Sunday Salon: Reading, Read, To Read #40

Nominations opened Friday for the 2010 season of the Cybils. Nominations  remain open until October 15th at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. What can you nominate? Children's/YA Books published between October 16, 2009 and October 15, 2010. What are the categories? 

• Fiction Picture Books 
• Easy Readers
• Short Chapter Books
• Fantasy and Science Fiction (Elementary/Middle)
• Fantasy and Science Fiction (Teen)
• Graphic Novels (Elementary/Middle)
• Graphic Novels (Teen)
• Nonfiction/Informational Picture Books
• Nonfiction Middle Grade/Teen
• Poetry
• Middle Grade Fiction
• Young Adult Fiction

Next weekend is the 24 Hour Read-a-thon. It is not too late to sign up! So far there are over 300 of us signed up to read! This week's weekly geeks is related to the read-a-thon. I am planning on participating. As for what I'm reading--I hope to get MANY things read. I'd love to read some MG/YA fiction. And it would be great to read a graphic novel or two. And, of course, I'd LOVE to read more short stories from the Stories of Ray Bradbury!

Earlier this week, I posted "my numbers" for this quarter--July through September.

What I've Read This Week:

I Am Number Four. Pittacus Lore. 2010. August 2010. HarperCollins. 440 pages.
Bleak House. Charles Dickens. 1852-1853. 912 pages.
Evil Genius. Wilkie Collins. 1886. 348 pages.   
God's Mighty Acts in Creation by Starr Meade. 2010. Crossway. 112 pages. 
Fallen. Lauren Kate. 2009. Random House. 464 pages.
The Birthday Ball. Lois Lowry. With illustrations by Jules Feiffer. 2010. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 186 pages.
Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia. Barbara O'Connor. 2003. FSG. 112 pages.
Justin Case: School, Drool, And Other Daily Disasters. Rachel Vail. 2010. Feiwel & Friends. 256 pages.
The Pirate of Kindergarten. George Ella Lyon. 2010. June 2010. Simon & Schuster. 40 pages.
Ninja Cowboy Bear Presents The Way of the Ninja. David Bruins. Illustrated by Hilary Leung. 2010. September 2010. Kids Can Press. 32 pages.
Tuck Me In. Dean Hacohen and Sherry Scharschmidt. 2010. Candlewick Press. 40 pages.
Lost Boy: The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan. Jane Yolen. Illustrated by Steve Adams. 2010. August 2010. Penguin. 40 pages.
Liberty or Death: The Surprising Story of Runaway Slaves Who Sided With the British During The American Revolution. By Margaret Whitman Blair. 2010. National Geographic. 64 pages.
 
Coming Soon:

They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group. Susan Campbell Bartoletti. 2010. August 2010. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 172 pages.

Wee Free Men. Terry Pratchett. 2003. HarperCollins. 400 pages.


Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Alan Bradley. 2009. Doubleday Canada. 304 page

The Lighter Side of Life and Death. C.K. Kelly Martin. 2010. May 2010. Random House. 240 pages.

Ender's Game: Battle School. (Graphic Novel) Orson Scott Card. Pasqual Ferry. Christopher Yost. 2009. Marvel. 128 pages.

Currently Reading: 

The Maze Runner. James Dashner. 2009. Random House. 384 pages.

Hat Full of Sky. Terry Pratchett. 2004. HarperCollins. 288 pages.


The Stories of Ray Bradbury. Introduction by Christopher Buckley. 2010. April 2010. Knopf, Doubleday. 1112 pages.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

I Am Number Four (YA)

I Am Number Four. Pittacus Lore. 2010. August 2010. HarperCollins. 440 pages.

From the prologue: The door starts shaking. It's a flimsy thing made of bamboo shoots held together with tattered lengths of twine. The shake is subtle and stops almost immediately. They lift their heads to listen, a fourteen-year-old boy and a fifty-year-old man, who everyone thinks is his father but who was born near a different jungle on a different planet hundreds of lightyears away.

From chapter one: In the beginning there were nine of us. We left when we were young, almost too young to remember. Almost.

