October Wrap-up

Another month down, and a suprising number of books read! The Read-a-thon helped, but then I took a week-long reading break. :) I've got one more book review to go up for October, of Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, but that I probably won't do until Tuesday, because school is indeed scary and all this homework I have is burying me. -sigh-

Here are the stats:

Days spent reading: 22
Books read: 13
...in fiction: 12
...in non-fiction: 1
...in historical: 1
...in speculative fiction: 1
...in mystery: 2
...in fantasy: 1
...in young adult: 3
...in children's: 4

Series reads: Moon series, Mobile Library Mysteries, Flavia de Luce, Alvin Ho

Favorite book: The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer 10/10

Challenges
RIP Challenge: +2 books for 4/4 Completed!
My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge: +2 books for 7/12
The Baker Street Challenge: +0 books for 2/3
Orbis Terrarum Challenge: +1 books for 10/10 Completed!
Back to School Challenge: +0 books for 0/4
Critical Monkey Challenge: +0 books for 1/6
Countdown Challenge: +10 books for 14/55

Mischief Maker's Manual, by Sir John Hargrave (24 October — 25 October)

Heeheehee. This book was really fun to read, not just because it taught me how to short sheet a bed or make a toilet fizz like crazy, but because the writing in it is awesome. See the passage I copied here or this one about planning pranks (in particular, the short-sheeting one): "There are still important questions to think through: How will you get access to your target's bed? What happens if someone catches you in the act? What if there's a vicious house cat hiding under the covers?" These are things you have to know!

I think what I like most about this book is that it really emphasizes pranks over practical jokes, the former being things that are hilarious that don't actually harm anyone or anything. Almost all of the pranks in the book are good clean fun (and are also easy to clean up!) and are likely to make the target crack up after the fact. I probably wouldn't buy this for my hypothetical children, but I would definitely get it for my hypothetical nieces and nephews. Teehee.

Rating: 9/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Measle and the Wrathmonk, by Ian Ogilvy (24 October)

This is another of the books on my What Should William Read? list, and I am much more likely to get this one. It is pretty cute.

The story: Measle Stubbs lives in a creepy old house with his creepy old guardian, Basil Tramplebone, who is allegedly distantly related to him and is therefore able to "take care of" (read: steal a bunch of money from) Measle when the kid's parents die. But that's all in the past; Measle is used to living with Basil but pretty much hates it, except for the times when he gets to watch Basil play with his super-awesome train set in the attic. One day, Measle decides he wants to play with it himself, tricks Basil out of the house, and heads upstairs. But before he can have too much fun, Basil returns and, very surprisingly, shrinks Measle down to half an inch and tells him he can play in Basil's train set all he wants now. Creepy? A little. Measle soon discovers that some of the other people in the model village are also real, and together they decide to break out of there.

So. Yes. Cute! There are a few (or a lot of) things that are kind of contrived, but it's a kid's book and it's fun and I don't really care. :) This is a definite maybe on my gift list.

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2004)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (24 October)

This is a companion to Life As We Knew It, a book I read a little while ago and absolutely loved. If you haven't read that one, it's okay, because this isn't a sequel. If you haven't read the first one, you won't have the background on just exactly why the moon is closer to the earth, but as long as you know that it is (which, now you do!), you can follow along quite well.

The Dead and the Gone is the story of Alex Morales, a 17-year-old kid in New York City who, before the moon thing happens, is fighting his way to be number one in his class, though another student is staying annoyingly right ahead of him. However, after the moon thing happens, he is left with no idea what happened to his parents and two younger sisters to take care of. Things are a little easier for Alex than for Life's Miranda because he's in New York City and the government's not just going to ignore it, but he still has to worry about food and illness and keeping his faith alive in the face of tragedy. (Side note: those who were upset about the portrayal of Christians in Life will I think be much more pleased by the heavy Christian influence of the good kind in this novel.)

I thought that this book made a really interesting contrast to the first and also that it worked really well as a stand-alone novel, so I really recommend this to everyone. There's a third one coming out in six months or so and I am really excited.

Rating: 10/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2008)

See also:
Just One More Page
Blogging for a Good Book

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Booking Through Thursday (29 October)

Today's Booking Through Thursday question is: "Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”"

You know, I don't know! I don't think that there are specific words or phrases, like "fascinating" or "electric boogaloo"... well, no, if a blurb had the words "electric boogaloo" in it I might give the book a chance. I think generally when I'm looking at blurbs I'm just looking for the general feel. If reading the blurb makes me crack a smile, I will pick up the book. If it makes me curious to read the book, I will pick up the book. If it makes me roll my eyes so hard they fall out of my head... I probably will not pick up the book.

What about you guys? When I write my future treatise on collectible fountain pens (I found one of these while I was weeding at the library the other day, no, really!), what should I put in the blurb to convince you that it's the greatest book ever?

