BBAW: Two in One

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Since I missed Monday (due to a TLC tour commitment), I’m going to tackle that as well as today’s topic.

First off, I need to give props to another Kansas book blogger: Philip Nel’s a professor up at Kansas State University, directing the program in Children’s Literature up there. He also blogs at Nine Kinds of Pie. It’s a fascinating blogger.

Another blog I’ve found over the past year that I really enjoy reading is Books in the Spotlight; it’s more kidlit — mostly YA-oriented — books, but she’s thoughtful and reads books that I’d never think of picking up.

As for today’s question… I’m often pushed by other bloggers; it’s one of the reasons I like challenges. I wouldn’t have picked up mystery books without Iliana at Bookgirl’s Nightstand or horror (most notably Stephen King and Bram Stoker) without Carl’s RIP challenge (which I didn’t do on purpose this year, since I’m feeling way behind, but I really really really wanted to). Or reading more POC books or GLBT books. But if I had to pick something — one thing — in the past year, that a blogger has pushed me to read, it’d be books by Sarah Dessen.

I had heard of both of these before the past year, but had dismissed them out of hand: too girly, too chick-lit (and this is from someone who doesn’t mind chick lit now and again). But, I think it was Em at Em’s Bookshelf who pushed me to read my first Sarah Dessen. And… I loved it. I loved the way she writes characters, how the books are not fluffy at all but aren’t depressing either. They are a perfect balance between realistic and swoony. And now I can’t get enough of her.

How about you? What have you been pushed to try?

BBAW: 10 Questions for Teresa

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For the interview swap, I got a newbie again this year: Teresa from Teresa’s Reading Corner. From her profile blurb, she writes: “I am a working mom and wife who loves to read in the spare time that life allows. I love discussing books and have gotten so many fantastic book suggestions from the blogs that I’ve read. I decided it was time to take the plunge and share my love of books with others.”

I loved getting to know a new bloggger!

MF: I’ve not been to your blog before — one of the great things about BBAW! Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m looking forward to visiting a lot of new blogs this week! I have been a reader as far back as I can remember. Both of my parents are avid readers so we know how that got started! I live in Colorado with my husband, my son and our dog. I don’t have a favorite genre that I always default to, but read a little bit of everything.

MF: How long have you been blogging? Why did you start?
I have been blogging for almost 7 months. I love chatting about books and thought that the blog would be an excellent avenue to spark conversation with others about books.

MF: Have you interacted with the book blogging community much? If so, what is it about the community that you like? (Any dislikes?)
I love the book blogging community. As I was starting out I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of support from many different bloggers. I think that it is great that so many were willing to reach out and help a newbie.

MF: What keeps you picking up the next book?
Reading is how I unwind. I love escaping into the story. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t read!

MF: Buyer or borrower? Why?
I tend to be more of a buyer. I love being surrounded by books and the experience of wandering around the bookstore looking at all of the covers.

MF: You work and you’re a mother: when do you find time to read?
I read whenever I can. Usually it is after my little monkey goes to bed or during my lunch hour while at work.

MF: And now for the round of five (if you can, five of each please…):
Foods/beverages you can’t live without?
Coffee, pizza, chocolate, steak, green chiles

Places to you’d love to go (fictional or non)?
Australia, England, Italy, New York, San Diego

Favorite characters?
Jamie and Claire Fraser from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon are by far my favorite characters.

Books you think everyone should read?
This one is a tough one. I think people should read whatever makes them happy as long as they are reading. I do think that people should try reading an author or genre before they claim that they don’t like it. Far too many people dismiss things based on assumptions that may or may not be true.

Thanks, Teresa! Be sure to pop by her blog to see what questions she asked me.

Ugly as Sin

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The Truth About How We Look and Finding Freedom from Self-Hatred
by Toni Raiten-D’Antonio
ages: adult
First sentence: “I am ugly.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours

We’ve all seen, and probably read, those image books. How we’re supposed to accept the way we are (or help our daughters do so). How we can be our best selves by doing X or Y or Z. How we can embrace ourselves and stop loathing ourselves.

