Weekly Geeks: My musical passion

This week's Weekly Geek assignment is from Chris of Book-a-Rama: What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? Get us involved. Link to tutorials, recipes, Youtube videos, websites, fan sites, etc, anything that will help us learn more about your interest

Those of you who read Worducopia regularly will know that I usually pick a song to match each book I review--my way of sharing my other passion with you regularly. My taste in music is pretty eclectic, from folk to alternative rock to reggae to classical.

And then there's the choir I've been a member of for the past 15 years, which is so much more than music to me. It's part of our UU church, so the music is all wrapped up in who we are spiritually, and the other singers are our dear ones. The first people I called after my son was born were, in this order: My parents, my sister, my in-laws, my choir director.Please click here for the rest of this post and to hear us singing.

The School of Essential Ingredients--Erica Bauermeister (book review)

I already gushed about The School of Essential Ingredients when I'd first started reading it. The question was, would the rest of the book live up to my expectations? The easy answer is, Yes. Erica Bauermeister's last 225 pages are precisely as well-written as the first fifteen.

Knowing that each chapter focuses on a different member of a cooking class, I'd wondered whether it would read more like a collection of short stories than a novel. The characters interact with each other, and their stories progress along a timeline with one class per chapter, so in that sense it works as a novel. But I liked it better when I thought of it as short stories.

About three-fourths of the way through I found myself . . . not bored, exactly. Complacent. Each chapter contains the steady unfolding of a new character, without much in the way of conflict. There's pain: a man who recently lost his wife to cancer, a woman with Alzheimer's disease, a teen in an unhealthy relationship. But each person's story is bundled nicely into one chapter before moving on to the next, and there was never a moment where I wondered whether Carl and Helen would start chucking vases at each other, or Lillian would run off with the produce deliverer and not show up for class, or Chloe would end up living on the streets.

If you crave a high dose of drama, this isn't the book for you. It's more of a book take into the bath with you on a Sunday afternoon at the end of a tough week, when you just want to shut out the world and bathe in Tiramisu. And a lovely bath it will be.

The Soundtrack: Sabor a Mi (on my playlist I have Los Lobos's version), because of the Mexican woman who taught Lillian so much about food and life, and because of lyrics like this:
We've enjoyed this love for so long
our souls have grown together
so that I carry the taste of you within me
but you also carry
the taste of me

Other reviews: Leafing Through Life
Peeking Between the Pages
Books and Cooks
Books on the Brain
Bermuda Onion
and...(leave me a link and I'll add it, I should really learn to write these down when I come across them on the blogs I read regularly).

Ranger's Apprentice Drawing

Time for the drawing for the Ranger's Apprentice: The Siege of Macindaw! Inspired by recent vlog posts on What Vanessa Reads, Maw Books and Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?, we decided to do our drawing on camera, so here we are:



If you're one of the lucky winners, email me your address and I'll pass it along to Penguin to send you the book. If you didn't win, you can try again at The Book Muncher and Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf, among other places.

Short Story Mondays: Jhumpa Lahiri's When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

Last Monday I promised to share with you my favorite story from Interpreter of Maladies, so here it is:
Source: Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri
Date Read: January, 2009
Briefly: An American girl with Indian parents finds her view of the world impacted by a friendship with a Pakistani man.
Afterthoughts: I like the way Lahiri gives the reader a little girl's perspective while offering enough information to impart an adult view as well. Protagonist Lilia is vaguely aware of Mr. Pirzada's worry and grief, as he comes to her house every night to watch the news for any word from Pakistan, which in 1971 is drawing towards war with India while he is spending a year in the U.S. The fact that he can't get in touch with his wife and children makes his situation hit home for her. At the end of the story she realizes how much his friendship has meant to her, which I found very touching.
I loved that this story illustrates how displacement can bring people together. Lilia's father makes a point of telling her that Mr. Pirzada is different from them--while their family is Hindu, he is Muslim, and therefore Pakistani and not Indian. She describes how, from her vantage point, this made no sense: "Mr. Pirzada and my parents spoke the same language, laughed at the same jokes, looked more or less the same. They ate pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands. Like my parents, Mr. Pirzada took off his shoes before entering a room, chewed fennel seeds after meals as a digestive, drank no alcohol, for dessert dipped austere biscuits into successive cups of tea."
In mid-story, Lahiri distills her theme down to one 621-word pumpkin-carving scene. The scene illustrates Mr. Pirzada's relationship with Lilia and her family, how it interacts with his feelings about his own family, and what he teaches Lilia about enjoying life in spite of worry and sorrow. I've now reread it half a dozen times, and each time I see something new.
Available online at Esubjects.com

Notable quotes: What I remember during those twelve days of the war [in Pakistan] was that my father no longer asked me to watch the news with them, and that Mr. Pirzada stopped bringing me candy, and that my mother refused to serve anything other than boiled eggs with rice for dinner. I remember some nights helping my mother spread a sheet and blankets on the couch so that Mr. Pirzada could sleep there, and high-pitched voices hollering in the middle of the night when my parents called our relatives in Calcutta to learn more details about the situation. Most of all I remember the three of them operating during that time as if they were a single person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence, and a single fear.

TSS: Dickens vs. The Boy

Have you entered my giveaway of Ranger's Apprentice? I read chapter one this morning and even though I haven't read any of the other books, I could jump into this one easily. Drawing will be Tuesday. Enter here!

My reading of David Copperfield has had a major slowdown these past couple of weeks (last Sunday I was too busy to even write a Sunday Salon post). I'm now on page 200, which means I've read a whopping 30 pages since two weeks ago.

I'm in an awkward situation, you see. My dear, sweet 12-year-old boy has now decided that he's not as interested in dragons and magic anymore. He wants realistic contemporary fiction, preferably, as I believe I've mentioned in a previous post, with skateboarding.

Here's the thing: Fantasy that's appropriate for a pre-teen boy? Our library's shelves are practically exploding with them. We have reading lists and brochures and librarians who have been asked the "I finished Harry Potter, now what?" question for years. It's been ages since I've felt the need to pre-read Ben's books.

