyed at Eugenides's antics. He wasn't even present in The Queen of Attolia or The King of Attolia. Suffice it to say, I could think of a few other characters I'd rather read about. A lot of other characters I'd rather read about.

Oh, MWT. I will never doubt you again.

She started from the very thing that made me doubt--Sophos' passivity and naivete--and threw this untested boy into all manner of trouble. This had a character arc like you wouldn't believe. I literally felt as if I were reading about a different person at the end than at the beginning. From a boy who flailed and scrambled and, all right, whined, to a young king doing what he had to do

I loved the clear line of demarcation she drew between being a king and being a man, and how hard Sophos had to learn that lesson. At one point, he goes to Eugenides for help, knowing that their countries are at war. He is a young man turning to a friend, but what he must learn is that both he and Eugenides are kings first--must be kings first. They have to be men, with friendships and loyalties and acts of mercy and aid, second.

In this book, it is not good to be king. Being royalty means doing a lot of things you don't want to do. Like, really don't want to do. But there's a difference in the way you approach them. You can be like beginning-of-the-book Sophos, dragged along unwilling but passive, or you can examine all your options and then do what you gotta do. It's more subtle, but even Gen is struggling with the balance between friendship and kingly duty. For a short time, he reacts by pulling away, hard, trying to snap the bond so it's not so difficult to be the total bastard he has to be. Sophos eventually gets annoyed with Gen's aloofness and literally dumps him on his ass to catch his attention. Hysterically funny, but also a mark of how much Sophos has learned to take an active role in his life and relationships.

Honestly, this wasn't my favorite of the series, but it's amazing in its own specific way. And it's Megan Whalen Turner, who joins a fairly select club of authors whose books I intend to own, no question.

GLTB YA (and Libraries) in the New Yorker

Via E. Lockhart's Facebook feed, I found this article in the New Yorker, Books With Gay Themes for Young Readers Take Off.

Libraries didn't come off very well: the article interviews one teen who got a flat-out "No way," when asking for GLBT books at his middle school library, only found books for adults at his public library, and had to go to a bookstore to find the real stuff. Ouch. He's not alone, either:

Recent research in Texas, for instance, indicated a strong ''I don't serve those teens'' attitude among librarians.

''It's the argument that drives me crazy,'' said Teri Lesesne, who teaches young adult lit in the Department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.

''It's like, `Yeah, you do.' They might not be coming in and saying, `Hi, I'm gay or I'm bi or I'm transgender or I'm questioning my own identity,' because they're afraid,'' she said. ''But they're there and they're looking for these books.''

Now, I know not all libraries or librarians are like that. Couldn't they have found one example of a public or school librarian who said, "Oh, yeah, I recommend those books all the time. Wanna see my display?" Sigh.

Still, it's a good article, with mentions of the recent John Green/David Levithin collaboration Will Grayson, Will Grayson and the book that peeked around closet doors the same year that man landed on the moon, John Donovan's I'll Get There, It Better Be Worth the Trip.

Things I wish they'd included? A booklist. They did mention some great authors (Julie Anne Peters! Woot!) but would it have killed 'em to go, "Check out these awesome books too!"?

Still, they did get a wonderful quote in there:

''I see the [gay] characters trickling into the mainstream genres. I really like that,'' Brent said. ''It makes being gay feel natural, which it is, of course. Books give you hope.''

Show Cybil Some Love, Baby

The Cybils are the Kidlitosphere's much-loved literary awards, coming up on their fifth year. Right now, they're running a fund drive in order to fund the good work they do.

Now, the Cybils are all-volunteer all the time, but webspace ain't free, people. Neither are awards, printing of bookmarks and shortlists, and all the other things produced by these wonderful volunteers. If you've participated in, been inspired by, or utilized the Cybils in any way, here's your chance to give a little of that love back.

You can donate outright through PayPal or hit their CafePress store for some nifty swag. C'mon, you know you want to.

