Firegirl

I grabbed Firelgirl from the library on a whim while I was there a few days ago.  It was a quick read (I finished in one day) and it was decent.  It's the story of a boy named Tom and how his seventh grade class handles the arrival of a new girl.

Thing is, Jessica isn't your average new student.  She's been burned in a horrible fire and came to the new school to be closer to a good burn hospital.  The seventh graders react exactly how you'd expect: in extremely varying ways.  This is a good story of what it means to be accepting and how to deal with differences.  I definitely see myself using this as a teacher in a classroom situation where students aren't treating each other appropriately.  So, not the most exciting personal read (because it's intended for a much younger audience), but definitely something useful and worthwhile.  

Seeing Redd

It's been years since I read the original book in this series, The Looking Glass Wars.  It made me nervous to read Seeing Redd because sometimes you just can't remember the things you need to that far away.  That was not the case with Frank Beddor's sequel.  I read the brief overview of the original on Wikipedia and then dove in.  

It's books like this that make me wish I didn't have the overwhelming need to finish books I start.  I didn't enjoy it.  Beddor has created a really interesting and unique world and characters that could be insanely intriguing and awesome.  The fact is, they just seem to fall flat.  Alyss is unfailingly good and slightly overwhelmed, Redd is evil, Arch is conniving, the Jack of Diamonds is fat and self-interested.  The characters don't really expand outside of these stereotypes.  Instead the author seems intensely and exclusively focused on the battle scenes and the gore.  So, while I did quite enjoy the first book years ago, I didn't love this one.  The truth is, I grabbed it off the shelf because I was SO desperate for something to read and I saw it.  Now I have a whole stack of books waiting for me that I need to get on.  

Life of Pi

I just read this book, Life of Pi.  I found it extremely interesting.  From Pi's search for religion in the beginning to his unlikely survival techniques on a life boat with a full grown male tiger.  

I'm not overwhelmingly in love with it like the world seems to be (as indicated by it's reign on the New York Times Bestseller's list, but the fact that I read something on that list after it got there is kind of astounding.  I think the concept of surviving on a lifeboat with a tiger is unique and makes for a good, solid story.  All of that said, I hated the last two chapters.  I wish I had put down the book and stopped reading. 

Living Dead Girl

Heads up: this book is disturbing.  Living Dead Girl is the tale of "Alice" who was kidnapped from an aquarium while on a class trip when she was ten.  At the time of the book telling she is fifteen and has been living with her captor and molester for five years.  She hates her situation and begs inwardly for death so she doesn't have to deal with her pain anymore.

When Alice starts to get too old for her captor's sickening tastes, she develops a plan to get away.  How far will she go to improve her life situation?  Far. 

Again, this is a disturbing book.  I don't know that I particularly recommend it or don't recommend it.  It was compelling and I really like the use of the term "living dead girl" to express how Alice feels as she lives.  Be careful, though.  If you're sensitive or can't handle Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit or just generally don't find reason to read these types of stories, don't read this book.  

Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy is, as the text in red says, is a father's narration of his son's decent into meth addiction.  David Sheff tells the story of his son Nick's struggle with drugs.  Nick starts his life like any other little boy: beautiful.  He loves his dad and they seem to be closer and happier than most parent child relationships, despite the messy custody situation between David and Nick's mother.  From a preteen run-in with alcohol to a marijuana habit to harder drugs, Nick seems to fall quickly.  His poor choices impact his family, perhaps his father most profoundly.  Nick's story, told by his father David, is heartbreaking and real and a well-researched eye opening read for anyone. 

It's obvious that David Sheff did his research.  He knows how meth affects the brain (to the degree that it is understood) and how rehab works.  I love how personal the story is and how easy it is to get attached to these real life people.  It seems that I've become a sucker for good characters, be they real or fictional.  This is another book that I highly recommended.  In fact, I'm now on the waiting list for Tweak which is the same story except from the perspective of the addicted son, Nick.  Read this book - do it. 

Lost Boy

I told you I was reading serious books right now.  This is one of them.  Brent Jeffs (nephew of Warren Jeffs, former prophet of the FLDS church) wrote Lost Boy which chronicles his childhood on the FLDS compound where he grew up.  

