Bush Readers Blog

Another independent minded girl

2009-02-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book just won a Printz Honor Award from the American Library Association, and it well deserves it. Frankie is one terrific fifteen-year-old -- smart, brave and mind-bogglingly independent. As brilliant a strategist as she is, however, I loved that glimpses of being 15 shone through. Her world as she has known it has just ended, and she wonders for a few minutes if she could be the mindless, adorable arm candy that her boyfriend loved (past tense very important!), and then rejects that choice. She knows herself, but is young enough to yearn.

But that's not all: along with the excellent main character and the suspenseful, clever plot, there is very astute social commentary on boy-girl relationships, power and rebellion, surveillance, and language. Another title (and the best so far) for the indie-girl list!

Meanwhile, I just finished Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves, a fun romp through alternate worlds, fighting bad guys and getting lost. Yes, I admit it, I'm throwing a bone to you boys out there.

View all my reviews.

Winter Reading

2009-01-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Here in Seattle we were snowed in for several days around Christmas. It was divine! Especially after Christmas (and all the sewing and baking and cooking fun) I probably read a book a day. I noticed two trends: as mentioned before, the girl who falls in love but realizes that allowing a boy to save her is probably a bad thing, that she may need to grow and mature before acting on her love. The Revolution of Sabine is one and Climbing the Stairs (by Padma Venkatraman) is the second I've read recently. Both were surprising and thoughtful historical novels. In Climbing the Stairs, 15-year-old Vidya and her family move in with her father's more traditional family. It is the eve of World War II and all over India people are responding to Gandhi's call for civil disobedience in the face of British rule. The title comes from the traditional Brahmin house in which women live on the first floor and men live on the second -- with the books, which is what Vidya is after. Following up on this theme of independent young women, I think I need to read Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper novel, Terrier.

The second trend was of people getting unexpected windfalls. In Lottery, by local author Patricia Wood, a slow-witted man wins the lottery and has to fend off his unscrupulous family. I occasionally laughed out loud at Perry's different way of looking at the world, and was charmed and surprised by the ending, including how he copes with said unscrupulous family. In Everything You Want, by Barbara Shoup, 18-year-old Emma is unhappy her freshman year in college. She has no social life, her former best friend is acting like she's poisonous, and she spends all her evenings with her science project, a goose she's named Freud. When her parents win the state lottery, she can have everything she wants, but money can't buy happiness, can it? Now I'm anxious to read The Fortunes of Indigo Skye, by Deb Caletti, another YA novel about unexpected windfalls. I wasn't able to finish Caletti's Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, so we'll see.

I resolve to do better

2008-11-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, my last post got interrupted and I never got back to it, so I am completely embarrassed and resolve to do better. Here's the book I most recently read and wrote about on GoodReads. Do you know that site? It's like Facebook for readers! I love it. I use it to keep track of what I have read and what I want to read, to check reviews on books we might get for the library, and to check up on my kids. It's totally invaluable!

The Revolution of Sabine by Beth Levine Ain

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book set a few years before the French Revolution, but thought it filled with sterotypes -- the fop, the good peasants, the evil aristocrats, the charming, but clumsy, princess who is more at ease walking on cobblestones than dancing in a ballroom -- proof of her essential goodness. That said, I very much appreciated the ending. It's a pleasure to read a book about a teenage girl who recognizes that being parted from her "true love" might be the wisest thing for her, that it might actually help her grow.

View all my reviews.

Mysteries

2008-10-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not normally a big mystery reader. I like them okay, but for some people mysteries are like potato chips. For me, they are more like popcorn. Great every once in a while, but I can leave it be. Now, potato chips, specifically those Kettle Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper ones.....I will eat those until I'm sick, but I digress.

Recently I found myself with two mysteries going. Not only that, they were both historical and with women protagonists. That took some mental aerobics, I can tell you! Anyway, it all got me thinking about mysteries and how fun they are.

So I just finished The Serpent's Tale, by Ariana Franklin. This is the second mystery about Adelia Aguilar, a Salerno-trained forensic pathologist. Turns out Salerno in the 12th century was a well-known center of "modern" medical knowledge, allowing Jews, Arabs and women to study in their college! The first novel is The Mistress of the Art of Death, in which the Henry II has sent to Salerno for a master of the art of death to investigate the murders of some children in Cambridge. He's upset because the Jewish population there is incarcerated and therefore, cannot pay their taxes, a major source of his treasury. Both novels are exciting, surprising and fun, a decidedly macabre way.

