I love reading A Peek At My Bookshelf. And starting tomorrow, she'll be celebrating her blog hitting over 60,000 hits by giving away 60 books in 6 weeks! (The introduction post). This looks to be a pretty amazing start to the summer! Be sure to bookmark her site (or follow) so you won't miss out on any opportunities!
You can't tell how cute it is. But visit it. I like the greenness and polka-dottness of it all. And the sidebars are a delicious cream color. It was not easy to customize. You had to search the html code to find each little element's color. This wasn't a case where you could just use the fonts and colors layout page. The elements I wanted to change the color of were not editable. So it was a matter of perseverance and stubbornness on my part to get it to do what I wanted.
Brande, Robin. 2009. (October 2009) Fat Cat. Random House. 336 pages.It was an artist's rendering of how these early humans might have lived. There were three men and a woman out in a meadow of some sort. They were all lean and muscular and tan--and did I mention naked? They were gathered around a dead deer, guarding it from a pack of saber-toothed hyenas who were trying to move in and snatch it. One of the men was shouting. The woman had the only weapon--a rock--and she stood there poised to pitch it at the hyenas. It was a great action scene if you're into that sort of thing--the whole anthro-paleo field of studies where you care more about the dead then the living.
They say your muscles have memory. Once you've trained your arms to swing a tennis racket or your legs to ride a bike, you can quit for a while--for years, even--and all it takes is picking up a racket or jumping on a bike again and your muscles remember what to do. They snap right back to performing the way you taught them.
The heart is a muscle, too. And I've been training mine since I was a kid to fall in love with one particular person.... (313)
Garsee, Jeannine. 2009. Say the Word. Bloomsbury. 368 pages.
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Because I just couldn't wait until next Wednesday:
A Monster's Notes by Laurie Sheck.
The description as found on Amazon:
What if Mary Shelley had not invented Frankenstein’s monster but had met him when she was a girl of eight, sitting by her mother’s grave, and he came to her unbidden? What if their secret bond left her forever changed, obsessed with the strange being whom she had discovered at a time of need? What if he were still alive in the twenty-first century?
This bold, genre-defying book brings us the “monster” in his own words. He recalls how he was “made” and how Victor Frankenstein abandoned him. He ponders the tragic tale of the Shelleys and the intertwining of his life with that of Mary (whose fictionalized letters salt the narrative, along with those of her nineteenth-century intimates) in this riveting mix of fact and poetic license. He takes notes on all aspects of human striving—from the music of John Cage to robotics to the Northern explorers whose lonely quest mirrors his own—as he tries to understand the strange race that made yet shuns him, and to find his own freedom of mind.
In the course of the monster’s musings, we also see Mary Shelley’s life from her childhood through her elopement with Percy Bysshe Shelley, her writing of Frankenstein, the births and deaths of her children, Shelley’s famous drowning, her widowhood, her subsequent travels and life’s work, and finally her death from a brain tumor at age fifty-four. The monster’s fierce bond with Mary and the tale of how he ended up in her fiction is a haunted, intense love story, a story of two beings who can never forget each other.
A Monster’s Notes is Sheck’s most thrilling work to date, a luminous meditation on creativity and technology, on alienation and otherness, on ugliness and beauty, and on our need to be understood.
I really, really want to get my hands on this one. I wonder if the publishers know how very very much I love me some monster. I mean, Frankenstein is only one of my favorite, favorite books of all times.
AngelMonster by Veronica Bennet
How I Came To Love A Monster: A Rambling Review of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Wildly Romantic by Catherine M. Andronik
Peck, Dale. 2009. Sprout. Bloomsbury. 277 pages.I have a secret. And everyone knows it. But no one talks about it, at least not out in the open. That makes it a very modern secret, like knowing your favorite celebrity has some weird eccentricity or other, or professional athletes do it for the money, or politicians don't actually have your best interests at heart.
