Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 71
May 20, 2011
Friday Finds—May 20, 2011
I haven't done Friday Finds in a while because I have been to busy to find much of anything. 
But! I have heard about some books that look pretty good and that I want to share with you.
I thought these books looked good, but I truthfully can't tell you anymore where I found out about them. I will try to be better about documenting the finds in the future.
I am particularly interested in The Kitchen Daughter because the protagonist is a character with Asperger's Syndrome, which my middle daughter has (my son is also autistic).
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Post © Dana Huff
Friday Finds—May 20, 2011
May 19, 2011
Booking Through Thursday: Age-Inappropriate
This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks, "In contrast to last week's question—What do you think of censoring books BECAUSE of their intended age? Say, books too 'old' for your kids to read?"
I am the parent of three children, aged 17, 10, and 8. I think some books are beyond their reading level. I can't think of anything I would tell my 17-year-old daughter she couldn't read. She has a good head on her shoulders. She is smart enough to know that book characters don't necessarily make good choices. I imagine she has been exposed to just about whatever she might read in other media, such as online images and video, movies, TV, and the like. Plus, she's just a bit younger than 18, after which point I don't know how to tell her what to read when she is a legal adult, responsible for her actions. On the other hand, there are some things I wouldn't let my 10-year-old read if she wanted to—mostly adult books with themes and content that I would rather she not see until she's older. I try not to shield her too much from reality, but she is also a child, and I want her to stay a child for little longer. My son is the one I have to watch. He can find and read just about anything he wants, so I do try to make sure it's appropriate for his age, although if I am honest, I think he has seen things (particularly videos online) that are not appropriate for age (not talking about pornography—just cartoon violence like on South Park). In terms of reading, it's not about level, it's more about content.
However, when the younger ones become teenagers, when they reach middle school, I hope they will turn to books to explore difficult subjects, such as abuse, racism, death, hunger, and the like. I think books are a good, safe way to live in someone else's shoes. I would rather they read about rape or eating disorders from Laurie Halse Anderson than experience it themselves. I would rather them read about racism in Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird than perpetrate stereotypes or hatred themselves.
[image error] photo credit: Mr.Enjoy
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Post © Dana Huff
Booking Through Thursday: Age-Inappropriate
May 18, 2011
WWW Wednesdays—May 18, 2011
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?
I am currently reading One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde, The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas, and The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History by Rebecca Fraser (I have been reading it since January, but in my defense, it is over 800 pages long).
I recently finished Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (my review).
What on earth am I going to read next? I'm not really sure. I need to think about it. Maybe The Tempest so I can read The Dream of Perpetual Motion. It has been a really long time since I read The Tempest. I won't try to pick it up until school lets out, however.
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Post © Dana Huff
WWW Wednesdays—May 18, 2011
May 17, 2011
Teaser Tuesdays—May 17, 2011
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My teasers:
"About ten degrees upslope of Fiction, I could see our nearest neighbor: Artistic Criticism. It was an exceptionally beautiful island, yet deeply troubled, confused and suffused with a blanketing layer of almost impenetrable bullshit."
—location 241 on Kindle, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing: A Novel by Jasper Fforde
A truer description of criticism, whether you are talking art or literature, I have never seen. I love Jasper Fforde. Incidentally, here is a map of Fiction Island, but Artistic Criticism is not pictured.
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Post © Dana Huff
Teaser Tuesdays—May 17, 2011
May 16, 2011
Musing Mondays—May 16, 2011
This week's musing asks…
The local Catholic school board is closing its school libraries, and parents and teachers—and even the students—are in an uproar. Budget cuts demanded that the board choose something to get rid of… they choose libraries. As such, many librarians have lost their jobs. And, the board is moving the books to the classrooms, instead. They feel that it is a good solution.
What do you think? Should the schools be without an actual "library" room? Is this a good solution?
I'm not sure where this school is located. No link to a news story in the post prompt. I think every school needs a library. So does every elementary school classroom, every middle school reading or language arts classroom (really, other subjects should, too), and every high school English classroom. Minimum. The library is more than just a room that houses books. It is a room that celebrates reading, books, media, and learning. It is a place for students to gather to study. It is a refuge for students like I was when I was young—a place to find new books, a place to hide, a place to think. I can't imagine taking that away from students. Why so many people have decided we can do without libraries lately is beyond my comprehension. Even though I had moved away by the time it closed, I was saddened to learn the library I used to ride my bike to when I was a kid had closed. I wanted other children to be able to experience what I had experienced.
We also need our librarians. They stay current on good books and can help students find books to read. To push that role on overloaded teachers is not a solution. I can recommend books to my students. I read a lot. But no one can replace a librarian for expertise. How many kids have been turned on to their favorite book or even to reading in general because a librarian took an interest and made a recommendation? I loved spending time in my school library. When I was in fifth grade, I loved being chosen to be the office worker because I could finish all my school work by 11:00 and read for the rest of the day. The office staff let me go to the library to pick out books. I vividly remember asking a librarian to help me find an author's address so I could write to him, telling him how I loved his book. She was more crushed than I was to discovered he had already passed away.
It doesn't sound like the stakeholders—the students, parents, or teachers—want this. Surely there is a better way to save money than to remove librarians and a central library from a school.