And yet, none of them really get to the root of the problem: we all fear, on some level, rejection because we don’t measure up to some (unattainable) standard of beauty. Because we are, gasp, ugly. Which is exactly what D’Antonio tackles head-on.

The basic thesis is that we — especially as women, but really everyone — spend so much of our time being afraid of getting/being ugly that it affects everything we do. In the way we relate to people, in the way we treat ourselves. She asserts that it’s the root cause of eating disorders, that it may (not necessarily, but quite probably) be the reason we spend so much time exercising, or on hair dye or fashion. We have taken what should be natural — aging, especially, but also just the way we naturally look — and have transformed it into something unreal.

It’s a comprehensive, if abbreviated, look at the role of beauty through the ages, especially in Western culture. D’Antonio covers everything from the origins of ugliphobia through it’s place in culture, relationships, and self awareness. It’s a bit to glossed over to be truly thorough, and many of the ideas have been written about elsewhere using different language: be true to yourself, improve your character not your appearance. But one has to give D’Antonio some credit: she is blunt and forthright not only about being ugly, but about her own experience with it. This book is almost a memoir: it’s her personal experience with accepting herself the way nature made her and her determination to disregard what society wants her to be. And, hopefully, reach others like her.

And the solution? It’s simplistic, and one I have heard many times before, but possibly could work: give in to your better self, and stop looking at the outside. Improve the inside. And if you do give into the beauty regimen, make sure it’s something you want to do, not one that you feel you have to do. It’s not something that will change the beauty-obsessed culture overnight, but perhaps, one person at a time, we can all become more at peace with who we are.

Thought-provoking, to say the least.

Sunday Salon: On Series

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On Thursday, I put up a review that was essentially a rant about three little words: To Be Continued.

What I was trying to get at was the frustration I feel at the cliff-hanger endings that those three words represent. As a couple commenters put it in the original post, I have no problem with series where the story goes from one book to the next. What I have a problem with is books — and this seems to only happen in middle grade books — where the story, the action, just stops.

I’ve thought about series a lot since I finished Mockingjay, actually. About what makes a series good for me, especially. But also, what makes series books appealing. The second one is easy: I think a lot of it has to do with familiarity, and revisiting characters we love. There are times, true, when it’s the story that keeps us coming back for the next book — Hunger Games is an obvious example, as is Harry Potter: it’s the characters, yes, but Collins and Rowling also wrote stories that kept us wondering — and talking about — what happens next.

And yet, they are also two examples — Percy Jackson is a third — where each book could stand on its own. They’re part of a larger story, yes, and it’s best to read them in order. But each individual story has a beginning, a middle, and most importantly, and end. Each story comes to its own conclusion while keeping us intrigued as to where the larger story is going.

Sure, there are other ways to handle a series — Narnia and Wrinkle in Time are two examples that I can think of where it’s familiar characters having new adventures in each book (again: an ending!) — but whatever way it’s managed, and for however long the series goes on (though, honestly, I think if a series goes beyond say, 5 books — or doesn’t have any foreseeable ending — then it’s just the author not being able to come up with any new ideas. Is that harsh of me?), the books must — MUST — have a unique ending.

What do you think: do you have any strong opinions on series books?

Shiver

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by Maggie Stiefvater
ages: 13+
First sentence: “I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy won from Scholastic

First off: okay, okay, okay. I should have read it sooner. I should have listened to all you fans of Maggie Stiefvater out there. But better late than never. Right?

For the five of you out there who haven’t read this: think Twilight, but better written and with werewolves instead of vampires. It’s still the same story: human girl falls in love with paranormal boy, but it’s got so much more depth than Bella and Edward.

Grace is eleven when she’s attacked by wolves. She figures she’s going to die, but something – someone — saves her. She just knows it’s the wolf with the yellow eyes, her wolf. In the six years that follow, every winter, she looks for the wolf, only satisfied when she knows he’s near.

