Mrs. Pollifax books

by Dorothy Gilman
personal paperbacks

I know it is pretty weird to re-read spy novels . . . since I know how they turn out! But I really enjoy these and sometimes up at the lake it's nice to just relax with a familiar comfortable story. Sigh. It's R&R reading.

The Racketeer

by John Grisham
Hennepin County Library audiobook 10 CDs
genre: crime, intrigue
read by J.D. Jackson

Jackson's vocal work was excellent and I appreciate that the story wasn't overboard with swearing. I didn't like the second half where Nathan Cooley was being yanked around, but it made sense when I got to the end. Not sure why Jeff recommended it to me . . . I'll have to ask him. I like how clever Malcolm / Max was. I don't like the fictional look at the insides of our country's FBI, judicial, and other systems which can be so corrupt and wasteful. I know Grisham made up the story, but a lot of this nasty stuff really happens and I find it discouraging.

That Certain Summer

by Irene Hannon
Lake Agassiz Regional Library paperback ~300 pages
genre: Christian realistic fiction

I really enjoyed this book! Parts of it resonated with me very strongly.

Karen - cares for negative mother who has had a stroke. Husband left her for a younger woman. Struggling to raise teen daughter mostly alone. Doormat for everyone.

Val - the sister who left for an acting career. Teaches high school theatre in Chicago. Has avoided home and family for a long time.

Scott - talented musician in a horrible accident that killed his three best friends and damaged his hand.

David - newly moved to small town with young daughter. Widower. Physical therapist.

Favorite parts - the growing friendship between the two sisters, Karen learning to stand up for herself, Scott's transformation.

There are a lot of themes running throughout this book, primarily dealing with relationships. I really enjoyed this story and would love to find more of this author's work!

Anya's Ghost

by Vera Brosgol
PRMS paperback 221 pages
genre: YA graphic novel ghost story, coming-of-age

This was so weird and good! My favorite part was when Anya realized what a scumbag Sean was and when she said, "I don't think murder is an appropriate reaction to disappointment." Drawn in black and white, it has an appealing style. The ghost Emily's transformation is especially creepy.

Drama

by Raina Telgemeier
PRMS paperback 233 pages
genre: YA graphic novel, realistic fiction

Callie is a seventh grader who loves theatre, but tends to stay backstage. She and her friend Liz are designing sets and costumes (respectively) for their middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi. The drama is both offstage and on. It includes romance, broken hearts, unrequited love, and coming-out stories. It is well-written and drawn.

Divergent

by Veronica Roth
PRMS paperback 487 pages
genre: YA dystopian adventure romance

I'm so glad I read this! I like it a lot better than some of the other dystopian stuff I've read lately. Tris (Beatrice) has been raised in the Abnegation faction, but doesn't feel that she belongs there. She struggles too much with serving others and being selfless. When she goes to be tested, she learns that she is Divergent and can choose her faction. But she is also warned not to let anyone know; it is very dangerous to be Divergent. She chooses Dauntless (after watching her brother Caleb choose Erudite). Amity and Candor are the other factions. Four (Tobias) is one of her trainers in Dauntless, but he becomes her friend and then her love interest as the story progresses. I'm intrigued enough to want to read the second book, Insurgent!

Also Peter, Eric (nasties), Christina, Al (friends) and the evil mastermind of Erudite. At the end of this story, our heroes are safely tucked away in Amity, but aware that the temporary refuge will not last.

added 2/24/14:
Notes that I had on a piece of paper at the lake -
Tris (Beatrice)
Four (Tobias)

5 Factions - Dauntless / Abnegation / Amity / Erudite / Candor

Peter
Eric
Christina
Al
brother - Caleb

4 stars out of 5

Interesting that the movie is out next month and this is a super popular book right now. All three of my school copies are out and I have a waiting list! I haven't yet had time to read book #2 (which is probably also checked out). Good stuff!



The audiobook was narrated by Emma Galvin. Her vocal work was fantastic! I remember really disliking book two . . . and have never read book three. After listening to this, I kind of want to watch the movie again. Not sure what it is about this story that I like so much.

Bitter Is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart-ass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office: A Memoir

by Jen Lancaster
Hennepin County Library paperback 400 pages
genre: memoir, humor

I'm not sure where I saw a review of this, but it piqued my interest. I didn't find it super-funny, but Lancaster is very witty. I couldn't relate to her high-powered executive days (or her fashionista shopping habits), but she tells the story so well that I liked her and wanted to know more. After 9/11 and losing her job, Lancaster and Fletch (her boyfriend, then husband) had to move to a less-expensive rental. Her job search and subsequent selling off of her former (expensive) possessions led her to some soul-searching. I enjoyed this book a lot, but will probably not read the others she's written (though they definitely have fun titles!)