The other one I'm reading (not quite finished) is The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penny. This one is a gnarly murder mystery, filled with people who are not what they seem, characters with suspicous backgrounds, and the cold and unforgiving Canadian north in the 19th century. Also exciting, surprising, but not so sure about the fun part.

For kids, I'd recommend Carolyn C. Cooney's Janie series. It starts with The Face on the Milk Carton. What would you do if you saw a picture of your 4-year-old self on a milk carton under the word Missing! Janie can even remember the dress she's wearing in the photo. What Janie does is question everything about her comfortable life, uncovering some hard truths.

Interludes

2008-05-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Check it out! The list of summer reads that we put together every spring is now online at http://library.bush.edu/news/summerreading08.htm

This year the theme is Interludes. I picked it inspired by my daughter Kitri. She called me one recent morning (before 9, in itself an amazing event) as she was sitting on the porch in the sun reading The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall. She was thoroughly enjoying herself and the only thing she was missing was her mommy to read it to her.

As I thought about how gratifying the phone call was, about my love for that particular book with its vacation theme, and about the wonderful respite that summer is, the light bulb went on: Books about interludes, books expressing a certain suspension of the mundane. So armed with a theme, we put together a terrific collection of suggested books! From fishing to Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, from that creative trance of crafting to travel stories -- there's something for everyone here. With some titles you might have to reach a little to see how the theme fits, but I couldn't leave off Garth Stein's new book, The Art of Racing in the Rain, for example.

Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times book editor, recently referred to "that trancelike state you achieve when you get deep into a book"* -- may your summer be filled with trancelike interludes.

*Gwinn, Mary Ann. "Literary blogger Mark Sarvas ventures into the receiving end of critique." The Seattle Times, May 25, 2008. Accessed online 5/29/08

Funny books

2008-04-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

Where are all the funny books? What -- people don't like to laugh anymore? And teens, in particular. I mean, have you read any teen fiction lately? It's all about angst, abuse, and anger. I just read Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt. It's a Newbery Honor book and a Printz Honor book, and there are 5 deaths in it, including two father figures and a best friend. Geez, you think maybe we could all just lighten up a little?

So, here is my list of books that are actually fun to read:
First, since I picked on him, is Gary D. Schmidt's newest book, The Wednesday Wars. It's great. It's funny and smart and has a boy protagonist. Eleven-year-olds and up should enjoy this story about how one kid starts to make sense of the world in 1968.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex is also great fun. Tip and her alien friend J.Lo (he just likes the sound of it so he gave himself the name) take a road trip across America in the wake of an alien invasion. Also for eleven-and-up.

The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchit, is brilliant! Tiffany Aching is smart and self-assured, with a good head for cheese and a great vocabulary. She is also overwhelmed by a tribe of 6-inch-tall wild men who want to help her save the world.

For adults, Good Omens, also by Terry Pratchit with Neil Gaiman, is a total hoot. It's time for the Apocalypse, but somehow the Anti-Christ has gotten misplaced. Someone's head's going to roll over that, I can tell you!

And doggone-it -- read Pride and Prejudice! It is the ultimate romantic comedy. Cute young woman meets handsome man; gross misunderstanding at the beginning; tentative friendship derailed by obnoxious friends and relatives; ends in wedding bells. Nora Ephron couldn't have done it better! Jane Austen is the snarkiest!

Well, that gets us started anyway. What are your picks for when you just need a good laugh?

One Ugly Book

2008-03-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I haven't been tagged by someone and forced to reveal ten things about myself that no one else knows, but here are two things you should know in order to understand this post.

1. I love, love, love post-apocalyptic fiction.

2. I hate, hate, hate sloppy writing and certain grammatical errors. So, although I took home Scott Westerfeld's Uglies with great anticipation, because it portrays a world in which everyone gets an extreme makeover on their sixteenth birthday and goes to live in a special, super-groovy place, my hopes were soon dashed.

My first 'uh-oh' occurred when I read this little inscription: "This novel was shaped by a series of e-mail exchanges between myself and Ted So-and-So ..." AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH! First of all, you never come first, the other person does. Second, it's 'me', not 'myself'. That usage has become almost ubiquitous, but it's wrong. The sentence should read: "This novel was shaped by a series of e-mail exchanges between Ted and me..."

