39 and 40

let me just get this out of the way: i heart chuck bass.  yes.  i am THAT 30-year-old who must have her gossip girl fix each week and counts the cw as her 2nd favorite network (no fears, nbc, you are still numero uno . . . as long as you keep jim halpern around.  but back to the books - upper eastside?  new york city wealthy lifestyle?  great fashions?  a lovable cad?  secrets?  true-love beyond class . . . wait.  don't i watch this show?  no. no you don't because these books are set in 1899!!!  a turn-of-the-century historical fiction  gossip girl-esque series?  oh my.  my nerdiness will not contain itself.

i have downed both of these books in record time.  i was craving something fun to get into and i found such respite in the luxe and rumors by anna godbersen.  now that i've gobbled these up, i have to wait until january 27th of 2009 for the third, envy, to make its appearance.  that's okay.  maybe i can win some cool nars goodies from godbersen's website.  (yeah, i am not sure i get the connection, but as far as sponsors go, you can't get too much better than nars!)

35 - rebel angels

oops.  i actually read this back in july.  but you know, since i pretty much sucked at keeping up with this blog over the summer, i'm having to backtrack now.

this is the sequel to libba bray's a great and terrible beauty.  like the first book, i LOVED this one, too.  it's so steeped in the mythical and the descriptions are so vivid.  are they for everyone?  nope.  but i really like them.  i'm being cheap right now and waiting to buy the third book until it is in paperback.  i've got several more months to wait . . . 

34 - perfect

my friend, lori, suggested that i read natasha friend's books.  at the time she suggested them, i had several books in my arms for purchase, so i had to file the thought away for a while.  which i did, until last weekend when i went in to border to buy pride and prejudice.  i figured i owed it to myself to buy a book i would probably enjoy reading during the purchase of what has now become my nemesis.  (can a book be a nemesis?)

anyway.  of course, lori was right.  perfect was, well, perfect.  and fast to read.  it's already found a place on my student shelf in the classroom and will probably be the first book i do a podcast on for my school website.  i'm fighting the urge to go buy the other two books she has written.  i will probably lose that battle.

31 - the dogs of babel

i picked this book up at my parents' house, so it isn't something that would have caught my eye on my own.  that said, i really enjoyed reading it.  the premise is horribly sad: a man comes home from work to find that his wife has fallen out of a tree in their backyard and has died. their dog, Lorelei, witnessed it all.  the first chapter of this book sucked me in faster than any other book i've read lately.  The rest of the book is the journey through the husband's grief and how he just can't accept the explanation for his wife's death.  a linguist, he decides that he is going to teach the dog to talk so she can explain what happened that day.  

farfetched?  a little.  but i think that is why i liked the book so much.  the linguistics plot is interesting and somewhat creepy.  i haven't don't much research to find out if carolyn parkhurst imagined a lot of the "facts" that appear in the novel or if they come from actual historical accounts.  if they are imagined, then WOW.  she does an amazing job of creating very realistic science.  if the are based on historical events, then WOW.  disturbing.

29 - eye of the world

part of the reason i started this blog was so that i would have a way to track what i was reading and avoid falling into the trap of reading the same kinds of books i always read.  i'll be honest.  i don't think i've done a very good job of breaking out of my literary comfort zones.  but yall, i deserve like a million bonus points for eye of the world by robert jordan.

i'm not a fantasy reader.  granted, i love me some good ol' harry potter (if you are fantasy fanatic and are offended by me putting HP into your ranks, i'm sorry, but seriously, that's as close as i've ever really been), but as for going to the actual fantasy section of the bookstore/library to find a book to read . . . well, i'd never done that before i went to purchase this book.  i decided to read at least one of robert jordan's books after a couple of people told me how much they enjoyed his series and after hearing that from them references to his books seemed to keep popping up around me.

and as much as this book frustrated me - it took me nearly TWO WEEKS TO READ! and that NEVER happens - i really did find myself drawn into it.  as i am sitting around this summer, trying to make some progress in my own writing, i couldn't help but be amazed at the world jordan created.  everything in this book was imagined by him and all of the 800 pages of complicated stories weaving in and out of each other had to be organized by him.  i can't even begin to think of how he managed to do that for one book, let alone his ELEVEN others.  

will i read more fantasy?  hmm.  i'm really kind of attached to some of the characters from eye of the world, so i would like to see what ends up happening to them.  but to be honest, after two weeks with one book i'm pretty exhausted.  perhaps i will get around to reading the other books, but i'll have to be okay with only reading a couple a year.  no gobbling up these books as i tend to do with so many others.  maybe there is a lesson in slowing down to read and imagine for me?

