#25 "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli

I started off wishing I had read this book in 8th grade when I spend 6 months sitting at the popular table, not realizing that I was ignoring the people I actually wanted to be sitting with and was being laughed at (just like everyone else) every time they thought I couldn't hear them. They were mean kids, no doubt about it. But I wasn't ready to be an individual yet. I'm not sure I was ready to be an individual until late in my Sophmore year of college, but that's another subject. By the end of the book I was less convinced that I should have spent the 5 hours or so reading it at all.

Stargirl is about a girl, Susan, who calls herself Stargirl. She starts attending a public high school after being home schooled all her life. She is unabashedly herself, initially popular, suffers the consequences of being kind, tries to change herself for a boy, and lets her whole world fall apart. The book is written in a style not unlike John Green, but it lacks his understanding of female motivation. Spinelli is clearly a man who gets teenage boys but never spent years unraveling the psyche behind the girls he liked when he was a teenage boy.

I am apparently in a phase of reading YA lit. I'm also reading biographies, classic lit, and in German, but all of these are a little slower going.

#24 "Dash & Lily's Book of Dares" by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

These are the authors who brought you Nick and Nora. And while I have to admit I've never seen that movie or red that book, it always looked intriguing. So when a search on What Should I Read Next suggested Dash and Lily I figured this book was 1) Christmasy; 2) YA "Romance" so it had to end happily and 3) YA so it had to be a reasonably quick read. I was right on all three counts. Once I finally got access to the book* I was finished in 5 hours.

The book met all of my expectations. I disagree with a few of the reviews that the characters were unrealistic, Dash was pretentious or the details of the character's lives were uninteresting. These kids met in a book shop, through a book with tasks to complete. If they weren't unusually well read, friendly people, they wouldn't be able to survive the book. The only thing I found to be overkill from authors who haven't been teenage misfits in at least a decade was that Lily has no friends but is captain of her high school soccer team.

I'm not certain how many of the places Dash and Lily visit are real, but more than 1 will certainly be on my list for New York Christmas 2014. I'll have to check out the ebook again to make a list.

*Local libraries are awesome. Even if you read one book a year. Even if you just like to skim magazines. Local libraries are great places. Thanks to my local lib I now have access to several thousand ebooks and no shortage of reading material!

#23 "The Lost World" by Michael Crichton

I think I may have fallen into a dinosaur obsession. Possibly. The Lost World is Crichton's sequel to Jurassic Park. The book is set 5 years after the fall of Jurassic Park and the bankruptcy of InGen. The Island, site B, that InGen was using for the mass production of dinosaur clones was not irradiated and now is posing a threat to Costa Rica as raptors and compys are escaping to the mainland. Ian Malcom returns with a team on a rescue mission that, of course, goes off course. This is an island populated with carnivorous dinosaurs after all.

The plot is certainly not as strong as Jurassic Park, but the book holds its own. Now I just really want a dinosaur sweater.

#22 "Mary Poppins" by P.L. Travers

I never read Mary Poppins as child, but we watched the Disney film a thousand times. And since Saving Mr. Banks is/will be released I thought I should probably pick up the classic book.

I have to say I was a little amazed to find Mary as I did. The book takes the proper English tone of Dahl and Lewis, but puts aside all of the morality. Mary is a self-professed vain woman, who can do mysterious magic, and has an issue with everyone. She is certainly not Julie Andrews. But still, the silliness of the book is encouraging.

#21 "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton

Jurassic Park was one of my first PG13 films as a kid. My parents loved the logic so they were like "sure, our 7 year old is prepared for this". I had nightmares about raptors opening my bedroom door in the middle of the night for a month. But I love this film so much now. I've been trying for years to make the time to read the series and I'm so glad I finally got around to it because the book was amazing. As good as the film. The logic and science behind the book is much better than the film, but the film twists the characters and plot just enough to make it a better story.

In case you don't like Stephen Spielberg: Jurassic Park is the story of an island that has been created to be a live theme park for the elite, featuring cloned dinosaurs who walk around their habitats like a zoo. The creators of the park threw caution to the wind and ignored any signs or warnings that the park could not be contained. The park falls into chaos when the series of experts they have been using as consultant come to the island and finally discover the full extent of what they have been supporting. Trapped in the park without electricity, weapons, with uncontrolled dinosaurs trying to eat them, and all separated from each other, the team has to figure out how to destroy the park and survive in the process.