A Midsummer Night's Dork, by Carol Gorman (24 October)

I picked up this book from the library as part of my great search for books to get my little brother for his birthday. It came highly recommended, but I think I'll have to pass because this book really (really really) harps on the fact that a boy wearing a dress is like THE WORST POSSIBLE THING ANYONE COULD IMAGINE EVER. Seriously.

The general story, as you might assume, follows along with that of A Midsummer Night's Dream, that one play by that famous dude. The kids in the story are in sixth grade and are studying said play for their classes and their ridiculously awesome teachers have set up after-school Elizabethan activities (like stage fighting, costume design, and games) for them to do. Jerry Flack, our hero and sixth-grade class president, has a great idea to put on a festival to raise money for computers in the lunch room (no, I don't know either) and he has to give a speech to start it. This is important.

Meanwhile, Jerry wants his unpopular friend, Elena, to be more popular, so he enlists the help of Cool Girl Zoey to talk to her and make her look cooler to the other sixth graders. Zoey's "magic" works, and soon Elena has two male suitors, one of whom is ignoring his current girl for her.

Meanwhile, Jerry's enemy, Craig, is doing a terrible job of taking care of a stray puppy that he tricked away from Jerry's girlfriend Brenda. Brenda wants Jerry to get the dog for her, and Craig wants to torture Jerry, so Jerry agrees to eat dog food in exchange for the dog. The food is eaten but then regurgitated, so Craig says no deal. BUT, if Jerry will give his festival opening speech in a dress, Craig will for reals give up the dog this time.

...And this is where I got a little upset. Here is the passage where Jerry decides that that is not going to happen:

"I'm sorry, Bren, but there's no way--"
"Oh, of course not."
"Everyone will be there. My parents even want to come."
"Right," Brenda agreed. "Mine, too."
"I'm president of the sixth grade," Jerry continued. "I mean, everyone would think I'd lost my mind if I gave the welcoming speech in a dress."
"Yes, they would."
"I can't do it. It'd be too embarrassing."

A dress, people. Spoiler alert, he does wear a dress in the end and makes it all fine and dandy, but seriously every few paragraphs Gorman reiterates how terrible, horrible, no-good and very bad it would be if Jerry wore a dress. Ugggggggggggggggh.

I'm not going to give this to William to read, because he already has enough people telling him that doing things that are girly is the worst thing ever and I'm pretty sure he believes it, so that's no good. But if you've got a kid in mind that is secure about gender roles (or one in whom you would like to reinforce the gender divide), I say go for it. The allusions to Shakespeare are rather well done and it's always nice to rescue puppies.

Rating: 6/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2004)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom (24 October)

I'm... not sure what to make of this one. I picked it up because, well, it's a mystery with a librarian in it and those are two of my favorite things! But. Well. Let's start with the synopsis and go from there.

Our protagonist is a late-20s librarian called Israel Armstrong who is a librarian because he likes books and couldn't think of anything else to do with his less-than-perfect grades. Oh, jolly good. He can't find a job in London so he ends up off to Tumdrum, County Antrim, Northern Ireland to be a public librarian... except that when he gets there his job is cancelled and they'd rather he be the driver of a mobile library (basically a van full of books that travels to out-of-the-way places to lend to patrons). He's not excited about it, but he has no money and not much of a life (save for an indifferent girlfriend) so he stays. Somewhere in the middle of the book he finally goes to get the books out of the closed library and into his giant van, but they've all gone missing! Oh no! Israel hones up his amateur-sleuthing skills and sets off to solve the case.

Okay. Good ideas, in theory, but in practice? Not so good. First of all, everyone Israel meets in Tumdrum is FREAKING CRAZY. None of them are willing to listen to reason, none of them give Israel half a chance to speak reason, they're all more interested in mocking Israel for not understanding "English" (read: the Northern Irish accent and slang). His boss even makes it out like 15,000 missing books are somehow his fault. And it's supposed to be crazy, I guess, but I really very much wanted to punch every single character in the face at least once, especially Israel. I just couldn't take it.

Secondly, and this will totally spoil the book for you so, you know, warning: Israel doesn't even end up solving the mystery. No one solves it, because everyone in Tumdrum except for like three people were in on the whole thing. Ugggh. This was seriously one of the most anti-climactic endings I have ever read.

This leads to thirdly: the whole point of this book seems to be setting up the background for the rest of the series (which I will not be reading, no thank you). It's like how in the first episode of Castle (shut up, I love Nathan Fillion!), there's a serial killer doin' his thing in the style of the murders in Richard Castle's novels, so he goes to consult with the police because maybe he could help, and then at the end he decides to write a new series about the police detective he has the hots for and then that's the rest of the series, Castle following around the detective on other more exciting cases. That first episode has to be there so that you understand why on earth the police department would let an author go out on murder investigations (and yes, it's still pretty ridiculous but at least there's a tenuous reason), but it really has no bearing on the rest of the series, as I think this book will have no bearing on any further mysteries Israel Armstrong and his mobile library encounter.

