Summer Reading Challenge

Perhaps it's the fuzzy warm feeling from TBF this past weekend* or perhaps it's just where I'm at in life, but I decided I'm going to challenge myself this summer with my reading. By challenge, I mean that I would like to read at least 25 books over the next 13 weeks. I'm doing this in context of Summer Book Bingo. You can find the Bingo Board here if you want to play along.

Also, I plan to incorporate "Books that I Should Have Read Long Ago and Just Sort of Skipped Over". There is quite a few of those. My friend, Jim, set up a challenge for himself last year of "classics that he should have read but didn't". This is my inspiration for this phase of my challenge.

I will blog about the books and the progress of my challenge.

And now for book one of the challenge:

Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

I completed this book in less than 24 hours because I couldn't put it down. In fact, I stayed up late on Tuesday to plow through as much as I could. Written in the Stars is about Naila, a soon-to-be high school graduate who is forced by her parents into an unwanted marriage. I'm usually not a fan of realistic fiction, but this book was so interesting. Naila is a compelling character. The minor characters were interesting and well-developed. I highly recommend this book.

*I realized as I was writing this that I should do a recap of TBF. It was epic and wonderful!

Reading Friday

It's Reading Friday  Monday on the blog--whoo! My reading goal for the next few months is to read as many books by Teen Book Festival authors in anticipation of the Festival which is May 17th at Nazareth College.

I always envision myself pulling a Chris Farley when he met Paul McCartney with authors when I meet them. I find if I read their books ahead of time, at least I have something to talk about, rather than be all like, "Remember when you wrote a book? That was cool..."

Currently, I am reading Proxy by Alex London. I'm 3/4 of the way through it and I absolutely love it! London creates a believable future where people are indebted from birth in order to afford health care, data streams and education. Syd Carton is a proxy; that is, he is indebted to a rich family. The family has a son Syd's age, named Knox. Whenever Knox misbehaves, Syd is punished. When Knox kills a young woman, Syd is to be punished for the crime. However, circumstances throw both the young men together in an exhilarating plot that has kept me reading past my bedtime each night this week (except last night, when I fell asleep face-first into the book. It has been a rough week.).

I really enjoyed London's character development and watching the relationship between Syd and Knox grow throughout the novel.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel--Guardian--when it is released May 29th. I am also looking forward to fangirling over meeting Alex London at TBF in 74 days!

Reading Friday

Welcome to another installment of Reading Friday! I read two books this past week:

1. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. After reading Rutkoski's interview on the Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival blog, I read the ARC of this novel.*

Kestrel is the daughter of a general. She has the choice either to marry or go into her father's army. Kestrel accompanies her friend, Jess, to the town's marketplace during a slave auction. Kestrel is in a heated bidding war with another person over the slave, who is a young man the same age as Kestrel. She wins him after bidding a large sum of money; hence, the winner's curse. Kestrel is fascinated by the slave, Smith (Arin), and wants to know his background. Smith is guarded about how much he lets Kestrel know about himself--he has secrets.

While I was put off by the cover of the book (how many YA books have covers with young ladies suffering from ennui in fancy dresses?), I really enjoyed this book! I especially like Rutkoski's characters; Kestrel is a strong female character who makes mistakes. Smith (Arin), Kestrel's slave, is headstrong and torn between loyalty and romance. Rutkoski's style kept me reading--I had to know what was going to happen next.

The novel ended a bit abruptly, but I believe this is the first in a trilogy. I'm excited to read the next installment.

The Winner's Curse is scheduled to be released on March 4.

2. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

I read this book in less than an hour. Linda Sue Park weaves the stories of two people from South Sudan together. One is Salva Dut, the real-life founder of Water for South Sudan. He is one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan in the 1980s/1990s. The other is Nya, a fictional girl living in a Sudanese village in 2008. Nya walks to the nearest freshwater source for her village every day-- it takes her most of the day walking to fetch water for her family. Through the two narratives, the reader is able to see the war in Sudan and how that has affected the Sudanese people over the past 20 years.

