The whimsical opening chapter --Nimona's arrival and announcement "I'm your sidekick" drew me in almost instantly. I was excited to see such a body neThe whimsical opening chapter --Nimona's arrival and announcement "I'm your sidekick" drew me in almost instantly. I was excited to see such a body neutral portrayal of a female protagonist--and I loved the elements of metanarrative around the superhero/supervillain story lines. At the same time, about 3/4 of the way through, it stopped being meta--and simply became the hero/villain story itself, so lost some of its charm for me....more
As always, I loved Kooser's use of metaphor and imagery. He is my favorite poet. Yes, I'm biased.As always, I loved Kooser's use of metaphor and imagery. He is my favorite poet. Yes, I'm biased....more
I loved this book not because it was funny--though it was--but because it was surprisingly deep. Her musings on relationships and the creative processI loved this book not because it was funny--though it was--but because it was surprisingly deep. Her musings on relationships and the creative process were so powerful and came from such a deeply mature, reflective place that I found myself so grateful to be listening to the book (yes I "read" this as an audio book)....more
Hmm. It wasn't my favorite. Lots of reciting backstory, and nothing much shifted or refreshed from the original text except the century. I read it as Hmm. It wasn't my favorite. Lots of reciting backstory, and nothing much shifted or refreshed from the original text except the century. I read it as something breezy to fulfill a requirement for the Read Harder Challenge, and in that it worked beautifully....more
I kept taking screen shots of certain pages and sending them to friends I knew would get it--some really striking moments of deep thought in this bookI kept taking screen shots of certain pages and sending them to friends I knew would get it--some really striking moments of deep thought in this book! The writer is dismantling our mores (or to use her word, our "doxa") systematically and interestingly.
I will say, though, that the book occasionally veers toward the didactic exclamation mark. She makes very big statements (for example that Kellog's cereals were developed to help with constipation BECAUSE constipation was thought to lead to masturbation) and sweeping generalizations about Christendom that don't appear to be rooted in deep research. I also found some of the arguments a little repetitive and wished I'd read it on paper rather than as an e-book (because it would have made skimming/scanning a little easier)....more
**spoiler alert** Krissy is a hurdler, a runner, and part of the homecoming court, but when she gets diagnosed with AIS and discovers that she has tes**spoiler alert** Krissy is a hurdler, a runner, and part of the homecoming court, but when she gets diagnosed with AIS and discovers that she has testicles, her whole world gets flipped upside down. Of course, it's even worse when her boyfriend finds out what happened and Krissy gets targeted for bullying and hate crimes.
She loses him. Her best friends. And even her sense of herself--and she has to find her way back to those things or stay lost forever.
I enjoyed the book a lot--and I plan to recommend it to students, who will like it, I suspect, for the educational aspects. Learning about intersex folks and even AIS specifically isn't going to do anyone any harm. And the romance that develops is really sweet. So so sweet. I <3 Darren.
However, I will say that it wasn't particularly surprising on the points where I think it was trying to be. It was obvious to me (as a reader) that Krissy would be crowned queen, that Vee hadn't told the secret, that Kristin's surgery was ill-advised, that Darren was into Krissy. The friendships were also a struggle for me. I wanted to believe them, but I felt like there were too many "we've been through so much-es" between Vee/Faith and Krissy and not enough going-through-so-much-es. Even the memories of what they'd been through were murky and felt underdeveloped.
So overall? A great book with tons to recommend it, but not going to be a personal favorite or one I re-read....more
Van Wagenen is inspired, delightful, and wholly likeable. The experiment she develops -- to see if following 1950's popularity advice will help her acVan Wagenen is inspired, delightful, and wholly likeable. The experiment she develops -- to see if following 1950's popularity advice will help her achieve what she already has wholesale is charming and completely believable. I can't say enough great stuff about this little book!...more
**spoiler alert** Matt and his best friend Chris had a terrifying experience when they were young, but it cements their friendship and they learn to n**spoiler alert** Matt and his best friend Chris had a terrifying experience when they were young, but it cements their friendship and they learn to navigate life in their neighborhood with each other and their rock-solid families, despite the challenges. That is, until Matt's mom dies and Matt's dad gets buried in an avalanche of grief. Suddenly, Matt is dealing with the kinds of things most people don't understand, and he begins looking for people who do.
What he finds is that Mr. Ray, the owner of their local funeral home, is one of those people. And so are the people who come in to bury their loved ones. The hot girl who works at the fast food place is one of those people too, but it turns out she has a meaningful tie to the experience Matt and Chris shared years ago. Suddenly Matt needs to navigate the good things in his life with just as much finesse as he is managing the grief.