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Post © Dana Huff
Musing Mondays—May 16, 2011
May 12, 2011
Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks
Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck was the first member of of the Wampanoag tribe, indeed the first Native American, to graduate from Harvard in 1665. Geraldine Brooks tells his story in her latest novel Caleb's Crossing: A Novel. Brooks's narrator Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of a missionary to the native Wampanoag tribe on Martha's Vineyard, is a friend to Caleb, whom she meets on her rambles on the island. She begins teaching him her language, and in time, he becomes a student of her father's, much to the chagrin of his uncle Tequamuck, a shaman in Caleb's tribe. Bethia hungers for the learning closed to her sex, and she listens in on lessons with her brother and Caleb whenever she can. A much more ready student than her brother, she thirsts after knowledge. When her brother undertakes study with a prep school in Cambridge, Bethia goes with him as an indentured servant.
Many books about colonial American seem to concern either the Salem Witch Trials or the Revolutionary War. Brooks's novel is unique for its focus on a different era, and indeed on relations between Native Americans and English settlers. Readers of The Crucible will recognize Thomas Danforth, who appears late in the book in a much more favorable light than Arthur Miller painted him. Caleb emerges as an interesting character. When explaining to Bethia why he chose to turn away from his tribe's teachings and study with her father, Caleb says, "Life is better than death. I know this. Tequamuck says it is the coward's talk. I say it is braver, sometimes, to bend" (144). Tequamuck has foreseen enmity between the Wampanoag and the English, and Caleb seeks to "find favor" with the English God, thinking that "if your God prospers me there, I will be of use to my people, and they will live" (144). The book is an interesting and well-written glimpse into a little-known area of American history. If the book suffers from a common historical fiction ailment of the heroine living out of her time and seeking opportunities denied women in other eras, the author can be forgiven because Bethia comes across as an earnest and realistic woman of her time. Brooks brings colonial Martha's Vineyard into sharp relief. For readers interested in American historical fiction, this novel offers a glimpse into a time when America was just emerging, and a somewhat shaky peace between colonists and Native Americans seemed possible.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
I read this novel for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Full disclosure: I received an ARC of this novel as part of the Goodreads First Reads program.
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Post © Dana Huff
Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks
May 11, 2011
WWW Wednesdays—May 11, 2011
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?
I am currently reading Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas, and The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History by Rebecca Fraser (I have been reading it since January, but in my defense, it is over 800 pages long).
I recently finished The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (review) and Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran (review).
I'm definitely ready to pick up the new Jasper Fforde, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing next. I absolutely love Jasper Fforde. Oh, my TBR pile is so big. I will get to most of those books. Eventually. I hope.
What about you?
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Post © Dana Huff
WWW Wednesdays—May 11, 2011
May 10, 2011
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlo Ruiz Zafón
Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novel The Shadow of the Wind begins with a trip to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a vast, labyrinthine repository for books of all kinds. Daniel Sempere's father, a bookseller, cautions his son that he must never speak of what he sees to anyone—it's a great secret. Ten-year-old Daniel is allowed to choose a book for his very own, to be its protector and champion and rescue it from obscurity. A mysterious book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax catches his eye. He devours the book, but when he tries to find more books by Carax, he discovers that someone has mysteriously been burning all of Carax's works, and his copy of The Shadow of the Wind is one of the rarest books he will ever encounter. One day, Daniel is confronted by a man calling himself Lain Coubert, the devil in The Shadow of the Wind—the man who has been attempting to obliterate Carax's works from the literary landscape. Daniel feels compelled to learn more about Carax. As Daniel grows, his life begins to eerily mimic events in Carax's life.
The novel is an excellent mystery involving the obsession with reading and with true love. Jonathan Davis's reading is superb. If he is not a native Spanish speaker, he certainly sounds like one. The audio book kept me riveted. I looked forward to my commutes so that I could listen to the story unfold. If I have one complaint, it is that the audio version employs mood music. On the one hand, the music was a cue to listen carefully as something very important would be happening, but it needed to be modulated differently—sometimes I strained to hear Davis over the music. As with any audio book, it is hard to go back and easily re-read portions, which is something I really wanted to do as I listened to this book. The story itself can be somewhat hard to follow—it takes twists and turns. However, Zafón brought the streets of Barcelona alive. Anyone who loves books should enjoy The Shadow of the Wind.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
I read this book as part of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and the Gothic Reading Challenge. I am making steady progress in both challenges. I have six more books to complete the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and fourteen more books for the Gothic Reading Challenge. Yeah, I bit off more than I could chew with that one.
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Post © Dana Huff
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlo Ruiz Zafón
Teaser Tuesdays—May 10, 2011
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My teasers:
"Tequamuck says it is coward's talk. I say it is braver, sometimes, to bend."
—p. 144, Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Excellent read so far. I should have a review some time this week.
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Post © Dana Huff
Teaser Tuesdays—May 10, 2011
May 9, 2011
Musing Mondays—May 9, 2011
This week's musing asks…
Do you ever find scenes from previous books you've read popping into your head at random times? If so, does it bother you? If it doesn't happen to you, why do you think that is?
This is a strange question to me because I assumed this happened to everyone. Do you mean it doesn't? Are there people who don't have scenes from novels popping into their heads at random times? Really? Huh. In answer to this question, I share two quotes from two sage writers:
"I am a part of all that I have met."—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses." To me, this line means everything we experience forms who we are, and that includes what we read.
"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was."—Ernest Hemingway
So, if Tennyson and Hemingway are right (and I think they are), then how could one not have scenes popping into one's head? It is like calling forth memories, or if it's not, then someone needs to explain it to me because I don't get it.
Does it bother me? Absolutely not. Book memories are by and large the most pleasant ones, so they are welcome to pop in my head whenever they like. Except Stephen King's It. Those memories can stay away. Especially that psychotic clown.
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Post © Dana Huff
Musing Mondays—May 9, 2011
