Link Round Up

Your Book Club’s New Best Friend is a article about the Subtext app for iPads. I like the idea of this app very much, however, I've found that interacting with authors via email and Twitter is almost easier. I've been able to have lovely conversations with authors just by telling him or her I was a fan. It opens the door.

TV Characters and Their Literary Counterparts, the Ron Swanson and Ernest Hemingway comparison made me laugh.

Where Print Is Still King. Hint, it's India. I'd also be willing to bet that China is more apt to have a print newspaper rather than an electronic version.

Kurt Vonnegut Was Not A Happy Man. 'So It Goes.' One would think being locked in a meat locker while the Bombing of Dresden in World War II took place, and then surviving it would make for some heavy memories and guilt. Now condemning him to a life of unhappiness is a bit of a stretch, I'm sure he was human just like the rest of us.

Here's some great information on the NEA's Big Read project. I'm going to see if I can get involved with this on a local level.

In Fight with Amazon, Libraries Caught in the Crossfire. Libraries are angry with Amazon and Penguin over this. Some may pull elending all together.

(Image from Kiki's Delivery Service manga) 

Best of/Worst of 2011

I said I'd link to all the books in my video, so here we go.

Best Fiction I read in 2011:

Ready Player One

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

and

Kafka on the Shore

Best Young Adult Fiction I read in 2011

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set

Beauty Queens

and

Going Bovine

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy I read in 2011

The Name of the Wind

Feed

and

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms


Best Nonfiction I read in 2011

Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class

and

Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

The Book That Should Have Won More Awards Than It Did

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

The Best Book I Read in 2011:

The Book Thief 

Now the bad.

The Most Overrated Books of 2011

A Visit from the Goon Squad

When She Woke

and

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

The Worst Book I Read in 2011

Fallen


Miscellaneous Categories

The Classic Book You Should Most Likely Pick Up Before They Make It Ugly With a Movie Cover

The Great Gatsby

A Cute Gift For The Reader In Your Life

Magnetic bookmarks from Girl of All Work. Magnetic Origami Bookmarks

A T-Shirt from Out of Print Clothing. (Order a size up.)

A sleeve for that  e-reader from Timbuk2.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

I have absolutely no clue why this book hasn't had more buzz. I don't know why it's not at the top of every single bookish parents holiday gift list. This book has languished, it doesn't deserve it, and I hope to change that with this write up. In short, buy this book. Make it a priority. Do it now. I'll wait.

 The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a book that deserves to be a bedtime story. It's broken into manageable chapters, each starting with a lovely illustration, that demand to be read out loud. Valente's prose is poetic in structure, but also accessible to young people. The story is beautifully constructed with just the right amount of darkness to make it scary and just the right amount of light to make it a fairy tale.

September's journey is a cross between the Phantom Tollbooth and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  She'll also going down in history as a classic heroine. September is reluctant to take on the role, but as the story unfolds her journey becomes something larger than herself. Her choices make her so memorable to me that I hope Valente makes this into a series. I want to go back to Fairyland. I need to know what happens next.

Moving on, I'm reading East of Eden. I've been slacking on my classics so it's time I got though this one. I'm going to keep a running total of how many times I get asked, "Are you reading that for a class?"

Apparently, Steinbeck can't be read for pleasure.

Oh, I'll be posting my best of video sometime tonight. Just an FYI. 

Deathless

My video review of Deathless. I'm having embedding issues. I'll try to fix them later. 

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

Koschei

Hugo Awards

Link Round Up

The Big Read (The BBC Top 100): Time for a Facelift? Top 100 lists are always tricky, especially because this one is crowd sourced. In the past, I've used them to help guide my reading choices, but they are not the end all be all.

Book Drum has assembled multimedia profiles of 150 great books via Google Earth, so you can see where some of your favorite novels take place.

The Books They Gave Me a fantastic Tumblr about books, relationships, and where those pesky gaps get filled. The books I could contribute to this, well, that's for another blog.

Madonna's Sex most sought after out-of-print book. Just an FYI.

A Collection of Rejected Titles for Classic Books, some of these are fun.

The Grapes of Roth. On narcissism and what makes a good novel.  Look, I blog, and that is one of the most narcissistic things out there. Novel writing is inherently narcissistic. If authors don't share the way that they do we'd be reading how to manuals and cookbooks. (Hell, even cookbooks are narcissistic. Try prying the secret BBQ sauce recipe out of an old southern man. Waterboarding won't make him crack.)

Author Ann Patchett Opens Own Indie Bookstore. More popular authors need to do this. We need a vibrant indie bookstore culture.

And finally, albeit slightly off topic, why I'm a benevolent dictator on Tumblr, Blogger, and YouTube. If Your Website's Full of Assholes, It's Your Own Fault.

