Andrea's 2013 Challenge - It Begins

I'll be starting at the beginning of the year, but here are my categories so far.

1. Door Stoppers (0/2)
Classic books so big you can use 'em to hold the door open

2. The Once and Future King (0/4)
Traditional Aurthurian romances (not modern retellings)

3. Hatchlings (1/6)
Books first published in 2013

4. Just the Facts, Ma'am (1/8)
Nonfiction.

5. Oh, the Horror! (2/10)
Tales of terror, monsters, ghosts, and the apocalypse.

6. Unicorns from Space! (Part I) (2/10)
Science fiction and fantasy.

7. Unicorns from Space! (Part II) (0/10)
Science fiction and fantasy

8. Youth Relived (4/10)
Young adult

9. Auntie Time (4/10)
Picture books read to my baby niece

10. Panel by Panel (2/10)
Comics and graphic novels

11. The Universe in Verse (3/10)
Poetry

12. From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books (2/10)
There are actually about 200 books, since there is also the publicly voted list (with some overlaps). I'm working off the list from 2009, which is posted on my blog.

13. Miscellany (1/10)
The catch-all category for whatever doesn't fit in the above.

* * *

22/100

1. Door Stoppers

Books Completed: (0/2)

Possible Candidates:
The Count of Monte Christo, by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

2. The Once and Future King

Books Completed: (0/4)

Possible Candidates:
Arthurian Romances, by Chrétien de Troyes

3. Hatchlings

Books Completed: (1/6)
1. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, by Karen Finneyfrock (****1/2)

Possible Candidates:
Dracomachia, by Rachel Hartman

4. Just the Facts, Ma'am

Books Completed: (1/8)
1. The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2: 2000–2010, by Peter Dendle (****)

Possible Candidates:
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrera
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, by Geraldine Brooks
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, by Frida Kahlo
Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain, by Lori Tharps
Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . ., by Phillip Plait
From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey, by Pascal Khoo Thwe
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality, by Manjit Kumar
Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America And American in Iran, by Azadeh Moaveni
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, by Che Guevera

(this is me as a zombie, chewing on A Blackbird Sings)

5. Oh, the Horror!

Books Completed: (2/10)
1. The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub (***1/2)
2. Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin (*****)

Possible Candidates:
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lidqvist
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Postman, by David Brin

6. Unicorns from Space! (Part I)

Books Completed: (1/10)
1. Demon Hunts, by C.E. Murphy (****)
2. Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem (****)

Possible Candidates:
Contact, by Carl Sagan
God Stalk, by P.C. Hodgell
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, by Jacques Tardi

7. Unicorns from Space! (Part II)

Books Completed: (0/10)

Possible Candidates:
See Part I

8. Youth Relived

Books Completed: (4/10)
1. Blood Magic, by Tessa Gratton (****1/2)
2. The Fairy Ring, or Elsie and Frances Fool the World, by Mary Losure (***1/2)
3. The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff (*****)
4. The Atlantis Complex, be Eoin Colfer (*****)

Possible Candidates:
Cold Magic, by Kate Elliot
Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray

9. Auntie Time

Books Completed: (2/10)
1. Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion (*****)
2. The Foot Book, by Dr. Suess (*****)
3. On the Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillman (*****)
4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carl (*****)

Possible Candidates:
TBA, based on my niece's mood

10. Panel by Panel

Books Completed: (1/10)
1. Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, by Alison Bechdel (****)
2. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel (*****)

Possible Candidates:
Nylon Road: A Graphic Memoir of Coming of Age in Iran, by Parsua Bashi
Cathedral Child, by Lea Hernandez
Tank Girl
The Maxx
Preacher

11. The Universe in Verse

Books Completed: (3/10)
1. The Game of Boxes, by Catherine Barnett (****)
2. Cedar Toothpick: The Tomboy Dioramas, poetry by Stefan Lorenzutti and art by Laurent Le Deunff (*****)
3. my name on his tongue: poems, by Laila Halaby (****1/2)

Possible Candidates:
TBA

12. From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

Books Completed: (2/10)
1. Light in August (audio book), by William Faulkner (***)
2. The House of Mirth (audio book), by Edith Wharton (*****) read by Eleanor Bron

Possible Candidates:
Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham

13. Miscellany

Books Completed: (1/10)
1. Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell

Possible Candidates:
As my mood grabs me

I also have Solaris in my Challenge. Let me know if you are interested in reading it together...

Oh, I am soooo looking forward to seeing what you read for your Traditional Aurthurian romances!

....and of course I will also be watching your Comics and graphic novels for some suggestions for myself, I am such a newbie to the GN genre.

oo I keep meaning to read Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. I am going to add it to my wishlist right now :) I loved the film & want to see how it compares.

Glad to see I'm not the only crazy person reading Anna Karenina and The Count of Monte Cristo next year!

>15 VictoriaPL:
Yes! Sounds like fun. We could do it in January if you want and hit it right off the bat. :)

>16 lkernagh:
I've read a few Arthurian romances, so some of this will be rereading. I do love the epic poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as translated by Simon Armitage and highly recommend it.

Graphic novels are great. For series, I recommend The Sandman, Promethea, Fables, Scott Pilgrim, and The Walking Dead (if you like zombies). For stand alone books, you could go for Persepolis, Maus (in 2 volumes), Blankets, and Daytripper -- all fantastic.

Which gives you a lot to choose from. lol.

>17 clfisha:
I have not seen the film! It's been one of my goals for a while now to do a classic movies challenge (such as the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die) with special attention to some classic horror movies.

>18 LittleTaiko:

Oh, cool! Maybe we can work through them together. :)

Likw lkernagh, I'm looking forward to the Arthurian category. I read The Knights of the Round table more times than I can count as a child/teenager.

I read Rosemary's Baby when I was probably somewhat too young and didn't appreciate it. I could understand why it was considered good but didn't "feel" it myself.

Andrea, January it is!

I've been doing a lot of lurking on your 2012 thread and I am looking forward to following your reading again in 2013. Lots of interesting books on your Possibilities list.

Also, The Lady of Shalott is the greatest painting in the history of the world.

>20 PawsforThought: & 23
Is there a specific book or collection called The Knights of the Round Table, or are you just speaking of the romances in general? I would like to read it, if there is. And yes, The Lady of Shalott is gorgeous. I'd like to get a nice version of it to hang on my wall someday.

>21 VictoriaPL:
Hi, Victoria! :D

>22 DeltaQueen50:
Hi, DeltaQueen, it's been a long time indeed since I've seen your name pop up. I'm looking forward to chatting with you again. :)

Looks like a well-rounded reading year ahead for you! Have lots of fun reading to your baby niece :) And your Arthurian category may tempt me to pick up Chretien de Troyes again (I read it for a course on King Arthur in university).

There was a specific book called that. I never paid much attention to who wrote it (and I can't find the book to check). It was a sort of chronicle of the whole Arthurian legend from Arthur's birth to his death and the adventures of the various knights (I distinctly remember Gawain and the Green Knight being in there) as well as the Guinevere-Lancelot-Elain debacle and the hunt for the holy grail.

A canvas copy (with a gilded frame) of The Lady of Shalott in full size is one of my goals in life. It's not THAT expensive but it's not something I can shell out at the moment (and I don't have room for it either).

>19 andreablythe: - That could be fun! I'm definitely reading The Count of Monte Cristo starting in March as part of the group read. Toying with starting Anna Karenina in January as a friend of mine is wanting to read it too and we thought that would be a good way to start the year. Either way, I'll be sure to keep tabs on how you're doing.

I don't know about other reviews, but the S.F. Chronicle was not thrilled with the movie.

If you talking about the new Anna Karenina movie that was just released I just watched the trailer and it looks amazing!!!!!!!! And Im actually looking forward to seeing this in the theaters along with the new Gatsby movie due out sometime soon.

You're here - YEY! Great categories, as always - booksbullets will be flying. Good thing I made a separate category for those.

Love the pics, but explain me please the one for horror - looks mightily non-horror to me. :)

>21 VictoriaPL:,
Victoria, my mind is going. January is perfect for starting Solaris.

>25 rabbitprincess:,
Thanks, rabbit! I've already done some reading to the little one (she's only four months old), but it will be fun to do it as she becomes more active and responsive over the next year. :D

>26 PawsforThought:
Ah, I see. Well, maybe I'll go looking for it. There are a lot of Arthurian originals to choose from, that's for sure. :)

>27 LittleTaiko:,
I've kind of already started with Count of Monte Christo, but not in any serious sense. I have it downloaded on my phone and have been reading a chapter here and there whenever I don't have a hard copy book on me (I'm not even a third through it). I may have to pick up a physical copy though, and start over, because I don't focus as well on the screen.

But we can certainly begin Anna Karenina in January. It would be good to get a start on these hefty books as soon as possible. ;)

>28 mamzel:,
Mamzel, my local San Francisco paper slammed it, too. So, I'll probably wait until video to see it. Sometimes the critics hate stuff that I rather enjoy.

>29 ALWINN:,
Yep, it's the new Anna Karenina, and I pretty much thought the same thing when I saw the trailer. But according to the SF Chronicle, it's visually beautiful but the story and such is weak. I don't know. I haven't seen it yet, and I think sometimes the critics don't like things that are just fine and perfectly entertaining movies.

>30 -Eva-:,
Hi, Eva! :D
Yeah, the horror one. I threw this up in a rush. The image was supposed to be monsters reading. I've replaced it with a picture of me as a zombie, eating a book. The original caption was "When zombies can't have brains, books will do." :)

LOL! That's a great picture!