27 - code talker

i picked code talker by joseph bruchac up a few weeks ago and finally got around to reading it the other day.  let me just say this . . . there is A LOT of history packed into 214 pages.  i learned more about the pacific front of world war II from this book than i think we ever talked about in high school.  (and yes, i realize how disappointing that is.)  both of my grandfathers served in the pacific, so i was drawn into this book in a different way than i normally am.  i was constantly wondering if  bruchac's VERY REALISTIC descriptions of the battles were what my grandfathers saw and experienced.  it is kind of a reality check to realize that they probably did - and more.

because the code talkers were navajo*, much of this book concentrates on what life was like for navajo boys and girls in the 1920's and 1930's as they (like many other children from tribes all over the country) were being sent off to boarding schools where they were forced into assimilation (if you want to read a powerful short story about this topic, go here).  the greatest irony of this assimilation is that these children were constantly being told how unimportant their native language was.  thankfully - for so many reasons, they continued to speak it and in just a few short years that "unimportant" language ended up saving thousands of lives.  being a language person, the portions of this novel dedicated to stressing how important communication is and how it connects us to our past blew me away.  being a teacher, i can't wait to use portions of this book with my classes this year.

while this wasn't a suck-you-in-can't-put-it-down type of book (for me), it has sparked an interest to learn more about world war II, specifically the pacific.  in my mind, any book that inspires more questions has done it's job.

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*i knew that the u.s. military recruited people who could speak native languages during world wars I and II.  not just the navajo were recruited, but (according to the book) the navajo code talkers were the only group of men to create a code based on their language.  

26 - a great and terrible beauty

don't get me wrong, i love harry potter as much as the next person, but to be quite honest, i've never been one to get into books about the occult.  not for any ethical reason, i just tend to drift toward memoirs and biographies, historical fiction, and contemporary reality fiction when i am walking the aisles of barnes and noble.  but here's the deal with teaching adolescents - THEY tend to LOVE books like harry potter, cirque du freak, twilight, etc.

i've been meaning to read libba bray's gemma doyle trilogy for the last year or so, but never got around to it.  this summer, though, i have decided is my gemma doyle summer, especially after reading a great and terrible beauty and now wanting to read what happens next.  despite being a little confused at the end, i really enjoyed this book.  it kind of reminds me of a more mature secret garden, but that is probably just because both books start out in india in the late 1800's. hopefully, my confusion will get cleared up after some discussion, rereading, or moving into rebel angels, book two.

i'll definitely be mentioning this book (and hopefully the other two if they are as good) to my students when we return to school - especially to those who seem to think that life only exists in forks, washington with bella, edward, and jacob.  while i must admit that the twilight series is fun to read, i liked AGTB just as much (and maybe more!).  most of the reason for that is because the heroine, gemma, is awesome.  i know, i know . . . kind of a weak description.  but seriously, i like how bray made gemma a character who is CONSTANTLY questioning everything she has been told about who she is suppose to be.  there is a definite feminist message to this book, which is made even more clear at the end in the author interview printed at the back of the copy i read.  i love me some girl power books, so this one quickly gained my appreciation.

also, libba bray - yay texas girls who write! - keeps a blog, so if you like to read writers' blogs like i do, check hers out.  i just found it today, so i'm not sure what all is on it.

22 - the nature of jade

so here's another deb caletti book . . . and just like the first book i reviewed on this blog, i was really drawn into this one. i'm starting to admire caletti's ability to write about common societal issues that tend to get overlooked in the YA genre. in the nature of jade those two issues are anxiety disorders and teen fatherhood.  there is a line in the book where jade says, "i am not my disorder" and while that is a powerful message to send about mental illness, i also feel like it is an honest description of this novel.  caletti has avoided writing a novel that reads like a diagnosis and also is able to stay away from defining her character (jade) only by some sort of textbook description of anxiety.  but yet, now that i've finished the book, i feel like i have more of an understanding of what anxiety is and how it touches every part of a person's life as they are dealing with it.

on a personal note, i should be back on track with reading now.  school is out and i've got a stack of all sorts of 'stuff' waiting for me.

19 - does my head look big in this?

i'm trying to find good excerpts to use for a lesson in class next week, so i've been reading a lot of YA lately. i came across this book at the local library and was intrigued. (today, i was happy to see it on the shelves of our school library.) very simply, amal - the main character - is the only muslim student at her ritzy private school, so she already is pretty conspicuous. but then, she decides that she wants to wear the hijab. i learned a lot about islam while reading this book . . . a very different viewpoint than what we are exposed to in the media; a very intellectual understanding of a religion. amal (i had a student with this name one year and i love it! it's so pretty!) has a very authentic teenage voice, although not very stereotypical aussie, which i found interesting since the book is set in australia. i'm wondering if they changed some language for the american audience? or maybe i just have a weak understanding of how people in australia really talk? that's probably closer to the point.

anyway. it was a very quick read, i learned a bit, and i laughed. all in all, a good way to spend a sunday afternoon.

p.s. the new sarah dessen book, lock and key, comes out tomorrow! woohoo!

