The Lost Conspiracy

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by Frances Hardinge
ages: 11+
First sentence: “It was a burnished, cloudless day with a tug-of-war wind, a fine day for flying.”
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This book is much like that proverbial boulder: it takes a while to get going, but once it gets started, it rolls down the hill until it crashes to a stop, leaving you breathless.

It’s the story of an island where there’s tension between the colonists and the native peoples, the Lace. There are people — Lost, they call them — who can spend time outside of their bodies. The island needs them — it’s how they communicate over vast differences — but doesn’t exactly trust them. And when all of them, except for one Lace Lost, Arilou, suddenly die, an investigation starts. And sends Arilou and her sister, the unobtrusive Hathin, on the run for their lives.

It sounds pedantic, and for the first 200 pages or so, it is. Hardinge is a gifted writer, one of the least clunky similie and metaphor writers that I’ve ever read. They roll of the page effortlessly, drawing the reader in, rather then putting them off. But even her gifted writing couldn’t keep the first part from dragging a bit. Which is sad, because many people (like M) will give up before the book really gets exciting. Because, right around the 1/3 mark, it does. Hardinge starts weaving in folk tales and traditions, giving life and personality to volcanoes, and turns the book into a bit of an adventure story and mystery. There are twists and turns, help from unexpected sources, and a bad guy who is scary because he’s so reasonable and so wrong at the same time.

And all of that adds together to make this book a true pleasure to read.

Library Loot 2010-07

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Not too many books this week for a couple of reasons. 1) Hubby’s out of town, and I generally spend my nights catching up on bad romantic comedies that he won’t sit through, which means less time for reading. (Though I have The Vicar of Dibley: A Wholly Happy Ending coming from Netflix, which excites me to no end. Richard Armitage… sigh…) And 2) I’m seriously trying to catch up with the pile that I already have on my bedside table. Not to mention the ones piled up on my shelves. And it always seems that the library books get read first…

This week’s loot:

Picture Books:
There Was an Old Lady, created by Jeremy Holmes
Odd Owls & Stout Pigs: A Book of Nonsense, by Arnold Lobel/color by Adrianne Lobel
Zarafa: The Giraffe Who Walked to the King, by Judith St. George/Illus. by Britt Spencer
Martha Says It With Flowers, Susan Meddaugh
Surprise Soup, Mary Rodman/Illus. by G. Brian Karas
The Enemy, by Davide Cali/Illus by Serge Bloch
My Little Polar Bear, by Claudia Rueda
Mystery Vine: A Pumpkin Surprise, by Cathryn Falwell

Non-Fiction books:
How to Get Rich in the California Gold Rush: An Adventurer’s Guide to the Fabulous Riches Discovered in 1848, by Tod Olson/Scott Allred/Marc Aronson
Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy, compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus

Middle Grade Fiction:
This Family Is Driving Me Crazy: Ten Stories About Surviving Your Family, edited by M. jerry Weiss and Helen S. Weiss

YA books:
Shine, Coconut Moon, by Neesha Meminger
Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover , by Ally Carter
The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. 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.

Saved by the Music

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by Selene Castrovilla
ages: 14+
First sentence: “The taxi’s spinning wheels spit pebbles and dirt as it left me behind at the marina’s gate.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by a publicist.

The question is not what is in this book, but what isn’t.

We start with Parental Abandonment: 15-year-old Willow is off to spend the summer with her somewhat crazy aunt, helping her turn a dilapidated barge into a floating concert hall, because her mother — who isn’t the cream of the crop herself (add Bad Mother to the list) — basically kicked her out to spend time with a new boyfriend.

Add to that Eating Disorders — Willow thinks she’s “fat”, and won’t eat anything but carrots. Seriously.

Then comes lech Craig into the picture, and with Willow’s low self-esteem (due to the above problems), she’s willing to do just about anything with Craig… which leads to Sexual Assault, Beating, and near-Rape.

Thankfully she’s got a kindred spirit in Axel, the 18-year-old on the boat next to the barge. He manages to find a way to talk to Willow — even though he was quite plastered on vodka during their first “real” meeting — and begin to reach her. He also manages to interrupt the rape-in-progress, and helps Willow begin to heal from that. Turns out, though, that he’s got a pretty crappy history himself: Rape (by a much older woman), Sexual Abuse, Parental Neglect (from father)… which leads him to cutting and suicide attempts.

Isn’t this book a bundle of joy?

There is a hopeful ending, which kinda sorta makes up for all the crap, but upon closing the book, I found myself incredibly cranky and peevish. Perhaps it’s just me, but the balance was off: too much crap and not enough hopeful resolution. The ending also felt a bit off — most of the book takes place over the course of a few weeks, and the last two chapters cover more than a year. That may have added to the awkwardness I felt near the end.

That said, it was a very engrossing book: I managed to read it in one sitting (mostly; I kept having to put the book down when it got too depressing!). It’s just a little too much doom and gloom for my taste though.

The Catcher in the Rye

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by J. D. Salinger
ages: 16+
First sentence: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I’ve gotten the impression that you can’t be on the fence about this book, that you either love it or hate it.

Well… I’m mostly ambivalent.

I didn’t hate the book. Sure Holden was annoying — so gratingly annoying — but I mostly felt pity for him. He was so pretentious and judgemental, and yet I could see that underneath all of that he was confused, lost and hopelessly depressed. The poor kid needs a good shrink and some meds. But barring that, he was mostly just a punk teenager trying to be more grown up than he actually was. Nothing to hate, nothing to despise, much to pity.

The book itself was all right. I’m not a huge fan of stream-of-consciousness books; I like things to clip along without spending much time in a character’s head. But, this book wouldn’t have worked any other way. Or, if it was told in another fashion, I don’t think it would have had the same impact. The reader could be more dispassionate about Holden and his troubles (for all my ambivalence, I wasn’t dispassionate; I did have emotional reactions to it all), and more dismissive. This way, with Holden being the narrator — though I have to admit that I wondered whether or not he was reliable; he did admit to being a liar, after all. Did any of this *actually* happen, or was it all in his head? — the reader was forced to confront Holden and his missteps, insecurities and judgements, and react to them, for good or ill. It’s a challenging book in that it throws life — a depressed, miserable life — in the readers’ faces, without flinching, without embarrassment, and makes the reader deal with it. Which is something that I can respect.

One other thing: I think I understand better what John Green was getting at in Looking for Alaska. If only for that, I am glad I read this one.

Sunday Salon: And the Winners Are….

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It’s February 14th. Which, for most people, means it’s Valentine’s Day. Thankfully, since I have an aversion to that holiday (yes, I’ve been married for 16 1/2 years. Yes, I still greatly dislike Valentine’s Day. I think I’ve decided it was because I didn’t get a huge heart balloon when I was 4, but that’s beside the point), there’s the Cybils‘ winners announcement to keep me occupied.

So, the winners are… come back and tell me what you think!

And don’t forget: the Catcher in the Rye Read-a-long starts today! You can leave your link to your reviews there, along with any spoiler-ish discussions, comments, thoughts, or whatever floats your boat. I’ll leave that post up until the end of the month, for those who are interested. I’m curious to see what you all think!

Oh, and I can’t forget: I’m an Olympic junkie. If I had TV reception, I’d be really bad, but as it is, I’m perusing the Internet looking for live streams that NBC haven’t blocked. I may break down and get a TV (I’m trying really hard to not do that, though) that has reception… Otherwise, I’ll feel like I’m missing out on something… especially half-pipe, short track speed skating and figure skating…

Are you an Olympic junkie like me? If you are, what’s your favorite event?

Charles and Emma

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The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
by Deborah Heligman
ages: 12+
First sentence: “In the summer of 1838, in his rented rooms on Great Marlborough Street, London, Charles Darwin drew a line down the middle of a piece of scrap paper.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I’ve read a couple of books on Darwin and his theory — not enough to consider myself in any way an expert (or even incredibly interested) — but this one took an approach that intrigued me. It’s not so much about Darwin, his history and his theory, as it is about Darwin and his relationship with his wife, Emma, and their constant tension between her belief in religion and his belief in science.