Everyone should read this book. I didn't realize how much the Lost Boys struggled during the war. Although I knew that fresh water is a problem for many people in Africa, I didn't realize the extent of the problem. This book exposed me to lives outside my realm of experiences.

Overall, it was an awesome week for reading!

*NOTE: My friend who went to NCTE picked up the ARC at one of the publisher's tables. I am not compensated in anyway for my book reviews on my blog.

Reading Thursday

I've been quiet the last few days. It's not that I don't have stuff to write about--I've been busy reading (my New Year's Resolution) and am involved in projects at work.

I have tried to do posts called "Reading Friday" which give a rundown of what I've read as of late, but I'm inconsistent. *shrugs* It happens. So I am going to do "Reading Thursday" today. Here's a list of the books I've read since my last reading post:

 

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. If you don't read Terry Pratchett, you should. His characters are hilarious, yet they accurately portray human nature. I loved this book!

Croak by Gina Damico.  Lex Bartelby is shipped off to her uncle's house in the Adirondacks after she caused havoc at her school. Could her behavior have to do with a family trait that Lex shares with her Uncle Mort? A fun read. Gina Damico is going to be at the Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival in May.

The Lord of Illusion by Kathryne Kennedy. I'm a sucker for fantasy romances. I read them and then I complain to my husband about them because I get disappointed. While I loved the premise of this book--Elven Lords have taken over England during the Regency era--the plot fell short about 2/3 of the way through. Having said that, I will try another one of the author's books because I enjoy the premise.

Cold Calls by Charles Benoit. Benoit has a gift in writing suspense. I really enjoyed this book because I had to keep reading to see what happens--I kept guessing at what the characters had done and how they would react. Highly recommend for people who like mystery.

So, dear readers, that's my run-down of my reading for the past month.

What are you reading?

Another Day

A few days ago, I had posted about going to a used book store and I said, "That will be a post for another day."

Today is another day, dear reader.

I love used bookstores! With the advent of digital publishing and perhaps the decline in reading, used bookstores are like unicorns--you just don't see them around so much anymore. A few weeks ago, my friend, Amie,* and I were stalking used bookstores in the Rochester area online, and we finally found one in Spencerport, The Book Centre.

I liked the Book Centre. It is floor to ceiling with books. So many books. So many, many books. It's the kind of place where I think I could spend days browsing the stacks, but only can tolerate about 45 minutes before I have an information overload.

As we were browsing the mysteries, I heard some voices in the row of books behind me. Suddenly, a pile of heavy books about WWII aviation landed on my head, as well as a guide to birds. I stood stunned. A gentleman rounded the row and said, "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," I mumbled, rubbing the back of my head.

"Ah, here it is!," he said cheerily, picking up the bird guide.

I felt a little awkward, so I started picking up the books on aviation. "You can leave those. I'll get them," the cheerful man said.

It was like people got beamed in the head with heavy books every day.

I retreated into the paranormal romance section to lick my wounds. I had a hell of a head ache.

Later, when Amie and I stopped for coffee, I asked, "Do you think it would be ironic if I got killed by a stack of books on my day off?"

She smiled. "Yeah, it would probably become some sort of meme and go viral."

"Yeah, I can see that--Librarian Killed by Books. Oh, the hilarity." My head still hurt. I think the cheerful bookseller should have given me a free book for pain and suffering.

So, having said all this, I'm actually looking forward to going back to Book Centre. There's so much more there I want to pick through. I'm bringing a friend when I return, so I can have someone spot me as I browse. After all, I don't want to be that meme.

*I have a few friends named Amy. It is really confusing to people when I talk about "my friend, Amy" because it could be Amy, Amy or Amie. I think my Amys come across better in my blogging.
Having said that, there is Lora and Laurie, Colleen and Colleen. This is why my husband just nods when I tell him anecdotes about my friends.