Thanks! :D

okay, ladies are you really trying to read Anna Karenina in one month or spread over a few months? That's awfully ambitious with Count of Monte Cristo - two chunkster at once, wow!

>34 cyderry:,
I don't think I'll manage Anna Karenina in one month, unless I choose to read nothing else, which (let's face it) NEVER happens. So, for me, at least it will probably be over a couple of months.

my regular book club has been thinking about making it our summer read - June, July, and August and then just meet once. With vacations and holidays sometimes it's hard to get together in the summer, so we thought a fatty for the whole summer might be a good idea.

That makes very good sense. :)

Yes, I don't anticipate it being a one month read either as I'm sure I'll be reading about four other books all at the same time. It's almost impossible for me to only focus on one book. It will definitely be drawn out over a couple of months. :)

looking forward to lurking around here next year

I'll be doing some lurking as well. You've listed several books that have been on my radar. Looking forward to your thoughts on them.

Welcome to all lurkers! ;)

Yes Im another lurker and I noticed that you plan on reading Anna Karenina this year. I went and seen the movie and it was amazing (or so I thought).

The movie certainly LOOKS good, visually at the very least. I'm glad to hear you liked it. Sometimes I think critics are too critical. There are movies they hate that I love, so yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing Anna Karenina. Though probably not until after it comes out on video.

And the Gatsby movie looks wonderful too. So when it is released in May Im there. Normally I wait until movies come out on video also but this one I just had to go see.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE GATSBY MOVIE!!

*breathes*

Baz Luhrmann is one of my favorite directors. He does amazing things with presenting decadence and then revealing something true and gritty beneath the glitter.

I love Luhrmann too and I'm really looking forward to The Great Gatsby (even if I wasn't all that into the book).

This first time I read The Great Gatsby was in high school and I wasn't into it either. But I've recently reread it and love it. I could appreciate the writing style and the poetry of the words. It just clicked for me, and now I love the book.

I agree with the Luhrmann love, for sure -- "Gatsby" looks gorgeous!

I'll join in the Luhrmann love, but The Great Gatsby is one of my least favorite books of all time, unfortunately.

I am totally looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby... for the period piece wardrobes primarily, and everything else after that! ;-)

>48 christina_reads:
Indeed! :D

>49 -Eva-:
Yeah, there are plenty of books that others love that I'm not fond of, too. :)

>50 lkernagh:
The costumes do indeed look amazing. :)

It's Luhrmann, so it'll be attractive regardless of the story. I just watched the preview and it does look quite amazing - maybe it'll help me like Gatsby a little more. :)

Maybe so! ;)

LittleTaiko, since we're planning to start Anna Karenina in January, should we create a separate Group Read thread, so we can update out thoughts as we go along? or is it better to just update through our own threads?

We could have our own Group Thread - probably make it easier and others can join in if they like. Assuming we just create a new topic - right?

Sounds right to me! :D

Sounds good - is it the new year yet? So ready to start my next challenge!

LOL. Me, too! Though I'm still trying to rush to complete last year's challenge!

I didn't see Anna Karenina on the group wiki.

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Group_Reads_of_2013

I didn't know there was a group wiki. We just decided on our own that we were both reading it, so might as well read together.

But if it's on the wiki others might join in too. I'm thinking about it.

Others are certainly welcome to join. Hmmm. I guess I need to request it being put on the wiki via the group discussion thread?

No, you can just post it on the wiki yourself. That's what a wiki is for.

Ah, okay, thanks. I have no idea about these things. lol.

Just go to the month you plan on reading it in (I saw you were thinking about making it multi-month, in that case you add it to the starting month and then make a anote in brackets that it will be longer than a month). Click the "edit" button on the right side of the page and then you can just see how it's been done for the other reads (copy-pasting and then changing the titles is the easiest way).

Thanks! I've added it.

Excellent! Thanks for adding it.

Tis the starring season. Looking forward to following you next year - tomorrow that is!

Tomorrow! Wow! So soon! Looking forward to reviewing and reading with you, Anders!

And to one and all —

Yay for 2013 reading!

I've started in on Anna Karenina, and have figured out that if I do an easy 8 pages a day, I can complete the book in 12 weeks. I think I can easily read more than that.

I've also started Demon Hunts, the fifth book in the Walker Papers series, and will be reading Swamplandia during lunches at work.

I love Anna Karenina! I'm rereading it now. Hope you enjoy it and I bet you'll want to read more than 8 pages a day. Looking forward to your thoughts.

I've heard great things about the book, so I'm looking forward to working through it.

And there's an Anna Karenina group thread, if you want to follow along there, too. :)

Hey there! I just started today and read the first few pages. So far it's different than what I was expecting. Will go track down the group page now. Happy New Year!

I meant to link to the Group Thread in my last post, but ended up ital-ing it instead. *sigh*

I look forward to reading with you and a happy new year, as well!

Looking forward to hear what you think of Swamplandia! I liked it - but I think Karen Russell still has better books to come.

I'm also curious as to your thoughts on Swamplandia as I really disliked it overall. Always good to hear what other people think.

Happy New Year, Andrea! I'm following through on my commitment not to just lurk on your thread this year. I read Anna Karenina a number of years ago, and at the time, really liked it. Looking forward to your comments about it.

1. Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham (*****)
Category: Auntie Time

My review: Harry is a white dog with black spots, who hates taking baths. So one day, he steals the bath brush and buries it in the yard and runs away from home. Along the way he gets very dirty.

I remember reading this book as a kid. I loved it then and I loved it now. It's a fun book of innocent mischief and great illustrations that clearly reveal how much fun Harry has getting dirty.

I'm going to have to buy No Roses for Harry for my niece, because I remember loving that one, too. It was another childhood favorite.

My niece's review: She doesn't speak yet, so it's hard to say for sure. Plus, she was a bit fussy tonight. But when I started reading it, she quieted down and played with the pages, smacking them and helping me turn them and then looking up at me when I was particularly dramatic.

Towards the end, she started to whine and cry, but as I said, she was tired and fussy, so I wouldn't take that as a criticism of the book. Actually, I think she rather liked it until her hunger and exhaustion got the best of her.

Those Harry books were my favorites, along with The Monster at the End of This Book and Gretchen and the Lost Carousel--I never tired of any of them!

Oooh! I'll have to add those to the Auntie Time book list. :D

2. Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, by Alison Bechdel (****1/2)
Category: Panel by Panel

Are You My Mother? is a meta-memoir in graphic novel format, which on the surface is about Bechdel's mother. However, it is also about Bechdel's therapy process, her relationships with her lovers, the history of psychonanalysis (particularly in regards to Donald Winnicott), Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, and the act of writing memoirs itself and how it effects the lives of those you write about.

This book has layers upon layers. How we feel about the past and our family is not linear. Disparate events, having no immediate relation to one another in reality, come together in out mind and combine into an emotional arc. The narrative here explores and loops, more like a thesis than a story. Sometimes Bechdel presents a conversation with her mother, then drifts away to talk about Winnicott's work and writing on to a few scenes of her in therapy sessions, only to come back later to that same conversation with her mother, which now has a new light based on the new information.

The tone of the narrative is analytical, and Bechdel seems to be distanced from her own history as she tries to put the pieces together. There is no melodrama here. Bechdel neither condemns nor idolizes her mother in these pages. Nor does she condemn nor idolize herself.

One of the major themes of this book comes from Winnicott and his work on self-other, specifically how the mother becomes the self for babies and vice versa, as well as the concept of mirroring. I remember thinking while reading how strange it was that Bechdel was writing a memoir about her mother that turned out to be more about herself. But as I continued and learned more about Winnicott's work on self-other and mirroring, this began to make perfect sense. Are not memoirs truly about the self, being from our own perspective anyway? And if as children we incorporate the mother into the self, then by writing about herself, Bechdel is also writing about her mother. This book seems to be a way for her to disentangle her self from her mother.

You can see in the image below an example of her art, where after finding a sequence of photographs of how she performed literal mirroring of her mother as a baby. She's placed them in what she perceived was the correct sequence and has drawn them into the comic. Overlaid with the images, she narrates her own actions as a baby, while she quotes from Winnicott's work on mirroring, and incorporates part of a phone conversation with her mother. Many, many layers, all in just two pages.



Another aspect of mirroring is revealed in the ways Bechdel projected her need for mothering onto her therapists and her lovers. Behavior that is only understood after the fact, through this kind of analysis.

I was deeply fascinated by this book, which may not have moved me emotionally, but had the gears of my mind churning. I'm sure reading it again would reveal new layers to the narrative, new understandings. And now now that I've read this book, I'm dying to read her first memoir about her father, Fun Home (which she discusses in Are You My Mother?). If this is a sign of the quality of her work, I definitely want to read more.

I have fun home on the shelf that I'll be getting to soon. Saw Bechdel recently talking about this book but thought I'd better read fun home first

I've applied Bechdel's test to my reading, but have never read her work. In fact, I'm kind of illiterate when it comes to realistic GN's from other parts of the world. The autobiographical comic has been so dominant on the Swedish GN scene in the last decade or so, I've been looking for other things (capes mostly) in my international reading. I have much yet tondiscover!

83. Speaking of autobiographical Swedish GNs, have you read Sofia Z-4515 = Zofi Z-4515? It's about the life of Sofia Taikon, her being in a concentration camp and when she finally made it to Sweden? I read it a few months ago and really liked it. The drawings are a bit similar to Persepolis (one of my favourites).

Such a good review of Are you my Mother, I was quite awed with her 1st memoir Fun Home and have been very interested to see how they compare. She really is very good at tying together the personal, the impersonal and Fun Home is interesting because she retells the story from different angles and also add truths later on.

