All posts in: books

14 Dec 2013

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

#9: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Sometimes a book is all over the media, the awards, the end-of-year lists, and I just can’t muster up any cynicism. Because the book is just so damn good. It might not be the most complex or the most literary. The grittiest, the riskiest, or the most surprising. It might not be for you, but boy was it for me. Rowell does what I want all YA books to do – to introduce me to characters I wish I knew in the real world, make me care about them, and treat their lives with attention and respect. Especially respect for their capacity for loving relationships. I have a tender spot in my heart for teenage romance, especially romance that eschews the fairytale for the hard and the bittersweet. Eleanor & Park has hard and bittersweet in spades, and every literary decision shows her respect for her characters. Super deserving of all of its accolades, in my opinion, and my #9 read of the year.

Here is my original review, published after racing through my eGalley back in February.

Eleanor and Park are students at the same high school. Park is a Korean-American living in a white-bread Nebraska town, but he’s known everyone in the neighborhood and school forever so he’s got his own social agenda, even if he doesn’t quite fit in. Eleanor, on the other hand, is the new girl, and nothing about her fits in – her body, her crazy red hair, her thrift-store-because-that’s-all-she-can-afford wardrobe, how she shares a room with her four siblings and how her mom let her new husband kick Eleanor out of the house for a year. She’s “Fat Slut.” She’s “Big Red.” She’s the girl whose street clothes get flushed in the toilet during gym class, who couldn’t blend in no matter how hard she tries. Home sucks. School sucks. The only tolerable portion of the day is when she reads comic books over Park’s shoulder when they sit together on the bus.

And then they fall in love.

Oh, they fall in love.

I don’t even want to make this Romance #6 because it’s so different than the kind of romance I was going for when picking the first five. No offense to the contemporary light YA romance, but all five of the selected titles adhere to a rough pattern, a bit of a formula. Reader meets girl. Girl has problems. Girl meets boy. Problems complicate boy. Girl solves problems. Girl gets boy. It’s a formula I like, but it could not be further from Eleanor & Park. Eleanor is a girl with problems, but they are problems too big for any teenager to “solve” on her own, with or without the help of a boy. Park wants to help, but Eleanor won’t let him all the way in, and even when she does he can’t help her either.

They fall in love anyway.

And that it why I liked this book so damn much – because when you are a teenager and you fall in love, it’s rarely easy. You feel victimized by adults with power, by your peers. You can’t say what you want, what you are feeling; communication breaks down suddenly and with consequence. You know in your heart of hearts that you aren’t going to be together forever, even if you want to, really really badly.

But you fall in love anyway.

This book reminded me much of Pete Hautman’s The Big Crunch, but with a closer, more intimate narrative. Like Wes and June, Eleanor and Park get alternating chapters, and while Eleanor is the true protagonist, I believe, it was all about Park for me. He was just the sweetest boy trying to fit in and stand out, to follow the crowd and follow his heart, to find out what it means to him to be a man.

I didn’t cry, I didn’t swoon, I didn’t rush through the last pages in anticipation that The Boy and The Girl would finally end up together. It’s not that kind of romance.

But I loved it anyway.

book reviews

13 Dec 2013

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

#10: Ask the Passengers by A. S. King

Hi! Hello! The big show has begun! My 10th favorite read of 2013 is A. S. King’s Ask the Passengers. For me, 2013 was a good year for discovering new authors. I especially like discovering new authors who aren’t really new. Who have a few books under their belts. I know, I know. I’m a librarian, a blogger, blah-blah-blah. It’s important to support quality debut authors so they can get the street cred/sales they need to become established authors. But if I’m being honest and selfish, I’d rather read a great book and have that blissful realization that there’s moreeeeee. Please also see my television watching habits.

I read Ask the Passengers way, way back in the early months of the year and it still stands out to me as one of the cleanest, most enjoyable realistic fiction reads of the year. Maybe of the last few years. This won’t be the last you see of King around this blog, and I’m glad there are still a few King books left to enjoy. On that one, far off day when I actually have a few moments to read whatever I want. January 10th. I think that’s the day. Reality Boy is sitting on my shelf.

