5 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I pretty much devoured this book.  I finished it less than 48 hours after I finished The Postman, reading until I fell asleep, reading while my little one napped, any moment I could squeeze in a few pages.  In fact, this afternoon I was finishing the last page when G woke up from her nap.

I'd heard a lot about this book, of course.  It's been banned from schools and libraries across the country for it's perceived controversial content.  I'm always interested in banned books and often choose to read them simply to be contrary.  Needless to say, this one has been on my list for awhile.

Incidentally, I learned (or relearned) a word when I was doing a little Wikipedia research after I finished the book: bildungsroman is a word from literary criticism that refers to a novel of education or formation.  In other words, a coming-of-age story.  I think I knew that, somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain, but unfortunately I'm reaching that age when I have to forget something before I can learn something new.

The narrator of this book is Arnold Spirit, Jr.  Most people just call him Junior.  Arnold lives on the rez (the Spokane Indian Reservation) with his alcoholic father, his depressed mother, and his reclusive older sister.  One day in the middle of math class, something happens that makes Arnold realize that he simply MUST get off the rez, no matter what.  So he asks his parents to transfer him to the white high school 22 miles away.  In the process, he loses his best friend, faces multiple tragedies, and becomes a starting freshman on the basketball team.

Much of this book is autobiographical.  In fact, Sherman Alexie used a portion of a memoir he was writing as the basis of the book.  It's filled with ugly, traumatic events (death, violence, racism) and plenty of sexuality and language (it's narrated by a 14 year old boy - duh).  It's also hopeful.  And it's a vital story, one which young people need to be able to access.  It will ring true for many young people who have continued to fight in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

One very neat thing about the book is the illustrations.  Arnold reads and draws comics to escape, to vent his frustrations, and to hang on to hope.  The book includes 65 comics drawn by Ellen Forney (thanks, Wikipedia, for the info!) which contribute to Arnold's story.

Pages: 230
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4 - The Postman by David Brin

I've been meaning to read The Postman for a number of years.  I love post-apocalyptic stories (click here for others I've blogged about).  This one takes place in what was once Oregon, before the Doomwar.  The story is told from the point of view of Gordon Krantz, who was in his twenties when war and plague and famine tore the world apart.  Throughout the story, he travels from town to town dressed as a US Mail Carrier.  The effect his uniform and persona have on the people he meets is fascinating.

My favorite thing about this book might be the circumstances of the apocalypse itself.  There was war, beginning in Eastern Europe.  There were nuclear strikes, and there are still wide swaths of land that "glow".  But the real downfall of society came after, when people in the cities starved and people in the country died of easily prevented or cured plagues, simply because the infrastructure collapsed and people stopped cooperating.  As civilization fell, the survivalists, who were "prepared" and thus lived through the initial onslaughts, began looting, scavenging, pillaging, and enslaving those who were weaker or in need of protection.  Thus in a matter of years the societal structure of North America went from late-twentieth century urban sprawl to a feudal structure more like that of the Dark Ages in Europe.

This book was made into a movie starring Kevin Costner.  I was talking with my movie buff husband about it tonight, and it seems like there were a lot of, shall we say, differences, between the book and the movie.  I'm going to investigate how I might be able to watch it and if I do, I'll come back and post about the differences.

I looked up two words while I was reading this book (I always appreciate books which serve up new words...).  The first word I learned was abatis a defensive obstacle formed by felled trees with sharpened branches facing the enemy.  Like this:

This word comes from a French word meaning to strike down or slaughter, which is exactly what is done to the trees involved.  

The second word I looked up was solipsistic, which basically describes something related to the idea that one is the only person that exists.  In other words, if Gordon dreamed this whole apocalypse, he would be the only thing out of it that really existed, making his dream solipsistic.  I think.  That's a tricky word, grammatically and conceptually.  It's got an interesting etymology, from the Latin solus "alone" and ipse "self" with the lovely English -ism tacked on.  So it kind of means to be alone with oneself, or to believe oneself to be alone.  I like it.  

Page Count: 321
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3 - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver is a werewolf story.  I'm not giving anything away by saying that, because it's obvious almost immediately (if you didn't guess by the gorgeous wolf peeking through the branches on the cover of my copy).  It's also a story of love and loss and betrayal and hope.

The story is told in chapters that alternate between the voices of Sam and Grace.  Each chapter is marked with the temperature, which eventually plays into the story.  Much like Two Boys Kissing, as the story climbs toward the climax, the author uses shorter chapters, choppy line breaks, and unusual punctuation and capitalization to pull the reader into the intensity of the moment.

The reimagining of werewolves for this story is intriguing.  In the world Stiefvater has created, up in Minnesota near Canada, the werewolves are all bitten humans, infected with a disease that makes them more and more wolf-like, until finally the human is gone and wolf remains.  It's a hopeless progression, hated by some and embraced by others, until Sam and Grace meet and fall in love.  Then there is a race against time and the peculiarities of the disease.

