What I Read Wednesday

I hope you get a lot of books for Christmas! Or if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have some good books to read today.

The Valley of Amazement
Every now and then, I forget how much I enjoy Amy Tan. This book helped me remember. The Valley of Amazement follows the intertwined lives of a mother and daughter: Lucia (sometimes Lulu) and and Violet. Lulu is a white woman from San Francisco who runs one of the top courtesan houses in Shanghai and is estranged from Violet's father, the Chinese painter she followed across the ocean while pregnant with Violet. Through a series of events somewhat out of her control, Lulu boards a ship back to San Francisco without Violet. Violet is sold to another courtesan house and begins training to live the life of a courtesan--a life with which she's familiar but never thought she'd follow. There were parts of the book that drug for me and were maybe a little too detail-oriented (it is not a quick read), but I really enjoyed it. Violet and Lulu do not live easy lives, nor do many of the other characters within this novel and it's easy to get drawn into their struggles and find yourself rooting for them (most of them).

The Apartment: A Novel
I think it was maybe not a great idea to follow a novel that spans forty years with a novel that spans one day. I loved this book in a sense (except that the author didn't use quotation marks and I know that's prose and acceptable and blah blah, but it bugs so much) because the plot line was intriguing. A man comes to an unnamed European city after working as a contractor in Iraq. Although it's just one day in his life, searching for an apartment, he flashes back routinely to Iraq in moments that are eye-opening. That said, I felt really disconnected to the character. I don't know if it was the style of writing or that I read it after a fairly long novel with massive character development or what, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about his day. I just wanted his day to end so I could put the book down.

The Beginning of Everything
At the end of his Junior year, Ezra Faulkner has it all: he's on the varsity tennis team, he's popular and he has a gorgeous girlfriend. Then one night leaving a party, he's hit by a car, his leg is shattered… and just like that, everything is gone. Ezra is forced to find his way back to his old best friend, an unpopular boy who is known for being the kid who once caught a decapitated head on a ride at Disney Land. Ezra joins the debate team, falls in love with a mysterious, troubled girl named Cassidy and struggles, really struggles, to find himself and discover who he is and where he fits in along the way. I loved this book, the characters and especially the ending.

I Am the Messenger
Does anyone remember the CBS show "Joan of Arcadia"? I loved that show. This book reminded me slightly of that. Ed is ordinary in every sense of the word. He's a 19 year old just drifting through life with an equally aimless group of friends, until one day he's in the midst of a bank robbery. Compelled by he doesn't know what, Ed picks up the gun dropped by the robber and apprehends him, causing him to become an ordinary hero. After this event, Ed begins receiving anonymous messages on playing cards. The messages all involve a person and it's up to Ed to figure out what he has to do to help this person--or maybe the people around them. Ed is pushed to find who is sending the cards, but also, to make the world around him a better place. I thought this book was lovely, though I know there was some criticism of the ending. I liked it. I had to read it twice, but once it sunk in, it worked for me. The whole idea of "ordinary Ed" making right in the world was beautiful and that sold this book for me.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives)
I was one of the people who didn't really care for the book Wild. I knew it was a memoir, but I found myself not that interested in the author's journey of self-discovery and blah blah, but I came out of the book really fascinated by the Pacific Crest Trail and have been having one of those Langston Hughes "what happens to a dream deferred?" moments ever since. Like, I really want to hike the PCT someday, even though by all accounts the actual hiking of it sounds miserable and I would have to split it into two summers, unless I wait until I'm retired and would I still be able to hike that far when I'm retired? Probably not. But I really want to do it someday, so I've read as many books as I can on the subject. This book is technically about hiking the John Muir Trail, which splits from the PCT, but it was still a good read. While it was a memoir, the author still gave good, vivid descriptions of the wilderness and I felt that she gave apt descriptions of the differences in hiking in the wilderness for men vs women, in terms of fear and safety. She did an excellent job of balancing her insights on the beauty of the nature on the trail with her thoughts on hiking, her trail partners and the people she meets on the trail. This was a really good read.

