by Lynda Barry
Joh K's books, paperback, 123 & 127 pages
genre: graphic novels, YA coming-of-age
Joh stressed how much his students enjoy these books and loaned them to me. I am not a huge fan of Barry's artwork . . . it looks grotesque to me. My Perfect Life is the more interesting of the two (also the more faithful graphic NOVEL vs. a collection of comics). Maybonne is 14 and dealing with boy issues, friend issues, thoughts of worthlessness and suicide, . . . it is a very teenage book with what she is dealing with on an emotional and relational level. Still, I won't buy these for the media center. Barry is calling on her own adolescence for these tales, and while the essential issues are unchanged, the cultural landscape is significantly different in this decade.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
When Passion Rules
by Johanna Lindsey
Hennepin Library audiobook, 9 discs
read by: Rosalyn Landor
genre: historical romance
Why, why, why do I even try romance books? And why do I insist on completing the entire work? Sigh. Alana has been raised in England and is facing the choices of a girl on the brink of becoming a woman - to marry, to teach, . . . but then her "uncle" drops a bomb on her. She is actually the princess of Lubinia. He was hired to kill her in her infancy, but he couldn't do it and took her away to raise her instead. Now he needs to take her back to avoid war in her home country.
It's the incredibly gorgeous, well-built captain of the guard (but also a nobleman) Christoph Becker who becomes her nemesis, protector, lover, and . . . yeah. Predictable beyond belief. I wish I could find an author like LaVeryle Spencer who actually wrote interesting stories with good plots that also included a romance angle. Oh well. Knowing that they are usually junk, I should just avoid them like the plague. This one was slightly less irritating than the other book of hers I've read.
Hennepin Library audiobook, 9 discs
read by: Rosalyn Landor
genre: historical romance
Why, why, why do I even try romance books? And why do I insist on completing the entire work? Sigh. Alana has been raised in England and is facing the choices of a girl on the brink of becoming a woman - to marry, to teach, . . . but then her "uncle" drops a bomb on her. She is actually the princess of Lubinia. He was hired to kill her in her infancy, but he couldn't do it and took her away to raise her instead. Now he needs to take her back to avoid war in her home country.
It's the incredibly gorgeous, well-built captain of the guard (but also a nobleman) Christoph Becker who becomes her nemesis, protector, lover, and . . . yeah. Predictable beyond belief. I wish I could find an author like LaVeryle Spencer who actually wrote interesting stories with good plots that also included a romance angle. Oh well. Knowing that they are usually junk, I should just avoid them like the plague. This one was slightly less irritating than the other book of hers I've read.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative
by Sir Ken Robinson
PRMS hardcover 305 pages (with endnotes)
genre: non-fiction
I couldn't finish this. I tried, but was only at the half-way point (page 148, to be exact) after seven months. Clearly, this just isn't the right time for me to be reading this. It was on our Summer 2013 Litwits list and I heard fabulous things about Robinson and his work on creativity. There were parts early on that captivated me, but I am trying to teach myself to put a book down if I'm not enjoying it. And the last two dozen times I've read a few pages, I've been forcing myself to read it. Perhaps I'll try it again next year . . .
From the jacket blurb: "There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can't find them. Why not?"
This is especially interesting to me as an educator. Are we stressing conformity and obedience over more important qualities?
PRMS hardcover 305 pages (with endnotes)
genre: non-fiction
I couldn't finish this. I tried, but was only at the half-way point (page 148, to be exact) after seven months. Clearly, this just isn't the right time for me to be reading this. It was on our Summer 2013 Litwits list and I heard fabulous things about Robinson and his work on creativity. There were parts early on that captivated me, but I am trying to teach myself to put a book down if I'm not enjoying it. And the last two dozen times I've read a few pages, I've been forcing myself to read it. Perhaps I'll try it again next year . . .
From the jacket blurb: "There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can't find them. Why not?"
This is especially interesting to me as an educator. Are we stressing conformity and obedience over more important qualities?
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
The Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Hennepin County Library hardcover 308 pages
genre: realistic fiction
***There are definite spoiler alerts after the first paragraph!
Painful, beautiful, moving. I loved this book! Look on Amazon for a synopsis. I just want to jot a few notes before I get this back to the library. The author does a wonderful job of creating the story and weaving the past and present together. Sometimes it was a little confusing jumping back and forth, but for the most part, it was obvious if it was Victoria's childhood or adulthood.
page 29 - Victoria throws away the spoon after licking the peanut butter off it. This caught my attention - the sort of thing that frustrates me! Even though I know that kids who are neglected don't care about things like this . . . it still bugs me. Then on the next page, Elizabeth sends her back to the garden to retrieve it!
page 92 - Victoria says that Grant is "hard to forget." She has become so accustomed to isolating herself and needing no one that she is surprised that he has gotten under her skin. She can't help but think of him!
