Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 83

Wintergirls

Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Wintergirls is the story of Lia Overbrook, whose former best friend Cassie has just been found dead, alone, in a motel room. Lia is anorexic, and her friend Cassie was bulimic. Cassie begins to "haunt" Lia after her death, beckoning her to the other side to join her. Lia begins to succumb to her disorder and descends into depression and psychosis. Lia is crying out for attention from her parents, but they don't see her as she really is, and Lia has no one to turn to who believes her, who understands.

I didn't read this book with a mind toward counting as part of the R.I.P. Challenge, but I am, because it is without a doubt one of the most frightening books I have read for some time. If you are the parent of a teenage girl, or will ever be the parent of a teenage girl, you should read this book. I never had an eating disorder, but I was really thin as a teenager, and I know people probably thought I was anorexic. I developed a very real complex about my body. I thought I was fairly hideous. I used to wear sweat pants under my jeans so that I would look just a little healthier and heavier. I wish I had been able to hear that I was normal and OK and fine the way I was. I never tried to harm myself, and age and metabolism eventually took care of my body image problems, but I think most girls have some form of body image issues, even if they don't go to the extremes Lia does, and we do not do enough in our society to tell our girls that they are beautiful and strong and fine the way they are.

Laurie Halse Anderson's novel is haunting and realistic. Her writing style is often poetic, pitch-perfect stream of consciousness that works well for depicting Lia's descent into the maelstrom. I found myself pulling hard for her the whole time, being angry with her, being frustrated with her, and being angry with the adults in her life for not seeing her. Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the best YA writers working right now, and her messages are so important for our kids to hear, to read. It sickens me that her books have been the subject of challenges even as recently as last week. I read this book for Banned Books Week this week in honor of Laurie Halse Anderson and the important writing she does for our kids—for all of us. Those who would seek to silence writers like Laurie Halse Anderson because they seek to be honest in the way they portray us to ourselves are only hiding from the truth and hiding the truth from their children. One way or another, the truth has a way of coming out. I hope book banners' children don't have to become Wintergirls in order for their parents to see, and I can't imagine how anyone who has lost a child to an eating disorder would try to keep this book out of the hands of any child. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would give anything if their daughters could have read it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This is my third book for the R.I.P. Challenge. One more book will complete the challenge. I'm also currently reading Dracula, My Love, which will count towards my challenge goal of four books. However, I also have two other R.I.P. worthy books in the hopper.

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Post © Dana Huff

Wintergirls

Booking Through Thursday: When Series Jump the Shark

This week's Booking Through Thursday prompt concerns series books: "If you read series, do you ever find a series 'jumping the shark?' How do you feel about that? And, do you keep reading anyway?"

I have found that if the early books in a series grab me, I am much more forgiving of later lapses. I really loved Anne Rice's first two Vampire Chronicles books, Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. I didn't like Queen of the Damned so much, but I understood its importance in terms of the Rice vampire mythos. I did enjoy The Tale of the Body Thief. As the series continued, I liked each book less and less. I didn't like The Vampire Armand much, I never finished Blood and Gold, Pandora was only OK, and Memnoch the Devil remains the only book I've ever thrown across the room. Still, I kept trying for a while, you know? Because I liked some of the earlier books so much. I read Merrick and I tried Blackwood Farm. Finally I had to admit to myself that I just didn't like the books anymore, and that trying to recapture what I felt about the first couple was pointless: she had clearly moved in a different direction, and it wasn't one I was going to enjoy.

I had a sort of similar reaction to Stephenie Meyer's books. I know it's not cool anymore to admit you've read them, but I'll cop to it. I will even admit to enjoying the first book a lot. The second less so. The third even less. The last one was frankly really awful and extremely weird. Vampire babies, vampire Bella is somehow more remarkable than everyone else (Mary Sue much?), weenie pedophile Jacob, weird abusive sex. Nope. Totally jumped the shark. And I can say honestly that if Meyer has plans to extend the saga with a fifth book, I won't read it. Breaking Dawn was a shark-jumping moment if ever there was one.

In both cases, I kept up with books in series, despite declining quality, because I had truly liked the first or first couple of books. It is hard not to feel a little betrayed by the books. It's hard too not to feel a little angry with the author who had previous given you so much pleasure. However, I am clearly forgiving past the point of rationality, especially as illustrated in Rice's case, and I will read an entire series if the payoff in the first two or so books was good. I have read all of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next and Nursery Crime books published to date, and I loved them all. My favorite series, Harry Potter, just got better and better.

One of these days, I'm going to try to finish Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. The first four books were rewarding. I never finished the fifth, and haven't touched the others. But that doesn't mean I don't have a sort of Pavlovian reaction to one of her book covers.

If you look at it from a behaviorist perspective, I have clearly been rewarded by enough series books to have learned to stick it out. However, it seems to take me a long time to stop expecting that reward. And you know, sometimes, I just have to finish a series to know what happens. Lately I have been telling myself life is too short to read bad books. And I have been sticking to that axiom, for the most part. A series is a commitment. It's more than slogging through a few hundred pages. It's a relationship with an author and her characters. And like many relationships, it can be hard to let go and figure out when breaking up might be the healthiest thing.

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Post © Dana Huff

Booking Through Thursday: When Series Jump the Shark

Kindle for the Web

Amazon announced Kindle for the Web today. With Kindle for the Web, you can read the first chapter of a book right in your browser, but what I find interesting and exciting is ability to embed book samples in your blog or share via Twitter, Facebook, or email. If you are an Amazon affiliate, and you embed a book in your website, you have the potential to earn referral fees if visitors choose to purchase the book. I think this has great potential for readers to share books, especially book bloggers, and to test out a book for free in an easy way before deciding if they want to read the rest.