The Book Thief
I've been wanting to read this one for quite awhile, but the wait list at the library was miles long. I was so excited when it finally came in, especially because I'm teaching The Diary of Anne Frank and about the move on to The Devil's Arithmetic next. Good timing! This story was fascinating. It is narrated by Death, giving it an entirely unique point-of-view. First person but also third person, in a way. Death is, as you can imagine, quite busy during World War II. Death is detached because he's so busy and yet, he tells us that he always cradles the souls of children in his arms. From the outside, Death observes a young girl named Liesel who is a book thief, stealing her first book following the death of her brother. As the story and the war unfolds, so does Liesel's journey. It's difficult to discuss the plot without giving much away, but suffice to say, this was a beautiful story, with even more beautiful prose--and yes, I was sobbing at the end. Read it.

Attachments
I love Fangirl and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, so I really wanted to read this. One thing the author does is write characters really well. Lincoln is the IT guy that everyone who works dreads: the guy who reads your emails if they web filter flags a word. One day, he comes across a series of emails by Jennifer and Beth, but he doesn't warn them. The next day, he doesn't warn them again. As the story unfolds, it switches between Lincoln's life and Beth and Jennifer's perspective, told via their emails. As always with her stories, the characters are engaging and fascinating and you feel like you know a piece of them when you finish the story.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

Well, I failed at last Wednesday. Wednesday needs to stop being so busy. I also read all Young Adult books in the last two weeks, so if that's not your thing, you probably won't find this interesting. OR you should try one of these books. Seriously. Just choose one. The YA Lit field has come a long way in the last few years.

The Thing About Luck
I've been trying to read more National Book Award winners or finalists and this one was a winner. I loved the story. It was simple, but really engaging and peaceful. Summer is a Japanese-American girl who travels with her brother and grandparents to work to harvest wheat in the Midwest. There's a lot going on thematically about hard work and culture and family and although this wasn't an exciting story, it was one that unfolded slowly and pulled me in. Bonus: There were drawings of combines, which Tommy loved.

Champion: A Legend Novel
This is the last book in the Legend trilogy. I was a little wary going into this because I still don't know how I feel about the conclusion of the Divergent trilogy, but overall, I was pretty happy with it. The plot was still action filled and the split character story telling worked. There were some interesting story arcs and explorations into the dystopian world that was set forth in Legend that kept me reading. I really enjoyed this trilogy.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
In Tana's world, vampires are a normal, every day threat and places called Coldtowns exist for vampires, those infected by vampires and those who want to be vampires. Tana wakes up in the aftermath of a party where everyone is dead, save for herself, her now infected ex-boyfriend and an ancient, hunted vampire. Somehow, this plot line not only completely worked, but really spun a pretty convincing bleak tale. It's not a sparkly vampire story, though it does involve a little bit of romance, but there are definitely some strong, true themes about human nature within an engaging story. I loved this one.

Far Far Away
This was an NBA finalist and one that I've had on my list for awhile now. Jeremy Johnson Johnson is your ordinary teenage boy, except for one thing: he hears ghostly voices. Specifically, the voice of Jacob Grimm who is Jeremy's somewhat fatherly spirit guide. Jacob knows that he's been left on this Earth to protect Jeremy from the Finder of Occasions, only he doesn't know who the Finder is. As the story unfolds, it becomes more than just a story about a boy and a ghost; it's very quickly apparent that it's a fairy tale in and of itself. It was, in parts, predictable, but aren't all fairy tales? My heart still pounded in moments, despite being able to predict what might happen next, and I found myself not wanting to put this one down. It was incredibly creative and so well-written.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

So last week, it was Wednesday and I was all, "I've only read one book. I'm a failure." Then I realized it was actually THURSDAY, and I was a really big failure. Sorry about that, blog readers.

Light from a Distant Star: A Novel
This is one of those books where a young teen protagonist is set in a situation where she has to make a choice that may disrupt her family life and the world she knows. The book covers a few months in Nellie's life and follows her somewhat boring, but somewhat tumultuous family life. Her dad is a slightly drift less dreamer who is more focused on writing his book than he is on earning money to provide for his family. Her mom is tired of having to provide for everyone. Her older, half-sister Ruth is on the search for her real father, who lives in Australia. Her younger brother Henry is weird and just can't quite fit in. Her grandpa Charlie owns a junkyard and lacks certain moral and ethical guidelines. Add in a vivacious tenant, Dolly, who is a stripper--or a singer and dancer, as Nellie thinks, and Nellie has quite the adult world to learn to navigate. I could see this as a pretty strong coming of age story and really enjoyed the author's prose.