Wow! This is a book I could NOT put down! So intense, so compelling. I just had to keep turning pages! It's a science fiction novel with a great premise. Nine kids and their guardians are sent from the war-torn planet of Lorien; they seek refuge on Earth. But the hunt continues. The hostile aliens--the Mogadorians--have followed them here, seek them still. But. Because of a charm, these nine can only be killed in order of their number. If they remain apart from one another. This is how the novel opens:

In the beginning we were a group of nine.
Three are gone, dead.
There are six of us left.
They are hunting us, and they won't stop until they've killed us all.
I am Number Four.
I know that I am next.

Our narrator is always changing identities because he is always on the run. His guardian, Henri, protects, guides, trains him well. We know him as "John Smith". He is a young man--an alien--coming into his powers, his legacies. These powers are to be used defensively in battle. And he spends much time in training preparing for the inevitable showdown, the big confrontation. But. When he's not training he's struggling with typical problems--making friends, falling in love, learning to drive, going to school, facing bullies, etc.

I enjoyed this one very much. I would definitely recommend it!



© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The First Twelve: Stories of Ray Bradbury, part one

The Stories of Ray Bradbury. Introduction by Christopher Buckley. 2010. April 2010. Knopf, Doubleday. 1112 pages. [I've read 127/1112]

I am really enjoying reading The Stories of Ray Bradbury. While I haven't consistently been reading from it the past few weeks, I have managed to read the first twelve stories--the first 127 pages. (I hope to read more in it throughout October. It is the perfect read for R.I.P. V.)

I've read:

The Night

You are a child in a small town. You are, to be exact, eight years old, and it is growing late at night.

Homecoming

"Here they come," said Cecy, lying there flat in her bed.
"Where are they?" cried Timothy from the doorway.

Uncle Einar

"It will take only a minute," said Uncle Einar's sweet wife.
"I refuse," he said. "And that takes but a second."

The Traveler

Father looked into Cecy's room just before dawn. She lay upon her bed. He shook his head uncomprehendingly and waved at her.

The Lake

They cut the sky down to my size and threw it over the Michigan lake, put some kids yelling on yellow sand with bouncing balls, a gull or two, a criticizing parent, and me breaking out of a wet wave, finding this world very bleary and moist.

The Coffin

There was any amount of banging and hammering for a number of days; deliveries of metal parts and oddments which Mr. Charles Braling took into his little workshop with a feverish anxiety. 

The Crowd

 Mr. Spallner put his hands over his face. There was the feeling of movement in space, the beautifully tortured scream, the impact and tumbling of the car with wall, through wall, over and down like a toy, and him hurled out of it. Then--silence.

The Scythe

Quite suddenly there was no more road. 

There Was an Old Woman

"No, there's no lief arguin'. I got my mind fixed. Run along with your silly wicker basket. Land, where you ever get notions like that? You just skit out of here; don't bother me, I got my tattin' and knittin' to do, and no never minds about tall, dark gentlemen with fangled ideas."

There Will Come Soft Rains

In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty.  

Mars is Heaven

The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of space.  

The Silent Towns

There was a little white silent town on the edge of the dead Martian sea.

I don't read many short stories. I wouldn't say that I dislike short stories. But. It is rare for me to love--or love, love, love a collection of short stories. What I love about Ray Bradbury is the delicious creepiness--this eeriness--of the atmosphere. Many stories read like a good episode of the Twilight Zone.

For example, "The Coffin" is just creepy. Readers meet two brothers--Charles and Richard. One brother dies soon after completing his "custom" coffin. He boasts to his brother about how revolutionary this coffin is--how it is a complete all-in-one funeral experience. "Simply place body in coffin--and music will start." His brother is curious. Perhaps a little too curious?!

"There Was An Old Woman" shows just how stubborn one woman is to conquer death. She refuses--I mean REFUSES to believe in death. So what happens when she dies and her body is taken away? You might just be surprised.

"The Scythe" is also quite interesting! It is about a desperate man with a family who suddenly finds himself in a new situation. Finds himself in plenty for once. But there is a price to pay for having everything so perfect. Is he willing to pay that price? He may have no choice!

"There Will Come Soft Rains" is so very haunting! It's incredibly--masterfully--eery.

