First Sunday Daughter Reviews: May 2013

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A monthly look at what my bookish daughters are reading…
 

C read one of the few Wendy Mass books she hasn’t read yet: Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall. She didn’t like it at first — the main character is a twit, she says, and the parents are worse — but by the end she said she saw the point of making the characters so horrible, and thought it was a good book. Not her favorite Wendy Mass by far, but not bad either.

 
A devoured the Heroes of Olympus series this month, reading all three. She loved them (not as much as the first series, though) and is eagerly awaiting (along with the rest of us) the release of House of Hades. (Which she says sounds like a video game title when you say it with a deep voice.)

K really wanted to branch out to reading books by herself, and suggested that she read The Lightning Thief. Since she’s only in 1st grade, I counter suggested that she read the Magic Tree House books instead. She wanted to start at the beginning, so we picked up Dinosaurs Before Dark, and she was off. She’s on the third book now, and is really quite liking Mary Pope Osborne and Jack and Annie.

M, on the other hand, was quite depressed when I asked her what she read this past month and she discovered that school was so stressful and busy that she didn’t have any time left for pleasure reading. There is always the summer, though!

In other news, my first book groups are on Saturday, and while I’m excited about them, I’m also a bit apprehensive: I hope people come, I hope we can have a good discussion, I hope those who do come (aside from A and C who are being gang-pressed into doing this) will want to come back. Which leads me to a question: Do you have any suggestions for running a good children’s book group??

I could use some ideas!

Where’d You Go Bernadette?

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by Maria Semple
ages: adult
First sentence: “The first annoying thing is when I ask Dad what he thinks happened to Mom, he always says, ‘What’s most important is for you to understand it’s not your fault.'”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Bernadette Fox is one of those enigmas that drive Soccer Moms crazy. She’s a recluse, she’s  doesn’t involve herself in the PTO, she has impeccable fashion sense, and she’s talented. All of which adds up to jealousy and gossip.

As told from Bernadette’s 14-year-old daughter Bee’s point of view, here are the events that led up to Bernadette’s disappearance:

1. Seattle is horrible. (I, personally, can’t vouch for that, but then I never lived there. But it she made a very good case for Seattle being full of a bunch of urbanite wannabes, without the sophistication, which makes for insecure and vicious women.)

2. The neighbor (one of those urbanite wannabes Bernadette calls “gnats”) insists on Bernadette removing ALL of the blackberry bushes from her yard. In the middle of the wettest December ever.

3. In the middle of the neighbor’s party, the entire hillside (where the aforementioned blackberry bushes were) slides down into the house destroying the party (and the house). Which sets neighbor off.

4. Another “gnat” (and neighbor’s best friend) becomes Bernadette’s husband’s admin. With disastrous results.

5. Bee wants to go on a cruise to Antartica. In December (it’s their summer). Which sets off Bernadette’s anxiety.

6. Husband decides (with some prompting by aforementioned admin gnat) that what Bernadette really needs is to be checked into a mental institution.

So, of course Bernadette has little choice but to disappear.

Someone asked me, after reading the jacket blurb, “Is this a sad book?” I can wholeheartedly say: No, it’s not. It’s funny, it’s pointed at those people (women, mostly) who want to pretend to be Sophisticated, it’s a heartfelt exploration of depression and of acceptance. And it’s a testament to a girl’s faith in her mother. It’s a sweet story, if a bit rambling at times, one that I didn’t mind spending a few hours reading. 

School Spirits

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by Rachel Hawkins
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Killing a vampire is actually a lot easier than you’d think.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: May 14, 2013
Review copy provided by my place of employment.
(You don’t have to, but you might want to read Hex Hall, Demonglass, and Spell Bound first.)

Izzy Brannick has spent her life fighting monsters. She’s the youngest daughter of the last surviving Brannick, and she’s got fighting spirit. Except, something went wrong, and her older sister has disappeared. Nothing’s quite been the same since then, the least of which is the new tension between Izzy and her mom. For a multitude of reasons, they end up packing up and moving to Ideal, Mississippi, on the trail of a murderous ghost, as Izzy’s first solo mission. 

And as part of that, she gets to go to high school. Surely a Brannick can handle that. Right?

Much like the other Hex Hall novels, this was a lot of fun. It’s not as magical as I was expecting, which is silly of me because Izzy’s not a Prodigium, but rather someone who is able to detect magic. It is also not very creepy (even with a murderous ghost about), which (after Anna Dressed in Blood) is also something
I appreciated.

