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Arena One: Slaverunners by Morgan Rice

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When I realized it had been awhile since I posted a book review, I went back to the blog to check just how long it had been and was horrified to see my last book review went up on November 15- nearly two and half months ago. It isn’t that I haven’t read anything since November, but somehow I’ve been lazy and not written up any of them, good or bad. (And boy, there have been some doozies on either end of that spectrum.)  It is probably not a good idea to go back and try to cover all of those missed reviews, so I’ll just promise to be better about them from here on out and pick up where I am now.

Arena One: Slaverunners (Book #1 of the Survival Trilogy) by Morgan Rice

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I initially picked up Morgan Rice’s Arena One because it was billed as a book for people who loved Hunger Games, which I did. (Although my love in the series diminished with each subsequent novel.) I figured this might be the next great YA trilogy and I was excited to start a new series. I’ll be brutally honest here- don’t bother.  I’ve never read a book that seemed to be written solely with the thought of making millions in Hollywood. The whole thing seems ready to translate directly into a screenplay that will be attempt to be the next big summer blockbuster.

Arena One starts out in the not-so-distant future when the US has been destroyed by a second Civil War- this one brought on by the fractious nature of the American political system, where each side takes more and more extreme positions, until actual war breaks out, trapping the citizens in the middle of the politicians deadly hubris.  After the government fails, large gangs take over the big cities and scour the countryside for any holdouts, hoping to make them slaves or pit them against each other, to the death, as a form of entertainment and a show of power. Hence, the existence of Arena One.

The premise of the book is by no means unique or horribly intriguing, but with a great writer at its helm, it could make a great story. Instead, Rice spends most of it writing car chase scenes and increasingly violent hand-to-hand combat battles. I think the initial chase scene is where I began to lose interest. I get the desire for action and the seemingly endless car chase may definitely draw in young male readers, but it felt like it went on for an eternity. How a car, no matter how plated and outfitted, would ever be able to submit to the abuse in the early chapters of this book is beyond me. And yet, it does and keeps on rolling! This whole section of the book felt like it was being written for the big screen, rather than meant for the realm of words on a page.

While another series with a strong female lead character is always a positive thing (especially when it is one that draws in both male and female readers), but I hate that yet again, that lead character has to get caught up in a romantic relationship, or worse yet, a love triangle. Brooke is a caring young woman who has spent the last handful of years protecting her little sister on her own, but the instant a boy walks into her life, she suddenly gets all oozy/woozy about him. (To be fair, she is still the physically and mentally stronger character, so she doesn’t totally wimp out, but it would have been awesome if this new compatriot had also been female.)

As the action (and I do mean action!) continues, there are more car chases, lots more blood and gore and a bit of suspense to lead into the second book in the trilogy. I can definitely see where middle school boys would love this book and if I were still teaching, I would definitely buy it (and it’s sequels) for my classroom, but on a personal level, I just hated how much it felt made-for-Hollywood. Knowing that popular YA books translate into massive bucks when they are released in theaters, it felt like Rice was pandering too much to the exes who might buy his stories. With that in mind, I give Arena One by Morgan Rice only:

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The Best of 2013 While Searching for the End of the Sidewalk

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As the final days of 2013 are winding down and everyone is gearing up for 2014, it is time once again to look back over the last year and consider how awesome the majority of the year was. (Of course, there were some frustrating times, most recently revolving around future job possibilities, but those are more than overshadowed by the fantastic adventures the year offered up on a silver platter.)

Following in the footsteps of my 2012 year in review blog, here is the best of In Search of the End of the Sidewalk- 2013.

Best Books of 2013

Looking back over last year’s wrap-up entry, it looks like I ended 2012 having read ninety-four books. I beat that by seven, tagging out of the literary ring at 101 this year! With so many great (and not so great) books on my list over the last twelve months, this one got its very own post this year, so click here to link to the best (and worst!) of my 2013 reading list.

Best Outings* of 2013

(*in no particular order)

1- The Maldives- This is my new favorite place on Earth! It was so beautiful and relaxing with the clear blue skies and brilliant blue waters. I learned to snorkel, which was amazing (and terrifying for a non-swimmer like myself) and officially had a sunburn within four hours of touching down, but I’d go back in a heartbeat!