I'm thinking that in my classroom I will keep a small shelf of second-hand fiction that has a strong science base. I would love students to be reading fiction just like this and then have real, informed conversations about scientific possibility and morality. Damn that would be a cool science classroom!

#20 "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams

Book 2 of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a hell of a lot more confusing and with less wit than the first. I'm hoping that the next 3 will pick up again as I would like to know what the question is.

In book 2 Arthur and Ford, Trillian and Zaphod continue running around in the most disorganized way, never sticking together and adding time and space travel into the plot line. When the Doctor shows up I'll know it's time to put the book down.

#19 "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Unless you've been living under a book and tv rock for the last what, three years now? You probably know about Game of Thrones the HBO series and first book by the same name of the Song of Ice and Fire series. That being said I'm going to now forgoe the plot summary paragraph and move onto a short review.

While Martin's writing style is something akin to Tolkein or Baum, vorbose, overly descriptive, and exacting (three things not at all up my alley), his plot lines are dramatic and engaging enough to draw the reader in and hold their attention for around 50 pages at a time. The first time I picked up the book it was a library copy I was starting at 1 am during a week of grass-roots camp. I was to interested to put it down and ended up falling asleep with the book in my face. Sadly my interest was touch and go and it's taken me over a year to finally finish the 807 page book.

While I have the next 3 volumes of the series already it may take me until I'm staring down the flight to Ireland to actually read them. Especially given the way that first book ended, I'm a little depressed with the story line.

#18 "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor

A Good Man was something I picked up thinking it was going to be a love story, quickly figured out it was a collection of short stories that have very little to do with love, and only continued reading because it was on a list of books every girl should read in her twenties. I thought that given the style and the review it would end up being something akin to Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. It is not.

The stories are full of emotion without much energy. The characters all feel things, but not enough to do much about their predicament. There is a total lack of positive, creative, or advancing energy in every story. While the apathy of miserable characters was a total downer, it also struck true to the era and setting of the book (post WWII south).

I don't consider this book at all necessary for anyone not in a literature course studying female short story form in the early Cold War south, it also doesn't make the text poorly written or not worth while. It's just a little too miserable for dank winter days.

#17 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

Though it feels like cheating, I have finished the first book of the Hitchhiker's Trilogy. It feels like cheating because the story is hardly over. But as I am enjoying the writing immensely (nothing like totally random sci-fi comedy to lighten your day) I will hopefully finish all three books soon.

Hitchhiker's for those of you who don't like Douglas Adams, Martin Freeman or Zooey Deschanel, is the story of Arthur, a less than ordinary earth man who's alien friend Ford saves him from death when both his house and his planet are destroyed--one by a human demolition crew, the other by an alien species who were owed a debt by the mice for the commissioning of the planet. Though ultimately I would imagine the book ends like the movie, with Arthur (Freeman) trying to find a new home in the universe, thus far it has covered many subjects, none of which are very imaginable. The entire book is in and of itself an improbability drive of literature.

But like I said, I'm loving it. Adams' style is right up my alley and the first of the series gets an A+ for readability and humour.

#16 "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

 
This is a book I've been wanting to read for a long while now. When the film first came out it was Emma Watson's first big thing after Harry Potter (which we all know I love) and I was so excited about it but I knew there was a book and I promised myself I would read it first. Then I moved to Germany and broke that promise. But in the end I find it important to remember that I did eventually read the book.

The novel is the story of Charlie, a high school freshman with absolutely zero friends and a very broken mind. The entire novel is written in the form of letters from Charlie to his "Dear Friend" who is never named and you only learn a little about. Charlie is intelligent but damaged and the combination is disastrous for his social life until he meets two step siblings who introduce him to a whole new world of people and experiences that he gets to observe and participate in. All the while Charlie is being challenged by his English teacher, being an amazing brother, and trying to survive high school. None of which is easy. But add on top the psychological battle Charlie is fighting as he discovers drugs and sex and music and literature, and it just all seems impossible. I'll stop before the spoilers start.

Admittedly I thought the film was better than the book. Not because the book was bad. The book was and is beautiful. But Chbosky is a film writer, Perks is his first novel, and as wonderful as reading Charlie's letters to this anonymous friend is, the film had a more solid progression of events. I also felt that the medium of film was just better suited for the complicated story of a kid who is so cerebral he doesn't even know what's happening in his mind. The book was certainly good enough (and expensive enough) to warrant a spot in a box back to home; all in all a solid A-.