What follows is my original review, originally published in March.

Astrid Jones is a lot of things. She is a senior in high school. She is a New Yorker whose parents moved her to Small Town Hell. She is the daughter less favored by a perfectionist mother. She is no longer interested in learning trigonometry, but philosophy lights up something inside of her. She is the best friend to the Homecoming King and Queen, and the only one who knows they are both gay. She is a secret keeper, a sender of love into the universe, and oh, she might be gay.

Maybe. But why lean into a label if she’s not sure? Why not spare herself the consequences of coming out, when labels are bullshit anyway?

I read a lot of very positive reviews for A.S. King’s Ask the Passengers, but sometimes I feel like reviews hone in on one or two choice aspects of a book and hang the rest of the reading experience on those. This was a Coming Out Story, the reviews said. This is a story with King’s trademark Magical Realism.

I devoured this book in two day’s time, and I found it to be so much more than Coming Out and Magical Realism. The story does center on Astrid as she comes to terms with her other-ness in a very insular small town community – getting up the guts to live as herself in the world instead of keeping her identity precious and hidden. But the way King writes Astrid, it seems like sexuality is secondary to Astrid-as-a-Whole; it’s not just her weekly make-out sessions with the hot field hockey player she’s keeping to herself, it’s secrets about her friends and her family, about what she thinks about her mother and sister, her dreams and wishes. Similarly, the Magical Realism isn’t terribly magical. When Astrid sends her love up to airplane passengers overhead, and the narrative follows that love, giving you a glimpse of the life of a plane passenger, I didn’t read that as “magic” – I read it as part of that inner life that Astrid keeps to herself, that inner life that makes Astrid such a dynamic character.

Despite all that, I think you can tell that I liked this book a great deal. I liked it for being sharp and fast to read. I liked how the cast of characters around Astrid’s life in her small town were so richly developed, each one interesting, not a throw-away in sight. I liked how King made the We-Look-Perfect-But-Are-Deeply-Troubled Family trope feel entirely fresh. I liked how Astrid and her girlfriend have mismatched ideas about the pace of their sexual interactions, and instead of submitting Astrid pushes back; instead of fighting or breaking up, they have a rational conversation about it.

This one should have got a little more ALA love this year. Shame, shame. You should read it anyway.

book lists

12 Dec 2013

Best Re-reads of 2013

On Writing by Stephen King

Some books you read and read and read again. And by “you” I mean “I.” You probably have a more pragmatic attitude toward reading. Or at least some modicum of… oh… a life. Anyway, some books are meant for re-reading. King’s On Writing is one of them… but I didn’t know that until I re-read it. Now I feel like there may be others, secret favorites I’ve already read but have completely forgotten.

Yes, I realize I am a crazy person. I will have to learn to speed-read soon or else die without having read all the books I want to read, PLUS re-read all the books I want to re-read.

Also, I still wish Stephen King was my uncle.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

There are non-obsessive reasons to re-read a book. One such reason: you are pretty sure you never actually *read* the book you claimed to have read. I have sympathy for you English teachers out there, I do, but is there a more awful way to read a book than assigning two chapters a week? Like a chapter is a discrete thing, separate from the rest of the text? I fell behind in my 11th grade Gatsby reason because I didn’t like the book enough to read ahead of schedule, but I didn’t like the book because I had to read on a schedule. Vicious cycle. Anyway, I actually did enjoy this re-read and am glad I did it. More thoughts here.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Oh, you are all sick of hearing me talk about this book. But I will never pass up a chance to mention it, so here you go. My official Frankie manifesto can be read here.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Speaking of books I talk about way too much… still reading Sarah Dessen! For some reason I decided that The Truth About Forever was my least favorite Dessen book, and I actually hadn’t read it since before it came out. I have no idea what crack I was smoking. This is a very good Sarah Dessen book with a very tight plot. I feel ashamed for my baseless judgments about a perfectly decent piece of fiction. Apologies to the universe.