Of course, if you have a Kindle, you may have already tried out the sample book feature, and in my opinion it's not this feature that really adds value to the Kindle experience. I think the selling point will be the ability to share samples of books through blogs an social networks. Amazon seems bent on making the Kindle experience better all the time, which can only be a good thing for folks who own one.

I have a narrow blog template, and I don't think it looks as nice on my blog as it might on a wider template, but here's a sample of the book I'm reading right now:

And did you know you can also get Scrabble for your Kindle?

[image error] photo credit: goblinbox (queen of ad hoc bento)

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Post © Dana Huff

Kindle for the Web

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen

Syrie James's first novel The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is the story of Jane Austen's passion for Frederick Ashford and its subsequent influence over her novels. At the novel's outset, Jane's father has died, leaving Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in desperate circumstances. Shuffled from brother to brother and feeling rootless, Jane feels the lack of Virginia Woolf's recommended room of one's own. Jane's brother Henry suggests a trip to Lyme, where she nearly falls from the steps on the Cobb, just like Louisa Musgrove, and is caught by her Frederick. The two fall in love as quickly as Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars, or perhaps Marianne Dashwood and John Willoughby. Of course, any cursory student of Jane's life knows how the story must end—Jane Austen may be one of the most famous "spinsters" in history—I hate to use that word, but in Austen's time, remaining unmarried was difficult for women, and Jane herself suffered for it. However, knowing the end won't keep readers from being easily drawn into their story.

Jane Austen fans will probably be of two minds about this book: 1) they will enjoy the references to Austen's novels and feel the excitement that goes with catching each reference; 2) they won't like Syrie James's invention regarding Jane's life. Put me firmly in the first camp. I don't care how accurate the novel is, I enjoyed it from start to finish. I loved the allusions to Jane Austen's books, and I was swept away into the story. James has done her research and has recreated what we do know of Jane Austen's life in loving detail. One thing Syrie James will make you wonder about is the contents of those letters Cassandra edited and destroyed.

I pictured Frederick Ashford as , and if they ever make a movie, I do hope he plays Ashford. He is every bit as charming as any one of Jane Austen's heroes—Austen fans will recognize just about all of them in Frederick Ashford. Jane Austen comes across exactly as one would imagine based on her writing and what we know of her. And she remains a historical personage with whom I would love to have a cup of tea.

I enjoyed Syrie James's second novel, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, but I think I like this novel even better. Something about the character of Jane Austen and her circle is captured more crisply. They feel more real than the Brontë sisters. And as much as I loved The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, it is high praise to say I enjoyed this novel even more.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I read The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen for the Everything Austen Challenge II. Four down, two more to go! May I truly finish Mansfield Park this time. However, first I will be finishing Dracula, My Love, also by Syrie James, for the R.I.P. Challenge, and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson in honor of Banned Books Week.

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Post © Dana Huff

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen

Reading Update: September 25, 2010

I am falling behind in my Everything Austen Reading Challenge, everyone. I set aside The House of the Seven Gables for now. I might still dip into it a little bit here and there, but I really need to finish some of the Austen-related reading I committed to. To that end, I picked up Syrie James's novel The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. I finished the R.I.P. Challenge at my commitment level (two books), so I am going to try to finish two more and meet the challenge level for Peril the...

The Heretic's Daughter

Kathleen Kent has a personal stake in telling the story of Martha Carrier, who was executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials: she is a tenth generation descendant of Martha Carrier. The Heretic's Daughter is a story of the witch trials told through the point of view of eleven-year-old Sarah Carrier, Martha's daughter, who herself was one of the youngest among the accused. In fact, the real Sarah Carrier was younger than Kent's Sarah by about five years!

Sarah describes contention a...

Booking Through Thursday: Current Reading

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks readers what they're currently reading and what they think of it. I posted a reading update just a few days ago, and nothing has really changed since my update. I'm still reading The Heretic's Daughter, The House of Seven Gables, and Great Expectations. I haven't started Jamaica Inn on audio yet.

However, I will say that while I find The Heretic's Daughter interesting in its historical detail, and even a good and fair account of the Salem witch trials ...

The First Book I Fell For

The Guardian is asking for its writers to share the stories of books that ignited their passion for literature.

I have always been a reader. I can remember curling up with The Cat in the Hat even before I could really read it, just wishing I could read it on my own. I can remember turning to books as a child whenever I wanted to learn more about something—whether it was dinosaurs or ancient Egypt. I can remember going to the library and the bookstore with my mother, and I can't remember a...

Reading Update: September 20, 2010

Friday was my birthday, and my parents usually send me a book gift card. The last few years, it's been an Amazon card because I can get books shipped for free. An added bonus this year is that I can buy books for my Kindle instead. I haven't spent all of it, but here is my haul to date:

I have been wanting a NKJV Bible for some time, and reviewers gave high marks to this study Bible. I think I will like having the annotations, and the NKJV is my favorite translation. Passion is the story of...

Persuasion Audio Book

After a great deal of consideration, I have decided Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel. I had to read Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion twice before I came to that conclusion. I haven't been able to finish Mansfield Park yet—it's on my list for the Everything Austen Challenge—but I didn't really like Emma as much as the others. I think what clinched it for me was Juliet Stevenson's reading of the novel in the Naxos audio book. She's simply perfect; there's...