reading in bellevue

Thing 1

2011-06-21T11:45:00.001-04:00

Though I feel very confident about a number of the Things, there are a few I do look forward to spending a little more time on than I have been able to this past year since graduating. Several months ago, I downloaded Evernote, but never really got around to using it. I had a similar experience with Zotero so I look forward to those weeks.

This experience will also “force” me to be more aware of my blogging. I had abandoned this blog because I find Twitter and Tumblr more useful at this place in my personal and professional life. I have less time to spend on book reviews and blog posts or I am choosing to spend more time on my personal research project and website as well as more “micro-blogging.”

Returning for 23 Things for Professional Development

2011-06-15T16:57:00.002-04:00

I have somewhat abandoned this blog (for several reasons) but I am returning to it as I participate in 23 Things for Professional Development. This 23 Things is aimed at library and information professionals. More info can be found on the CPD23 blog.

23 Things is running from June 2o to early October 2011.

More coming shortly.

Please see my blog on tumblr

2011-04-11T16:41:00.003-04:00

I will continue to write reviews and annotations on a fairly regular basis but they will be mixed with other postings to my tumblr blog Overdue and twitter:

http://audrabirek.tumblr.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/AudraBirek

I do not find this blogging platform to be as flexible as tumblr and do not plan to update this site in the future.

Black Dog of Fat

2011-02-21T17:50:00.002-05:00

Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir: An American Son Uncovers his Armenian Past by Peter Balakian. Tenth Anniversary paperback edition first published 2009 by Basic Books.

New York Times Notable Book, Winner of the Pen/Albrand Award

From 1914-23, the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey, carried out the systematic state-organized policy of physical annihilation of its indigenous Greek and Armenian civilian populations. I was aware of some of the history of the Armenian genocide from my familiarity of the Greek genocide as a descendant of Asia Minor (on my maternal grandmother’s side)—but this does not make a book like Black Dog of Fate easy to get through and I struggled to finish it. It is not only about the atrocities committed at the hands of the Turkish government-- but it is also a beautiful book about discovering one’s heritage. Not an easy read but an important one.

Freaky Dancin': Me and the Mondays

2010-12-14T15:31:00.005-05:00

by Bez. Pan Books, 1998c., 335 pages. ISBN 978-0-330-48197-7

A story of a young man who spends his days in constant pursuit of drugs could turn out to be a sad and cautionary tale. This book by Bez, about his young adult years and his (in)famous time as the maraca-shaking/”freak dancin’” member of the Manchester band Happy Mondays, turns out to be a very funny and honest memoir. Though much of Bez’s antics are self-destructive, it is also obvious that he quite enjoyed himself. He is unapologetic but he seems to hide nothing. Freaky Dancin’ is a must for those readers interested in the Happy Mondays and notorious nightlife scene of Manchester in the late 80s and early 90s.

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

2010-11-10T15:36:00.002-05:00

by Clay Shirky. The Penguin Press (2010), 242 pages.

Before we had access to the Internet and the many social media applications so many of us use today, we spent quite a bit of our free time in the solitary and consumptive activity of watching TV. Now we may still be watching TV with some of our free time, but it is no longer a completely passive activity. People are participating in discussions online as they watch as well as using content to create new things to share with our online world. We have become participators, collaborators and producers. More often than not, we do this work for free. However, it is not just entertainment-related content we are sharing with each other. We are creating content to inform (think Wikipedia) and save lives (Ushahidi.com, reporting violence to Kenyans in real time-- to name a few ways.

We (of much of the developed nations) have an excess of free time, energy and ideas and this is what Shirky refers to as “cognitive surplus.” The use of this surplus in creating content with our free time without monetary gain continues and is increasing because social media fulfills our innate desires of being members of a group and sharing with one another. Much of this book looks at what benefits to society can come from the pooling of this surplus.

Cognitive Surplus is not really a deep look at how people are using social media and online communities but rather a book of quotable observations and examples. It is a really affirming book if you are involved in social media and are optimistic about the future of the use of these tools and applications. Though Shirky sees a promising future through the use of our cognitive surplus for goodwill, there is no real direction on how we will really accomplish this. Optimism is good and these are exciting times so I do recommend this book but I do so with some reservation. I do not believe that there is too much in this book that has not already been said by Shirky and others.

Submarine

2010-11-10T15:30:00.003-05:00

by Joe Dunthorne, c. 2008, Hamish Hamilton, 290 pages.

Fifteen year old Oliver Tate is a boy obsessed. He is equally obsessed with his parent’s failing marriage (and lack of sexual activity) and learning new words from the dictionary. Another obsession is losing his virginity—and soon. Though he finds himself entwined in a relationship with the eczematous and occasionally pyromaniacal Jordana, his precocious awkwardness eventually isolates him from her.

Oliver is at times callous and detached as he takes a clinical view of those around him. This makes him a tough character to like in those moments. Luckily there are more moments throughout the novel Submarine in which Oliver reveals the awkwardness and anxiety of adolescence allowing him to become relatable to readers. This is a very darkly funny novel.

Balkan Ghosts, A Journey Through History

2010-10-19T15:36:00.003-04:00

by Robert D. Kaplan, originally published: New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Even though published 17 years ago, Kaplan’s portrayal of his travels throughout the Balkan Peninsula is still a revelation to most Western readers. In this more-than-a-travel memoir or travelogue, Kaplan describes the not often understood histories and peoples of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and the countries of former Yugoslavia. Kaplan shows why Communism failed in the Balkans; it did nothing to end the historical tensions. This is not an easy book to read as the atrocities committed by all parties are disturbing but Kaplan’s depictions are balanced and without generalities.

(This is just one of the many books I am reading before traveling to Croatia.)

That Uncertain Feeling

2010-10-02T14:41:00.005-04:00

by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1955

In Wales, assistant librarian John Lewis has a young family and a small salary. A bit of a ladies' man, John soon finds himself tempted by a seductive socialite who also offers a boost to his career--if he wants it bad enough.

Though written in 1955, this humorous portrait of modern life, including marriage, boredom and adultery, still holds up today. Also see the film Only Two Can Play (1962) , starring Peter Sellers, based on Amis' book.

Mockingjay

2010-09-25T11:44:00.011-04:00

by Suzanne Collins. Scholastic Press (2010), hardcover, 400 pages, ISBN 978-054310604.

The Final Book of The Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss Everdeen is damaged but has survived the Hunger Games. Now she has made a bargain to be the star of the rebel propaganda campaign in exchange for a chance to exact her revenge on the Capitol by assassinating President Snow.

The final book is a heavy and emotional one. Post-traumatic stress disorder and the terrors of war have shaped many of the characters. The action is not always as intense as the previous books but in many ways, I found Mockingjay to be the most believable in the depiction of the characters and choices and actions.

Never Let Me Go

2010-09-15T16:00:00.004-04:00

by Kazuo Ishiguro. Knopf (2005), Hardcover, 304 pages.

A quiet yet potent tale about three young people who are fated to brief lives because of their role in a society now free of disease. This story unfolds in an alternate version of the near past and much of it takes place in the remembrances of an idyllic (and disturbing) boarding school in a scenic English countryside. This novel is a heartbreak and the questions it leaves a reader with is why I highly recommended this book.

The Sweet Far Thing

2010-09-07T14:57:00.003-04:00

by Libba Bray. Delacorte Press, c. 2007. Pbk. 819 pages. ISBN 978-0-440-23777-8

Final book of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Gemma struggles with the pressures of preparing for her debut as a young woman in London society while she works to bring order to the growing chaos in the Realms. Alliances are tested and puzzling clues cause Gemma to question who and what to trust--including her own mind.

For those who wish the trilogy wouldn't end, this 800-page plus book may satisfy. Bray leaves it open-ended and it seems possible that she may someday re-visit Gemma Doyle.

Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division

2010-08-20T19:24:00.002-04:00

by Deborah Curtis. London: Faber & Faber, c.1995. 212 pages. ISBN978-0-571-23956-6

Deborah Curtis presents a brief biography of the man- or maybe the boy- she married and gives the reader a glimpse at the very human side of her husband Ian Curtis. Deborah presents the good and the bad and some may not want to think of an idol like Ian Curtis behaving the way he did. This is a frustrating and sad story--like many that deal with suicide. There aren’t really any answers to why here and I didn’t expect them. One does get a sense that Ian’s epilepsy and numerous prescriptions may have played a strong hand in much of his turmoil and subsequent decision.

This book feels like a great sigh, like Deborah Curtis felt a weight off of her after she told her story. Though readers not familiar with Joy Division and others in music at that time in Manchester may be a bit lost with all of the names and places mentioned, I think this story can hold up without that knowledge.