#15 "Roots" by Alex Haley

I tried watching the Roots mini-series when I was 13. I thought I was being cultured carrying the 6 video tapes out of the Estacada library. I was after all going to learn the story behind this intimidating book. But at 2 hours a piece, I never made it past Kunta Kinte's first experience being beaten.

So finally at 22, I'm getting around to it. And the book is nothing like I thought it would be. I loved some of the people, hated some others, got confused by the flow of the book where a chicken fight would sometimes take 4 chapters but the entire civil war was covered in 2. I've struggled with this text for 3 months, and it was only reading the end last night that I understood everything. This is a familial autobiography by Haley. It's paced by what information was available. The characters aren't characters at all. It's all in some way or another true.

I will not be trying to read Roots again, not for a very long time at least. But for all the ignoring it on my bookshelf for 3 years, carrying it to Europe, reading one chapter at a time and then having to reward myself, I'm glad this saga is in my head.

#14 "Dead Poets Society" by N.H. Kleinbaum

While this book is literally just an adaption of the film into novel format, it was also kind of great. I read it in about 2.5 hours (thanks typeface!), so it's only a few minutes longer than the film. But since Dead Poets Society is one of my favorite teacher movies, I really enjoyed reading the story and finally figuring out what names go to what boys. They all look the same in their school uniforms.

If you haven't seen the film, go watch it, and if you've got a two hour car trip, train, bus or plane ride in your future and you stumble across a 50 cent copy of this book, pick it up because it will make you smile and staring at a book is a whole lot healthier than staring at a screen for two hours.

#13: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J.K. Rowling

 
Maybe the 121 book challenge will end up being just me reading Harry Potter 40 times...

#12 "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" by Robin Sloan

It's a good thing I didn't end up in Belgium, because I did end up in a bookstore, spending more money than is reasonable on books. Unfortunately this bookstore was in down town Munich, so the English section, while comparatively large for Germany, consists only of books which made it onto the bestsellers list. Fortunately, Penumbra's made that list.

I'm a scifi nerd, I love a good puzzle, and bookstores are my happy place, so this novel was perfect for me. A well balanced combination of everything I love in real life, tied up nicely in a 288 page novel. The characters are quirky but believable, and the plot is relentlessly intriguing. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Moffit, because it's his spirit, like his name, that I recognized sprinkled throughout the pages.

Definitely the best book I've read so far. This book challenge at least.

#11 "Starter for Ten" by David Nicholls

If you fell in love with James McAvoy before he did Becoming Jane and Atonement, or if after seeing these movies you watched everything he's ever done (Wanted is a fantastic movie, so please watch it even if you don't like violent movies)--the you've probably seen Starter for 10. I had no idea it was also a book, but having enjoyed the movie and had the book dropped in my lap I clearly read it.

The book and the movie follow identical plots. It's one of those magical things where I don't think the producers even changed the dialog. They are the same. The book was entertaining, and had me laughing out loud, but I think it's best if you choose one or the other, or at least if you've seen the movie already, don't bother with the book.

The beauty of the book is with the main character, Brian Jackson, who is by all accounts an exceedingly average 19 year old. He is written with all the rough edges, painfully awkward, with no social or hygienic skills. His portrayal is so honest that it is at times uncomfortable to read. You want to yell at him to stop talking or just go home or for god's sake get up and do something with his life. But if you power through, there are enough sweet or funny true to life moments to make up for Brian Jackson's failure to function as a basic human being.

Nicholls is a strong enough writer that I will likely pick up some of his other works when they fall into my lap. But then again, reading the book leaves the reader McAvoy-less.

#10 "The Secret Seven" by Enid Blyton

The Secret Seven is the first of a series of British children's mystery novels. It's beautifully written in the same style as Nancy Drew and The Horse Masters. Simple, but clever. Though they are children's books, intended for an 8 year old, and written in 1973, I enjoyed this first book immensely. For what it was. I would love to read this book with an advanced reader of a younger age, someone who will laugh out loud at the funny bits and be genuinely thrilled when the mystery is solved.

Thanks to Blyton I will also be adding "delumptious" to my wombination vocabulary.