page 113 - As she is thinking of lying to her client Annemarie about the meaning of flowers, she realizes that she simply can't do it. "I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing left in my life that was beautiful or true."
page 157 - When she drops the flowerpots on the ground and she and Grant kiss in the street. Mmm-hmm!
page 188 - It broke my heart when she went to Grant's house when he was gone and packed all her things. I wish she had confided in him and told him about her pregnancy!
page 195 - ". . . I wanted to believe in his vision of our life together. But over time we would both find my words meaningless. I would fail; it was the only possible outcome." Her brokenness and lack of self-worth was heart-breaking. And I know people who live like this, not believing in possibilities or having hope for the future.
page 213 - Her attitude about childbirth was amazing - "Women had given birth since the beginning of time." She seemed so matter-of-fact and accepting. And that's true, but it's also a major life event for most women!
page 225 - Marlena was so natural with the baby and cooking . . . I wish she had been better able to help Victoria learn to do the same. "Even though I wasn't doing anything but feeding and diapering and swaddling, there didn't seem to be space, mental or otherwise, for anything else."
page 234 - I wanted to be there for Victoria, to help her through her struggles with exhaustion, endless nursing, and hopelessness! Cina and Karen were horrified that she left a baby alone to go to the store. I think she absolutely had to go. She had to get away from the constant demands.
page 249 - "Every decision I'd ever made had led me here, and I wanted to take it all back, the hatred and the blame and the violence. I wanted to have lunch with my angry ten-year-old self, to warn her of this morning and give her the flowers to point her in a different direction."
page 297 - The moment when Victoria realizes that Catherine loved Grant, and the respect she has for Catherine's choice to raise him alone, and Grant's acknowledgement that whatever else his mother did or didn't do . . . she loved him. Powerful.
page 308 - The ending has so much hope and promise. " . . . I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots."
Author's Note - "Reading through the book more carefully (Dumont's The Floral Offering), I found no explanation for the discrepancy, so I went in search of additional dictionaries, hoping to determine the "correct" definition of the yellow rose. Instead I found that the problem was not specific to the yellow rose; nearly every flower had multiple meanings, listed in hundreds of books, in dozens of languages, and on countless websites."
I think that's part of the reason I'm such a skeptic about the "meanings" of flowers . . . who says what they mean? Why can't we just enjoy their beauty?
Added 3/26/14 - someone at book club told me that Judy Schalow had recommended this title. I need to thank her for the suggestion! She is such a wonderful lady.
Hennepin County Library hardcover 308 pages
genre: realistic fiction
***There are definite spoiler alerts after the first paragraph!
Painful, beautiful, moving. I loved this book! Look on Amazon for a synopsis. I just want to jot a few notes before I get this back to the library. The author does a wonderful job of creating the story and weaving the past and present together. Sometimes it was a little confusing jumping back and forth, but for the most part, it was obvious if it was Victoria's childhood or adulthood.
page 29 - Victoria throws away the spoon after licking the peanut butter off it. This caught my attention - the sort of thing that frustrates me! Even though I know that kids who are neglected don't care about things like this . . . it still bugs me. Then on the next page, Elizabeth sends her back to the garden to retrieve it!
page 92 - Victoria says that Grant is "hard to forget." She has become so accustomed to isolating herself and needing no one that she is surprised that he has gotten under her skin. She can't help but think of him!
page 113 - As she is thinking of lying to her client Annemarie about the meaning of flowers, she realizes that she simply can't do it. "I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing left in my life that was beautiful or true."
page 157 - When she drops the flowerpots on the ground and she and Grant kiss in the street. Mmm-hmm!
page 188 - It broke my heart when she went to Grant's house when he was gone and packed all her things. I wish she had confided in him and told him about her pregnancy!
page 195 - ". . . I wanted to believe in his vision of our life together. But over time we would both find my words meaningless. I would fail; it was the only possible outcome." Her brokenness and lack of self-worth was heart-breaking. And I know people who live like this, not believing in possibilities or having hope for the future.
page 213 - Her attitude about childbirth was amazing - "Women had given birth since the beginning of time." She seemed so matter-of-fact and accepting. And that's true, but it's also a major life event for most women!
page 225 - Marlena was so natural with the baby and cooking . . . I wish she had been better able to help Victoria learn to do the same. "Even though I wasn't doing anything but feeding and diapering and swaddling, there didn't seem to be space, mental or otherwise, for anything else."
page 234 - I wanted to be there for Victoria, to help her through her struggles with exhaustion, endless nursing, and hopelessness! Cina and Karen were horrified that she left a baby alone to go to the store. I think she absolutely had to go. She had to get away from the constant demands.
page 249 - "Every decision I'd ever made had led me here, and I wanted to take it all back, the hatred and the blame and the violence. I wanted to have lunch with my angry ten-year-old self, to warn her of this morning and give her the flowers to point her in a different direction."
page 297 - The moment when Victoria realizes that Catherine loved Grant, and the respect she has for Catherine's choice to raise him alone, and Grant's acknowledgement that whatever else his mother did or didn't do . . . she loved him. Powerful.
page 308 - The ending has so much hope and promise. " . . . I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots."
