Origins of Evil

The Merciless III: Origins of Evil by Danielle Vega

Ok, first I need to say that I didn't mean to title this post the same thing as part of the title, but honestly, nothing fits quite as well.

This is a prequel, so it should give an idea as to why the events in Merciless happen. This is about Brooklyn, who is the girl that the other girls try to perform an exorcism on. The ending felt rushed to me; like the author took too much time with other stuff and had to throw things together at the end. It was also grotesquely graphic, and I found myself cringing several times. I mean, a girl falls with a fork or spoon in her hand and the author describes the handle sticking out of the girl's eye. I have a thing about eyes, so that was particularly unsettling.

I am sure you're thinking, based on what I have said so far, that I disliked the book. That would be an inaccurate statement. I liked it, it was just too much for me in some instances. It is still worth the read, and I am looking forward to the fourth and final book in the series, which comes out in twelve days (though I will likely wait for it to come out in paperback before I make the purchase).

Anyway, Brooklyn, the girl who is so evil that her "friends" want to exorcise the demons out of her. Brooklyn has a good heart. The book starts with her in a school basement, having started a helpline to help people.  Just before she leaves, she receives a call from a female claiming that someone is hurting her. Curious, she calls 911 and reports it, but nothing is done. Turns out the call comes from a church, and Brooklyn decides to check it out on her own. She ends up meeting and kinda falling for the pastor's son. She also befriends the pastor's daughter, who has strange cuts and bruises on her back.

Now this is what I mean by the ending seeming rushed. The meeting and befriending of the pastor's children takes up half the book. At that point, we still don't see why Brooklyn is evil. That doesn't happen until the last forty pages or so, and it is not 100% believable. Read it yourself and make your own opinions.

P&P in the Simplest Form

Darcy Swipes Left by Jane Austen and Courtney Carbone

I love these little books of classic novels and plays told through text messaging!

This takes the classic Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice, and pares it down to something one could read in about an hour. While it doesn't provide the details of the source material, if someone was just trying to get the gist of the story, this would be a good way to go about it.

I did find it amusing to read prim and proper Mr. Darcy's texts, and Mrs. Bennett was not nearly as annoying as she is in the source material (or any movie version to date), which I know is hard to believe.

Guy Poetry

Dropkick Romance by Cyrus Parker

The poet of this book is married to another poet I enjoy, Amanda Lovelace. I came across this one on Twitter, when someone tweeted it next to Ms. Lovelace's work. Logically, at least to me, it made sense to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did.

While I wouldn't say I relate nearly so much to Mr. Parker's work as I do his wife's, I did enjoy reading his poems. The book is definitely divided into two parts; one where he was with the wrong woman who clearly cheated on him, and one where he was with the right one. The poems are emotionally deep, but not as gut-wrenching as others I've read lately. Still, this is one I recommend and will definitely purchase any future books he has published.

Reminiscent of a Favorite

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This was one of the books we chose to put on the list in our Banned Books Unit at school. I had never read it, so I ordered it. Strangely, none of my students chose it. Because of this, I wasn't in too big a hurry to get to it. Then the pile of unread books on my coffee table started to get too big and this was on top, so...

The first half of this book reminded me so much of Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, which is one of my very favorite books, and the one that made me want to be an English teacher. Maya/Marguerite reminded me so much of Cassie Logan that I couldn't help but love her. Despite the horrible things that happened to her in St. Louis, I was strangely drawn to Maya/Marguerite.

Then her grandmother, Momma, sent her to California to her parents, and reading became like pulling teeth. There were unnecessary stories, secondhand from Maya's stepfather that could have saved me several pages. Basically, California took the Maya I loved away. It ended up being a relief to finish, which is sad, considering the first 2/3.

I feel I should touch on the incident for which this book is most often challenged: the rape of Maya/Marguerite when she is eight by the man her mother was living with. Yes, it was a horrible situation. Yes, it should never have happened. Yes, it made me angry, but it was not graphic. It's a sad part of life for a lot of people, and by challenging/banning this book, we are taking a valuable learning opportunity away from students. Besides, students see and hear worse on network television these days, so why is it appropriate for them to see it on tv but not read about it in a book?

All in all, this was a decent book. Would I read it again, probably not, but I would not dissuade someone from reading it.

This is the Princess I Want to Be

the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace

Between this poetess and Rupi Kaur, I am finding my love of poetry. Some would argue that this isn't poetry, but more along the lines of what an angsty teenaged girl would write. Whatever. I like it.

Once again, Ms. Lovelace has struck a chord with me and my life experiences. If nothing else, the reader should come away with the thought that no matter what life throws at you, you can survive. Better than that, you can survive but don't necessarily need someone else to help you survive.

I particularly like the poems about being a reader, since that is what I am. Anyway, it looks like Ms. Lovelace has another book coming out soon, so I know I will be picking it up.

The Importance of Being Impulsive

Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes

I have become quite the fan of Ms. Moyes since reading Me Before You, even if most of the books I have read of hers are from that trilogy. At any rate, I saw this one at the store, read the back, and thought I would give it a shot. It was worth my time. Speaking of time, I had thirty hours in the car (though I drove 11 of them) that I could have read, but didn't. Instead, I ended up reading and finishing this on my puddle jumper flight from Kalispell, Montana to Denver, Colorado yesterday.

Like Moyes' other works that I have read, this focuses on a female protagonist. In this case, it is Nell from England who has impulsively (for her) booked a weekend excursion to Paris.  She's the type of person who researches everything and makes lists of pros and cons before she does anything.