#9 "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King

I've never read Stephen King before, having always supposed that the man who thinks up things like Misery must write nothing but nightmares. However this book was easy to read, non-threatening, and honestly a little boring. Knowing what you do about the minds of children it is easy to remember when Trisha was fantasizing and when she was not, thus breaking the thriller aspect. If and when I pick up King again, it will be for something with a reputation for thrill, not just a random novel I found on the book case.

#8 "The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith a.k.a. J.K. Rowling

Okay, admittedly I started reading this after it came out it was Rowling under a pen name. I'm not much of one for murder or crime novels. Except for "The Thief Lord" which was more fantasy than crime, my experience with the genre has been limited to what my mother chooses for books on tape.

Despite this Cuckoo's Calling was engaging enough for me to read it quickly, and several hundred pages at a time. That's all due to Rowling's style. But where I was completely enthralled with The Casual Vacancy, really concerned that all of my favorite characters made it out alright, I read Cuckoo's Calling because it was easy and I felt obligated to. Solid B+ effort from Rowling in my opinion.

#7 "Anna, Ann, Annie" by Thomas Trebitsch Parker

I didn't like a single character in this book. If it wasn't for my tight timeline and my neurotic compulsion to finish every book I start I never would have made it to the final chapters. Parker's portrayal of Anna, or Ann, or Annie, which ever you want to call her, is a terrifying look at a woman with no self will and no definition of self. Let alone self confidence. She is a horrible character to be at the center of a novel, who ruins her life and the lives of everyone around her by never once making a sound decision.

I do not suggest this novel.

#6 "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

This is the second time I've read The Help, and though I knew the story this time, it was just as good. Reading it this time I was trying to decide who this book is best for: young readers, older readers, biography readers, fantasy lovers, Americans, internationals, men, women. I think the one unfortunate part of the book is that it does hit a certain demographic: mature, female, Americans. That doesn't mean it's not worth while for the other sects. Heck the copy I read belongs to my German host. But without a lot of male voice, playing on emotion of being a mother and a caregiver, relying on an understanding of female dynamics, and set in a time when understanding the history is vital, as a book it is aimed a specific readership.

#5 "The Vow" by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter

I read it because of the picture of Channing Tatum on the cover. Luckily it went fast. But it wasn't worth the time.

Buy a poster instead. Or maybe, watch the movie?

#4 "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

I avoided reading this book for years, it seemed so mainstream, and the hint of religion bothered me in years past. But reading it now it's not the soft style or the predictable plot twists that drive me crazy, it's the fact that a book with English like this has become so popular. Yes, it's the rant of my week. I hate that intelligent media reinforces typical grammar mistakes, and most of all that editors don't catch or correct these things. What would our world be like, how strong would our language be if we insisted that every book editor take a grammar course every three years?

But anyways, as for the actual book: everyone who has ever insisted I read this book has focused on the Anna-Kate story line. Two sisters, one conceived to provide medical donations to her older sister, sick with essentially terminal cancer. But the reason I read this book in two days has nothing to do with Anna. I made my decision about what I would do in her situation 20 pages in, as soon as her mother started remembering that they designed their third child to be a donor. I think we all can make that decision pretty quickly, and for me the moral dilemma simply isn't that delicious because, while I know exactly what I would do, I don't believe in forcing my decision on anyone else, so reach your own conclusion.

No, what kept me reading was the Campbell-Julia love story and wanting to figure out the little mysteries. I felt the whole book like I was reading the Bye Bye Birdie novel equivalent. Everyone who read this book because Oprah told them to is worried about Kim and Hugo ending up together, while the people paying attention know it's all about Albert growing up and finally marrying Rosie. Just like Birdie isn't about Conrad at all, I never felt like this book was actually about Anna. And that drove me crazy. That being said, in the last 20 pages, your decision already made, your mind certain of every outcome, it's Anna who will make you cry because the book is written to her, about her, surrounding her, so you care that it's sad and that it hurts, and that it's killing everyone, and that's because of Anna (how's that for improper grammar?).

If you're getting on an airplane, pick up a Picoult book, they're total brain candy. Plus you're likely to bawl your eyes out in public which is always awkward. But if you want to read a story of moral dilemma, I'm sure there's something more challenging out there for you. Pretty much anything that has a Lady or the Tiger ending.