Jeffs brings the human element to a story most of us know to some degree.  It was only a few years ago that Warren Jeffs was front page news all across the country.  The book can get slightly graphic at times while describing the abuse Jeffs faced as a very young child.  That being said, I definitely recommend this book for anyone even moderately interested in developing a greater understanding of the things that really occurred during that time period in the FLDS church.

I want to mention one more thing.  Religious topics and stories especially from people who have left that religion can often have unfair biases.  While Jeffs's opinions come through loud and clear, he does not disparage the religion as a whole, which I appreciate.  

Liar

Last night I finished listening to Liar by Justine Larbalestier.  Before the review, a couple of things about audio books.  First: I do consider listening to audio books to be reading books.  Secondly: The program I'm using to listen to books from the library let's me play them a little faster than normal (I go with 1.4x speed) which I like.  To me audio books are less about the performance and more about the content.  Lastly: (the does not negate my first point) I think something is a little bit lost by listening to a book rather than reading.  Sometimes the formatting of a book is really important and short of the narrator saying, "Title in bold size 16 font left aligned on the page" there is no way to retain this.

I listened to most of this book yesterday while I was making some desserts.  The story is about a teenage girl named Micah.  Micah is a compulsive (probably pathological) liar.  Her story begins after her boyfriend is murdered.  She promises the reader to give her story with only the truth for the first time ever.  The mystery of the circumstances surrounding the murder, her family life, and her struggles dealing with "the family disease" surround Micah's story.

It would be impossible for me to give a good summary of the story without revealing something that took me by surprise about a third of the way through the book.  Micah's story takes a jarring turn by one of her revelations that switches even the genre of the book itself.  At first I was frustrated with the turn of events and it made me role my eyes, but that was just at first.  Then, it grew on me.  The pace of the story picked up and this very common plot device was handled in a way I found at least moderately refreshing. I thought the story was good and don't regret reading it, but it wasn't the best thing I've ever read.

The Actor and the Housewife

At picked this up at a BYU book sale a few months ago for six bucks.  I'd never heard of it and didn't even read the summary on the flap.  It was Shannon Hale and I've never hated anything of hers and I was probably running late to class or something. 

As is obvious I've been running out of very specific things to read and I'm just grabbing what's around.  So, I pulled this off my shelf and started reading.  I figured with the kind of heavy and even downright depressing things I've been reading and listening to lately (I'm currently mid-way through Beautiful Boy) I thought something fluffy and easy would be just what I needed.    

The Actor and the Housewife is the story of normal Mormon (more on that in a minute) housewife, Becky Jack.  By some miraculous stroke of luck she ends up selling a screenplay to a production company in Hollywood.  Almost through her meeting and about to sign a contract without reading it thoroughly (hello, this is Hollywood, dumb dumb, big mistake) her favorite romantic comedy star, Felix Callahan, interrupts.  Many impossibly coincidental events later and the two are best friends.  It's hard, for Becky, to be best friends with the insanely handsome (and British) movie star without inciting the jealously of her loyal husband Mike.  Gah - I just want to tell you all the details of this story so that you'll read it and not judge it before you do and decide not to, but I can't without ruining all the things I didn't see coming.  I spent a good portion of the book trying to decide if this Mormon housewife Becky Jack was going to convert Felix Callahan (and his French supermodel wife) or allow him to destroy her marriage.  I'm not telling you what happens.  It wouldn't be fair.

I know this blog post is already rather long, but I have some things I want to say that I think are important.  Firstly, this is not a Mormon book.  The main character is a Mormon, sure, but this isn't your typical cheesy Mormon fiction (which has it's place and I enjoy sometimes).  Hale explains terms and actions when necessary so that I think a non-Mormon audience would be able to process the book quite well and still enjoy it.  It's not a Mormon book, it's a book with a Mormon character.

Shannon Hale is most well known for her YA and Juvenile fiction.  She wrote another book that I would consider more adult fiction (I hate that the term adult fiction or describing content as mature makes it sound dirty), Austenland, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  After reading this book I really think her true genius for me lies in this type of more adult, chick-lit genre.  The book reads almost like an extremely witty blog (including the chapter titles ["In which someone gets punched at a ball but no one is seriously injured"]) and Hale is hilarious.  I couldn't help but laugh at loud when reading lines like, "The lady stared. 'Um, I've only been working here for a couple of weeks and I have no idea how to respond to that.  Would you please pretend that I replied appropriately?  Great.  Here are your room keys.'"  

