Tuesday 22 December 2009 at 10:04 pm
I know The Road may be a strange pick for some teenagers. I mean, the thing I like best about Cormac McCarthy is his ability to write masculine books with a delicate, literary touch. There may be blood, cannibalism, and/or psychos, but there is always something gentle and heartwarming about his prose or the story in general. And what teenager cares about that type of stuff, right? Well, I have a little more faith in ya'll. When I was a teenager I tended more toward adult books, which is partly why I offer this to you. But I also find my self remembering the more delicate, literary touches from those days. Grapes of Wrath was required reading, and I don't remember much of it, but I do remember a chapter about a turtle crossing the road. It stood as a metaphor for the rest of the book about a family migrating during the Dust Bowl. The turtle chapter is short, especially compared to the rest of the book. And it's about a turtle. Still, it's something less obvious and especially more literary from a book I read 10 years ago that has stuck with me all this time. In fact, I think John Steinbeck and McCarthy share the same skills. While I'm thinking about it, Of Mice and Men would be a great reading double-feature with The Road.
So that's why I think it has cross-over appeal. Now here's what I thought:
see more
Tuesday 22 December 2009 at 6:14 pm
So here were the rules for today's activity:
1 - Pick up the book you are currently reading.
2 - Since it is December 22nd, turn to page 22 in your book.
3 - Count down to the 22nd line on the page. (If there is a partial word on the line you can leave it off.)
4 - Post a picture of your book cover along with the 22nd line from the 22nd page on your blog.
And here is mine!
" . . . with what appeared to be genuine concern."
Tuesday 22 December 2009 at 11:35 am
Let me first start with a caveat, Libba Bray is amazingly talented. It's her skill at witty, clever, almost whimsical prose that makes Going Bovine work, even when it seems like it will fall off the rails, as any book with Viking Yard Gnomes, Punk Rock Angels, Fire Giants, and inter-dimensional portals should do. She, however, wrote my favorite book of the year, writing a funny, believable, heartbreaking, brain-frying gem.
But . . . her strengths are also her biggest weaknesses (I'll get to that in a minute).
Cameron Smith, a sixteen-year-old slacker, is stricken with Creutzfeld Jakob's, the scary word for mad cow disease. Of course, calling it mad cow disease makes it more hilarious than it is, because Cameron finds out it's incurable. Along with bizarre, terrifying hallucinations he also learns he's going to die. There isn't a cure for Creutzfeld Jakob's.
While all of that sounds like a downer, this book is anything but. Cameron grabs his roommate at the hospital, a dwarf named Gonzo, and embarks on a road trip to find a cure. It's a fantastic journey, that will keep readers laughing, cheering, and flipping the page to see what happens next. Bray has made Cameron's terrifying journey very real, and by the end, we want him to find the mysterious Dr. X and close the portal that is releasing dark matter into the world.
Which brings me back to Bray's weakness . . . She creates a very real world, where we can connect with all the craziness that comes from Cameron's illness, because we want Cameron to survive. But, she also places distractions in her "real world" with her cleverness. Every product and band name tries so hard to be a mirror of something in our actual world, but most are just terrible names, and they show Bray straining to impress us with her imagination. It's a tiny quibble, but it took me out of the story, away from the totally fantastic world her imagination had created for Cameron. It also makes a perfect book, only near-perfect. But, hey, near-perfect is a lot better than most.
Monday 21 December 2009 at 11:21 am
I can see where a reader might find When You Reach Me boring. Not much happens. It's about growing up and friendship. There aren't vampires or aliens or werewolves or flaming arrows (read: awesome action sequences).
However, Rebecca Stead captures the ups and downs of friendship and growing up with delicacy and honesty. She doesn't try too hard to get it right, she just gets it right. Sure, not much happens, but why does something have to happen?
Of course, those who've read the book know there is a doozy of a twist. It is just hard to talk about without ruining the book. Something does happen. Something huge and mind-bending. Something that doesn't jive with realism Stead creates through most of the book, and yet it resonates just as well, even better, than the perceived reality. It is that, the fact that Stead takes a giant leap of irreality inside of her pleasant, gentle book and makes it work, that makes When You Reach Me one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Sunday 20 December 2009 at 9:07 pm
Ok. So here were the rules for this one.
1 - Choose 3 or 4 books from your bookshelf that, when put together, form a sentence.
2 - Take a picture of your books / sentence.
3 - Post you sentence and your picture on your blog.
I had a little trouble because I didn't have many books that had verbs as titles or at the end of their titles. I got it figured out, and here it is:
I know, I cut off Paper Towns, but I had to fit everything the best I could and my camera was having trouble focusing. So my sentence reads (my commas added): Paper towns, where the sidewalk ends, disgrace the wanderers.
