Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata was the 2005 Newbery winner. I did like this book, but not as much as I wanted to. I couldn’t really put my finger on why until I thought that maybe it was because there felt like just a little too much going on in the book.
Katie and her sister Lynn spent their first few years in Iowa where their parents ran an Asian market. The family ends up moving to Georgia where their uncle says he can get their parents jobs working at a chicken hatchery. The two work extremely hard with very little benefit, and the workers start thinking about a union. Meanwhile, Lynn and Katie struggle to fit in at school and then Lynn becomes sick with anemia and perhaps something worse.
While I was interested in the story, all of the book’s themes put together were perhaps a bit too much. It was a good book, but I was hoping for something a little more (or less as the case may be).
I didn’t even know who Chuck Klosterman was when I picked up this book, but after listening to just a few minutes of Downtown Owl, I had to check to see who he was and if he went to high school with me. He didn’t — as he’s from North Dakota — but Downtown Owl was so jarringly and surprisingly familiar to me that I had to make sure. Set in 1983 and 1984 in the cold, flat plains of fictional Owl, ND, this book captures small town plains life almost perfectly. At least it does for that time frame.
The residents of Owl converse and care deeply about the weather, crops, the high school sports teams, the bars, and the fact that the local movie theatre is closing down. (Check, check, check, double check.) The day doesn’t seem complete if the farmers don’t get together and talk about all these important events over coffee every day. (Triple check.) And last but not least, the English teacher is having the high school classes read 1984 in 1984. (Quadruple check.) Klosterman could have been telling this story about my own hometown in the very year of 1984 when I, too, was reading 1984 as a high school sophomore. Eerily familiar, I tell you! Oh, and the music, too. All the popular music of the day gets a mention, and that was a nice blast from the past as well.
The three main characters in the book are Mitch, a high school student on the football team; Julia, a young, brand new teacher who is the new celebrity in town; and Horace, a 70ish widower whose wife died of insomnia. I really don’t want to say too much about the characters because they each have their own unique voice and slant on living in Owl that is best experienced yourself. If you want to know more about them, read the book!
The book does have quite a bit of bad language in it, one scene of animal cruelty that was graphically described, and an ending I wasn’t sure if I liked or not, BUT… I will definitely be looking into Klosterman’s next novel, particularly if it contains plains people in a plains town.
I knew I would probably enjoy The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle because it’s about a girl growing up in a small town in Colorado — this girl did the same.
Alice Winston lives on a horse ranch in the desert with her father and reclusive mother, while her older sister Nona has run off with a cowboy riding the rodeo circuit. With her sister gone, Alice’s father struggles to make the ranch profitable by boarding the horses of the wealthier women in town. It’s a lot of work for just the two of them, and somehow they make do for awhile. But all of them miss Nona and can’t understand why she’d leave the family and the ranch.
Meanwhile, Alice is dealing with being accepted at school and recovering from the death of a classmate. She experiences her first kiss and her first crush. She tries to make sense of the adults around her. I sympathized with Alice and winced at the all too familiar pains of growing up. I rooted for things to go her way. Sadly, however, life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan. Sometimes we just have to accept the way things are.
Written in 1977 but published in the US for the first time this January, Detective Story by Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz tells the story of a group of men who, while working for an unnamed Latin American country’s government, go too far to stop their political enemies. While I thought Kaddish for a Child Not Born by Kertesz was brilliant, I must admit I didn’t get into this one too much. I’m willing to confess the fault might lie with the reader rather than the writer, however. Luckily, this one was short, but it didn’t pack the same punch for me that Kaddish did.
1977 [2008 for the English translation], 112 pp.
Rating: 3/5
Definition: Mourner’s Kaddish expresses love of God and acceptance of God’s will, even while the mourner is feeling sorrow over the death of a loved one. [See the actual English translation at the end of this review.]
Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz, survivor of both Auschwitz and Buchenwald, is a brilliant writer. As I was reading this short work, I found that I wanted to quote almost the entire book for this review. In the story, a man at a writer’s conference explains to a colleague why he refused his ex-wife a child because he doesn’t want to bring a child into a world where an Auschwitz is allowed to occur. In fact the very first word of the novel is “No,” a reference to a question on whether or not he has children. He then expounds on his reasons for that decision, and on his childhood, his marriage, and his survival experiences.
“No!” something screamed, howled within me, immediately and forthwith, and it was only gradually, after many, many years had quieted it down, that my cramp gave way to a quiet but persistent pain, until slowly and maliciously, like a malignant sickness, a question began to take distinct shape with me: “Were you to be a dark-eyed little girl? With pale spots of scattered freckles around your little nose? Or a stubborn boy? With cheerful, hard eyes like blue-gray pebbbles?” Yes, my existence in the context of your potentiality.
