Reading List #3

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

The first time that I remember this book being read to me was when I was in kindergarten at Winship Elementary.  I was in Mrs. Redd's class, and we were on one of our weekly library trips.  This was a book that made an impression on me,  and one that I made sure was in my children's library. I even have a wild thing that my son won for me from a claw machine. We saw the movie, and,  unlike many, actually liked it.

You have to love Max. He is a typical kid, who, when he is mad, wants nothing to do with the ones who love him. He wants a place where he makes the rules, and once he gets it, tires of it quickly. It's different reading it as a parent than it was as a child.  Still, it's a good book that stands the test of time. After all,  we all have a little wild thing inside of us.

Reading List #2

Gregor the Overlander: Book 1 of The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

Even if this hadn't been on my grad school reading list, this was one that was on my to read list. My best friend's mother is a retired elementary school teacher, and both she and my best friend have been telling me for ages how good these books are. In fact, I started this one two years or so ago, but let other reading get in the way. I am, however, glad I read this book.

It's a Suzanne Collins book. She wrote the Hunger Games trilogy, so I knew it would be a good read. I had no idea how good until I actually started reading. It doesn't matter that this is a "kid's" book; anyone could read this and enjoy it.

Gregor is an eleven year old boy, living in New York City with his mother, two younger sisters, and his grandmother. His father disappeared two and a half years prior to the events in this story. It's summer, and Gregor is at home with his grandma and Boots, his baby sister. Gregor goes to the basement to do laundry, and plays with a ball with Boots. Boots climbs through the vent, Gregor goes after, and they end up falling to a land far below the surface.

In this new civilization, the humans ride giant bats, there are giant roaches, and giant rats. There is some tension between Gregor and Luxa, the heir apparent of the human civilization. Gregor learns that this is where his father wound up after going missing. There's a prophecy that involves Gregor, and rescuing his father.

This is an action story, but it also has heart. You can't help but sympathize with Gregor. For myself, I can't wait until I have time of my own again to finish the series.

Reading List #1

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

As I previously mentioned, I have a reading list eighty-five titles long for one of my library science grad school classes. This is the one I decided to start with. If it hadn't been for the books of Beverly Cleary when I was young, I would not be the reader I am now. Actually, I had this book as a kid, but never read it. Probably would have gone my whole life without reading it, had it not been for this class.

Leigh Botts, a boy, begins writing to his favorite author in the second grade. This continues until he is most of the way through sixth grade. We learn of Leigh's frustrations over his parents' divorce, the kid stealing the good parts of his lunch, and the fact that his father doesn't keep his promises. It's rather depressing, but Leigh makes the best of it. He finds people that care about him, and finds redemption when another author refers to him as an author.

As an adult reading it, it gives keen insight on divorce from a kid's point of view. I feel like society never takes the view of the children into account, and Cleary brought that to the forefront in this book.

Summer Book #25

Where She Went by Gayle Foreman

The sequel to If I Stay. I was not sure if I wanted to read this one. Seems like I read some of the reviews after I read the first book, and the consensus was that this was not worthy of its predecessor. It was also coming down to the wire, ie summer was almost over, and I wanted to read something that would be a reasonably quick read, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

At first, I was not sure I was going to like this one. Adam, the boyfriend, seemed so whiny and woe is me, that I was put off. However, as I got more into it, and Mia came into it, I liked it better. It told of their break-up, that even Adam didn't understand. I was happy to see that they could move past the things that happened, and find a way to live with themselves. I thought this was a perfect follow up, even if it didn't start as well as I'd have liked.

So, in nine days, school-my teaching gig-starts back up. Freshmen. Yea. In eleven days, grad school starts. I am studying library science, so there's a ton of reading (right now, 85 books. Yikes!), and I will discuss what I read here. Probably won't have much time for free reading, which makes me sad. Looking forward to this new chapter though.

Summer Book #24

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

I am going to be completely up front here: my biggest complaint with this book is everything from Pride and Prejudice that the author felt necessary to rehash. Presumably,  if you're reading this,  you are already familiar with Austen's work, and therefore,  don't need to constantly revisit the work. Just when you think you have escaped the revisiting,  it raises its ugly head.  Also, one whole  chapter was devoted to background on the Collinses, and they were only mentioned as having sent a letter to Elizabeth.  They weren't even characters in the book!

As to the story itself, it was pretty good.  On the night before a big ball at Pemberley,  Lydia Wickham shows up screaming that her husband has been killed.  Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam and a gentlman who has a thing for Georgianna go into the woods to investigate.  As it turns out, Wickham is not dead, but his friend, Captain Denny is. Wickham is a suspect, and goes to trial. We find out who committed the crime, and the circumstances surrounding it. It was quite intriguing really.

I also liked the allusion to Emma towards the end. That's what I would like to see actually: a book that ties the characters of all Austen's work somehow. It could be epic.

Summer Book #23

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

My fourth foray into the world of John Green, and, admittedly, my least favorite. It's not bad, just not as good as the others for me.

