I don’t remember where I heard or read this story, so it might not be true, but I heard that when Joe Hill was trying to get this book published, he didn’t tell anyone until he signed the contract that he was Stephen King’s son. I was so impressed by that. He really could have used that to his advantage and instead he chose to try to make it on his own first. Kudos. [Edit: Okay, I did find a source of this from USA Today]
But can he compete with his famous father? In a word, yes. I used to love Stephen King when I was in high school and have read several of his books. I can’t take much horror at all now, but I was really curious about Joe Hill’s writing and the book seemed like it had an interesting premise. At an online auction site, a guy buys a suit that’s supposedly haunted. The guy that buys it, Judas, is an older rock star who collects all sorts of crazy stuff so he’s unable to resist the suit when he’s prompted to do so by an email. Turns out, it’s a bad decision.
This book was creepy. Very creepy. I listened to it on audio CD, and I could only listen to it in the daytime. It was perfect for the R.I.P. Challenge, but it was a little too gritty for my tastes — otherwise I probably would have rated it 4 stars instead of 3.5. If you don’t care about such things and like Stephen King’s writing, there is almost no doubt you will like Joe Hill’s as well.
2007, 384 pp.
[Disclosure: I obtained this book from my local library.]
I thought that I’d at least try out the series that everyone’s been talking about – I guess it’s a super hit on HBO as well. I was a little worried it would be too graphic for me and it was, but I’ll probably at least try the next book in the series and take it one book at a time.
Sookie is a telepath and can hear everyone’s thoughts — except vampires. So when ‘Vampire Bill’ comes into the bar where Sookie works and Sookie hears nothing, it’s a blessed relief to her. I won’t say much else about the story, but it was a nice diversion when I was flying and at the airport. Like I said, I’ll at least read one more and may even check out the DVDs. I am wondering, though, if Stephenie Meyer had read this series before starting Twilight. There seems to be some similar ideas, but maybe all vampire fiction has some basic commonalities.
Nothing here was part of her. It was false, empty…
Longlisted for The Man Booker Prize (though it did not make the shortlist), Colm Toibin’s book is about young Eislis Lacey’s journey from Ireland to Brooklyn and from girlhood to womanhood.
I did enjoy reading about Eislis’s immigrant experience and her struggles in her new surroundings, but the story was a bit slow moving. I normally don’t mind that at all in books, but the novel was perhaps a bit too muted. In some ways I do expect that that could have been Toibin’s intent, however, and perhaps was an indication of Eislis’s character.
I heartily sympathized for Eislis at the end, but I also felt that she made the right decision. If you’ve read the book as well, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
2009, 262 pp.
[Disclaimer: This book was obtained using my public library.]
I felt that Father’s altogether human blindness could not be held against him. The dangerous ramifications that existed for his wife and children when he undertook to extricate himself from his embarrassing and humiliating situation in Nashville he could not have been expected to foresee.
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987.
I’m not sure how I feel about this book. On the one hand it has a real ’sense of place’ for the South; on the other hand, it can leave you wondering what all the fuss is about. Set in Tennessee, it is basically a story about how a domineering father and a move from Nashville to Memphis affected a family.
But again, I ask — why all the fuss? Why would a move leave everyone in the family so altered? What if they had moved to California instead of another southern city in the same state? What if they had had to move every year as some families do? What if they had had to endure much more painful occurrences such as divorce, death, sickness, or violence? So what if the father thwarted some of their plans? Move away. Act like a grown up and make your own decisions instead of acting like a child for the rest of your life.
Or perhaps that was Peter Taylor’s point. After living in the South for over 15 years, I’ve seen some maneuvering behind the pleasantries, some manipulation behind the politeness. No one saying what they really mean or feel. The exaggeration of small problems into a lifelong battle. Not being able to get away from family, on both the parents’ and the adult children’s side. This novel has all of the above. In that sense and in the descriptions of both cities, I do feel the book conveys a strong sense of the South, but some readers may be bored by the relatively small problems faced by the family in this book. In addition, there were quite a few instances in the story where Taylor seems to repeat himself and I found myself asking, ‘Didn’t he just say that?’ Very strange.
Recommended for those interested in Southern literature or Pulitzer winners.
Memory lived not in initial possession but in the freed hands, pardoned and freed, and in the heart that can empty but fill again, in the patterns restored by dreams.
Eudora Welty’s Pulitzer Prize winning book was a little disappointing to me. I had been looking forward to reading her work for awhile, and I thought this book would be perfect for the Southern Reading Challenge and, of course, the Pulitzer Project. While it does convey a strong sense of the South, I didn’t like Welty’s writing style at all.
The first 2/3 of the book is almost like a play in that it is about 85-90% dialogue. It was extremely difficult to read. The last 1/3 has very little dialogue and was definitely the best part of the book. In this last section, we are able to make sense (a little) of Laurel’s relationship with her parents and her past.
Although I’m glad I read this book for its Southern feel and because I can check off another Pulitzer, I can’t really recommend it unless you are reading it for the same goals.
If you haven’t been in a war and are wondering how long it takes to get used to losing everything you think you need or love, I can tell you the answer is No time at all.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff won the Printz Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers. I really enjoy ‘end of the world as we know it’ books and this was no exception. However, I did take exception with Daisy’s relationship with her cousin Edmond. Although relationships between cousins used to be acceptable, it just isn’t today. At least by my standards.
Daisy’s father has remarried and she is shipped off to England to stay with her cousins. When her Aunt Penn is away on business, war breaks out and the children are left to fend for themselves, and they survive for awhile admirably. As the war goes on, though, it becomes increasingly difficult for the family to stay together and find the supplies they need. The goal of survival begins to take its toll.