Another note, because of the really positive feedback I got with my Kindle Fire review I'm going to do a video review of Deathless. We'll see how this goes. I may switch over to doing half video reviews and half written reviews.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood 

Children's chapter books are always a bit of a hit or miss. In one respect, they could turn into the mega hit, mega ghost written, hundreds of books long series like The Baby-sitters Club. This, when an author lends his or her name to it, can buy a vacation home in the Hamptons. The series can also turn into something like a Babysitters Club clone, and end up collecting dust on the shelves of the bookstores. What Maryrose Wood has created is a winning series. Her characters are likable, the books read well from an adult perspective as well as a child, and it's a very accessible story.  The big question becomes, will it take off? I hope so. This series could be the introduction to a life time of reading to a child. It's worth buying and giving as a gift. The age range that would be acceptable is 3rd though 5th grade.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Where previous book drops off the Mysterious Benedict Society picks up. Easing in right around a 6th to 9th grade reading level, and novel of this undertaking makes a young adult feel slightly more adult. The plot is not dumbed down, and makes for a good introduction to mystery and suspense. As an adult, I found it to be a lovely rip off of the plot of  They Live. I kept expecting a wink and a nod, perhaps some bubble gum, but alas the author didn't come though. However, as a child who doesn't have access to late 80s horror movies that involve aliens and baseball bats, it will be a fresh story. Also, it connects deeper than the crappy horror movie ever could. The children involved in the story humanize it and give it a better emotional weight than I was expecting. It's definitely a book that would make a great holiday gift.

The two books were a great distraction from the outside world. Best read on snowy nights snuggled under the covers. I can remember when I was a young girl loosing myself in books like this. My mind would drift and the characters would be come part of me. Approach these books with a sense of wonder and joy, not the jaded eyes of an adult. They exist to entertain, tell a story, and perhaps teach a small lesson as the words fly by.

Next up is Deathless. I've had this book on my reading list for a shot time. Looks like it's going to be interesting. Also, over Thanksgiving weekend I am going to start reading East of Eden.

When She Woke

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The heavy hand of marketing told me that it was a mix between the The Scarlet Letter and The Handmaid's Tale. What I read was more of a coming of age story set among the backdrop of a dystopian America. However intriguing that sounds, it's really not. When She Woke uses a series of stereotypes that is almost as maddening as the borrowed references. These stereotypes are up to and including the Sassy Black Friend,  forewarned is forearmed. The good news is that Jordan's writing style is zippy and quick so skipping past the frustration is quite easy. The plot, however, seems like a mishmash of  all the bad things that can happen to women if all references are taken from Lifetime movies. Also, it contains enough fundamentalist Christian bashing that it should make a nice annoyance among friends who attend that big fancy mega-church.

Now the question becomes, would I recommend this book to anyone? Yes, When She Woke is entertaining, but in a beach book kind of way. It's plot doesn't linger, the bad guys wear black hats (hand on my heart, they really do in this book), and the ending satisfies. It's not in the same league as Hawthorn or Atwood, I'm not going to kid you there, but it is in the same league as a Nicholas Sparks novel. I can see this book quickly getting optioned for a movie, so look for it on the marquee some time in 2014. It would make a great chick action film. Give it a shot, but know that it's got as much intellectual  heft as The Notebook.

Moving on, I've picked up a YA series called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, The Mysterious Howling. I've been told that it is a lot like the Series of Unfortunate Events. I wax poetic about that series constantly. Part of the problem with it is that it came out right around the same time Harry Potter was hitting it out of the park. It flew under the radar, and a lot people missed it. At any rate, Incorrigible Children is a chapter book, so I should be done with it quickly. After that, I'm moving onto the The Mysterious Benedict Society. I'm going to do a combined post of the two.

Beauty Queens

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

When I read Going Bovine a few months ago I found Bray's take on Don Quixote to be refreshing and truly funny.  So, when Beauty Queens billed itself as Lord of the Flies with teen beauty pageant contestants I snapped it up right away. Hard bound copy in hand, I discovered something entirely different. Queens is, in a way, Lord of the Flies, but Bray's argument for putting the girls on an island was so wonderful it nearly brought me to tears.

"Maybe girls need and island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one's watching so they can be who they really are." pg 177.

And they do. The book hides a powerful message behind a fantastical  plot. Each character represents a stereotypical teen girl. Each character finds herself, and is able to be who she wants to be. As much as I enjoyed the book, Bray's style can come off a tad overbearing. She whops the reader over the head with message. However, when the book lays it on thick, Bray often comes back with a sly joke, wink, or commercial break.

I'm going to break from my normal review patter to address two characters that struck me in this novel. One, Petra is a transitioning transgendered girl. I simply cannot remember the last book that treated a transgendered character with such care. It's rare to find a character like Petra in modern fiction, rarer still to find one who isn't self loathing, and, as far as I can tell, the first who was able to have a relationship with an opposite sex partner that isn't abusive. The second, Sosie, is a bisexual girl who has a lovely moment when other characters want to pin her down as a lesbian. She gives a wonderful response about why it is not that easy. Again, I'm hard pressed to find a character like Sosie in YA lit. Usually the bisexual girl has a drug habit and ends up in rehab after she's labeled a slut.