Reynolds has crafted a compelling narrative arc, warm, believable characters, and a story with real heart. I think it will win over lots of my students, not to mention other teens everywhere. I plan to recommend the heck out of it....more
I was not a fan, and I wanted to be. The author and I share a first name, the book was translated from the Germann, and the target audience appears toI was not a fan, and I wanted to be. The author and I share a first name, the book was translated from the Germann, and the target audience appears to be YA. But not one like-able character, a bizarre Ender-and-Bean twist on the ending and zero redemption ...didn't win me over.
I stayed with it because (despite all of that) I was intrigued, and that is a clear testament to the writer's skill (or my determination to plow through my Read Harder Challenge.
Triggers: rampant homophobia and anti-trans* language/attitudes, incest/sexual assault...more
Disclaimer: I love FAHRENHEIT 451. I teach with this book in my current position, which means I've been reading it annually for the last eight years wDisclaimer: I love FAHRENHEIT 451. I teach with this book in my current position, which means I've been reading it annually for the last eight years with the kind of attentiveness most people reserve for their holy books. I've scribbled and crafted and mapped--the kind of marginalia that reveals a smitten reader. And this love, naturally, has extended to Ray Bradbury. I've listened to interviews (thanks NEA Big Read) and read astonishing reflections (Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, and others). When Bradbury passed away in 2012, I cried for a week.
When I saw that our library had an e-copy of Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview and Other Conversations available right as I was teaching F451 (and that an indie press had published it), I checked it out and read in two big gulps (it's a small book, 90 pages or so).
And I loved "hearing" Bradbury's voice again, telling stories I hadn't yet heard. I took screen shots of his exhortations to write for love, to write what's inside, to pull out ideas like a magician's empty hat full of scarves. I laughed. I cried. I read great swathes of it all aloud to my husband and my students.
I also loved how much of an old man he had become by the time Sam Weller had these conversations with him--I could tell he didn't really give a damn about a lot of things (mostly what other people thought). He was more emphatic than necessary at times, and at other times gave answers that seemed more pat or proud than would typically be "polite."
Sam Weller navigated this with a strange kind of biographer's privilege. At times, he'd try to ameliorate the effect or steer the conversation in a different direction, and it came off as sweet--a sort of earnest protecting Dad's reputation while he's drunk on his own age. At other times, though, it felt like Weller was staging a question to display his own (admittedly extensive) knowledge of Bradbury's life, and I found myself annoyed.
Still, when Bradbury told the story of Mr. Electrico, a circus performer with an electrified sword, I held my breath. And when Mr. Electrico pointed it into the audience at the twelve-year-old Ray Bradbury and said "Live forever!" -- I let out that breath. Because I believe he will....more
Nothing like a sick day the same day a new Julia Quinn book comes out. It's romantic with a dash of Jane Eyre before things go right again. Not my favNothing like a sick day the same day a new Julia Quinn book comes out. It's romantic with a dash of Jane Eyre before things go right again. Not my favorite JQ or even my favorite Smythe-Smith, but charming in its own way....more
Mythili marries her long distance sweetheart Siddarth and then moves to the Phillipines, where he works. But in order to make the move, she gives up aMythili marries her long distance sweetheart Siddarth and then moves to the Phillipines, where he works. But in order to make the move, she gives up a thriving career as a crime reporter and embraces life on a "dependent visa." Despite her speedy introduction to the rest of the "Desi Gang" (a group of Indian ex-pats), Mythili struggles to find a home in her marriage, in her new country, and in herself.
The thing that sticks with me about the book is the way that Mythili and Siddarth assemble their marriage. It's clear that both of them are IN it and committed to it, despite the fact that they're bickering their way through the really difficult identity issues that Mythili is facing. I found it so refreshingly different from the ways marriages are constructed by US writers, where the sovereignty of the individual is unquestionable and most marriages are broken in some fundamental way, on the verge of breaking, or have a bittersweet undertone that signals breaking is possible.
What didn't work as well for me was the chapter-by-chapter allusions to Alice in Wonderland, and the frame story of Mythili's return to India for her sister's wedding three years after the events of the novel took place. The first felt overwrought or over-exerted somehow, and the latter felt underdeveloped, even for a novella. ...more
**spoiler alert** Cameron kisses a girl for the first time the same day her parents die. She internalizes this coincidence as a divine punishment for **spoiler alert** Cameron kisses a girl for the first time the same day her parents die. She internalizes this coincidence as a divine punishment for something she "somehow" knew was "wrong." But Cam is too self aware to stay there forever--she begins to regard her sexuality as something like the size of her ears or her height, something that isn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, her Aunt disagrees. An evangelical Christian with a penchant for pre-marital sex with the local Schwan's driver, Aunt Ruth is outraged when Cam is outed and sends her to Promise, a boarding school where she can supposedly pray away the gay.
