What's Going On Here?

There are SO MANY wonderful book review blogs out there and I can't compete with them, that is for sure. So this is not a book review blog. This is just a way for me to organize what I have read so that I can be better at matching the right book to the right person. The blog title comes from the brilliant mind of the most talented woman who ever lived, Ms. Judy Garland. The full quote is, "Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else." That is what I hope to do here and in ever aspect of my life.

Friday, June 29, 2012

The Class of '57

One of my most favorite songs is this one.   If you have graduated from high school more than fifteen years ago, just put your own year in there for '57 and you will love it, too, for the line, "Things get complicated when you get past eighteen." is one that we all know is true.
Nora, the main character in Mister Death's Blue-eyed Girls, is from the class of '57 and most of the book is told from her perspective, regarding the events that took place the summer before her senior year.  On the last day of school in June, Nora's two friends, one a senior and the other a few years younger, are shot to death in the woods while walking to school.  The story is based on similar events in Mary Downing Hahn's own life.
I couldn't put this book down.  I loved every page.  I was horrified by the way in which the priest in this book acts, but I know that some priests do believe as this priest did, both back then, and today.   This is a great book for a discussion on theodicy.  I wish I could have been the pastor that Nora went to back then in the summer of '56.  I don't know if I would have helped, but I would have given her a very different take on the events of that summer, as I have a very different understanding of the cause of earthly suffering, given by the grace of God and the study of the Scriptures.
This book really takes you back in time.  I've yet to find a book by Hahn that I didn't love, even though this is quite different from her others.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Dead and the Dying

Death of a Kleptomaniac was a netgally.com ARC and I am very thankful to Hyperion for providing ARCs in this format!
Death of a Kleptomaniac by Kristen Tracy is reminiscent of Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall in that it is told from the perspective of a dead teen.  I wouldn't say though that it is a rip-off or copy, because books differ quite a bit.  In Before I Fall, the main character must relive her last day on Earth until she gets it right.  In Death of a Kleptomaniac, the newly deceased, Molly, isn't able to change anything about her last day.  Instead, Molly must look back on her entire life and try to figure out how she became the person she was at the time of her death.  Namely, she needs to figure out why she felt the need to steal from friends, family and strangers.  
The book sheds light onto the subject of kleptomania and contemplates how the choices we make impact others and the future.  There is a lot of humor in the book and although Molly isn't particularly endearing, she is real.  To me it is far more important that a character be real, and multi-dimensional, rather than a saintly, jolly hero.  I liked that about this book.  The characters are complicated.  They are real.  
DOAK makes the reader think about life choices and their impact, it reminds us that we aren't going to be here on Earth forever, and we never know when we'll be gone.  
I will definitely purchase this book for our library's collection and it will be an easy one to recommend.  

Monday, June 25, 2012

This book is NOT about Suge Knight

So many people have recommended Shug to me over the years and I am glad that I finally read it, because it is a truly great book even though it is painful.  Aren't all books about middle school painful?  Middle school can be terribly painful!
Shug and Mark are best friends and have been since they were little, but seventh grade has changed everything.  Shug's home life is tough, with her Daddy at work all the time and her Mama drinking, and school is very confusing, everyone pairing off with boys.  Heart-breaking, but hopeful and real.  This is my fourth book from Jenny Han and she can't write 'em fast enough!  I can't wait for Burn for Burn!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

mostexcellentbook


Many thanks to Random House for offering this ARC on netgally.com.  This is the second Tom Leeven ARC I have received and read.  I loved Zero and loved Manicpixiedreamgirl even more.  Leveen's first book, Party, gave me some mixed feelings, but Zero was great and Manicpixiedreamgirl just proves that Leveen is getting better and better.   His characters are real and avoid stereotypes.  They are not "all bad" or "all good," they are characters who live in grey, who make good decisions and poor ones...just like real people!  The title comes from the idea of a stock film character, like Marilyn Monroe's character, Sugar, in Some Like it Hot, Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown, and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.  According to film critic, Nathan Rabin, who created the term, the MPDG is "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures."
Becky Webb is Tyler Darcy's MPDG.  He spots on her his first day of high school and loves her (loves the idea he has created of her, actually) from afar for two years.
Becky is a girl of mystery.  She doesn't seem to have any friends, everyone pretty much ignores her, except for the guys who hook up with her in a closet, or a car and leave without acknowledging her further.
Tyler has a girlfriend, Sydney, who knows of his obsession with Becky, but keeps hoping that someday he will let it go.
It all comes to a head though, in one evening, when Sydney sees a copy of a short story that Tyler has published in a literary magazine.  Now his deep feelings for Becky are out there and he must decide what to do about them, if anything at all.
The story is funny, brilliant, honest and real.  As I said, truly Leveen is a rising star.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Time is Sweet Valley