>82 psutto:
She talks about the experience of writing Fun Home in Are You My Mother?, it makes sense to read Fun Home first, as it would probably give you a better perspective while reading Are You My Mother? However, I wasn't confused by reading them out of order. It just made me really, really want to read Fun Home.

>83 GingerbreadMan:
I've applied the Bechdel test to works, too, but I didn't make the connection until I was done reading and had googled her name. Kind of a cool surprise.

Persepolis is a fantastic graphic memoir and I highly recommend that one, if you haven't read it. Stitches was also fantastic.

>84 PawsforThought:
I have not read that one. I'll have to get a hold of it (providing there's an English translation), especially since you compared it to Persepolis.

>85 clfisha:
Fun Home is at the top of my TBR list right now. Reading this one has stoked my fire for that one. :)

86. I don't think there is. I've looked and haven't found any. The Swedish edition is a dual language book with the Swedish version being read from one side and the Romani Chib version from the other.

>87 PawsforThought:
Sounds awesome! But, unfortunately, I'll have to wait until I learn Swedish to read it.

3. Demon Hunts, by C.E. Murphy (****)
Category: Unicorns from Space! (Part I)

A cannibalistic serial killer is on the loose in Seattle, and Joanne Walker (the reluctant shaman) is using all in her power to track it down. The is the fifth book in The Walker Papers urban fantasy series offers a more mature Joanne, one is is starting to come to terms with her powers and is using the more wisely. It's been really great to see her progress and how she's grown over the arc of these books, and I'm looking forward to see where she goes from her and whether or not she can keep from giving into the dark side (so to speak).

88. I really liked it. Don't know why no one's thought about translating it and publishing it abroad. Graphic novel + ww2 is pretty much a publisher's wet dream, isn't it? Not a whole lot of text to translate either.

I have no idea what it takes to get translations made and published internationally. I'm sure it has something to do with rights and the author's wishes and a whole bunch of other mysterious things.

Oh, absolutely. I don't think it was published by a regular publishing house bt with money from th Nordic council or something like that. Probaly has an effect.

->84 PawsforThought:
Sofia Z-4515 = Zofi Z-4515 is going on my To-Shop-In-Sweden list! Sounds fascinating!

>84 PawsforThought: Oh, I'm not THAT illiterate. I've read and loved Persepolis, Joe Sacco's work, Chester Brown etc. Thanks for the heads up about Taikon's book. Never heard of it! (Sadly often the case with Romani stuff. It's has a creepy tendency to never get proper attention...)

94. Yes, that's part of why I picked it up. The Katarina Taikon biography was being talked about in the media and I remembered a book of Romani poetry a friend of mine gave me years ago. And then I saw Sofia Z-4515 when I was looking through the GN section at the library - checking to see if Maus was there.

>94 GingerbreadMan:
lol. You may clearly know more about these kinds of books than I do.

I am way behind here. I just picked up Bechdel's Fun Home this evening on my way home from work. Have now added Are You My Mother? to my For Later list with the library so I can locate it later and place a hold.

>95 PawsforThought:
Maus was the first graphic novel I read that showed me what amazing things the comic book format can do. Such a great book.

>97 lkernagh:
Fun Home is up next for me. I'm putting it in my library queue right now.

98. It's amazing.

>89 andreablythe: Would you recommend the series overall? What other UF would you compare it with if I were asking? Which, I guess I am asking. Duh.

Just popping in... I'm so behind in threads. Can I just say, YAY for Baz. I too am awaiting Gatsby.

4. Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell (***1/2)
Category: Miscellany

I find myself torn as to just how I feel about this novel, and I don't know how to talk about it without throwing down spoilers, so here's your preemptive warning... SPOILERS TO APPEAR.

The Bigtree family begins to collapse, along with their alligator wrestling show, called Swamplandia!, following the death of their mother. Each family member responds to this in different ways. Chief, the father, launches into denial and seeks desperate means to save the show. Kiwi, the eldest, believing himself a genius, goes to the mainland in order to gain an education and save his family. Ossie, the middle child, begins to have romantic relationships with ghosts. And Ava, the youngest, wants to follow in her mother's footsteps by becoming the greatest alligator wrestler there is and in this way also save the Swamplandia! show.

My initial gut discomfort began early on. Right before picking up this book (and I mean literally the same day), I had been reading from the This Is Not Native blog, which explains how inappropriate it is for non-natives to be wearing headdresses and dressing like natives as if it were a costume. It's a participation in erasing the culture through stereotyping. So, to see right up front the non-native Bigtree family dressing as native, participating in redface, and claiming a heritage that isn't their own was instantly problematic for me. On the one hand, I understand that this aspect of their characters ties into the families tendency to create a fictional history for themselves, as well as their denial of reality in general. On the other hand, it shows how much mainstream society fails to recognize just how problematic it is for non-natives to be claiming native history and portraying it as homogenous, when it's not.

But as I continued reading, I found there was so much more to this book. I loved the world Russell presents with her rich descriptions of the swamp and its wildlife. It really comes alive, and I could almost picture myself there, slogging through the mud and swatting mosquitoes from my head. Even Kiwi's tortuous experience of the mainland with its own degrading realities was detailed and vivid. The World of Darkness theme park was a place both fascinating and horrifying, a true underworld. I loved Ossie's exploration of the supernatural. Whether what she experienced was real, or not, she believed to an extent that made Ava believe.

Meanwhile (and here's where the SPOILERS really start), when Ossie runs away with her ghost boyfriend, Ava seeks the held of a mystical Bird Man (someone who can talk to birds and play pied piper to get them off your property), who takes her deep in the swamp in search of the underworld, where her sister was thought to have fled. I was enraptured with Ava's journey to the underworld with the Bird Man.

I can't even begin to express my disappointment when I found out that the underworld was not real and the Bird Man was not mystical. The world was just the world, and the Bird Man was just an ordinary man who does what men who lead little girls out into the wild are likely to do.

My heart was broken by this. Russell makes the magic, as seen through Ava's eyes, seem so real, and the collapse into reality is so crushing. In a sense, I see how this reflects the Russell's skill, because my own emotional experience matched hers. I didn't want to see reality anymore than Ava wanted to see reality. What else would a strange man be than just a man? What else would the swamp be other than just the swamp? Both Ava and I wanted to believe she would find both her sister and the ghost of her mother, and we both should have known better, and god, ouch. That was a literary punch to the gut, if I ever read one. Just writing about it now makes me want to cry (I almost threw the book across the room).

The downfall was my disappointment was so great, I couldn't get back into the same love for the story I was feeling before. I kinda wish her reality hadn't been so brutal, and that some magic could have been recovered.

I got over it enough to continue reading, and am glad I did, because I like where the story went from there and how the family came together, despite it all.

The final ending (by which I mean, the last sentence), however, didn't have enough of an impact for me. I read that last paragraph three times to try to get the sense of conclusion, of summing up, even if it's a "life goes on" or "the story doesn't end" kind of thing, but it just didn't resonate. I'm sure some will disagree, but, yeah.

So, I guess my final analysis is that I really liked it with some strong reservations.

Nice review - you're kinder than I was. I started off enjoying the book okay but then slowly grew more and more annoyed with Ossie. The only character I ended up liking was the brother, Ava was okay but even she was a bit much to take. I was also very disappointed in the direction the story went towards the end. Overall, just didn't get the hype.

5. The Foot Book, by Dr. Suess (*****)
Category: Auntie Time

My Review: Another favorite from my childhood. Suess in general is fantastic, his art is fun and his playful rhymes echo through many years of my youth. I remember fondly flipping through his books even in high school. The Foot Book in particular plays with opposites and is wonderful for kids.

My niece's review: Tasty. Literally, as the cardboard pages spent most of their time in her mouth.

>103 LittleTaiko:
The brother was the most practical of the siblings, so maybe it was his practicality that drew you to him? For me, the fancifulness of Ossie and Ava is what made me like them. Though I will admit that Ossie ditching her sister and expecting her to find her own way to the mainland to find their dad was effed up. As the older sibling, you should be looking out for the younger ones. But I think she was so disconnected from reality at that point, she couldn't see that.

>105 andreablythe:
That is it exactly! His practicality definitely made him the most sympathetic and likeable to me. Makes sense considering how immensely practical I can be. :)

Just let my eyes skim past your Swamplandia review as I am still in the middle. Will be back!

>102 andreablythe: Interesting review! Especially the bit about stereotyping native americans. I've had a bit of a first hand battle with that issue myself lately. Not having many native americans around to speak for themselves here, I'd say a fair bit of ugga-bugga is still being tossed around.

Interestingly though, we've had a huge and lively public debate about picaninnies and blackface here the last year, where many black swedes have voiced their resentment of having their kids exposed to "innocent" everyday racism in classic children's culture. An attempt to removing blatantly racist "Tintin in Kongo" from the kids section (that is, moving it to the adult section) of a big library in Stockholm brewed up a storm of protests and cries of support, and one of our most well-known picture book artists got challenged for using a picaninny based character in one of her book series.

In the middle of this I was working with a new version of "Peter Pan and Wendy" for a big Stockholm theatre, and had to find a way of dealing with the pidgin-speaking savage cliché of the Picaninny Tribe. Not an entirely easy task, since they have a role in the story which clearly is to accentuate a campfire adventure ambience and to be the Other. I was very thankful for the ongoing debate, as it helped me make some important choices.

>107 VictoriaPL:
I'm looking forward to what you think!