We need this book. There are still those who believe as Aunt Ruth and Cam's "counselor" at Promise do, that a person's sexuality is not a fact to be honored, not a reality woven into the fabric of their personhood, but a habit formed (subconsciously) by old psychological wounds. And CAMERON POST demonstrates exactly how insidious that way of thinking is: for all the ways it tries to sound like compassion, its inevitable result is self-hatred.
In fact, when a student at Promise commits a horrifying act of self-harm, state investigators come to assess the school. In their interview with Cam, one investigator asks "Do you trust the staff?" It's a question Cam uses to explain the problem. Yes, she trusts them to drive safely and feed the students and keep them up-to-date on school credits. But no, she doesn't trust them. Sometimes, she explains, just because someone is trying to do what they think is the best thing for you doesn't mean it actually is the best thing for you. She points out that the primary mission of Promise is to change the students, an impossible task. This endeavor either makes the students angry or makes them hate themselves.
One of the most terrifying elements of the book was Lydia, the "counselor" at Promise. Since she's a Cambridge-educated psychologist as well as a rabid ultra-conservative, she's effective at getting into students' heads. She's effective at leaving no corner of their lives private or unexplored, at writing everything down in her notebook, and at offering a strange blend of emotional healing and emotional torture. Cam herself notices this and comments on it, offering readers a strand of hope for what happens after the book ends, "I didn't know much about psychology, but I've learned some since then..."
As other reviewers have pointed out, the book is long, but I didn't mind. It's essentially two books--the first coming of age and coming out story follows many of the traditional tropes of those genres. But the second, which follows Cam to Promise functions partially like a fictional documentary and partially like an allegory. In terms of the documentary component, Danforth has suggested that the story is partially inspired by the 2005 Zach Stark controversy. In terms of the allegory, it seems to me that Cam's exile to Promise and ultimate escape mirrors the journey of many gay kids in the 90's: kids on the edge of a cultural shift that hadn't quite happened (and still hasn't in some places), kids who had to overcome the entire weight of their culture's disapproval and escape to a place where they could be at peace with themselves.
Cam finds that place in the same spot her parents died. With her true friends on the shore, she swims through the icy river of her past without drowning, blows out the candle of pain she's carried so carefully, and finds closure. Then she swims back. Her friends have a towel and a fire waiting to welcome her out of the waters and into the beginning of their new lives.
In general, I adore Mary Balogh (SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS is my favorite, a lovely P&P retelling).
And I liked this book--I couldn't not. I mean, Flavian wasIn general, I adore Mary Balogh (SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS is my favorite, a lovely P&P retelling).
And I liked this book--I couldn't not. I mean, Flavian was sweet and sincere (albeit a bit lost) and Agnes was prickly (even though she was the one who'd fallen in love)--one of my favorite inversion tropes in romance. I also enjoyed the way Agnes stood up for herself with a strong sense of who she was and how she fit into the world, so she didn't need rescuing, another of my favorite tropes.
But, the book lacked the tension I think it needed. I never felt like there was any danger of Flavian and Agnes *not* getting together, nor that anything would really come between them. Every time there was a potential for misunderstanding, they cleared it up right away like real people do! It's funny to even write that sentence, since I'm always rolling my eyes when characters *don't* do that, but it's also true that some of the fizzle was missing from the reading as a result. ...more
I loved this charming romance and couldn't put it down from the moment it automatically downloaded onto my Kobo account (yes, I pre-ordered) until I fI loved this charming romance and couldn't put it down from the moment it automatically downloaded onto my Kobo account (yes, I pre-ordered) until I finished it.
One of the things Tessa Dare does so marvelously? She makes me laugh--the banter between characters, the things they do to get the upper hand, the cake fight.
In Belzhar, Jam spends time with Reeve, her dead boyfriend, her best friend gets to hang out with a long-lost brother, and Casey isn’t in a wheelchairIn Belzhar, Jam spends time with Reeve, her dead boyfriend, her best friend gets to hang out with a long-lost brother, and Casey isn’t in a wheelchair. But in the rest of her life, Jam and her friends are spending a year at a school for “emotionally fragile” teenagers, assigned to a mysterious “special topics” English class where they’re required to keep a journal–the same journal that takes them to Belzhar.
Whether going Belzhar is metaphor or magic for Jam and her friends is open to discussion. But for readers, it’s both....more
I read this for the READ HARDER 2015 challenge, and I loved it. As someone who has spent some time in Deaf culture, I found it particularly interestinI read this for the READ HARDER 2015 challenge, and I loved it. As someone who has spent some time in Deaf culture, I found it particularly interesting to read about a deaf person whose family kept her in the hearing community. It's a story that doesn't get told very often. I love Cece's (the character) approximation of her El Deafo alter-ego and breezed through the book very quickly.