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Do you have a favorite Ray Bradbury story?


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: First Trip in October

New Loot:

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
We Are In A Book by Mo Willems
Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems
This Fine Life by Eva Marie Everson
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony
My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter
Amandine by Marlena de Blasi
Iola Leroy, or, Shadows Uplifted by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn
The Trail of the Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Leftover Loot:

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers
The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes
Dark Sons by Nikki Grimes
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
No Name by Wilkie Collins
The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
The Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury

ETA: I was curious to see how many library books I've reviewed so far this year--the first nine months of the year. The answer? 170!!! Chances are good that I'll be at 200 by years end!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Evil Genius

Evil Genius. Wilkie Collins. 1886. 348 pages.

The gentlemen of the jury retired to consider their verdict.
Their foreman was a person doubly distinguished among his colleagues. He had the clearest head, and the readiest tongue. For once the right man was in the right place.
Of the eleven jurymen, four showed their characters on the surface. They were:
The hungry juryman, who wanted his dinner.
The inattentive juryman, who drew pictures on his blotting paper.
The nervous juryman, who suffered from fidgets.
The silent juryman, who decided the verdict.
Of the seven remaining members, one was a little drowsy man who gave no trouble; one was an irritable invalid who served under protest; and five represented that vast majority of the population -- easily governed, tranquilly happy -- which has no opinion of its own.

While I didn't love The Evil Genius as much as The Moonstone, I did enjoy it. What should you know? Well, it is NOT a mystery. It is a "domestic story." You should also know that it has a forty-page prologue (of sorts) that establishes the background of one of its main characters.

Readers first meet Sydney Westerfield as a child. Her father has died; her mother--at best--is disinterested. Her mom is all about her son. When her mother remarries and moves to America, she leaves her daughter in the care of her sister. Of course, she takes her beloved son. The aunt? Well, she's super-excited because she can use Sydney as a servant and a teacher-in-training. So poor Sydney has not known love in many, many years. Perhaps since her father died.

The novel opens when Herbert Linley seeks a governess for his daughter, Kitty. He brings home the young, the beautiful, the pathetic Sydney. After hearing her story, after seeing her kicked out of her aunt's home, he had to hire her. Mrs. Presty, his mother-in-law, is skeptical. She's been married twice, and she's convinced she knows a thing or two about men. And the fact that Sydney is so young, so beautiful, so innocent, so in need of love and acceptance, so sweet, well, she thinks that it is unwise to have her in their home. (Yes, Mrs. Presty lives with her daughter and son-in-law.) But Mrs. Linley meets Sydney and is enchanted. Her heart is big enough to accept Sydney without doubt, without reservation. And Kitty? Her daugher? Well, Kitty loves, loves, loves her governess! So it looks like Sydney may have found a happy home at last....

But. One late night stroll in the moonlight finds Mr. Linley and Sydney unexpectedly thrown together--they're locked out of the house--and Mr. Linley fancies himself in love with this ever-grateful young woman. He confesses as such. As soon as those words are spoken, both know that they cannot remain in this situation...

The Evil Genius, like Anna Karenina, focuses on marriage, adultery, divorce, and scandal. But it is so VERY different from Anna Karenina! Both Mrs. Linley and Miss Westerfield are sympathetic. And Mrs. Presty is great for comical relief! (Is she "The Evil Genius" of the family that contributes to its downfall?) The Evil Genius is never boring. It's extremely readable. 

I enjoyed it. There were places I loved it.

"Is there any human character, even the noblest, that is always consistently good?"
"One reads of them sometimes," she suggested, "in books."
"Yes," he said. "In the worst books you could possibly read--the only really immoral books written in our time."
"Why are they immoral?"
"For this plain reason, that they deliberately pervert the truth. Clap-trap, you innocent creature, to catch foolish readers! When do these consistently good people appear in the life around us, the life that we all see? Never! Are the best mortals that ever lived above the reach of temptation to do ill, and are they always too good to yield to it? How does the Lord's Prayer instruct humanity? It commands us all, without exception, to pray that we may not be led into temptation. You have been led into temptation. In other words, you are a human being. All that a human being could do you have done--you have repented and confessed." (324)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews