you might not know of my deep, long-standing committment to my favorite band of all time -- sleater-kinney. but even if you don't, trust me, it was deep. and long-standing. so, there's something especially bitter about this happening on my birthday:
statement from sleater-kinney
I GAVE YOU PEOPLE ELEVEN YEARS OF MY LIFE!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
book 40
the nameless day, sara douglass
this is me, branching out! that's right, i read a 'fantasy' novel and really liked it. i'll have to say, though, that this was more in the realm of historical fiction than high fantasy. 14th century europe -- lots of intrigue, wars between england and france, corruption in the church, hotspur, etc. the fantasy comes in when the main character, friar thomas neville, is charged by this archangel to be the keeper of the cleft of hell. this one friar died of the plague, and when he did, he accidentally left the cleft open, so there are totally demons running around everywhere! and no one can tell because they are also shape-shifters! anyway, this book was really engrossing (and not as religious as it might sound, so don't worry). it's the first in a trilogy, and i'll definitely be looking for the next one to see what happens. this one ends with a cliffhanger.
in other news: today is my birthday! yay! and it's a sequential number birthday, which won't happen again for 11 more years! sadly, my plans to be totally pampered have been hampered (you like that, don't you?), but i still get to open awesome presents and have a special birthday meal! and there's always cake!
this is me, branching out! that's right, i read a 'fantasy' novel and really liked it. i'll have to say, though, that this was more in the realm of historical fiction than high fantasy. 14th century europe -- lots of intrigue, wars between england and france, corruption in the church, hotspur, etc. the fantasy comes in when the main character, friar thomas neville, is charged by this archangel to be the keeper of the cleft of hell. this one friar died of the plague, and when he did, he accidentally left the cleft open, so there are totally demons running around everywhere! and no one can tell because they are also shape-shifters! anyway, this book was really engrossing (and not as religious as it might sound, so don't worry). it's the first in a trilogy, and i'll definitely be looking for the next one to see what happens. this one ends with a cliffhanger.
in other news: today is my birthday! yay! and it's a sequential number birthday, which won't happen again for 11 more years! sadly, my plans to be totally pampered have been hampered (you like that, don't you?), but i still get to open awesome presents and have a special birthday meal! and there's always cake!
Monday, June 19, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006
books 37 and 38
new experiment: book reviews in two words or less!
grosse pointe girl, sarah grace mccandless, illustrated by christine norrie
pretty boring. (but nice illustrations. oops. the experiment isn't working)
the man of my dreams, curtis sittenfeld
total vomit.
grosse pointe girl, sarah grace mccandless, illustrated by christine norrie
pretty boring. (but nice illustrations. oops. the experiment isn't working)
the man of my dreams, curtis sittenfeld
total vomit.
Monday, June 12, 2006
books 35 and 36
the true story of hansel and gretel, louise murphy
it seemed sort of inappropriate to possibly put a glib, decapitated robot near the description of this book, which is rather heavy, so i'm skipping the rating for now. this is another book for my jewish fiction list. i would recommend reading it, but i would not recommend doing so if a) you are in a really good mood or b) you are eating. this is a holocaust book, a reworking of the hansel and gretel fairy tale in a forest in poland, where a stepmother convinces her husband to abandon his two children as the family flees the SS. a very intense book, and one that i thought was really vivid and well-wrought. it doesn't really shy away from much, so there all manner of terrible and sometimes perverse things that happen in this book, and there are a few parts you might want to skip if you have a weak stomach (like somewhere in the middle, where a young pole decides that he must maim the young children of the village so that the nazis will not take them away). this book might have been popular when it came out -- there was a book club discussion guide in the back.
charmed thirds, megan mccafferty
rating:
i love megan mccafferty. i mean, i LOVE her. i think she is a very funny and sharp writer, and she somehow managed to shrug off any "YA" chains that might have been placed on her. i loved her first two books that feature this character (sloppy firsts and second helpings. so my expectations were very high. and i think i was a little disappointed. i think the time span was too long -- jessica's whole college career. and, i'm no prude, but there was too much sex talk in this. it just seemed out of character. it was still funny and witty, but just not quite what i was looking for.