2- Italy/Greece- Happy 15th anniversary! To celebrate fifteen years of marriage, we flew to Europe – our first taste of the Old World. And taste we did! I’m pretty sure I ate enough pasta and gelato to tide me over until we get a EUR posting with Foreign Service. (Fingers crossed?)  Plus, we (meaning Thad) drove a restored Fiat 500, we climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and we hung out with the fashionably dressed Vatican guards. Not a bad way to spend a few weeks in the fall!

3- Taiwan- I’ve always heard that Taiwan is everything great about China, without the less desirable aspects. I didn’t really understand the whole “China-lite” cliché until spending a long weekend with great friends who are posted there. Not only did I do some major bookstore shopping (I miss good bookstores!) and ate a ridiculous number of strangely shaped waffles, but we got to bike around the city and enjoy a relaxing weekend with some of our favorite Foreign Service folks.

4- Idaho/Yellowstone- Two weeks in Idaho flew by last spring. It is always great to see a blue sky again, but even better to catch up in person (although Skype and Facetime really are terrific!) with friends and family. I shopped and I ate, but mostly I hung out with the people who mean the most to me.

5- Bamboo Sea- As a part of my ongoing CLO Outing adventures, I took about twenty people on an overnight trip to Bamboo Sea, a beautiful forest filled with millions of bamboo trees. After risking my life on a terrifying cable car, we rowed across a peaceful lake and enjoyed meal after meal of bamboo cooked in every style imaginable. This was a great trip out of the city, even with a few hiccups along the way.

Best Moments* of 2013

(*again, in no particular order)

1- Hosting friends from home during November. We were lucky to have Justin and Josh join us for several weeks this fall, making Chengdu their home away from home. We all attended the Marine Ball together, they traveled with Thad to Malaysia and Singapore (I had to work in Shanghai that week) and we ate lots of great Sichuan food. It’s always nice to have folks from home make the 24(+) hour trip to China to visit and we are always happy to host.

2- Receiving Thad’s new assignment, via email, while we were in Taiwan with friends. I must admit to a bit of shock, as I didn’t remember even listing Kuala Lumpur on our (his!) bid list, but after a bit of research, it appears that we did and we are thrilled! (I can’t wait for sunshine and warm, year round. This girl was meant to live on the equator!)

3- Volunteering at the BiFeng Panda Base was amazing, mostly because I got to touch a panda and I’m pretty obsessed with touching all the animals, all of the time. (Okay, technically, touching a panda was against the rules, but this is one regulation I had to break. When the guide wandered away, leaving me mere inches from the giant panda, there was nothing to be done but reach out and make contact. Who wouldn’t have done the same thing?!)

4- River “rafting” at QingCheng Shan was one of the more entertaining things I’ve done all year long. I expected Idaho-style river rafting, but instead was loaded into a two-person raft and sent down a three-feet deep man-made gauntlet, where water gun wielding parties met us at each turn, soaking the foreigners and creating mayhem. It was awesome!

5- It just sneaked in before the end of the year, but definitely won itself a spot in the top 5- my brother and sister-in-law announced a new addition to their ever-growing family. Baby #3 will be born in late August, putting Thad and I at the rather large total of twelve nieces and nephews! Congratulations Matt and Kristina (and Audrey and Kellen)!

So there you have it, a roundup of the high points of 2013. While the year has flown by, I can only imagine 2014 will go with the same speed, as we face another big move, I face another job change and a whole new set of sidewalks are presented for continued searching.

Happy 2014!

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Book Roundup- 2013

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Sadly, I’m not much of a long-term goal-setter.  I’m great at making plans and organizing for them, but terrible at following through with those artfully laid out efforts. That doesn’t mean I’m not moving forward and experiencing awesome new things in life (this last has allowed me to see some awesome new parts of the globe, including my new favorite place on earth- the Maldives, so I’m doing stuff, just not stuff I wrote down on paper!), it just means I’m lazy about the whole resolution thing. (Maybe this isn’t the best time of year to admit to a lack of resolution when it comes to resolutions!)  Needless to say, I don’t enter a number in the Good Reads goal box (which constantly pops up when I log into my account) and I don’t have a magic number of the scale (as long as my pants still fit, I’m good!).

But, with the end of the year quickly approaching, I did take a moment to scan over my read books list on Good Reads this last week and realized I was just a couple books short of 100 for the year! Suddenly, I had a goal- I had ten days to read three books. Easy-peasy! (Maybe I should go with ten-day resolutions this year. I seem to be able to stick to them.)