Up next… THE TOP TEN! !! !!!!

book lists

11 Dec 2013

Best YA Fiction of 2013

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

I first met Aristotle and Dante way back in February, but I still remember them very clearly. I feel like “stickiness” is something we could talk about when we talk about book awards. This is not exactly a measurable, definable, or professional term, but I might try to measure, define, or professionalize it in the future because I think it marks the difference between a book that slips through the cracks and one that ends up on a list or with a medal. Nina Lindsay talks about this on the inimitable Heavy Medal blog. But oh, I really digress. What I meant to say is that Saenz does a top notch job of creating two characters who live their own lives on the page, who are memorable without schtick, who are endearing without melodrama. Beyond that, their friendship is rich and complex in a way that I feel is fairly unique to the genre, especially friendships between boys. A definite stand-out in YA contemporary realism of the last few years… even if this is yet another pick from last year’s 2012 picks.

Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Is this one book? Or two? Do I care? No. I do like a gigantic, meaty graphic novel once in a while. In fact, my favorite book of 2012 was a gigantic, meaty graphic novel, if you recall. Boxers & Saints is not quite as epic as Habibi, but epic enough to require two books, that is for sure. In two opposing volumes, Yang illustrates the 1899 Boxer Rebellion in China. Little Bao comes of age in a small country village. He watches foreigners come into his village, pushing Christianity and justice and disrupting the social order. When a man comes to his village gathering forces for an uprising, Bao joins the rebellion. Oh, and he also channels some supernatural, mythological forces, because this is a Gene Luen Yang book. On the other side of the rebellion is Four, a girl the same age as Little Bao who is not favored in her family. To rebel against them – and punish herself for not being worthy enough for their love – she does the most evil thing she can think of: she converts to Christianity. And talks to Joan of Arc. Anyway a lot going on here. A lot of great art. A lot of overlapping, compelling, competing themes. Each volume stands alone, I think, but are really meant to be read together – if you’re going to read Boxers, I’d make sure you have Saints on hand! I had to wait three or four days between the two and it was not a pleasant experience.

Lily and Taylor by Elise Moser

Lily and Taylor is a novel about abusive relationships. You might call it a “problem novel,” but I wouldn’t. I could (and probably should) write something quite a bit longer about the kind of contemporary realism we consider problem novels, but I think the negative connotation has to do with how the central “problem” is treated. If the book seems to exist to showcase a particular dysfunction/disease/crime/anything else that might appear in a news story, it may be a problem novel. Many books about abusive relationships fall under this umbrella, but not Lily and Taylor. The book begins with Taylor watching her older sister Tannis’s autopsy; she was Taylor’s primary guardian, but after an extend period of abuse, Tannis’s boyfriend kills her. Taylor moves in with her grandmother, away from her own abusive boyfriend, but eventually, he finds her. This is intense and gritty and definitely has a cautionary message, but Moser approaches Taylor’s life and relationships with such respect – not a hint of condescension. I feel like this is a really strong book that flew under the radar.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

Speaking of gritty… 2013 may have been the year for Jessica and the Disturbing Novel. Reading The Kingdom for the Little Wounds was equal parts awful and engrossing. The story spiraled in and around a castle, but what is a Castle Story really about? It’s about power. That’s what really stuck with me – how Cokal unravels and unpacks the sources of power, for her protagonists Midi and Ava. For the royal women in the castle and the royal men. Does power lie in muscle? In political influence? In lineage, in sex? Is all of that erased if the story ends up written in a different way, by a different person? You can read more rambling about The Kingdom of the Little Wounds here. It is challenging, violent, and complex, but so, so rich.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

Lucy Beck-Moreau is a piano prodigy raised by a family of arts benefactors. When her grandmother gets sick, she has a personal crisis and decides to quit piano. Of course, her family of arts benefactors does not approve. Family drama comes to a boil. This is all well and good – Zarr’s talent with prose is great enough to weave even this straightforward coming-of-age narrative into something worth reading. However, the stakes are raised significantly when Lucy’s younger brother – now assuming the role of Beck Family Piano Prodigy – gets a new, charismatic piano instructor. And Lucy falls for him. Lucy’s relationship is fraught (obviously! he is a grown man!) but Zarr writes it straight down the line between black and white – he’s an adult, but not that old. Lucy is too young, but she’s grown up in the realm of adults, performing internationally. He’s obviously in the wrong, but she knows what she’s doing. Maybe. The ending is satisfying but not pat. I like all of this. I should really just read all Sara Zarr books always.