She's on her way to Paris on the train, and finds out her boyfriend is not going to go with her. Her first instinct is to go back home, but there is no room on the next train. Then, when she gets to her well-researched hotel, she finds that her room is double booked. Despite everything going wrong, she decides to stay.

As it turns out, this is the best possible thing for Nell. She finds a part of herself that she never would have if she had never come to Paris or if she'd gone home. This was a sweet story, and took up slightly more than half the book. The rest is taken up by some short stories. These stories were cute, but not the reason to buy this book.

Taboo Topics

Period: Twelve Voices Tell the Bloody Truth by Various Authors

This popped up one day on my Facebook feed saying that some of the proceeds of the sale of this book would go to help girls and women around the world have the menstrual supplies they need. I am a sucker for things that I perceive to be a good cause, and this was a good cause as far as I was concerned, so I pre-ordered it. I wasn't sure what to expect when it came in, and fully intended to wait to read it, as I had already started another book, but something kept drawing me to this.

I read this for about an hour before I went to bed last night. In that time, I read four of the stories. One was about an intersex woman who so wanted to start her period, but never did. One story was about two friends discussing how women could be more open these days about their periods with their friends than in generations past. One story was about a woman who started her period the day she was running a marathon, and made the decision to free bleed. And the last one I read last night was about a woman who is paralyzed from the waist down, and discussed how she deals with that time of the month. I went to bed feeling emboldened.

This morning, I had hall duty while the juniors took state exams, so I read this. I read the last seven stories, which included period firsts, male periods, periods of black girls, periods when a person is homeless, really bad periods, politics and periods, and periods in pop culture. Again, I felt enlightened and empowered. In fact, I nominated this book for the TAYSHAS list, which is a young adult book list in Texas, because I was so taken with this book.

I highly recommend this book.

It Speaks To Me

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

Thank goodness my daughter wanted both of Rupi Kaur's books of poetry a couple of months ago! If not for her really wanting to read them, I might never have read them. If I hadn't read them, I wouldn't be better off like I am for having read them.

Once again, I read a book of poetry that speaks to my soul! In some cases, it's like Ms. Kaur is telling my story. I also like that they don't fit the traditional parameters of poetry, like rhyme and meter. I like that they just are. Some hit a little deeper than others, but 99.9% of them are relatable. I also like that they aren't man-hating or Caucasian-hating poetry, like some I have read recently.

I don't know, but if all poetry were like this, I wouldn't hate it so much.

Karma's A Bitch

Bad Girls With Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten

I became acquainted with this author's work a couple of years ago when her book, Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls was on the TAYSHAS list. Then my daughter saw this on the shelf at Target, and asked me to buy it. I thought it was a sequel, so I told her she had to read the other one first. Score one for mom! She read both books, and this one, as it turns out, is NOT a sequel.

It's Xavier's 17th birthday, and he's hanging out with his best friend, Sasha. Sasha is in love with him, but had never been able to bring herself to tell him, but tonight is the night she plans to tell him. After some drinking and dyeing of hair, they head out. Unfortunately, they run into Xavier's ex-girlfriend, Ivy. Ivy convinces Xavier to leave with him, and he, foolishly, does.

Ivy is not good for Xavier. She uses him, and only keeps him around so he won't go to someone else. She also suspects that Sasha has feelings for him, so she will keep him around just to torture Sasha. Sasha knows that the worst thing that can happen is for Xavier to go back to Ivy, so she finds a way to make Xavier see her for what she truly is. Sasha creates a fake profile for a guy their age, and strikes up a relationship with Ivy.

Then one day, Ivy wants to meet this unknown guy. When Sasha shows up, all hell breaks loose. Sasha leaves, and when she comes back, Ivy is dead. Did Sasha do it? Was it someone else? What will Sasha do with this news?

This book answers all of those questions and takes the reader for a wild ride. I like this one much better than the predecessor, and didn't want to put this one down.

BeWITCHing Poetry

the witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace

I don't what's come over me lately, but ever since I read milk and honey, I have started buying women's empowerment poetry. Admittedly, I was taken by the title of this one because EVERYONE knows how much I love all things related to witches. Little did I know when I picked it up just how taken I would be with the poetry.

Poetry is not typically my thing, but there have been some poetesses lately whose work has resonated with me. My life hasn't always been sunshine and roses, and it's always a comfort to find kindred spirits, even if only in the lines of a poem. That's what this book of poetry is to me: finding those kindred spirits so that I know I am not the only one who's been through these things/felt this way.

In its own way, that alone is empowering--knowing I'm not alone

#metoo

A Giant Puzzle

In The Lake Of The Woods by Tim O'Brien

I decided to read this because I offered it as an option for literature circles for my Pre-AP classes a couple of years ago. I liked The Things They Carried by the same author, and my students who read this raved about it, so I thought I'd give it a go. On the whole, I liked it.

John and Kathy Wade are vacationing in northern Minnesota, right after John lost an election for congress. Apparently, things came out about his involvement in the Vietnam War, and how he and his company killed a lot of innocent people. Kiss of death for any kind of political career.

One morning, John wakes up but Kathy is not there. He remembers weird things from the night before, but doesn't know if it is connected to Kathy's disappearance. Once it becomes evening again, he starts looking for her because he is worried.

The story is told in a bunch of different genres. There are chapters about John's time in Vietnam. There are chapters that are flashbacks to his early years with Kathy. There are chapters that are told from Kathy's point of view. There are chapters of evidence, and chapters that offer varying hypotheses as to what happened to Kathy. I enjoyed most of the chapters, but I could have done without the Vietnam ones. For some reason, they just didn't resonate with me, which is weird, given that the book I liked by this author is about the Vietnam War.

This was an interesting read, and I am glad I finally took the time to read it.