Ian’s lyrics and unfinished writings as well as Joy Division gig lists and discography are provided. This book inspired the film Control (2007).

Rebel Angels

2010-08-17T16:32:00.003-04:00

by Libba Bray. New York: Dleacorte Press, c. 2005, pbk. 548 pages. ISBN 978-0-385-73341-0

Second book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy. It is near Christmastime and Gemma and her friends are looking forward to time away from Spence Academy. But their time of celebration is clouded by the dangers brought on by Gemma's recent actions in the Realms. Now the magic is loose and many are after its power. It is now up to Gemma to find the Temple and bind the magic to restore order to the Realms. But who can she trust when so many thirst for the power?

This book is a must read for fans of the first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty. Not only is this book full of mystery and fantasy, but Bray also gives the reader an opportunity to ponder racism, classism and the roles of women in Victorian England.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2010-07-25T08:39:00.008-04:00

by Jennifer Egan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, c. 2010, 274 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-59283-5

The chapters of the Goon Squad are made up of intertwining stories and characters that snake through the lives of Bennie Salazar, former punk rocker and aging music producer, and his assistant Sasha, a mucked up young woman with kleptomania impulses. Stories are told at different times in the characters lives and the book spans decades even to a dystopian future as Egan delves into a touch of science fiction.

This is a captivating book and Egan's voice is both prophetic and subversive. If you ever wonder what happened to the life you imagined for yourself in your youth, only to realize that you grew up, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book to read.

The Secret Fiend: The Boy Sherlock, His Fourth Case

2010-07-21T15:36:00.005-04:00

by Shane Peacock. Tundra Books: 2010, 244 pages. ISBN 978-0887768538

Fourth book in an award-winning series for children and teens, The Secret Fiend finds a young Sherlock Holmes trying to not get involved in a case involving a young female admirer. This case revolves around attacks by a believed-to-be-fictional Spring Heeled Jack while paranoia and disorder begin to envelope the country as the Jewish Benjamin Disraeli becomes Prime Minister.

Full of historical detail and clues leading to wrong turns, this book will excite young and adult readers. Familiarity with the previous books is not necessary to enjoy The Secret Fiend, but many readers will no doubt seek out the others after finishing this tale.

a bit of a hiatus...

2010-07-03T14:02:00.002-04:00

While I have been doing quite a bit of reading the past few weeks, my work this final semester for my MLIS and my trip to DC for ALA Annual has taken up a big chunk of my time.

Hope to post about some of my time at Annual soon and will be back with book annoataions and reviews in the coming weeks.

Currently reading:

Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty
Shane Peacock's The Secret Fiend

WIll Grayson, Will Grayson

2010-06-19T14:23:00.004-04:00

by John Green & David Levithan. New York: Dutton, c2010, 310 pages. ISBN 9780525421580

Two teens with the same name meet on a fateful night out in Chicago. One Will is straight and one Will is gay but both are major characters in the life and the autobiographical musical by (the quite large) Tiny Cooper.

The story is told by both Will Graysons in alternating chapters. This is a very touching and accurate portrait of the complexities and anxieties of being a teen. It is also a great, hilarious depiction of male teen friendships and falling in love.

Going Bovine

2010-06-01T16:40:00.004-04:00

by Libba Bray. New York: Delacorte Press, c. 2009. 480 pages. ISBN 9780385733977

A disappointment to his parents and an embarrassment to his twin sister, lackadaisical Cameron Smith is simply getting by in high school when he gets the news he has a disease that is going to kill him--Creutzfeldt-Jacob or "mad cow" disease. Clues from a punk angel (or a hallucination?) lead Cameron to break out of the hospital with a video game-obsessed dwarf and take them on a quixotic road trip in search of a Dr. X, the cure and possibly a chance to save the world.

2010 Michael L. Printz Award Winner

When You Reach Me

2010-05-12T14:07:00.003-04:00

by Rebecca Stead. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, c.2009. 199 pages. ISBN 9780385737425

Twelve-year-old New Yorker Miranda is being sent notes that seem to predict the future. Who are they from and does this mean time travel is possible? The mystery unfolds all the while Miranda loses and gains friendships and helps her mother prepare for her appearance on a TV game show.

2010 Newbery Medal Winner, Junior Library Guild Selection

Butterfly

2010-05-08T09:57:00.004-04:00

by Sonya Hartnett. Candlewick, c. 2010. 240 pages. ISBN 978-0763647605.

From LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers

Plum is awkward and uncomfortable in her body as she is poised unsteadily between being a child and becoming a woman. Her place in the hierarchy of her friends is precarious and her loneliness apparent to her housewife neighbor, Maureen. Convincing Plum to reinvent herself, Maureen becomes a friend and confidante but with motives Plum cannot readily see.

In the UK this book has been marketed as Hartnett’s first adult novel while in the US, it has been labeled young adult. While some LibraryThing Early Reviewers do not seem to agree that this is a YA book, I feel it is a shame they do not give teens more credit in their reading tastes, capabilities and experiences. Butterfly may be enjoyed by teen readers as well as adults--especially those women who can still remember those sharp pains of fear and loneliness during adolescence. Hartnett’s lyrical style of writing is clever at times but also often distracting. I am disappointed in the US choice in covers as it seems to be an unimaginative choice along with the title. For a writer whose prose is almost poetical, "Butterfly" is a bit of a letdown as title.

Little Bee

2010-04-25T10:22:00.003-04:00

by Chris Cleave. New York: Simon & Schuster, c. 2009. 271 pages. ISBN 9781416589631 Published as The Other Hand in the UK.

Little Bee is unable to flee the terror that has chased her from her small village (sitting atop newly discovered oil deposits) to a British immigrant detention center. A horrific encounter with Little Bee on a beach in Nigeria follows tourists Sarah and Andrew O’Rourke back home to England and forces them to remember choices they have tried to forget.

Shades of Grey: The High Road to Saffron

2010-04-24T12:58:00.006-04:00

by Jasper Fforde. New York: Viking, c. 2009. 309 pages. ISBN 9780670019632

First of a series. In Chromatacia, the Rulebook must be strictly followed. You must watch out for deadly swans and your spoon should be guarded with your life. What colors you can see decides your position in the social hierarchy of the Colortocarcy. Eddie Russett may be on his way up the social ladder if he turns out to have a high red perception. But will his curiosity in a certain defiant Grey named Jane and his interest in improving queuing get him devoured by a man-eating tree before he can marry into the Oxbloods?

reading in progress

2010-03-27T17:29:00.001-04:00

I tried and tried to read Neil Gaimans's American Gods. I had intentions of finally reading it and writing a review but I must admit, I have stopped at page 115 (of a mass market paperback). I can't do it. There are too many other books to read. I have started Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey and so far it is very fun and a strange read.

Let the Right One In

2010-03-16T18:11:00.005-04:00

by John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated by Ebba Segerberg. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, c. 2007. 472 pages. ISBN 9780312355296

{First published in Sweden under the title Låt den rätte komma in by Ordfront and first published in the United States under the title Let Me In.}

Oskar at twelve years old is overweight and the main target for cruel bullies at school. Lonely, he finds comfort in the sweets he shoplifts and his scrapbook of articles on murderers and serial killers. Soon Oskar has articles to add about a local boy murdered, a murder described as "ritualistic." Around the same time, new neighbors move in, a young girl and her father. Oskar finds himself intrigued by the girl, Eli, and they begin to meet, but only at night.

The story takes place in a Swedish suburb and over several weeks in 1981. This book is violent and disturbing and I highly recommend it. If you want to read about vampires that actually do the things that make vampires scary, read this. It is also a sad and moving mystery. The film adaptation is also worth viewing even if you do not want to read the book.

tales of the MADMAN underground: an historical romance 1973

2010-03-03T14:50:00.007-05:00

by John Barnes. New York: Viking. c. 2009. 532 pages.
ISBN 978-0-670-06081-8

Karl Shoemaker has decided to turn over a new leaf at the start of his senior year, 1973. He is going to be normal. The first step is to avoid therapy. Not so easy when your dad is dead, your mom is a drunk who steals your money (the money you make from working five jobs!), you're in AA and you and all of your friends are self-proclaimed "madmen."

Set in a small, depressed town in Ohio, Barnes' book spans six days in the life of Karl Shoemaker. Told in the first person, this book is so honest, sad and hilarious that teen readers will tear through these 500 plus pages.

2010 Printz Honor Book, 2010 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

Liked it? Try Benjamin Alire Saenz's Last Night I Sang to the Monster: a novel, Julie Anne Peters' Between Mom and Jo, Jaye Murray's Bottled Up: a novel, Blake Nelson's Paranoid Park.