Up next… Books I’ve Read More Than Once. Probably Dozens of Times. Otherwise known as Re-reads!

book lists

10 Dec 2013

Best Adult Reads of 2013

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

This is probably not the first time you’ve seen Rainbow Rowell’s name on an end-of-year book list. And if you make it through the end of my personal BookBlogMadness this month, it won’t be the last. A warning. Not an apology. Reading Eleanor & Park was an intro, albeit a sort of heart-squeezing painful intro. Fangirl was just candy-coated, self-indulgent bliss reading. Attachments – Rowell’s 2011 debut – is adult fiction, light romantic fare. Not what I usually bother reading when I read adult fic. However, Rowell’s storytelling talent is even more evident here, without all of the This-Is-All-Of-Your-Unique-Anxieties-and-Pain-on-The-Page-Yes-Jessica-Yours stuff all over the place. Attachments is a romance with a male lead. Lincoln is an underachiever, working the IT night shift at a newspaper in 1999. His primary responsibility is administering the building’s new email surveillance software – including reading the flagged emails. Two of the female employees sent recklessly personal correspondences, many of which land in Lincoln’s lap, and he falls in love with one of them. Lincoln is about as endearing and swoon-worthy as any male romantic lead may be, but unlike most romantic heroes, Lincoln’s appeal is not based in broad masculine strokes, in macho posturing, confidence, swagger. (Or millions of dollars, or designer suits, or sexual bravado) Lincoln isn’t alluring because of he withholds his emotions, but because he is so vulnerable and adrift. Rowell flips almost every convention of the romance here… but somehow still ends up writing a satisfying romance. How does that even make sense. And this is why her name is plastered all over every End of Year list ever – the girl’s got chops.

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

If I was to make some sweeping statements about my life, my perspective, and my interests, I would have to say I am probably unusually interested in girlhood. I will skip the self-psychoanalysis as to why this is true, but it is where my interests lie. I picked up Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman on the merits of Internet Book Buzz and because I consider myself to be a feminist. I was surprised to discover, as I read, that Moran frames her essay collection around her own girlhood; how she discovered what womanhood meant to her and the rest of the Western society, for good or for bad. From one angle, this is a memoir that begins with puberty and ends with babies. A reproductive years memoir. Moran then weaves feminist theory, history, and political discussion into each essay, letting the memoir and the feminist ideas play off of each other. It’s one thing to talk about girlhood and feminism in the abstract and another thing to live your life as a girl and a woman. Moran marries the two brilliantly.

Oh, and did I mention Moran is rip-roaringly hilarious? Yeah. Listened to this one on audio and definitely had some of those Laugh Out Loud Into The Abyss In Public moments. Are we all sufficiently iPodded and iPhoned now that I can stop being embarrassed when this happens?