Bray's book will find its way into the hands of girls and women that need it the most. Currently, the reviews are mixed, but I see this novel as having a cult like following. It will be the Mean Girls of young feminist literature. I have become a big fan of Bray's novels. She writes young voices from a fresh perspective. It feels like she gets inside their heads and takes up residence. Their hopes and fears lay displayed for all to see. The most vulnerable side of a sixteen year old girl is laid bare in this book. Sometimes that can be a bit hard to take.

My next read is When She Woke. From what I can tell it's a hybrid book of The Scarlet Letter and The Handmaid's Tale.

 

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, this book was the toast of the chattering class a few years ago. Due to its description, I bought it and put it on a shelf. I didn't want the book to have to live up to the hype that it was the best novel of the 2000s. A few things of note, I  read quite a few reviews of this book prior to writing this post. Most of them reference Diaz's use of language as groundbreaking. The reviewers must live in English only enclaves because punctuating sentences with Spanish is so normal I didn't notice. Now this could be due to the fact that I live in Texas and many of my friends are bilingual. If the English word doesn't fit, Spanish is used and vice versa. I kept waiting for the groundbreaking to happen, and didn't realize until halfway though that I had been experiencing it the entire time.

The past 10 years have brought forth a lot books that contain so much nostalgia that they are going to end up with their own literary term. Oscar Wao is going to be one of the corner stones. The book is well written and expertly crafted. Students are going to be told to rip it apart to discover it's literary metaphors. From references to Watchmen, Lord of the Rings, and an overt homage to Hemingway, Diaz weaves them in and out of a not so classic love story. As tragic as it is comedic, I found myself hugging the novel when it was done. I knew what was going to happen, but I wanted it to stop. My wish for the character was overridden by the author. Diaz had to do what he had to do. Oscar is such an emotionally accessible character, and it's difficult to not feel a sense of loss at the end of it all.

I want more people to read this book. Part of me wants to slap a used copy down next to a friend and demand that they read it. It is the type of novel that needs to be shared and discussed though friendships and book clubs. It deserves to be given as gifts and passed around. Pick this one up and give it a go.

My next selection is Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. It's her version of Lord of the Flies. After Going Bovine I've become a huge fan, so I'm crossing my fingers that this is a good one.

Link Round Up

Hornby calls for a nationwide network of story 'ministries'. Hornby is talking about a British project called The Ministry of Stories. Essentially it's a place where children can learn the creative writing process. From what I've read there are two arguments. One, full support of The Ministry of Stories. Two, support for the project, but the desire to have it be centralized in an area library. Either way, I find the discussions about it fascinating.

Horror Goes Highbrow. I laugh at this. Horror has always been highbrow, but the main difference is that the horror stories that scare the extraordinarily wealthy don't involve monsters. Jasper Fforde convinced me that Jane Austen didn't write love stories, she wrote horror. A highbrow family loses everything and is then saddled with five daughters that have to be married off or the parents become financially destitute? That's scary.

Here are some great instructions on How to Read a Classic. My biggest suggestion? Get the audiobook. Really. It makes it a lot easier.

Kindle: Best Books of November, 2011

Three Reasons I Hate Hardcover Books. I'm a fan of them, but I totally relate to this article. There are moments where I want to throw them up against the wall.

(Currently reading)

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin

I decided to add this book into my nonfiction rotation a few months ago so I could better understand the scale of the Greek financial crisis. Sorkin's book does not disappoint. It is is as fun to read as it is educational. The huge scale of Lehman Brothers, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs is akin to mythical kingdoms   The men who run them, and their egos, are larger than life. As most stories go, this one ends up with redemption, but not in the way most people and bankers would like. The US financial system was saved, but we also seemed to have lost faith in it. Fairy tales have white knights, bank bailouts get anger, in both stories something is lost and gained.

Setting the book up like a play, Sorkin's first eight pages are the names of all the players. I wanted this story to have a black hat bad guy, and a white hat good guy. It seemed to play out that way in the press. Unfortunately it doesn't. It does, however, have a fascinating insight into the psychology of a group of people who run these large institution. They are, in short, just like us. And they do think, "It can't happen here."

That phrase, those words, it can't happen here, are the reason I had to replace a car window a few months ago. See, my husband and I moved to what we though was a nice safe neighborhood. We ignored the screeching advice from people saying that our area was prone to smash and grab car theft. Well one morning I had to call my boss and tell her I was running late, and I am still digging glass out of the backseat. I used it can't happen here to try to protect me from car thieves. Bankers used it to convince themselves that their huge financial institutions wouldn't collapse. We both got the same results.

As I slide this one on my shelf, I hope that Sorkin continues to write nonfiction. His voice is clear, the book was dense and readable, and he knows how turn a phrase. Honestly, if he doesn't get a similar book out of the Eurozone crisis, then he needs to quit. I want to read his take on it, and I want him to write the cornerstone book.

I'm moving onto some fiction with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This book has been taunting me for years.