Punkzilla

2010-02-18T19:41:00.005-05:00

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp. Westminster, MD: Candlewick Press, c. 2009. 244 pages. ISBN 0763630314

Jamie, known as Punkzilla, has been living in a low rent hotel in Portland since he went AWOL from military school. He went off his meds and survives on money he makes stealing iPods and doing cheap drugs. When he finds out his older brother Peter, a gay playwright, is dying of cancer, he begins a harrowing journey to Memphis. Told in a series of unsent letters to Peter and mixed with old correspondences from family and friends.

A Junior Library Guild Selection and 2010 Michael L. Printz Honor Award, 2010 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2009 Booklist Editor’s Choice-Books for Youth-Older Reader’s Category.

If you liked it, try Steven Herrick’s The Simple Gift: a novel and Willo Davis Roberts’ Blood on His Hands

Salt

2010-02-10T17:36:00.006-05:00

Salt by Maurice Gee. Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2009. 252 pages. ISBN 978-1-55469-209-5

Volume One of the Salt trilogy.

Hari and the others of Blood Burrow suffer starvation, enslavement and death under Company. Pearl lives a life of luxury and ease but she is under control of Company and has been promised in marriage to a powerful man. While these two come from different worlds, they are connected in their talent to use their minds to speak to people and animals. Both on the run for different reasons, they are soon united in their quest to save the world from a deadly terror found in Deep Salt.

2008 winner of the New Zealand Post Book Award for Young Adult Fiction

Pump Up the Volume

2010-02-05T15:35:00.005-05:00

Pump Up the Volume, written and directed by Allan Moyle. Starring Christian Slater. Originally released August 1990, Rated R. 102 minutes.

"Talk Hard. Steal the Air."

This review is a departure from the usual for this blog. I normally only review or write annotations for books. Movies have always been a big part of my life and after re-watching Pump Up the Volume recently (after at least 5 years and 20 years after the first time I saw it), I felt a brief review here was necessary.

Mark is a shy new kid in a small town Arizona high school. At night he becomes Hard Harry, an uncensored DJ on a pirate radio station. He starts to gain loyal listeners amongst the teens in the town who have been waiting for someone to jolt them out of their stupor. When Hard Harry begins to expose the hypocrisy and corruption of the school principal, the FCC is called in to end the show.

This movie was in theatres in 1990. Here was the teen experience of suburbia--the boredom, the pressures, the loneliness. Slater's portrayal of Mark/Hard Harry was so meaningful and honest to me then and when I watched it again, all of the same emotions came back to me. There are some moments when it feels a little dated and almost corny, but this cannot really be avoided with a film 20 years old.

What struck me the most watching it now (as basically an adult) was really a question. Could this movie speak to teenagers today like it did to me when I was young? Teenagers who seem to enjoy being conformists and are so connected to one another almost all of the time? Could they even relate to a pirate radio DJ in these days of Facebook, cell phones, etc.?

the burn journals

2010-01-26T09:12:00.008-05:00

Runyon, Brent. The Burn Journals. Reprint. Originally published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. With new afterword. New York: Vintage Books, 2005. 327 p. ISBN 1400096421 (pbk.) $12.95

(The following review was submitted as an assignment for the MLIS course Health Consumer Resources and Services for the Spring 2010 semester.)

At fourteen, Runyon put on his bathrobe, doused it with gasoline, stepped into the tub and lit himself on fire. He suffered third-degree burns over 85 percent of his body. He endured months of excruciating skin grafts and physical therapy. The Burn Journals spans Runyon's first year of recovery from this horrifying suicide attempt as he struggles with the pain, the guilt and the questions from himself and others as to why he did it.

This book does not contain any solutions or answers to suicide, depression or self-hatred. Runyon can never answer why he tried to kill himself. He doesn't really know. Runyon wrote his book ten years after he set himself on fire, but he writes it in the first person as his fourteen-year-old self. This makes the book so valuable for teens, especially males, who may run the spectrum of sadness to thoughts or plans of suicide. Here, in Runyon's words, they may find hope that they are not completely alone under the desolate weight of depression.

This book should be included in the teen departments of school and public libraries and will be useful for anyone working with teens; however, this may not be a book for readers who have suffered accidental traumatic experiences and burn victims may struggle to identify with someone who purposely caused such pain.

my picks for YA books you may have missed

2010-01-20T15:36:00.007-05:00

I am participating in one-day blog post blitz titled "The Best YA Books You Haven't Read" started by a blogger & wannabe YA writer: http://yannabe.com/2010/01/21/best-books-not-read/

Here are my choices

--Mal Peet's Exposure (2009 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize)
--F.E. Higgins series: Black Book of Secrets, The Bone Magician and The Eyeball Collector
--Blake Nelson's Destroy All Cars
--Blake Nelson's Girl

I think a lot of people missed out on this when it first came out 1994 and the latest editions seem to not be so successful either. I gave this to my 16 year old cousin last year and she loved it. So although some of the music scene references are a little dated, this book can still be relevant to teens today. For me, this book meant so much to me and while I grew up on the other side of the country, I related so much to this story and the whole scene.

Check out my Author Sheet for Blake Nelson on my online portfolio.

Can you tell I'm a fan?

--and finally....C.D. Payne's Youth in Revolt

This book is getting some attention now because of the film starring Michael Cera but I have a feeling more people will just see the movie than read the book at this point. I have not seen the movie yet but I almost guarantee that you will enjoy the book so much more. Sorry no summary here on my blog but will post in the coming months, I promise. I read it so long ago and want to re-read/flip through before I post.

So, go forth and read!

The Grounding of Group 6

2010-01-02T17:05:00.005-05:00

by Julian F. Thompson, c. 1983. Young Adult (classic) literature.

Five high schoolers are sent to (what they think) is a boarding school to get them on the right track. All of them have committed some type of misbehavior that has lead their parents to send them away--but none of them would have suspected that they were meant to be poisoned and thrown into a deep crevasse! No one expected Group 6 and their (young) advisor to make it back from their orientation camping trip alive...

While this book will seem fairly dated for today's reader, it is a lot of fun to re-visit if you read this in the 80s as a kid or teen. This is also a chilling story about parents wanting to have their children eliminated which may be a nice companion to a book like Neal Shusterman's Unwind (however Shusterman's world is infinitely scarier). There is some appeal for male readers in The Grounding of Group 6 as much of the story is revealed from the teen boy characters including quite a few (tame) passages about their sexual experiences.

to hellholes and back

2010-01-02T16:40:00.006-05:00

(bribes, lies, and the art of extreme tourism) by Chuck Thompson, Henry Holt and Comapny, c. 2009, 321 pages.

I was not very impressed with this book but I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys travel memoirs and especially for fans of (as Booklist describes), "unorthodox travel writing."

From my LibraryThing Early Reviewers:

Funny and witty at times, the book is somewhat enjoyable and good for a light read. Thompson's anecdotes may make you laugh or they may just grate on your nerves as his writing skills really are more suited for his former Maxim job.

Plans for (the brief) Winter Break

2009-12-23T07:27:00.003-05:00

Some books I hope to read before the Spring semester starts…in no particular order...

1. The Grounding of Group Six by Julian F. Thompson, c.1983 (finishing this up…)

2. To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism by Chuck Thompson, c.2009 (from my LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers, review to follow…)

3. Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan, c. 1979

4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman, c. 2001 (seems to be many people’s favorite..)

5. Happy Endings are All Alike by Sandra Scoppettone, c. 1978 (one of the first/the few novels about teen lesbians…in the 70s)

6. My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel, c.1969

7. Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp by C.D. Payne, c1993 (had meant to read this so long ago, now the movie is about to come out…yikes! Have to read before that…)

I may be a little ambitious……

My Booky Wook

2009-12-16T17:14:00.005-05:00

A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up by Russell Brand. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. UK edition: Hodder & Stoughton, 2007. 353 pages.

My Booky Wook is a confessional full of embarrassing and oftentimes disturbing events and choices in Brand's life eventually leading him to rehab for drugs (and later sex addiction). While Brand constantly desires to become famous, he continually commits one self-destructive act after another. Everything is presented for you, the reader, in Brand's clever and (somewhat) literary voice. Brand is perceptive, irreverent and too funny.

City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s-'70s

2009-12-04T17:21:00.005-05:00

by Edmund White. New York: Bloomsbury, USA, c. 2009, 297 pages.

(from my LibraryThing's Early Reviewers)

White's memoir begins when he he arrives in New York City from the Midwest where he followed his lover instead of going on to Harvard. He is is not a writer yet and these two decades are a formative time in his literary career.

As a gay man, White was still hoping to be "cured" as he regularly (like many other gay men at the time) saw a therapist. In 1969, as the gay movement began with Stonewall, White began to embrace his own identity--and he had little choice when, in 1977, he famously co-authored "The Joy of Gay Sex."