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

So… I realize that my adult fic reading is not exactly thorough. Proportionally, I just haven’t read enough contemporary (or classic…) adult fic to be a truly useful critic. Instead, I read an occasional adult fic novel in between YA/children’s lit reads. Usually I choose those adult reads based on some kind of critical/popular/social thrust. What I’m trying to say is, sometimes my adult End of Year lists are retreads of the previous year’s End of Year Lists. Because that is where I get my reading suggestions. That’s just the way it is, I’m afraid. Don’t come here if you are looking for a Fresh New Adult Read. Or a Fresh New Anything, really. NOW THAT I HAVE THAT OUT OF THE WAY, let me tell you about Jess Walter’s lovely novel Beautiful Ruins. Claire is a cynical script-reading peon in Hollywood, trying to decide if she should quit her dead-end job or her dead-end boyfriend. Pasquale is a buoyant young man who spends his days transforming his family’s decrepit hotel into a tourist destination until a dying starlet checks in and he falls in love. Pasquale lives in a coastal Italian village in 1963. Claire lives in modern-day LA. Walter weaves these disparate stories together effortlessly, characters and events overlapping until the stories come together and become one. There really is a lot to enjoy here – lush settings, lots of humor, even Richard Burton. I personally enjoyed how Walter balances Pasquale’s dramatic, cinematic storyline with the more mundane lives of the younger modern-day characters – was life and love (and film) just more grandiose in Pasquale’s day? Or are Claire and other characters in her generation just jaded? Such a very thoughtful book, wrapped up in a very pretty, very readable package.

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

This is not a book that is easy to talk about, but one that is easy to think about. As in, when I am trying to think about other things, Ms. Brown’s simple wisdoms suddenly appear in my brain. Brown is a social worker who specializes in shame research. Now, she is somewhat of a pop-psychology figurehead – I think she does stuff with Oprah – but I’ve been reading her blog since back in the day. Her writing is very easy to read, very personal, and very smart. But what she writes about – shame, vulnerability, and fear – is not easy. It’s stuff that makes my skin crawl, to be honest. Buuuuut, I think Brown would agree with me – that’s why shame is so pervasive and awful and important to unpack. It’s not easy to read about or talk about or acknowledge, but it is probably part of why you are miserable. Whatever your breed of misery may be. Daring Greatly changed the way I look at myself and think about myself and treat myself. If this vague summary hasn’t given you a clear idea of what this book is about, you might forgive me and watch Brown’s TED Talk instead.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

And now for something completely different! And then, not different at all if you were reading 2012’s End of Year Books List. Ahem. However, if you are one of the two people on the planet who have not yet read Where’d You Go, Bernadette, I urge you to. I believe it was Janssen who posed the question awhile back of what exactly was so exceptional about this book. Why everyone went nuts about it. The answer I settled on was simple – in a literary world where books are constantly asking you to watch characters grow, to make moral assessments on characters’ choices, to feel hard feelings… a straight up comedy is a welcome respite. A sharp comedy with a plot that will keep you on your toes is another thing entirely. Bernadette – an angry mom living in a creepy mansion in Seattle – is the focus of the story, but for the most part, the story is told through the eyes of others. Her precocious daughter Bee writes some kind of diary. Emails fly between Bernadette’s software guru husband and his doting secretary. Bee’s school principal and the local PTA moms send missives to one another. Everyone paints a slightly different portrait of Bernadette – she’s a misanthrope who hates Seattle, a reclusive artist, a person in need of mental health care. And then Bernadette disappears, and the chase begins. Every perspective and every chapter shifts your perception of Bernadette and the other odd-balls who populate her world. Basically, it’s an epistolary novel that puts its epistolarity to best effect.

Up next… Books for the Young Adults

book lists

09 Dec 2013

Best Reads of 2013

HAPPY END OF 2013!! You guys, this is my first full, calendar year without grad school since 2008. Holy goodness. One whole year without weekly require reading, without a syllabus.

I’ve done a lot of really fun reading this year. I read during storms and rain days and snow days. I read on airplanes and European high-speed rail and the T. I read books entirely on my phone and my Kindle. I reviewed a crap-ton, re-upped for the Cybils, had an audiobook renaissance. It’s been a good year.

Even if I never read that 5th romance.

Dammit.

Beginning tomorrow, allow me to share with you the best of what I’ve read. I consider all books I’ve read in 2013 and a few from the end of last December; not just books published in 2013. “Best,” of course, is ridiculously subjective, based entirely on my own enjoyment while reading. I mean, I do enjoy good books, well-written, well-crafted books but I also enjoy some complete crap. But I don’t need to tell you this… this is Jessica 101 stuff. I just feel like I need to remind you, you know, in case you’ve started to take me seriously.