Oh, and lastly, Ian Sansom uses a butt-ton of run-on sentences. I mean, so do I, but I'm writing a blog, not a novel. Sansom's sentences aren't quite up to Henry James caliber, but they are close. Very close.

Um... things I did like? There's a librarian. He solves mysteries while making delightful references to books. I can't argue with that.

Rating: 5/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2006, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Northern Ireland)

See also:
an adventure in reading

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley (20 October — 23 October)

This book was really cute and enjoyable and full of just enough precociousness that I was entertained and not annoyed by the small child that is the protagonist. For yes, one Flavia Sabina de Luce, aged 11, is the heroine and crime-solver in this mystery. She also likes chemistry, especially poisons, and is kind of overbearingly smart but then I think so was I (in math, though, not in chemistry) at that age, so, you know. Can't really complain.

Flavia's mystery is one of murder and deceit and all the good things that crime stories are made of, set in a lovely little English town in the 1950s. One day, Flavia overhears her father arguing with a mysterious stranger in his office; the next, she is finding said mysterious stranger even more mysteriously dying in her garden. She hears his last word, "Vale" (Latin, of course!), and runs off to tell the police. Of course, the lead inspector condescends to our genius friend, and Flavia decides to go off and solve the crime herself. It's a good time.

Some of Flavia's experiences and the things she knew were a touch unbelievable, but not enough that I really cared. :) Generally, the whole novel flowed really well together, and even when it didn't — like during the middle section where Flavia's father goes off on a ridiculously long stroll down Memory Lane (Memory Interstate?) — I learned so many probably true things about chemistry and philately and magic tricks that I was sufficiently amused. I was excited to note in the "About the Author" section that there will be a second Flavia de Luce mystery. Yay, science!

Rating: 8/10
(RIP Challenge, Countdown Challenge: 2009)

See also:
Stainless Steel Droppings
Medieval Bookworm
Back to Books
Thoughts of Joy
book-a-rama

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Read-a-thon, Hour 18

And... I'm done. I have been up for nearly 20 hours and I am burned out on having my eyes open. :( On the bright side, I have finished the Mischief Maker's Manual and I can now: short-sheet a bed (I've always wanted to know how to do this!), create a confetti grenade with compressed air, and fake an alien landing. Oh, yeah. Watch out, world.

Mini-Challenges!

Nope. Bedtime. Zzzzzzz.

Stats!

Time spent reading: 675 minutes (11 hours and 15 minutes!)
Pages read: 1327 (+30 minutes of audio)
Books finished: 6
Fun had: The almost-most fun, as really the opening sections of the MMM were the best. But crop circles are cool, too.

Read-a-thon, Hour 16

Holy cow! Sixteen hours already? (Well, 11 for me, but whatevs!) Measle was cute and entertaining and might be something to get for my brother, but even better is the Mischief Maker's Manual that I've just started and which is HILARIOUS. It's a guide to pulling off awesome pranks (not practical jokes, but pranks), and as proof of its hilariosity, I proffer this passage: "There's nothing good about trouble. Stay away from it at all costs. Do not flirt with Danger, and certainly don't ask Danger to marry you. Under no circumstances should you kiss Danger. Danger doesn't brush her teeth, and probably has rabies." Oh, yes. HILARITY. Ahem.

Mini-Challenges!

For Hour 17 (which is just starting, so it counts, right?): "Go to your blog and post a list of five favorite children's books. They don't have to be THE five end-all-be-all of your favorites, because then you'll just agonize over which ones to pick, and we want this to be easy. Just list five off the top of your head that you enjoyed as a child, or that your children enjoy."

1. The Phantom Tollbooth (my favorite book of all time ever?)
2. The Composer is Dead
3. The entire Series of Unfortunate Events
4. The Sherlock Chick books
5. Green Eggs and Ham

Stats!

Time spent reading: 595 minutes
Pages read: 1132 (+30 minutes of audio)
Books finished: 5
Fun had: Um, THE MOST FUN. I will be sad to put down the Mischief Maker's Manual, not leastly because Scott will steal it and return it to the library while I am not looking so that I will forget to switch the salt and pepper in the shakers (except I won't because I wrote it down so HA).

Read-a-thon, Hour 13

Note to all: The Dead and the Gone was not an appropriate book to read without copious amounts of Kleenex nearby. This is your warning. :) I'm moving on to Measle and the Wrathmonk next because I'm pretty sure that can't possibly be sad!

Mini-Challenges!

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? I'm about to start Measle and the Wrathmonk.
2. How many books have you read so far? Four!
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Well, I'm kind of excited about Measle and the Wrathmonk because it has approximately the best name ever, but I'm also looking forward to the Mischief Maker's Manual.
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? I was sadly unable to free up my whole day, but other than my meeting I was available anyway.
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? No interruptions, unless you count hunger!
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Um, I didn't really think I'd make it past two books, and I've read three of a decent size already. Awesome!
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Invent a way for me to be reading and blogging at the same time?
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? More snacks! I've been eating too much healthy food all day long. :)
9. Are you getting tired yet? Not yet, as it's only 9:30pm here, but give me a few more hours...
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? I can't think of anything.