Her genius also shines through as she makes this completely improbable and unreal situation seem like it really could happen by creating characters and relationships that glow with realistic human emotion.  Within twenty pages at one point in the book I was sobbing then laughing out loud (in a room by myself) then sobbing again (though I say sobbing, it was borderline bawling - I had to stop reading and get up to blow my nose).  Listen, just read this book.  I loved it and it was one of the best I've read in awhile.  After (and if) you read it please please please will you leave a comment or talk to me in person?  I want to know what you think.

Two random things. 

1) This book taught me that the phrase I'd always spelled in my head as "milk toast" is actually "Milquetoast" and comes from a comic book character from way back in the day.  All my life I figured the meaning came from the fact that both milk and toast are kind of plain, simple, unassertive flavors.  (For those of you who don't know milquetoast is a timid, shy, introverted, trampled-on person.)

2) While looking for a picture of the cover to include with this post I found another cover that's very similar and I really just do not like it.  Perhaps it's the pearls.  I don't know, I just hate it. 

Prism

Did you know that Utah has a public ebook library online where you can check out audio books as well as epub versions of books.  The service is completely free, you get the books for about two weeks.  You do have to put books on hold sometimes because limited copies of ebooks are available.  Books are available five at a time and can be transferred to mobile devices or used on a computer.  To access the service for Utah (and it's local libraries) go here. Other areas have similar services available too, so ask your local librarian if you think you'd be interested in accessing an ebook library.

The point of all that was that I checked out and listened to this book, Prism, from the online library.  Audio books have the great benefit of being able to be processed while doing other things.  So I listened to this book while taking walks, laying in bed hoping to fall asleep, doing my dishes, baking, etc.

Prism is a slightly sci-fi type of story.  Kaida and her classmates are in a car crash while traveling for a class trip to Carlsbad Caverns.  They hide out in a cave to escape the rain and then wake up in a parallel universe where healthcare of any type (from Advil and cough drops to life-saving procedures) are illegal.  First confused as to what is going on, the students find a person named Ozzie that is cheating the system to try and save his mother's life.

I didn't really care for this book.  The storyline felt cheesy and full of forced didactcism.  I know there are health care issues in this world and that the system is faulty from all perspectives, but come on.  There are better and more even-keeled ways to contain a political or social message in a story.  Also, the prose was so heavy-handed.  There's a friend staying with me right now and I was embarrassed with the flowery language and vomit-inducing expressions of love.  I know I've been a little harsh, and this book wasn't completely awful, but it's definitely one I could have done without.

An additional note: I'm waiting for some holds at the library and I'm not sure what to read in the meantime. Give me your suggestions and I'll give them a try!

Wicked

A disclaimer before I begin.  This book can be quite bawdy at times.  The overall story isn't nasty or anything, but the way some of the characters talk is more than a little rough around the edges.  It's definitely an adult book.  I want to make it clear that this isn't harlequin style romance novel with that same issue, but if you're at all sensitive to mature content, don't read it because this has plenty.  In fact, it had enough to make me uncomfortable, but once I start a book I have to finish it. 

I suppose I should have another disclaimer and say that based on the summary I read of the musical the stories are completely distinct and separate (the way the original Wizard of Oz doesn't have that much to do with Wicked except for very basic story elements).

So, the story is of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and her adventure from birth to death.  Of course we run into Glinda/Galinda, the Good Witch of the North along with Nessarose (the Wicked Witch of the East).  The story is very politically charged and talks a lot about the oppression of Oz under rule of the Wizard.  Elphaba find friends, love, and political motivation.  There's more to her character than the original story tells.

Now to the part I really want to say: I didn't like this book.  I read it quickly because I wanted to be finished (and I have to finish).  It wasn't just the dirty parts that made me dislike the book.  I found the story alternately slow-moving and jumpy and shocking for the sake of being shocking.  This is the first time that I can recall on this blog that I've overwhelmingly not recommended a book, but there it is.  Do with the advice what you will.