I did find her passivity a little annoying at times (as a character), but I also find it realistic to the point of being painful, so bravo to the author for exposing something both true and uncomfortable about human beings (especially elementary school aged ones)....more
At age thirteen, Noah is a brilliant painter--a muse to his mother and true to his own "revolutionary" inner fiNoah and Jude are twins and opposites.
At age thirteen, Noah is a brilliant painter--a muse to his mother and true to his own "revolutionary" inner fire while Jude wears "flame retardant" and a bikini, hanging out with "surftards" on the beach (even if she is secretly creeping off to sculpt whimsical sand-women in bas relief).
But by age sixteen, Jude is boycotting men, wearing ugly baggy clothes as an invisibility costume and struggling to find a way through art school--while Noah has destroyed all of his paintings, joined the cross country team, and begun pretending he's straight.
And in I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN, Jandy Nelson tells the story of how they got from thirteen to sixteen--and beyond--in perfect, crystalline prose. While plenty of authors have done interesting things structurally with time and alternating points-of-view, Nelson ups the ante by crafting these elements together with pitch-perfect voice. And remember, not just one voice for each of the twins, but two: one for the sixteen-year-old selves and another for the thirteen-year-old selves. She manages it in part by giving each twin a habit of the mind that also functions as a tell. Noah "mind paints" and titles his works--PORTRAIT: Mom and Dad with Screeching Tea Kettles for Heads. Jude recalls superstitions from her grandmother's "bible"--To avoid serious illness, keep an onion in your pocket (Check. Can't be too careful.) or If a boy gives a girl an orange, her love for him will multiply (Jury's out. NO boy has ever given me an orange.)
Also (always a major plus in my book), there is love. While there are deep, soul-stirring, uber-passionate romantic loves in this book, those loves are given a place in tandem with all the other kinds of loves: the love of family, the love of art, the love of self. Nelson demands that we acknowledge the ways ALL of these loves are blindingly powerful, joyful, and fundamental to our existence while also expecting us to acknowledge that their loss can catapult us into our greatest darknesses.
While I admit that the change in Jude near the end of the novel (a breathtaking change that made me love her even more) seemed sudden and very philosophical, almost like a moral at the end of the story--I also admit I didn't mind. I had been rooting for Jude to come of age in a powerful way, and she managed it beautifully. If only all of us could embrace the _that_ girl inside and add her to our wobbly-people-pole selves!
So bottom line? I don't know what to say except this: I checked it out of the library, but I will buy it and add it to my patronus-producing bookshelf. She belongs there with Rainbow Rowell and Sherman Alexie and John Green and THE GURNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY. She just does.
Or to borrow a phrase from Jude, OMFCG I loved this book.
When I started reading BROWN GIRL DREAMING, it took me straight to my own writing, my own childhood, my own story. But that made it a slow read for meWhen I started reading BROWN GIRL DREAMING, it took me straight to my own writing, my own childhood, my own story. But that made it a slow read for me--I had to savor each poem! I must have read a dozen or more of these poems out loud to my family, just because I had to. And of course, as a person with a parent who has COPD, I found the gradual decline of her Daddy Gunnar to be deeply moving.
The more I read, though, the more I had to think about what Woodson was doing both as a poet and as a constructor of a larger narrative about her life and her story. The language is not spare, it's full. In a world where spareness is generally demanded of poems, that is a brave and powerful choice that renders the voice of Woodson's younger self effectively. However, the narrative _is_ spare. Woodson concentrates down on a few key characters: her family and her friend Maria. She also focuses on key strands of her life rather than trying to sprawl into every corner of memory: her family, her education, the civil rights movement, and her draw to storytelling and to writing.
I sped up as I neared the end; I couldn't help it. It's near the end when Woodson's younger self sees her brother sing "Tingalayo" so beautifully and then discovers that storytelling is her "Tingalayo." And I thought, Yes, of course. Yes. Yes. I am so glad and grateful that she found that space, found her way into telling those stories to the broader world....more
If Margaret Atwood had written SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE in memory of Sylvia Plath, it probably would've been a lot like HISTORY OF THE FUTURE.
I now undersIf Margaret Atwood had written SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE in memory of Sylvia Plath, it probably would've been a lot like HISTORY OF THE FUTURE.
I now understand why my students said, "It's good, but depressing as hell," though I have to disagree about the latter. I found it emotionally present and ultimately quite hopeful.
To be honest, I'm not sure I "enjoyed" the book, but I don't know if that's always the point of reading, anyhow. Instead, I'll say that it fascinated me and I deeply appreciated King's impeccable craft and voice. ...more
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