The reader is invited to hear White's tales of the famous artists and literary figures he surrounded himself with and his many lovers and experiences before and in the early days of AIDS. This book is gossip and at the same time revelation. This is a social history of New York at that time told by an insider.

Exposure

2009-11-15T08:59:00.008-05:00

by Mal Peet. Candlewick Press, c. 2009, 430 pages.

This is a modern spin on the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Othello and set in South America. Otello is a black soccer star recently traded to the country’s racist south. He falls in love and marries quickly Desmerelda, the country’s striking white pop star (and daughter of a powerful and conservative politician). The glare of the paparazzi‘s cameras can be blinding and enemies can appear to be one’s confidantes and friends.

Young Adult fiction. The story is divided into five acts. Knowledge of Shakespeare’s Othello is not a necessity but allows for comparison of the texts and a contemporary examination of the original by younger readers. There is sympathy for Otello and for the life of a celebrity but this is not a celebrity-worship story. There is racism, poverty and murder. There is grittiness. There are distinct lines between wealth and poverty in this unnamed South American country and the distinction is a huge divide.

Recurring character of Paul Faustino (a sports writer) in two other Peet books.

Winner of 2009 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize the only award judged by Children’s authors (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/guardianchildrensfictionprize ) and A Junior Library Guild Selection (http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/)

Catching Fire

2009-11-04T16:31:00.005-05:00

by Suzanne Collins. New York: Scholastic Press, c. 2009, 391 pages.

Katniss and Peeta have survived the televised battle to the death of the Hunger Games and have returned as victors to their home of District Twelve. They should return home to lives of ease and plenty but a visit from the sinister President Snow reveals that it will not be so simple. The president expects Katniss to play the lovesick girl at Peeta’s side—not out with her longtime friend Gale. Soon Katniss and Peeta are on the mandatory victory tour through the nation of Panem as rumors of uprisings in other districts follow them.

This is the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy. This is mandatory reading for fans of the first book and most should not be disappointed. There is a lot of action and suspense leading up to the conclusion leaving the reader anxious for the last book (not due out till 2010). At times Katniss’ love triangle dilemma can become a little exhausting and frustrating. Maybe boy trouble can seem necessary for a young adult book and it can be done successfully. However in this book Collins doesn’t fully explore the relationships and dynamics between the three and this may be because there is no room in the book. This too often happen in the middle books of trilogies. While not as strong as the first book, here’s hoping the final book may be able to redeem it.

The Graveyard Book

2009-10-28T16:00:00.009-04:00

by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by David McKean. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, c.2008. 312 pages.

Nobody Owens, Bod for short, is a very alive boy who happens to call a graveyard home. After his family was murdered when his was only a baby, Bod found himself adopted by ghosts and given the freedom of the graveyard. This freedom not only lets him explore things the living never could but also keeps him safe from the man who killed his family and still looks to finish his job—murdering Bod! But this is only inside the gates of the graveyard, outside is a whole alive world where Bod cannot be protected.

The 2009 Newbery Medal. Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2009 (UK). Suggested ages are from 8-12 but this book could easily be enjoyed by teens.

Audiobook on CD read by Neil Gaiman, 7 discs, 7 hours & 45 minutes

The Eyeball Collector

2009-10-14T17:57:00.002-04:00

by F.E. Higgins. New York: Feiwel and Friends, c. 2009. 251 pages.

Hector Fitzbaudly gets his wish to experience the seedier side of Urbs Umida when his father is blackmailed with a secret form his past. Finding himself penniless and homeless, Hector realizes this is not the life he wants and he decides to seek revenge. Unfortunately, the Eyeball Collector is a master of disguise! This book is called a “polyquel” by the author, as it contains elements from both The Black Book of Secrets and The Bone Magician as well as its own mysteries.

The Bone Magician

2009-10-14T17:39:00.003-04:00

by F.E. Higgins. New York: Feiwel and Friends, c. 2008. 273 pages.

Pin Carpue is orphaned in the in the crime-ridden city of Urbs Umida after his father runs off, accused of being a murderer. Pin finds work as a corpse watcher, ensuring that the dead are truly dead before they are buried. Eventually Pin ends up living in the same boarding house as a bone magician and his assistant—who seem to be able to raise the dead! This book is dubbed as “paraquel” by the author—the story occurs at the same as the tale in The Black Book of Secrets.

The Black Book of Secrets

2009-10-14T17:33:00.006-04:00

by F.E. Higgins. New York: Feiwel and Friends, c. 2007. 273 pages.

Ludlow Fitch is running away from his past (and some tooth-thieving parents!). He finds himself in a remote village where he becomes the assistant to a mysterious pawnbroker, Joe Zabbidou. This pawnbroker specializes in people’s secrets and Ludlow is charged with transcribing them in the Black Book of Secrets. Lucky for Ludlow and Joe, this village is full of people with dark and dangerous secrets to pawn. For fans of historically-based fiction and notably that of late 1800s in England with its many gruesome details of teeth pulling (and selling) and grave robbing.

Three Girls and Their Brother: a novel

2009-09-25T17:53:00.007-04:00

by Theresa Rebeck. New York : Shaye Areheart Books, c2008. 341 pages.

After one very successful photo shoot for The New Yorker, three gorgeous, red-headed sisters find themselves as the latest "It Girls" (think "Hilton sisters" plus some literary roots). Their brother in turn finds himself taking on the protector role against the unscrupulous and moral-lacking members of the entertainment/modeling world, the paparazzi and the hungry-for-scandal public. Told in four parts by each sibling. An Alex Award winner for 2009.

Ironside

2009-08-13T17:04:00.002-04:00

Title: Ironside; A Modern Faery’s Tale

Author: Holly Black

Publication date: 2007

Number of pages: 323

Genre: Young Adult fiction

Geographical Setting: New York City & New Jersey

Time Period: present, 2000s

Series: yes, third book of the Faerie series, more of continuation of the first book Tithe

Plot Summary: Pixie changeling Kaye is in love with the king of the Unseelie Court. There is war brewing with his kingdom and the rival Seelie Court. Kaye finds herself in the middle as the possible key to bringing peace and stopping death on the faerie and human side. She also struggles with the desire to tell her human mother that she is not the daughter she gave birth to while her best friend, the human Corny, joins her on this quest.

Subject Headings: coming of age, faeries, supernatural, homosexuality, fantasy, love, first love, betrayal, loyalty, war, urban fantasy

Appeal: exciting addition to the Faerie series; tackles issues facing young adults like first love, homosexuality, identity; fantasy set in modern times and location

If you liked Ironside, you might enjoy: Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, Charles de Lint’s Little (Grrl) Lost, Herbie Brennan’s Faerie Wars

end of summer semester...

2009-08-08T14:09:00.002-04:00

In the past couple of weeks I have completed the summer semester and moved. I have not been able to get as much reading done as I would like but I have read a couple of books. Below I give some brief intros to two young adult books.

Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson (2009, 224 pages, hardcover)

Diatribe by a teen boy on the wastefulness of American consumer culture mixed with the angst of first love and its loss. This book is a fun and quick read for male readers especially reluctant readers and any teens into environmentalism or with leanings to activism. It is in diary/manifesto-style and interspersed with the protagonist’s AP English essays.

Tags: environmentalism, Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon, books for boys, consumerism, suburbia, first love, first person.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson (2006, 368 pages, hardcover)

Historical fiction of Revolutionary America mainly told from the diary of Octavian, a black youth raised in Boston and given a classical education. Octavian is a research subject studied by the radical philosophers of the The Novanglian College of Lucidity. As he matures and uses the observational skills he has been taught, he begins to decipher his purpose within the College and in America as a man’s property. This book is not for the causal teen reader. The historical nature of the language may take some readers more than a few chapters to acclimate to however, the reader is greatly rewarded with a moving and exciting tale. Winner of the National Book Award and Michael L. Printz Honor Book.

Tags: historical fiction, slavery, American Revolution, diary, African American, survival

Uglies Trilogy (books 2 & 3)

2009-07-26T08:51:00.008-04:00

Title: Pretties
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication date: 2005
Number of pages: 384
Genre: young adult science fiction
Geographical setting: North America, possibly in the area of California
Time period: far into the future
Series: second in the Uglies trilogy

Plot: After her surgery to make her a Pretty, Tally Youngblood struggles against the brain lesions that work to keep her “bubble-headed” and unquestioning. She has forgotten her promise to test out the cure from the Smokies—until the delivery of the pills and the letter Tally wrote to herself. Too afraid to take the pills alone, her new boyfriend Zane convinces her to share with him. As they begin to stay focused more and more, plans are made to escape their city and find the New Smoke. Tally’s escape leads to frightening discoveries of what the Specials have been doing in the name of human progress and preservation.