it seemed sort of inappropriate to possibly put a glib, decapitated robot near the description of this book, which is rather heavy, so i'm skipping the rating for now. this is another book for my jewish fiction list. i would recommend reading it, but i would not recommend doing so if a) you are in a really good mood or b) you are eating. this is a holocaust book, a reworking of the hansel and gretel fairy tale in a forest in poland, where a stepmother convinces her husband to abandon his two children as the family flees the SS. a very intense book, and one that i thought was really vivid and well-wrought. it doesn't really shy away from much, so there all manner of terrible and sometimes perverse things that happen in this book, and there are a few parts you might want to skip if you have a weak stomach (like somewhere in the middle, where a young pole decides that he must maim the young children of the village so that the nazis will not take them away). this book might have been popular when it came out -- there was a book club discussion guide in the back.
charmed thirds, megan mccafferty
rating:
i love megan mccafferty. i mean, i LOVE her. i think she is a very funny and sharp writer, and she somehow managed to shrug off any "YA" chains that might have been placed on her. i loved her first two books that feature this character (sloppy firsts and second helpings. so my expectations were very high. and i think i was a little disappointed. i think the time span was too long -- jessica's whole college career. and, i'm no prude, but there was too much sex talk in this. it just seemed out of character. it was still funny and witty, but just not quite what i was looking for.
Monday, June 05, 2006
books 33 and 34
somewhere in the midst of having my mom up for a visit, moving our roommate out, getting "new" furniture, arranging new furniture, and watching matt organize all of our books, comics, movies, and music, i managed to read two more books.
your mouth is lovely, nancy richler
rating:
lookee there, a perfect score. this is a book about miriam, who is writing her life story as she serves a life sentence for murder in siberia in 1911. she's writing to the daughter she was forced to give up at birth. lots of very vivid description of growing up in a small village on the verge of the russian revolution. i loved this book. i loved the title. i loved the cover art. i loved that i knew which historical revolutionary figures richter based her characters on because i took that awesome literature of russian terrorism class in undergrad. vera figner! dora brilliant! the frenchman!
by the way, i'm doing a "jewish fiction" bibliography as my big field experience project, so please comment with good books that you think should be included. i have not yet ascertained whether jewish fiction means: fiction by jewish authors, fiction with jewish characters, or fiction with "jewish themes," so feel free to recommend titles that fit into any or all of those categories.
girls in pants: the third summer of the sisterhood, ann brashares
rating:
what can i say, sometimes i like books that don't require me to think or backread to understand what's happening. i snagged this off the reshelving cart at the public library the other day, as i've been meaning to read it since it came out and alicia's post from a few days ago put it in my head again. i was somewhat confused because it's been a few years since i read the second one. but things wrapped up fine and of course it worked out for the best. i vaguely remember the other two books being a little heavier. plus i forgot about kostos being such a dog! anyway, sometimes it's nice to read about teen angst. it makes you remember how much you LOVED josh satterfield when you were fourteen and how you were going to DIE if he didn't LOVE you back. especially if you're like me, and your current worries are much more boring and practical, like figuring out why your kitchen light fixture mysteriously shattered all over the house and finally teaching yourself how to effectively iron pants.
your mouth is lovely, nancy richler
rating:
lookee there, a perfect score. this is a book about miriam, who is writing her life story as she serves a life sentence for murder in siberia in 1911. she's writing to the daughter she was forced to give up at birth. lots of very vivid description of growing up in a small village on the verge of the russian revolution. i loved this book. i loved the title. i loved the cover art. i loved that i knew which historical revolutionary figures richter based her characters on because i took that awesome literature of russian terrorism class in undergrad. vera figner! dora brilliant! the frenchman!
by the way, i'm doing a "jewish fiction" bibliography as my big field experience project, so please comment with good books that you think should be included. i have not yet ascertained whether jewish fiction means: fiction by jewish authors, fiction with jewish characters, or fiction with "jewish themes," so feel free to recommend titles that fit into any or all of those categories.
girls in pants: the third summer of the sisterhood, ann brashares
rating:
what can i say, sometimes i like books that don't require me to think or backread to understand what's happening. i snagged this off the reshelving cart at the public library the other day, as i've been meaning to read it since it came out and alicia's post from a few days ago put it in my head again. i was somewhat confused because it's been a few years since i read the second one. but things wrapped up fine and of course it worked out for the best. i vaguely remember the other two books being a little heavier. plus i forgot about kostos being such a dog! anyway, sometimes it's nice to read about teen angst. it makes you remember how much you LOVED josh satterfield when you were fourteen and how you were going to DIE if he didn't LOVE you back. especially if you're like me, and your current worries are much more boring and practical, like figuring out why your kitchen light fixture mysteriously shattered all over the house and finally teaching yourself how to effectively iron pants.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
books 28-32
oops. i've been negligent.