All of the people who have ripped on Stuart Woods' books need to read Sweet Valley Confidential.  This is so bad.  I mean it isn't the worst book I ever read, because its not a book that is trying to be awesome.  It isn't pretentious.  It is just garbage.  But it isn't dressed up as an "important work" with a message.  So it gets points for that.  It also gets points for the idea of revisiting characters that a lot of people grew up with, even if I didn't.  

Thursday, June 21, 2012

ANOTHER Gary Paulsen????

Yes.  And I loved it.  Notes from the Dog is yet another terrific book by Paulsen.  This one is the story of two middle school boys and the summer they become friends with a young woman who is fighting breast cancer.  A beautiful story.  And it made me laugh and cry.  Loving Mr. Paulsen.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Not it!

I always hated being it.  It is funny how that idea of being "it" changes.  I am NOT an it girl at all.  Never have been, sadly.  Jan (pronounced Yahn, she is named for one of her parents' favorite artists, Jan Van Eyck.  I like him too, but I wouldn't name a kid after him!) Miller isn't either.  Confessions of a  Not It Girl is her story of love non-existant and love almost lost and love found.  This is another from Melissa Kantor and I liked it, but Jan wasn't very likable, but again, not liking the main character all that much and yet still being able to enjoy the book says something good about the book.  I think Kantor is a really good author.  A good, quick read and there are some very funny, funny lines.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

It's a Thin Line...

With Love and Haight I have read one more book this year (146) than I did in 2011 (145) though I have not yet reached my goodreads.com goal of 175.  Will I make it?  Who knows!  Good Reads is VERY encouraging!  It tells me that now I am 65 books, 37% ahead in my reading and it keeps telling me to increase my goal.  No way!  I want to complete one goal this year and so far that looks like it will be the only one that MIGHT happen!  So I will keep pushing along, trying to make 175.
In the meantime, I must say that Love and Haight was just what I needed.  I have read good books lately, but a few that were okay.  I needed one of those "suck you into the world of the book" books and this did it, even though it is historical fiction, set in 1971 in San Francisco.  1971 would have been the tail end of the hippie movement in Haight-Ashbury but the characters in Chloe's life are still living the hippie vibe.  Chloe has come from Arizona with her best friend, MJ, to have an abortion.  At the time, in California, abortions were legal with a doctor's permission.  LAH is the most thought-provoking and honest book I have read in a long time.  I admire Susan Carlton for her complex treatment of the subject.  I admire the way in which Chloe makes her decision, though it would not be my decision, and that part of that decision-making process is a return to her faith.  This is book real, honest and a great discussion-starter.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Cruisin'

So I started Cruisers in Plano and finished it in Pittsburgh, six months later.  I had to go back and reread the first part because I couldn't remember too much.  That was a bad sign.  Usually I can remember EVERYTHING about a Walter Dean Myers book because they captivate me so much.  I still quote Dope Sick and probably always will.  The second book in the series I liked about as much as this one, but didn't love either one.  But like I said in my review of Checkmate, I think that is because I expect so much from Myers, because he is just an incredible writer.
We meet Zander and his fellow prep school classmates in this book and learn that they are smart and cool and now they are disliked by their Vice Principal for just "cruising" through school and not taking it serious.  Mr. Cullpepper gives them the  task of trying to prevent the Civil War during the school's study of the War Between the States.  The book does a wonderful job of talking about race relations and it made me think about the Confederate flag, Stone Mountain and other things still around today that really, probably shouldn't be lauded as they still are.  We've come a long way, but not far enough.  My problem with the series probably is just that I don't know the characters well enough yet.  I like the books well enough though to keep on reading.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Promises! Coming Soon!

Until Promised comes out later this year, check out Tortured, a short story from Leon's perspective when Gaia set off for the Wasteland.  I love the Birthmarked series so much!  The first book was awesome and I loved the second one.  Sometimes the second book in a series can be so disappointing, but Prized wasn't at all.  Can't wait until October!