Go ahead, call me petty. Or point out that I used 'their' to modify 'everyone' instead of 'his or her'. And then tell me you couldn't do better than New Pretty Town, the name of the super-groovy place the newly-pretty sixteen-year-olds go to. I managed to get through a few chapters before exercising my option to put down any book that just plain annoys me.

I know this series is hot, hot, hot. Good on ya, Scott Westerfeld. I'll keep buying your books as my students ask for them. But as for me (not myself), I'd rather read The Boxcar Children.

Tamora Pierce

2008-02-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

Yay, Mrs. Brown and Lindi for keeping the dream alive. Let's keep on posting.

I'm focusing right now on fiction that features strong girls/women but that aren't romances. I'm not interested in coupledom at the moment. The Tiffany Aching books are great for that. I'm just finishing Wintersmith, and although it's not as laugh-out-loud funny as Wee Free Men, I think it's in many ways more thought-provoking.

I haven't been a big Tamora Pierce fan, but she certainly writes about non-romantic heroines. I just read the mammoth Terrior, the first of the Beka Cooper series (others haven't been published yet, but are planned). I don't care for the violence in this book, but I admired the tough young woman Beka (who is an ancestor of Alanna), persevering in her need to find the perpetrator of a series of child murders.

Teach Me

2008-02-25T12:01:00.000-08:00

Teach Me
by R.A. Nelson is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Lately, I've been trying to rekindle my passion for books and find any kind of material that will pull me in and suck me under to the point where reality seems like the story and the book seems like reality. This book did just that. From the moment I picked it up, I was hooked. The story is a little bit riskay but sweet and gripping. Carolina "Nine" decides to take a poetry class her last term of her senior year. In this class she learns about love, obsession and Emily Dickinson from her incredibly handsome teacher, Mr. Mann.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is craving a little romance, forbidden or not. Although this book drags out, it is lengthy in a good way. It leaves one happy that the story continues past the alloted time consumed by the affair.

Tiffany Aching

2008-02-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

I just finished Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and loved it! Funny? Oh yes, this is truly hilarious stuff! This title is the third of his three Discworld novels which feature Tiffany Aching, a young cheesemaker and witch-in-training, in cahoots with the Nac Mac Feegle, a race of 6-inch-tall men who are blue. Now whether that is because their skin is blue or because they are so heavily tattooed is uncertain. (No one really wants to look too closely at a Feegle as they are pretty ugly, nor do you want to ask a Feegle. You would likely be attacked, and believe it or not, a Feegle attack would be fierce and chaotic. The noise alone can stop a grown man. You see, they all use different battle cries and ... oh perhaps I'm getting distracted.) Anyway, the humor catches you and drags you in, and then -- kapowie! Pratchett sneaks in his ideas about what constitutes wisdom and bravery and living a life of integrity.

The Wee Free Men
Hat Full of Sky
Wintersmith

All three are highly recommended. I mean HIGHLY!! recommended.

Saving Francesca

2007-10-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was recently recommended a book by Lisa called "Saving Francesca". I checked it out yesterday and finished it EARLY this morning. It's written by an Australian author and it's about a girl called Francis (frankie) whose just transfered from an all girls school, to a recently converted co-ed high school. Francesca at first may appear dull and act the way I'd be ashamed to act (no opinion or personality), but later the reader realizes that she does have an opinion but she keeps it to herself.
Throughout the book, she developes new opinions, renews old friendships, and as I reader, by the end of the book, I sympathized with her.
I'll return this soon to the library, so try it out if you get around to it.

Summer Reading

2007-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Now that i actually have time to post stuff here...

weee, summer is here and passing before my eyes faster than i would like, with less time for reading than one would think...

Anyways i just read this very intersting book called Warriors of Alavna by N.M. Browne about two kids, Dan and Ursula, (who live somewhere in england) getting pulled into the past (or analternate reality of the past), to the time of the Celts and the Romans. The book (surprisingly) does not dwel overly much on their desire to get back to their own time (but obviously this is something the two kids worry about), instead it covers their adventures there in the time they have found themselves in. It is a fun book to read (though it does have some very STRANGE concepts in it, one in particular...).

I have also been reading a lot of Fruits Basket and other manga. (more on the manga) Ultra Maniac was a short series, but it was cute and fun. I still love to read Full Moon o Sagashite over again. the second book in Vampire Knight ( a rather bloody and dark series) has recently come out and the second book in The Gentlemen's Alliance is also out now, Gentlemen's Alliance is a series by the same woman that did Full Moon, not having to do with magic, but focuses on the life of a girl in a school for very wealthy kids (her family is rich also) and her search for and obtaining of the boy she fell in love with some years ago.