Behold, a schedule of events to come:

Tuesday, December 10th – Best Adult Reads

Wednesday, December 11th – Best Young Adult Reads

Thursday, December 12th – Best Re-reads

Friday, December 13th through Saturday, December 21st – Top 10 Best Reads!

10. Ask the Passengers by A. S. King

9. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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

7. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

6. The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

5. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

4. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

1. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Hold onto your horses, hang onto your hats, verb onto some other nouns and otherwise get excited.

See you tomorrow!

books

06 Dec 2013

the most wonderful time of the year

Tis the season for the End of Year Book List. In my particular social circles, I am hearing definite grumbles of list-related discontent. Too many lists. Too many books. The same books on every list. Heck, even the listmakers are grumbling, never mind the general vitriol toward lists themselves.

Well, just call me the Buddy the Elf of the End of Year Book List. Y’all are scroogey. Considering the consumer-advertising-madness that is American holiday shopping in general, I’m happy to see the media devote extra attention to books. Canonicity – whether it be a list, an award, or a blurb – will still be there in January for everyone to examine/tear down/kvetch over.

I say this in preparation for my own End of Year book extravaganza. The Canon of Jessica, as they call it. The fun will begin in a few short days! Be patient! Be prepared! Bring your holiday cheer!

Ho, ho, ho!

While you wait, enjoy The Ghosts of Book Lists Past

books

04 Dec 2013

JFK, the Brontes, and a gaggle of Aviatrices

Hello. Thanksgiving has passed. Remind me to tell you about all the pies I baked and all the pies I ate. Or not, actually, because I might be in a bit of a dessert-related shame spiral. Just might be. All I’ve done for the past four or five days is bake pies, eat pies, think about baking or eating pies, listen to Pentatonix CDs in preparation for the triumphant return of The Sing Off…

and read nonfiction books.

Look, guys. The YA nonfiction committee may not have the glam of YA fiction or Speculative Fiction. It may not have the prestige of the picturebook or the middle grade. But I do not care one lick. First of all, those volunteers are saints. SAINTS. Have you seen how many YA books get nominated?? It’s a huge task. I may whine about Cybils reading, but at the end of the day, it’s manageable. But more importantly, it’s useful. You know who hated history classes from kindergarten all the way through college? Me. Reading a few dozen YA nonfiction titles each year is like a catch-up on cultural moments and events that I diligently ignored during my formal schooling. It makes me feel smarter! Which is, of course, the best reason to join a committee. I am so altruistic you guys.

Anywho, because I was a historical delinquent for the first 25 years of my life, I enjoy uncovering past events that spark my interest in that weird, itchy obsessive kind of way. Enter: The Kennedys. James L. Swanson’s “The President Has Been Shot!” – an adaptation of his adult book on the same topic – focuses on Kennedy’s assassination rather than his entire life. Swanson takes the reader through the event with a careful, well-paced specificity; never boring, and – impressively – never feeling too fabricated. I read through Bill O’Reilly’s Kennedy’s Last Days a few weeks back and was rather disturbed by the amount of “creative” nonfictioning going on – sorry, Bill, I don’t think you can prove that Kennedy buttoned his coat absentmindedly while thinking about Cuba. If you can, then for goodness sake give me a citation! After reading these two titles, though – and reading another book about rich white folks with crazy family problems who summer on Nantucket – I have Kennedy fever. I want to read morrrrrreeeee. Maybe The Patriarch?

Speaking of crazy families, enter The Bronte Sisters. Longtime readers know that in addition to snoring through history class, I ignored my English class reading as well. What was I even doing in high school? I have no idea. Writing collaborative stories with friends that slandered each and every one of our classmates. Singing in choir. Getting A’s while putting in the smallest possible amount of effort. Not reading Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, that’s for sure.

