Reader's Corner - May Update

"Mr. Holmes is kind of hawt."

May has been a super busy month, so I haven't been able to get that much reading in.

I did finish The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is remarkable and important and everyone should read it.

I started the YA mystery The Little Woods by McCormick Templeman, which has been enjoyable so far.

I also started A Study in Scarlet, the first of the Sherlock Holmes tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I never read any Sherlock before, but I've loved the many incarnations in films and television, especially the version portrayed by Jeremy Brett.

But, of course, the latest incarnation is the best. (No, Robert Downey, Jr., that isn't you.) I'm talking about the Steven Moffat produced Sherlock series on BBC and PBS. This is a modern, sexy, oh-so-smart adaptation of the detective in the deerstalker hat. Benedict Cumberbatch is spot-on as the brilliantly mercurial Sherlock Holmes, but it's Martin Freeman as the long-suffering Dr. John Watson that gives the show its humanity and much of its wit.

Sherlock trailer:



Series Two has already aired, so try to catch it from the beginning online or on DVD.

Happy reading!

Something Like Normal Book Review

Title: Something Like Normal
Author: Trish Doller
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1599908441

224 pp.

ARC from publisher via Netgalley

Every once in awhile, I'll read a book that's so damn good, I wish I'd written it. Last year, that book was Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. This year, it's Something Like Normal by Trish Doller.

Something Like Normal centers on Travis, a 19-year-old Marine who's on leave from a tour in Afghanistan. He comes home to Florida to face a family that's falling apart, a girl who hates his guts, and post-traumatic stress from the ambush that killed his best friend.

Travis has a voice that's dead-on for a young guy who has lived through more than his years should allow. He's sarcastic, mad, sad, and as funny as hell. He's tries to do the right thing, but doesn't always succeed. He's one of the most well-rounded male characters I've read in YA literature.

It's a shame that the cover makes it seem as though it's a romance, but the romance is really the B story here. Harper is the girl who hates his guts, a girl Travis wronged back in middle school. Travis finally realized what a douchebag he was and tries to make amends. Their relationship plays out realistically and you're rooting for them to get together.

But the main story, the real story, is Travis dealing with life after so much death.

This is a book that librarians and teachers should put (forcibly, if necessary) into the hands of young men to read. So convince your male readers that it's not a girly book, that there's stuff about war and anger and fear. About what it means to be a man, what honor means, and what normal really means.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoyed Blankets by Craig Thompson or Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard.

In Memory of Maurice Sendak

So much has already been written about the fearless brilliance of Maurice Sendak.

For example, Neil Gaiman wrote this heartfelt tribute about his hero. And he wrote another one, too.

Maurice Sendak seemed to care as much about fame as he did controversy. He did what he did and didn't care much what people thought about it, good or bad.

Lucky for us, his work was remarkable. Even iconic. And always honest. So honest that some people feel his books are dangerous, telling children things they shouldn't know. What Maurice Sendak realized was that children already know these things.

He was a picture book master that will never a equaled. He will be missed, but librarians, teachers, and parents will ensure that he is not forgotten.

Below are three videos that celebrate Maurice Sendak and his work. The first video is Part 1 of the interview Stephen Colbert did with Maurice Sendak. It is hilarious.

The second video is President Obama reading Where the Wild Things Are to a group of children at the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll. It is adorable, especially when Bo gets involved in the wild rumpus.

The third video is a Christopher Walken impersonator reading Where the Wild Things Are, including narrating the pictures. It's slightly bizarre, which is why I'm including it.

Stephen Colbert interviews Maurice Sendak:

The Colbert Report
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President Obama reads Where the Wild Things Are:



"Christopher Walken" narrates Where the Wild Things Are:

ALA Summer Conference Isn't Just for Librarians

This summer, massive numbers of librarians (what's the collective noun for librarians? A catalog of librarians?) will congregate in Anaheim for the annual American Library Association summer conference. And I will be among them (at least for one day).

I've been encouraging my writer friends, especially children's writer friends, to go. They don't have to sit through seminars like Using Your Library to Crowdsource (I made that one up), but there are cool things for non-librarians.

For 25 buckeroos, non-ALA members can get an Exhibit Hall Pass. For people who love books, it's an exhibit hall of squee. Some of the authors currently scheduled to be there are Libba Bray, Daniel Handler, Paolo Bacigalupi, Marla Frazee, Mo Willems, Sherman Alexie, Jon Scieszka, Eve Bunting, Cornelia Funke, Jack Gantos, Brian Selznick, Maggie Stiefvater, David Shannon, and Patrick McDonnell. There are over 400 authors coming to the Exhibit Hall, so there's bound to be someone you love there. And there will be more ARCs than you can carry.

If you have an extra 100 smackeroos, you can go to the Newbery/Caldecott banquet dinner. Yes, you can. This is not a ALA member only event. You can see Jack Gantos and Chris Raschka give sure-to-be inspirational acceptance speeches. I went to the banquet back in 2008 when I was still in library school. Brian Selznick won for The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Laura Amy Schlitz won for  Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. (I got to give Laura Amy Schlitz a hug and tell her I wanted to be like her when I grew up, so the night was a total win for me.)