It’s a fascinating story — the ebb and flow of their relationship, anchored in their love and respect for each other, as well as respect for their philosophical differences. It’s fascinating because it humanizes Darwin (he’s too often demonized!), as well as puts his evolutionary theory in context with his life and the times. The book isn’t preachy: both religion and science are given fair time, and its possible, I think, to see how the two could compliment each other, as Charles and Emma did. Most of all, though, I think it champions free-thinking, accepting differing opinions as just that: differing opinions. I think, too often, that we forget that people can still be likable, even if we disagree with them strongly. And this is a story of two people who disagreed and yet loved each other.

On top of that, the book is really very well written. It’s aimed toward a younger crowd, and so was a bit simpler and choppier in areas than I would have liked. But, if it gets young people interested in Darwin, and gives them a reasonable base for the study of evolution and science, then it’s done its job. And, the fact that it’s an interesting story is just an added bonus.

Storm Glass

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by Maria V. Snyder
ages: 14+
First sentence; “The hot air pressed against my face as I entered the glass factory.”
Support your local bookstore: buy it there!

Four years after Opal helped Yelena capture the Warpers in Fire Study, she’s still dealing with the aftermath. She’s a student at the Keep, learning to be a magician, except she’s more of a one-trick wonder. Sure, that one trick — blowing magic into her glass sculptures in order to test for a person’s magic ability, and enabling magicians to communicate with each other — is pretty useful. But she keeps her distance from the others students, assuming they don’t want much to do with her.

Things change for her when she is called out to fix the problem with the Stormdancers on the coast: their glass orbs are breaking and killing some of the dancers. Opal, with all of her trust and confidence issues, is able to handle the problem, but that also opens up a Pandora’s box of problems, some of which are positive, but many just pick at the wounds Opal’s been trying to heal.

It’s not as good a book as the Study Series, but it’s not a bad book either. Opal has the potential, with all her (understandable) hesitation to be completely annoying, but Snyder pulls off the delicate balance between insecure and grating. The fact that Opal’s dealt with a lot, physically and psychologically, helps with that balance. As does her love interests. The romance isn’t as swooning as Valek and Yelena’s (can I mention that I missed Valek? I. missed. Valek. Kade’s a decent romantic hero, and while I didn’t trust Ulrick as far as I could throw him, I could understand the appeal. But neither is Valek. Swoon.), but it has potential. The thing that carries this book, however, is the world that Snyder has created. It’s a complex and intriguing place and Snyder builds upon the foundation she laid in the Study books. I would probably go as far as to say that if you haven’t read the Study series, this one might not make much sense. Snyder does go into some back history, but newbies might get lost.

That said, it was a fun book, fluffy and light: perfect for a cold winter’s day.

Graphic Novel Adventures

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Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom
by Eric Wight
ages: 8+
First sentence:”I’ve been called a lot of names: treasure seeker, relic hunter, grave robber.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Frankie Pickle (aka Franklin Lorenzo Piccolini) is just your average adventurer. Rescuing cities from destruction by your evil robots. Battling lava monsters. Avoiding cleaning up his room. Nothing atypical here.

That is, until is mother decides that he should just not pick up his room. Who cares, after all? And thus begins a week in which Frankie gets his way… and discovers just how dangerous that can be.

This is a fun little graphic novel. It’s more graphic novel than middle grade book, though it does flip between the two styles. All of Frankie’s adventures — from Indiana Jones-style through to superheroes saving the day — are in comic book style, which really adds to the excitement. Sometimes, it’s better to draw than to describe, and this is one of those times. On top of that, it has a cute little message (hey, kids: clean rooms aren’t that bad!) at the end.

Loads of fun.

Outlaw: the Legend of Robin Hood
by Tony Lee/Sam Hart/Artur Fujita
ages: 11+
First sentence: “A moment, if you please!”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I’ve come to realize that I have the same love of Robin Hood mythologies that I do for King Arthur. Either it’s because they’re medieval British guys or because they’re fabulously interesting myths that are open to some fascinating interpretations. I’m not quite sure.