Now that I have hit that nice round 1-0-0 (okay, I’m at 101 and may or may not finish 102 before next week), I thought it would be fun to do a quick round up of my best and worst when it came to books in 2013. So, with no further ado, below are my five favorite and five least favorite books of the year, in no particular order.

BEST OF 2013

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini – Beautifully written, as always with Hosseini‘s fiction. I excitedly bought a hardback copy of this book the weekend we were in Taiwan (yay for no censorship!) and read it cover to cover in just a few days. The spinning of various tales into a larger story was done with grace and ease. The fairy tale with which the book commences not only sets the tone and themes for the rest of the book, but has stuck with me for months now. Life is all about the decisions we make, hoping that what seems right in the moment turns out to be good in the long-run.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick- Amazing and heartbreaking. Those are the two best words I can come up with to describe this young adult novel.  I couldn’t bear to walk away from Leonard, the protagonist, as he stumbled his way towards a heart wrenching decision. While definitely not an easy read, it is an important one, dealing with some very real issues faced by many teenagers.

Wool by Hugh Howey– Always a fan of the post-apocalyptic novel, I was drawn into this one very quickly. The idea of living in a silo, segregated by position and ability is a different take on the survival genre than I’ve read before. I was also intrigued by the idea that everyone who was banished happily completed their final task, even though it meant certain death.  I’ve heard there are now more stories out in this series, which may just be the top of my list for Christmas gift card purchases!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown- I’m a huge fan of narrative non-fiction. History told through the stories of people, rather than a list of facts and dates has so much more meaning and depth to it and this book definitely did that. I also love when authors entwine various subjects into a single running narrative. (This author very much reminds me of Erik Larson.) While rowing holds no particular interest for me, the Northwest setting was a draw, and then combine in the building of the Coulee Dam and the Nazi-era Olympics and I was hooked.

The Circle by Dave Eggers- We all know technology and surveillance can quickly spin out of control, but just how willing are we to feed into the various data collection of various companies? Set in the not-so-distant future, this novel is a real eye-opener about just how much personal information we provide to the world through our Tweets, status updates, weekly blogs, etc. While the book takes these ideas to the extremes, it definitely made me stop and ponder my own digital footprint.

WORST OF 2013

Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan – I love memoir/short essay books, as I see my own writing as being in a similar vein, but I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for this one. Maybe it was the constant complaining about his million children (okay, not million, maybe four or five, but that must feel like a million some days) and then a page later his mooning over those same kiddos. I get that you love your kids even though they drive you nuts, but I felt like I was riding Miley Cyrus’ wrecking ball, back and forth, page to page. Because I do like this genre so much, I think I was more disappointed in this book than is fair, but when I turned the last page, I must admit to a bit of relief that it was finally over.

Headhunters on My Doorstep: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story by J. Maarten Troost- Again, another genre that I love (travel writing), but it didn’t stir an ounce of desire to pack my bags and follow in his footsteps. I’ve really enjoyed Troost’s previous books, but this one seemed hugely self-indulgent and was really just literary tangent after literary tangent. Maybe a recovering alcoholic would find solace in Troost’s travels and musings, but I was annoyed and wanted more adventure and less mental meandering.

Flu: The Story OfThe Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It by Gina Kolata – Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of creepy pandemic gore on occasion? Over the last several years, I’ve read a few books about the spread of disease from animal to human and the science behind pandemics, so I was excited or this one about the 1918 flu, but in the end, could barely make it from page to page. Maybe that was the author’s intentions- make me achy and weary and exhausted so that I commiserated more fully with the victims of the book- if so, she was a success. While the book attempted to go the route of narrative non-fiction, the characters were not well-crafted, the stories weren’t interesting and the links between them were tenuous, as best.  I’m afraid there is no remedy for all that is wrong with this one.

Checkout Girl: A Life Behind the Register by Anna Sam– Again, my love of the memoir/essay genre drew me to this book and as someone who worked retail all through high school and college, I thought I’d definitely relate to her stories, but instead, I was just annoyed. Each essay was short and lacked the details needed to create a full-bodied tale. I didn’t realize it until after I finished the book and did a bit of research, but apparently the original book was in French,  so I think some of the problems could possibly be linked to translation (both literal and cultural) difficulties. I wouldn’t buy this one again, even if it were in the $1.99 bin at the bookstore.