Kidlitosphere Conference 10 Info!

The next Kidlitosphere Conference has been set for October 23 in Minneapolis, Minnesota! Click through to the official KidLitCon10 blog (hello, of course there's a blog!) for all the details.

If you've never been, consider it! If you have, I don't need to convince you.

Book Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Book: The Demon's Lexicon
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: 2009
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

Nick and his brother Alan have never spent the whole school year in one place. It's a hazard of being a target for every evil magician in England, who are chasing them in order to get a charm that keeps their mother alive. Nick's used to sudden magical attacks, pitched battles, and hitting the road as fast as they possibly can. In fact, he can barely remember anything else.

Then Mae and her brother Jamie come into their lives. Jamie's fallen prey to an incubus and needs help to escape death at its hands. Against Nick's better judgment, Alan insists on helping the pair. But the problem starts to look bigger and bigger the more they work at it. This is something more than a simple incubus event. There's something big underneath it all. Lies untangle, only to reveal more lies within, until Nick can't be sure of anything, even himself. But no matter what, he can always trust that Alan will be there for him.

Can't he?

I was partway through the book when I set it down, thought for a moment, and realized that Nick was basically a sociopath. Not in the serial-killer sense, but in the sense that other people simply don't matter to him. There is a good reason for this, but you don't find that out until the very end. There's only one person in the world that Nick truly loves, and that's Alan. Everyone else can go up in a puff of smoke as far as he's concerned, even his mother (although to be fair, she feels the same about him). This makes him a fascinating character, although fascinating =/= nice. In fact, that's a pretty good rule of thumb for characters period. You can have nice or you can have fascinating, but it's hard to do both. Ahem. Where was I?

The other thing about Nick is how he functions in terms of the plot. He's the viewpoint character, and while it takes awhile for you to realize it, he's What It's All About. While he seems to be a bystander, the narrative gradually pushes him more and more inward until the climax reveals that everything that's happened can be traced back to him and the secrets of his past. Brennan is marvelously good at sprinkling hints throughout the novel. There are all sorts of secrets revealed in the climax, and I kept flashing back to earlier events and going, "Oh! OH!"

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is "Supernatural," and this book reminded me forcibly of that show. A certain businesslike attitude toward the occult and heapin' helpings of brotherly snark and brotherly love create the appeal of both. There are other similarities that I can't get into without mega-spoilers, but this is perfect for fans of that show and anything else occult. I can't wait to go back to this world, but I'm a little glad that the next few books are going to be from Mae's point of view. Nick may be fascinating, but he's not the easiest person to spend an entire book with.

Dooooooooooom . . . or not

So I hear that the TV show "Glee" is going to be releasing prequel novels in August, just to whip us all into a musical-theatre frenzy before the show's return in the fall. And normally, I would put my Cynical Hat on at the news of another cheap TV tie-in. (AHEM Hannah Montana AHEM.) 

But I'm going to confess that I love Glee. And my Cynical Hat is appalled to learn that I actually think the events and characters in this show would translate to reasonably decent YA novels, in the hands of the right writers. I mean, we're probably not going to get the singing and dancing. But Rachel, Finn, Quinn, Kurt, Mercedes, Artie, and Tina, with all their drama, dreams, and identity struggles, would not be out of place in my YA section.

What do you think? Is your Cynical Hat on? And what does it look like? Mine is a large black stovepipe with foghorns, by the way.

Book Review: The Buddha's Diamonds by Carolyn Marsden and Thay Phap Niem

Book: The Buddha's Diamonds

Authors: Carolyn Marsden and Thay Phap Niem

Published: 2008

Source: Local Library

 

At ten years old, Tinh is no longer a child. He helps his father every day, going out in the beautiful new family boat to catch the fish that will feed his mother and sister. But he is still only ten years old, and when he fails to secure the boat during a catastrophic storm, it seems that all is lost. As his family and his village start to rebuild, Tinh realizes that the world is still beautiful, even when things are at their worst.