Realistic fiction appropriate for a pre-teen boy--with skateboarding, even--is there, too. We've found some great ones. But you can't just pull it off the shelf and hand it over, or even go by reviews online. Take Nick Hornby's YA novel, Slam. No explicit sex or anything R-rated, and it has skateboarding in it, but it's a book about a 15-year old who gets his girlfriend pregnant. Teen pregnancy...let's just say, it isn't in my son's top 1000 topics of interest right now, and I'd like to keep it that way for another year or two. As soon as he gets his first girlfriend, though, Slam will be back on our bookshelves immediately.

Paranoid Park and Sk8terboy are similarly not quite the right fit for my boy, for different reasons (PP is pretty gruesome and because it clearly takes place in our city, I feel like the lines between fiction and fact will be worrisome for Ben) and Sk8erboy is basically a girl book with a skateboarder as romantic interest.

Professional skateboarder Rodney Mullens has an autobiography out. Mullens seems like a decent guy, but who hands over a celebrity memoir to their 12 year old without reading it, too? So far it's been fodder for discussion about peer pressure, male anorexia, and the difference between dedication to an activity and obsession with it. I'm skimming like mad to keep ahead of the boy. I'm happy for him to be considering these ideas, but not without my input.

All this in the way of making excuses for myself. I haven't been reading my Dickens because nobody keeps handing it to me and asking if I've decided yet whether he can read it.

Weekly Geeks: The Classics

It was my week to post the Weekly Geeks question and I have to say, after reading the first ten responses, I'm so excited to read the different ways people answered the question, that I don't want to take the time to post my own response! But I have this thing about doing my WG post early. So, I'm going to answer question one right now, and probably do more later.

1) How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don't get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books?

As a child, I read authors like L. Frank Baum, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Lewis Carroll without thinking of them as particularly old. Books were just books, to me. (Did you know The Bobbsey Twins was created in 1904? I had no idea).

Something shifted when I was required to analyze and deconstruct everything I had time to read. I do remember enjoying some of the twentieth century literature I studied in college, like Faulkner and Kesey, but most of what I read was Work. Meanwhile, I was busy figuring out who I was and my place in the world, working on the relationship that would evolve into my marriage. And to be honest, I never quite bought into all the symbolism and hoity-toity stuff my professors got so excited about. It was a game. I did the analysis in the style that was expected, wrote the papers, and moved on to the next thing without a whole lot of appreciation for Greatness.

Time has passed, and now I look and feel remarkably like a 40-ish mother of two, (though part of me is convinced this is all a lovely dream and I'll wake up at some point, back at twenty-three). I'm ready to revisit some of those authors who were required reading in college and high school, and make an acquaintance with others who are nothing more than familiar names to me.

But, flat-out honesty? I don't want to work at it. I don't want to read something because it's Good For Me, or because it's on somebody's list of the Literary Greats. I want to read words that'll make me smile, in a book I'll set down reluctantly at the end of the chapter when my eyelids are heavy. Books that regular people finished because they wanted to, and said to themselves with a happy sigh, "That was a good book."

So now you know the secret behind this week's Weekly Geeks question: It's really all about me.

I'm reading David Copperfield and posting about it most Sundays (I missed last week). Then I'm going to read Steinbeck's Cannery Row in the same way--think I'll switch back and forth between 20th century and earlier stuff (peppered, of course, with ARCs and all those books for the challenges I'm doing). What should I read next?

Edited to add: I forgot to mention my giveaway! Two days left to win an ARC of Ranger's Apprentice: The Siege of Macadaw. Don't be put off by thinking this is a kids' series. My friend Stephanie's two sons, who are old and sophisticated (17 and 20, I think), enjoy them, too.

Incognegro--Mat Johnson (Book review)

Maybe I shouldn't tell you. This is embarrassing and makes me look like a little bit of an idiot. And yet, it's an important part of the story, I think.

First, let me tell you that I read Incognegro for two challenges: the Graphic Novel Challenge and my own Diversity Rocks challenge. I'm drawn to graphic novels that depict realistic scenarios, so I was intrigued by a this tale of a lighter-skinned African-American newspaper reporter who goes undercover in the 1930s to expose public lynchings. But I did pick this one up specifically to diversify my reading, because I'd read that the author is black.

So, I opened the book and, as I sometimes do, flipped to the back to check for a picture of the author. (Am I the only one who likes to occasionally picture them writing, while I'm reading?) Imagine my surprise: "Oh, crap. I listed this guy as a black author on Diversity Rocks and he's white!" Why had I assumed he was black? Because of the subject matter? How odd of me. I jumped on the internet to recheck my sources. And found...

That I should have read the Author's note at the beginning of the book.

I grew up a black boy who looked white. This was in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, during the height of the Black Power era, so I stood out a bit. My mom even got me a dashiki so I could fit in with the other kids, but the contrast between the colorful African garb and my nearly blond, straight brown hair just made things worse.

Oh. Incognegro. Got it.

Being confronted by my own clinging assumptions about skin color as it relates to ethnic heritage was a powerful introduction to the fictional experiences of Zane Pinchback and his friend Carl, two New York black men risking their lives by posing as whites in the Deep South of the U.S. in order to solve a mystery and try to prevent a lynching. But even without this, the story packs a huge punch. Touching, uncomfortable, at times horrifying . . . exactly what this era of history calls for. Incognegro has stuck with me long past the couple of hours it took to read it.

Author Mat Johnson

Soundtrack: Cab Calloway, one of the great jazz singers of 1930s New York, singing the St. James Infirmary Blues.

Mock Printz Report

On Saturday I attended the Mock Printz Award workshop at my library. I was the only person out of the 40 or so in attendance who was neither a teen or a librarian, but I tried to blend in. You know, by not shouting out "LOL!" every time somebody said something funny, and stuff like that.

Our task was to narrow eleven notable 2008 YA books down to one award winner and an honor book or two. After receiving instructions, we sequestered ourselves in groups of 6-7 for two hours of discussion. Our group had five adults and two bright and thoughtful teen girls. We had less than ten minutes to discuss each book and you wouldn't believe how much ground we covered in that time. We agreed on a lot, disagreed on a lot, and at the end of two hours we each cast our votes.