Meet Sprout. The green-haired wonder of a boy who doesn't have it all figured out. He's got some things figured out: he knows he's gay; he knows his father is an alcoholic. But he doesn't have his life all figured out. (Does anybody? If they say they do, are they are lying?) Since his mom died, Sprout's life has been, well, weird. It starts with a sudden move across the country.
"My dad and I moved here four years ago, when I was twelve. Long Island to Kansas. Fifteen hundred miles, most of it on I-70. We drove it in twenty-three hours, pausing only for food--McDonald's, Cracker Barrel, more McDonald's--and gas. There was no reason we didn't stop. It's not like there was anything waiting for us in Kansas. It was more like we were trying to get away--or he was trying to get away, and I was his hostage. I'm not even sure Kansas was our destination, or if it's just where my dad ran out of steam. Maybe it's just where he realized he couldn't run away from his memories."
Sprout is an eccentric teen, no doubt. And it's more than just his green hair. One teacher, Mrs. Miller, notices his genius, his gift for writing, his gift with words. She sees in him a chance to win big. The essay-writing contest. He just needs some polishing, something that she's more than willing to do day after summer day. And since Sprout isn't that popular a kid, he's got the time to spare. Will a summer spent in private with the teacher change a boy's life forever? Maybe, maybe not.
There were a lot of lies in our life, and if I end up telling a few, it's only because I'm repeating what I heard (13)
Mrs. Miller's detentions were famous: thousand-word essays on the history of the wheat; dramatic monologues on the Homestead Act of 1846; or just copying the complete definition of the verb to be from the dictionary--by hand, in crayon, using a different color for each letter. (16)
Sometimes my dad liked to drive. Sometimes my dad liked to take me with him when he drove. Sometimes I didn't manage to sneak into the forest before he found me. This must've been one of those times. So... (22)
I have to admit, though, in the two weeks since Mrs. Miller had put the idea in my head, it had grown on me. The truth is, I do enjoy playing around with words (if you're still reading, you might've noticed that). And I was also beginning to think maybe I had something to say. Like, you know: I'm a creep, I'm a loser, I smell like Teen Spirit but I'm beautiful no matter what they say, and I'm bringing sexy back, yeah! Does that make me crazy? Probably. But now it seemed Mrs. M. was telling me I couldn't write what I wanted. That I had to discuss a topic someone else picked out. This was starting to sound less like an extracurricular activity, more like, well, school. (45)Should Sprout be allowed to write what he wants? To have the freedom to be himself? The freedom to just be. It's a charming novel about a boy's coming of age...and his first real relationship. This relationship is tastefully portrayed--much more tasteful than what I was expecting. (After reading The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second, that is). The emotions are there, but we're not privy to every single detail about Sprout's intimate life. The relationship just is, it doesn't feel like it's there for shock value or anything.
A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck.The return of one of children's literature's most memorable characters is a gift indeed.The eccentric, forceful, big-hearted Grandma Dowdel is the star of the Newbery Medal–winning A Year Down Yonder and Newbery Honor–winning A Long Way from Chicago. And it turns out that her story isn’t over—not even close.
It is now 1958, and a new family has moved in next door to Mrs. Dowdel: a Methodist minister and his wife and kids. Soon Mrs. Dowdel will work her particular brand of charm—or medicine, depending on who you’re asking—on all of them: ten-year old Bob, who is shy on courage in a town full of bullies; his two fascinating sisters; and even Bob’s two parents, who are amazed to discover that the last house in town might also be the most vital.
As Christmas rolls around, the Barnhart family realizes that they’ve found a true home—and a neighbor who gives gifts that will last a lifetime.
How patient are you as a reader? Does a book have to hook you from the start? If you're not 'into' the story by the end of the first or second chapter, do you abandon? Do you stick with it--if it's a slow starter--if it's been recommended to you by a friend? What if it's an award winner? Do you stick with it then? What--in your opinion--makes for a slow start? What are your reasons for staying....or going? How often does it pay off? I mean, if you stick with a slow-book, how often do you end up loving it...and how often do you wish you had your time back? Do you like to be warned ahead of time?
