http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/528 en-US Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:43:06 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 984873 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:43:06 -0700
author: Jennifer O'Connell
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 08/07
date added: 09/25/07
shelves: sometimesireadgrown-upstuff, ya
review:
I was SOOO excited for this book. But I only got about halfway through it. Judy Blume is a highly personal experience.
]]> 994729 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:41:05 -0700
author: Sonya Sones
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 08/07
date added: 09/25/07
shelves: ya
review:
Sones does such an amazing job at making the simple profound. That is all I have to say.
]]> 868238 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:17:20 -0700
author: Michelle Wildgen
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 03/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: sometimesireadgrown-upstuff
review:
I thought this was a gorgeous book. It’s about a college-aged girl who becomes a caretaker for a woman in her thirties with ALS, and how their lives end up intertwining (and the younger woman risks losing her own identity). Lush descriptions and writing—I thought the sections about food were particularly evocative. It was obvious to me that Wildgen knows a lot about cooking and is passionate about it, and that comes across on the page. I also thought that the main character went through a very satisfying arc, progressing from lost college student to caretaker (something she is very good at, perhaps too good), to chef. Her growth was obvious but not predictable. A good read!
]]> 868206 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:16:10 -0700
author: Ellen Wittlinger
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 04/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
I could not get into the main character in this book. I wanted to, but I just found him to be excessively whiney and I was frustrated with him from the beginning for falling in love with a girl who was so obviously the wrong choice for him. Hmm. It just occurred to me that this is something I need to be aware of in my own piece. I guess part of it is that I also didn’t like the girl character, or at least didn’t understand why the main character would be so attracted to her. Something to think about in my own story.
]]> 868186 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:15:26 -0700
author: S.E. Hinton
name: Hannah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at: 03/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. I rented the movie a while ago and my reaction was tempered at best. But I loved the book. It was great to get the chance to see inside Ponyboy’s head—the movie misses out on a lot of his sophistication and thinking. I think this story is a good example of how sometimes you absolutely have to draw your characters through the mud—showing them in the worst possible situation and then twisting the screw even tighter. I also thought the book does a fairly good job on the dead parents issue—it’s not overly sentimental but at the same time all three brothers are still clearly dealing with their parents’ death.
]]> 868160 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:14:44 -0700
author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 03/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
This is not the kind of story I normally read but I have to say I really enjoyed it. I loved the combination of real and fantastical elements—I didn’t even get that there were actual vampires in Quincie’s world until a few chapters in, and then Leitich Smith incorporates them in so well that you totally accept it as the way things are. I may be a bit biased as I spent five years of my early childhood in Austin, so I loved the use of the real setting with the magical characters. I also read Cynthia’s blog every day, which I’m sure adds to my fondness towards this story.
]]> 868135 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:13:53 -0700
author: Loretta Ellsworth
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 03/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
What fun to read a book from a Hamline classmate! I saw this in the bookstore and couldn’t resist picking it up. I thought Loretta had a great hook and concept—so many teens discover To Kill a Mockingbird and are swept away by it. (I was one of them.) I also thought her characters were very strong, especially Epp, the boy Erin meets on the bus. I would be interested in talking to Loretta about why she chose to set the book during the 1980s—maybe I’ll e-mail her about it!
]]> 868112 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:12:48 -0700
author: Robert Cormier
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 04/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
Only Cormier could create such a successful and sympathetic character that is a serial killer. It was great to look at in terms of third person male voice, too. Eric has such a strong (and creepy) identity that builds through what he says and does. In particular, I thought the introduction to his character was brilliant—“Eric started with cats.” Yikes! I also thought it was interesting that this book contains sections narrated from an adult point of view (that of the old cop). You don’t see that too much in YA and yet Cormier pulls it off here, I think be
]]> 868097 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:12:01 -0700
author: Brock Cole
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 03/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
The most interesting part of this book to me was the underlying sexual tension between the two main characters and that Cole chooses to never act on it. Cole puts the boy and the girl naked together on the island, he has them sleep together, they get embarrassed about changing in front of one another—the tension is definitely there the whole time and helps to propel the story forward. But in the end I like that nothing happens because both characters are such innocents. Their perception of the world has changed by the end but I like how there is still some innocence about them, especially when everyone else assumes they’ve been up to no good.
]]> 868070 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:11:20 -0700
author: Sara Pennypacker
name: Hannah
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 03/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: kidstuff
review:
I kept on hearing raves about this new chapter book character, especially from my teacher friends, so I was eager to check her out. I can see why readers are so charmed by Miss Clementine. She’s a very lively character in the tradition of an Eloise or Ramona. Pennypacker does a wonderful job of building Clementine’s character through repetitive phrasing; for example Clementine often uses the phrase “okay, fine” when she is conceding something. Pennypacker also does a good job playing with word order as to convey the voice of a young child. The book opens “I have had not so good of a week,” which just automatically gives a strong sense of character and perspective.
]]> 868037 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:09:51 -0700
author: Marilyn Nelson
name: Hannah
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 04/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
What an unusual and compelling take on a biography. Nelson has such an amazing grasp on her use of language and imagery. I found myself writing down lines from the poems for their sheer beauty: “At the feet of every listener who hears/ the promise of dawn in the wilderness,/ the peach-luscious, unashamed curves/ of naked ambition.” Peach-luscious, unashamed curves! How wonderful. It was helpful for me to have the facts at the bottom of each poem, though—the one obvious trade-off of doing a biography in poems is that it becomes more difficult to pack in the non-fiction information.
]]> 868016 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:08:39 -0700
author: Ron Koertge
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 04/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
This was an eerie read in the week following the Virginia Tech shootings. I loved this book, however, and thought Ron did a wonderful job creating so many unique voices. He achieves very swift characterization through language used. For instance, there is no confusing Damon—“Everybody loves us—chicks, teachers, everybody”—and Kelli—“He’s black but not, you know, black black.” It’s not only the language that separates these characters but also the rhythm of how they are speaking. Damon’s line above echoes some kind of caveman thump and Kelli’s has the intonation of the Valley Girl.
]]> 867971 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:07:38 -0700 ]]>
author: Sonya Sones
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 04/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
I haven’t always been the biggest fan of the novel-in-verse phenomenon, but I think Sones nails the form here. She has such a knack of getting at the voice of the teenage character—in particular I thought the letters that Ruby writes to her dead mother conveyed the full range of emotions a teen girl would be facing in that situation, including loss, grief, and anger. And I liked how the novel-in-verse format allowed Sones to deconstruct specific aspects of a single moment, really zeroing in on something as simple as the hairs on a flight attendant’s cheek.

]]> 868001 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:07:06 -0700
author: M.T. Anderson
name: Hannah
average rating: 3.17
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 04/07
date added: 04/24/07
shelves: ya
review:
It is so hard to believe that Anderson wrote Octavian Nothing, Feed, and this—a contemporary, realistic, story about a fast-food empire and a boy seeking revenge. I love the main character’s sense of humor and his perspective on life that we get from the dialogue and inner thoughts—my particular favorite section was about the fact that none of the skills required in team sports are required in real life. ☺ This would be good to look at when studying dialogue and/or humor.
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