Another book i read recently is called The Light-Bearer's Daughter by O.R. Melling. It is the third book in a series of loosly connected books called the Chronicles of Faerie. The books in this series can each usually be read by themselves and not in any particular order, though it may be less confusing if you read them in the order written which is:
The Hunter's Moon
The Summer King
The Light-Bearer's Daughter

The Light-Bearer's Daughter is about a young girl named Dana, she lives in Ireland and her mother dissapeared with no warning when she was small. Her father has now been offered a job in Canada (where he was born, though his family is from Ireland) and Dana really doesn't want to move because if they do, how will her mother find them again. This is where the Faeries come in, a faerie woman comes to Dana asker for her help with something (i wont say what) and in return offers Dana a wish, any wish. And so Dana runs away from home and embarks on her adventures to help the faerie and in return, find her mother. Basically.

Thats all for now.

-Myri Hale

summer reading

2007-06-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

I've been reading, reading, reading -- waiting for back surgery which will take me out of this misery I've been in for far too long. Some re-reading (my favorite when I need comforting): Pamela Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy. I especially love books 1 and 3 -- An Assembly Such as This, and These Three Remain. As you might guess, this is Pride and Prejudice from Mr Darcy's point of view. They are charming, and vastly better than the usual fan-fiction.

And some new (to me) books. Among the best, so far, is The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz. My daughter recommended it to me, and what a treat! Izzy Spellman is a 28-year-old private investigator working for her parents' San Francisco PI firm, and her travails with boyfriends, snoopy parents and a 14-year-old sister who would put Veronica Mars out of business are hilarious. Best thing? It is apparently the start of a series!!!

Right now I'm in the middle of In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, which breaks my current, pain-induced rule of no-sad-endings (goes for movies too), but it is gloriously written and very compelling. I'll finish it and then go back to light and frothy. A friend loaned me Diana Gabaldan's Outlander series -- heaving bosoms and time travel? I am so there!

Reading on the Plane

2007-06-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

School is out, ending, as it always does, abruptly and with many loose ends. At least this year we didn't have to pack up the entire collection for a move.

This morning I finished the last of the Earthsea series, The Other Wind. Oh how I love these books. I will probably read them again before too long, a common practice for Lindi, but not for me.

Right now I am faced with what reading material to bring with me on my very long flight to Ethiopia. Lindi has insisted that I bring a Jane Austen, and I have chosen Emma. I also have Cynthia Voigt's Jackaroo. I think I'll bring The Chalice and the Blade, something I've been wanting to read but am too fidgety to commit to. Sitting in the confines of a coach airplane seat for 15 or so hours will probably do the trick. However, I'll also have plenty of knitting to distract me, and reading or knitting is always a hard choice for me.

Kampung Boy - A Graphic Novel at its BEST!

2007-05-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

I picked up a copy of Scheherazade: Comics About Love, Treachery, Mothers and Monsters the other day. As I thumbed through this collection of short stories, all graphically illustrated by women about women, I was caught off guard by one page, quite simply one frame that lead me to question the appropriateness of the book for a school library. Currently I am reviewing the book in its entirety to make a truly informed decision. I was left feeling disappointed, however, that one frame in an incredibly powerful collection might actually be a deciding factor in our collection development decision.

The very next day I picked up a copy of Kampung Boy by LAT. This book is a graphic novel, comic/visual narrative at its best. The artistry of the drawings is evident, as is the author's background of growing up a boy in Southeast Asia. The picture above shows Mat, the main character when he first sees the cane his new teacher has been given permission to use if he gets out of line. He is young, feeling very small and obviously terrified by the prospects of a whipping.

This story is a delight - watching Mat grow up, learn responsibility, play, listen to his parents discuss difficult issues, make choices about his friends and commit himself to success is a journey that every child should have the opportunity to experience.

This graphic novel is a highly recommended read and available at your school library!

Guilty secrets time

2007-05-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

This is so embarrassing, but I am currently reading book 5 of Earth's Children. Yes, that's right -- Ayla and Jondalar and The Clan of the Cave Bear continue ad nauseum. But this post is not about that. Mostly because there's not a lot to talk about there. Yes, Ayla invents a new tool on every page (I'm expecting the thermos bottle any chapter now) and yes, she still enjoys Pleasures often and gloriously, but still -- it's all pretty superficial.