Ruth and the Witches

As I mentioned before, What the Witch Left was one of my favorite books when I was growing up.  Today I picked up Witch's Broom to see if it was as awesome, and it was!  As I noted here, Chew passed away in 2010.
Amy's mom finds a broom in the backyard and while it isn't good for sweeping up anything, it is awesome at giving Amy and her friend Jean rides from Brooklyn to Staten Island and elsewhere!  But there's that truly bizarre bluejay that keeps hanging around in the backyard...what's HER deal?
It makes you want to find a magic broom!
The pencil drawings of the witches are creepy, enough to send little shivers up my spine.  Great fun!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Gimme a Facebook Account

The Future of Us is a very serious title!  That really is neither here nor there.  I needed something to listen to and this was a new audiobook at the library.  The narrators were great.  It was also my first book by very popular authors Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler.  I really enjoyed both of their writing styles and now I will go on to read other books from them.  I always feel that one sign of a good book is that if you still enjoy the book while disliking one or more of the main characters, and that was the case with this one.  I liked Josh but really didn't like Emma.
TFOU is the story of Emma and Josh in 1996, who get a free disk from America Online.  I was trying to explain this to a kid born in 1998 and it was hard to do so!  How to you even explain a "disk!"  I totally remember getting my free disk and putting it into my Mac Performa 460.  It was awesome!  My first email address, my first online romance (We did end up meeting in person, totally nice guy, I was just so hung up on an old boyfriend that it didn't work out.  Ironically, if you think about this book, I am now Facebook friends with him!)
When Emma and Josh log on, however, they get more than an email address and the chance to IM.  They tap into something they have never heard of before, something no one had never heard of in 1996, Facebook.  Emma's Facebook page shows her what her life will be like in 16 years.
Emma and Josh start to play with the present to see how it will impact their future.  You can see the thematic similarities between this and Gimme a Call, which I loved, but TFOU is more serious.  Really good book.  Oh yeah!  And this book also reminded me of how hard it was to get a Facebook account, back in the day!  Remember when your school or business had to be a participant?  The old days!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Broken Hearts

The Breakup Bible is SO accurate.  It really does show what a broken heart can do.  Jenny has just been dumped by Max and just can't get over him.  Great book.  The only thing that kept me from loving it is that Jenny is not really a likable girl.  She's pretty judgmental about everyone else in the world.  Hints of a less evil Margaret Simon.  But that's it.  Written by the author of Girlfriend Material and the Darlings series.  Good book for someone going through the pain of a break up.

The Mind of a Killer

Acceleration is a fast-paced, really well done novel set in Toronto, mostly in the subway system.  Duncan is working in the subway system for the summer, downstairs in what they call "the morgue" in the lost and found.  He comes upon the journal of a seriously twisted and sick man whom he called Roach.  Roach chronicles how he tortured animals and set fires.  Now he is stalking women on the subway, planning to torture and kill them.
Duncan has a ghost in his own past, he feel responsible for the death of a young girl he couldn't save from drowning.
Duncan tries to figure out who Roach is and how to stop him before he claims his first victim.
This is such a great book, I remember book talking it to the high school students of Bethel Park back in the day.  And I recommend it if you are looking forward to something very creepy and realistic that will have you turning the pages very quickly.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Some Gotta Win, Some Gotta Lose

Good time Charlie's got the blues.  Great song.
Girl Meets Boy:  because there are two sides to every story is, like everyone says, a great concept.  Get together some really great YA authors.  Have the male authors write a short story from the guy's POV, have the female authors write their own version of the story, from the gal's POV.  A lot of heavy hitters here:  Terry Trueman,  Chris Crutcher, the AMAZING Rita Williams-Garcia.  I loved the idea and loved most of the stories, but the ones that I didn't love, I could barely get through and had to do the old read-from-the-end trick.  I don't know.  Not my thing.  Hard to rate a book of short stories though, because some of the stories I just wanted to go on and on, and others...ugh.