 

I love books about faith, any faith. Kids can be losing, finding, or living with their faith and I'm all over it. Books with Christian characters dominate the field, although there's a fiesty subgenre of Jewish stories, and books on Islam are as rare as hen's teeth. Buddhism? This is the first one I've found, and it's an eye-opening first exposure to a religion that's about 180 degrees removed from the God/YHWH/Allah-centered religions that dominate the Western world. Given that the copyright is attributed to Carolyn Marsden and the United Buddhist Church, I shouldn't be surprised that the Buddhist storyline is so strong. I'm just glad Marsden managed not to preach. Of course, I may be revealing my ignorance, since preaching and conversion themselves are such strong elements in Western religion.

 

The Vietnamese setting is also new to me. Everyone mentions "the war," and it took me about half the book to realize that they were talking about the Vietnam War. For some reason, I was thinking of World War II. While Tinh never lived through it, he has lived with the aftermath all his life: an uncle whose leg was blown off, landmines that lurk under the sand.

Unfortunately, the cover is terrible. You can see it up there: not exactly the stuff that leaps off the shelf and into a kid's hand. Still, I hope that with some handselling, the right kids will find this quiet novel a window into a world and a faith that they may have never known, or that may be part of their own story.

Belated Donation Total

Okay, so I did a finish line post but I didn't say how much money I raised for First Book.

13 reviews posted x $10/review = 130 dollars
28 comments x $1/comment = 28 dollars
1 "like" on Facebook x .50/like = .50

For a grand total of . . . . 158.50. Woohoo! I'm going to round that up to 160 dollars for the sake of not donating a totally random amount of money.

I'm ready to do this again. Just give me about a year.

Linkity Linkity Loo

Yes, kiddies, it's time for me to clean out my Google Reader once again. Aren't you lucky!

• This is an older Booklights post, but one worth re-reading: When I Was Your Age . . . Susan talks about her experience with parents who can't understand why their second-grader isn't interested in Nancy Drew or other classics. After all, the parent loved them when they were a kid! As Susan points out, when did you love them? In second grade? Or in fifth? She gently explains why the Hardy Boys might be daunting to a kid fresh off Magic Tree House and gives suggestions as to what to explore next.
• When I heard that Hope Larson, author of Chiggers and Mercury, was adapting A Wrinkle in Time in graphic form, I went, "Hmmm!" I'm cautiously intrigued. The lady's good at translating inner turmoil into graphic novel form, and who's more tumultuous than Meg Murray?
• Oh, did you know Dan Gutman corrupted America? All by himself? Quite an accomplishment, if you ask me. Especially considering his weapon of choice was "depraved, acrimonious dribble." Seriously, this is a marvelous response to a parent's indignation over content in his "Weird School" books.
• On her blog, Shannon Hale has a similar response to an objection to Jeff Smith's "Bone" series. Always interesting to see this stuff from the authors' point of view.

That's all you get for today!

48-Hour Book Challenge Finish Line!

Time Stats

Total reading time: 16 hours, 7 minutes
Total blogging time (including this post): 5 hours, 38 minutes
Total networking time: 2 hours, 50 minutes

For a total time of: 24 hours, 35 minutes

Some other statistics

Books finished: 13 (including one audiobook which was partially done at the beginning)
Books given up on: 1

My experience
I had a harder time this year than last (or I forgot how hard it was). I think this was due to a few different factors. One, last year I read all books that I was insanely excited to read, which really helped with my energy level. This year, I had a good smattering of books that I was excited to read, but about half of them were obligations.

They also tended to be shorter, so I didn't get the momentum that I did last year. Only one paper book took me more than two hours, and there were a number that took less than an hour. You'd think that would make it easier, but it was actually harder. How weird. I had the same number of books this year as last, but a much lower time spent reading.