Now I would like to. I have read a few literary biographies for young readers now, and I have to say I really dig the structure. The biographies typically begin with the author’s childhood, focusing on incidents and experiences that would prove relevant to their writing careers and the subjects of their most well-known novels. The biography’s “climax” comes when that story is written or published, followed by a chapter consisting of a plot overview. In whole, the book becomes one part biography, one part biographical/historical literary analysis, one part book marketing.

Whether or not teen readers find this type of book as fascinating as I is a different question altogether. A question I will ignore in the hopes my fellow committee members will pick up my slack.

It would be incorrect of me to state that Karen Bush Gibson’s Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights, Daring Missions, and Record-Setting Journeys covers EVERY FEMALE AVIATOR to ever take to the skies. There are more than 26 female aviators in existence. Yes. But man, this book just feels so expansive – in a good way, of course. These are ladies who broke race, class, and gender barriers so they could do bad-ass stuff like fly around the globe and beat speed records and save people’s lives in wartimes. In the midst of all these plane stories, I got the feeling that these ladies might someday fade from the public memory – that Gibson is similarly bad-ass for taking on this literary task.

This title is a great example of one of the primary conflicts I face while trying to judge nonfiction titles is the balance between Information Content and Readability. Creating a readable work of nonfiction – one that attends to language, pace, story, and structure – is likely an extremely difficult task, and a commendable one. Remember Sleepy Jessica in history class? She might have read “The President Has Been Shot” – or, last year’s critical darling and Cybil’s winner Bomb. However, Sleepy Jessica also needed to write history reports and other assignments. And what about her classmates who have a higher tolerance for informative text? Perhaps even prefer a slew of facts to fiction? When read in one go, the stories in Women Aviators tend to blur together – every lady had a clear memory of their first encounter with planes, had some challenges, overcame them, etc. However, to automatically privilege a more narrative work over an book that serves more of a reference purpose than a smooth, cover-to-cover reading experience would be short-sighted. I am reminded of Vicki Smith’s article from this year’s Heavy Medal – as a committee member, I try to avoid judging a book by my own tastes and instead, let the book teach me how to read it and, then, how to evaluate it.

books

23 Nov 2013

read – reading – to read

Just read…

Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers and Saints. I read Boxers last weekend. As soon as I finished, I began kicking myself for leaving Saints at work. I am not particularly skilled at talking about graphic novels. When I read a work like Boxers and Saints, I tend to turn the final page and just feel pretty stupefied, unsure of how to comprehend what just happened. However, I am glad I did read them because I traversed out to Harvard Square to see Gene Luen Yang and M.T. Anderson chat, and if I hadn’t read them, I would not have appreciated their discourse as much as I did. I mean, I probably still would have liked it a lot since there are probably not two more charming and brilliant people who could have a chat together, but yeah, it helped.

Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. As a hardcore introvert, I really enjoyed this book. And while I’m not sure extroverts in general would want to read this book, I also thought it was a really interesting application of personality theory; Cain explores introversion in various business, educational, and social settings. It’s really quite fascinating, and she makes a good argument for how introverts are treated in general and provides useful tips to help both the introverted and extroverted level the playing field.

Currently reading…

Curtis Sittenfeld’s Sisterland. I like reading Curtis Sittenfeld’s books, but I’m not sure if I actually like Curtis Sittenfeld’s books. I like her writing. I like that she writes female characters and pays attention, and respect, to her character’s childhoods, teenage years, and young adulthoods. However, I haven’t really read a Sittenfeld that I finished and said, “Yes, that was a fine, fine book.” Maybe The Man of My Dreams, but it’s been years and years since I’ve read it so maybe I would have a different opinion now. Anyway, I am going to have to muscle to finish this before my audiobook expires, but I am really motivated because Favorite Roommate gave it the following review on Goodreads: “I am completely unable to give this a rating right now, because the action the protagonist takes at the end is resonating negatively with me, and I think I would rate it for my feelings rather than merit itself.” WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN THAT IS SO AWFUL?? I am almost more invested in this book now. That is probably strange.

