More Books

Delta Girls by Gayle Brandeis - First up, it's not the fault of this book that every time I saw the cover, the lyrics of  "Delta Dawn" would run through my head.  But since that's what happened, I secretly hold it against this book. Plus I figured out what the book was about in about four chapters and then I was not so secretly bored. I mean, it was interesting enough (what's that flower you've got on?), but I'm not the queen of figuring out foreshadowing, so when I can figure it out (could it be a faded rose from days gone by?), the book is probably not my friend. It was perfectly fine young adult literature, but (and did I hear you said you'd be a'meetin' him here today?) just not my cup of tea.

endgame by Nancy Garden - Somehow I picked up a string of books on bullying and the awful consequences of it and I was made sad by each one, including this one.  I wish I had done more in high school to help those less fortunate than me. I wish that when I taught high school I had talked to some of the kids who sat by themselves more often. I wish, I wish, I wish...


Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge - This book took me the length of a bus ride downtown to complete. It was the kind of work that would have desperately appealed to me in junior high, so I can totally see why Koertge has his followers.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull - I don't know about this book. Just like at the beginning of the Harry Potter series, there was something so stupid about Harry always doing stuff he wasn't supposed to do, there's something incredibly stupid about the little boy in this book always doing exactly the opposite of what he was told. I think this is because I don't naturally break rules, especially rules that have been explicitly explained to me by those in authority, but I cringe at those parts of books and, yes, maybe even skip them.  I just hated that kid and I don't want to read any more about him. 

So B It by Sarah Weeks - I went out to eat with my high school English teacher a couple of weeks ago and she recommended this book. I read it.  I don't know if it will be on my list of books to recommend to others. There's something so incredibly implausible about the premise(s) that I just couldn't stop thinking "really? no one has stepped in to do something about this?" time and time again.  Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is treading into dangerous territories.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwan - I went into this book very suspiciously. But I liked it. I loved the characters, the wildly predictable ending, and the look at the very environment where I live through the lens of another culture, another experience, another perspective.  I would recommend this one.

What I Believe by Norma Fox Mazer - Written in the same style as Shakespeare Bats Cleanup as a series of journal entries written in list/poem/rambling run-on sentence style, this book could inspire children to just sit down and start writing. I can't say anything bad about that, can I?

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote - This is Capote's "missing novel," his first novel, the manuscript of which was found years after his death. I found it in the teen section of our local library and I am not sure who the audience for this was and maybe that's why Capote abandoned his draft because it's much too mature for who I was when I was a teenager and too insipid and vacuous for who I am as an adult.  I think that if you're a Holden Caulfield fan, you will probably also like the character of Grady in this novel, but if you also thought Holden Caulfield should have jumped off a bridge on page two of The Catcher in the Rye and saved us all a lot of time, I think I would steer clear of this book.


What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell - Gladwell does the Steven Levitt thing and takes two completely unrelated things and somehow winds a narrative connecting them with some unifying theme.  He does this over and over again.  And, as an academic, I'm somehow impressed by the ingenuity of it over and over and over again.  I am addicted to unusual and interesting thought processes, even if I can't stop my inner critic from pointing out all the logical inconsistencies as I read.  Gladwell is Gladwell and you either love him or hate him and I'm just amused enough to be on the love side.