#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.