Martin W. Sandler’s Imprisoned and Abigail Haas’s Dangerous Girls. These two are brought to you from the department of Required Reading. I am glad to see a book for a young audience about Japanese internment, mostly because I had no idea this happened until I was in college and felt a little deceived by my public education. However, so far, I am almost completely distracted by the atrocious page-turns in this big, shiny book. There’s only so many times you can interrupt sentences with giant double-page spreads on completely different topics, Sandler. Dangerous Girls, on the other hand, has me flipping pages without any qualms whatsoever. It’s a YA crime novel – did the protagonist kill her best friend? If it wasn’t her, then was it her two-timing boyfriend? The creepy stalker? The smarmy, rich Dutch boy who bought the girls drinks all night at the bar? It’s very wtf is going on, a little Gone-Girlsy.

Up Next…

Losing It and Catherine Reef’s The Bronte Sisters. Well, the thing about Required Reading is that it begets more Required Reading. I should probably read these two next, just because I gotta. I had Losing It on my TBR shelf and The Bronte Sisters looks pretty accessible so I won’t complain too much.

George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords. Once I finish up Sisterland I will be in the market for a new audiobook. And while I’ve halted my Game of Thrones madness for a few months now, I just… I just… I don’t know. I might be tired of staving it off. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s the freaking holidays, I’m feeling indulgent. I feel like it might be this or Harry Potter. So let’s just not talk about it.

book reviews

19 Nov 2013

carbs, bad girls, and crying at your desk

Cybils 2013 is in full swing, so it’s about time I give you a little nonfiction update, hmm? I have been reading madly! I am almost done.

(Lies. Lies.

Lies lies lies lies lies)

My failings aside, here are some nominees I have read so far this Cybils season.

Longtime readers know I am a big fan of a good food book. I count Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food as a life-changing read, and when considering this year’s Salt Sugar and Fat, I wished heartily I learned what I know about food and eating when I was a teen. David Kessler’s Your Food is Fooling You is a book that delivers that Eat Real Foods message directly to a younger audience. This book is a primer in appetite management, preaches the avoidance of processed foods, and advocates that teens should take charge of their own health in order to start living healthier happier lives now. Powerful, important stuff. Some of Kessler’s advice seemed a little unrealistic for teens; what teen is able (or willing) to skip a party because somebody might order a pizza? I can’t even do that very often and I’m 28. I also found the text to be a bit dry – I think Pollan does a much better job at drawing out the story in In Defense of Food. I would probably hand Pollan’s book to a teen before this one.

Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple are mother and daughter. Together with illustrator Rebecca Guay, they capture the morally ambiguous lives of a few dozen “bad girls” of history in Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves & Other Female Villains. Short biographies are fun – they give you a quick taste of a person’s historical context, their personal history, and then a bit on why they became famous – or in this case, notorious. I thought the short-form biography was particularly suited for this collection – so many of these questionable ladies were known only for their crimes, and so many of those crimes were just purported. Not too many primary sources about Samson & Delilah. Guay’s illustrations beef up the text, and comic spreads starring Yolen and Stemple tackle the important questions of “did she really do it?” and “even if she did, was she justified?” Not enough information here to write a term paper, but enough to give a taste of the challenges women have faced throughout history.

There are kind of a lot of YA nonfiction books about the Holocaust. Last year I read His Name was Raoul Wallenberg by Louise Borden and Beyond Courage by Doreen Rappaport. This year, I have read Neal Bascomb’s The Nazi Hunters, and now Leon Leyson’s The Boy on the Wooden Box. This is Leon’s memoir, published after his death in early 2013. Leyson was a child when the Nazis invaded Poland. He survived with some of his family members at the grace of Oskar Schindler. And you know what? I read all those other books. I read The Diary of Anne Frank and Night. I read The Boy on the Wooden Box and just cried. Leyson’s story is astonishing, the writing just right for a younger audience, and, man… you just read it and wish that you could have known him. His attitude, from childhood to his death, is just something else. I didn’t go into this book expecting to love yet another Holocaust book, but I was won over.

(And crying at my desk at work. Highly professional.)