Sam, hates his life: wolf when it’s cold, human when it’s warm. And he knows his time is growing short. So when he’s shot — on purpose; the wolves have bitten and killed another resident of their small Minnesota town, and so the men take to the forest with guns to “solve” the problem — and turns back into a human, he turns to Grace. It’s only then that they realize how much they care for and need each other — and yes, love each other — and the cruel fate that awaits them unless they can figure out a way to stop Sam from changing back.

That’s obviously not enough to hold a book of this size, and so Stiefvater gives us the background story. But, unfolds it slowly, a piece here, a nibble there. And then there’s Grace’s friend Olivia, who’s almost as obsessed with the wolves as Grace is. Or Isabel, the sister of the unfortunate boy who was killed. There’s a lot of balls to be juggled in this book, aside from the love story, but Stiefvater manages to juggle them quite admirably. More than admirably: the writing was lyrical, evocative, sensuous. Almost poetic. And the chemistry: oh, the chemistry.

Which means: I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book.

The Youngest Templar: Trail of Fate

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by Michael P. Spradlin
ages: 10+
First sentence: “The room was full of bright light with a glare so intense that I closed my eyes.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me (ages ago) by the publisher.

Dear authors of a series:

I enjoy a series as much as the next person. Really I do. There are characters I love that I want to spend more time with. And if you’d like to keep writing books about these characters, I won’t mind.

But, honestly: as much as I love these characters, and as fun and interesting and gripping your story is, I do have a problem. See, even if Tristan and Robard and Maryam (I didn’t get it until this book: it’s Robin and Marian!) are bouncing around France in the 12th century (was it called France in the 12th century?) I’d like the book to actually end by the ending. I was enjoying the book — sure it was a bit heavy-handed, but I figured, hey, it’s campy Robin Hood, I can handle that — and then, wham, the three words I hate most: TO BE CONTINUED.

Seriously?

Seriously? It’s an intense climax, a showdown at noon, a holdup, and you give us TO BE CONTINUED?

My first reaction is that you totally want to sell the next book. That you’re not confident enough with the story to give us an ending, trusting that we’ll want to visit with the characters in the next book. There is no call for TO BE CONTINUED in a series. It’s a cop out. A wimpy strategy. It is possible to give us an ending for the book, and still have us wanting to come back for more.

And honestly, I prefer it that way.

Thanks.
Melissa

Library Loot 2010-32

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No books for me this week. Though Rocky Road has the absolute cutest cover, which makes me kind of want to read it. So, maybe I will. (Not that I don’t have anything else to read or anything…)

Picture Books:
Eugene’s Story, by Richard Scrimger/Illus. by Gillian Johnson
Giddy up! Let’s Ride!, by Flora McDonnell
A Boy Had a Mother Who Bought Him a Hat, by Karla Kuskin/Illus. by Kevin Hawkes
Summer Is Summer, by Phillis and David Gershator/Illus. by Sophie Blackall
Moon Bear, by Brenda Z. Guiberson/Illus. by Ed Young
Willoughby & the Moon, by Greg Foley
Sir Ryan’s Quest, by Jason Deeble

Middle Grade:
Mallory Goes Green!, by Laurie B. Friedman
Rocky Road, by Rose Kent
Kimchi & Calamari, by Rose Kent
Dragon’s Breath, by E.D. Baker
Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon, by Ruth Stiles

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or The Captive Reader. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I’ll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it’s SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I’m going to keep doing it.

The Red Pyramid

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The Kane Chronicles, Book One
by Rick Riordan
ages: 10+
First sentence: “We only have a few hours, so listen carefully.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

On the one hand: it’s everything we’ve come to expect in a Rick Riordan book: fast-paced, witty, engaging, and an interesting overarching theme to tie a series together. He tackles Egyptian mythology this time, creating a world in which the gods exist, where there is magic, and the balance between chaos and order is failing.