Then we reconvened in the large group, reported on our top three books, and then launched into a rather raucous discussion about the various contenders. There were very strong feelings on either side for MadApple and My Most Excellent Year, in particular. Where librarians got stereotyped as mild-mannered, I will never understand.

Librarian A: MadApple is a beautiful account of the descent into madness.
Librarian B: What's madness is that she didn't have an editor!
Teen A: Notice how all the people who loved this book are adults?
Teen B: I know, right?
Teen C: Can we talk about Little Brother now?

After the discussion we each got to vote on our top three again. I changed my #3 vote, but kept the first two the same.

The book that won was not everyone's favorite book by any stretch, but it had the distinction that nobody hated it. Even people who didn't love it acknowledged that it had an important and unique theme, a strong voice and setting, and characters that drew the reader in. Even those who loved it acknowledged that it wasn't perfect (unlike a couple of other books, which some had fallen for so hard that they seemed blind to their imperfections).

Our winner?

Yep, it's one of the two that I didn't get around to reviewing: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. This was my personal #3 in the final vote. I didn't expect to like this book and I did, mostly because the protagonist was a great narrator. Some people thought the large amounts of technical information were tucked in nicely, others thought there was too much explanation. Everyone who spoke felt that Doctorow made an imaginary situation very believable and made a strong statement about the very real anti-terrorism measures that have been happening in the U.S. since 9/11.

Here are the rest of the books, in order of the points they received.
2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks This was my #2. This one sparked interesting discussions about feminism: what it is and isn't, and whether it's a useful concept to the up-and-coming generation. Most of the teens loved this, but those who didn't, felt that Frankie was hard to relate to and that there was too much emphasis on being accepted by the boys. One boy said, "I saw this as a feminist book, and our generation isn't about feminism, we're about equality."
3. My Most Excellent Year. Listening to people rave about this actually made me feel a little queasy. The teens said the characters (who I described in my review as "sit-com characters") were exactly like people they know at school; people loved the pop culture references and the fact that it was a happy book. Those of us who didn't love it agreed that we're looking forward to his next book. Just please don't make me ever read this one again.
4. Paper Towns. This was my #1. Nearly everyone loved this book and I'm surprised it didn't get more points. Some people said it was over-hyped because they and their friends had adored Green's other books so much. Others felt that his protagonists are too similar and he needs to branch out more (others vehemently disagreed).
5. Skim This graphic novel was popular among many, especially for its art work.
6. Black Box. This was my personal #3 in the initial vote. The main criticism others had was that the main character wasn't given enough emphasis. The focus was on her sister and then her boyfriend. I loved this book but found that when it came to discussing it, I couldn't remember precisely why, which in itself is telling, I think.
7. MadApple. The teens, who were intelligent and not at all frothy (one of the girls in our group said she prefers authors like Sinclair Lewis to YA books), were of one mind on this: not a teen book. The people who loved it were mostly over 50.
8. The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Some liked it, some didn't. Everyone hated the ending.
9. Last Exit to Normal. Most people liked this one a lot, but had criticisms of it. One of the male teens said it read like a Lifetime movie.
10. Missing Girl. I couldn't read this one, I put it down after page 50. The combination of creepiness with too many protagonists was more than I was willing to stomach, and I'd just put MadApple down at the time and needed to read something I could enjoy. Most people found it more palatable than I did.
11. Sunrise Over Fallujah. Everyone agreed this was good, and an important book--like historical fiction but contemporary. I think it was the lack of depth of the minor characters that kept it from rising to the top of people's lists.

This whole experience was great fun, and also there were cookies and fruit. My favorite part was talking to the teens about the books that were written for them. I hope I get to invite myself again next year!

Rangers Apprentice series

The sixth book of Ranger's Apprentice, John Flanagan's YA fantasy series is coming out this summer in the U.S.!

My 12-year-old discovered this series in September, finished the first book in a couple of days and immediately started the second one. He had nearly finished it when he got distracted by all things skateboarding. If there was skateboarding in The Ranger's Apprentice he'd have read the entire series in a week or so. Keep that in mind, ye writers of boy-friendly fantasy: an X-treme sport or two never hurts a boy book.

He's ready to get back to the series now, and he's been filling me in on the first two books. The series begins with fifteen-year-old Will hoping to become a warrior but alas, he's too small. When Ranger Halt chooses him to be an apprentice ranger, he's pretty bummed. It seems Rangers aren't as cool as Warriors. But Will turns out to be rather good at this Ranger stuff and he likes it more than he expected. Adventure ensues.

According to Ben, while there's some action, Flanagan is all about the characters. Ben's favorite is Ranger Halt, who reminds him of Quest on the cartoon The World of Quest, "except he doesn't kick Will over a fence or anything" and is nicer. Just for fun, here's a sample of Quest:

So, the Ranger is a man of few words and even fewer displays of emotion. Ben describes one especially memorable scene from the second book: "Will defeats a boar and everyone's like, Yay!! and the Ranger just sort of nods politely toward him, and another character says, 'For the Ranger, that was like 3 cheers.'"

Ben also liked the way the book shifts perspective occasionally, so every few chapters the reader is following another of the boys who's training to be (I believe) a warrior.

Any recommendations for realistic fiction with a contemporary setting for a 12 year old boy, preferably with skateboards? What fantasy book (child or adult) do you recommend to people who don't love fantasy?

Short Story Mondays: Jhumpa Lahiri's A Temporary Matter

Seeing as I signed up to read 100 short stories, I've decided to try a weekly short story review, inspired by John Mutford's feature of that name and using my own version of Rob's (Rob Around Books) format.