Silver Orphan by Martine Lacombe- I wanted to like this one, as it was the first galley copy I ever reviewed, but I just couldn’t get on board with it. The premise is a good one, but the whole book felt like an early draft, not a novel ready to go to publishing. Without giving the ending away, I did feel like it came a bit out of left-field and has me closing the book with some lingering questions, not about the main plot line of the book, but about new twists that were introduced on the final page. While not a terrible book, I just felt like it was still in the revision process, not one people are paying money to read quite yet.

So there you have it. The good and the bad (no ugly) of my 2013 reading list. I can’t wait to see what comes out in the new year, as I will once again be jobless by June, I should have lot of time to find new stand-outs (and those that should hide in the shadows) for 2014.

Happy reading!

(Notice there is no parallel story to go along with the number on the scale reference in the introduction. My shiny treadmill sits in the other room, awaiting the same spark of inspiration. It will come…someday!)

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The Pentrals by Crystal Mack

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The Pentrals by Crystal Mack

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Weird. That is the first word that comes to mind when I think back on The Pentrals by Crystal Mack. But, weird isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Weird can be unique, intriguing and definitely a draw for many. In an era where YA novels tend to be skewing heavily to the vampire/werewolf world, it is refreshing to read a story takes a fresh view of non-human characters.  The idea of shadows and reflections being sentient beings is a fascinating one. That these images are not mere reproductions of us, but thinking, acting and even rebelling entities opens an endless world of possibilities. Like I said, it’s unique!

The Pentrals revolves around two main characters (although, some would consider them one and the same): Violet, a human high school student and Antares, a class two Shadow.  After growing more and more frustrated with the self-destructive behavior of her human, Antares, in a fit of anger switches places with the girl she has shadowed for seventeen years. (The book is never clear on what actually happened to allow this exchange to take place, but it is somehow related to a surge of fury when Violet takes a popular pill that makes its user forget their worries and space out happily.)  Once the switch has happened, it is up to Antares to not only play the role of Violet in her day to day life, trying to repair some horribly broken relationships, but also to solve a great Pentral mystery involving the rebellion of reflections.

But, before I get too lost in my thoughts about the possible narratives attached to thinking and reasoning shadows and reflections, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I don’t totally agree with Mack’s take on the topic. Granted, it was her brilliant idea, and I do like it, but I felt like there were unexplained holes in the story or times that the actions seemed impossible. Without giving too much away, after the switch is made, Antares continues to attend some and somehow miraculously knows how to read and write, although she often talks about how much shadowing takes her full attention and she doesn’t get to follow lessons. Where would she have learned these skills?  I also found it odd that there wasn’t more interaction amongst the shadows on the floor. As they constantly skim over one another in the school hallways, why is there not a layer of relationships built amongst this population of beings? I wanted to know more about their world! The other part of the book that I found confusing was how in-stride Violet took the switch. She was initially scared of the change, but it took a mere page or two for her to fall easily into her roll of learning to be a shadow. Shouldn’t this teenage girl be horrified that she has become a literal shadow of herself?

This book definitely seems set up for a sequel, which I would pick up because I am invested enough in Antares’ story to want to know what happens once her adventures in Violet’s body end, but also because I’m hoping for a few of the plot gaps to be filled in. (I really do want to know more about the working of the shadow/reflection world!)  Crystal Mack’s debut young adult novel has some definite narrative gaps, but creates a world intriguing enough to draw me in for another round, earning The Pentrals:

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Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. by Rob Delaney

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Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.  

by Rob Delaney

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I don’t Tweet. I am not even sure if I am able to Tweet from China. (Maybe I could and I just have never had a nice enough phone to send Twitter-twatter out into the ether.) Either way, I don’t Tweet, which put me at a possibly distinct disadvantage when I downloaded Rob Delaney’s recently released freshman collection of musings. As a non-Tweeter, I had no idea who this Rob Delaney guy was, but after doing a bit of post-book reading, I’ve discovered he is the bees knees when it comes to comedians on Twitter. But then again, maybe it was to my advantage to have no preconceived notion of his comedy, as I would imagine it is not easy to translate a regular stream of 140 character humorous reflections into a several hundred page collection of essays.