Meme has nothing to do with this post. I just like it.

In defense of stupid

Mae Young. Photo from Fox Sports.

Back in college, I used to spend my down time reading classics and researching artists. I blew through Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead in two days--just for fun.* I researched T.S. Eliot because I wanted to know more about him--just for fun. I read Moby Dick in a day and a half--just for fun. I read about Andy Warhol's screen-printing processes--just for fun.

Amy and I started watching wrestling in grad school. Olean, NY has a huge wrestling fan base. I think we started to watch it in part to have something to talk about with our coworkers at Tops and Ames.** We also started to watch it to poke fun of it. However, I found myself being sucked into the storylines and impressed with the wrestlers.

Edge and Christian are my favorite and my best.

When I started teaching full-time, I found that I couldn't come home from work and snuggle up with the work of Charles Baudelaire or pick apart the layers of symbolism in William Blake. You can say what you want about teachers--but I tell you, the job is mentally and emotionally exhausting. I wanted to be entertained by something I didn't have to think about--at all.

And this is truly when I got sucked into the world of the WWE.

Amy and I used to watch Monday Night RAW religiously. We used to speculate about the story lines, including the fact that we could probably write more cohesively than the WWE writers. We went to the live events in Rochester and Buffalo. It was great fun! At one point, I had even charted out a cross stitch chart of Christian. Somehow, I messed up the dimensions in the stitching software and my finished project was going be about 7 ft. tall and 4 ft. wide. It would have taken a few hundred skeins of thread to complete. I decided that it would have to be my life's work to do this project. I imagined myself finishing the project when I was, like, 70 and presenting it to the Orangeville, Ontario Town Hall as a memento of one of their greatest sons.

This was not the original pic I was going to stitch. But imagine this about 7 ft. tall. Truly epic stitching, I tell ya!

Of course, I never actually stitched it.

I did find when I watched wrestling regularly, I treated myself better. After during my first year of teaching, I weighed close to 300 lbs. I couldn't climb a flight of stairs without being winded. I started eating vegetarian and exercising and lost weight. Part of my motivation was because I was watching these people who had attractive bodies and I wanted to be attractive, too.

I dropped out of the wrestling fandom when I got married, as my husband couldn't stand the stuff. Not that I blame him--I do have a lot of problems with the WWE--they don't treat their workers very well; they exploit women; they reinforce hurtful stereotypes; Linda McMahon's run for office; etc.

Having said that, I sometimes become nostalgic for my WWE fandom days because it was fun. This is why I am sad about the passing of Mae Young, who was a pioneer of women who wrestled. I am in awe that she worked right up to the end of her life. She was strong and sassy. Although I don't want to be a wrestler, nor do I desire to watch WWE, I do admire Mae Young.

*After I emerged from my dorm room after shunning my friends for two days to read The Fountainhead, I told Amy that I never wanted to read another book again. I thought The Fountainhead was that awful.

**Remember Ames? When the Olean Ames was closing, I bought a pair of shoes there. Each shoe was a different size. Since then, I always check to make sure the shoes are the same size when I buy shoes.

Reading Friday

Since this has been a book-heavy week, I figured I would close out with what I am currently reading and what I just read and my impressions of both.
 

Currently reading: Cold Calls by Charles Benoit

I managed to get my hands on an ARC of this novel, as it is not due out until April. I'm about 50 pages into this book and I am loving it! Benoit has a gift in writing suspense. It is one of those books where I have to read into the next chapter to see what happens. Cold Calls is about three teens. Each has done something terrible and these terrible things are secrets that the teens don't want getting out. A mysterious voice calls each teen, tells him or her that the caller knows his/her secret and this the secret will be exposed, if the teen doesn't complete the tasks the caller assigns to him/her. The tasks involve bullying other kids at the teens' schools.

I anticipate finishing Cold Calls this weekend, especially since the Weather Channel is predicting a dire Snowpocalypse this weekend.