No, what I'm interested in is why we do this -- why are these lousy books so compelling? Why do we read bodice rippers or gratuitous gorefests or books so scary we can't sleep at night? There are so many great books, some of which fulfill all those criteria but which also give the reader lots to think about.

Why do I re-read my favorite teen novels (Izzy, Willy-Nilly, I'm talking about you) so many times that I have great chunks memorized? What is so appeallng about reading something that you don't have to think about? Maybe that's it? But I do still think about them, like all the time -- but the thoughts are all so silly!

Somebody called them "popcorn books" and that's it -- filling with no nutritional value. I'd be interested in your thoughts (or the titles you can't respect yourself for finishing).

Listen Up! A Certain Slant of Light

2007-05-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

I realize that this is the Bush "readers" Blog but I am struggling to find time to read! So, I picked up an audio book at the Bush Library and listened to it while I was driving to and from work.

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb was mesmerizing. As one ghost (light) meets another who has taken over a human's body (quick) fall in love I found myself sitting in my driveway at home simply clamouring for what would come next.

Helen and James fall in love as passionately and purely as possible while they inhabit the bodies of two lost souls that attend the same high school. After their first romantic encounter I continued to wonder - could she possibly be pregnant? As the book reaches its peak, Helen, alone in the bathtub, contemplates the value of life -- I was shocked to find the answer to my question.

The books is incredibly well written and I found myself quoting the intricate and descriptive writting. The reader of the audio book delivers a haunting performance as well.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2007-04-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

Just read this amazing graphic novel by Brian Selznick...

Welcome Myri Hale!

2007-03-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Another contributor! Welcome! Now let's get some discussion going about what we are reading. I'm still on my Robin McKinley binge, and really enjoying it. I also have gotten my husband to re-read Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy so that he can read the newer three titles -- Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea, and The Other Wind. Those are the BEST!

Welcome to Mrs. Brown as well!

2007-03-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is great -- 2 new contributors in 2 days! It's a long weekend -- whatcha readin'?

Welcome Brandi

2007-03-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

Let's hear it for Brandi (such a fine girl), our newest contributor! What are you going to read this weekend, now that finals are finished? I would love to be reading An Abundance of Katherines, but unfortunately, it is checked out. So I guess I'll have to knit instead. Or borrow a book from Lindi.

Robin McKinley

2007-03-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've just re-read The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, and am now in the middle of The Hero and the Crown. I LOVE these books! Her heroines are smart and funny. Her writing is good and the adventures are really exciting. This is fantasy for people who like to think. They are old -- like 20 years, so some of you may have missed them, but McKinley is still one of my favorite fantasy/fairy tale authors.

My only quibble is that she doesn't write enough! And I was really hoping that these two books would be a trilogy. In The Blue Sword, she describes Damar, a desert culture resisting colonization by a large empire. The Hero and the Crown is a prequel; i.e., she travels back 500 years to the "Golden Age" of Damar to tell the story of some of the legends introduced in the first book. I'd love a story about Luthe, the oracle from both books, or a story about Damar now, or . . . gosh anything! I just want to go back to Damar, hear about Lady Aerin, find out if Harry has had songs written about her.

Alas, I am forced to re-read the only Damarian literature out there, these two books and a short story, "The Stone Fey." McKinley has other books, also wonderful, but Damar calls to me. Sigh.

Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

2007-03-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

I'm jumping in with this title because I know some of our students have read it. As far as I'm concerned, it was the perfect conclusion to this series. I remember the first one knocking my socks off when it was published. I'm a little vague on the second and third volumes, but number four reminded me how much I love Ann Brashares' writing.

Who's going to weigh in on this one?

The Higher Power of Lucky

2007-03-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

I recently read the 2006 Newbery Medal winner. Winner is exactly right! It is an absolutely charming book.

Ten-year-old Lucky's mom is dead, and her dad has nothing to do with her. In fact, when Lucky's mom dies, he invites his first wife to come to California from France to take care of the child -- just until a suitable guardian can be found, or so he says. Brigitte has been wanting to come to America for a long time and this seems like the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately for Brigitte, Lucky lives in the Mojave Desert, so it's not really the America/California shown on French television.

Hence Lucky's concern that Brigitte will give up and go back to France. Lucky knows from listening in on a variety of 12-step meetings that a Higher Power can help, even when you've hit bottom, so surely He? She? It? can help her keep Brigitte from abandoning her.

This is a beautiful story about love and family and the importance of punctuation. I'm eager to hear what the rest of you think!