So if you live in southern California, think about going to the ALA conference. If only for the Exhibit Hall. Here's the link to ALA to get you started.

Don't live in the area, don't despair! The ALA has the conference in a different city every year. In 2013, the conference will be in Chicago. In 2014, it'll be in Las Vegas. And in 2015, it's in San Francisco. (Think long-term goals here.)

Reader's Corner - April Update

"No one better touch my cells!"

Oh, April, why have you flown by so quickly? It seems as though I was just settling into you and now we must say good-bye.

I did get a good amount reading in, though. I read A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont and Something Like Normal by Trish Doller (review pending).

I even finished reading Peter Pan (remember, Project Gutenberg is a goldmine for free public domain ebooks).

And I like to mix up my fiction reading with some nonfiction. I finally started reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (all writers should read this) and I'm about halfway through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

I love me some good science books, especially when they're so amazingly written like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I'm constantly interrupting my husband as I read to tell him what I've just learned. Plus there's the heartbreaking human story behind it all. Can't wait to finish reading it!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks book trailer:


Happy reading!

A Breath of Eyre Book Review

Title: A Breath of Eyre
Author: Eve Marie Mont 
Publisher: KTeen 
Publication Date: March 27, 2012 
ISBN-13: 978-0758269485

352 pp.


Purchased ebook via bn.com


I was totally excited about Eve Marie Mont's debut YA novel, A Breath of Eyre. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite novels, but I'm okay with taking liberties with it. Jasper Fforde has a ton of fun riffing on it in The Eyre Affair. A Breath of Eyre is getting a lot of love with positive reviews, including a starred review from Kirkus. But I got to tell you, I didn't feel the love so much.

Emma is a quiet, lonely girl at an exclusive prep school. She's the scholarship kid, so she keeps under the radar to steer clear of the mean girls. Her mother died when she was young, and she feels disconnected from her father and step-mother. She crushes on her English teacher and thinks cute boy Gray, whom she has known since she was little, is equally out of reach. She doesn't have any friends except for the books she reads. Then on one storm-filled night, she finds herself at Thornfield ...
 
I did enjoy how certain events in Emma's life mirrored Jane's and I think the contemporary sections work well. And Emma does grow as a character, from the quiet girl to someone who learns to speak her mind. Which is awesome.

But several things bumped me. The first time Emma enters Jane's world felt slow and went on too long without moving Emma's story forward. I know Jane's world has to be introduced, largely to an audience not familiar with it, but it really stalled for me.

Another thing that bumped me was not that Emma thought a certain character from Jane Eyre gets a bum rap, but that she thought this was an original and controversial idea. I so wanted to hand Emma a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

*SPOILER* And maybe it's just me, but the fourth (!) time Emma ends up in the hospital, I found it unintentionally funny.

So this one wasn't a complete winner for me, but I would recommend it to readers who enjoyed Entwined by Heather Dixon or The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. This is also the beginning of a series, with Emma next visiting the world of The Scarlet Letter.


A Breath of Eyre book trailer:

Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe Book Review

Title: Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe
Author: Shelley Coriell
Publisher: Amulet Books
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1419701917


320 pp.  

ARC from publisher via Netgalley

When I chose Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe, I thought it would a fun piece of fluff about a girl who worked at her high school radio station. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the novel is so much more than that.

Chloe is a gregarious, popular girl at her school and her humorous voice comes through the narration in pitch-perfect style. But Chloe isn’t having a good time right now.  Her two BFFs have turned their backs on her for a perceived slight and they’ve gone so far as to spread a terrible rumor about her. Her junior year project has been rejected and she’s forced to help the struggling radio station with promotions. And Chloe’s family life is a war zone as her independent grandmother refuses any help, even though her Parkinson’s disease is getting worse.

This is why I love Chloe as a character. She takes all this drama and as she says, turns rotten tomatoes into salsa. She has moments where she feels alone and sad and scared, but not for long. She’s optimistic enough to throw all her energy into saving the radio station, where she meets cute boy Duncan.

And that’s another thing I love about this novel. Duncan is definitely cute boy material, but Chloe doesn’t instantly fall for him just because he is a cute boy. She gets to know him. He gets to know her. They build a believable relationship together.

And what I really love about the novel is that there are ISSUES in the novel, but they come organically from the characters and are handled deftly. When Duncan reveals that his mother has a meth addiction, we’ve seen Chloe change from a girl who cracks jokes to a girl who can listen when she needs to. There are other issues, too, like growing apart from friends and learning to accept the decline of a beloved grandparent. But the novel earns these moments as Chloe matures without ever betraying who she is as a person.

There’s a great cast of well-developed supporting characters in the novel, who are at turns funny and tragic. The one thing that bumped me was that a school-related arson is wrapped up too quickly and deus ex machina-like. One false step in a book that is otherwise bursting from the seams with believability.

 No book trailer as of yet, but check out Shelley Coriell's website.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoyed The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler or Stoner & Spaz by Ronald Koertge.