Stats!

Time spent reading: 475 minutes
Pages read: 864 (+30 minutes of audio)
Books finished: 4
Fun had: Not as much... that book was so sad!

Read-a-thon, Hour 11

Nearing halfway on book number four, The Dead and the Gone, which is so far not as nerve-wracking as Life As We Knew It but the whole moon thing is still giving me the heebie-jeebies. Stay in one place, moon! Stay!

Mini-Challenges!

For Hour 10:
"What book or books do you return to read again and again and why?" Well, I "read" The Composer is Dead for about the fifth time during today's Read-a-thon (so good!), but I generally don't re-read books because there are so many good ones out there! The Phantom Tollbooth is one book I've read a million times; I have also read the Harry Potter series multiple times and I'm working on making my way through the Hitchhiker's Guide series again. Here's a list of the books I read for a re-read challenge a little while ago: Summer Lovin' Challenge

Stats!

Time spent reading: 370 minutes
Pages read: 663 (+30 minutes of audio)
Books finished: 3.5
Fun had: Quite a bit; I love reading through all the comments people are leaving! (Hint? Yes.)

Read-a-thon, Hour 9

Okay, I'm back from my meeting adventure and ready to go! In fact, I've even got another book to add to my list, because on my half-hour walk to the meeting I listened to The Composer is Dead, which is only 40 pages of book and half an hour of audio, but do I care? No I do not! :)

Mini-Challenges!

None this time! I'm diving right back into reading!

Stats!

Time spent reading: 250 minutes
Pages read: 439 (+30 minutes of audio)
Books finished: 2.5
Fun had: Much! I love the music to The Composer is Dead and also I ate some kielbasa. Mmmmmm.

Read-a-thon, Hour 4

Four hours! I've finished off The Case of the Missing Books, which ended up being pretty disappointing, and I'm halfway through A Midsummer Night's Dork, which I'm still not sure about but it's cute, for sure.

Mini-Challenges!

I put up a pin for the Hour 3 challenge, but since I've got to get off to my meeting, I'll be passing on hours four and five. More challenges when I return!

Stats!

Time spent reading: 220 minutes
Pages read: 439
Books finished: 1.5
Fun had: A goodly amount, aided by zucchini bread! Mmmmm.

Read-a-thon, Hour 2

Two hours down already! I'm in the midst of The Case of the Missing Books, which is, um, interesting? I pretty much want to punch every character in the novel, but I think I'm supposed to want that and otherwise it's fairly interesting. I hope that as a librarian I never have to worry about a whole library full of books gone missing. That would be less than excellent.

Mini-Challenges!

For Hour 1:
Where are you reading from today? Two couches in my fun room in Ohio!

3 facts about me … Hmm. I am very excited to be reading a whole bunch today, because mostly I do classwork. Relatedly, I am working on a master's in library science. Unrelatedly, I am currently wearing a Snuggie.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? Seven, including the one I am currently working on.

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? Nope! Just having fun and reading books!

Stats!

Time spent reading: 120 minutes
Pages read: 216
Books finished: .5
Fun had: Slightly more than usual

Read-a-thon, Hour 0

All right. I have eaten my Cheerios (mmmmmm), I have a giant water bottle, I have a Snuggie and a comfy couch. I am ready for the Read-a-thon!

My plan for the day: Read from eight to noon, spend the next four or five hours at my meeting/get-together, read from five (or earlier!) until I pass out, which will probably be well before eight tomorrow. Confession: the longest I've ever stayed up in one go is 23 hours and 45 minutes, at which point I passed out from sheer exhaustion. I've been up since six-thirty today, so if I can make it to six I will be proud of myself! I'll try to update the blog every two hours or so (or when I make it to the end of a book, or when I have to get up and pee anyway [see: giant water bottle]), and I'll probably be Twittering slightly more often than that.

Oh, and a reminder: I'm shilling for Donors Choose this month, because they are AWESOME, so please check them out via the links in those posts and consider donating. You will make a lot of students and teachers ridiculously happy.

And now some pictures, because I know the internet likes pictures!

The Pile of Possibility. I'm starting with the top book for sure, but who knows what else I'll get to! (Also note that it is the water bottle that is giant [1.5L], not the books that are tiny!)

The Chair of Chillin'. This is where I'll be starting the Read-a-thon. Please ignore the evil cat; she likes it better that way. :)

The Couch of Comfy-ness. I can't start here, because I'll fall asleep, but I will be rockin' the Snuggie here later.

Links of the Week

I don't have any questions to ask authors (this week's Booking Through Thursday), and I'll be posting a million times for the read-a-thon this weekend, so today you get your links! Yay, links!

Do you like e-books? So does your library. This is the only reason I'd ever own an e-book reader, but I'm certainly not going to buy one any time soon. (via @ your library)

Kind of appropriate for Hallowe'en... publishing from beyond the grave. Ghostwriting, if you will? I crack myself up. (via The Book Bench)

From that same post: Your brain on reading.