>108 GingerbreadMan:
That's interesting. Tintin in the Congo is notoriously bad, I hear. It's a tough subject, because people get so adamant that they aren't racist that they close down the discussion, not realizing that racism is subversive and very much inherent in modern society.

I'm trying to learn how to talk about it more, especially with family and friends, who I'm afraid of creating conflict with. The discussion of racism involving native people's is even more challenging, I think, because I think a lot of non-natives imagine native cultures as dead or forgotten and don't think about them as living cultures.

I'm sure it was quite a challenge to adapt Peter Pan for the theatre. I love Peter Pan but as you said the portrayal of the natives is problematic. The Disney movies especially bad.

109. The debate in Sweden wasn't so much that people didn't think Tintin in the Congo WASN'T racist (sorry about the double negative), but that people felt that hiding it would be hiding that part of history - whitewashing history. Those who were in favour of moving the book thought that it was cementing old stereotypes of Africans and black people whereas those who opposed moving it felt that it was important to show that those were the views people once had but it's not so anymore because we've learnt.

Unfortunately, it all got very, VERY out of hand.

>110 PawsforThought: Yeah, I'd say the debate stayed on the level you described for about ten minutes. By the end of the autumn the xenophobic social media jockeys made it seem four cut seconds of Disney film was a worse threat to mankind than global warming. It's been a pretty strange couple of months. Still, I welcome all the personal testimonies if racism experienced first hand. I think we are wiser as anation from it.

111. And people are realising that we're NOT as open-minded and non-judgemental and politically correct as we all like to think we are. Far from it.

>112 PawsforThought: exactly.

>110 PawsforThought:-111
We get the discussion of "it's part of our history" here, too. Most notably with Twain's Huckleberry Finn, in which people react to the use of the "N" word. A group of parents wanted a new edition that removed the word entirely from the book and tried to make it happen. In this case, Twain was portraying an his time period that was accurate, while trying to write against slavery, which I think is a bit different from a book like Tintin that was clearly racist (the book is part of our history, but the story wasn't going for accuracy). It's a more difficult discussion there.

Moving the book to the adult section seems to be a logical step in this case, because it's still available to those who want to read it, it's just most easily accessible to those who are more likely to be mature enough to understand the racism that's going on in the book.

Though I also see the argument of keeping it as is, because of "it being part of history," the problem is that if that's the case, kids need to have someone available who is willing to discuss it with them.

Anyway, what I was trying to get to is how often in the U.S. the discussion isn't simply moving the book from one part of a library or book store to another part. The discussion is often removing the book from the shelves completely, altering the book, or destroying it. That is true erasure, and something I don't approve of, whatever the text.

>112 PawsforThought:-113
"People are realising that we're NOT as open-minded and non-judgemental and politically correct as we all like to think we are. Far from it."

The funny thing is that people can be completely close minded and judgmental and believe themselves to be the opposite. It's so frustrating.

->111 GingerbreadMan:
I heard about that Santa's Workshop kerfuffle - I'm actually glad I missed most of those discussions. :)

->112 PawsforThought:-113-114
At the Museum of Tolerance here in LA, there are two doors to enter the exhibit area - one says "Prejudiced" and the other one says "Unprejudiced" and you have to pick one. The "Unprejudiced" door is locked. Permanently.

It's not subtle, but it is true. :)

@151 Ha I like that. You can be offensive without knowing it too.. a recent, very intense, was started over the use of the words "Brazillian Transvestite" in a feminist article caused an uproar. It sounds weird until you realise what is happening in Brazil to trans people. Anyway it was interesting because of the level of anger over a mistake.

115. That was just stupid, though. The dolls were really bad and, I think, rightly removed. The Jewish wind-up toy was a little more unexpected - most people I know (and myself) didn't even realise it was supposed to be a Jewish person. It was just an old man to us. Not that it matters much that he was cut out (didn't even notise it) but it was a surprise, that's all.

That trick with the museum dorrs is pretty great. Well thought out.

>115 -Eva-:
LOVE the trick with the doors. Sometimes you need an unsubtle kick in the teeth to get reality.

Backing up to Swamplandia (now that I am finished)... The Bird Man part, I believe, is where I began to fall-out with the book. I just felt like whoa, where are we going? It just took me out of the world Russell had set up and I didn't enjoy it after that. Especially after what he did to Ava.
On the stereotyping, I have a little Cherokee in me, and my husband once took me to Cherokee, NC because I wanted to see it. I saw a man in full regalia, headdress and all, just standing on a corner to take pictures with the tourists and it made me so sad. I also get that same feeling whenever we go to Gatlinburg and I see people really playing up the 'hillbilly' schtick. I don't if it's the fact that tourists pay for that kind of thing, or that the locals stoop to actually doing it to make a living or what.

>119 VictoriaPL:
Yeah, the Bird Man thing walked it down a different path. For me it was into the realm of fantasy, which hurt when it was taken away.

I've never been to that kind of thing, but I can imagine the sadness of that, of taking something real and twisting it into a kind of theme park/ tourist fiction. I imagine it doesn't help with the stereotyping that happens when those tourists get home.

I have been reading your great Swamplandia review with interest, although I didn't feel like that I can completely see where you are coming from. There is this pivotal moment in the book where it decides what it wants to be and there's no turning back and it could go either way too so it's hard to prepare. I think there is foreshadowing for both.

I think said moment is well executed too. It's like both us and Ava realise (or admit to ourselves) we have been duped at the same time. I can also see where your sense of betrayal comes from, but for me the whole thing quickly changed into a different kind if tension.

As soon as I realized I'd been duped, and took a moment to breathe, I was able to get into the story again. The new tension is what kept me reading after Ava's discovery.

Also as I think about it more, the concept of illusions and lies we tell ourselves and being duped is thematically relevant to the story, because for the family to survive and come together again requires for each of them to caste away some of their illusions. Even Kiwi, the most practical has to have his idea of how he thinks life and the real world is supposed to be broken down as he works at World of Darkness and learns how people other than his family live.

6. Blood Magic, by Tessa Gratton (*****)
Category: Youth Relived

Everyone in town believes that Silla's dad kills her mom and then himself, except Silla, who cannot match the evidence to her own memories of him. And when she receives a mysterious package from someone called the Deacon with a book of spells written by her dad, Silla becomes even more convinced. This sends her on a journey into magic as she tries to reconnect with him through the spells.

Meanwhile, Nick has just moved to town with his dad and new stepmom. He witnesses Silla's first spell attempt and it dredges up memories from his own past.

This is an imperfect book. The beginning launched so quickly into things that I didn't have enough sense of the characters to care when something went wrong. Also some of the fancy fonts used to simulate people's handwriting can be hard to read.

However, there was a lot I loved about this book. One of the biggest things is the variety of relationships in the book beyond just love (so many YA books focus solely on the romance). Silla's relationship with her brother Reece, who is also torn up by their parent's death, is a vital component of the tale. The magic brings them together and helps them heal. And Nick's relationship with his absent mother is another component that not only shows the development of the character, but also the plot.

Then there's the romance between Silla and Nick. While it grows quickly, it isn't love at first sight. Nick's I goal interest is in the magic and he falls for her as he learns more about her. Her affections also develop as be draws her out of the depths of her own sorrow. They both have their secrets and they make mistakes, but I like how they learn to love each other and how mutual trust must be earned between them.

I also really liked the magics itself, which has rules and requires work (apparently Gratton is fond of this kind o magic). Circles and salt and specific ingredients and a bit of blood and a lot of focus is what it takes. Its messy and imperfect and powerful and I love it. I like that, while some people may have stronger blood than others, anyone can potentially learn it.

Woven in between Silla and Nick's tale is pages from Josephine Darley's journal, a women from the past who promises to obtain immortality for herself. And that too is an interesting tale. It's a challenge to make wicked characters sympathetic and Gratton does that.

I even loved how the book delved into the realms of horror (lots of blood), giving me chills as the story progressed.

Like I said l, this book is imperfect, but I judge a book by how I respond to it and by the end I loved it. I can't wait to read more.

Great discussion of Swamplandia! I have another of Russell's books on Mt. TBR, but I think I'm adding this one to the wishlist as well - I'm intrigued to see how the "pivotal moment" reads.

I'm very curious to see what you think of it, Eva. :)

Blood Magic sounds great! Added to my wish list!

Thanks, Tina. I hope you enjoy it. :)

7. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel (*****)
Category: Panel by Panel

Alison Bechdel's first memoir negotiates the stormy waters of her youth with a focus on her dad and his eventual suicide. It would be wrong to say he was a mystery to her, rather he put forth a clear, solid mask of who he wanted people to think he was, a display of fatherhood and family and the perfect home. It was a skilful rendering, an artifice. It was only in adulthood, amid discovery and confession of her own homosexuality that she learned her dad was gay.

As she explores her memory of events, Bechdel interweaves literature and cultural references, making comparisons between her father and Marcel Proust among others. Much like Are You My Mother?, she loops the story, journeying forward and backward, and occasionally returning to previously mentioned events to show them from a new angle.

Fun Home is the more accessible of her two memoirs, less focused on intellectual analysis of one's life than the experience of it. It is profoundly moving, revealing a subdued emotional experience

_______________

PS. I've tried four or five times to write this review. I kept starting and then not finishing it. I don't know why I've been so blocked. Maybe because I was trying to write something good. Maybe because I'm on mental overload with putting the magazine to bed at my day job. I don't know but... Oye.

You did a good job on your review of Fun Home, this is one I will be on the lookout for.