Split

by Swati Avasthi
Hennepin County Library audiobook 7 discs
read by Joshua Swanson
genre: realistic fiction, abuse

I can't believe it has taken me so long to read this! I met the author at an event a year and a half ago and love to support local authors. Sixteen-year-old Jace Witherspoon drives cross-country after a major fight with his dad and shows up at his older brother's door. After not having seen one another in five years, a lot of painful ground needs to be covered. This story is very believably written and has different layers of conflict and emotion going on. Jace is a very likeable character. Swanson's vocal work is excellent.

The Merchant of Death: Pendragon #1

by D.J. MacHale
Hennepin County Library audiobook 10 discs
read by William Dufris
genre: YA fantasy adventure

This is one of those books that I am extremely confident I would have enjoyed better in a print version. Dufis' vocal work made the kid characters sound like clueless idiots. Judging by how much readers enjoy this (including Louie and Alex) and the contrast with my irritation listening to it, the challenge here is in the listening experience. I'll have to read #2 in print up at the lake and see.

Bobby Pendragon learns he is a "traveler" when his uncle whisks him away to Denduron. Without really having much of anything explained to him, he must help save a planet and the entire universe. Eh. We'll see. . . .

All I Need

by Susane Colasanti
Hennepin County Library hardcover 212 pages
genre: teen romance

I wonder if all Colasanti books are like this . . . it was actually boring to read. Skye and Seth fall in love at first sight. After two days together, they both know they are soul mates who are destined to be together. Through a misunderstanding, they don't get one another's contact info. So Skye heads back to her junior year of high school and Seth goes for his freshman year of college. And they spend the entire year pining for one another. Yeah. Whatever. Not sure why my eighth grade girls are crazy about these books . . . there is a lot of kissing, but no real story.

The Monsters' Monster

by Patrick McDonnell
Hennepin County Library hardcover 32 pages
genre: children's book, monsters, kindness / behavior

I love this book! Three terrible little monsters build a huge monster, hoping it will be the biggest and the worst of them all. But the creature who comes out is sweet and kind. They are horrified, but watch him and learn.

172 Hours on the Moon

by Johan Harstad
Hennepin County Library hardcover 353 pages
genre: SciFi horror

I shouldn't have read this so soon after The Dumbest Generation. The teens in this book were selfish, vapid, and kind of idiotic. The premise of the story was not even remotely realistic. Three teenagers (none of them Americans) are selected by lottery to go to the moon on the next NASA mission. None of these teens actually wants to go. NASA is doing this for PR and to get more funding (from Norway, France, and Japan? Well, that's where the kids are from). Sigh. I really couldn't enjoy it because it bugged me so much. I think there are some students who would enjoy it. There was definitely some suspense in the "will anyone make it out alive?" sense. Not a book I'll rave about, that's for sure.

Extra Yarn

by Mac Barnett & illustrated by Jon Klassen
Hennepin County Library hardcover 32 pages
genre: children's book, fantasy

Annabelle finds a box with yarn on a dreary cold day. She knits a scarf for herself and for her dog. She knits more scarves until the town is blanketed by her colorful creations, but the yarn doesn't run out. So she knits for cars, houses, trees . . . until a horrible archduke steals the box from her. (She had refused to sell it to him, even for millions of dollars.) A lovely book and definitely fun to look at!

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future*

* Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30
by Mark Bauerlein
Hennepin County Library hardcover 236 pages
genre: non-fiction, commentary, society

I'm not sure I'm ready to write a response to this book. There were times I thought, "You may say you're not a curmudgeon, sir, but you sure sound like one." Other times, I thought, "This is so very sad. The proliferation of self-centered, shallow young people may well ruin our society." I often thought of the many young people I know who are intelligent, curious, well-read, problem-solvers.

Here are some of the notes I made.

page 16 - After sharing some of the scary statistics on how little the Millennials read and know, the author says, "Most young Americans possess little of the knowledge that makes for an informed citizen, and too few of them master the skills needed to negotiate an information-heavy, communication-based society and economy. Furthermore, they avoid the resources and media that might enlighten them and boost their talents. An anti-intellectual outlook prevails in their leisure lives, squashing the lessons of school, and instead of producing a knowledgeable and querulous young mind, the youth culture of American society yields an adolescent consumer enmeshed in juvenile matters and secluded from adult realities."

page 52 - "But these discrepancies indicate that leisure reading does have substantial influence on school performance, much more than one would assume after listening to public and professional discourse about reading scores, which tend to focus on the classroom and the curriculum, not on the leisure lives of teens."