I tweeted this yesterday, and it's still true that I want it as a poster: 42 Essential 3rd Act Twists for Writers (again via The Book Bench)

Similar: The Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre Fiction Generator 2000. (via The Guardian)

Also, John Green's Paper Towns (which I enjoyed immensely) was voted best book of 2009 by a bunch of those teenage types. He made this video about it.

More Donors Choose

Hey guys, remember how I was totally giving money to charity this month based on how many books I've read? Yeah, totally still doing that and totally still hoping you'll help out, too! I donated $10 yesterday to the Tomato Nation campaign (I've only read 5 books so far this month? Sadness!), specifically this project, and I feel awesome. How about you? :)

If you don't want to hedge your bets on how many books I'll read, please consider giving me an eight-days-late birthday present and donating to that project or to one of these zillion projects that Tomato Nation is sponsoring. It will make you feel awesome, I promise!

The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Debra Dean (14 October — 18 October)

Sigh. I just don't even know what to say about this book. Remember People of the Book? That was a good book, but I would have liked it better if I didn't have to read about Hanna Heath in the present. Madonnas suffers from the same problem, only I don't even care about the parts in the past. Sigh.

Summary: The story follows our protagonist, Marina, in the present day and in her past when she was in Leningrad during World War II. Back then, she was a docent at a museum and was kept on to pack up all of the artwork and ship out what could be shipped out to save it from the German bombs. She also lived with her family and many others in the cellars of the museum, where they could save themselves from said bombs. Sometime during that, another museum worker recruits Marina to remember every single piece of art in the museum, even some that were taken away before Marina started there. So she does. Now, in the present day, Marina has Alzheimer's, and instead of being present with her husband and at her granddaughter's wedding, she flashes back to all these scenes of the past.

It's a pretty flimsy narrative device, especially since more time is spent in the past than in the present, and the past scenes don't tie in very well with the present scenes anyway. And, unlike People of the Book, the past scenes aren't very compelling. I understand why she would want to try to remember all of the works in the museum, but it never really pays off (unless "ironically" getting Alzheimer's counts as paying off). Also, there are a couple of magical/mystical/fantastical elements involving [spoiler?] sex with a god and some soldiers "seeing" the paintings that aren't there that just took me completely out of the story and irked me a bit.

Like I told one of my book club members, if it weren't a book club read I'd tell all of them not to finish it. It just wasn't worth it, to me.

Rating: 3/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2006)

See also:
Peeking Between the Pages
Age 30+... A Lifetime of Books

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Musing Mondays (19 October)

Today's Musing Mondays question is appropriate: "Are you planning on participating in the upcoming 24 Hour Read-a-thon (either as a reader or cheerleader)? Have you made any preparations for the event? And, veterans out there, any tips you’d like to share with the newbies?"

I am planning to take part in the Read-a-thon (my first!), though I just found out (read: was reminded) that I'm going to be out of the house for four or five hours on Saturday. I will just have to do that much more reading during the other nineteen or twenty hours? As to preparations, I'm going to have to get some snacks and caffeine ready, and figure out how I'm going to stay awake all night. That part might just not happen. We shall see.

And, for your enjoyment, a list of books I might just read this weekend:

Measle and the Wrathmonk, by Ian Ogilvy
Mischief Maker's Manual, by Sir John Hargrave
A Midsummer Night's Dork, by Carol Gorman
The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom
The Bermudez Triangle, by Maureen Johnson
One More Year, by Sana Krasikov

That should be enough to tide me over. :)

Teen Read Week!

Teen Read Week is this week! What is this Teen Read Week, you ask? Why, it's simply a week in which libraries (and probably other people, too), persuade teens to read books! Yay reading!

I'm not a librarian just yet, so my ability to push books into the hands of teens is limited and I need your help! :) If you parent a teen, know a teen, see a teen on the street, whatever, remind them all week that reading is fun! If they need some convincing, here are some books you can tell them to read, ones that I have read recently and enjoyed:

Liar, by Justine Larbalestier — The story of a liar who is totally going to tell the truth this time, honest.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart — Secret societies, they're all fun and games until you infiltrate one and then get in lots of trouble.
Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer — Because being a teenager isn't difficult enough without worrying about the moon looming ever closer.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins — Because being a teenager isn't difficult enough without worrying about being forced to kill other teenagers.
Zoe's Tale, by John Scalzi — Because being a teenager isn't difficult enough without worrying about being stranded on a colony planet.
Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns by John Green — Because being a teenager is just difficult.
Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow — Awesome teenagers take on the government using even awesomer technology. Recommended in e-book form for your tech-savvy teen.

Links of the Week

Some shiny links for you while I work on that book I'm reading! Yay! And lots of them today. Also, if you have any children's book suggestions for me, you should go leave them on that post.

The links!