It's a good review & glad you enjoyed it,

I get review blockage sometimes, especially if I really liked it, obviously it's easier to list a books faults but I think I get a bit of stage fright as I want other people to go and read it :)

Yep agree that it's a good review. I'm currently blocked on a review of the heart broke in I really don't know what to say about it at all! I must get are you my mother Too

>130 DeltaQueen50:
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.

>131 clfisha:
It is so much easier to list faults! It's like that sometimes with people, too. But I try to go easy on books and people and look for the good first. ;)

>132 psutto:
Yikes. Sometimes I get thought by just putting anything down. A lot of the blockage for me is the need to say the right thing the right way the first time. If I let that go and just write it, I can get through and edit it after.

Are You My Mother is fantastic. I hope you enjoy it.

Good review, Andrea. I have that one still waiting for me to read it before it has to head back to the library.... maybe this weekend I will get around to it.

>134 lkernagh:
Thanks. I hope you enjoy the book. :)

* * *

8. The Game of Boxes: Poems, by Catherine Barnett (****)
Category: The Universe in Verse

It took me a while to connect with the poems in this collection. Some poems I had to reread several times until they began to click (though I think the distance had more to do with my headspace than with the poetry. Once it did click, though, I discovered poetry that took the everyday and commonplace and didn't so much as elevate it, as roll around in it, feeling the sharp and soft edges and appreciating them for what they are.

The collection is split in three sections.

The first, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful," features a dozen or so poems named "Chorus," which alternate with other poems with individual titles. The titled poems all deal with an "I" narrator, an individual, who could be the same individual in each case, while the Chorus poems all focus on a "We" narrator that takes up the song of the populace that circles the individual. Sometimes, while driving or walking down the street, I'll break out of my own personal narrative and be stunned by how many lives are going on around me, each with their own stories, their own internal monologues — reading "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" reminded me of that experience.

The second section, "Of All Faces," is comprised of a single long poems, called "Sweet Double, Talk Talk," a modern love story, full of sex and intimacy and distancing and coming round again. It's beautiful and subtle and bitter sweet, like love often is. I read this through a couple of times and connected deeper with it on the second reading.

The last section, called "The Modern Period," is a series of poems that approach everyday moments, such as visiting a doctor, and finds deeper resonance in each moment.

9. Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem (****)
Category: Unicorns from Space! (Part I)

Solaris is a planet that orbits two suns, able only to maintain it's orbit by the fluctuations maintained by the living ocean that inhabits the entire surface of the world. This strange ocean, alien in every sense of the word, defies every theory or definition scientists attempt to use to explain it. Every answer springs forth more questions, more debate, more theories, building into a flurry of activity on and about the world. As time goes on, scientists remain so confounded by this world and its living ocean that the fire of investigation has died down and only three scientist remain on the station.

Enter Kelvin, who upon his arrival discovers that the scientist who hired him is dead under apparently mysterious circumstances. He finds the station disheveled and the two remaining scientist in varying states of paranoia to the extent that they won't even explain what's happened. At first he thinks they may have gone insane, until he has a strange visitor and discovers the truth for himself.

Solaris grabs the reader's attention fairly quickly with the mystery of what's happening at the station, which is a good thing. The intrigue and psychological threat of the visitor is interspersed with the massive amounts of techno/bio babble, which comes up as Kelvin looks into past theories and explorations on the ocean. All of which is vital to the story, because it contributes to the incomprehensibility of an alien that has no comparison to earth or human standards.

This book was deeply fascinating on many levels, from the truly alien alien to the philosophical and psychological concerns brought up by the visitors to they mystery and discovery of what happened and how these three men try to resolve the situation, each perceiving the problem through their unique human lens.

Solaris is not casual reading, but it's a wonderful book and one I highly recommend.

10. The Fairy Ring: or Elsie and Frances Fool the World, by Mary Losure (***1/2)
Category: Youth Relived

The Cottingley Fairies is a well known bit of weird history, in which a series of photographs taken in 1917 by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths seem to present proof of fairies. The photographs came to international interest after the Theosophical society got a hold of the images, prompting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write an article about them in an issue of The Strand.

The story here is told from Frances and Elsie's point of view in a narrative format, and begins with Frances' arrive and Cottingley, where she she begins to see little green men down by the beck (creek). Only after teasing from adults do the cousins come up with the idea of of taking the photographs, just to stop their parents from teasing them.

I've been fascinated by the story of the Cottingley Fairies for a long time, especially since even after the girls confessed to their trickery in the '80s, Frances still claimed the fairies were real and that the fifth photograph was not a fake.

This presentation of the story is fine for what it is, though the first few chapters are a bit rough and the style of writing has that tone of talking down ("I'm simplifying this so you young reader can understand") that appears often in young adult books, but that I rather dislike. The events are a good basic overview, and the author does quote directly from letters and original sources, but I wouldn't recommend it for adult readers. Good for mid-grade readers, maybe.

I will say, though, that this has reignited my interest in the fairies and now I'm wanting to read a more detailed historical account of events and/or Doyle's book, The Coming of the Fairies.

(I was going to put this in my nonfiction category, but the style and narrative format shows that it was geared toward young readers, so into the young adult category it goes.)

I'm slowly working my way through Anna Karenina, but keep getting distracted by other books and to-do lists and so forth. I'm also reading The Replacement, which is about a changeling and has an awesome creepy cover.

In other news, I've joined a site called Seen That, which is in beta and will allow users to track movies the way LibraryThing and GoodReads tracks books. I bring this up only because I've been going through my old blogs to grab reviews and cross post them to Seen That. And, um, it's been interesting, because I keep looking at my old reviews and cringing.

I mean, my movie reviews in general are shorter and less in depth than my book reviews, but my gracious, some of my old ones are REALLY bad. LOL.

I feel it shows how much my writing has improved, and I think it was joining the Category reading threads and writing a review for every book now and interacting with all you wonderful people that has allowed me to improve. So, thanks for that. :)

I have been wanting a site to catalogue my films - going to look into that one, thanks!

My first "reviews" were mainly notes for myself, so I am glad other people are reading them and I've been forced to improve. :)

Being in beta, so not everything is running yet and there are glitches and they're looking for feedback. FYI.

Yeah, it's the knowing someone is reading them, combined with the "obligation" to write them. It's great. :)

Yay, movie cataloguing site! Good to know about. :)

>141 rabbitprincess:
If you join, let me know so we can connect there, too. My user name is the same.

I think I found you! I'm rabbitprincess on there as well.

Nice! I've followed back. :D

11. Light in August (audio book), by William Faulkner (***)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

I am not a fan of Faulkner. I hated The Sound and the Fury and thought As I Lay Dying was just okay, and apparently my records show I've also read The Unvanquished, though I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it was about. His writing style is often so obtuse that it obscures the story, and his characters are generally unlikeable.

Light in August is more accessible, to the point that I was actually able to enjoy the wordplay and flow of language (and which came off as lyrical, especially when read by Will Patton). The story begins with Lena, a pregnant women from Alabama, on the road to track down her wayward lover. She's calm and faithful that she will find the man who abandoned her. The roads lead her to Jackson, Mississippi, where the story weaves through a multitude of characters and lives, and culminating in sex and murder.

This book is infused with racism, saturated with it, which can be hard to read. Generally, I'm not fond of the argument, "consider the time and place," in these matters, because it's often used to shut down the conversation of racism in regards to classic books. In this case, however, the story grows up so much out of it's time and place that it can't be separated from it. Also, I don't get the sense that Faulkner is championing the racism or attempting to demonize his black characters, rather he seems to be telling a story about people that cannot be separated from the racism of the time period. But likewise, he doesn't seem to be damning the racists, either. Instead, he seems to stand outside the scenarios, more as and observer, merely recording actions of his characters (some of which even he doesn't seem to understand), without judging them one way or another.

It's also interesting that one of the main characters, Christmas, who may or may not be part black, is given some of the most significant exploration. He's one of the few characters we see as a child and come of age. Though he looks, if not white, at least like a foreigner, the idea that he might be part black haunts him from childhood, with even the other children in the orphanage calling him the n-word. He absorbs all this as a kind of self hatred, though nothing can be proved one way or another. And it's this idea of what he might be and (white) society's judgment of the black race that shapes much of his life.

I'm just not sure what Faulkner is trying to say with this, if he's trying to say anything at all. His portrayals of other black characters are also problematic by today's standards. What he has done is write a story that's open to multiple interpretations, one that warrants discussion and of which one could argue both for and against the racism of Faulkner.

This is a beautifully written book about the ugliness of people. In fact, by the end the only two characters that were at all sympathetic were Lena and possibly Bunch. Otherwise, there's not much of anyone to like, let alone to champion.

I'm rather torn on to how exactly I feel about it. I love the writing, but am disturbed by the story and despise most of the characters. So, I guess it's a toss up as far as recommendations go.

As an interesting footnote, the audio book ends with an interview with a crime writer, who is a fan of Faulkner. In the discussion, both interviewer and interviewee try to dispel the theory that Faulkner was racist, claiming the argument has no basis in reality, because it took bravery for Faulkner to speak out against racism during his own time period and place. However, what they fail to see is that the fight against racism has changed over the years, and his actions and words may be seen as racist by today's standards. Though he may have been fighting for the rights of black people in his own time period, he may not have been able to envision any kind of true equality. He may have still seen black people as lesser (as his portrayals and discussions of his in his books seem to show), and thus it seems that his support would be based on his idea of how the fight should go without taking much into account the actual realities of the black people in his time period.

I read struggled through The Sound and the Fury at Uni and I remember "enjoying" it - at least to the point of understanding. I remember very little now, though... :) It's not a writer I'm planning on searching out more of, but who knows.