Source: Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri
Date Read: January, 2009
Briefly: A couple's relationship is affected when the electric company shuts down the electricity for an hour every evening for a week, to perform extensive repairs without inconveniencing the neighborhood.
Afterthoughts: I loved the premise. Shoba and Shukumar have been through a stillbirth and never managed to reconnect after that tragedy, having gotten into a routine of retreating into their own worlds within their shared house: he to his computer, she to her work or television. The lack of electricity shakes up that routine and forces them to eat together by candlelight and pass the time without the distractions of electronic media. It had the potential to be a memorable statement about the impact of our current cultural norm--plugging ourselves in--on a relationship. I'm not sure what Lahiri was going for, though, because in the last three pages she veered off into another direction. I finished this story feeling let down. A little darkness doesn't normally put me off, but in this case it left me wondering whether I wanted to read any more of this author.
Notable Quote: She used to put her coat on a hanger, her sneakers in the closet, and she paid bills as soon as they came. But now she treated the house as if it were a hotel. The fact that the yellow chintz armchair in the living room clashed with the blue-and-maroon Turkish carpet no longer bothered her. On the enclosed porch at the back of the house, a crisp white bag still sat on the wicker chaise, filled with lace she had once planned to turn into curtains.
(To visit this week's other reviews, click on the Short Story Monday clock)

Why I Geek Out

When I first saw Weekly Geeks posts around the blogosphere, I didn't even consider joining in. Geek? I'm not a geek!

But the week I came across pictures of my favorite bloggers' best book places, I was entranced by the vastly different ways people responded to the same assignment. I found myself checking out the Mr. Linky for the first time, and clicking on as many as I could. I never did post the pictures I took of my bookshelves that week (I'd love to see that assignment repeated!), but when the next Saturday rolled around and Dewey assigned a book cover quiz--something I would never have thought of on my own--I was ready. I decided I'd just do it once in a while, when the assignment really grabbed me.

It hadn't occurred to me that new people would actually stop by. I figured people sought out their blogging friends on the Mr. Linky and read those posts. But when comments appeared from bloggers I'd never heard of...and then the next assignment was an interview and I got to know Lenore better...I was hooked.

What does being a member mean to me now? Community. Not like a club--it's actually the opposite of that--there is no true "membership." It's the fact that I can assume another Weekly Geeker will be open to my out-of-the-blue comment even if they've never heard of me. It's the idea that across the world, people are thinking about the same things on the same day, in their own unique ways. It's the excitement of clicking on a brand new name up on the Mr. Linky and waiting for the page to load, wondering who's on the other end.

Here's how I make the most out of Weekly Geeks: I follow as many of the links as I can throughout the week, and try read a full page (not just the WG post) and leave a comment. It slows me down, for sure, and I never get to them all, but the idea of WG isn't to say, "I read 'em all," right? It's to participate fully. I don't feel I've done that unless I've left my mark on at least one blog that's not in my reader. If you're normally of the click-and-lurk ilk, go ahead, try it. Leave a comment.

Nothing to say? Answer me this: If you could only take one CD with you to a deserted island, what would you bring?

Cricket Man--Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (kid review)

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is most famous, I think, as the author of Shiloh--the much loved story of a boy's desire to rescue a dog from its mean owner. It turns out she's written 135 books for kids and teens, one of them the delightful Cricket Man. My 12-year-old read it first, said it was really good, so I read it and he was right. We both loved it for entirely different reasons--a sure sign of a good YA book.

Days later, we finally got a few moments to discuss the book in front of my laptop so I could type as we spoke. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.

What was this book about again?
Ben: It's about Cricket Man.
Ali: Very helpful. What happens? Kenny's is starting 8th grade...
Ben: Yeah, he's like 13. He got a skateboard for his birthday and he wasn't very good but he was just going to practice his ollies and stuff.
(And he likes to rescue crickets from the swimming pool behind his house--so he makes himself a t-shirt with a CM logo on it, for Cricket Man, which causes all kinds of trouble. And then there's the teenaged girl across the street, who Kenny is fascinated by and eventually becomes friends with, only to realize that something is upsetting her terribly and he's powerless to help her).

The boy-appeal:
Ben: I like the skateboarding parts, the parts where the kids get caught by the police. It kind of shows you what happens so if you're going to skate it gives an example of what you might want to do just in case that happened, and what the police might do.
Ali: And Kenny wasn't a troublemaker, right? But some people thought he might be.
Ben: He wasn't really doing that kind of stuff a lot, and none of his friends were, either. But sometimes it's good, being on his side and getting frustrated with the school and other people, like when the principal wanted to know what CM stood for [on his t-shirt] and it's like, "why do you want to know?" I guess the principal might have thought it would be like a gang symbol but it wasn't.
Ali: Sometimes adults get worried--
Ben: --too much! When the kids are fine. And it's kind of annoying for the kids.
Ali: So you could relate to that?
Ben: Not really, but all the books I've read are like that. And it's like, "Do you need any help?" "NO!"
(Kenny's a good kid from a good family and the trouble he gets into is minor but meaningful. There is some drinking in one or two scenes, which was a little odd given the particular characters involved--it's kind of stuck in there in a weird way and not really dealt with. I forgot to ask Ben what he thought of that.)

On brotherhood:
Ali: One of the things I really liked was Kenny's relationship with his little brother.
Ben: Yeah, I liked that his little brother was the only one Kenny told his secret to [about his Cricket Man t-shirt] at first, that he trusted his little brother more than his mom and dad, and of course his sister.
Ali: But also, even more than his friends--he worried they'd think it was stupid. But he knew his brother would think he was cool no matter what he did.
(Translation: Little brothers are cool. Be nice to them. Always.)

About the theme:
Ali: So, one of the big themes of this book, I thought, was being in between--not really a little kid anymore, but not quite a teenager.
Ben: I didn't really notice that. I don't pay attention to those things.
(Oh well. But Naylor did a really good job with this, I thought, and with the inevitable struggle teens face when their relationship with their parents changes--Kenny wants privacy over some matters, and his parents are hurt and worried about it. He doesn't want to hurt or worry them, he just wants to keep some things to himself)

What about the girl?
Ben: The girl part wasn't as good as the skateboarding part, but it seems like every book like that has to have a girl part. I didn't really care if there was a girl part or not.
Ali: Did you think she was an interesting character at all?
Ben: Kind of. She was confusing. I didn't get what her deal was until the end of the book, which I'm not going to say because it would ruin the book for everyone.