#3 "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce

I kind of devoured this book. After weeks of bogging myself down with the scant pickings from the local library, and the choice of Roots or War and Peace I allowed myself something a little more mainstream, which comes highly recommended from a few of the German book clubs. Harold was pretty magical, and very engaging, but the ending changes from jaunty to depressing fast with two plot twists that threw me, though one was somewhat predictable.

Overall Harold deserves his chart climbing status as a mystery novel without a murder, written in an entirely British-humor way.

#2 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

I grew up with Harry Potter. I'm proud to be part of that generation and that fandom. 7 and 3 have always been my favorite books. So when I needed some brain candy to fill the hours between thesising when I can't stand to be looking at my computer screen any more, I rely on Potter for some light comedy (actually I rely on Potter for some angst drama and Fred and George Weasley for some light comedy).

This week was no different. I blazed through 7 for what has got to be the 6th or 23rd time, worrying less about plot and more about dialog and details that you forget when you haven't read the book in two years.

If you've had some reservation about reading the Harry Potter series, or you don't read it any more because you're a "grown up" and you don't think you should be reading that kind of lit, I have one piece of advise: get over yourself, and enjoy the written word.

A side story: Somewhere in the Xenophelious Lovegood chapter I was reading the mere two paragraph description of Luna's room and a memory came back to me from reading 7 the first time. My dad and I read every. single. Harry Potter book aloud. 1-3 he read to me. 4 we read together in the last year when I deemed it acceptable to be sitting on a parent's lap. 5 we took turns reading aloud while the other painted my bed room a hideous red color that I should never have chosen. 6 we read independently as much as we could but we read it at the same time and only had one copy so most nights ended with my dad reading a few chapters aloud before bed. And 7 we read aloud while driving through France. I read aloud during the day as he drove and at night he read aloud while I studied maps choosing our route and marking the sites we wanted to see.

In the Xenophelious Lovegood chapter, when Harry describes the portraits that Luna painted on the ceiling and the one word written in gold entwining them, "friends". And reading that moment aloud my dad was very touched. He explained to me how real that was. How he wanted me to be the kind of person who made people like Luna happy by genuinely becoming their friends. How everyone needs friends, more than we let on. He became so emotional over the whole thing that there were tears. I have only seen my dad cry because of emotions four times in my life. Once when he left the house because my parents were separating. Both times we had to put our dogs down. And once over Luna Lovegood's ceiling.

The Harry Potter series is not the best written, advanced, or exciting collection. But when you allow yourself to be open to it, your life gets stuck between the pages. Rereading these books on a nearly annual basis I am always reminded that it's not the characters or the plot lines that keep me turning the pages, it's the cheetos dust finger print at the top of a page in book 3, the first mention of Hermione in book 4 which I tried to read aloud to my parents and they couldn't understand who Her-me-own was, and the memory of overwhelming emotion and connection to characters that ultimately gave the people in my own life depth. These books are great because they hold memories. At least, that's why I read mine over and over.

#1 "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

 
I spent the first half of Caged Bird convinced that Marguerite could not possibly be associated with the strong Maya Angelou Greek goddess I have envisioned in my mind. I thought maybe, just maybe this is some commentary from Angelou of the typical experience of her generation, maybe it's some kind of farce. And then all in a hurry in the last three chapters, Marguerite transforms from the small child she'd been for 260 pages, into the tower of strength which we (I) picture Angelou as today.

The book was worth reading, as every high school English teacher I ever had insisted it was, but I wish that the tales of evolving from child to adult that are contained in Caged Bird had been assigned to me earlier in life alongside the likes of Hughes and Bronte. As a college graduate the helpful hints and nudges are a little over due, and the message of tragedy and oppression a little overshadowed by daily headlines in every major newspaper.

Given time, and the chance of stumbling across the next five volumes of Angelou's autobiography, I will likely continue with the series. Though for now, I won't be ordering my copies.

Overall: B+

In the beginning there was nothing...

Every year since I was 15 I've been trying to read 100 books in a single year. And this year it's going to happen. As a college graduate, and an Au Pair in Munich I have the time and the energy to read 1 book every 3 days. At the start this may go slow, I'm still finishing my thesis, but in 365 days, when I get out of the car in Yellowstone for my family reunion, I will have finished 121 books. In the future/above you will find reviews and rants of each book as I devour it. Keep in mind that I live in Germany and work with kids. Not all books will be in English and not all of them will be age appropriate for a college graduate.

Thank you for reading my reading,
Ellbow