Oh, I hope this is true: Barnes and Noble might allow a lending feature on their new e-book reader. (via LISNews)

How do I get my hands on a copy of Nightlight? Because I totally want one.

I'm not sure I'm down with libraries selling books, but it's certainly an interesting concept. (via LISNews)

Speaking of things I want to get my hands on... this would totally go well in my front yard, right?

Kitties!

Sigh. I think that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is more "high school survival" than "pornography," but I can see we'll have to agree to disagree on that score, Angry Parent. (via LISNews)

I put some Russian books on the shelf the other day, and I had this same problem!

I wonder if they'll let liberals join in on the fun. (via LISNews)

Bookaholism and a children's books question

So. I went to my local library tonight to do an assignment for my Foundations of Library and Information Science class. And then I walked out with seven books. I am addicted to the bookahol. I am excited, though, because this means more books for my Read-a-thon pile (what's that? I should make a list? I'll think about it...)!

Two of the books are from the children's section, because my youngest brother's birthday is coming up and I can't figure out what to buy for him! He has asked for fiction books and "learning books" (aw, cute!), and I've gotten him two of the latter but I want to do a one-of-each thing for his birthday (at the end of November) and Christmas (at the end of... oh, you know when that is?).

I plan on giving him The Maze of Bones for Christmas, because that's got trading cards and stuff that I don't want my parents to feel obligated to throw in the Christmas stocking, but I need something for his birthday! The two books I got from the library are A Midsummer Night's Dork and Measle and the Wrathmonk (that one mostly for its awesome name!), and then I was also planning on picking up Diary of a Wimpy Kid but they didn't have it. But I am always looking for more suggestions! Here are the requirements/suggestions:

1. William is going to be 11, but his reading level's not quite that high.
2. He won't read anything that's too long (I'd say 200 pages maximum).
3. He is obsessed with the A-Z mysteries series, he likes Goosebumps, he has read the Magic Treehouse series and liked it, and I don't know what else he reads.
4. He is a boy's boy and doesn't like things that are girly on principle, but if you can sneak a rockin' female sidekick in there...
5. He watches a lot of television, especially Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
6. He is also obsessed with Bakugan/Yugioh/Pokemon/etc.

Got anything for me?

Booking Through Thursday (15 October)

Today's Booking Through Thursday question is... "When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?

Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)

And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore? SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?"

I think I've mentioned before that I generally only purchase books that I have read and loved, because I'm poor and I like to save my money. :) But when it's Book Sale time I certainly do come home with more than I probably need! But I still usually only get books that I think I will like (The Woods notwithstanding), so I tend to keep everything I buy! But if there's something I really don't like, I'll try to give it away to a better home. I do have a small pile that I'd like to get rid of right now and that no one else wants, so I'll probably take them over to my local used books store and see what I can do with them.

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger (9 October — 13 October)

I was really super duper excited about this book, and I think that might have been why I didn't like it so much. I will pause here for a collective gasp from the Blogosphere.

Recovered? Good. :)

The plot: Elspeth Noblin (great name, BTW) dies and leaves her estate not to her manfriend Robert, but to her twin Edie's daughters who are also twins and who are called Julia and Valentina. Elspeth's will stipulates that the twins must come live in her flat for a year before they can sell it, so they do. And then while they're there they get haunted by Elspeth, who becomes a ghost (which is neat), and the reasons for the twins having never actually met Elspeth are slowly revealed (oooh, family secrets!).

Good things: I love Niffenegger's writing, I just do, and it was all very pretty and fun and descriptive. The fact that we got to learn about Elspeth as a ghost was cool. Playing with a Ouija board is always fun. I loved Martin and I was rooting for him the whole time.

Bad things: I didn't understand why Elspeth left all of her stuff to the twins. She called it "an experiment," but since she didn't seem to know she'd be becoming a ghost, I don't know who was supposed to be monitoring the results. The big family secret is something I figured out in the first few chapters and then had to wait 300 pages to officially find out. And then it was unnecessarily complicated. The whole end-of-book storyline was really weird to me and I didn't understand why any of that had to happen. Does no one in London have any sense? Also, Martin was the only character I really gave a crap about.

So... yes. This is a book that I would like to discuss with people, so if you have any insight, feel free to leave a comment!

And don't think that I hated the book... I liked following along with the twins' lives and I am totally on Team Get Martin Better. But those Bad Things prevented me from loving it.

Rating: 7/10
(RIP Challenge, Countdown Challenge: 2009)

See also:
books i done read
Literate Housewife
Devourer of Books
Stainless Steel Droppings

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Musing Mondays (12 October)

Today's Musing Mondays question is... "This past week, Borders re-released it’s 100 Favourite Books of All Times. Do you vote in these kinds of polls when they arise? Do you look through the list, or seek out books featured?"