About the title:
Ben: I just like the name cricket man. It's not really a cool name but it is.
Ali: So it's kind of like that in between thing--cool but not cool. A kid but not a kid.
Ben: And I like crickets because they're kind of cute bugs.
(Translation: "I do not want to talk about the theme!")

The final analysis:
Ben: I just want it to be a longer book. All these skateboarding books are too short.
Tell everybody to read the book just so they can enjoy the part about scaring the cat.

(Okay. Read the book for scenes like this: Kenny loves to sink down into the pool to make himself small, uttering wounded animal sounds so the neighborhood cat comes to stalk him.

When it gets so close that all four legs are in the pounce position, when
its muscles tremble, whiskers twitch, I suddenly rise up out of the water with
this enormous swoosh, my arms bringing up a spray like angel wings, a roar
coming from my chest.

"CRICKET MAN!" I bellow.

I guess this is as close as I'll ever get to seeing an electrified cat, not
that I'd really want to.

The soundtrack: Ben picked "In Too Deep," by Sum41. It'll be up as soon as Playlist is.

Ingredients for a good read

Ever read a book where you suddenly realize you're grinning into the pages like an idiot? The smile erupts into a giggle or a laugh, drawing attention to itself before landing back on your face again, and you need someone to tell: "I love this! I love this book!"

The current book is Erica Bauermeister's first novel, The School of Essential Ingredients, and the phrases are things like this: In the time since Lillian's father had left, housework had become for Lillian's mother a travel destination rarely reached; laundry, a friend one never remembered to call.

And the laughter comes from places like this:

When Lillian reached the age of eight, she began to take over the cooking in her
own household. Lillian's mother raised no objections; food had not disappeared
along with Lillian's father, but while it was not impossible to cook while
reading, it was problematic, and, because of Lillian's mother's tendency to
mistake one spice for another if a book was unusually absorbing, meals had
become less successful, if also more intriguing.

Reading while cooking. Absolutely! The relief when dinner is something like pasta because of the chance to get a few more pages read while the water comes to a boil. The desire for stir fry competing with the knowledge that chopping veggies is to reading, as a trip to the ER is to eating dinner as a family.

I'll post a full review of this book closer to its release date. For now, I'm on page fifteen and grinning ear to ear.

****
Update: My full review of The School of Essential Ingredients is here.

A Journey Into Steinbeck's California—Susan Shillinglaw (book review)

Author Susan Shillinglaw is resident scholar at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California and former director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose University. In other words: the woman knows her Steinbeck.

Does this mean A Journey Into Steinbeck's California is dry and scholarly? Well, would you call Steinbeck dry and scholarly? Because much of the book was written by him. Not having read Steinbeck since high school (yeah, I know. Maybe after Dickens?) I wouldn't have imagined he'd have me laughing by page 16, as he describes the social structure of the Salinas he grew up in:

"…then Claus Spreckels came from Holland and built a Sugar Factory (in capitals) and the flatlands of the valley around Salinas were planted to sugar beets and the Sugar People prospered. They were upstarts, of course, but they were solvent. The Cattle People sneered at them, but learned as every aristocracy does that money is the final authority. Sugar People might not have got anyplace socially if lettuce had not become the green gold of the Valley. Now we had a new set of upstarts: the Lettuce People. Sugar People joined Cattle People in looking down their noses. These Lettuce People had Carrot People to look down on and these in turn felt odd about associating with Cauliflower People."

Steinbeck would have gotten a kick out of the Veggie Tales movies.

The book is generous enough with both text and pictures (modern photos by Nancy Burnett mixed with quality historical photos) to satisfy the armchair traveler. The maps and descriptions will help explorers find Steinbeck's childhood home in Salinas, Monterey's real Cannery Row and the sites of the Mexican enclaves that inspired Tortilla Flats, as well as many other sites relevant to Steinbeck's life or of interest to tourists or locals with a casual interest in the author.

This is not a coffee table book. It's 200 soft-bound 7.5" x 7.5" pages, meant to be taken on the road.

A Journey Into Steinbeck's California is the only book I've seen from the ArtPlace series by Roaring Forties Press that also includes A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome, A Journey into Matisse's South of France, A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival , A Journey into Flaubert's Normandy, A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England, and A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York.

TSS: Still Dickensing Along

As I start this entry it's about 40 minutes before Sunday, when I begin the twelfth anniversary of my entry into motherhood. I've been reliving labor today as I attempt to clean my house in time for a flock of boys to mess it up again. Tomorrow night at this time that same flock will labor at not falling asleep on my sons' bedroom floor. Compared to what I went through 12 years ago? Piece of cake. Delicious homemade yellow cake, in fact, that my husband is making right now and that Ben intends to ruin decorate tomorrow by covering it with Gummy Worms and Sour Patch Kids.

Plugging along through David Copperfield, I'm on page 170, having just finished Chapter 11: I begin Life on my own Account, and don't like it. Poor David has now been orphaned (I'm assuming everyone knows this? That's got to be as much of a spoiler as telling you Darth Vader is Luke's father. Right?) and is working in a warehouse in London.

What I loved this week: The amazing ending to the chapter in which David's mother and baby brother have died unexpectedly while he was away at boarding school, leaving him an orphan in the care of his nasty stepfather.

From the moment of my knowing of the death of my mother, the idea of her as she had been of late had vanished from me. I remembered her, from that instant, only as the young mother of my earliest impressions, who had been used to wind her bright curls round and round her finger, and to dance with me at twilight in the parlour. . . . It may be curious, but it is true. In her death she winged her way back to her calm, untroubled youth, and cancelled all the rest.
The mother who lay in the grave, was the mother of my infancy; the little creature in her arms, was myself, as I had been, hushed for ever on her bosom.

Doesn't that just break your heart? Every mom lives with the knowledge that her early death would devastate her children beyond her comprehension. And here's David, who hasn't lived with his mother for quite some time--and yet her death clearly marks the death of his innocence.