Author's Note - "Reading through the book more carefully (Dumont's The Floral Offering), I found no explanation for the discrepancy, so I went in search of additional dictionaries, hoping to determine the "correct" definition of the yellow rose. Instead I found that the problem was not specific to the yellow rose; nearly every flower had multiple meanings, listed in hundreds of books, in dozens of languages, and on countless websites."
I think that's part of the reason I'm such a skeptic about the "meanings" of flowers . . . who says what they mean? Why can't we just enjoy their beauty?
Added 3/26/14 - someone at book club told me that Judy Schalow had recommended this title. I need to thank her for the suggestion! She is such a wonderful lady.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Reckless
by Cornelia Funke
PRMS paperback 394 pages
genre: fantasy
I read this yesterday for today's 8th grade book club discussion. I am not a huge fan of Funke's writing style. The basic story is fine - Jacob Reckless travels through a mirror in his missing father's study and goes into another world filled with magical beings and items. But her storytelling is so choppy and the character development is minimal. We go from a prolog where Jacob is a twelve year old who finds the mirror to travel between worlds to chapter one where his adult younger brother is injured in that world and 24-year-old Jacob is trying to save him.
I will try really hard to keep quiet so the kids can talk about the book. It just didn't work very well for me. I think I liked best the romantic tension between Jacob and Will's girlfriend Clara. I also liked the descriptions of some of the magical items, especially the ones from familiar fairy tales.
Oh! The ending - why Jacob listened to the Dark Fairy and how Will was released from the curse . . . I could list a lot of questions about the basic logic of the premise here . . . .
PRMS paperback 394 pages
genre: fantasy
I read this yesterday for today's 8th grade book club discussion. I am not a huge fan of Funke's writing style. The basic story is fine - Jacob Reckless travels through a mirror in his missing father's study and goes into another world filled with magical beings and items. But her storytelling is so choppy and the character development is minimal. We go from a prolog where Jacob is a twelve year old who finds the mirror to travel between worlds to chapter one where his adult younger brother is injured in that world and 24-year-old Jacob is trying to save him.
I will try really hard to keep quiet so the kids can talk about the book. It just didn't work very well for me. I think I liked best the romantic tension between Jacob and Will's girlfriend Clara. I also liked the descriptions of some of the magical items, especially the ones from familiar fairy tales.
Oh! The ending - why Jacob listened to the Dark Fairy and how Will was released from the curse . . . I could list a lot of questions about the basic logic of the premise here . . . .
The Discovery
by Dan Walsh
Hennepin County Library paperback 346 pages
genre: Christian fiction, realistic and historical
This is a novel-within-a-novel starting with Michael's inheritance of his grandfather's home. Grandfather was a famous novelist who never shared much about his past or his personal history. But Michael finds an unpublished manuscript that tells all (and is also the bulk of the story).
The manuscript tells the story of Ben Campbell (alias Gerhard Kuhlmann) who has come back to the United States on a German U-boat as a spy during WWII. Only his true motivation is to ditch the Nazis and simply live his own life back in the country where he was born and raised until his parents returned to the Fatherland with their teenage son. Ben meets Claire and the love story / adventure is off and running.
I really enjoyed this and look forward to the book club discussion in a few weeks!
(Added 3/26/14) Found this note in my purse:
page 64-65 - Grandfather's thoughts as he approaches death.
page 77 - the lack of red & the Nazi flag . . . sometimes we don't notice things that are "everywhere" until we experience the absence of those things (for good or for bad)
page 99 - moms who interfere! I love her Gary Cooper observation. Makes me want to use GoogleImages to refresh my memory.
page 143 - LOVE the priest!!! His attitude and his faith are so very wonderful. So many priests of that era were narrowminded and more like Pharisees than like Christ.
page 163 - prayer - just talking to God
page 165 - Love this part, too! God knows our hearts. We don't have to tell him, but it helps us to pour out what we are dealing with. He knows us and we cannot pretend with him.
page 169 - This was great! When the priest gave Ben the Bible with Psalms marked, I was so surprised! I thought the item he had placed in a pew was a recording device and Ben was going to be turned over to the authorities. Good for the priest!!!
Hennepin County Library paperback 346 pages
genre: Christian fiction, realistic and historical
This is a novel-within-a-novel starting with Michael's inheritance of his grandfather's home. Grandfather was a famous novelist who never shared much about his past or his personal history. But Michael finds an unpublished manuscript that tells all (and is also the bulk of the story).