No, I don't really seek out these lists, but when I see them pop up on someone's blog (or in a meme!) I usually give them a look. Then, if I see a title that sounds interesting, I file it away for future reference. Now that I read all of these here book blogs, I find myself not really wanting to try a new book until I've read at least a little bit about it (on a blog, in the newspaper, in BookPage, from a friend, on the jacket flap). So I might think that The Bronze Horsemen (page 2) sounds interesting, but it's not going on my TBR list just yet. But if I see it in the library, I might take a look and see if it's worth reading.

Liar, by Justine Larbalestier (6 October — 8 October)

My summary from last night: "Aaaaaaaaaaaah I don't know what to say about this book give me a day or a week or a few years to think about it."

Yeah, it's like that. This is one of those books that you don't want to say anything about, because almost everything you could say would spoil the book in some seemingly microscopic way that actually turns out to be a big deal. :(

But I will try! Our protagonist, Micah Wilkins, is a liar. Shocking, right? But not just any kind of liar... she's the pathological kind that lies because she wants to, because she can, because it's easier to her than telling the truth. But now Something Bad has happened, and she wants to tell us the story of what happened, and she's serious this time that she's going to tell the truth. Except that the truth is hard, and the truth is maybe a little unbelievable, and maybe it's not the truth, but maybe it is.

I think that's a good summary. You should really go read it, because it's quick and it's interesting, but it will also make your head hurt and you will get to the end and you won't know what has really happened because it's ambiguous but you'll have a theory, and so will everyone else you know who has read this but none of their theories will be your theory, kind of like the end of The Giver but moreso.

And, re: plot and character, this has the most confusing plot and character development of any book I've ever read, but I still enjoyed it. I'm definitely going to have to buy this book and read it again like seventeen times, though. So confusing.

Rating: 8/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Booking Through Thursday (8 October)

Today's Booking Through Thursday is... a little backward. Read on:

"I was wanting to try a certain author and wished I knew someone who had read her works so I could get a recommendation when it occurred to me that having a “YOU ask the question” Booking Through Thursday might be fun. Each participant could ask a question they’ve wanted to discuss with other readers. Perhaps, like me, you’d like a recommendation of a certain author’s best work, or perhaps you LOVE a certain genre or series but no one else you know does and you’d just like to discuss it with someone. Or perhaps you want to try a new genre and would like recommendations from seasoned readers."

So. What I want from you guys is a reason or two or twelve to stop being prejudiced against books, because I hear it's easier being a librarian if you don't mock your patrons for their book choices. Here is my list of things I don't get and have so far tried not to get, but maybe you can convince me to want to try to get them:

Chick Lit
Cozy Mysteries
Memoirs
Dan Brown
Romances
Thrillers

If you can launch a spirited defense (or just a regular defense) of any of these genres, please do so!

Links of the Week

I neglected to post these over the weekend, so you get them today! Fun stuff.

It's sad to see a hyphen go, but this article lists a bunch of words I didn't know ever had hyphens in them (fig leaf? bumblebee?). (via )

A columnist for my local paper wrote about the Ellen Hopkins thing I linked to last time, and some of the comments get a little silly.

This picture of a "book drop" is pretty funny.

The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier (1 October — 5 October)

This book took a little while to really get going for me, and then just as soon as it did, it ended! Sadness.

The Chocolate War is a story about power and conformity and how even when you win, you still lose. Depressing, right? So right. The chocolate part comes from a private high school's chocolate sale (oh, memories) for which each student has to sell 50 boxes. The war part comes from Jerry Renault, who is assigned by the school's secret society to refuse to sell the chocolates for ten days, you know, keep the teachers on their toes. He does this, but then after ten days, when he's supposed to start selling again, he doesn't, and some of the other students follow in his path. The teachers don't like this, the secret society doesn't like this... and bad things happen.

I wasn't sure last night whether or not I liked this book, and... I'm still not sure. It was a very honest account of high school and how hard it is to navigate the social dynamics there, but I'm not really sold on the story itself. The story jumps back and forth between points of view and tries to use that to let you learn more about the characters, but I just never felt terribly involved in any of their lives. Perhaps I'll ponder this some more.

Rating: 6/10
(My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge)

See also:
an adventure in reading

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Musing Mondays (5 October)

Today's Musing Mondays: "Last week we talked about keeping a wishlist. Why not pull out that list and show us some of the books you’ve been eyeing off?"

Well, let me see here. -loads up GoodReads- Wow! I have rather a lot more books on this list than I thought I did. I'll just put up the really good ones, shall I?

First, the standalones. These are the books that I've read and loved and need to own yesterday so I can press them into the hands of other people:
Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson
The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
The Manual of Detection, by Jedediah Berry

And the series, which I want for mostly the same reason but also because I'll want to go back and read through them all whenever a new one comes out!
Thursday Next, by Jasper Fforde
Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket (Right, there aren't any new ones coming out, but they're so cute and short and I want them!)

Oh, hey, look at that, I have a birthday coming up soon... coincidence? Probably.

Read-a-thon!

