It's true, I have been busy.  So here's what I have read lately:

Sold by Patricia McKormick (teen fiction) A Tibetan teen gets thrust into the human trafficking trade in a tale that's told with sparse, poetic prose.  Harrowing and somewhat upsetting.

Bella Abzug by Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom (adult non-fiction)

Oral history of larger than life political figure Bella Abzug.  Exciting, empowering reading for girls and women.

Go Big or Go Home by Will Hobbs (teen fiction)

Brady Steele likes adventure, but nothing can prepare him for what happens after a meteor hits his house and lands in his bed.  (Brady was NOT in it at the time!) Brady names the meteor FRED for Far Roaming Earth diver.  After he has it for a few days, strange things start happening to him.  Brady acquires sudden super strength and is able to beat his older cousin Quinn at all kinds of athletic feats.  But then the super strength fades and more disturbing symptoms set in.  Brady realizes that he better find out what is going on or he might not make it to his 15th birthday.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz (youth/teen fiction)  Maud is plain, clever, and BAD. She is always in trouble at the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans. She knows that nobody will ever pick HER to be in their family. But one day, while Maud is being punished in the foul outhouse, the impossible happens. Miss Hyacinth Hawthorne chooses Maud to be her child. At first, Maud is overjoyed. She gets new dresses, brand new books, and bacon for breakfast. But things are not quite right. Maud must hide whenever visitors come to call. She is a secret child. Nobody outside the house must know she exists. Maud soon gets entangled in the shady family business, which involves a sort of lying she never expected to do in her life. Maud realizes she must really be wicked, because she is actually GOOD at it!

I just loved this book. I couldn't stop reading it. I even read it between innings at my son's baseball game. I know the other parents must think I'm crazy but it was THAT good.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (youth fiction)

12 year old Ted, who has Asperger's-like symptoms, is thrust into a mystery when his visiting cousin Salim disappears while riding the London Eye, a gigantic ferris wheel-like London attraction.  Ted's point of view is unique and engaging. 

I haven't blogged my books lately, but I am reading.  It's just that work and home are both very busy lately.   

Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (children's fiction)

I read this aloud to my son.  We both enjoyed the puns and wordplay.  It reminded me of John Lennon's brand of humor.  It was all kind of silly, with a happy ending.  But there were more profound message lurking underneath if you were looking for that sort of thing.  I forget now, but it was something about engaging in life, and trying, even though you might fail, and how it's all a journey.  Or something like that.

Cathy's Key by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman) (Young Adult fiction)

This sequel to "Cathy's Book" finds Cathy on a road trip, trying to sort out what she has discovered about her boyfriend and the Immortals.  She makes a major discovery about her past which rocks her world. 

This looks like it might turn into an ongoing series.  I like that it is not all about the romance between Cathy and Vince (?  I forget his name).  Cathy is sorting out her past and her future and it's not easy.  I thought the book was a little meandering.  The road trip seemed to go on too long.  I could see the big plot point coming.  I found the book to be overall pretty readable but a little disappointing.  The thrill of figuring out what is going on is gone.  The whole book felt like it was just a device to move the plot along and set up future installments.  Cathy's best friend and most of the supporting characters were relegated to backgound.  The story needs a bit more depth.  I thought it was there in the first book, but this one seems to have lost something.

Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion, edited by Karen E. Bender and Nina de Grumont (adult non-fiction)

The title describes what you find here - essays written by women about their fertility choices.  The editors brought these stories together in the spirit of going beyond the rhetoric and sharing our common bonds.  I don't know whether they suceeded.  I can only view these essays from my own perspective.  I found many stories wrenching and sad.  There wasn't a whole lot of humor and celebration here.  Maybe the point underneath it all is that we don't really know how to reconcile our mother role with our identities.  We are mothers and individuals, but the very essence of motherhood is giving up your Self in order to nurture life.  It's a paradox, a conundrum, a puzzle that many of us live with every day.  Maybe the point is that we will never figure it out.  And maybe the point is that some women choose not to be mothers for very personal and valid reasons.  And that's okay, too.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner (adult fiction)