here's the quick wrap-up of the last five:
third girl from the left, martha southgate
rating:
this is about three generations of women hailing from tulsa, oklahoma. a grandmother, who witnessed the violent race riots in tulsa in the 1920s; a mother, who ran off to los angeles to be an actress, but only ended up with bit parts in blaxploitation films and a baby; and a daughter, who is working her way through film school in new york. the title comes from the mother's most memorable acting role -- third girl from the left in the fight scene in coffy.
boy meets boy, david leviathan
rating:
this little YA novel was described to me as "not a problem novel. more like a 'there are no problems' novel." it takes place in what amounts to an alternate high school universe where homosexuality is totally acceptable and the star quarterback doubles as the homecoming queen. it was fun and weird, and basically a typical teen love story, with some variables switched around.
birth of venus, sarah dunant
rating:
this is a great book about fifteenth-century florence. it's got the medici family, savonarola, the bonfire of the vanities, forbidden homosexuality, and a couple of plagues. it's fast and sometimes gruesome and really engaging. this book is all of what's good about historical fiction.
just listen, sarah dessen
rating:
i'm biased because sarah's my pal, but i really thought this book was great. lots of nice scenes, good dialogue, and what seemed to me like a very real plot. lots about music, and sisters, and friendship. also particularly impressive because it spans most of a school year, where most of sarah's other books are set during the course of a summer.
one of those hideous books where the mother dies, sonya sones
rating:
another YA, i'm really on a roll. this is another novel in verse, but quite a bit different from the one i read earlier in the year (a bad boy can be good for a girl). this is about a girl who is forced to live with her estranged father, a movie star, after her mother dies. funny and sad and i almost forgot it was written in verse.
okay, i think that's all i read. maybe? i might be missing one. or two. like i said, i'm really on a roll with these YAs i've been reading for my field experience.
here's the quick wrap-up of the last five:
third girl from the left, martha southgate
rating:
this is about three generations of women hailing from tulsa, oklahoma. a grandmother, who witnessed the violent race riots in tulsa in the 1920s; a mother, who ran off to los angeles to be an actress, but only ended up with bit parts in blaxploitation films and a baby; and a daughter, who is working her way through film school in new york. the title comes from the mother's most memorable acting role -- third girl from the left in the fight scene in coffy.
boy meets boy, david leviathan
rating:
this little YA novel was described to me as "not a problem novel. more like a 'there are no problems' novel." it takes place in what amounts to an alternate high school universe where homosexuality is totally acceptable and the star quarterback doubles as the homecoming queen. it was fun and weird, and basically a typical teen love story, with some variables switched around.
birth of venus, sarah dunant
rating:
this is a great book about fifteenth-century florence. it's got the medici family, savonarola, the bonfire of the vanities, forbidden homosexuality, and a couple of plagues. it's fast and sometimes gruesome and really engaging. this book is all of what's good about historical fiction.
just listen, sarah dessen
rating:
i'm biased because sarah's my pal, but i really thought this book was great. lots of nice scenes, good dialogue, and what seemed to me like a very real plot. lots about music, and sisters, and friendship. also particularly impressive because it spans most of a school year, where most of sarah's other books are set during the course of a summer.
one of those hideous books where the mother dies, sonya sones
rating:
another YA, i'm really on a roll. this is another novel in verse, but quite a bit different from the one i read earlier in the year (a bad boy can be good for a girl). this is about a girl who is forced to live with her estranged father, a movie star, after her mother dies. funny and sad and i almost forgot it was written in verse.
okay, i think that's all i read. maybe? i might be missing one. or two. like i said, i'm really on a roll with these YAs i've been reading for my field experience.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
book 27
gingerbread, rachel cohn
rating:
i can't even talk about this book because the narrator's voice annoyed me so much. the story itself was fine but i wanted to slap the so-called "protagonist" the entire time. i had to finish, though, because amy sherman palladino bought the rights and i wanted to try to figure out why.