Colin is a child prodigy who has dated nineteen girls named Katherine. He was recently dumped by K-19, and he is having a hard time getting over it. His best pal, Hassan, comes over, and they decide to go on a road trip to soothe Colin's woes. There is no destination in particular, they just drive southeast from Chicago, and see what happens. They see road signs indicating that the grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is in Tennessee, so they set out to find it. They end up in this town in the middle of nowhere called Gutshot, and meet Lindsay, the proprietor of the roadside attraction.

Hassan and Colin befriend Lindsay and her mother, who offers the boys a summer job and a place to stay. While there, Colin decides he wants to matter, so he uses his experiences with the Katherines to develop a formula that will predict how long a relationship will last and who will do the dumping. Hassan falls in love, and breaks up with the girl. Lindsay breaks up with her boyfriend. The three friends uncover a secret about their town, and have some good times together.

I think the main reason I didn't like this one as much is because Colin is a bit of a whiny narrator. He pines for this girl who is clearly over him, and can't let himself have fun and be open to other opportunities. I enjoyed Hassan; he made me laugh. Maybe a Hassan book is in order.

Summer Book #22

Paper Towns by John Green

This is the third book by Green I have read. I know I shouldn't, but I will always compare his books to the first I read, The Fault in Our Stars. TFIOS was magic, and nothing Green has written has compared to that for me. That said, I really enjoyed Paper Towns.

In its own way, the premise was the same as Looking for Alaska, also by Green. In both, an average boy is in love with an above average girl, the girl leaves, and the boy searches for her. Where they differ, is that Paper Towns had a happier ending.

Q lives next door to Margo. As previously indicated, he's an average guy. Margo is beautiful and popular. It is the last month of their senior year. One night, Margo, dressed as a ninja, needs Q's help. She is seeking revenge on a cheating boyfriend, and others who wronged her. Against his better judgment, Q helps her out. She shows him what it is like to live close to the edge, and Q finds that he liked it. The next morning, Margo is gone. No one knows where she's gone.

The second part of the book deals with Q's search for Margo. She left some obscure clues, and Q does his damndest to figure them out. His friends, Ben, the obnoxious virgin clarinet player, and Radar, the computer geek, help him. Also, Lacey, Margo's best friend, helps.  On the day of graduation, Q finds the last clue as to where Margo went.

The third and final section involves Q and his friends ditching graduation to drive over 1,000 miles to where they believe Margo went. Ben has to pee a lot, and they almost hit a ginormous cow. Will they find Margo? Does it matter?

This is a book of personal growth and knowing who your friends are. This book makes you laugh, and for me, makes you want to join Q and his friends on an epic adventure. Definitely worth the read.

Summer Book #21

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

What a strange book! Having read some of McCarthy's work, this was not entirely surprising.  What was surprising was the amount of necrophelia in this book.

Our protagonist is one Lester Ballard. He is a mere 27 years old, but I didn't know that until I was more than half way through the book. He seemed much older. Ballard is recently released from prison.  I don't know why he was there; either I missed it or it wasn't mentioned.  Anyway,  Ballard lost his family land while incarcerated,  and he is not happy about this. Strangely, he seems to have befriended the person who bought the land. Since he has no place of his own, Ballard squats in an abandoned house in the woods.

Here's where things get gross... Ballard comes across a car in the woods (the was a lot of backseat action in this book), but the occupants have died in a compromising position.  Ballard pulls the guy corpse off the girl corpse, and has his way with her. As if that isn't enough, he takes the girl corpse back to his squatter paradise to have his way with her more times. Dude even goes into town to buy her clothes! One night after his sexual conquest, his squatter digs burn down.  He then moves his belongings to a cave. He comes across another couple , kills them, has his way with the body, and takes her to the cave. He ends up having to move again, and takes the bodies with him. He is eventually caught, put in a mental hospital and dies. Sometime after his death, the find his final abode, and in it, seven corpses. Ewwww!

I kept hoping Ballard would redeem himself in some way, but he never did. I guess you could say he was the product of his environment: his mother ran off when he was young and his father killed himself. He didn't have anyone to love him and teach him better.

Despite the weirdness,  I did like this book. It was different,  gross, but different.

Summer Book #20

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Not impressed with this one. It's dystopian, which I have learned to love, but this adds nothing to the genre, in my opinion. Hated it. Aggravated by the main character speaking in third person for the majority of the book. I get it, as a collective, no one has an identity, and that's the point. Being someone who lives in a society where individuality is a good thing, I couldn't relate. It was nice, I guess, that he figured out he could live with his Golden One and be happy.

Summer Book #19

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

This is another one of those books I bought and read because I liked the cover. :)

At the beginning of the book, Ezra Faulkner is finishing up his junior year of high school. He is on the varsity tennis team, he's student body president, he's dating a popular girl, and he's wicked popular himself. He goes to a party, and sees his girlfriend hooking up with someone else. He leaves, and gets hit in his car by a hit and run driver in a black suv. In this moment, Ezra's life is changed forever. It was questionable whether he'd ever walk again, and he'd never play tennis competitively again.

At the beginning of his senior year, Ezra has to find himself. He ends up on the debate team, and in love with the new girl. He is also still drawn to his old "friends" sometimes. The new girl, Cassidy, is mysterious, intelligent, and shows Ezra a whole new world-until she breaks his heart.

Cute story, but one told many times, in many ways.