Sunday 20 December 2009 at 11:07 am
Note: I actually only read Vol. 10-12 during the challenge.
Having "bizarre" in the title shouldn't give a book free reign to do whatever it wants, but it helps. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure certainly does whatever it wants. Whatever it wants including, but not limited to: a vampire with a human's body, spirit warriors, tongue devouring bugs, gamblers who play for souls, a foul-mouthed/tempered dog, and more vehicle wrecks than any Hollywood action flick could dream of.
Hirohiko Araki schizophrenic epic manga series works though, because it sets up the rules of the bizarre adventure and rarely, if ever breaks them. So it's easy to accept anything and everything, as long as the reader isn't betrayed. It doesn't hurt that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is packed with blood, humor, and pop culture references (the title itself inspired the Beatles song, "Get Back.") Also, as the kid who sold me on the series noted, the characters in JoJo's don't become magically stronger or gain a coincidental new skill to fight a stronger enemy, instead, they must use the skills they as a group or as an individual possess. While the outcome of the fights are sometime resolved unconvincingly, the series always relies on the characters using their brains to guide their brawn.
Sunday 20 December 2009 at 10:58 am
In an alternate history, the thriving Gold Rush has driven a contest, held by the Russians, to find a way to drill through the thick ice of the Klondike for Gold. Dr. Leviticus Blue builds such a machine, but on its first trial run it destroys most of downtown Seattle and releases a blight gas that turns anyone who breathes it into "rotters," the living dead.
Sixteen years later, a wall has been erected around Seattle to keep the gas in and to keep the country and survivors safe. However, Dr. Blue's teenage son, Ezekiel Wilkes, has some questions about his father's guilt in the tragedy that left thousands of the undead wandering around inside the wall. So he travels into the city for answers, leaving his mother, Dr. Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes with only one choice. She must enter the city she escaped to face zombies, air pirates, and more to save her son.
Can I help it if I love zombies? Or that steam-power fascinates me to no end? I have recently discovered that I love SF (I even found out that is how true fans write Sc-Fi). And among SF sub-genres steampunk is my favorite.
So it should come as little shock that I absolutely loved Cherie Priest's Boneshaker, an steampunk novel with zombies and pirates, not to mention loads of action and great characters.
Not much else to say. (Zombies+Air Pirates)Steampunk=AWESOMESAUCEANDEPICWINABONANZA
Friday 18 December 2009 at 1:50 pm
Synopsis: The Stolls homeschooled their daughter, Anne, her entire life, limiting her exposure of the outside world to an hour of cable news a night. Now she's eighteen and wants out from under the thumb of her oppressive parents. She pleads with them to let her move out and attend college like a "normal teenager." When they resist, she is left with no choice but to run away from home.
Anne quickly discovers her parents weren't "oppressive," they were trying to keep her safe. What she thought was America in 2010 is actually 2050 on Planet Sadien, the new world order of Planet Earth created by Doctor Sadien Drake. Drake took control of Earth, enslaving 90% of the human race, and creating an army of mutants and robots to wage war on the universe. A few escaped his control, including the Stolls.
Still wanting freedom, Anne opts not to return home, and instead joins the ranks of The Great Militia, an underground group working to overthrow Drake and restore order.
Could it be the greatest mistake of her life?
Venture, the debut novel by Daniel D. Evans, mixes humor, sci-fi, machine guns, tanks, grenades, teen angst, punk rock, secrets, lies, robots, zombies, mutants, mutant zombies, zombie robots, mutant robot zombies, and more in an action-packed thrill ride that will keep you guessing.
I know I made that up, but that is a book I totally wanna read.
Rules for making your own:
see more
Friday 18 December 2009 at 10:20 am
So I like to do reading challenges. They make me feel challenge. . . wait for it . . .dary. That's right, challengedary (That's right a
portmanteau of challenged and legendary.) Take that,
Barney Stintson.
Anyway, I was hoping to read The Road and maybe one or two other things over break anyway. Plus, with the daily challenges and its focus on using the time off from school/work/etc., I couldn't wait to share it with ya'll. So come back here to see what I'm doing over the break, and leave a comment to tell me what you are doing.
see more
Wednesday 02 December 2009 at 12:08 pm
It's nearing the end of the year . . . yikes! We're almost into the 2010s and beyond . . . double yikes! I never knew a decade could fly by so fast. But, back on track, the end of the year. As with every end of the year Top 10 lists of the best and worst of the year start to trickle in. So I'm going to share a few of those booklists with you, and some books from them. Enjoy!
see more