I think I keep reading Faulkner because he keeps showing up on the Modern Library list, and then I'm like, wait, I'm reading Faulkner again? *le sigh*

Haha!!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I present my Love Poem for the Books of Stephen King (it's a video that I can't embed).

I hope you all are having a lovely day, enjoying the books you love. :)

My reading has slowed down this week and probably next as I rush to meet some deadlines. I submitted a poetry collection for a chapbook competition this morning and need to write a short film script for another competition I've signed up for, both on top of the day job and other projects I have going on.

I am loving The Replacement, though, and if Brenna Yovanoff is this good in the rest of her books, she's going to just to my list of favorites.

Good luck on your entries' success! Keeping busy keeps you young, so they say.

12. The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff (*****)
Category: Youth Relived

Mackie is a changeling, a fairy child left as a replacement for a human one. Instead of dying as such a child is expected to do, he survived by making himself invisible and avoiding contact with iron that infuses just about everything, from steel to human blood. All he wants is to be human, to fit in with the people of Gentry, but when a little girl goes missing, he finds himself journeying into the town's underworld to meet the creatures that once abandoned him.

I fell for this book as soon as I saw it's uber-creepy book cover, featuring a litany of knifes, scissors, and horseshoes dangling precariously over a child's carriage.



I loved it even more when I found out the purpose of those dangerous objects is to protect rather than harm, each of them made with iron to save the child from being taken — which is a perfect reflection of the world that lies within this books pages. What at first appears ugly and dangerous may turn out to be good and kind. What appears beautiful may be deadly. And I love that reversal of expectations.

I love that Mackie is a member of the family, even though his mom, dad, and sister know he is not the same human boy who was robbed from the crib that night. They know, and yet he is accepted and loved. They do all they can to accommodate his disabilities (removing all the iron they can from the house, building an unconsecrated part of church so he can go to Sunday school) and protect him from the potential malice of the town (which refuses to admit the existence strange creatures, even though deep down they know).

Mackie, for all this love, is lost and lonely. Though he has friends and family who care for him, he casts himself as an outsider, feeling that often come up for adopted children in general. When Tate comes after him for answers, for someone anyone to listen to her about her sister, he tries to avoid her in an effort to protect himself, but finds himself unable to pretend that he doesn't care.

There is a general creepiness and sense of unease that fits perfectly with the book cover, and the hairs on my arms are standing up right now — partly from the creep factor, partly from delight — even as I think about it. If it's half as good as this one, then I can't wait to read another Brenna Yovanoff book.

13. On the Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillman (*****)
Category: Auntie Time

My Review: This is a sweet, adorable book that relates the events that occurred on the day the reader/child/niece was born, including smiling moons, watching stars, and dancing bears, as each is amazed at the wonder of a new and unique being being brought onto the earth. Accompanied by lovely artwork, the book just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because I honestly believe my niece is a wonder, as I'm sure all aunties do and all parents, too (look, I'm rhyming!).

My Niece's Review: Captivating. She quieted down and tamed her wiggles for the duration of the reading. She's fond of music, so I think she liked the sing-song quality of the rhymes.

Great review of The Replacement. I'm not generally a fan of books about the fae, but I've read a couple books about changelings that I really liked. I'll have to add this to my book bullet collection.

I've been looking at The Replacement because of the cover, but I was worried that the inside wouldn't match - I think I'll put it on the wishlist now!

blam - got me with the replacement

>155 sandragon:
Thanks. I love fae stories, but haven't read many changeling stories, of which I'd like to read more. What changeling stories have you read that you'd recommend?

>156 -Eva-:
I hope you enjoy it! :)

>157 psutto:
LOL. Sorry about that. I hope you like it as much as I did.

Just delurking for a moment to say that yep, I'm also now putting The Replacement on my wishlist! Thanks for the review :)

158 - I've read two changleing books that I really liked. One is The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw. It's a young adult book (maybe for the 10 - 14 age category?) about a changeling trying to fit into the human world.

The other is The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue. It's a bit darker in tone, written for adults, and is about a human child living with the fae in the wild (no fairy courts in this book) and the changeling that has taken his place and grows to adulthood in the human world.

From your review, the tone of The Replacement seems similar to the changeling books I've enjoyed. I've also read Valiant and Tithe by Holly Black but these didn't do it for me at all.

Making a note of The Replacement, thanks! Great review and a great cover :) I wonder if you would have read it, if it had this cover:

>161 clfisha:

*cringe*

Yeah, I saw that cover. I want to pretend it doesn't exist. I mean how boring and generic can you get?! Oye. I definitely wouldn't have picked it up, if that was the cover I saw.

->161 clfisha:
It's probable that I would have just kept scrolling if that had been the cover.

I am definitely adding The Replacement to my wishlist, that cover is hard to resist!

Great review of The Replacement, Andrea! I have had my eye on that one....I need to move it forward!

14. The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2: 2000–2010, by Peter Dendle (****)
Category: Just the Facts, Ma'am

As Peter Dendle notes in his introduction, when he published the first Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, the zombie movie phenomenon had gone into a slump in the 1990s, one he never thought it would rise out of. And yet movies like 28 Days Later and Resident Evil in the early part of the following decade, revitalized the genre and opened the door to a new plethora of zombie movies.

Dendle apparently spent three years scouring the internet and tracking down every zombie movie he could find produced and distributed in 2000-2010, from home movies to blockbusters, in an attempt to make Volume 2 of the encyclopedia as comprehensive as possible. Considering his claim to have seen every movie listed, it was clearly a monumental and impressive task, especially if he wanted to have a life beyond watching zombie movies, the majority of which were clearly derivative and awful.

His introduction gives an overview of the new zombie era and presents the changing landscape of the genre. This is followed by the encyclopedia, where each movie is given at the least a short description and a brief analysis. More interesting, compelling, or popular movies are given a more in depth review that presents a critical analysis, noting metaphoric intent and why the movie was important for the genre. These are highlighted with the inclusion of still images from the movie or their movie poster.

I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the book for the movies I have already seen in order to see Dendle's thoughts on them. In some cases he offered new perspectives on a loved movie, while in other cases, I disagreed entirely with his analysis. I also skimmed through every other movie in the encyclopedia, stopping to read more thoroughly if it interested me. His wit, as to be expected, shines when he didn't like a movie, and it's entertaining to see him come up with new ways to say a movie is creatively bereft. Dendle was particularly interested in tracking down international works that present a unique setting.

Some reviews I stopped reading specifically because most of them contain spoilers and I knew I needed to watch the movie first. For example, Pontypool is a psychological thriller about a group trapped in a radio station during the zombie apocalypse, which Dendle describes as a movie that should not have worked, but turns out to be the most compelling and creative from the decade.

The other must see movie is Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated, in which various artists and animators from around the world take the original 1969 Romero classic and animate it frame by frame into a mixed media feature that uses the original sound and music. This one is even more compelling because it's non-profit. Non of the artists were paid for their work, but are allowed to sell DVDs for the project on their own sites, provided any proceeds go to charity.

On the whole, I'd say Dendle has done an excellent job of compiling this list of zombie movies (he also includes a list of short films as an Appendix). Already it's out of date, of course, as zombie movies are coming out as I write this. The way things are going in the genre, it looks like he'll have a reason to publish a new zombie movie encyclopedia at the end of the next decade. I, for one, am looking forward to reading it.

Great review and it sounds like a perfect present for someone I know! I just cannot believe anybody would want to, or could actually manage to watch so many Zombie flicks! Sounds ghastly, I am already fed up to the back teeth with them after a dozen or so films. I am impressed :)

Pontypool is a great film btw.. Not brilliant by any means. It's also a very intriguing book. And after saying I am fed up with zombies I now want to track down Night of The Living Dead: Reanimated

>167 clfisha:
I love zombie movies and can watch a lot of them without getting bored, but I would never make it through all the really crappy ones. That sounds more like punishment to me.

I didn't know Pontypool was a book. Maybe I should read that first...., or maybe after. I never know, because reading the book first can spoil the movie. Silly, but true.

PS. I found the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated website: http://www.notldr.com/next/main.html

It has some clips and such. I'm still trying to figure out how you buy a DVD, but apparently it's available to view for free online, too.

Pontypool changes everything the book won't spoil Pontypool the movie - Burgess says in an interview that some people have said to him that the film is nothing to do with the book and he replies that the book is nothing to do with the book

although I did read the book after the film....

>170 psutto:
I've actually heard of Tony Burgess before, and have been meaning to read something by him, so cool!

PS. "the book is nothing to do with the book" is a hilarious way to describe it. :)

There's a review on my 12/12 thread and Claire's (clfisha) too

Hit me with your stellar view of The Replacement too! On the immense wish list now & I've thumbs upped your review!! :)

I think my fab quote from Pontypool the book is the afterword:
"And so, now that I have been asked to write this afterword, I realize it has to be an apology, not for the book, which can't be helped, but for the fact that I was unfaithful to its first virtue: I have asked you to read it, and now, sitting here at the end, I am telling you that it might be a mistake that you did"

Heh. Crazy, crazy book

Forgot to ask what's you favourite Zombie film(s)?

>172 psutto:,
I'll have to go check out your reviews. :)

>173 TinaV95:,
Thanks! and, ah, sorry about the book bullet, Tina.

>174 clfisha:,
That afterward just makes me want to read the book all the more. lol.