i couldn't.
rating:
i can't even talk about this book because the narrator's voice annoyed me so much. the story itself was fine but i wanted to slap the so-called "protagonist" the entire time. i had to finish, though, because amy sherman palladino bought the rights and i wanted to try to figure out why.
i couldn't.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
books 25 and 26
yes! i'm one-third of the way to my goal. and with all these YA novels i'm reading to pad the list... i just might make it.
better than running at night, hilary frank
rating:
i'm taking a break from rating right now. it's too much pressure.
i loved this book. the YA librarian i'm working with this summer sent me home on friday with a big stack of recommended reading and this one sounded good so i started with it. i pretty much couldn't put it down, which is a really awesome feeling when it's saturday afternoon and you finally don't have all kinds of ridiculous other things to worry about for the first time in a few months. it's about ellie, who used to be a goth and then changed her outlook and decided to go to art school. she meets a guy right away and embarks on this affair with him and he turns out to be an ass and she learns from it. my favorite kind of young adult novel, the kind where bad things happen, but they're normal bad things, and you're not left feeling like there's just no way that these 7800 terrible things could actually converge in one person's life in one week. if you haven't read much YA, you probably have no idea what i'm talking about. but if you ever saw that show touched by an angel, maybe you do.
the partly cloudy patriot, sarah vowell
rating:
see above
i was worried that this book would be a little too snappy for me, but i'm into american history and narrative non-fiction so i shelled out a dollar for it at the SCALA booksale anyway. i enjoyed it, and it was a nice break from fiction. sometimes i'm not really sure that i understand what point vowell wants to make in a particular essay, but it never really bothered me much. there's so much in this book that's funny in a really bittersweet way, like bush quotes from the 2000 presidential debates and such.
better than running at night, hilary frank
rating:
i'm taking a break from rating right now. it's too much pressure.
i loved this book. the YA librarian i'm working with this summer sent me home on friday with a big stack of recommended reading and this one sounded good so i started with it. i pretty much couldn't put it down, which is a really awesome feeling when it's saturday afternoon and you finally don't have all kinds of ridiculous other things to worry about for the first time in a few months. it's about ellie, who used to be a goth and then changed her outlook and decided to go to art school. she meets a guy right away and embarks on this affair with him and he turns out to be an ass and she learns from it. my favorite kind of young adult novel, the kind where bad things happen, but they're normal bad things, and you're not left feeling like there's just no way that these 7800 terrible things could actually converge in one person's life in one week. if you haven't read much YA, you probably have no idea what i'm talking about. but if you ever saw that show touched by an angel, maybe you do.
the partly cloudy patriot, sarah vowell
rating:
see above
i was worried that this book would be a little too snappy for me, but i'm into american history and narrative non-fiction so i shelled out a dollar for it at the SCALA booksale anyway. i enjoyed it, and it was a nice break from fiction. sometimes i'm not really sure that i understand what point vowell wants to make in a particular essay, but it never really bothered me much. there's so much in this book that's funny in a really bittersweet way, like bush quotes from the 2000 presidential debates and such.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
book 24
oh man. a book a day? if only it could always be this way.
how i live now, meg rosoff
rating:
another YA, which won some awards last year. it's about daisy, who hates her pregnant stepmother and goes to live with cousins and an aunt in england. soon after she gets there, war breaks out, and most of the novel focuses on that, and the way that war comes closer and closer to the main character, and how it changes her. really good, with lots of intense scenes. cool front and back covers, too.
how i live now, meg rosoff
rating:
another YA, which won some awards last year. it's about daisy, who hates her pregnant stepmother and goes to live with cousins and an aunt in england. soon after she gets there, war breaks out, and most of the novel focuses on that, and the way that war comes closer and closer to the main character, and how it changes her. really good, with lots of intense scenes. cool front and back covers, too.
