Austenland

So I was able to meet Shannon Hale last week and see a little of her writing. This summer I will be helping her out with a few projects. She gave me her book Austenland to read seeing how her sequel will be coming out in January. I loved it! If you like Jane Austen, you will like this. It was humorous, well written. Easy to read, and the perfect length. The characters are well developed and you will love the ending. It will be worth the read.

Congratulations Stephanie!

Congratulations to our very own contributor (and creator), Stephanie Buhler, on her very first teaching job!

Come fall Stephanie will be teaching 6th grade at Wilson Elementary in Payson, Utah (Nebo School District).  Way to go Steph!

East of Eden

The purpose of this blog is not exclusively to recommend books for classroom use.  If it were, this book would have absolutely no place here. 

The first thing I have to say about East of Eden is that it's very Steinbeck-y.  Steinbeck, in my experience, has a tendency to ramble at times and get a little tangential.  He also takes his sweet time to tell a story.  This book is no exception.  That's not necessarily a problem for me, it's just something you need to know to expect if you're reading Steinbeck.

Moving on, this was a good book.  It was in no way what I expected.  To be honest, I thought it was the traditional story of the Garden of Eden just told with a little different perspective.  Spoiler alert: it's not.  There are definitely elements and motifs of that age-old happening in this story (in my view repeated at least twice), but the story stands alone.  It's not the story of Cain and Abel or Adam and Eve.  It's the story of Cathy/Kate, Adam, Lee, Cal, Aron, Samuel (my favorite), and the rest.

I love young adult literature.  That's probably obvious by the content I post about on this blog.  While reading East of Eden, however, I felt something urging me toward adult literature more often.  Maybe it's just this particular book or maybe it's just Steinbeck, but reading something so dense and concentrated was great.  The language, though wandering at times, was delicious to me.  I suppose that sounds peculiar to describe language as delicious, but it was.  I'm all for the simplicity of young adult literature, but the richness of these words was noticeably more so.

I'll stop rambling.  You all know this book is a classic.  I'm not into reading the classics just for the sake of reading the classics (you'll probably never catch me reading Dickens ever again in my life), but I really do recommend this one.  Once you get past the jolting jump between characters and plots lines at the beginning and really into the heart of this slow-paced story, you'll be sucked in.

Inside Out

Who out there is surprised that I read another dystopian novel? Didn't think so.
This one is about a girl named Trella that lives Inside and kind of hates it. Inside is made up of the Uppers and the Scrubs. The groups do not intermingle and are told very limited information about one another to discourage uniting and revolting. Trella gets involved (somewhat reluctantly) in a plot to find the "gateway" to Outside.

When I started this book I was fully prepared to dislike it (because I'm tired of cheap, knockoff, dystopian novels that all have the same plot), but then I got sucked in. Now I'm on hold for the second one at the library. Darn you literature. For at least three quarters of the novel I was planning a rant against the typical dystopian novel romance. Girl has reliable best friend boy from her childhood then suddenly new guy from the wrong side of the tracks or the opposite end of the issue becomes attractive and loveable and girl is all conflicted (hello Hunger Games, Uglies, Matched and the like). This book did NOT turn out to be the same situation, but I was really afraid it would be. But since it didn't happen, I suppose I won't rant about it now.

I will, of course, let you know how Outside In turns out after I read it. Without giving away information from the plot of Inside Out, I'm kind of worried about where the next book might go.

By the Great Horn Spoon!

Just finished this fast little read. A friend recommended it to me during a discussion on books so I figured I'd give it a try. When I recommend books I usually hope people will take me seriously and so I try to take others' recommendations seriously in return.

Let me start with the cover art. I don't love it. I wish the cover art had been more similar to the whimsical art within the chapters.

The story is about a boy named Jack and his butler that set sail from Boston to the gold fields of California to make enough money to save Aunt Arabella's house. I like the quick pacing of the novel and the little stories that make up the larger narrative.