It is, however, a very simple, very enjoyable love story. The friends — Romy, Dex, and Anderson —  that Izzy makes during her brief sojourn in high school — joining the Paranormal Management Society (the PMSs) — more than make up for the lack of magical adventure. The four together have a great chemistry, and the eventual (probably predictable) pairing off was quite satisfying. (Yes, there is a really hot make out scene in a cave. Not many people can pull that off.)

Is it as good as the Hex Hall series? Probably not. But that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying the fun.

April 2013 Round-Up

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This month, while I read quite a few really good books, there was only one great one. No question.

Dark Triumph

And the rest?

Non-fiction:

Eighty Days

Priceless
What Would Barbara Do?

YA:

Panic (DNF)
Shadow and Bone

Adult:

Fragile Things (audio book)
The Lost Art of Mixing
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Unchangeable Spots of Leopards

Middle Grade:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (audio) (reread)

The Black Cauldron (audio)
Rump
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

What was good that you’ve read this month?

Panic

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by Sharon M. Draper
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Hey, dance boy!”

I was looking forward to this one, mostly because I really enjoyed the other book I’ve read by Draper: Out of My Mind. I do have to admit that I knew very little about this one going in: I didn’t take the time to read the jacketflap and even though C pointed out to me that the categories were “kidnapping” and “sexual abuse”, I didn’t think much of it as I opened it up.

The story is of a troupe of teenage dancers. I didn’t get very far into the book, but it seems like there are a lot of issues there: bullying for the one lone male dancer (because it’s so not macho to dance); some kind of dating issue for one of the girls and her boyfriend; general issues of jealousy of other dancers’ abilities. But the panic starts when 15-year-old Diamond, a dancer in the troupe, is kidnapped.

I’ll pause for a moment here: I know Diamond is a victim here, and that the man who kidnapped her (and eventually raped her, multiple times, filming it for the internet — yes I did skim most of the book) is a warped, horrible, evil human being who should be castrated. But that said: what kind of idiot gets suckered in by promises of movie auditions and actually GETS INTO A CAR WITH A STRANGE ADULT MALE AND LEAVES THE MALL WITH HIM??????

Please, please, please let my daughters never be this stupid.

One of my DNF hot buttons is kidnapping of children — though if it’s straight up kidnapping, I might let it play out for a bit, just to see where the author is headed, and I did on this one. Until Diamond woke up from being drugged naked. And then the kidnapper walked into the room with his cameramen and started undressing. The one thing that hits way too close to my anxiety about my children is rape and sexual abuse. I cannot, under any circumstances, read about this. Especially of a 15-year-old girl. Can. Not.

So, as much as I love Draper, she wrote about something I can’t read. Which makes me sad, but that’s the way things roll sometimes.

What Would Barbara Do?

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How Musicals Changed My Life
by Emma Brockes
ages: adult
First sentence: “To give you an idea of the scale of what we are dealing with here, I’d like to begin with an act of superstition.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Emma adores musicals. And that’s not exactly a cool thing for a 20-something English gal. So, she adores them in quiet. (Well, only some of them. The Good ones.) As she’s grown up, she’s discovered that there are two types of people: those who like musicals, and those who don’t Get It.

This little book is basically a memoir framed around musicals. Which wasn’t a bad thing. Brockes has Definite Opinions about musicals (some of which I agreed with; others which I didn’t), and isn’t afraid to own the fact that she adores the whole genre. She’s not an “expert”, but she is an enthusiast, which qualifies her to give her opinion about such things. Right?

Well… actually, that’s kind of what annoyed me about this one. The subtitle gave me the impression that either 1) she really had something new and original to say about musicals, or 2) she had a really crappy life, and somehow musicals pulled her out of it. But, truth be told: it was neither of those things. It was a story about a middle class suburban girl who grew up with a mother who loved musicals and thought they were dorky until she was able to accept the dorkiness and own it. (Oh, and there was actually very little about Barbara Streisand to boot.) And she needed 264 pages to get through that.

In the end, I’m not sure if I disliked this one because of my expectations about it. Or if it was Brockes came off as a pompous twit. And even though I finished it (admittedly skimming the last bits), I don’t think it was worth my time.

Is there any other book about musicals out there that would be a better read than this one?

The Lost Art of Mixing

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by Erica Bauermeister
ages: adult
First sentence: “Lillian stood at the restaurant kitchen counter, considering the empty expanse in front of her.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Sequel to: The School of Essential Ingredients.