And, oh, geeze, I could create quite a list of zombie movies, I'm sure, so I'll limiting it to my top ten (for now).
1. Night of the Living Dead (original)
2. 28 Days Later
3. Shaun of the Dead
4. REC* (Spain) and Quarantine (U.S.) – since they're virtually the same movie, shot-for-shot, I'm counting them as one
5. Dawn of the Dead (original)
6. Resident Evil
7. Versus – a crazy, awesome zombie/martial arts movie from Japan
8. Slither
9. Zombieland
10. Splinter - not you're typical zombie movie, but definitely involves moving corpses

There are several other movies, which I didn't..., erm, enjoy, per se, but that were quite intellectually interesting (I'm looking at you, Otto; Or, Up with Dead People).

Also, I have a lot more zombie movies to see, such as the two I mentioned, as well as Fido and Aaaah! Zombies! and others that are supposed to be more creative takes on the genre.

* REC normally has brackets around it, but LT keeps trying to link it as a book.

Oh, I concur with your list of Zombie movies, the original Night of the Living Dead will haunt me for the rest of my life. I saw it at a drive-in movie (dating myself here) and didn't have a clue about what it was going to be about. Both myself and my boyfriend were terrified, afraid to leave the car to go to the washroom. I still have dreams about that movie.

In recent years, Zombieland was a great favorite of mine, as was 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead.

Never heard of Splinter but I am going to watch it since I mostly agree with your list (I really don't like Dawn of the Dead, yes I know).

I keep wondering if Cabin in the Woods could be classed as a zombie movie.

@Judy what an amazing (scary) way to experience Night of the Living Dead!

176. Night of the Living Dead actually scared you? Wow. I watched it on Halloween (ages ago) with a group of friends and the lights all out. We laughed ourselves half to death (appropriately enough). I could understand what in the world was supposed to be scary about that film.
Obviously, it's a movie that hasn't aged well and I'm sure it was much scarier to watch when it was new.

great list of zombie movies. I think 28 days later was a half a great movie (the first half before they meet the soldiers), Shaun of the dead I've watched a gazillion times, one of my favourite films ever (and very clever too!), Night of the living dead is a deserved classic, not seen the American remake of REC but enjoyed the Spanish one - if its a shot for shot remake so I may not bother though

Have you seen Juan of the dead? which was the last zombie film I watched - oddly Cuban!

Really enjoyed Zombieland. Hope that the sequel lives up to it when they get around to making it.

#178 - I know, it probably doesn't hold up today, but back in the day (the late 60's) it was truly terrifying. A very different look at horror than what we were used to. Up to then my idea of a horror film were the Roger Corman directed films based on Edgar Allan Poe's works, or something like "Thirteen Ghosts". The idea of the dead rising to feast on the living, well believe me that was shocking.

>176 DeltaQueen50: & 178
I can see how Night of the Living Dead can be terrifying and I can equally see how it would seem laughable. While I don't know that it terrified me, it certainly haunted me and has had a lingering effect -- the ending in particular. Through the whole movie I was like, "well, this is kinda cool." Then the ending happened and I was like, "my mind is BLOWN."

So, yeah. I had seen several zombie movies before seeing Night, but it wasn't until that moment that I became obsessed with the zombie genre.

>177 clfisha:
Splinter is great, but it should be noted that it's not a generic zombie movie, as it's zombie is very unusual and almost unrecognizable as a typical zombie. It's unique qualities are part of why it's on the list.

I have yet to see Cabin in the Woods. I need to.

>179 psutto:
I have not seen Juan of the Dead. I'll put on my list of zombie movies to watch. :)

>180 AHS-Wolfy:
They're making a sequel??? *googles* Holy crap, they are! *squees*

*googles some more* "no immediate plans for the film...."

*sigh*

Juan of the Dead is the best film in the world... It is slightly bizarre though. And too late I downloaded and enjoyed Splinter.. :)

>183 clfisha:
slightly bizarre = awesome, so I'm sold.

And yay! I'm glad you enjoyed Splinter. :D

I meant to to say not the best film in the world. Oops. But I think you got that :)

Indeed. :)

15. The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub (***1/2)
Category: Oh, the Horror!

Jack arrives at the Alhambra hotel in New Hampshire with the knowledge that his mother is sick and probably dying. In the slow season for the tourist town, no one is around and Jack spends his days wandering around empty beaches and an old abandoned amusement park. His only friend is Speedy Parker, an old jazz musician turned custodian, who sends him off on a journey between world in search of a magical talisman that can save his mother's life. The story is epic in scope, jumping between this world and an alternate parallel world, each presenting their own unique horrors, as Jack travels across the U.S.

Though firmly rooted in fantasy, with our young hero going on a quest for a magical object that can defeat evil in the name of a good queen, the novel also presents numerous horror tropes, including lots of blood splatter, popping eyeballs, grotesque creatures, and other moments of gore and the macabre, as well as the occasional gratuitous allusion to sex.

The first chunk of 100 pages or so were slow going for me at first. One, because there's the long build up before Jack finally takes action (he's a kid, so I can forgive him his indecision). And two, because the character Speedy Parker (a.k.a. the "Magical Negro") annoyed me from the get-go, because he's just such a caricature of a person without much (or any) depth beyond giving Jack a boost into his adventure and show up at opportune times to keep him going. King is kind of known for using the "Magical Negro" trope in several of his novels, so I'm not surprised to see it, but still.

Anyway, after those first hundred pages, I was into the story enough that it all began to flow and it carried me easily through the bulk of the story. I simultaneously loved and was annoyed by the character Wolf, as I was with the character Richard. The villains are all ugly and villainous, with not much dimension to them beyond their desire for power and their delight in cruelty. The good guys are very good and the bad guys are very, very bad and there is no in between.

Jack is the only one that was fully and complete character. You get to see him grow from a very young boy into an early adulthood by the end of the book. He has moment of darkness and cruelty in him, while all the while striving to be brave and noble and good. He's very, very different by the end of the book than he is at the beginning.

It's interesting that this was cowritten by King and Straub, because it was so cohesive that I couldn't tell who wrote what. However, the moments of sheer gore certainly had King's particular flair and in general this seemed a King sort of book, so much so that I didn't see much of Straub in it (maybe it's because I haven't read enough Straub, but based on what I have read he seems more multidimensional than this).

So, I guess my final analysis is that I really, really enjoyed this book with some rather strong reservations.

So apparently I managed not to log on to Seen That for two weeks...? Thanks for sending those recommendations and sorry for not acting on them sooner! I've added Timecrimes to my "request from library" list (they actually had it! whoa!) and will probably be re-watching Sense and Sensibility this weekend. Love David Morrissey as Col. Brandon. I'm trying to get a friend of mine to watch it too because the only thing she's seen DM in is The Walking Dead as the Governor, which means she finds him terrifying. :P

Lol. That's all right. It takes me forever to follow through on the recommendations people give me. I hope you enjoy Timecrimes! And DM is so handsome in S&S, and I'd actually forgotten he was in Walking Dead, too. Just shows what a good actor he is to be so convincing in two very different roles.

I was thinking of joining Seen That, I take it the site is quite good and the recommendations interesting?

Well it's still in beta mode so not all of the site's eventual features are available yet, but when they are it will be very cool and I'm enjoying it so far. The recommendations depend largely on who your connecting with, of course.

16. Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin (*****)
Category: Oh, the Horror!

Rosemary is a happy and healthy young woman, who is ecstatic about moving into the Bramford with her husband. It's building with character, and in her mind, the perfect place to have their first child. Then strange things begin to happen.

But to say it like that is to over dramatize it, because this book is superbly understated. Every event is presented as mundane and ordinary. The language itself is crisp and clean and understated; there is no overdramatizing for the sake of hyping the horror. Instead every strange occurrence is slipped subtly in with the everyday aspects of preparing a new home and dealing with the strangeness of pregnancy. Violence and death crops up, but even these happen in a "these things happen" kind of way and can be written off as coincidence.

It would be easy as the reader to wonder why Rosemary didn't pick up on the clues sooner, but as the reader, we have foreknowledge that she wouldn't. In experience truth the clues can be good easily written off as just one's imagination. And if I'm honest with myself, I would have to admit that I would be no more conscious of what was really going on than Rosemary. (In fact, I might not have get caught on at all.)

I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen clips and knew what was going to happen at the end from discussions while reading (also, I had Mia Farrow firmly planted in my head). Knowing in advance the end did not ruin my enjoyment I the slightest. I was captivated from the start, didn't want to put it down halfway in, and by the end I was so absorbed I became resentful of working and eating and having to commute home. In fact, I couldn't even handle walking from the car into the house; I just sat in the driver's seat reading until the last 40 pages were done. Then I walked in the house with a huge smile on my face and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. I can't even bring myself to start another book yet, because I just want to read this one over again.

Great review! I loved the film when I was a teenager (hmm I mistyped and put lived there such a different meaning!) I have always been nervous the book wouldn't live up or as an adult it wouldn't be the same. I think you have made me braver :) thank you.

In the afterward, the author said the movie was one of the most faithful adaptations ever made, with huge chunks of dialog taken directly from the text and even some of the same uses of color. So I'm interested to find out what you think.

Levin does have a great way of expressing great horrors in very sparse language - which, of course, makes it even scarier. I've not read Rosemary's Baby, but The Boys from Brazil had a similar effect on me.

Really? Nice. I want to read something else of his, so that sounds like a good option. Apparently he also wrote The Stepford Wives, which I'm also tempted to read.

I remember reading all of those titles when they first came out - all creepy.

Your thread is a dangerous place for me!! I've never seen Rosemary's Baby, but I've heard of the movie / book for ever... It is now planted firmly atop my wish list! Any horror that ranks a 5 star review is a MUST read for me!!

I may have to un-star you if I keep getting pummeled with book bullets every time I visit!! ;0)

Understated horror sounds very promising! I have Rosemary's Baby on the TBR list from a Top 100 crime novels list but haven't yet picked it up.