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
It's time for one of my favorite community events. What's on my nightstand? The better question may be what is not on my nightstand.* = By my bed. Have been by my bed for two or three weeks. Need to be reading. But haven't actually started quite yet.
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This would be a GREAT chance for participants in this year's Southern Reading Challenge. (It's hosted by the fabulous Maggie.) And of course it would go with the Romance Challenge as well. And the Classics Challenge. And the Casual Classics Challenge. And if there were a Books-to-Movie Challenge going, you'd know it'd be perfect there too :) (Speaking of which I really, really, really want this one to be held again.) A to Z Challenge: And if you want to state the obvious, G Title, M Author! Decades Challenge: 1930s. And the Banned Books Challenge. And it did win the Pulitzer--Putlitzer Project. (Battle of the Prizes.) And it made The Guardian's 1000 Greatest Novels List which means it's great for Biblio File's challenge. And the 1001 List. 1% Well Read Challenge. Subscribe to receive updates in your favorite reader.
Lawrence, D.H. 1928. Lady Chatterley's Lover.
"Anyhow, nobody knows what should be done in spite of all the talk, the young ones get mad because they've no money to spend. Their whole life depends on spending money, and now they've got none to spend. That's our civilization and our education: bring up the masses to depend entirely on spending money, and then the money gives out." (268)
The novel has its sections where it lays out an argument against this 'modern' life. This philosophy of spend, spend, spend. A philosophy of I want it, I deserve it, I need it...NOW! So it was refreshing to see the novel in that light. It was also weird, in a way, to see the juxtaposition of reason and intellect versus animal instinct (if it feels good do it--and keep doing it) battle it out to see which way makes a person happiest.
"If you could only tell them that living and spending isn't the same thing! But it's no good. If only they were educated to LIVE instead of earn and spend, they could manage very happily on twenty-five shillings." (268)
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Hushlanders, I'd like to take this opportunity to commend you for reading this book. I realize the difficulty you must have gone through to obtain it -- after all, no Librarian is likely to recommend it, considering the secrets it exposes about their kind.
Actually, my experience has been that people generally don't recommend this kind of book at all. It is far too interesting. Perhaps you have had other kinds of books recommended to you. Perhaps, even, you have been given books by friends, parents, or teachers, then told that these books are the type you "have to read." Those books are invariably described as "important" -- which in my experience, pretty much means that they're boring. (Words like meaningful and thoughtful are other good clues.)
If there is a boy in these kinds of books, he will not go on an adventure to fight against Librarians, paper monsters, and one-eyed Dark Oculators. In fact, the lad will not go on an adventure or fight against anything at all. Instead, his dog will die. Or, in some cases, his mother will die. If it's a really meaningful book, both his dog and his mother will die. (Apparently most writers have something against dogs and mothers.)
Neither my mother nor my dog dies in this book. I'm rather tired of those types of stories. In my opinion, such fantastical, unrealistic books -- books in which boys live on mountains, families work on farms, or anyone has anything to do with the Great Depression -- have a tendency to rot the brain. To combat such silliness, I've written the volume you now hold -- a solid, true account. Hopefully, it will help anchor you in reality.
So, when people try to give you some book with a shiny round award on the cover, be kind and gracious, but tell them that you don't read "fantasy," because you prefer stories that are real. Then come back here and continue your research on the cult of evil Librarians who secretly rule the world.
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M,
This is hard. Harder than I expected, even with your help. But I have been practicing, and my preparations go well. I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, that you write me a letter. Second, that you remember to mention the location of your house key in the letter. The trip is a difficult one. I will not be myself when I reach you.
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1. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson
2. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi
3. The Book of Time by Guillaume Prevost
4. The Fire of Ares by Michael Ford
5. Eon Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman.
6. The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins.
7. Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 by PJ Haarsma.
8. Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar.
9. Gone by Michael Grant.
10. A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman.
11. The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling.
12. The Warden. Anthony Trollope
13.Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
© Becky Laney of Becky’s Book Reviews