UnSouled (Unwind Dystology)
I thought this was to be the last book in the Unwind series, then realized about 20 pages from the end that unless there was going to be a very rapid tying up of everything, it obviously wasn't. A quick Google search explained that no, it isn't the last book in the series and I have to wait longer for the last book?! No! It's been awhile since I reviewed the first book in the Unwind series and since it's really hard to review the third book, I'll just tell you why you should look into this series. Unwind (book 1) takes place in a dystopian future set after the Heartland War, a war fought over the issue of pro-choice vs. pro-life. Both sides came to an agreement: abortion is illegal, but if you have an unwanted baby, you can leave it on someone's porch, as long as you don't get caught. This is called storking. If you're storked, you're obligated to raise this child. Oh, and there's another catch… somewhere along the way, someone invented a technology that allowed every part of the human body to be harvested as an organ donation. Amazing, right? Except that there's always a need for organ and well, with the public school system in collapse in the midst of the Heartland War, there was this issue of these pesky, feral teens running around. So, a new law was put in place where you can choose to Unwind (full body organ donation) your child at the age of 13. Storked children are often at the most risk, but biological parents choose to Unwind children who misbehave. And children in state homes are at the highest risk, unless they can demonstrate they have something worth saving. This is not a pro-life/pro-choice statement disguised in a book, not by any means, but it is a powerful book on maybe how we treat children and teens in our society. The third book was as strong as the first and I absolutely cannot wait for the fourth and final book.

The Signature of All Things: A Novel
I am one of the five people who did not read Eat, Pray, Love, so I wasn't sure what to expect of this author. I was pleasantly, incredibly surprised. Despite being a pretty big book, I finished this over the weekend because I was very drawn in to the story and characters. This book follows Henry Whittaker and later, his daughter Alma through much of the 18th and 19th century. Both are interested in matters of botany, both of which take them over the globe. Henry was a boy who went from poor to wealth, but despite raising Alma in luxury, Henry and his wife Beatrix still instilled a work ethic in her. Indeed, every night Beatrix would sit with Alma and her adopted sister Prudence and recount how they could have bettered themselves that day. As the story evolves, Alma enters into a tenuous love with a man named Ambrose who makes his living (if you can call it that) drawing orchids. She becomes somewhat of a scholar in the field of studying mosses, yet not as well known as if she'd been a man. She travels to Tahiti and discovers much about life and herself. There's so much more, but you should definitely read this one for yourself.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
I've been wanting to read this book for awhile now and finally got around to it. Junior is a teen growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation who doesn't feel like he belongs. When he gets a math book, opens it and sees his mother's name on the inside cover, he snaps. He realizes they get so little at the reservation that their supplies are outdated by thirty years. He realizes he has to get off the reservation or he will never leave, so he makes the move to transfer to the school for rich white kids, where the only other Indian is their mascot. I loved this book. It was based on the author's own experience and it spoke of the rage and sadness felt at the plight of his people, at the poverty and alcoholism, but it was also so funny and had such strong voice. It was an incredibly easy read, and I found myself feeling like I knew Junior and wanting to read so much more.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Movie Pack {Giveaway}

Giveaway closed. random.org chose comment #1, Megan. Thanks for entering!

I always think of The Hunger Games as the trilogy that launched a new genre of dystopian young adult lit, so like many people, I'm pretty excited for movie two: Catching Fire (click that to watch the exclusive trailer if you haven't already!).

Catching Fire is set to release on November 22 and as book 2 of The Hunger Games trilogy begins with Katniss and Peeta returning home safe after the 74th annual Hunger Games. But like life in any dystopian society, nothing is truly as it seems and along her victory tour, Katniss senses that rebellion is brewing, one surely to simmer over as President Snow announces his plans for the 75th annual Hunger Games.

In celebration of the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, I have a prize pack for one lucky reader!