This sequel to "Good In Bed" finds Cannie, Peter and Joy 12 years down the road, living happily ever after.  But things do not turn out quite the way we might think they will.  Joy is hitting adolescence head on.  In a quest to figure out who she is, Joy starts to question her past, and reading her mother's book raises a whole bunch of difficult issues.  Cannie is still reveling in her role as wife and mother in her cocoon of happiness.  But nothing stays the same - everything changes.  We can't stay forever in our little web of comfort.  Joy is growing up, and Cannie needs to figure out where she goes from here.  I loved and hated this book.  Weiner is such a perceptive, witty and sincere writer.  She has so much heart.  But she does a heartless thing in this book.  When it happens, it is like a knife going through your chest.  And soon after it happens, the book ends. I felt a little used.  Is she setting up book number three?  It felt too abrupt and sensationalistic - it felt like a cheap trick, and Weiner is better than that.

Final Exam:  A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality by Pauline W. Chen (adult non-fiction)

Chen is a cancer specialist who has written an exhortation to her colleagues to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath to "First do no harm."  Doing no harm might actually mean doing nothing to prevent a patient from dying.  She shares with us an attitude that is sadly too prevalent among physicians, a kind of tunnel vision where a specialist addresses only one aspect of a patient’s illness.  Not wanting to be the bearers of bad news, doctors find ways to evade responsibility by "turfing" a terminal patient to someone else, so that they don’t have to tell the patient that there is no hope.  Doctors pursue their careers because they want to save people.  They are not comfortable with watching someone die. It feels like a failure.  But Chen urges them to see the whole patient, to try to be more helpful during what is, after all, a natural process.  

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris (young adult fiction)

Christian runs away from home and is taken in by a gruff but lovable troll.  He worships a princess from afar, and once he turns 18, musters up the courage to seek work in the castle where his true love resides.  Chris gets immersed in palace intrigue and discovers nefarious plots which must be thwarted.  This is a humorous and heartwarming tale.

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill – A Brief Account of a Long Life by Gretchen Rubin (adult non-fiction)

Rubin makes the long and illustrious life of Winston Churchill accessible and interesting.  She also offers up a meditation on how much the biographer’s point of view can affect the written result.  She bares both the courageous and ugly aspects of Churchill’s personality and assesses his impact on history from many angles.  All of this is done in succinct chapters that move along briskly.  This would be a good introduction to an important historical figure for someone interested in history in middle or high school.

A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

Judging this book by its cover, I thought it was going to be cool and hipster-ish.  It sports a duplicated snapshot of Gantos, reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s Pop Art style, looking like Che Guevara.  Then the first chapter shatters that image and reality hits like a slap in the face.  Actually, that photograph is his prison mug shot, a record of the lowest point in his life, when he was underweight, full of acne, and scared out of his mind.  "A Hole In My Life" is a strange animal.  It’s unapologetic, yet Gantos pulls no punches in describing his own bonehead behavior that landed him in jail.  The way he structures the book, starting out in prison, then backtracking to tell you how he ended up there, creates great dramatic tension.  I kept wondering when things were going to go downhill, and even when they did, it happened with such suddenness that I was surprised.  Ironically, although it was the scariest time in his life, prison was also the place where Gantos really became a writer.  This is what makes this book so fascinating.  Is Gantos saying prison was a good experience, and we should all try it sometime?  Is he justifying breaking the law because he turned out all right in the end?  He makes prison so viscerally terrifying that nobody in their right mind would want to go there.  I think what he is ultimately saying is that although you might do stupid or bad things at some time in your life, redemption is still possible.