So, I picked up Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.  blind, but left with my eyes wide open to more than I ever needed to know about some of Delaney’s down south goings-on. I guess it is the nature of comedy to expose yourself to the world, but many times, it is a literal exposure going on for Delaney. Not only do I have an inordinate amount of information about his personal pleasure choices, but I know that he has had an up-close and personal view of another human’s butt hole, as well as that he reciprocated said view to another. Wow!

Rob Delaney’s book is an interesting, although at times slightly odd, combination of marginally humorous essay mixed with recovering alcoholic reflections. Having quickly learned that Delaney makes his living as a comedian, I was surprised as the serious tone of many of the essays. Yes, there are sprinkles of humor thrown in throughout, but it is hard to find Twitter-feed type levity when talking about drunk driving, massive car accidents, hospitalization, rehab, jail time, halfway houses and the continuous struggles of an alcoholic. Had I come into this book as a fervent follower of the Twitter feed that made him popular, I think I would have been disappointed by the serious nature of much of this book. Memoir is probably a more accurate descriptor than humor.

Normally, I can’t wait to get my hands on an essay collection by a favorite blogger or comedian, but this one fell a bit short for me. The mixture between bits of comedy and the seriousness of his struggles with alchol never found a satisfying balance for me as the reader. I either wanted more remorse for his earlier actions (he talks about drunk driving as if it were just another blip on the radar) or I want a more extreme self-depreciative, dark humor. This middle ground just feels awkward. While I enjoyed his writing style, and would probably pick up a sophomore publication, Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.  left me sitting on the proverbial fence, earning an in-the-middle:

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4 to 16 Characters by Kelly Hourihan

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4 to 16 Characters by Kelly Hourihan

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When 4 to 16 Characters popped up on my reading list, I was really excited to see a book written outside the normal prose form. I think something that breaks the status quo is a huge bonus for young adult books, as students are drawn to the unique and unusual. Lately, I’ve seen several narratives written through a long series of poems, but I like that Hourihan went a different direction- writing the whole book through online interactions and posting. The tale is told through Jane’s private digital journal entries, her posting on fan-fiction web pages, her IMs with friends (and eventually her therapist) and her email exchanges at her high school.

 

Jane’s real life is more than a bit of a mess. Her mother died a year before the book begins and her father has since spiraled into depression and alcoholism, leaving her to fend for herself, a job she isn’t emotionally equipped to undertake. She already attends a special high school, Spectrum, for students with social and learning disabilities, but things quickly degenerate as she feels trapped at school and at home. To relieve the pain of both places, she enters a new world- the digital one. After creating a series of online personalities, Jane retreats to internet forums and fan fiction sites, where she can choose her persona each day. Soon, Jane’s days revolve around these online interactions, her real-world ones breaking down even further.

 

What initially intrigued me about the book, the narrative form, is what eventually lead me to like the book less and less and I continued to read. The online chats and fanfic postings were initially entertaining and a fun change of pace, but they quickly became frustrating to read and a bit tedious. At times, reading 4 to 16 Characters was like trying to read a screenplay.  (At times, I literally *was* reading a screenplay!) I didn’t enjoy following character conversations that interrupted each other, jumped from user to user and were filled with occasionally hard to decipher abbreviations. There is where my age might hamper my love of Hourihan’s tale. The things that bothered me throughout the book may very well not dissuade today’s teenager from reading it. Today’s high school students spend a huge amount of time communicating in these very formats, so what I found a bit bulky and cumbersome may just be second nature to a younger reader.

 

I read this book. I’ve thought about this book. And yet, I still feel like I’m on a seesaw when it comes to how I’m going to rate this book.  There are certain aspects of 4 to 16 Characters that I think are really great for young adult readers, which would promptly be followed up a different piece that I find a bit ridiculous.  In the end, I have to rate it with what *I* thought of the book, even though I think high school students would like it more than I did, so to that end, Kelly Hourihan’s 4 to 16 Characters earn just:

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(With that said, I would definitely buy this book for my classroom!)

Twerp by Mark Goldblatt

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Twerp by Mark Goldblatt

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Another young adult novel! I’m on a roll over the long, rainy Labor Day weekend here in Chengdu.

Twerp by Mark Goldblatt is the perfect companion novel to yesterday’s Sure Signs of Crazy  by Karen Harrington. Although they are not the same story, there are some great comparison points, and each reach towards a different middle school audience, while not being exclusive in their readability.