page 68 - He identifies some troubling paradoxes about Millennials, who have so many resources and yet are declining in most measures of knowledge. "If the young have acquired so much digital proficiency, and if digital technology exercises their intellectual faculties so well, then why haven't knowledge and skill levels increased accordingly? As we've seen, wealth, cultural access, and education levels have climbed, but not intellectual outcomes. If the Information Age solicits quicker and savvier literacies, why do so many new entrants into college and work end up in remediation? . . . If their digital talents bring the universe of knowledge into their bedrooms, why don't they handle knowledge questions better?"

page 101 - He identifies the transition from print books to digital media with an observation about history and civilization. "In 50 years, as Boomers and X-ers pass away, digital natives grow up, and technology proceeds apace, civilization will look different." In a way, it seems that he's being too dramatic. Yet isn't it true that as the years pass, society changes? The world I live in now is different from the world of my childhood. In some ways, that's a good thing.

page 126 - "Digital natives are a restless group, and like all teens and young adults they are self-assertive and insecure, living in the moment but worrying about their future, crafting elaborate e-profiles but stumbling through class assignments, absorbing the minutiae of youth culture and ignoring works of high culture, heeding this season's movie and game releases as monumental events while blinking at the mention of the Holocaust, the Cold War, or the War on Terror." This one troubles me because it rings pretty true. For many students (especially in middle school), their personal ups and downs are far more insignificant than the experiences of others throughout history. I will never forget seeing the news about the tsunami that destroyed so much in 2004. A student's comment was, "Cool!" All I could think of was the suffering, the loss, the pain of survivors. Certainly NOT cool.''

page 127 - I won't quote this section, but he talks about the importance of language acquisition and practice at HOME! It is so very, very true that students show up in kindergarten with the "achievement gap" already in place! Children who grow up in homes with conversation, reading, etc. do far better in school than children who grow up in a vocabulary-poor environment. "Everything depends on the oral and written language the infant-toddler-child-teen hears and reads throughout the day, for the amount of vocabulary learned inside the fifth-grade classroom alone doesn't come close to the amount needed to understand fifth-grade textbooks."

page 136 - "That's the pull of immaturity, and technology has granted young Americans ever more opportunities to go with it, not outgrow it."   "Instead of opening adolescents and young adults to worldly realities, acquainting them with the global village, inducting them into the course of civilization, or at least the Knowledge Economy, digital communications have opened them to one another - which is to say, have enclosed them in a parochial cosmos of youth matters and concerns."

page 158 - "The Web universe licenses young Americans to indulge their youth, and the ubiquitous rhetoric of personalization and empowerment - MySpace, YouTube, etc. - disguises the problem and implants false expectations well into adulthood. They don't realize that success in popular online youthworlds breeds incompetence in school and in the workplace." Certainly, students seem to thrive on peer approval and have little sense of true quality work and creativity . . .

page 199 - He writes about the double-dose of youth culture that students get during their leisure time and during their academic time. With educators striving to make lessons "relevant" to kids, tradition gets pushed aside. "In slighting the worth of tradition, in allowing teenagers to set their own concerns before the civilization of their forebears, mentors have only opened more minutes to youth contact and youth media."

page 221 - He writes about the struggles between traditionalists (think Bloom, Bennett, Bellow)  and the complacency of professors and others entrusted with educating the young.

page 225-228 - In this section, he talks about the changing dynamics within the youth culture. It was fascinating, but also more anecdotal than his citing of studies. Were there intellectual slackers in the late 1930s? I'm confident there were. Are there young people today who are aware and concerned about politics, society, and change? I'm confident there are. Yes, the overarching society is different. The world is different! But I don't think that it is fair to write off the Millennials.

page 234 - He compares the current youth generation to Rip Van Winkle, sleeping through major historical changes but being unaware and unconcerned.

page 232 - I like how he calls for an intellectual "minor leagues" - where students can be encouraged, coached, and trained in intellectual thought and discussion so that ten or more years hence, they will be prepared to lead.

A worthwhile book, but I'm still pondering a lot of his material. I would love to have my sons read it and discuss it with them!

Martin the Warrior

by Brian Jacques
Hennepin County Library audioCDs 9 discs
read by the author
genre: fantasy adventure

I hadn't read / heard this one before! The story opens in "modern" times with travelers coming to Redwall. They share the history of Martin the Warrior, who founded Redwall. Martin was a feisty mouse enslaved by the evil stoat Badrang at his fort called Marshank. Martin, Rose, a troop of actors, and other freed slaves go to battle against Badrang. The thing that really stood out for me was the elaborate descriptions of meals . . . I think that's part of why Nick liked these stories so much when he was young. Epic battles and epic food.