The way the author tells the story reminds me of Half Magic (which I highly recommend along with pretty much anything else by Edward Eager). The words and descriptions are simple and child-like in their quality (which I'm considering a good thing in this case).

After chapter one (which is quite short) I already had a genuine affection for the characters and wanted to keep reading. This isn't normally the kind of story I'd pick for myself or the type of thing I find myself interested in, but it was a good book. Give it a try, it won't take you long to read and it's worth the time.

Anna and the French Kiss

First, a disclaimer. This book was not NEAR as cheesy as the title would suggest.

I really liked this book. It was a light kind of fluffy high school read about a girl who goes away to study at an American school in Paris. Three things stood out to me about this story.

1. The story was really fun and felt realistic until the girl realizes consciously that she's in love with the boy. Then there's this awkward Twilight-esque effusion of feeling and emotion and awkwardness and cheesiness. Don't love it.

2. While Anna's telling the story she talks about her father who is a popular southern author. He writes stories in a very formulaic way that are usually tragic and involve cancer and romance. Anna considers him a sell-out. The most amusing part to me is how much she's obviously making fun of someone who writes this way in real life. Can you guess who it is? Who always writes stories with no happy endings and usually cancer as a tragic life-ruiner? You are right! It's Nicholas Sparks! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a Nicholas Sparks book every once in awhile. I sometimes like to cry when I read books and I appreciate stories that are simple to understand (life is hard, my reading enjoyment time doesn't always need to be difficult as well) at times. However, all of his books are nearly identical. I simply enjoy the way that this author pokes a little good-natured fun at good old Mr. Sparks.

3. The way the author deals with the feeling of being away from home for the first time long term and the subsequent stress and inherent difference in surroundings when returning home is quite accurate. It's just never the same when you go home after having been away on your own. I can definitely relate.

Give it a try. I recommend it.

Distant Waves

I have been visiting my older sister and her family in California and we made a trip to the library. While I was there, we picked up some books at the book sale. I grabbed a few, one being Distant Waves. I decided to read it this week. It was okay, but was not what I expected. Although the Titanic was an underlining theme, it was not really in it until the end, when the novel said it was all about it. The beginning was weird, but it did grow on me at the end. The ending was not predictable but a little cheesy. Basically, it involved five sisters and their different personalities and lives, all ending up on the Titanic. Good and easy read, but not the best.

Jane Eyre

There are two things I wanna talk about in this post. One is the actual book, Jane Eyre. I grabbed this book before I went on vacation mostly because it was small and wouldn't take up much room or be very heavy. I didn't really get into it until the way home from vacation and then my reading was kind of slow because my family was in town for graduation and all that jazz.

Ok, so the book. It was great. I was kind of wary at first because this was obviously more dense fiction than what I've been reading with mostly young adult literature. Secondly, really the only literature from this period I've read have been by Jane Austen (with the exception of Tess of the D'Urbervilles *shudder*). I love love loved this story. I found it easier to get into and faster moving than both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Some aspects to this story were very surprising and some were expected as I went through, but I thought the balance was great. One thing I especially loved was the way the fourth wall was broken, though not constantly. I like being acknowledged as I read. The way Jane (who narrates the story) addresses the reader periodically and sometimes goes off on tangents makes her feel like a real person.

I do want to admit that sometimes the stereotypes used (about women, poor people, etc.) rubbed me the wrong way, but that is probably a product of the time period.

Ok, next. The edition pictured above is the one I read. I have three of these "Gramercy Classics Miniatures" that I picked up for two bucks each at a book sale. They are fantastic. I already mentioned the small size (about the size of my hand), the covers are lovely, and there's a ribbon bookmark attached. I find the size of these books and their durable hard covers to be fantastic. I just wish there were more stories available (I have Wuthering Heights (never read), Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre). I know they also make Great Expectations, but I don't like Dickens. There, I said it. If you ever see these books for a good price, pick them up. They're fantastic.

Also, read Jane Eyre.