Title: Specials
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 384
Genre: young adult science fiction
Geographical setting: North America, possibly in the area of California
Time period: far into the future
Series: final book of the Uglies trilogy

Plot: Sixteen year old Tally Youngblood has had the surgery that has made her a part of the elite and extra-special clique, the Cutters. The Cutters have superfast reflexes and strength—and sport frightening “surges” making them look more fearsome than the regular agents of the secret police, Special Circumstances. Tally finally fits in but she still feels like something is missing. She soon finds herself struggling between what the City has made her to be and what she once was, now buried deep under all of the surgeries and manipulations.

Appeal: post-apocalyptic series for young adults; questioning of the price of popularity and fitting in/conformity; exciting descriptions of future technologies and luxuries; the Cutters slice themselves with ritual knives in order to enhance there already super-tuned reflexes and strength

Tags: brainwashing, survival, troubled teens, dystopia, science fiction, cutting, body image, plastic surgery, conformity, cliques, self-induced starvation, series, post-apocalyptic, overconsumption

If you liked Uglies Trilogy, you might enjoy: Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue, Rodman Philbrick’s The Last Book in the Universe, John Christopher’s White Mountains, Peter Dickinon’s Eva

Unwind

2009-07-26T08:41:00.002-04:00

Title: Unwind
Author: Neal Shusterman
Publication date: 2007
Number of pages: 352
Genre: young adult dystopian fiction
Geographical setting: North America
Time period: undated future, post “Heartland War” (the Second Civil War)
Series: N/A

Plot: To make peace and end the Heartland War, the federal government has outlawed abortion-- but with a catch. Parents can choose to have their children “unwound,” a retroactive abortion. The compromise is that every part and organ of the “unwind” must be used so that they are not really dead, but rather live on in a “divided state” in the many bodies of those who need their organs and limbs. Seen as a trouble maker and a hotheaded teen by his fed up parents, Connor is set to be transported to a “harvest camp” to be unwound. When he makes a daring escape, he begins a dangerous journey cross-country with fellow “unwind” Risa, a state ward. The only things that can save them from being unwound are living in hiding and making it to their eighteenth birthdays.

Appeal: Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2008); ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers - Top Ten (2008); ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2008); fast-paced; Shusterman presents a terrifying future that does not seem so impossible.

Tags: survival, dystopia, abortion, civil war, science fiction, organ harvesting, runaways, orphans, troubled teens

If you liked Unwind, you might enjoy: Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Other Stories, Gail Giles’ Right Behind You, Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox

So Yesterday

2009-07-12T08:46:00.003-04:00

Title: So Yesterday
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication date: 2004
Number of pages: 240
Genre: young adult fiction
Geographical setting: New York City
Time period: present, early 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Seventeen-year-old Hunter stalks and tracks “cool.” Or to put it better, he is a “cool hunter.” When he notices the originality of how a girl in the park ties her shoelaces, he knows he has met an Innovator. This encounter with Jen James leads to a fast-paced adventure as amateur detectives where they try to rescue a possibly kidnapped friend and attempt to unravel a plot to sabotage the consumer culture in which Hunter is an important player.

Subject headings: mystery and detective stories, fashion, coolness, fads, consumerism, advertising, literature for boys, kidnapping, focus groups

Appeal: first person narrative, references to popular fashion and culture, detective story for modern teens, science fiction elements of the re-wiring of people’s brains and ways of thinking through gadgets and subliminal advertising

If you liked So Yesterday, you may enjoy: M.T Anderson’s Feed; Connie Willis’s Bellwether

Twisted

2009-06-28T12:35:00.009-04:00

Title: Twisted
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publication date: 2008
Number of pages: 250
Genre: young adult fiction
Geographical setting: suburban Ohio
Time period: 2000s, 21st Century
Series: N/A

Plot: Tyler Miller commits "The Foul Deed” and soon he is transformed from a nobody to a tough guy. Advances from his crush, one of the most popular girls in the school, do not come without their consequences. Tyler’s home life doesn’t get any easier either as fights with his distant father increases. As the pressure builds around him, Tyler begins to wonder if ending his own life is his only choice.

Subject headings: identity, fathers and sons, suicide, bullying, sexual assault, popularity, cyberbullying, peer pressure, coming of age

Appeal: told in first person; literature for boys, identifiable protagonist especially for boys questioning the idea of what it takes to “be a man”; family troubles are realistic without seeming too stereotypical as the “dysfunctional family” type.

If you liked Twisted, you might enjoy: Chris Crutcher’s Whale Talk, Blake Nelson’s Rock Star Superstar, Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, Michael Laser’s Cheater: A Novel

The Road to Damascus - A Brief Review

2009-06-14T09:44:00.002-04:00

from Early Reviewers for LibraryThing

Road to Damascus by Elaine Rippey Imady

This is a pleasant memoir about a Western woman’s life married to a Syrian man and living in the Middle East. I appreciated the mainly positive accounts and stories about life in Syria and the personal histories the author presents for the reader. Favorable depictions of Middle Easterners and Muslims are few in popular literature; however, I found little in Imady’s writing to hold or grip me to her story. There is a genuine love and caring in her story but I simply could not care very much. I feel that if she had written some of this book earlier in her life and closer to when some of the events had happened there would have more life and passion to her writing.

The Hunger Games

2009-06-14T08:37:00.003-04:00

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publication date: 2008

Number of pages: 384

Genre: Young Adult dystopian fiction

Geographical Setting: North America, now made up of 12 districts and ruled by the Capitol

Time Period: post-apocalyptic future

Series: book one, book two expected to be released September 2009

Plot: Katniss of District 12 is sixteen and a very adept hunter. Now her hunting skills will be tested as she volunteers in her young sister’s place for the country’s annual Hunger Games. A fight to the death is demanded by the Capitol and its citizens. Two tributes from each of the 12 districts are entered in the Games. Peeta, the baker’s son, is chosen as the male tribute from District 12. He has been in love with Katniss since the age of five and now must enter the arena prepared to kill—and it is all televised.

Subject Headings: dystopia, war, hunger, poverty, survival, death of a parent, first love, coming of age, reality television

Appeal: New York Times Notable Children’s Book 2008, Cybils Award for YA Fantasy and Science Fiction 2008, 2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults Top 10, New York Times Bestseller, and numerous other award and best lists; film adaptation set to begin production in 2011; strong female character who is smart and ruthless, romantic subplot, thrilling pace, cliffhanger ending.

If you liked The Hunger Games, you might enjoy: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Kristin Cahsore’s Graceling, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Ann Halam’s Dr. Franklin’s Island, Sonia Levitin’s The Goodness Gene, Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now.

Jellicoe Road

2009-05-27T08:44:00.004-04:00

Title: Jellicoe Road (Australian title: On Jellicoe Road)
Author: Melina Marchetta
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 419
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: Australia
Time Period: present (early 2000s)
Series: N/A

Taylor Markham is visited many nights by a young boy in her dreams. She tells him her stories, stories about the children at her school and the manuscript Hannah has written about five friends. Hannah found Taylor when she was eleven and abandoned by her drug-addicted mother on Jellicoe Road. At seventeen, Taylor has been chosen as the leader of her boarding school dorm and their leader in the territory wars with the Cadets and the Townies. Soon Taylor’s memories and questions about her past begin to overtake her duties and she finds herself relying on some of her sworn enemies for the answers.

Subject Headings: identity issues, abandonment, orphans, boarding schools, drug addiction, death of a parent, first love, coming of age

Appeal: 2009 Michael L. Printz Award; war game of the Territory Wars at first gives the story a sinister almost dystopian feel but as the story progresses, the reader begins to understand how the “game” began; story of first love rings very true and the pains of separation; nontraditional families.

If you liked Jellicoe Road, then you might enjoy: John Marsden’s So Much to Tell You, John Green’ s Paper Towns

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

2009-05-13T13:43:00.005-04:00

The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (2008), 342 pages, 2008 National Book Award Finalist

my review:

Elite boarding schools often provide a popular backdrop for young adult novels. They also provide the young adult novelist numerous opportunities to create situations where parental involvement and adult supervision is lacking; money and resources may abound for the characters. Many times, these characters live in a world that most young readers have never experienced--that of a life of privilege and status. All of these elements are a part of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks but the title character of Frankie is such an odd (in a smarty, funny way) girl that she is more realistic and relatable for many readers than the usual prep or boarding school characters.

