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.