It’s All Too Much

2008, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

As much as I really enjoy watching Clean Sweep on TLC and as much as I appreciated the gift of “keep, sell, trash” signs and tarps given to me by the small children a few years ago, I just did not love Peter Walsh’s It’s All Too Much.

It’s not a bad book, I just think Walsh is better in person than he is in a book. Too many exclamation marks. He said “you don’t know this or you wouldn’t be reading this book” or “you don’t believe this or you wouldn’t be reading this book” or something like that about a zillion times. And really, he’s wrong. And even if/when he isn’t, it just was not necessary to say it over and over and over again in the first five chapters of the book.

I liked it much better when he quit with the psycho-analysis and preachy stuff and moved into the “this is how you de-clutter this space” sections.

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

Could the title have been any longer for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? I think it’s a little much. I also think the hype for this book is a little much.

It’s a good book. I enjoyed it. But it has gotten a lot of press and a lot of really great reviews from YA critics. I’m very glad the Cybil judges didn’t make it the YA winner, Wednesday Wars was better (though Off Season was not.)

Anyway – it’s about a kid on an Indian reservation who is smart, really smart. A teacher advises him to get off the Rez – now. So he does – by going to the white school in town. This leads to any number of problems, but also a lot of good things. Maybe it gets so many rave reviews because we don’t see a lot of books about teen Indians on reservations? Whatever. It was good but not great. Read it but don’t buy it. And if your kids are assigned the book and don’t fall in love with it, don’t be surprised by that.

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Breathing Underwater

2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, Queer, Women /

Where did Breathing Underwater come from? I know I saw it on a blog and was pleasantly surprised that my library had it. (Another example of oddness – they have this obscure lesbian stuff but not Lauren Willig’s books.)

Anyway, it was a very fast read and more than a little odd. The drowning thing – crazy. But then again, the whole town is crazy so I guess it only makes sense. I liked Lily, bless her heart. I liked that they brought in the black lesbian to help her sort herself out. I’m glad she figured out that she and Rae didn’t want the same things.

I think I liked the book. But I didn’t love it.

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Wednesday Wars

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Reading Lists, Young Adult /

I have been in bed almost all day. Sort of an accidental participation on Bring a Book to Bed Day due to some combination of exhaustion and a cold or something. I slept a good bit but I also read quite a lot.

I finished Wednesday Wars, which I discovered when I was looking at the list of YA finalists for Cybil Awards.

I laughed my way through it. I laughed a lot more than TW did when she read it. Possibly because of the “rats” or possibly because of the Shakespeare. Or maybe it was all of the death threats a 7th grader can get.

Great book.

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Peony in Love

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Way back in January when I created my From the Stacks challenge my mom sent me email (or maybe we talked on the phone?) and started questioning the books on my list. In doing so, she asked whether I had read this or read that and my response was either “No, should I” or “Duh, you don’t read my blog, do you?”

Peony in Love was one of the books she asked about. No, I hadn’t read it. Hell, I didn’t even know Lisa See had a new book. Once I found out, I reserved it. TW read it a couple of weeks ago, I finished it last night.

It was good. Not as good as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan but still very very good.

Lovesick girls. Women poets. Ghosts.

That ghost thing, particularly the hungry ghost thing, was an excellent idea for the lovesick girls/women poets story line that this book follows. Brilliant.

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