Monday, May 08, 2006
book 23
love walked in, marisa de los santos
rating:
another recommendation from my sister. i started reading this back in march, but i had to set it aside for school, etc. it's about cornelia and clare. cornelia meets the man of her dreams who might not be the man of her dreams after all, and clare's mother is going crazy and clare, at age 11, is trying to keep everything together. the story is told in alternating chapters from each character's viewpoint. the two finally meet when cornelia's dream man turns out to be clare's father, to whom clare turns when her mother disappears. i remember thinking that the first third of it was a little too quippy, but once the stories intersected i really liked it. lots of twists and turns but it ends up sort of just where it should, i think, and without being saccharine. don't pay attention to the robots; this rating is totally arbitrary since i read the first hundred pages of this book over two months ago.
rating:
another recommendation from my sister. i started reading this back in march, but i had to set it aside for school, etc. it's about cornelia and clare. cornelia meets the man of her dreams who might not be the man of her dreams after all, and clare's mother is going crazy and clare, at age 11, is trying to keep everything together. the story is told in alternating chapters from each character's viewpoint. the two finally meet when cornelia's dream man turns out to be clare's father, to whom clare turns when her mother disappears. i remember thinking that the first third of it was a little too quippy, but once the stories intersected i really liked it. lots of twists and turns but it ends up sort of just where it should, i think, and without being saccharine. don't pay attention to the robots; this rating is totally arbitrary since i read the first hundred pages of this book over two months ago.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
books 20, 21, 22
okay, it's time for me to get back on track now that school's over.
true notebooks, mark salzman
rating:
okay, so this was basically my perfect book. it's got humor, sadness, truth, and juvenile detention centers. mark salzman, one of my favorite memoirists, volunteers to teach writing to teen-aged inmates at a juvenile detention center in los angeles. the book is about him, but also about them, and lots of excerpts from their writing are included. i laughed, i cried, etc. i love mark salzman's non-fiction.
speak, laurie halse anderson
rating:
this is a young adult novel, and i've heard it called a "problem novels" which are those novels you hear about where the main character is bulimic and her sister is a cutter and her best friend is pregnant with her abusive married teacher boyfriend's baby and so on. but it's not nearly to that extent. it's about melinda, who is ostracized freshman year because she called the cops at a big party a few weeks before school started. there are hints all along that something terrible happened that night and it's all revealed at the end. it's painful at times, but really well done, and i think anderson's style is smart and spare. also, it took me no more than an hour and a half to read this, so it scores on that account. it won some awards a few years back. i'm working with some YA programming this summer at the public library, so you should expect to see lots of YA book reviews.
the girls, lori lansens
rating:
my sister recommended this to me and i had her keep it for me so that i could read it when i went to visit my family this weekend. this is an awesome novel that's written as the joint autobiography of the world's oldest living craniopagus conjoined twins (they're thirty). rose writes most of the story, with her sister ruby chiming in at times. the twins' different voices are handled really skillfully. there were a couple weak moments in the story but mostly it was just really nice writing and some very vivid scenes that i haven't stopped thinking about since i finished it. apparently lansens has written some films and another novel so i need to check those out.
true notebooks, mark salzman
rating:
okay, so this was basically my perfect book. it's got humor, sadness, truth, and juvenile detention centers. mark salzman, one of my favorite memoirists, volunteers to teach writing to teen-aged inmates at a juvenile detention center in los angeles. the book is about him, but also about them, and lots of excerpts from their writing are included. i laughed, i cried, etc. i love mark salzman's non-fiction.
speak, laurie halse anderson
rating:
this is a young adult novel, and i've heard it called a "problem novels" which are those novels you hear about where the main character is bulimic and her sister is a cutter and her best friend is pregnant with her abusive married teacher boyfriend's baby and so on. but it's not nearly to that extent. it's about melinda, who is ostracized freshman year because she called the cops at a big party a few weeks before school started. there are hints all along that something terrible happened that night and it's all revealed at the end. it's painful at times, but really well done, and i think anderson's style is smart and spare. also, it took me no more than an hour and a half to read this, so it scores on that account. it won some awards a few years back. i'm working with some YA programming this summer at the public library, so you should expect to see lots of YA book reviews.
the girls, lori lansens
rating:
my sister recommended this to me and i had her keep it for me so that i could read it when i went to visit my family this weekend. this is an awesome novel that's written as the joint autobiography of the world's oldest living craniopagus conjoined twins (they're thirty). rose writes most of the story, with her sister ruby chiming in at times. the twins' different voices are handled really skillfully. there were a couple weak moments in the story but mostly it was just really nice writing and some very vivid scenes that i haven't stopped thinking about since i finished it. apparently lansens has written some films and another novel so i need to check those out.
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