Because I'm crazy, and because I might need to make up for lost time on my personal Donors Choose challenge because of all the homework I suddenly have, I am signing up for the 24-Hour Read-a-thon that's taking place 24-25 October, starting bright and early at 8am! Yay? I'm so crazy. You should totally join up too so that I can be maybe slightly less crazy? Please?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (27 September — 1 October)

How did I manage not to read this book any time in the last ten years? Jeez, self. Get with it.

This is another book without a discernible plot, and another book without a discernible plot that I liked. Something is wrong with me. I need to go read some Grisham or Patterson or something (no! false!). This book is also a freakin' epistolary novel, which would normally irk me but good but this book did not! Chbosky is a genius or something.

Um. Right. Topic: this book is about a kid called Charlie, who is entering high school and is a little worried about getting through freshman year okay. Charlie's got some issues (a few more than the usual), but he's working hard to make them okay and make some new friends. He totally nails that last part and starts hanging out with some senior kids who are really cool (but not the popular kind of cool) and help Charlie figure out who he is and what he wants from life.

I liked it. Charlie's life is nothing like mine, but his emotions associated with going to school and doing well and "participating" and making friends are totally dead on to mine. When things went wrong in his life, especially where girls were involved, I was totally rooting for him all the way. Even when some really odd things happened (um, picking up guys in the park, anyone?), I was still totally on board with Charlie's life being normal, which I think says something. :)

This is also one of them "banned books" the parents are talking about (still) these days, and I totally understand why. There's sex, and pregnancy, and dudes liking dudes, and recreational drug use by a fourteen-year-old, and people going to college at Sarah Lawrence. No good can come of these things! And yet all of these things are good in some way or another throughout the novel, so whatever, book banners. I don't know what high school you went to, but it was probably just like this one.

Rating: 8/10
(My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge)
(Also, this is the first book read for my personal Donors Choose Challenge! $2 for literacy!)

See also:
Thoughts of Joy
things mean a lot
books i done read

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Donors Choose

A post not about books! Shock! Awe! But really, it's sort of about books, so keep reading! There's even a part where you can coerce me to read more!

So there's this organization, called Donors Choose, right? And all year long they collect donations tiny and gigantic to fund projects requested by teachers at schools all around the country. Some teachers request copy paper, so they can print things. Others request pencils, so their students can write things. Some request really fun books, so their students can read really fun things. You know.

And each October, Donors Choose hold a contest for blogs/social media to get the word out about the cause and, obviously, get people to donate. I heard about this a while back from Tomato Nation, and in the past few years TN readers (and Sarah Bunting, the genius behind this site) have raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for all these different projects. Whoo!

You may have guessed by now that I would love it if you would go to Donors Choose via TN's giving page and donate a dollar or two dollars or this week's Starbucks budget or whatever to your favorite project, especially if it involves books because books are awesome but even if it involves history which is boring. Because how are the kids going to know how boring history really is if they don't have the resources to learn about it? (Sorry, Amy, but only like 20 percent of my history education was ever actually interesting. Feel free to leave a comment about how awesome it really is!)

Right. Anyway. This thing lasts all month, but there's nothing wrong with getting your donations in early (and often)! Also, if you check out the Tomato Nation site, there are all these contests and stuff going on and maybe your $5 donation will turn into a really cool prize!

Now for the interesting part: I'm going to do a bit of a readathon throughout the month in honor of Donors Choose and I personally am going to donate $2 to a project for every book I read between now and 31 October. If you want to do the same, just drop a note in the comments or in my e-mail so I know to stalk you later. :) You can donate as I read, or take your whole sum and drop it on a project on the 31st, so long as you do it through Tomato Nation and so long as you tell me so I can feel good about myself. A note for the budget-conscious: I read about 8-10 books per month on average, my highest total was 15 over the summer. I don't think I'll be breaking that, but of course I will try. (And I won't cheat with Golden Books.)

Books read:
1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Also, you know, tell your friends. TN raised something like $110,000 last October, but their goal this year is $210,000... that's going to take a lot of people to accomplish. Spread the word!

Booking Through Thursday (1 October)

Today's Booking Through Thursday question is... "Two-thirds of Brits have lied about reading books they haven’t. Have you? Why? What book?"

Well. If someone asks me straight out, "Have you read [insert book I haven't read here]?" I will say no, of course, because lying is bad and I might get my tongue cut out. Or something like that. But! I will often lie by omission about books I haven't read, because most of the time it's just easier!

Example: The Lord of the Rings series. I tried to read them once (and will be trying the first one again sometime soonish, maybe...), but I got as far as some guy called Tom or something like that, and he was singing, and it was really boring, whatever. (Aside: I just checked my book, and yes, it's Tom Bombadil, and I got rather farther in the book than I thought I did!) But, see, I went to a nerd university, and it gets old quick hearing, "You haven't read The Lord of the Rings? Scandalous! Must be rectified immediately! What kind of savage are you!?" etc. So... I usually just throw out how much I dislike Tom Bombadil and they are satisfied that I've read the novel and poof! No more worries.

What about you?