Just Finished: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

I picked up Cat's Cradle two weeks ago when my husband left it lying around. I really enjoyed this book because it made me think about stuff. I liked Bokononism, which is "shameless lies". Within those lies, there lies a lot of truth, I think.

My husband describes Vonnegut's style as "deceptively simple". I agree. I feel like Cat's Cradle fits into the same mold as Catcher in the Rye in that there is an unreliable narrator tell the reader about what is wrong with society or humanity, but this is portrayed as a fault of the narrator, rather than a fault of the society.

Because of Cat's Cradle, I understand why people think Vonnegut is one of the best American authors of the 20th century. I'm looking forward to reading more of his books.

So many books...too little time...

What are you currently reading? Feel free to leave a comment below, or, if you are accessing this through Facebook, you can comment on the post that contains this link.

10 More Books

After reading my friends' lists on Facebook, I decided I need to make another list of the 10 YA Books that Have Stayed With Me:

1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

2. The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk

3. First Test by Tamora Pierce

4. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

6. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

7. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

8. Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

9. Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

10. The Ear, The Eye and The Arm by Nancy Farmer

There are a ton more, but these were the first ten to come to mind. Having said that, I can't believe I forgot about #7 on this list yesterday when I composed my initial 11 books. Boy Meets Boy is beautifully written and rates up there as one of my favorite books.

Ten Books

So, there's this thing going around Facebook that I was tagged in: "Ten books that have stayed with you. Don't take more than a few minutes. Don't think too hard.* They don't have to be great books or your favorites. Just the ones that touched you."

I figured I would put my list of 11** books here on my blog, as I really didn't have a good entry today anyway. Plus, I figure I could link to fun things in my list. Check it out:

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

2. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

3. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

4. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

5. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

6. Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling

7. Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

9. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

11. The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac

By the way, in case you were curious, book 3 is the reason why I have so many tattoos.

*Oh, no worries on that!

**Because just 10 was way too hard. According to the directions, this wasn't supposed to be hard.

Feline Bohemian Rhapsody, or Totally Judging a Book By Its Cover

"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality."

This, dear reader, is what goes through my head when I reshelve this book in our library:

Do you think the illustrator may have been influenced by Queen...just a bit?

 

Little Gremlins on the Prairie, or Totally Judge a Book By Its Cover

Or so I thought when I unpacked this book:

Now, don't get me wrong: Garth Williams is one of my favorite illustrators. In fact, we are reading The Borrowers as a family and I love Williams' drawings of the mice. I grew up with the Little House books and liked how the pictures told the stories of Laura's life.

Maybe this particular drawing is an anomaly. While it looks great at a glance, there is something more sinister about it:

Why are the girl's eyes rolling back into her head? Is she possessed by the kitten? (my theory). One of my coworkers insisted that it isn't actually a kitten, but Gizmo from Gremlins. Was Williams trying to warn us of the impending doom of feeding this creature after midnight because of the havoc it would cause on this small frontier town?

If you want to know if the prediction of the little old man who owned the Chinese curiosities shop was correct and the if the Ingalls family survived the death and destruction of prairie gremlins, I recommend Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Look! Look! Look at my liver!, or Judge a Book By Its Cover

One of the more interesting aspects of being a librarian is weeding the stacks. Over the years, we have found some really interesting books in our library.

Despite the adage that one cannot judge a book by its cover, I assure you that many readers do. Such as this one:

I know that Orson Scott Card has many fans. His other books circulate. This one does not and I'm pretty sure it has to do with the cover. If I were to interpret the story line by the cover, I would guess that some 80s rock star (judging by the dude's hair) is raising a golden liver from a forge.  His body language is saying, "Look! Look! Look at my liver!" And, what's with the kid in the right corner? He seems rather impressed by this feat!

I realize that the fantasy genre lends itself to interesting cover art, but Rick Springfield and the Golden Liver?