I also exercised both days, which was good to get out of the house and moving, but it tired me out so that I didn't have the stamina to stay up late and read. Of course, I prize my sleep, so I was never going to be one of the 48-hour readers.

Still, I had fun. I always do. There's something about doing this and communicating with a whole group of people who are also doing it at the same time that's just exhilarating. I noticed there were more adult-book bloggers this year, so it was neat to visit their blogs and see what they were up to. And the tweets flew thick and fast!

I'll wait to make my final donation count until Monday evening. Thanks for another great year, Pam, and congrats to everyone who entered this marathon!

Book Review: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Book: The Dark is Rising
Author: Susan Cooper
Published: 1973
Source: library

Who I Told I’d Read It: nobody really; this was the audiobook I was listening to while cooking and exercising and doing all the other things it's inadvisable to do with your eyes otherwise occupied.
Time: 2:40:06 (during the 48HBC)

Will Stanton is used to being overlooked and left behind. He's not bitter about it; that's just the way life is for the youngest of a very large family. But on the morning of his eleventh birthday, he wakes into a strange, still world. Inside his house, none of his brothers or sisters will wake up. Outside is not the familiar Thames Valley he's always known, but a snow-blanketed landscape from long ago.

When he ventures out into it, his true nature is revealed to him. He's an Old One, servant of the Light, last in a long line of immortal beings pledged to fight the Dark. And throughout the coming Christmas season, he alone must seek out the six Signs of the Light, that will aid them in their battle. Because if the Dark gets them first, there's no telling what evil will swamp the world.

I read this for the first time in fourth grade, and I can clearly remember the experience. I've never been a high fantasy girl, but The Dark is Rising was my exception. I marinated in this book and its sequels, soaking up the glorious language, the firm anchoring in the English, Cornish, and Welsh countrysides, and the underpinnings of Arthurian myth. It's probably the reason for my persistent Anglophilia. Returning to it, I wondered how the book itself would measure up to my memories.

This is a story of growing up fast and brutal, no question. At a time of year when everyone is permitted to be a child, Will must be an adult, making hard choices for himself and for the family that has always nurtured and protected him. Cooper is almost systematic about stripping away his protection. At different times, he sees almost every member of his family affected by his quest, turned from steady dependable anchors into fearful, helpless human beings in various situations that Will must then handle. It's something we all learn, but not in the space of three weeks. Caught between being an eleven-year-old boy and an immortal Old One, Will yearns to be one or the other, knowing that to fulfill his quest, he must balance both. His humanity is as important to the story as his magical powers, and Cooper keeps him (and us) from arrogance by inserting reminders of old, wild magic that are beyond either.

For sure, this is a book that couldn't have been written today. The Light is good and the Dark is bad and there's an end to it. Post-Watergate (which scandal was probably just beginning to break as Cooper was writing), we require a little more in the way of proof, and we also like to see a little more internal conflict in a person called to a great and terrible destiny. Will sees his duty and falls in line, without question. He has moments of weakness and doubt, but he doubts himself, never the Light nor Merriman Lyon, its representative. Additionally, I had problems with the women in the story, who all tend to be either silly (Will's sisters), evil (a neighbor girl who seduces a human ally away from the Light), or iconic (Miss Greythorne and the Lady). Finally, it's more than a little unlikely that the Six Signs would all turn up so handily close to Will's home.

But those are things you think about away from the grip of the story. Returning to this book after many years dropped me right back into my love affair with it. Maybe it's something about being so devoted to it when I was young, or maybe it's simply the power of Cooper's writing, but I felt all the old prickles of awe and meloncholy that it evoked in me twenty years ago.