>198 TinaV95:
Lol! Sorry about that. If you have a favorite horror you want to shoot back my way, let me know. ;-)

>199 rabbitprincess:
Go for it! I hope you enjoy it. :)

17. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carl (*****)
Category: Auntie Time

My review: The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a classic in picture books for good reason. The story of a newly hatched caterpillar going about gobbling up whatever it can is told with bright and colorful pictures and creatively formatted pages. It includes moments of humor and basic counting in the story for bit of learning.

I haven't touched this book since I was in elementary school, but I genuinely enjoyed reading it to my niece and was even surprised by just how wonderful it is.

My niece's review: She alternated from staring at the pages in fascination to throwing her hands up in the air and squealing with glee every time I turned the page. I think she liked it. :)

18. Cedar Toothpick: The Tomboy Dioramas, poetry by Stefan Lorenzutti and art by Laurent Le Deunff
Category: The Universe in Verse

Recently, I received a package from Poland with one of the coolest stamps I have ever seen. I didn't know what I could possibly be receiving from Poland, but I was all smiles as I ran my finger over the cloth, feeling the fibres of the shiny postal stamp. I almost didn't care what was inside, because the stamp itself was just so gorgeous.



Inside, however, I found my long-awaited copy of Cedar Toothpick: The Tomboy Dioramas, a collection of "nutshell" poetry by Stefan Stefan Lorenzutti with illustrations by http://www.laurentledeunff.fr/ and book design by Pilar Rojo. The book was published independently as part of a kickstarter project that I had backed and forgotten about.

Like the stamp, this gorgeous little book was texturally beautiful, and I was dazzled by the quality of paper and the hard back binding, as much as I was eager to read the words on the pages. Honestly, the sheer quality of book alone without having read any of the words is amazing.



According to the poet, he was inspired to the write this collection of poetry as he was walking the trails on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. That experience combined with the concept of individual dioramas in natural history museums. The author writes: "Each poem is a description of a diorama, such as one finds in ethnographic or natural history museums—bell-jar spaces in which wolves, frozen in time, thread soundlessly through twilit forest; and wigwam inhabitants, cross-legged and ringed round their storyteller, shiver as the wind outside rattles frame of shelter." Through this landscape romps the playful figure of Tomboy.

These poems are small, but each one packed with imagery that evokes a deeper understanding than what's on the surface. Each poem is full in an off itself, and deserves lingering over, as you would linger over a bit of scenery on a long walk in the woods.

The art stands alone on individual pages, complementing the poetry perfect with soft pencil drawings of stones or wood, the kind of nature imagery the poetry relates.



This is by far the highest quality book I've helped fund through kickstarter. It's just so lovely on many fronts, from the concise, compact poetry that evokes so much, to the gorgeous line drawings, to the beautiful binding itself — this little book is a work of art.

Only 500 copies of the book were printed, all of which are signed by the author and numbered. (Since it was independently published, it's not listed on LibraryThing.) I don't know how many copies are left, but if you're interested, you can order the book here.

That picture is absolutely beautiful!

Oh that is stunning, kickstarter can throw out some gems. I am a poetry philistine so I will pass :)

LittleTaiko,
I assume you're talking about the image with the wolves, in which case I heartily agree. :)

Claire,
Like most things in life, there's a lot of crap to sort through, but when you find a good one, it can be such a wonderful surprise. :D

Between the gorgeous stamp and the lovely book that your received, that was one great mail day!

I think I may have to order that--thanks for the pictures and lovely notes!

It was a fabulous mail day, Lori! :D

You're welcome, whitewave. I hope you manage to get a copy and enjoy the book. :)

* * * *

As a reading update:
I recently finished reading The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, which was wonderful in a teen-angst sort of way. I haven't written down my review yet, because I'm planning to do a video review (though I'll have a text version, too).

I'm still working on Anna Karenina, which I'm trying to plow through faster so I can get to The Count of Monte Cristo.

I'm also reading a wonderful collection of poetry called my name on his tongue and a memoir called Stuck in the Middle with You, as well as starting the seventh Artemis Fowl book, The Atlantis Complex (have I really read six of these already? Wow, what a great series).

Oh! And I'm listening to The House of Mirth on audio book.

It's a lot of reading to be doing all at once, which sort of slows down the progress a bit. lol.

19. The House of Mirth (audio book), by Edith Wharton (*****)
Category: From the Modern Library's 100 Best Books

Since I can't seem to find a way to some it up on my own, here's a description from the back of one of the editions: "Lily Bart, beautiful, witty, and sophisticated, is accepted by "old money" and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears 30, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing and to maintain her life in the luxury she has come to expect. While many have sought her, something—fastidiousness or integrity—prevents her from making a "suitable" match."

Lily was raised to love splendor and wealth and to be an ornament in that world. She cannot help but strive for the comfort and ease (even if it is marked by falsehoods) that that world offers. And yet there is a part of her that strives for some greater, higher ideal, some deeper truth beyond the finery.

Her downfall is in part due to circumstance (being a woman in her time period and raised to desire wealth and shun shabbiness) and in part due to her own poor choices. There are many times she could have prevented a mishap, only to blindly (out of naiveté) or purposefully (out of selfishness and her desire for wealth) step right into it. And many other times she could have saved herself, only to reject it due to her own sense of morality. Witnessing her mistakes is to see all the little ways she is guilty, while simultaneously discovering the multitude of ways she is innocent. It's all just so profoundly human.

The story was easy to follow and compelling to read. the scenes unfolding with eloquent language and open frankness. By the end of the book, i found that my commute wasn't long enough and I sat in my car upon arriving home listening to the conclusion, unable to wait until morning.

I often cry at books and movies; I'm easily moved (sometimes even a TV commercial will illicit a few tears). But this was an experience beyond mere crying. This was me with my hands pressed to my face, snot running out of my nose, abjectly weeping in the front seat of my car. I can't fully express why this book plucked that inner string in me, but it did.

I'm sure a part of it was the spectacular reading given by Eleanor Bron (who also, as it turns out, played Lily's Aunt Peniston in the 2000 movie adaptation) in the audio. She strikes just the right tone of reserve and emotions, her voice soothing and adaptable to each character. I don't know if my wrought emotional reaction would have been the same had I read it in text, but that's not something one can speculate on, since each individual experience is based on a multitude of circumstances that can't be recreated.

All I know, is I started this book thinking I would merely enjoy it, and ended it being madly in love.

wow what a review! I keep meaning to try Edith Wharton.. I may start here

Eleanor Bron also played the female lead in the Beatles movie Help! :) Glad to hear you enjoyed the book so much!

>210 clfisha:
It's a great place to start, and (I think) it's her first novel, so I'm dying to read some of her others.

>211 rabbitprincess:
Reall? Cool! I haven't seen Help!, but maybe I should. :)

20. my name on his tongue: poems, by Laila Halaby (****)
Category: The Universe in Verse

Halaby draws on her experiences as an Arab American to explore the duality of her experience and her general sense of homelessness. The poems read like passages from a memoir, illustrating her relation to two cultures, neither of which seem to fit properly. Her personal life mixes with her reactions to world events, such as the Iraq war or the bombing of Palestine.

You can tell that Halaby was a fiction writer first, because her poems tend toward narrative. However, this is not simply prose broken up into lines. The lines of her poetry goes from long lines to short, choppy lines, which emphasis words and phrases to effectively evoke the disjointed emotions presented. On the whole this is a beautiful and intellectual book of poetry.

Happy National Poetry Month!

If you're interested, here are some ways you can participate:
– Participate in NaPoWriMo - Write 30 poems in 30 days (http://www.napowrimo.net/) — I will be doing this one. :)

– Subscribe to The American Academy of Poets poem-a-day emails (http://www.poets.org/poemADay.php)

– Celebrate Poem In Your Pocket Day on April 18 by carrying a poem to share with friends, family, and others (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5643)

– Choose from 30 different ways to celebrate (http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/94)

– Or just read some poetry this month! Yay!

21. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, by Karen Finneyfrock
Category: Hatchlings

I'm planning to do a video review of this, but haven't gotten around to it yet, so in the meantime, here's the short version.

When Celia Door enters her freshman year of high school, she does so with the sole aim of enacting revenge on Sandy Firestone. But when she unexpectedly makes a friend in cool-kid Drake, she may have to reassess her priorities.

There's a lot of teen angst in this book, but it's very well done, and I resonated with the feeling of loneliness and hurt of being a bullied teenager. Also, Celia is a poet and her poetry within the book is wonderful, something to be expected since Finnefrock herself is a fantastic poet.

It was a very enjoyable story, full of snarky and wounded and wonderful teenagers. I recommend it with the caveat that he teen angst might not be for everyone, particularly adults looking for a more mature YA read.

First Quarter Round Up (January-March)

Total Books Read – 21
Fiction – 10
Nonfiction – 2
Comics/Graphic Novels – 2
Picture Books for My Niece - 4
Poetry – 3

Favorite Reads:
The House of Mirth (audio book), by Edith Wharton
The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff
Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin
Cedar Toothpick: The Tomboy Dioramas, poetry by Stefan Lorenzutti and art by Laurent Le Deunff

Least Favorite Reads:
Light in August (audio book), by William Faulkner

Categories Completed - 0

I'm currently reading:
I'm progressing through Anna Karenina and thoroughly enjoying the seventh Artemis Fowl book, The Atlantis Complex.

I'm also reading Stuck in the Middle with You, a memoir about being a transgender parent.

Going to go a head and switch this over to a new thread.