I’ve had family members also question the wisdom of bringing children into the world, and the first time it was put to me, I didn’t understand the reasoning behind this stance at all. Perhaps I was too naive then, though, because I do understand it now. I am a mother; I’m grateful to be a mother; but, unfortunately, there is much evil in this world, and while not my choice, I understand why people would question whether to subject their potential children to it.
1990, [1999 for English trans.], 95 pp.
Rating: 4.5/5
English Translation of the Mourner’s Kaddish
May His illustrious name become increasingly great and holy
In the world that He created according to His will,
and may He establish His kingdom
In your lifetime and in your days
and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel
Speedily and soon. And let us say amen.
May His illustrious name be blessed always and forever.
Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled
Honoured, raised up and acclaimed
be the name of the Holy one blessed be He
beyond every blessing hymn, praise and consolation
that is uttered in the world. And let us say amen.
May abundant peace from heaven, and life
Be upon us and upon all Israel.
It had been over 20 years since I had read a Stephen King book. I used to love horror and love his books. I really, really did. That changed and I don’t like horror at all now. I like scary, suspenseful stories-just not horror. I think I had convinced myself that surely there wouldn’t be that much horror because he put so much of his wife/marriage into the story. I guess there probably wasn’t as much as in his other books, but it was still too much for me.
Stephen King had said that he wrote this after considering what could happen to his wife if he had died in the car accident that he had. I do think he put quite a bit of himself and her into this story. I liked the beginning of the book very much, but then in the middle there was a little too much of the horror element for me. Lisey’s husband Scott flashes back to a horror-full childhood. There were some crazy things that happen to Lisey as well that bothered me because I kept thinking, “How can he think of these things happening to his wife?”
Anyway, it was a good book for the R.I.P Challenge, but I don’t think I’ll be reading another King book for awhile. If you know of one that is very tame, I might try it. Otherwise, there’s just too much horror in King for this wimpy woman.
I’m so glad I hadn’t read this book before so that I could read it for the Southern Reading Challenge (and the Something about Me Challenge). I loved everything about this book. The setting, the characters, the story. I didn’t know anything about it before I started reading, and I think it’s best that way. All I’ll say is that it is about a girl named Lily and that bees play an important part of the story. If you’re one of the few who haven’t read it yet, you’ll be in for a treat when you do.
Margaret is an older woman who has lived alone in a mansion for a very long time. She finds out she has cancer and then decides to start taking in boarders. Wanda is her first boarder. Her boyfriend has broken up with her and she needs somewhere else to stay. The women hit it off and slowly reveal their secrets to one another. Margaret starts taking in other boarders and soon a surrogate family is developed.
I really liked this first novel by Kallos–especially the first and and last parts of the book. The middle section I didn’t much care for, or I would have rated this a 4.5. Also, there was quite a bit of s * x and language that I didn’t like. I did like how Margaret and Wanda not only forge a strong friendship but also start “really living” for the first time after they meet each other. There is much more to this novel that I don’t want to give away. I really did like the storyline, but it did seem like there were a few too many coincidences at the end. Overall, a fantastic first effort!
Amanda – May 22, 2007
I’ve wanted to read this for awhile, but hadn’t seen a review by anyone. I think I’ll still try it, even with the s*x and language. Maybe I’ll just end up putting it back down.
3M – May 22, 2007
I think you’ll like the book, Amanda. I do recommend it highly. I always like to warn people ahead of time about content, though.
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata was the 2005 Newbery winner. I did like this book, but not as much as I wanted to. I couldn’t really put my finger on why until I thought that maybe it was because there felt like just a little too much going on in the book.
by Cynthia Kadohata was the 2005 Newbery winner. I did like this book, but not as much as I wanted to. I couldn’t really put my finger on why until I thought that maybe it was because there felt like just a little too much going on in the book.
I knew I would probably enjoy The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle because it’s about a girl growing up in a small town in Colorado — this girl did the same.
Written in 1977 but published in the US for the first time this January, Detective Story by 
It had been over 20 years since I had read a Stephen King book. I used to love horror and love his books. I really, really did. That changed and I don’t like horror at all now. I like scary, suspenseful stories-just not horror. I think I had convinced myself that surely there wouldn’t be that much horror because he put so much of his wife/marriage into the story. I guess there probably wasn’t as much as in his other books, but it was still too much for me.