Burned Out

SPOILERS!
I don't know.  Burned was my third Ellen Hopkins book, I keep trying them because everyone loves them.  I just don't know.  Wasn't crazy about Identical.  Nor did I loved Glass.  That's why I was really excited when about 2 disks through, I started to really love Burned.  And then it all went downhill.  Pattyn is from an abusive home.  The book has gotten a lot of flack because the family is Mormon, but really it could be any family.
(Here I must comment on this article.  The man writing it does a nice job explaining the difference between the LDS church and church in Burned, but he is off base and shows his own ignorance when he calls the Reorganized Church of LDS - now the Community of Christ - a repressive off-shoot of Mormonism. Indeed, this is one of the more liberal branches, as it ordains both men and women.  It is currently debating the ordination of homosexuals.  At one time it did, then said no more, but ones who were currently ordained were okay and it is having the discussion, unlike the LDS and other churches, Mormon or not.  I'm not saying that is good or bad, I am just saying, this guy was off in saying the Reorganized Church of LDS was repressive.  I almost didn't include his article because of this pretty glaring mistake but it does say some good things.  Just be careful about its veracity since this guy didn't do his homework on the Community of Christ.)
It is inaccurate when Pattyn talks about her church promoting polygamy, because the faith of her family's isn't a weirdo branch of Mormonism, she clearly says that they are LDS, and the LDS church does not allow or promote polygamy.  So the book loses its credibility there.  I do like that even though Pattyn ends up not believing in the faith of her upbringing, she still holds on to the idea of a loving God.  A lot of books do the cop-out thing and the kid ends up turning his/her back on faith completely.  But Pattyn doesn't.  Pattyn is sent away to live with her aunt for the summer because she was caught messing around with a boy.  When she goes to live with her Aunt J, she learns about life and love and normal relationships.  At that point I was thinking..a NORMAL book!  And a good one!  But then all heck breaks lose and we end up with Pattyn planning a massacre.  Good-bye credibility altogether.  Enter shock-jock weirdness.  I think I am done now with Hopkins.  A lot of people love her, but she's not my cup of tea.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Getting Lost in a Book

Being Friends with Boys is Terra Elan McVoy's fourth book.  Pure was wonderful.  I loved After the Kiss.  The Summer of Firsts and Lasts was terrific.  I find it really amazing when an author can craft all of these worlds, all of these different people and they aren't all the same.  It is like McVoy has a ton of people in her mind and she just brings them to life.  Even though her books are super long, I love them and will continue to read them as they come out.
This is one of those books that you can just get lost in its world.  It has a "lesson" but its not in your face.  Being Friends with Boys is the story of Char who is, well, friends with boys.  She plays in a boy band, she confides in her guy friends, studies with them, has a boy best friend.  It can be complicated, but getting to meet her girl friends, you can't blame Char for favoring guy friends over girls.  Char begins as the manager of the band Sad Jackal, made up of her guy friends Trip, Oliver and Abe.  As school begins, things begin to get complicated, Trip is out of the band.  He and Oliver had a falling out.  Char and Trip try to remain friends, but it becomes very difficult when Sad Jackal takes on new members and Char begins to date guys.  The book is all about relationships and real life and it is quite entertaining and lovable.  

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Paper Covers Rock but Nothin' Can Cover, Break or Cut Boring and Pretentious

Paper Covers Rock. What a tortuous read. Pretentious. Cliche-ridden. Predictable. Oh man, it tries to be so cool. And so insightful. And so edgy with atheism. And so ahead of it's time with it's attitudes. The main character is supposed to be southern. Not a hint of it in him. That was extremely disappointing. There are a great many books set in New England private schools. Here was a southern boys school. It would have been really cool to learn of the subtle differences in the culture. Nothing. The book could have been set on the moon.
The female teacher is ridiculous and the main character, Alex, is so full of himself, he actually believes he's bound for greatness, yet he'll have to carry this giant guilt around with him for his whole tortured life. In reality, he'll probably end up in the noble, but not romantic, profession of middle management. He imagines himself a tortured artist. Really he's just a typical, self-absorbed hormonal teenage boy. Not bad. Just very average. He really has no special qualities at all, except a handful of teachers tell him that he does.
Also the female teacher, I can't remember her name, is concerned that he'll give up on himself and go to public school!
Oh perish the thought!
No not dreaded public education!
Just what is this book trying to say anyway?
It samples as much as Hootie and Blowfish doing "I Only Wanna Be with You." So it doesn't say too too much on its own.
I can't even bother with the plot. I spent too much time on this already.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

If You are of "a certain age" and from Pittsburgh...