Frankie becomes obsessed with her plans to infiltrate and be a part of the all male secret society (the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds) at Alabaster Prep. At the same time, she is experiencing her first love and a relationship where she struggles to not lose her own identity. More than just a pretty girl, Frankie fights for her place in the academic institution and in the world where the “Old Boys Club” rules.

The Disreputable History… is filled with clever wordplay and even more boarding school and college pranks, ideas of interventionist art, subverting the institutions of power and notions of gender roles and breaking the rules (whether written or just understood). Written in the third person, the narration is a welcome change from the usual first person narratives of many young adult novels. This is a coming of age book that defies many of the conventions of this genre.

2009 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Little Brother

2009-05-10T11:52:00.002-04:00

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008), 384 pages
a book review also available on my LibraryThing profile

From technology activist, Creative Commons proponent and self-proclaimed geeky guy Cory Doctorow is Little Brother. This is a realistic sci-fi novel for young adults that is packed with action, techno-speak and a scary but optimistic look at a possible near future for American citizens.

Marcus Yallow, our narrator, and his friends are able to sneak out of school by tricking the gait-recognition system and other surveillance tools the schools and city officials have implemented-- including a frighteningly invasive public that uses their phones and the Internet to snitch on possible truant students.

Skipping school to participate in an ARG (alternate reality game), they are caught at the site of a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Marcus and his friends are held by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at a secret prison. They are interrogated, terrified and treated like they are guilty. After this attack, paranoia, surveillance and distrust are amplified. California has become a police state. Marcus finds himself making choices that may endanger him, his friends and other citizens in his pursuit to take back the civil liberties and freedoms promised by the U.S. Constitution that the DHS has taken away.

This is a dystopian future, but not a future too far from now. It is easy to believe that all of these surveillance technologies are available today to those in power--and maybe they already are. Many of us- as Marcus points out- are guilty of not understanding the technologies all around us. We do not have them working for us.

At first I questioned how realistic this narrator is. Would a 17 year old boy be this advanced in computers, computer code writing and programming? And then I realized how old I am and more importantly, how dated my own experience with technology must be. Marcus is not so far-fetched. There are so many teens and young adults with these capabilities, experience and drive to tweak and hack and crack so many of the tools used on us and by us every day.

This book will be great for high school age and young adult readers and technology-literate and illiterate adults will enjoy it also. The book is jammed full of interesting ideas, questions and history. It could be very useful for discussions about privacy, terrorism and technology and surveillance and the role of a citizen in our democratic society.

Cherry Heaven

2009-04-29T15:47:00.000-04:00

Title: Cherry Heaven
Author: L.J. Adlington
Publication date: 2008
Number of pages: 458
Genre: Young Adult fiction, dystopian fiction, science fiction
Geographical Setting: the New Frontier (on another planet, not Earth)
Time Period: the future
Series: sequel to The Diary of Pelly D

Plot Summary: In the New Frontier, people are supposed to be able to live in peace, no matter what the genetic ID stamp says on their wrist. Kat and Tanka have arrived from the war-torn City Five to start over. Their new peaceful home is amongst an old cherry orchard but there is a terrible past in their new home. They don’t believe in ghosts but something or someone has come to show that the New Frontier may not be the perfect society.

Subject Headings: dystopia, science fiction, war, racism, genetics, future, orphans

Appeal: story is told in alternating fashion between Kat’s experiences and Luka’s narration; in this future, humans have already populated a new planet and have been genetically altered to have developed gills, people can breathe underwater and enjoy time in water; themes of racism, totalitarianism and slavery.

If you liked Cherry Heaven, you might enjoy: Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Bernard Beckett’s Genesis, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, John Wyndam’s The Chrysalids

Tattoo Machine

2009-04-28T19:08:00.000-04:00

The following is a review for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. You can see more of my reviews by clicking on "my library" to the right. Tattoo Machine: Tall Tales, True Stories, and My Life in Ink by Jeff Johnson is nonfiction and should be available July 2009.

I have a feeling that there will be numerous uninspired blurbs about the book Tattoo Machine hailing it as the tattoo industry’s Kitchen Confidential. I wouldn’t go so far. Jeff Johnson does invite his readers into some of the seedier and funnier stories about his life as a tattoo artist and offers up some second hand stories that may cause you to laugh and/or cringe. Johnson has a clever and visual way with words and the book is a quick, enjoyable read. I appreciated getting a glimpse of who he was as a child and young man and how this has lead to who he is now. He is successful nowadays and drives a BMW--which he chose to point out. But his writing is somewhat disjointed and near the end of this read, I was left wanting a little more depth to his stories and a little less of what came off as slick and “cool” business owner-speak.

I had some high hopes for this book. I have spent some time in a few tattoo shops as someone who dates a tattoo artist. So I am nowhere near an expert on this “industry” but I have seen and heard a bit. My opinions may be colored by my relationship and interactions with other tattoo artists and customers. One thing I can’t help but mention is the use of illustrations to introduce parts of the book. They are some on the poorest and amateur drawings and I was surprised that someone like Johnson, who does appear to be a good artist, would allow them into his own book. Overall, I would recommend "Tattoo Machine" to someone who likes a fun memoir but I don’t think I can wholeheartedly recommend it to the tattoo artists I know.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2009-04-15T15:15:00.000-04:00

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Author: Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
Publication date: 2009
Number of pages: 319
Genre: Classical Zombie Literature, Literature Mashup
Geographical setting: England countryside, village of Meryton
Time period: early 19th century
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: A plague has caused the dead return to life—and they are hungry for human brains! Luckily the town of Meryton has the Bennet sisters, trained in the deadly arts, to help defend the people of England against the “unmentionables.” Elizabeth Bennet has a duty to vanquish the spawn of Satan but she is soon distracted by the handsome, but arrogant, Mr. Darcy.

Subject Headings: 19th century England, zombies, romance, heartbreak, sisters, martial arts, classism, ninjas

Appeal: literature mashup of public domain work and zombie and ninja elements, comical and violent elements alongside original scenes of Austen’s work; illustrations; farcical reader discussion guide included; well received by critics; possible movie adaptation in the works

If you liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you might enjoy: S.G. Browne’s Breathers: A Zombie Lament, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Zadie Smith’s On Beauty

The School for Dangerous Girls

2009-04-09T19:42:00.000-04:00

Title: The School for Dangerous Girls
Author: Eliot Schrefer
Publication date: 2009
Number of pages: 341
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical setting: Colorado
Time period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot summary: Most of her life Angela has been labeled “hyper,” a “troublemaker” and other not very nice things. Her parents don’t like her boyfriend and after her behavior seems to have led to a terrible accident, she is now labeled a “criminal” and “dangerous.” She is shipped off to a last chance school, Hidden Oak where she and the other dangerous girls began to realize the reasons their new school is so isolated—and these secrets just may cost them their lives.

Subject headings: boarding schools, reform schools, troubled teen girls, authority figures, mother/daughter relationships

Appeal: strong-willed teen girls fight back and resist being labeled what society may decide they are; twist on the boarding school genre; suspenseful

If you liked The School for Dangerous Girls, you might enjoy: Alex McAulay’s Bad Girls, Rita Williams-Garcia’s Jumped, Judy Blundell’s What I Saw and How I Lied

I Am Rembrandt's Daughter

2009-04-03T05:33:00.000-04:00

Title: I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter
Author: Lynn Cullen
Publication date: 2007
Number of pages: 292
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction
Geographical Setting: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Time Period: 1660s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Cornelia van Rijn’s mother has died of the Plague. As the daughter of the famous Rembrandt, one would expect to be living the life of a wealthy and prestigious young woman. This is not the life Cornelia has been given. Rembrandt is going mad and refuses to paint what will please the wealthy patrons. The budding friendship with the well-to-do and handsome Carel begins to stir passion in Cornelia’s heart. But the Westerkerk bells that toll death begin to ring again—and family secrets best kept hidden may come to light.

Subject Headings: the Plague, painters, father/daughter relationships, illegitimate children, adultery, gender roles, poverty, artist-as-genius, coming of age.

Appeal: story based on real characters; flashback chapters; descriptions of some of Rembrandt’s paintings and novelist’s imaginings behind their depictions; love triangle; fictional telling of Rembrandt’s daughter about whom very little is known.

If you liked I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, you might enjoy: Katherine Sturevant’s A True and Faithful Narrative (historical fiction, takes place in London 1680s). Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Shannon Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days.

What I Saw and How I Lied

2009-04-03T05:15:00.000-04:00

Title: What I Saw and How I Lied
Author: Judy Blundell
Publication date: 2008
Number of pages: 284
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction
Geographical Setting: Palm Beach, Florida
Time Period: 1947, post-WWII
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Fifteen-year-old Evie Spooner’s stepdad Joe has survived his tour of duty in Europe during World War II. Before Evie and her gorgeous mother, Beverly, can enjoy this happy homecoming, Joe takes them on a sudden trip to Florida. In Palm Beach, Evie meets and falls for a young ex-GI, Peter--someone Joe is not too happy to see. Soon secrets surface and whispers start to be heard. Everything Joe has tried to keep hidden may soon be discovered.