At any rate, I was more than eager to pick up this graphic novel adaptation of the legend to see what Lee, Hart and Fujita have to add to the lore. And, for the most part, I thought it was okay. All the traditional elements were there: Robin was a former noble, home from the crusades, and turns outlaw to protest and protect his people from the evil that is the Sheriff of Nottingham. In this version, the sheriff is a bit of a lackey, and it’s Guy of Gisburn who’s the real heavy and bad guy. Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet and Maid Marian are all there playing individual roles. Little John has an expanded part in this, being the original outlaw and Robin essentially joins them.

Other than the first few pages, which show a sort-of Batmanesque origin story for Robin Hood, there wasn’t anything interesting done with the lore. It was the Robin Hood story, straight up no chasers. Which is all fine and good, but not exactly what I was hoping for. That, and the drawings bugged me. There was too much in shadow, and it was hard to tell who exactly was whom. By the time I had everyone straight, the story was nearly over. It was adventuresome, and there were moments of the sauciness that I love in my Robin Hood, but mostly it was melodramatic.

Not exactly what I was hoping for.

Library Loot 2010-06

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It’s a smallish pile of loot this week. I thought I had more holds coming in, and both M and I are in the mood for fluffy romances, but I didn’t see any that caught my eye. What I really need to do is hit the bookstore and actually *buy* My Most Excellent Year and Scarlett Fever. But, shhh, don’t tell Hubby I said that.

This week’s loot:

Picture Books:
When You Meet a Bear on Broadway , by Amy Hest/Illus by Elivia Savadier
Dog and Bear: Three to Get Ready, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Strega Nona’s Harvest, by Tomie dePaola
There Was An Old Monster!, by Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley
Hallelujah Handel, by Douglas Cowling/Illus. by Jason Walker
Edgar, Allan, and Poe and the Tell-Tale Beets, by Natalie Rombella/Illus. by Francois Tuyer
The Hidden Bestiary of Marvelous, Mysterious, and (Maybe Even) Magical Creatures, by Judy Young/Illus. by Laura Francesca Filippucci

Non-Fiction books:
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank (for the Holocaust unit M’s language arts class is doing)

YA books:
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart (M was in the mood for it again. Another book I should buy…)

Adult Fiction:
Sea Glass (Glass, Book 2), by Maria V. Snyder

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. 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.

Geeky Author Love

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It’s been FOREVER since I’ve participated in a Weekly Geeks. And I have no good excuse why, either. This week’s geek is to share some author fun facts…

1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

Because I don’t review picture books and easy readers, I don’t often get the chance to express my Mo Devotion. (I usually leave the whole swoon-over-Mo thing to Pam and Dawn.) But, given this chance to gush over one of my — nay, our house’s — favorite authors, I couldn’t pass it up.

We adore Mo.

A well meaning librarian in Jonesboro, Arkansas set us on to him right after Knuffle Bunny won the Caldecott Honor award. Her words: “Have you seen this book? It should have won!” We checked it out, and we were hooked.

And we’ve been hooked on all his stuff since. Leonardo, Edwina, Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie: you name it. I think, out of all our picture books that we own, he’s the one we have the most books of. And we read the most. We just can’t get enough Mo.

Not familiar with him (hopefully, that’s only because you don’t have a smallish kid in your house)? Well, he’s a brilliant (Emmy-award-winning for Sesame Street) writer, a charming artist, a funny guy, and a fabulous picture-book author. I swear to you that you’ll love his books (even if you don’t have a smallish kid around the house). Or, if you feel weird sitting in Borders reading an Elephant and Piggie book by yourself (something I’ve done recently), pick up his adult collection.

But how can you not love these? (Yes, that’s me reading them with my two youngest girls!)

You can read more about Mo’s happenings at his blog. If you do pop by there, be sure to check out my favorite feature (and the reason I want to have dinner at his house!): dining room walls.
He’s one of my favorite twitter peeps, writing as @The_Pigeon, with hilarious (and witty) observations.

Gratuitous Mo video:

Oh, and if you’re not afraid of your inner child, check out the Best. Game. Ever.