if you listen to the audio book of Gordon Korman's Unsinkable, the first in his Titanic Trilogy, you will think of Patti Burns a lot!  When you listen to an audio book, of course, you don't know how the characters' names are spelled.  Even know I knew that the stowaway on the Titanic, the homeless boy from Belfast was probably named Paddy Burns, (he is) every time I heard the narrator say his name I thought of Patti.  I miss Patti.  All of Pittsburgh does.
This is a neat way of telling the story of the Titanic.  Fiction and nonfiction.  The story of four characters who were on that fateful voyage.  One is Paddy Burns, a stowaway, trying to escape thugs who are out to kill him.  Another is Alfie, a boy of fifteen who lied about his age to get a job on the Titanic with his father, who is a boiler dude.  Sophie, the daughter of an American suffragette, who has been through out of England for stirring up trouble and another girl...I can't remember her name, but she is as interesting a character as the others, I just can't recall her name!  She is the wealthy daughter of British royalty.  The four meet up on the ship and they are characters you can care about, all the while thinking about what is coming ahead for them on the high seas.

Short and So Sweet

As I have said before Angela Johnson can tell a beautiful story and she can tell beautiful short stories.  And I can't say I've ever read an Angela Johnson story that I didn't like.  Some of these I truly love.  A ginormous smile would just appear when I would come to the last line of many of these, here in Gone from Home.  Literary and lovely.  Read the book, only 101 pages, but it should take you a long time, because you'll want to treasure each sentence.  Seriously.

Monday, June 4, 2012

A New Hero!

Spenser
Lucas
Jonathan
Jesse
Peter and Rina
Alex
Scudder
Steve
Sunny
and now...Chanti
I have a new detective hero! As you can see she is one of the few female detectives on the list.  Reid has created a solid, likable, real, smart detective in Chanti Evans.
Creeping with the Enemy is the second in Kimberly Reid's Langdon Prep series which is so much more than a prep school series.
I loved My Own Worst Frenemy and even wrote Ms. Reid to tell her so.  She kindly replied and told me the series would continue to be centered around mysteries!  I thought it was super cool of her to write back, as I would imagine she gets a million emails.  Even though her writing me back made me super fond of her for being so cool, it is without a bit of bias that I saw that this second book is even better than the first as Chanti has another mystery to solve, this time involving her friend Bethanie and a guy who has been kinda, sorta dating her.  LOVED it!  Can't wait for the next! 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Presently Joe exclaimed, "Swell!"

The Hardy Boys.  I never read them when I was a kid, though I had lots of their books.  The covers looked so cool and the titles of the mysteries were very intriguing.  I just couldn't get into them.  This week though, I needed an audio book and thought since I had given Nancy Drew a try, why not try The Tower Treasure, number one in the Hardy Boys.
The Hardy Boys are an American institution.  Created by a book packager, the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1927 they are still around today.  Comic books, tv shows, games, they have it all.   It is pretty interesting to read the ethnic and gender stereotypes in the book, even though the book was rewritten in 1958, they still exist.  The son of a building contractor, and loud and boisterous, jolly friend of Joe and Frank is Italian.  The serious and studious boy is Jewish.  The women don't do anything but look very pretty and make delicious picnic baskets for the men.  It is pretty annoying but insightful into the way things used to be and how life is getting better in some ways, since you don't have those kinds of stereotyping in most books today.
The mystery itself was ok.  I won't read another one, but I am glad that I experienced it.  

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Sloooooooow Going....

As you can see, my reading has been slowing down.  This is very disturbing to me!  While goodreads.com keeps telling me to set a new 2012 Reading Goal since I am fairly close to completing the one I set in January, I won't, because I know anything can change in an instant and I want to make my first goal first!
Things have been really wacky lately.  For almost a year now my father has been suffering from a severe diabetic ulcer.  He has been in and out of UPMC Passavant three times, with numerous trips to the ER in between.  Last month was especially rough and now he is in the hospital currently.   Hopefully this time he will heal up and things will be better.  Just have to keep trusting in the Lord and moving forward, right?  Right!

So there's no such thing as a mudshark?

All while I was listening to the really good reading of a very funny, quick book from Gary Paulsen, Mudshark, I thought that a mudshark was a real shark!  It isn't.  I am sad.  I think I would like to see one!  Lyle got his name Mudshark because of his speed, physically and mentally, while playing mudball and while solving puzzles and his friends' problems.  He's a likable, very cool guy.  He has a couple mysteries to solve in his fast-paced and very witty story, including missing erasers and a possible psychic parrot in the school library.  The school librarian is pretty hilarious, as is the principal.  The janitor is a neat character.  There is seriousness and silliness.  I am really loving GP!