What I don't love: It's hard for me to pinpoint David's age at any given time. On page 154 he finally refers to himself as being ten years old, so now I know, but before that I was mystified. He seems so young in some scenes, and then refers to being smitten with a girl. I didn't think boys as young as ten got smitten with girls? Certainly my boys don't. But I'm willing to roll with it. I just want Dickens to be sure I understand how much time is passing, so I'll know when dear David hits puberty.

More to love: Some of Dickens' characters are hilarious and he really makes you see them, through their dress and their actions. Take good old Mr. Barkis. He's courting David's beloved nurse, Peggotty, but is too shy to speak more than one repetitive sentence to her. One evening he stops by with a bundle of oranges for her, but instead of giving them to her he just sets them down and leaves.

After that occasion he appeared every evening at exactly the same hour, and always with a little bundle, to which he never alluded, and which he regularly put behind the door, and left there. These offerings of affection were of a most various and eccentric description. Among them I remember a double set of pigs' trotters, a huge pin-cushion, half a bushel or so of apples, a pair of jet earrings, some Spanish onions, a box of dominoes, a canary bird and cage, and a leg of pickled pork.

So, next time someone presents you with one of those gifts that makes you go, "Huh?" you can say, "Oh, how Dickensonian of you! Thank you!" and be grateful it isn't a leg of pickled pork. Unless of course it is a leg of pickled pork, in which case, be grateful it's not the trotters.

The Return of Weekly Geeks

The team of bloggers who stepped up to continue Dewey's Weekly Geeks is now launching the Weekly Geeks 2009! This is open to anyone who wishes to participate in any given week--no need to sign up or commit. Just check in at WeeklyGeeks.com for the assignment, and if you want to participate, you have all week to do it.

Here's this week's assignment:

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

Another option: Reading goals for ’09 and wrap ups for ’08 have been pretty well covered by now on a lot of blogs and other memes. But if you haven’t done this, feel free to make that your first WG of the new year, in addition to or instead of the above.

OK, I have a lot of blogs I visit regularly, so I'm going to limit myself to the five blogs I click on first in the morning, and which I didn't give awards to yesterday.

Books I Done Read. I read Raych's reviews even if I have no interest in the book she done read. She makes me laugh, every single time.

Care's Online Book club because I like Care's spirit.

Bermuda Onion because Kathy's a great commenter, a really nice person.

Presenting Lenore because Lenore likes a lot of the same books I do.

Casual Dread because I just like Jessi's tone and because she introduces me to great books.

There are many other blogs that I try to check daily. I couldn't possibly list all the good ones! I try to leave comments so people will know I was there, and really appreciate when others do the same for me. Thanks, all!

Challenges

I've been gradually signing up for challenges, adding my reading lists to Worducopia Lists so I can keep track separately. Here's what I've taken on:



There are a couple more I'm tempted to join just for fun, but haven't gotten the specifics typed up yet. Reviews will be posted here as always; lists and most Blog Improvement Challenge progress will be updated here.

Cracked Up to Be--Courtney Summers (Book Review)

It's clear that Cracked Up To Be is meant for the older YA reader when the f-bomb and the g-spot both make appearances in the dialogue on page one. It's also clear that Parker Fadley is a force to be reckoned with, and her high school cohorts are no match for her. And that it'll be a while before she lets us in on exactly what has gone terribly wrong in her life.

Parker's abrasive snarkiness pulled me right in to the story--I wanted to find out what made this girl tick (I'm not sure I ever did) and to know what had happened and how she'd cope with it. It kept me up later than I wanted to stay awake on Saturday night. I'd definitely recommend it for teens (did I mention, older teens?) and fans of YA lit.

That said, when I put the book down at the end, something nagged at me and it took me a few days' thought to figure it out.

If you're sensitive to potential spoilers, you might want to skip the next paragraph, though I'll try to avoid giving anything away.

OK, so: Parker as narrator leads the reader to believe that a drinking problem, fueled by a Mystery Event, led to her downfall at school. But I could never quite picture the downfall. Making herself stand out by showing up to class drunk? That wasn't the Parker I saw. As we gradually learn the details of the Mystery Event, we learn that she got drunk for the first time on that night. So. She gets drunk once (and doesn't particularly seem to enjoy it), Mystery Event traumatizes her, and she deals with that trauma by....drinking hard alcohol? Doesn't wash for me. Neither does the fact that her friends, who seem to have been partiers before the Mystery Event, all seem to have given up drinking at the same time that Parker took to it so heavily. Then there was the bottle of liquor in her locker, which felt more like it was handed to Parker by the author than by the character who gave it to her. In short, the drinking (apart from its role in that which happened on Mystery Event night) felt contrived. What do troubled teens do? Drink! When do they do it? Now!

Didn't keep me from appreciating the book, but it keeps me from recommending it to anyone who doesn't already love YA lit.

Summers didn't need the alcohol to show us how troubled Parker was, because she did so beautifully with Parker's other actions and with her narrative voice. Her other flaws were nicely intertwined with the plot. The secondary characters were multi-faceted--Summers did a particularly nice job with the boys--and the ending was perfectly imperfect. It kept me reading past my bedtime when I had to get up early the next morning, and then it came with me into the bathroom when I took my morning shower so I could keep reading while getting dressed. (Okay, that's not uncommon for me). It's not perfect, but it's a darned good read.

Courtney Summers lives in Canada and this is her debut novel.

Soundtrack: If She Knew What She Wants, The Bangles.


Also reviewed on Presenting Lenore.