Goldblatt’s book focuses on Julian, a sixth grade boy who is writing as a requirement for his English teacher after being suspended from school for a week because of his involvement in a bullying incident. The book starts in a rather rambling sense, as Julian is just doing the assignment because he feels forced to do it, but as the novel progresses, Julian comes into his own as a writer, seeing it as a way to explore ideas and feelings that he’s not ready to share with the world.

One reason that Julian begins to love the assigned writing project is that his teachers lets him off the hook for a report on Julius Caesar and since Julian hates Shakespeare, he is happy to continue to write his own narrative. But, as literary tradition would have it, he soon discovers parallels between his life and that of Caesar, which draws him back into the very assignment he hoped to escape.

There were a couple of interesting plot points that stood out to me as I read Twerp. First of all, I found the whole thing reminiscent of The Outsiders. The story takes place in the 60s, is a writing assignment for a young man who has been in trouble and draws on literary references in a way that makes them accessible to middle school readers. Also, I liked that the protagonist was just a regular kid from a “regular” family. There were no horrible, dark secrets in his past that made him make the bad decision that lead to the writing of his story, but rather just a poor choice made on the spur of the moment with friends. I like the conversations that this could lead to in a classroom- about how each choice we make has consequences, even if we don’t intend them to. And, of course, the English teacher in me isn’t going to complain about the Shakespeare quotes and references sprinkled throughout the novel.

Mark Goldblatt’s Twerp is a great read for middle school boys. (Not that girls wouldn’t also enjoy it, but the protagonist deals with some very middle school-boy issues that are probably more relatable by the male population than the female.) It has action, it has friendship, it has competition and even a bit of love thrown in, making it a well-rounded, great read for the start of a new school year, earning it:

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Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

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Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

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Words are a whole lot more than just a series of letters thrown together. Words can cause joy or pain. Words can bolster courage or crush dreams. To have a young protagonist who loves words and sees their potential for both good and bad is the perfect set-up for a novel of middle school self-exploration.

There are many things for the teacher in to me to love about this book:

1)      The use of great vocabulary, followed by a direct and easy to understand definition. (Think: A Series of Unfortunate Events) I adore the way Harrington fills the book with amazing words, but then doesn’t leave the middle school reader wondering what they mean. Having a protagonist that loves the dictionary and the words in it allows the author to give simple definitions right in the text of the story. I also love that each word is Sarah’s new “favorite” word, as I too am easily swayed by fun, new words!

2)      To Kill a Mockingbird. What more can I say? The entire book is based around Sarah’s letters to Atticus Finch, one of the strongest characters in American literature. I can only cross my fingers and hope that after reading Sure Signs of Crazy, a student would be curious enough to go search out a copy of Lee’s amazing book. (I’d have these two books displayed side-by-side in my classroom!!)

3)      Important issues are dealt with, but not in world-crushing kind of way. A novel whose protagonist is the survivor of attempted infanticide by her mother and now lives with her alcoholic father could very easily flow into darkness, but Harrington does a super job of seeing the world through the eyes of a twelve year old- jumping between the seriousness of her history, but also the daily concerns of a growing young lady, like her first kiss and the overwhelming options on the feminine hygiene aisle.

 

While the basis of the story is a disturbing one, the reader is able to walk away from the book with hope for the future. We are not a simple math problem of parent + parent = child, but rather have the choice to follow our own dreams and discover what we want out of life. Sarah is not destined to be either crazy or an alcoholic, just because that is what she comes from, but rather has an entire world of words and books ahead of her to help determine her pathway.

Karen Harrington’s latest novel is a must-have for middle school libraries and classrooms and easily earns a solid:

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Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

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Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

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Amazing and heartbreaking. Those are the two best words I can come up with to describe Matthew Quick’s newest novel, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I downloaded this book just two days ago, flying through it as I couldn’t bear to walk away from Leonard, the protagonist, as he stumbled his way towards a heart wrenching decision.

The story opens as Leonard gently wraps his World War II Nazi-owned handgun into a pink birthday box, figuring even if he were stopped going into school, no one would suspect anything evil beneath the cheery paper. He’s had years to think about the choice he is making and has decided that this world holds no promise for him, but before he ends his own life, he has a few errands to take care of, namely giving a few gifts to those he felt closest too and then killing Asher, the person who he feels most drove him to the final decision of his life.