Reading - Duma Key by Stephen King

Stephen King seems to get better with age.  As he faces his own mortality, his books have gotten more subtle and nuanced.  Duma Key deals with mortality, second acts, King's own brush with death, and, of all things, the nature of art.  It's a simple story at heart, about wounded people trying to heal, and family tragedies.  Of course, there's a supernatural element, a horrible demon on a ghost ship, who captures souls - shades of "Pirates of the Carribean", for sure.  Not much really happens in this tale.  But the setting, the characters and the way it leads me to pondering are bewitching.

I seem to be reading more fiction so far this year.  The best and worst part of my job is that I come across so many interesting things to read.  I have to decide where to focus my attention and that means other books get undeservingly ignored.

Reading-

This Common Secret: My Journey As an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wickman (adult non-fiction)

An abortion doctor writes her memoirs and shares how she came to specialize in women's health.  Although this book is sure to be controversial, Wickman is a rather ordinary person.  She comes from humble beginnings and was a single mother.  She worked her way through school while she had a small child. Her work ethic is amazing.  She came to learn to do abortions after having a bad experience when she had one herself.  Wickman makes a lot of effort explaining that abortion is only one of many options that she presents to patients and she takes a lot of time counseling women on all of their options.  She really wants women who choose abortion to be absolutely sure that it is the right choice for them.  There is so much hate and fear associated with the issue of abortion.  Wickman resides in the pro choice camp.  The fact that she puts her own and her family's life in danger because of this is powerfully displayed in this book.

Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson (children's fiction)

It all starts with a refigerator box. 11 year old Tom Hammond embarks on the adventure of a lifetime when a block of foam from the box becomes a raft. Tom lives in a house beside a stream perched at the top of a small mountain. One restless night Tom decides to ride the raft down the stream. That pleasant stream turns into angry rapids and steep, treacherous waterfalls that take Tom deep inside the mountain. Once inside inpenetrable caverns, Tom realizes that it is impossible to travel back the way he came. He must confront the challenge of how he will escape the mountain. As he does so, he discovers a dead body, evidence of an ancient civilization, a helpful dog, and the mystery behind his father's death three years before.
This was a gripping tale, with unexpected plot twists. It contains a fair amount of violence. Beside the dead body, there is a bad explosion and a character loses limbs, and toward the end there are some violent scenes. I would recommend this to middle school students.

Reading -So illness and jury duty set me back a little from posting.  I did do some reading, so here goes...

Unwind by Neal Shusterman -In the not-too-distant future, after a terrible war between the Pro Life and Pro Choice fronts, new laws are enacted that outlaw abortion. The catch is that parents may choose to "unwind" their children between ages 13 and 18. "Unwinds" have 99.4 % of their bodies harvested, with their parts going to hospitals for transplants. Some children of religious families, also known as "tithes", are conceived and raised for the sole purpose of unwinding at age 13.

Connor has just found out that his family plans to Unwind him in a few months. He decides to run away before he can be sent away to a Harvest Camp. The book follows his adventures as he narrowly eludes capture and befriends other Unwinds.

I found this book to be gripping and suspenseful. It was very hard to put down. It raises a lot of philosophical questions about the soul and religious fervor. I would recommend this to mature teens. It is fairly violent and may turn out to be controversial. To me, its message is that blind faith is dangerous - we need to question established orthodoxy/doctrines and decide for ourselves what is truth.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie- Arnold Spirit lives in a place without hope on an Indian Reservation in rural Washington State.  Inspired by his sister, who suddenly moves to another state, and a white teacher who tells him to get off the rez if he wants to live a more hopeful life, Arnold decides to go to the white public school in the nearest town.  Arnold experiences some hostility from his fellow tribe members and has some difficulty coping with life in a white high school.  But he makes some friends and eventually finds a way to coexist with his Native American family and friends.  Chock full of tragedy and hardship, along with mature language and violence, this is not for the young or fainthearted.  But Arnold's voice is funny and endearing.  Along with the cartoons sprinkled throughout, Arnold's spirit makes me laugh, even if it's not always the most appropriate response.  Anyone who grew up with brothers will also appreciate this peek into the adolescent male mind.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth - The Roth family lives in a Jewish area of Newark in the early 1940's.  They encounter "perpetual fear" and paranoia when Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer, defeats Franklin Roosevelt's bid for a third term as president.  Told from the point of view of 7 year old Philip, we follow his family's travails as they watch the war unfold in Europe, and ever more restrictive policies are enacted against American Jews in the United States.  Philip tries to make sense of it all as best he can, as his brother idolizes Lindbergh, his father seems to go off the deep end, and his mother almost cracks from the strain of keeping the family together.  This book is dense with detail and description.  It creates an alternate history that feels real.