The prize pack includes:
*One (1) movie poster
*One (1) official movie T-shirt with Mockingjay logo
*Two (2) wristbands
*One (1) iPhone cleaner
*One (1) iPhone dot

To enter, leave a comment telling me which book of The Hunger Games trilogy was your favorite. Me? Catching Fire was my favorite. Haven't read the series? GASP. Go out and buy the books right now! You can still enter, just let me know who your favorite character is.
Giveaway closes Tuesday, November 19th. Only open to US residents.

I received the same prize pack in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

What I Read Wednesday

I read some great books this week. You should add all of them to your list.

Somebody Up There Hates You: A Novel
Richard Casey is 17 years old and residing in a hospice unit. As you can imagine, he's unhappy about it. Although he has cancer, he tells anyone who asks that he has SUTHY, which stands for Somebody Up There Hates You. In hospice, he meets a 15 year old girl, Sylvie, and the two develop a relationship… or at least, want to help one another not die with certain things unconsummated. Is this book The Fault in Our Stars? Well, no, but few books are. Still, I loved it. I loved Richard's voice, the strange twists, the secondary characters in the hospice, the way that the author didn't gloss over the reality of the fact that sometimes, kids die and it's really sad.

Prodigy: A Legend Novel
This is the sequel to Legend, which I reviewed last week. I felt like this was a much stronger book than Legend, but it always seems like the middle book of a trilogy is the best (at least to me, anyway). I felt like this book explored the dystopian world more and explained what happened to create The Republic and The Colonies. Of course, the end leaves you hanging, but fortunately I came into the series just in time for the final book to be released.

The Circle
This book was incredibly fascinating. The main character, Mae, gets a job at Circle, the most powerful internet/social media/everything technological company. Hired in by her friend Annie who is in one of the top employees of the company, Mae is overwhelmed by the huge, beautiful campus. As time goes on, she realizes there's no need to ever leave. Parties after work, dorms on campus, Circle has everything. Except not everyone in Mae's life may agree with her assessment on Circle. While there were some incredibly obvious plot points in this book, I was able to overlook them because the overarching theme of this book was so powerful and the dystopian world that Eggers set up was so disturbing in the fact that it could be so real, so soon.

Rustication: A Novel
I think I would've enjoyed this book a lot more if I wouldn't have been so tired, but it's been a week of going to bed by 9 every night. Okay. 8:30. Still, I would give it a solid 3ish out of 5 stars, even with my tired brain. This novel is set in 1863 and is told through the journal of Richard, a former Cambridge student who has been rusticated. Side note: A google search taught me that rustication is used at Cambridge, Oxford and Durham and means, "being sent down or expelled temporarily." It's used more modernly to talk about students who leave temporarily but was originally derived from the Latin word rus, countryside, as most students were sent back to their families in the country. Although situations vary, some students may be disallowed from entering the university after rustication. So, that was interesting. Yay for learning! I'm going to start threatening my students with rustication instead of detention.
The events surrounding Richard's rustication aren't very clear, though the reader knows he has an unpleasant opium addiction and he likes girls but maybe in a slightly awkward way. Upon returning to his family, things start to go haywire in his town. His neighbors start receiving threatening and slightly dirty letters, farm animals are mutilated… and Richard is, of course, the prime suspect. All in all, the premise was interesting, but I guess I struggled with the sheer amount going on in the novel--which may have been my tired brain. That said, it was definitely an interesting plot and I did enjoy the ending, it just lost me a little bit in the middle.

The Isle of Youth: Stories
Every time I read a book of short stories, I think I remind myself that I'm not a fan of short story collections. However, this one really grabbed me. Each short story in this book features a female main character who is fighting some sort of uphill battle, but who also really isn't to keen on changing her uphill battle. Or who maybe doesn't really know how to change her battle, in some circumstances. They were all really strong stories, and I saw myself in so many aspects of the different characters the author created. This is one that I would recommend reading even if you aren't a fan of the short story genre.

What are you reading?

Ever Happily

She asked me, "Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?"
twenty one pilots



Life with a six year old boy who pushes himself to be the very best at school and then collapses at home has been a little rough lately, but this photo makes me step back and notice. These are the moments I live for, the nose crinkling moments where he's so very mine, where he'll be my boy forever.

Gorgeous photo by Donya Marie Photography. Are you local? You should hire her. She's the best.