When I first saw this one, I thought: “Hey! I like books where food play a part.” And then, “I kind of remember liking School of Essential Ingredients.” And “That’s a happy cover. I think I’ll pick this one up.”

Then I read it.

When I finished, I actually went back and checked my review f Bauermeister’s other book. Two sentences popped out at me:

 “It was more like a series of connected short stories, and because of that, I felt unfulfilled when the story was over.”

and

“It seemed that once their story was done, Bauermeister didn’t quite know what to do with them, and pushed them out of the picture.”

Exactly.

I’m not sure the plot really matters (Lillian is pregnant, there are assorted other Crises and Discoveries), because it’s essentially the same book again. And it’s not that the book was bad. It wasn’t. It was… nice. Good enough to finish, but not good enough to run around saying “YOU HAVE TO READ THIS” to friends.

Which means: I need to do a better job at checking my own reviews before checking books out from the library. That’s why I have this blog, after all!

Marissa Meyer Author Event

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I look like a dork.

Marissa Meyer was in the store last night, and it was a lot of fun. I dragged one of my girls (C, on the far right) and she brought one of her friends (who keeps winning stuff whenever she comes to these things), and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Mostly because Marissa is adorable. She talked about how Cinder came to be published (she was super lucky!), was really good about not divulging spoilers, told some pretty awesome fairy tales, and was just a lot of fun.

I hope we can get her back for her next book; I’d definitely go see her again!

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

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by Robin Sloan
ages: adult
First sentence: “
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

After graduation from college, Clay Jannon is ready to take on the world. Except it’s a recession, and there aren’t many jobs out there for him. After a stint as a marketing/advertising designer for NewBagels in San Francisco, Clay finds himself unemployed, wandering around looking through Craigslist for a new job. On one of his daily wanderings, he stumbles upon Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, which has an opening for a night clerk. He goes in on a whim, and finds himself not only employed, but immersed in an increasingly strange world.

There are two kinds of customers that frequent Penumbra’s — who is, by all accounts, an odd sort of man — store, especially at 2 a.m.: late-night wanderers who buy some of the normal stock, and those wandering in, bleary-eyed, asking for something off what Clay comes to call the Waybacklist. It’s those customers who pique Clay’s imagination, and get his creative juices flowing: just what is the Waybacklist, and what are these customers doing?

It’s that question that sends Clay into a world of codes and cults, of computers and books (Google plays a huge role and is almost a character in itself), of adventures and immortality. It sounds more magical than it is; there isn’t a drop of magical realism, just good programming and smart people figuring puzzles out. Even so, there’s a whiff of fantasy here: as part of everything, Sloan involves sweeping fantasy trilogies and a Dungeons & Dragons-like game but only as a slight framework in which to lean his story about the relationship between books and technology. (The conclusion? We still need both.)

It was a delightful, charming book (I hesitate to call it that, even though it was. It seems that books like this should be Deep and Edgy), one in which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Priceless

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by Robert K. Wittman
ages: adult
First sentence: “The platinum Rolls-Royce with bulletproof windows glided east onto the Palmetto Expressway toward Miami Beach, six stolen paintings stashed in its armor-plated trunk.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Robbert Wittman spent 20 years in the FBI doing a mostly thankless job (at least for the bureau): recovering artwork. He didn’t do any of the high-profile stuff that makes the movies; in fact, most of the time, he didn’t even get public credit for his work because he spent most of his time under cover, getting dishonest dealers and art thieves to give up their stolen goods.

He talks about a handful of his cases from 1988 to the Big Case — attempting to recover the stolen paintings from the 1990 Boston Gardner Museum heist — and his role in recovering a handful of priceless art and artifacts, as well as talking about the state of Art Crime Recovery in this country (pitiful, to sum up).

On the one hand, this book was fascinating. I’d never heard of most of the heists, let alone the art that was stolen, and Wittman thoughtfully provides historical context and details surrounding each recovery. That was perhaps my favorite part: I learned quite a bit.

But, I have to admit that by the end, Wittman’s voice — and his “I’m AMAZING, aren’t I?” stance, whether intentional or not — grated on me. So much so, that I was actually glad (mild spoiler here) that the Gardner recovery fell through. I know he’s doing the country (and the world, not to mention History) a service by risking his life to recover these priceless things, but still. It got annoying.

Other than that, it was quite enjoyable.