Animal’s People – another Booker Prize listed book from last year that I thought I had already read. I hadn’t. I have now. It’s a jarring book. Very troubling. Very depressing. I’m a little surprised that it didn’t win the prize. Actually, I’m a lot surprised. Kite Runner-ish is all I can think to describe it.
Very troubling.
We’re listening to Haven Kimmel’s The Used World and something about it is driving us nuts…
There are “letters” at the beginning of chapters and even in the middle of chapters. WTF are those?
At first, I thought the letter referred to a memory or an experience one of the characters was having “H” for “Hazel” or “C” for “Claudia” but that doesn’t fit because what the heck is the “P” about? And there’s no “R” for “Rebekkah” as far as I have heard.
TW is thinking the letters are related to the “address book” that is in Hazel’s room in the Emporium but still, that isn’t making sense.
Who has the print copy in hand? Did we miss something that clarifies what the heck these letters are about?
Haven Kimmel question… Read More »
The first book in what I hope will be a very long series, The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden was fantastic. It should not have taken me a week to read it. I wanted to read it all the way through, from the moment I picked it up. Maybe before I picked it up because TW loved it and I’ve read a lot of blog posts about other people loving it. I loved it.
But then again, I would.
I have a fondness for fairy tales and an even bigger fondness for creation stories.
Now I’m off to reserve the next book and hope it arrives before we move.
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My Heartbeat is another YA book from the Printz Award Challenge and I picked it up on audio last week. When we started listening to it, I wasn’t impressed and pretty much quit listening after that first couple of chapters.
Yesterday, as we headed to south Florida for synchro, I turned it on again and pretty quickly got hooked. TW, not so much. She hated all of the characters accept “the Father”. I disliked the “Father” a lot and am troubled that he’s the only character that TW liked.
Anyway – I thought it was a good “gay” book. The whole “I’m not gay, I don’t know if I’m gay, but we’re a couple or maybe we aren’t a couple because that would mean we are gay” thing – awesome.
The really good thing about listening to most of The #1 Ladies Detective Agency on audio is that on the rare occasion that we read one in print, we can still hear the book on audio voice. The Miracle at Speedy Motors was like that. But, I kept getting distracted – wondering about the movie version. I am worried about that.
Anyway, the book – it was good. I laughed and I was sad and I laughed some more.
Now excuse me please, I’m off to research African fruit cake.
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Look, another book that took me far too long to finish. This is more troubling than the week it took me to read Duma Key because Ropemaker is YA fantasy which should take two days MAX.
I’m not sure if the problem was that it started slowly or if I was just plain tired. But reading one or two chapters a day felt like “enough” until last night when I stayed up far too late just to get it finished.
It wasn’t a bad, slow reading YA fantasy – it just wasn’t great. And that’s too bad because once I realized what Tilja’s “power” was, I thought it was an awesome idea. And that awesome idea spurred some really good moments. I think, if there was a sequel that was focused on what happened next, with Tilja, I’d like it more than I liked The Ropemaker.
Also, I’d really like one of those special hair ties. That would be awesome.
I finally finished Duma Key, it feels like it took forever but really it was only a week with a lot of days that included almost NO reading time.
Stephen King writes a long ass novel. I’m glad it was good. I really hate long books that end up being not worth reading.
Loved the characters and the idea – the painting, fantastic. It did feel odd to read a King novel set in Florida, that was pretty odd. It also felt like Joe Hill could have written this… is it possible King read his son’s book and thought, I can do something like that….?
Now, I need to call my father to discuss the book since he’s the one who told me there was a new King novel in the first place.
No, I’m not here to suggest that the Evanston area is a step from heaven. It is not. A Step From Heaven is a YA “problem” book that was up for a Printz Award.
We started listening to it on audio during our trip to Tampa last weekend and TW and I finished it up on the way to the airport yesterday.
It is a YA problem book or more to the point, a YA Korean immigrant problem book. The best type of problem book, according to those who nominate books for awards. Problem books – good … Immigrant problem books – better!
Or not.
How depressing. With a happy ending!
Ho hum.
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No I’m not about to shock all of you and talk about how synchronized swimming meets are the best place to be. I’m talking about a book, The Best Place to Be.
I have no idea why I was reading it. It made me nervous. Why am I reading all of these books about “middle aged women” who seem to be having weird life crisis and stuff? I’m not even sure this book ended up being about a woman with a mid-life crisis. I’m not really sure what the point of the book was.
The characters were kind of interesting. But. Not. I kept waiting for something to click – for that “ah ha, I get it now” moment. It didn’t come.
As I told Prince J – it was the perfect book to read during Synchronized Swimming – mindless, sort of boring, and I don’t really mind that I kept reading the same paragraphs over and over again because the synchro music was loud or the kids were crazy or the synchro moms were chatty. I don’t even mind that I have no idea what the book was REALLY about.
It kept me busy when I had no internet – and that’s good enough.
The Best Place to Be Read More »
When TW read the CD case for True Believer and told me it was the second in a trilogy I almost said “forget it” – Printz Challenge or no Printz Challenge. I do not like to read books out of order. Ever.
But, I said what the heck and put the first CD in the player.
Right off the bat, it was a little disconcerting because the voice of LaVaughn is the same voice as “Baby Girl” from Upstate. I was afraid it was going to be such a similar book that I’d just be confusing my characters all of the way through. But it wasn’t like that at all.
None of the poor black teens went to jail. None of the poor black teens were having sex that they shouldn’t have been having, though there was Jolly who had already done that – a couple of times. There was also the gay boy storyline, very unusual in a novel about black city teens.