I did enjoy this story, except for the situation noted above. I normally don’t like books written in a run-on, free-form style as this one was, but as it was narrated by a teenager, it didn’t bother me as much as it usually does. I really empathized with Daisy and her situation, and I admired how she was able to see one of her problems in a new light toward the end of the book.
But why did they have to be cousins? The answer isn’t ‘because of the war’ as they began their relationship before it started. I just wish it could have been a friend of the cousins instead.
I finally read Twilight. I think I was (almost) the last to do so. Even my sisters both bragged that they read the whole series before I even got to the first book.
So what did I think? Well, for the first few pages,I thought, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this… Then I don’t know if the writing got better or I just got sucked (pun intended) into the story, but I did end up liking it quite a bit. I think Stephenie Meyer knows how to tap into a teenage girl’s mind and the book fits its audience quite well. As far as this 40+ woman goes, well, I did roll my eyes at some passages, but the overall plot of the book is pretty darn good.
The movie was remarkably faithful to the book for the most part, and l quite enjoyed it when I saw it last year. In fact, I’ll probably re-watch it soon and then go ahead and read New Moon so when talk comes up about the upcoming movie I won’t have anything spoiled for me. Then I’ll read Eclipseand Breaking Dawn during Carl’s R.I.P. challenge (if I can wait until September).
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green was a Printz Honor Book for 2007. I listened to this on audio and while at first I didn’t like the narrator, by the end of the book I felt he did a fine job.
First, the positives. This story was intelligent and funny and I laughed out loud several times. I loved all the math in the book (engineering geek that I am), and I wish I could have seen the equations on the actual pages instead of hearing them read. In fact, I would have gotten the book from my library for this purpose in addition to the audio, but it was already checked out. I will still probably do that at some point. I also liked the characters. Just like the book itself, they were intelligent and funny. And lastly, John Green is a good writer.
But….the content. The content, the content, the content. There is a lot of language. There are also a lot of substitutions for a certain word with ‘fug’ instead. An interesting sidenote is that apparently Norman Mailer was the inventor of this word. I’m no stranger to these substitutions, I thought it was kind of funny in Battlestar Galactica (frakkin Cyclons), but is it really appropriate in a young adult book? Do I think teenagers not use these words? No, I know they do. Did I read books as a teenager that used these words? Yes, I did. But, I sneaked them. Books that had ‘content’ were discouraged in my day, not encouraged. Now, any and all language and s*x is fine in teen books and even lauded. There is also a s*x scene described in Green’s book that I found very inappropriate. Do I not know that some teens have s*x? No, of course I do. Did I not read Forever and Wifey in high school? Yes, of course I did. But again, it was not encouraged by my parents and librarians.
If you’re still reading this far and have not given up in disgust by my old-fashioned ways, I will say it again: I thought An Abundance of Katherines was intelligent, funny, and well-written. I just won’t be handing it over to my two teenage sons to read. If it weren’t for the content, I would be giving this book a 4.5 rating, but as it is, it gets a 3.5 rating instead. (Ducks head anticipating the bashing I will receive.)
Some have said that Richard Yates’ books is an indictment of marriage, suburbia, or both. Yates himself said in an interview that it is actually more about aborted dreams.
Frank and April are young and successful suburbanites with two children. Well, successful to others, but not to themselves. Frank hates his job and finds it excruciatingly boring. April hates the suburbs and finds her life as a wife and mother excruciatingly boring. When the couple (mostly April) devise a plan to get out of their present circumstances, they seem to relax and enjoy each other again — until a few glitches come their way.
My sisters and I read this together for our bookclub, and I have also seen the movie so it was interesting to compare the two. While the book was mostly from Frank’s and their neighbor Shep’s points of view, the movie had more of April and Mrs. Givings’ perspective. Also the endings were a bit different.
I found the book to be well-written but depressing. It’s definitely thought-provoking.
Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars won the Newbery Medal in 1971. The title of the book refers to a little boy’s fascination with the birds. Charlie (who is mentally handicapped) and his sister Sara live with their Aunt Willie. The story begins with Sara’s dissatisfaction with herself and her life, but when Charlie goes missing, she puts all that behind her to help find her brother.
While I appreciated Sara’s growth in the book and the tenderness between Sara and Charlie, it definitely isn’t one of the stronger Newberys that I’ve read. It is positive in its illustration that family relationships are more important than selfish concerns, but the book just didn’t grab me. To be fair, my conclusion could be based on the mediocre performance of the audio narration, which I didn’t at all care for.
I don’t remember where I heard or read this story, so it might not be true, but I heard that when Joe Hill was trying to get this book published, he didn’t tell anyone until he signed the contract that he was Stephen King’s son. I was so impressed by that. He really could have used that to his advantage and instead he chose to try to make it on his own first. Kudos. [Edit: Okay, I did find a source of this from USA Today]
Nothing here was part of her. It was false, empty…
I finally read Twilight. I think I was (almost) the last to do so. Even my sisters both bragged that they read the whole series before I even got to the first book.
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green was a Printz Honor Book for 2007. I listened to this on audio and while at first I didn’t like the narrator, by the end of the book I felt he did a fine job.
Some have said that Richard Yates’ books is an indictment of marriage, suburbia, or both. Yates himself said in an 
Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars won the Newbery Medal in 1971. The title of the book refers to a little boy’s fascination with the birds. Charlie (who is mentally handicapped) and his sister Sara live with their Aunt Willie. The story begins with Sara’s dissatisfaction with herself and her life, but when Charlie goes missing, she puts all that behind her to help find her brother.