As Leonard goes through his final day on Earth, he says his goodbyes in the only way he knows how, worried more about how his Holocaust teacher will feel about his death than his own mother, who is distant and fully wrapped up in her life as a designer, rarely even coming home to see him. (His father fled the country due to tax fraud charges, so in all practical ways, Leonard has no parents. He’s a modern-day orphan.) When a few adults at school notice and call him on his odd behavior, he puts on the happy face, the one he thinks adults expect from teens and weasels his way out of tough conversations.

Each turned page in the book takes the reader one step closer to Leonard’s inevitable end.

Matthew Quick has written an extraordinarily powerful novel about teenage depression and pain, one that will resonate with many high school students. As he wades through topics such as incest, rape and suicide, Quick humanizes these horrors, reminding the reader that we are all so much more than we appear on the outside. We’ve all got back stories that are unknowable to the casual acquaintances in our lives, but by looking closer at those around us and really trying to understand the demons they may be fighting, we can give strength to others, helping them feel powerful enough to fight another day.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is definitely not an easy read, but it is an important one. Since it deals with difficult topics, it is not one that I would just put on my middle school bookshelf (although I would keep a copy to give to more mature readers) but I would definitely have copies in a high school English classroom.  Quick’s talk is a powerful one, reminding us that we are more than our suffering, but also that we owe it to those around us to remember that there is more to each of us than meets the eye. Without a doubt, Matthew Quick’s recently released novel Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock earns:

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Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

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Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

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I was initially drawn to the book because it centers on a (possible) earthquake and I have a bit of a history with those myself, but I didn’t expect the book to revolve so heavily around relationships and the ties that bind a family. The story took a decidedly different turn from what I had expected, but it was not an unpleasant journey.

 

Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest book weaves the tale of twin sisters, Daisy and Violet, who were born with the gift (curse?) of having premonitions of future events. (As the girls realize they have an ability not shared by all, they call their power their “senses,” not knowing how else to label it, as any discussion of their ability is quickly muted at home.) These shared senses are nearly all the two have in common as adults.  While Violet embraces her ability, dropping out of college after just a few weeks because Guardian (a spirit guide who came to her for the first time while she studied in her university library) told her she had a different path to take in life, uses her skills as a source of revenue, holding séances and readings, Daisy runs in the opposite direction from her abilities. After starting college under the guise of her middle name, Kate, and then taking her husband’s last name after marriage, she has effectively closed the door on her history as one of the twins with senses. No one can track her or immediately connect her with her outspoken sister.

 

A back story of a clinically depressed mother overwhelmed by life and school years besought with bullying and name-calling (the twins were well-known to be “witches)  helps the reader see why one sister might embrace the notoriety that would come with premonitions of the future while another would turn tail and run. Basing a book on the idea of extrasensory abilities has the potential to head towards comic book storylines, but Sittenfeld’s characters are well-rounded and deeply developed so the reader imagines them as real people and not people who belong in Lycra uni-tards on the big screen, saving the world through the destruction of evil.

 

The two women live near each other, and near their aging father, their relationship is strained when Violet publicly announces that she senses an earthquake will soon ravage their home state.  Kate is suddenly drawn back in to a world that she swore off after the birth of her first child.

 

Up until this point, I really enjoyed everything about the book. The strained, but loving, relationship of the family is one that is relatable to many readers and the plot flows well. But, I can’t walk away from this review without one minor grievance: Kate is a stay-at-home mom and is good friends with a stay-at-home dad up the street. (Conveniently, her husband works with his wife at a local college.) The problem lies in the cliché. While the two have been friends for years, suddenly their relationship jumps to a whole new level, once again playing into the idea that it is impossible for a man and woman to have a truly platonic friendship.  Plus, this bit of indiscretion on Kate’s part creates a whole new storyline as the consequences of her choice create far-reaching ripples, but ones that don’t entirely play out in the narrative before the books ends.

 

Curtis Sittenfeld’s newest book is well-written and even though it is based on extrasensory hunches, is mostly believable as realistic fiction. (I had to look the author up to realize that Curtis is a woman. As I read, I was surprised that a man could write the intricacies of the sisters’ relationship so accurately!) Even as I am annoyed with the ending of Sisterland, I think it is a story that would be enjoyed by many, falling firmly into what I would call the “beach read” category”, earning it:

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