Subject Headings: post-WWII, racism, prejudice, Noir, first love, espionage, mystery, coming of age, mother/daughter relationships, stepfamilies, adultery

Appeal: National Book Award Winner (2008); suspenseful, nourish drama set in a post-WWII Palm Beach, Florida, where Jews are not welcome; young woman living in the shadow of her mother’s beauty and allure; stylish, retro dialogue; author of Star Wars novelizations

If you liked What I Saw and How I Lied, you might enjoy: Mary Downing Hahn’s Look for Me by Moonlight, Siobahn Dowd's Bog Child

The Year the Gypsies Came

2009-03-19T19:16:00.000-04:00

Title: The Year the Gypsies Came
Author: Linzi Glass
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 254
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction
Geographical setting: Johannesburg, South Africa
Time period: 1960s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Twelve year old Emily craves affection from her constantly quarreling parents. She is tomboy with few friends, only her kind older sister and their Zulu servant, Buza who tells her stories of wisdom and magic. When a mysterious family of wanderers comes to stay, Emily finds a kindred soul in one of the houseguests as she learns of the pain and struggles of those all around her in apartheid South Africa.

Subject Headings: apartheid, South Africa, 1960s, abuse, Zulu, rape

Appeal: Buza the servant as the true caregiver of Emily; the realization by Emily of her privilege and the South Africa of apartheid, racism and police brutality; class and race relationships of the time period; author was born and Johannesburg and many of the Zulu stories and folklore told by Buza are from her childhood memories; Afrikaans and Zulu glossary; Nelson Mandela’s speech in court recounted.; abuse led to the brain damage of a child.

If you like The Year the Gypsies Came, you might enjoy these nonfiction books: Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, Peter Godwin’s Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.

The Book Thief

2009-03-19T18:33:00.000-04:00

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Publication date: 2005

Number of pages: 550

Genre: Young Adult historical fiction

Geographical setting: Nazi Germany, town of Molching

Time period: WWII

Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Liesel is a young orphan sent to live with her foster parents in a small town in Nazi Germany. Death (or if you would like to call him, the Grim Reaper) recounts her story and the lives of those around her, including the young Jewish man hiding in her basement. Her stolen books and the words she learns to fill her stories become some of the few salvations in her life on Himmel Street.

Subject Headings: Germany, Jews, World War II, Holocaust, survival, war, Death, orphans, foster families

Appeal: allows readers to see a different side of this time in history as the story of the Holocaust period is told from the lives of Germans, everyday people trying to hide Jewish friends, resisting the Nazis as much as they could and still be safe and live their lives; the rifts between father and son when ideologies clash; Liesel’s parents are not examined too much but enough to know that they were at least branded communists and one may assume her parents did not fare well under Hitler; creative use of illustrations; Death, as the narrator, is at times poetic and lyrical in his descriptions and saddening in his exhaustion of his taking of souls during the war; love of adoptive and foster parents for children they take care of; book thievery of Liesel and her love of words as a stark contrast to the censorship, banning and control by the Nazis over books and words.

If you like The Book Thief, you might enjoy these fiction books: Jerry Spinelli’s Milkweed, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Radioactive Boy Scout

2009-03-13T16:58:00.002-04:00

Title: The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor
Author: Ken Silverstein
Publication date: 2005
Number of pages: 209
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction/Biography
Geographical setting: suburban Detroit
Time period: early to mid 1990s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: As David Hahn was earning his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, he was also fueling his obsession of nuclear energy. Posing as a Physics professor, 16 year-old Hahn persuaded the U.S. government and industry experts to provide him with information on reactors. He also consulted an out-dated textbook to aid him in his pursuit of constructing a nuclear reactor in his backyard tool shed.

Subject Headings: biography, breeder reactors, gifted boys, Boy Scouts of America, nuclear energy

Appeal: Hahn is child of divorced parents—very distant father, mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, author presents history of nuclear power including some of the reported danger and benefits, past accidents and the culture surrounding the use and fears of nuclear energy, some history of the Boy Scouts, reveals some of the danger of gifted children who are neglected or not encouraged (or guided by professionals or experts) to explore their strengths and interests in a safe environment.

If you like The Radioactive Boy Scout, you might enjoy these fiction books: Michael Simmons’ Finding Lubchenko, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Mark Walden’s H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education, Catherine Jinks’ Evil Genius.

Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

2009-03-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

Title: Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

Author: Kenn Harper
Publication date: 1986
Number of pages: 320
Genre: Biography

Geographical Setting: Greenland and New York
Time Period: late 19^th Century and early 20^th Century
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Six-year-old Minik is one of six Eskimos brought from Greenland as “specimens” to New York City by Arctic explorer Robert Peary in 1897. Soon Minik is an orphan in a strange land. As he matures to adulthood, he is stranger in his homeland of Greenland and his adoptive home of the United States. Minik’s plight to claim his father’s body from the American Museum of Natural History for a proper burial and his wanderings and eventual death are traced in this biography of marginalized “curiosity.”

Subject Headings: Eskimo, Inuit, racism, prejudice, Arctic, North Pole, exploration, biography,

Appeal: biography of an orphan and exile, photographs included, written by Canadian Historian who has lived over thirty years in Inuit communities and speaks the language, the book helped to publicize the wrongs done to the Inuits by the American Museum of Natural History and led to the eventual return of their bodies to their homeland and people.

If you like Minik, you might enjoy: S. Allen Counter’s North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo, Jennifer Owings Dewey’s Minik’s Story, Robert M. Bryce’s Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved.

Sold

2009-03-04T17:07:00.000-05:00

Title: Sold
Author: Patricia McCormick
Publication date: 2008
Number of pages: 272
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Geographical Setting: Himalayan Mountain village of Nepal, Red Light District of Calcutta, India
Time Period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Thirteen year old Lakshmi leaves her small village and her mother, baby brother and pet goat to work as a maid in the city to help pay the debts caused by the damaging monsoon and her gambling stepfather. Her stepfather introduces her to a glamorous stranger to take her to the city. Her new “auntie” takes her to “Happiness House” in the slums of Calcutta and soon Lakshmi realizes her stepfather has sold her to a brothel that she may be indebted to for many years.
Subject Headings: sex trade, prostitution, child prostitution, sexual slavery, rape, poverty, human trafficking, HIV and AIDS

Appeal: novel told in verse-like prose, story of the very real and current issues of sex trade in Nepal and India , cultural myths about purity and curing of HIV through having sex with a virgin, contrast of poverty and struggles of those in the mountain village with those living in the slums of Calcutta, rights and status of women in Nepal and India.

If you like Sold, you might enjoy: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel, Somaly Mam’s The Road of Lost Innocence: As a girl she was sold into sexual slavery, but now she rescues others. The true story of a Cambodian heroine, Ellen Hopkin’s Burned.

Copper Sun

2009-03-04T17:05:00.001-05:00

Title: Copper Sun

Author: Sharon Draper
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 302
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Geographical Setting: Ashanti village in Africa, Cape Coast, Carolinas (America)
Time Period: 1738 (Colonial America)
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Fifteen year old Amari watches as her parents and younger brother are murdered by the men who take her away to her fate to travel the Middle Passage to be auctioned on the American shores. Amari is purchased as a gift for a rice plantation owner’s son on his 16^th birthday. Newly-purchased indentured servant, Polly, becomes an unlikely friend as they both learn to survive their new fates.

Subject Headings: slavery, rape, racism, African American, historical fiction, Middle Passage, murder, Colonial America, plantations

Appeal: narrative switches focus back and forth from Amari to Polly, author did extensive research for this book, Little-known Florida’s Fort Mose sanctuary for runaway slaves is introduced, the incidents of rape, violence and murder may be too graphic and emotional for readers under 12.

If you like Copper Sun, you might enjoy: Octavia Butler's Kindred, Yuval Taylor's Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves Told By Themselves, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh's White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America

Before We Were Free

2009-02-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

Title: Before We Were Free
Author: Julia Alvarez
Publication date: 2002
Number of pages: 163
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Geographical Setting: Dominican Republic & New York City
Time Period: 1960-61
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Twelve year old Anita lives in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Trujillo, El Jefe. The secret police begin terrorizing and interrogating her family as her uncle and father are suspected of planning the assassination of Trujillo. Instead of school work, friends and first love, Anita must learn to survive and escape the only life and country she has ever known.