The manuscript tells the story of Ben Campbell (alias Gerhard Kuhlmann) who has come back to the United States on a German U-boat as a spy during WWII. Only his true motivation is to ditch the Nazis and simply live his own life back in the country where he was born and raised until his parents returned to the Fatherland with their teenage son. Ben meets Claire and the love story / adventure is off and running.
I really enjoyed this and look forward to the book club discussion in a few weeks!
(Added 3/26/14) Found this note in my purse:
page 64-65 - Grandfather's thoughts as he approaches death.
page 77 - the lack of red & the Nazi flag . . . sometimes we don't notice things that are "everywhere" until we experience the absence of those things (for good or for bad)
page 99 - moms who interfere! I love her Gary Cooper observation. Makes me want to use GoogleImages to refresh my memory.
page 143 - LOVE the priest!!! His attitude and his faith are so very wonderful. So many priests of that era were narrowminded and more like Pharisees than like Christ.
page 163 - prayer - just talking to God
page 165 - Love this part, too! God knows our hearts. We don't have to tell him, but it helps us to pour out what we are dealing with. He knows us and we cannot pretend with him.
page 169 - This was great! When the priest gave Ben the Bible with Psalms marked, I was so surprised! I thought the item he had placed in a pew was a recording device and Ben was going to be turned over to the authorities. Good for the priest!!!
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
Hennepin County Library audiobook 5 discs
genre: ? metaphysical fiction?
read by the author
This is a very unusual book, which is not surprising to anyone who is familiar with Gaiman's writing style. I enjoyed it, but hope to get a print copy of the book before book club discusses this in April. The audio experience was wonderful (I love it when the author reads it!) but I really enjoy seeing the text as I read.
From the Harper Collins website:
"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what. A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark"
I am really looking forward to our discussion! I didn't love the metaphysical aspect - the ponderings of this child on the nature of the universe and the Hempstock women. But I love Gaiman's prose! I could picture the fairy ring, Ursula, and the little yellow washbasin perfectly . . .
Hennepin County Library audiobook 5 discs
genre: ? metaphysical fiction?
read by the author
This is a very unusual book, which is not surprising to anyone who is familiar with Gaiman's writing style. I enjoyed it, but hope to get a print copy of the book before book club discusses this in April. The audio experience was wonderful (I love it when the author reads it!) but I really enjoy seeing the text as I read.
From the Harper Collins website:
"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what. A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark"
I am really looking forward to our discussion! I didn't love the metaphysical aspect - the ponderings of this child on the nature of the universe and the Hempstock women. But I love Gaiman's prose! I could picture the fairy ring, Ursula, and the little yellow washbasin perfectly . . .
Monday, March 10, 2014
Witch & Wizard
by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
PRMS hardcover 307 pages
genre: YA fantasy, dystopian
Wisteria (Wisty) and Whitford (Whit) are siblings of 14ish & 17 who do not realize that they are actually a witch and a wizard. I have heard people rave about these books and I was curious . . .
Likes - quick read / action-packed / unique
Dislikes - lack of character or story development / 103 chapters . . . short and not much to them / role of witchcraft / parents never really helped their children understand their immense powers
At least now I "get" the appeal for so many people.
PRMS hardcover 307 pages
genre: YA fantasy, dystopian
Wisteria (Wisty) and Whitford (Whit) are siblings of 14ish & 17 who do not realize that they are actually a witch and a wizard. I have heard people rave about these books and I was curious . . .
Likes - quick read / action-packed / unique
Dislikes - lack of character or story development / 103 chapters . . . short and not much to them / role of witchcraft / parents never really helped their children understand their immense powers
At least now I "get" the appeal for so many people.
Friday, March 07, 2014
T4: A Novel
by Ann Clare LeZotte
PRMS hardcover 105 pages
genre: historical fiction told in prose poetry
This caught my eye when I was pulling poetry books for a teacher. T4 is the name for the Nazi program of extermination of people with handicaps. One of our eighth graders did her History Day project on T4 (inspired by a handicapped brother). The history seems to be quite accurate, and the author's notes at the end are interesting. The poetry itself isn't as gripping to me as that found in "Learning to Swim," but it definitely communicates effectively.
PRMS hardcover 105 pages
genre: historical fiction told in prose poetry
This caught my eye when I was pulling poetry books for a teacher. T4 is the name for the Nazi program of extermination of people with handicaps. One of our eighth graders did her History Day project on T4 (inspired by a handicapped brother). The history seems to be quite accurate, and the author's notes at the end are interesting. The poetry itself isn't as gripping to me as that found in "Learning to Swim," but it definitely communicates effectively.
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