17 - the wednesday wars

i saw this book a few weeks ago at the bookstore, but fought off the urge to buy it. so, i was really glad to come across it at the library the other day. gary schmidt wrote lizzie bright and the buckminster boy, which is one of my favorite juvenile literature books from the last few years. the wednesday wars is set in long island during the school year of 1967-1968. camillo junior high, where it is set, is a school almost 50% jewish and 50% catholic, except for holling - the narrator. holling is the lone presbyterian in his 7th grade english class and so he gets left alone with mrs. baker - the teacher who 'hates his guts' - every wednesday when the jewish kids leave for hebrew school at 1:45 and the catholic kids leave for catechism classes at 1:55. their wednesdays together start out as days filled with extra chores for holling, but eventually become shakespeare class. and of course, mrs. baker never really hates holling . . .

i'm sitting here typing this and really wishing that i taught younger kids - something that rarely happens. i won't bore you with the lesson ideas that are swarming, but trust me, they are there. i love finding juvenile literature books that aren't 'dumbed down' to their audience and both of schmidt's books that i've read avoid that simplicity. now i want to read his other two books - aaron's way and straw into gold.

13 - the new yorkers: a novel

it took me forever to read this book. who knows what the fines are that i have wracked up at my local library . . . i'm not so good at remembering to renew things. anyway. this was a different kind of book than what i was expecting. i like novels that are told from several perspectives, so i liked it on that level. dogs play a huge role in the story and you know what pets as main characters can lead to, right? yeah. so let's just say there were some tears and quite a few cuddles with my own pup.

9 - teen idol

so. meg cabot. i was really really really into her books a few years ago. but my reading lists got overwhelmed with so many other books, i just had to take a break from her. teen idol was the first of her books that i'd read in a while. the pink, purple, and silver cover art probably gives away that it is whole-heartedly a F-U-N book. right now, though, people i'm in the midst of teaching about the Holocaust to one set of students, then i will turn around and teach it to my other set (all in all, probably about 3 months on such a heavy subject). PLUS, the albatross that is the joy of ELA 8th grade teachers in tejas is right around the corner. yup. taks. so seriously, with just those two things combined, i need a little a little fluff - although i really could go on and on about the strong girl characters that cabot ALWAYS creates and the positive messages her books send toward teenage girls, which means her books are never truly and really FLUFF. instead, i'll tell you that if you like to read writers' blogs, you should check hers out.

8 - bloom

so, i am an official resident of where i live now . . . i finally got my drivers license, am registered to vote, AND have a library card. it only took 19 months . . .

bloom has the distinction of being the first book i used my card for. exciting. i know. anyway. it was a very fast read and is, of course, a YA book. hey, i spent most of january reading outside of my comfort zone. give a girl a break. i'd never read any of elizabeth scott's books before. she is very much like sarah dessen and deb caletti. i liked bloom. it did kind of drag a little for me, but it was a sweet story. she has a couple of other books out, so i'll be looking into them i am sure. there is no doubt in my mind that mis estudiantes would like bloom, which, you know, is really the most important part of it. i'm starting book talks in march and will make sure to include it.

okay. so. i need some suggestions on books to read. i have garden spells on hold (look at me actually using the library services!) because i've only heard great things about it. any others? i kind of feel like a biography, so if you know of some good and interesting ones, let me know!
have any of you read any of the books written by obama, mccain, h. clinton? worth reading? just curious!

2 - Straight Talking

Still working on reading some real literature like Steinbeck and Emerson, but in the mean time I really needed to be lazy this morning and read a good standby. So, I settled on Straight Talking by Jane Green. I am a big fan of hers because she writes "chick lit" without succumbing any real formula. For example, all of her heroins are pretty strong women prior to the inevitable romancing at place in "chick lit." Their "Prince Charmings" aren't there to save them, which is refreshing to read. Also, every single one of her books is incredibly different from her others.

That said, ST isn't my favorite of hers, but I hadn't read it in a while, so I gave it a go. It's a little more, um, shall we say, racy than any of her other books. But it was a quick, fast read. Now that I've gotten some entertainment reading out of the way, maybe I can get down to the heavy stuff.

Rating: *** of 6

1 - Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Book One
Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

Well, I'm off to a slow start with school starting back up and the Iowa caucus last night and the Orange Bowl (Rock Chalk!) and the insanity surrounding Britney Spears. There's just been so much distracting me that it was kind of difficult to focus on this book. Overall, it was a sweet little read. I've read some of Caletti's other books and they were much more intense than this one. It's YA, so I've yet to wander out of my comfort zone. People compare her a lot to Sarah Dessen, of whom I am a major fan and kind of want to be when I grow up. I don't get as drawn into the Caletti books as I do Dessen's (maybe because Dessen's books are all set in the south?), but they are really different stories with some pretty colorful characters. One of the chapters in H,B,S starts with the line, "The day we stole Lillian from the nursing home . . . ", so you know there's some crazy adventure waiting around the corner.

Rating: ***1/2 out of 6