Month: October 2013

04 Oct 2013

religious childhoods, nazis, and ???

I thought that I would surely have read enough Cybils nonfiction to brag about by this point, but of course, I have not. You guys are all shaking your heads and smiling, aren’t you. That Jessica, her eyes are always bigger than her stomach. Well, yes, they are. Setting impossibly high self expectations is one of my favorite hobbies.

However, I should also mention that nominations aren’t exactly pouring in at this point. Come on, guys! Hasn’t anyone read a decent YA nonfiction title this year? There’s still another week of nominations, so there’s hope, but right now pickings are slim – especially considering the wait time for library holds and titles still on order.

See how I cleverly wove in an excuse for my poor reading performance? Yes, it’s not only your fault for not nominating, but the library’s fault as well. Shameful. I know. The honest truth involves me reading pretty much everything else that isn’t a Required Reading text… and also Skyrim. I know. I know!

I did knock back a very good teen memoir this weekend – Aaron Hartzler’s Rapture Practice. Hartzler grew up in the South in a very traditional, very religious home. While in high school, he rebels against some of his parents’ stricter rules and questions their particular perception of God. Natural. Normal. I think most folks who grew up with any sort of religion will relate, even if our parents still let us visit movie theaters. But Hartzler also does a great job of narrowing in on his particular experience, turning reflection and memories into story while also capturing a teen voice. As good memoirs do, but good teen memoirs are so rare!

And can you believe that this book hasn’t even been nominated yet!? Hint hint. Hint. Hint.

I also picked up Neal Bascomb’s The Nazi Hunters this morning. From the first page, I felt transported… back to fall of 2012, the last time I read a book about the Holocaust. And oh, did I read a lot of them. I’m not far enough along to speak to Bascomb’s book, but so far it seems we are focusing on Adolf Eichmann, a particularly evil Nazi charged with exterminating all of the Hungarian Jews. Boo, Eichmann.

That’s my pathetic nonfiction showing, guys. But you know what I have been reading? This long feature on Daniel Radcliffe. Will someone please write a teen biography about this guy? You know it would sell like 60 zillion copies… come on, let’s get on this.

03 Oct 2013

stars upon thars – third quarter

Threes

  • Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando – future college roomies correspond through email
  • Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman – speech on creativity set to wild graphic design and typography
  • Attempting Normal by Marc Maron – comedian/podcaster bares all in personal essays
  • He Said, She Said by Alexander Kwame – opposite attract in an urban Southern high school 

Fours

  • Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler – gay kid grows up with very conservative religious parents
  • The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson – guerilla artist teen protests injustice in a dystopian society
  • Far Far Away by Tom McNeal – danger awaits a guileless teen who can talk to the ghost of a Grimm brother
  • On Writing by Stephen King – author ruminates on life and writing
  • Winger by Andrew Smith – young boy learns how to be a good human at boarding school
  • The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen – girl decides between staying and leaving after graduating

 

Fives

  • Night Owl by M. Pierce – emotionally intense love/not-so-love/we are all fucked up story
  • Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – nerdy fandom girl has an awkward first year at college
  • A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin – many kings try to grasp power in Westeros
  • A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin – more political intrigue, war, and complete mayhem ensues

 

 

 

 

02 Oct 2013

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

Hmm… have I talked about my Game of Thrones kick in awhile? No? Well, let’s rectify that. I’m really into Game of Thrones. It’s true. Jessica, the Girl Who Would Not Read Historical Fiction or Fantasies is really into a historical fantasy series. I’ve spent many hours reading and listening to the first three books in the series, a decent enough time to ponder exactly why Westeros turns my crank. Since I am now an exceptionally mature adult, historical fiction is growing on me, and stories about family heritage passing down through generations, too. I don’t consider myself a particular junkie for political intrigue, but Martin cloaks the political power in various mystery plots, so it’s a pleasure (or, actually, a horror), to discover the characters’ secret motives as I read. I also like that Westeros is populated not by glistening princesses and shining knights – archetypes, roaming the seven kingdoms – but instead by characters with human needs and desires (Yes, that was code for ‘I like the sex and boobs and drinking’). And although Martin does write some fabulously insensitive crap about his female characters, I do enjoy the attention to the female experience in what is otherwise a male dominated time and place.

I liked Susann Cokal’s The Kingdom of Little Wounds for the same reasons, although the two may not seem particularly similar. Game of Thrones is an epic political saga spanning continents – The Kingdom of Little Wounds is hyper up-close look inside the royal castle walls of an imaginary Scandinavian castle, where lower class girls earn their living serving princes and queens… and currying royal secrets on the side. After a love affair ended with a public shaming, Ava Bingen is lucky to serve as a queen’s seamstress. But an accident lands Ava in the palace jail, and the only way to preserve her position is to enter a secret-sharing arrangement with a ruthless Duke, which draws Ava deep into the complex and occasionally gruesome secret lives of the royal court members. Although Ava – misguided, striving, and exploited – is the focus of the plot, Cokal’s multiple perspectives also explore the lives of a mute slave girl, an ill princess, and a queen who may be crazy or may be suffering from being Female in a Man’s World. There are a variety of richly imagined female experiences here, all of which weave together to change the course of political events, quietly undermining decisions made by the men in power.

I should also mention that if you thought Game of Thrones was raunchy, debauched, and otherwise graphic, then The Kingdom of Little Wounds will probably turn your stomach. I am generally a sensitive flower when it comes to literary bodily functions – pretty sure Mr. Martin’s characters soil themselves about 100 times more often than realistic or necessary – but Cokal uses the grotesque realities of medicine, daily hygiene, and sickness to play up the ugliness of royal political schemes and call your attention to the weirdness that is relationships between Royals (the randomly, genetically anointed chosen class) and the Servants (who empty their chamber pots and watch them sleep with one another). It’s almost a little like Downton Abbey in that regard.

So this book is basically Game of Thrones meets Downton Abbey!

Um. That was a joke. I should probably accentuate HOW gruesome this book is. It’s quite graphic. I don’t think it’s anything that teens can’t handle, but be warned.

But, really, I do digress. If I am going to make Game of Thrones comparisons, I should also mention that Cokal writes dizzying circles around Martin. The Kingdom of Little Wounds is like a thick chocolate cake of a book; moist and gooey language, rich imagery, best taken in small portions. This is a beautifully written book to the point that it will likely frighten you. Much more than GoT or Downton, reading this book reminded me of the brilliant and intimidating The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by the inimitable M. T. Anderson. I assure you, this is the very highest of complements. I also assure you that The Kingdom of Little Wounds a gorgeous, dense, unflinching story about how history is written, and this review has done it zero justice.