Reading - Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World by Jessica Snyder Sachs (adult non-fiction)

This book tackles recent health concerns like superbugs, bacteria that are impervious to most modern antibiotics, and which might be nehind a global increase in allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune maladies.  It offers a sweeping history of man's relatively recent attempts to conquer bacteria. For a while there, it looked like we had it whipped, but these microscopic bugs evolve at lightning speed and now it seems like they are gaining the upper hand.  Sachs demonstrates how modern food growing methods, like adding antibiotics to feed for cows and chickens, are helping these bacteria to vanquish humans.

But all is not lost.  Sachs spends much of her book describing new research aimed at approaching the bacteria that live in and on us in a new way.  The diffferent approaches are complicated and dizzying, and I got lost in some of the science there.  Some discoveries, like the Dirt Vaccine, hold tantalizing potential to cure things like cancer as well.

This book is wondrous and fascinating.  The complexity of microscopic bacteria and their interdependence on human beings, as well as OUR dependence on THEM, is amazing.  This is an eye opener.

I don't know what it is, but lately I have been feeling very busy and I don't feel like I have enough time to blog all the books I read in 2008.  Looking back, I like having a record of what I read.  It helps my fossilizing brain to remember what got downloaded into it last year.  But the reality of recording everything seems right now to be a monumental task.

Oh well. Enough whining, lazybones!  I'll take some babysteps...

Went to ALA Mid-Winter and am LOADED with Advanced Reader's Copies (ARCs) of all things teen.  The biggest coup for me is an ARC of the sequel to "Cathy's Book" (which I read and recorded in my blog last year.  See?  The value of the blog already makes itself known - now I can re-read my summary before I start to read the sequel and get caught up on what happened before this one starts!)  My To Read pile is now super humongous.  And I am currently in the middle of a really long and difficult (to me) science-y book about germs and microbiology.  Yeah, just trying to stretch the grey matter in new directions.  The book is really fascinating but I get a little lost in the sections discussing genetic research.  Back to that one later.

So, I probably will not blog about picture books much – maybe I'll highlight any that are a big hit with the kiddos.

So here goes…

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman  (Young Adult Fiction)

The names of the characters have gone right out of my head!  It's a classic in youth literature, so go read it yourself.  My impressions after finishing it two weeks ago are that the opening scene is excellent. It pulls the reader into the story with two strong arms.  Lyra, the heroine (it's coming back to me a little) is a great literary character: strong, courageous, and a little bit primitive and pagan.  I fell in love with her.  My favorite parts were when Lyra was travelling with the Gyptians.  They just seemed so free and cohesive. They sounded like a really cool group of people to hang out with.  I hated the ending of the book.  The science/mythology of what was happening left me in a muddle, and it just seemed too fantastic (in the literary sense of the word) for me to buy it.  I feel cheated because I was totally left hanging.  I feel like I am being bullied into reading the next installment.