Night of the Howling Dogs--Graham Salisbury (Kid review)

Night of the Howling Dogs was nominated for the Oregon Book Award's young adult category. The story, based on a real-life earthquake and tsunami that Graham Salisbury's cousin's scout troop survived in 1975, seemed like the type of adventure that would appeal to my boys. We read it aloud, but the short chapters and high action would also appeal to 9-15 year old boys reading to themselves. My boys (8 and 12-in-4-days) were enthusiastic, asking for chapter after chapter, especially in the second half. Here are our musings on the book two days after finishing it:

On Pacing and character development:
Ben (almost-12): I felt like it took up half the book to get everything started, then he did the exciting part and before you knew it, the book was over. I wish there would've been more of them trying to survive and finding help.
Ali: So, too much time introducing the characters and their relationships to each other?
Evan (8): And about Louie, how Dylan [the main character] doesn't like Louie.
Ali: Do you think the stuff that had happened between Louie and Dylan was important to the rest of the story?
Evan: Yeah, because it made Dylan not like Louie as much. And then Louie got friendlier.
Ali: Did you like Louie?
Evan: Later on I did.
Ben: I was frustrated with him for being not very nice. It was like the author was trying to make us not like him.
Ali: Do you think it made the second half more interesting, because Salisbury set up that tension between them?
Evan: Yes, because then Louie's helping him.
Ali: But you still felt like he spent too much time on that.
Ben: Uh-huh.

(I agree with them. Louie's a fascinating character—a slightly older native Hawaiian boy who isn't part of the scout troop. The troop leader included him in hopes of offering him something positive to counteract a rough life. I loved the tension between him and Dylan and how it affected both of their character arcs, but it was overplayed in the first half—to the point that it felt like, "hmmm, better make Louie do one more mean thing to pass the time before the earthquake hits").

On the Hawaiian Setting:
Evan: In the first part it was kind of confusing. I couldn't really picture where they were. First, I was picturing them in a field of lava rock, then all of a sudden they're in this place below this huge cliff where there's a swimming hole and an ocean and an island and a coconut grove. I mean, that's not going to be in the middle of lava rocks.
Ali: So the setting changed as they were hiking, I think, and it was a little hard to keep up?
Evan: Yeah. And then when they were walking on the pahoehoe [smooth lava], I pictured it in a forest, and all of a sudden they found themselves in this place where they could fall into a canyon on each side, and then when they're past the a'a [rough lava], they had to get through this place that could collapse and they could see a helicopter—but if you're in a forest you couldn't see a helicopter.
Ali: I wonder why you pictured a forest? He kept describing the sun beating down on them—I pictured it really desolate and hot, like a desert but with rocks.
Ben: Me too, I don't think it would be a forest.
Ali: So maybe what it was is that the setting was really unfamiliar to you, because you've never been to Hawaii, so you imagined it differently from what the author meant.
Evan: Yeah.
Ali: I remember you had some trouble picturing some of the characters, too, the Hawaiian boys.
Evan: Okay, you know, Louie? I'm picturing that same Hawaiian skin [like a picture of a Hawaiian teen we'd found on the internet], except a black t-shirt, a skull and shark tooth (necklace) and he's wearing green pants and his hair, I'm not picturing it like long like that, I'm picturing it like kind of messy, like sticking out in different places.
Ali: But since we don't know any Hawaiian people and you haven't seen any on TV and movies, it was a challenge.
Evan: Yeah. Mike [another of the boy scouts, also native Hawaiian], I don't really want to picture Mike, because it's so hard.
Ali: So, would you want to read another book that took place in Hawaii, or not?
Ben: Yeah.
Evan: Maybe.

(I loved the setting. The boys really had to stretch themselves, which I thought was great. We had to do some outside research to help us grasp the setting and characters, but what better way to learn?)

On Graham Salisbury
Ali: Would you read another book by this author?
Evan: Maybe, if it was a sequel.
Ben: Yeah, there should be a sequel.
Evan: I like books that are more stories and not history. This had some history because you learned about Hawaii and how it's different from where we live, but it was just enough. (Translation: Can we please stop reading Johnny Tremain and read more stuff like Night of the Howling Dogs?)

I would definitely read another of Salisbury's novels with them. I believe they all take place in Hawaii, where Salisbury was raised--some are contemporary and others take place during the 1940s, and there are even teachers' guides for three of them on his website.

The soundtrack: We couldn't resist adding Who Let the Dogs Out, by the Baja Men. With the tropical setting and those pesky, mysterious dogs, this one just seemed to fit.

In Lieu of a Review

I'm trying to get my kids to help me with a review and they'd rather skateboard and play computer games. Maybe later, they say. I could insist on doing it now, and proceed to enlighten you with, "It was fine. Pretty good. Yeah. Yep. Can we go now?" Think I'll stick with "Maybe later," for now.

So, Wrighty at Wrighty's Reads gave me an award! And then Softdrink gave it to me again! Rather than thanking the academy, my role is to complete three tasks. First, announce to my adoring fans, six values that are important to me. Here you go:

Respect for all people
Respect for the earth
Helping others
Hope
Supporting/spending time with my family
Honesty

Next, name six things I don't support: racism, banning people in love from marrying, the oil industry, slave labor, Wal Mart, and war.

And third, share the love with six other bloggers. I'd like to present the Kreativ Blogger awards to:

1. Best New Blogger: Kisha Masala Keesh's first post was December 30th and I knew she was a blogger to watch from day one, with her Reading Questionnaire. She's since joined challenge after challenge (including mine), posted a recipe, and come up with other reading goals. I'm looking forward to keeping up with Kisha in 2009!
2. Most Inspiring: A Striped Armchair. Eva's World Citizen Challenge is inspiring many of us to read books we would have passed over, and the way she set up the challenge guided me in creating my own challenge. Not only that, but her reviews inspire me to read books I've never heard of before, more than any other blogger I can think of.
3. Most Unpredictable: Bowling For Monkeys. Dark Dwelf never fails to surprise me with what he chooses to put on his blog. He can also be credited for helping me learn new facets of blogging because I'm his tech support. One day he'll be my tech support person, I'm sure. Until them, he's pretty good at nagging me to learn things (such as posting playlists and videos) I didn't know I wanted to learn how to do.
4. Most Upbeat: Alea at Pop Culture Junkie. She's already received a Kreativ Blogger award but I want to recognize her anyway, for her contagious enthusiasm and her generous help with the graphic for my reading challenge.
5. Most Mouth-watering: Magpie Eats. Magpie's always cooking something unique and delicious and every so often she honors us with a recipe to inspire us. And her homemade donuts are spectacular.
6. Most Appreciated: You. And you, and you: all of you. Thank you for reading my blog, and thanks especially for leaving comments to let me know you're here. (Also, you. You know who you are.)