We follow the adventures of the Kane siblings: 14-year-old Carter and 12-year-old (almost 13!) Sadie as they are thrust into this world of good and evil, gods and goddesses, magic and magicians. They’ve been living apart for the past six years, ever since their mother died. Carter’s been traveling the world with their archeologist father, and Sadie’s been parked in London with their grandparents. However, things are heating up, and on one Christmas Eve, their father decides to do the unthinkable: raise the gods in order to bring his wife back from the dead. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned, and he releases all five of the major Egypitian gods: Osiris, Horus, Isis, Nephthys and the big bad guy Set, who plans to take over the world.

Of course it’s up to our heroes to figure out how to swim in this big, scary stream and figure out how to stop Set. And, of course they manage it (with a few bumps and bruises along the way).

On the other hand, though, it was just more of the same. I couldn’t help but compare this series to the Percy Jackson one, and while I enjoyed reading this, I felt that the Percy books were tighter, that the mythology was better used. The magic in this one almost seemed like cheating, instead of a natural outgrowth of the character’s situation. And while I usually enjoy Riordan’s silly asides, this time — he had the characters trade off chapters and whenever they switched, there would be some sort of snide comment — it interrupted the flow of the story. Sure, they were funny at first, but after a while they grated.

Granted, those are only two quibbles in a more than 500 page book (well, there are three: Percy felt tighter because it was shorter; did we really need to go 500 pages to tell this story?). It really is a fun read. Not as good as Percy, but good.

Dance with Them

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30 Stumbling Mothers Share Glimpses of Grace
edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper
ages: adult
First sentence: “I clambered up the fronts steps of the elementary school, sweaty and panting, with an infant, a toddler, and a preschooler in tow.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by the editor.

Writing about motherhood is a tricky thing. How to balance the weight of one’s personal experiences as a mother, and yet not come off as a know-it-all? How does one impart advice to those following after you, with similar problems and not seem arrogant?

The answer I have to give you lies in this book. It’s a series of personal essays on all aspects of motherhood/wifehood: divorce, step parenting, parenting children other than your own, children with disabilities, growing up, teenagers, mistakes, growth, tears, and joy. It’s all faith-based, but not necessarily overtly religious; these are women who are trying to make sense of their lives, of the cards that Fate and God and Choice have dealt them. While reading, it’s easy to relate to and feel for each individual author, learning and growing with her on her journey. Sure, it can be trite: here are the “lessons learned” while experiencing this inevitable trial that came with being a mother. But it never felt saccharine.

Like with Nurture Shock, the essays that resonated with me most were the once on teenagers. They were equal parts terrifying (really? That much running around and sleep deprivation?) and encouraging (they do turn out okay in the end, right?), they gave me hope and courage that not only am I not in this alone, but also that I can do it. I can raise four girls, and end up sane in the end.

I’m not exactly a reflective person; I tend to take life as it comes and let it flow over me. But this book helped me stop and think and enjoy, for a moment, a little bit of what being a mother and wife can possibly be. Which is exactly why there are books like these.

(Full disclosure: I do know and like the editor, though we have not met in person, and I do know several of the authors of the stories. I’m not sure that affected the way I read the book, but you never know.)

Sunday Salon: Odds and Ends (a little late)

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I meant, honestly, to get this up yesterday. And I had a couple of ideas kicking around my brain, but, Hubby was out of town for the past three days, I’ve hardly been on the computer (even though my laptop was returned to me, after having the power jack break. I have no idea how a power jack breaks, but it did.), and I just didn’t get things together enough to write much of anything.

However, I have two links for you. One: if you haven’t seen the announcement floating around, it’s Cybils time again! The call for judges is out. I’ve had a ton of fun participating for the past two years. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of people vying for a few slots, but do think about throwing your hat in. It’s a great thing to be a part of. If that doesn’t sound like your cuppa tea, be thinking about the best childrens/middle grade/young adult books of the past year: nominations open October 1.

And, for your Sunday entertainment… Aaron Mead is doing a series on kidlit bloggers, and he interviewed me for the series. (Am I the only one who feels like she sounds stupid when she reads her answers to the questions after the fact? I really meant to be funny. Honest.)

I think that’s about it. I’d promise to have something more substantial next week, but perhaps that’s just too high of expectations….