Person of Interest by Theresa Schwegel (Adult Fiction/Mystery)

Again, can't remember characters' names.  The wife of a detective doesn't know her husband is working undercover and erroneously assumes he is having an affair.  She decides to become a detective herself and gets caught up in the dangerous case involving Asian gangs which her husband is working on.  This book was fairly violent and slightly creepy.  The insight into the main characters relationship was compelling.  But on the whole, the book left the bad taste of stale beer and cigarettes in my mouth.  Yech.

Listening Is An Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life From the StoryCorps Project, Edited by David Isay (Adult Non-Fiction)

StoryCorps is an oral history project started by David Isay. He is trying to capture the stories of everyday people in late 20th and early 21st century United States. The first recording booth was set up in 2003 in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. There is another booth at Ground Zero, and three mobile recording studios that travel around the country. All of the recordings that are made will be archived at the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress.

This book captures a sampling of the stories that the project has collected so far. They are funny, powerful and moving. It is hard to pick a favorite, because they are all so good.

At the end of the book, Isay says, "These stories are a record of our shared humanity. Hearing them, it becomes clear that no matter who we are or where we come from, there is much more in common that we share than that divides us."

I absolutely adored this book and would love to invite the mobile booth to our library.  We'll see…

Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam (Young Adult Fiction)

Semirah is a slightly overweight nerdy science teen who wins a contest to fly to a tropical island with other nerdy science teens and do research.  But things do not go according to the plan, and Semirah's plane crashes, marooning her and two other teens on a deserted island.  Just when the trio start adjusting to conditions on the island, they discover a secret genetic research compund run by the mysterious Dr. Franklin.  Dr. Franklin is up to no good, and soon Semi is convinced that he is mad.  She also realizes that the outside world thinks that she and her friends are dead, and they cannot escape from their island prison.  What will Dr. Franklin do with his human lab rats?

This book is the 2008 Teen Fiction choice for One Book New Jersey.  It is super creepy and I almost abandoned ship halfway through.  It is really squirm inducing, but also beautifully written and thought provoking.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz, Illustrated by Robert Byrd (Young Adult Non-Fiction??)

This book is a series of mostly monologues, and a few dialogues, told by young people living in a medieval village.  We peek into their world from their point of view, and experience a bit of the flavor of daily life in the Middle Ages.  The characters are entirely fictional, but My Place of Work catalogues the book as non-fiction, because that's where we put poetry and drama. This book is charming and enlightening, and just won the Newbery Award. 

2007 Wrap Up

Okay, we are now into the second week of the New Year, and it is time to put 2007 to bed.  

So, what's basically left to talk about is children's fiction and non-fiction.  (I gave up chronicling picture books fairly early on – we go through too many of that at home.  I think in '08 I will just highlight any that I find to be outstanding).  Here is what I read in alphabetical order:

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Day of Tears by Julius Lester

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

The ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

King of Shadows by Susan Cooper

Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

No Talking by Andrew Clements

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Total: 13

Children's Non-Fiction

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis

Total: 1

What surprised me this year is how much I loved these books.  I definitely plan to read more children's fiction this year.  It's difficult to choose a favorite.  And memory fades way too quickly.  I think "Emma Jean" broke new ground and has the potential to build bridges for parents and classmates of children who may seem out of step with the mainstream.  "Day of Tears" was so intense and beautiful.  I will never see rain the same way again.  "Hugo Cabret" was also new and cinematic and exciting.  All of these books made me laugh, cry, and think.

So. 2007. By the numbers (hats off to Jessamyn for the idea) – excluding picture books:

Total books read:  56

Adult Fiction: 7

Adult Non-Fiction: 19 (I had previously counted "The Wall" as adult book – it can go either way.  I have mostly abided by the cataloging done at My Place of Work)

Young Adult Fiction: 16

Young Adult NF/Memoir: 0

Children's Fiction: 13

Children's Non-Fiction: 1

Average read per month: 4.6

Average read per week: 1

Percent male authors/editors: 50

Percent female authors/editors: 50

Percent fiction: about 65

Percent NF: about 35

Okay, now on to 2008.