Subject Headings: dictatorship, military dictatorship, oppression, revolution, assassination, ajustaciemento (“bringing to justice”), secret police, survival

Appeal: author’s first young adult novel, inspired by historical events and author’s own family, story told by twelve year old narrator and includes diary entries, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, portrait of Latin American country under dictatorship and the lives of “ordinary” people and children, taking up of arms in order to be free and the dilemma between murder and ajustaciemento.

If you like Before We Were Free, you might enjoy: John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, An Na’s A Step from Heaven.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2009-02-22T15:01:00.000-05:00

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon
Publication Date: 2002
Number of Pages: 226
Genre: Fiction (Young Adult appeal)
Geographical Setting: England
Time Period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Somebody killed Mrs. Shears’ dog Wellington—but it wasn’t Christopher. But he is going to find out who did it. Christopher’s dad isn’t too happy though about him sticking his nose in other people’s business and forbids him from doing any “detecting.” Christopher finds some ways around his promise to his dad to not look for the dog murderer and through the encouragement of his teacher at a special needs school, Christopher writes a book about his experiences as he tries to solve this murder mystery.

Subject Headings: autism, savant, Asperger syndrome, mathematics, murder mystery, special needs

Appeal: protagonist and narrator is a 15 year old boy with “special needs”—it is not stated explicitly that he has a form of autism (Asperger syndrome). Protagonist is a mathematical savant, has a photographic memory and struggles with understanding other peoples’ behaviors, gestures and expressions; illustrations; use of well-know math and logic puzzles with answers in the appendix; chapters are numbered by prime numbers; struggles of parents to raise and live with a child with extreme reactions to everyday experiences like hugging and being in a busy store; lies parents tell children to ‘protect” them.

If you liked The Curious Incident…, you might enjoy: Judy Barron’s There’s A Boy In Here, Marti Leimbach’s Daniel Isn’t Talking, Martha Witt’s Broken As Things Are

Speak

2009-02-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

Title: Speak

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Publication date: 1999

Number of Pages: 198

Genre: Young Adult fiction

Geographical Setting: Syracuse, NY

Time Period: late 1990s

Series: N/A

Plot: Melinda starts her first year of high school as an outcast. Her friends have deserted her because she called the cops on an end of the summer party. Something happened to her at that party but she has not told anyone. To the frustration of her parents and teachers, she has become almost mute. As she explores her art assignment for the year, Melinda struggles with being able to find the girl she used to be before the night of the party.

Subject Headings: rape, post traumatic stress disorder, trauma, alienation, depression, cliques

Appeal: 2000 Printz Honor Book, ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adult, SLJ Book of the Year, film adaptation, first person narrative, sarcastic and funny narrator, author’s first novel, young woman dealing with rape and seeing her rapist almost daily in school, parents are wrapped up in their own lives and unhappy marriage, story is told over the course of the first year of high school, art as therapy

If you liked Speak, you might enjoy: Patricia McCormick’s Cut, Patricia Kindl’s Woman in the Wall, Go Ask Alice

Nineteen Minutes

2009-02-19T17:45:00.000-05:00

Title: Nineteen Minutes
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publication date: 2007
Number of Pages: 455
Genre: Adult fiction (with Young Adult appeal)
Geographical Setting: small town New Hampshire
Time Period: late 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: In nineteen minutes, the quiet town of Sterling, New Hampshire is changed forever. The often bullied Peter Houghton opens fire on his high school. Alex Cormier is the judge assigned to the trial while her own daughter, Josie, is a surviving witness.

Subject Headings: school shooting, school violence, abuse, mother-daughter relationship, justice system, crime victim, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bullies

Appeal: examination into minds and experiences of many sides to school violence and school shootings: victims, the shooter, lawyers, law enforcement, parents of victims, parents of shooter; recurring characters from author’s previous novels; discussions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); character suffers abusive relationship with boyfriend; cliques of high school students and acts of hazing/bullying; main female character is a successful judge, the struggles with her career and relationship with her teenage daughter; parent’s loss of a child; series of flashbacks reveal the events leading to the shooting; book has been challenged in school libraries because of sexual references, violence including bullying, suicide and profanity.

If you liked Nineteen Minutes, you might enjoy: Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller, Alice Hoffman’s Local Girls, Sue Miller’s Family Pictures

Uglies

2009-02-18T14:53:00.001-05:00

Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication date: 2005
Number of Pages: 425
Genre: Young Adult fiction (grade 6 and up)
Geographical Setting: United States, location is unclear, near a large city Time Period: future
Series: yes, first in trilogy

Plot: In the future, people have learned ways to avoid war and destruction of the earth by the wastefulness of human beings. Their cities care take care of them, every need can be fulfilled. At the age of sixteen, each citizen gets an operation to turn them from an Ugly to a Pretty. But Tally, soon to be turned pretty, begins to question if the equality of the pretty world comes at too high of a price.

Subject Headings: science fiction, authoritarianism, individuality, conformity, free will

Appeal: futuristic society including “hoverboards” and “hovercars,” operation that re-sculpts the body and face/features to create “ideal” of beauty including light skin and symmetry of the face, dystopian image of the future, disquieting vision of our current society (known as the “Rusties” in the future): the wastefulness of the Rusties with their natural resources compounded by a virus that destroys all petroleum leads to their demise, fast-moving first book of a trilogy and cliffhanger ending.

If you liked Uglies, you might enjoy: Lois Lowry’s The Giver, M.T. Anderson’s Feed, Rodman Philbrick’s The Last Book of the Universe, Ned Vizzini’s Be More Chill, Ellen Dee Davidson’s Stolen Voices, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Word

How I Live Now

2009-02-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

Title: How I Live Now
Author: Meg Rosoff
Publication date: 2004
Number of Pages: 194
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: English countryside
Time Period: 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Fifteen year old New Yorker Daisy is shipped off to England by her father and stepmother to live with the aunt and cousins she has never met. Soon after she arrives, war has broken out and England is occupied by an unnamed enemy. Daisy and her cousins find themselves alone on the isolated farm but soon the war reaches them. Now they must figure out how to live through it.

Subject Headings: war, terrorism, anorexia, England, survival, family

Appeal: dystopian view of now/near future, protagonist battles anorexia, mother of protagonist died in childbirth, the pain in the loss of a parent and the strain of the relationship with a step parent, incestuous relationship, sensitive and emotional narrative of life for a young person forced into survival mode

If you like How I Live Now, you might enjoy: Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It, John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began (series), Gloria Milkowitz's After the Bomb (out of print, find at your library)

The Secret Life of Bees

2009-02-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Title: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Publication Date: 2002

Number of Pages: 302

Genre: Fiction with Young Adult appeal

Geographical Setting: South Carolina

Time Period: 1964

Series: N/A

Plot: Fourteen year old Lily flees her isolated home on a peach farm with her nanny Rosaleen. They are fleeing the police because Rosaleen defended her right to register to vote. But Lily is also fleeing from her abusive father and trying to escape the memory of the accidental shooting of her mother by her hands. Amongst her mother’s few remaining possessions is a picture of a Black Madonna with “Tiburon, SC” written on it. Lily follows her hope that she will find out more about her mother in this town. There Lily and Rosaleen find the Black Madonna—a honey farm run by three middle-aged black sisters and they stay to help harvest the honey crop.

Subject Headings: African American, Civil Rights, racism, abuse, 1960s South, beekeeping, depression

Appeal: in the tradition of Southern Gothic, strong African American female characters, glimpses in to the era of Civil Rights in the South, successful film adaptation in 2008, female friendship, escape from abusive parent, an era that did not recognize depression as a treatable illness

If you liked The Secret Life of Bees, you might enjoy: Nancy Kincaid’s As Hot as It Was You Ought to Thank Me, Monica Wood’s Any Bitter Thing, Dori Sander’s Clover, Jennifer Chiaverini’s Quilter’s Apprentice

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

2009-01-22T17:47:00.000-05:00

Title: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Author: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Publication Date: 2006
Number of Pages: 183
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Geographical Setting: New York City
Time Period: late 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Nick meets Norah at the club where his band is playing. He asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes to avoid the girl who broke his heart. These five minutes turn into a night-long first date full of moments of passion, awkward silences and some great music.

Subject Headings: music scene, boy meets girl, bands, New York City, broken hearts, true love, straight edge

Appeal: story is told by both title characters in alternating chapters, nice guy doesn’t “finish last” message, music and pop culture references, popular movie adaptation, Nick is a bassist for a queercore band but he is not gay, both characters are straight edge, Norah is Jewish and some talk of concepts of Judaism, coarse language and descriptions of sexual experiences

If you liked Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, you might enjoy: Robin Benway’s Audrey, Wait! Susane Colasanti’s When it Happens.