The Just Say No Challenge

This is sort of an anti-challenge.

Do you have a Reading Temptation? You know the book: maybe the plot doesn't appeal, maybe the hype drove you nuts, maybe the author has disappointed you in the past. Whatever the reason, you decided not to read it.

Then review after review sang praises of unsurpassed joy in the reading of the book! The characters, that readers want to kiss on the tops of their adorable heads! The delightful couldn't-put-it-down plot! And, oh the ending--indescribable. Unfathomable. "You just have to read it to understand."

Then you see the book in the front of the bookstore, or you come across a used copy. Another reviewer--one you really love!--waxes poetic about the book, and they're having a giveaway! Five free copies! It's like a cosmic message, Read-the-book-read-the-book-read-the-book. After all, you've been surprised by books before. Maybe you should just try it.

My book is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I have no doubt it's a wonderful book, and I've read and heard many tempting reviews, but I have no desire to read it. Care's mini review confirmed that for me, and that's how my Just Say No Challenge was born.

All you have to do is name the book or books you don't want to read, pick a Just Say No time frame, and then not read or buy or accept a free copy for that time frame. No matter what.

Say what you will about how wondrous Edgar Sawtelle is. Yes, I like Wisconsin, and dogs, and enthralling, warmly idiosyncratic stories, and Shakespeare. However. I'm committing to not reading it for the year 2009. Because I just Don't Want To.

But you should read it. I hear it's really good.

TSS: Let the Dickens Begin

So, I started David Copperfield, and it's good! I knew it'd be good, of course. But I expected it to be good as in, "Look at me reading classic literature" good, and was pleasantly surprised to find it "Well...just one more chapter before I go to sleep" good. I'm on Chapter 9, page 123.

What I love: the way Dickens manages to give us a child's perspective with an adult voice.

I was shown up to a nice little bedroom, with DOLPHIN painted on the door. Very
cold I was, I know, notwithstanding the hot tea they had given me before a large
fire down-stairs; and very glad I was to turn into the Dolphin's bed, pull the
Dolphin's blankets round my head, and go to sleep.

I keep thinking of Matthew Kneale's When We Were Romans, whose childlike narrative voice has received mixed reader reviews. Dickens successfully recreates the childish perspective--the thought, for example, that a dolphin inhabits a room because the word was printed on the door--but from the vantage point of an adult.

What else I like: When Dickens wants to pull the reader in to the character's sensory world, he shifts to present tense, as if to slip the reader inside his very memory.:

How well I recollect the kind of day it was! I smell the fog that hung
about the place; I see the hoar frost, ghostly, through it; I feel my rimy hair
fall clammy on my cheek; I look along the dim perspective of the schoolroom,
with a sputtering candle here and there to light up the foggy morning, and the
breath of the boys wreathing and smoking in the raw cold as they blow upon their
fingers, and tap their feet upon the floor.

What I don't like: the charicatured quality of some of the characters and their dialogue. It makes me think, "No one would ever say something like that!" and then, "Oh, yeah. He's doing that on purpose. It's satire." I have a hard enough time with satire in modern times; much of the humor in 19th century satire has probably whizzed right over my shoulder and is bouncing off my living room walls like a superball even now.

**********************
I took my son to the indoor skateboard park on Saturday morning and I couldn't quite see myself absorbed in Dickens with the Under-14 dudes zipping past and their parents discussing their canceled-due-to-snow winter break plans and the quality of the powder on Mt. Hood, so I brought Cracked Up to Be along with me instead. It's a new YA novel for older teens, with kind of a mystery running through it; it was hard to put down. Even for the sake of Dickens. So, with about 10 pages left to go this morning after reading it in the shower (just about), I took it to church with me this morning because I had to find out how it ended.

You know those bumper stickers that say, "My other car is a Porsche?" When I was reading Cracked Up to Be between services at church I wanted to be wearing a sign that said, "The other book I'm reading is Charles Dickens." Maybe I'll make myself a t-shirt.

Sunrise Over Fallujah--Walter Dean Meyer (Book Review)

I read this book for the Mock Printz Awards. Not being drawn to war as a literary scenario, I would never have read it otherwise, but I'm glad I did. Myers puts a face on the war in Iraq and, through the voice of 18-year-old Birdy and his army cohorts, helps the reader understand how the situation over there is affecting our young men and women. That's an important message for teens and adults alike, and Myers presents it in a way that's readable and personal.

My only criticism of this book is that a lot of people mill around from page to page and at times I had a hard time keeping some of them straight. Superiors came and gave orders and went away; other units joined up with Birdy's and then went their separate ways--probably realistic, but hard to follow at times for this non-military-brained reader. Some of Birdy's cohorts were less finely drawn than others. His closest friend Jonesy was easy to picture, but Marla, despite a distinctive personality and a key role in the book, was harder for me to get a handle on. My image of her kept changing as the book went on.

I'd recommend Sunrise Over Fallujah for anyone who wonders what our troops are actually doing over in Iraq and for teens who are intrigued by a career in the military. I approved it for my nearly 12-year old son, who isn't interested in being a soldier but does have a lot of questions about war. The violence is portrayed realistically, there is death and a near-rape that the protagonist inadvertently interrupts, so it wouldn't be appropriate reading for all 12-year-olds, but for most adults and older teens, it's fairly mild given the scenario. None of the violence is glorified, the main focus being on Birdy's growth as a character, and the way that growth is impacted by the war-torn world around him.

The soundtrack: For the character Jonesy, who said, "You know, the blues is what's real. Everything else is just messing around waiting until you get back to the blues," here's Robert Cray's beautiful Twenty, which says in part:
Standing out here in the desert trying to protect an oil line
I'd really like to do my job but this ain't the country that I had in mind.
They call this a war on terror, I see a lot of civilians dying
Mothers, sons, fathers and daughters, not to mention some friends of mine,
Some friends of mine.
Walter Dean Myers is an African American author who was raised in Harlem until joining the army at age 17. He now lives in New Jersey and has three grown children, one of whom served in the Gulf War.