Book Review: The Brain Finds a Leg by Martin Chatterton

Book: The Brain Finds a Leg
Author: Martin Chatterton
Published: 2009
Source: review copy from publisher

Who I Told I’d Read It: the publisher
Time: 1:17:52

It all started with the highly unexpected humpback whale attack. Not  to mention the killer koalas, the organized lorikeet poop-strafing, and the SUV-stealing possums. For sure, there are strange things afoot in Sheldon McGlone's sleepy little town of Farrago Bay. Luckily, Sheldon crosses paths with The Brain, a middle-schooler with the mindpower of a Harvard professor. Coincidentally, the Brain has just found a leg, unattached to a body, which might have something to do with the death of local surfer punk Biff Manley, a crime that Sheldon's brother Sean is being blamed for.

Now if The Brain and his new sidekick can figure out what Biff, his leg, the crazed animals, and the local toothpaste manufacturer have to do with each other, they might just get to the bottom of this. That's if they can convince the crocodile that thinks it's a puppy dog to let go of the local police sergeant.

If Sherlock Holmes hijacked a Carl Hiaasen novel and made off with it to Australia, you might get something like The Brain Finds a Leg. Illogical, ridiculous, and all-around-unlikely? Clearly. Loads of fun? Christ, yes.

The Brain has that annoying literary genius trait of giving Sheldon (and by extension, us) barely 1/10th of the real story, so this is not really the book for someone who needs to know what's going on at all times. But this isn't the kind of book you read for the plot. You read for the twisted humor, the oddball situations, and the desire to see just how strange it can get before the end. And the answer? Very strange indeed.

Book Review: Nieve by Terry Griggs

Book: Nieve
Author: Terry Griggs
Published: 2010
Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer program

Who I Told I’d Read It: LibraryThing
Time: 1:39:14

Weird things have been happening lately. Some of them, Nieve doesn't mind so much, like her parents getting more work as professional weepers. But some things, like the sudden uptick in the number of spiders, the creepy new apothecaries in town, and the nasty candy that the new substitute gives to the whole class, are just worrisome.

Before long, Nieve and her strange new friend Lias are off to the Black City, and it's there she'll discover what's really going on, and what she has to do with it.

This book started out as interestingly weird and quickly spiraled down into totally horrific. It's marked 10-15, but I wouldn't give this to anybody under 12, and even then only if they have a strong tolerance for disturbing stuff. What else can you call scenes of people being twisted into furniture?

A lot of the things seemed to be random details instead of feeding back into the story, too. Certain creepy characters that loom up at the beginning are never explained or positioned within the rest of the narrative, and the motivations of the Big Bad are fuzzy at best. Of course, this is the first book in a trilogy, but I got the feeling that it really didn't have to be.

Book Review: Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love by Lauren Tarshis

Book: Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love
Author: Lauren Tarshis
Published: 2009
Source: swapped

Who I Told I’d Read It: the little girl at work who checked out the first Emma Jean book. Okay, that's a stretch. The truth is, I really felt like reading a quick book I was sure to enjoy.
Time: 0:38:51

It's spring at William Gladstone Middle School, and everyone is showing the effects. With the school dance coming up, nobody can discuss any topic but who is going with whom. Colleen Pomerantz even has a secret admirer, and she's called on super-logical Emma-Jean Lazarus to figure out who it is.

While she is most pleased to assist her friend, Emma-Jean has problems of her own. Every time she sees Will Keeler, her heart has taken to fluttering in the most distracting and puzzling way. Is it possible that Emma-Jean is--gulp--in love?

This is another book that I'd love to read aloud. Emma-Jean's detached and quizzical way of looking at the world, specifically the world of WGMS, just begs to be repeated. ("A chickpea fell off Emma-Jean's fork, as though Vikram's suggestion had caused it to faint." That one almost made me snort chili out my nose, which is exactly as pleasant as it sounds.) But Tarshis is just as adept at capturing the ups and downs of a middle-school girl's life in Colleen's narration, as her secret admirer lends her courage and confidence in the daunting face of seventh grade.

Hilarious, sweet, and quirky, Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love is a worthy successor to Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. Here's hoping Lauren Tarshis keeps supplying us with more Emma-Jean for quite some time.