Pages: 390
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2 - Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

This is another one from my enormous stack of unread books.  I've been meaning to get to it for some time.  I love David Levithan's works (click on the tag at the end of the post for other books I've posted about).  He's heartfelt, charming, funny, and authentic.

This book follows three couples and two other young men over the course of a couple of days.  One couple, Harry and Craig, are exes and friends who are attempting to break the world record for longest kiss (32+ hours!).  Another couple, Avery and Ryan, meet at a gay prom and gradually reveal their secrets to each other.  A third couple, Neil and Peter, have been dating for about a year, but they are still learning about love and being together.  One of the young men, Cooper, struggles with being suddenly and accidentally outed to his family.  Another, Tariq, struggles to recover from a vicious attack that left him with more than just physical injuries.

The book is narrated by a Greek chorus consisting of gay men who died of AIDS.  They provide a unique perspective on the trials of coming out and loving as gay teens in the 21st century.  Their commentary is both heartbreaking and hopeful.

As the book moves toward its climax, the pace picks up, pushed relentlessly higher by shorter glimspes at each character, increase space on the page, and snappier transitions.  As usual, Levithan not only creates compelling characters and tells an honest story, he also uses every part of the writer's craft, right down to line breaks and spacing, to tell his story.  It's amazing and wonderful.

This book also features a short afterword, in which Levithan reflects on the confluence of events and experiences that helped him create this book.  In a time when LGBT youth still struggle with acceptance, bullying, and increased risks of homelessness, drug use, and suicide, this is an important book.

Word count: 200
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1 - Zamba by Ralph Helfer

I haven't blogged in three and a half years.  I apparently stopped when I got pregnant with my daughter and haven't been back.  Sadly, I also pretty much stopped reading around that time.  I mean, I read to G, even before she was born, and I read stuff online occasionally.  But mostly I stopped reading books.  Which does not mean I stopped buying them or receiving them as gifts.

So, I recently left my job and I have more time at home.  I want G to see me as the voracious reader I have always been.  Some of my best memories of my elementary and middle school years are of curling up with a book, often next to my mom, who is also a reader.

I don't know if I'll make it to 100 books this year.  The main purpose of this blog is just to keep track of what I've read and how I felt about it.

Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer was an incredible book.  I've been cultivating an appreciation for well-written nonfiction as I've gotten older, and this was beautiful.  It's the story of a man, Ralph, who worked to train exotic animals (lions, Bengal tigers, alligators, chimpanzees, elephants, and so many more) for Hollywood.  He pioneered a new way of training called affection training, in which animals are never cruelly beaten, contained, or starved.  He raised Zamba the African lion from a tiny cub and had eighteen years of astonishing adventures with him.

I discovered this book in the spring of 2010 when I taught an excerpt from it to my class of sixth graders.  I vividly remember thinking that this was a book I wanted to read.  I immediately added it to my ongoing Amazon wish list and it turned up as a gift at some point.  Then it sat on the shelves for years, just waiting to be read.  I'm so glad I picked it to start 2015.

In the book, Helfer casually name-drops some of Hollywood's biggest stars from the 1960's and 1970's.  My favorites were Elvis Presley and Mae West, but the list was huge.  Helfer worked tirelessly for decades to create a reputation as the best and most reliable animal trainer in the business.  He changed the way animals were treated in Hollywood, and Zamba was his biggest success.  He raised his daughter alongside Zamba and tells of them curling up with a bowl of popcorn to watch cartoons after dinner.  Not many parents would trust their child around a fully grown male African lion, and not many lions would be worthy of the trust.

The excerpt I taught turned out to be one of the very last chapters of the book.  From there to the end, my throat was full and my eyes were teary.  Zamba was certainly a special lion, and this is a special book.

Page count: 258
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Diversity in YA Summer Reading Challenge!

The ladies over at Diversity in YA have issued a challenge. This summer, they would like to see readers reading books with LGBT characters or characters of color. Readers who do this and write an essay by September 1 will be entered in a contest to win a whole bunch of books!

I love books with diverse characters.

I am always interested in a way to win a whole bunch of books.

This is a perfect challenge for me! So...of course I'll be reading this summer. Some of the books I may read:

• Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• The Last Herald-Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• tithe by Holly Black
• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Meaning of Matthew by Judy Sheperd

I'm sure there are others, but that's a start. You can find information about the challenge at Diversity in YA's website.

There is a great list of LGBTQ YA Novels with Characters of Color if you're interested in hitting both aspects of the challenge in one book. I haven't read any of the books on the list, but I've enjoyed other books by Alex Sanchez (The God Box and Boyfriends with Girlfriends made the list), whose LGBTQ hispanic characters are fantastic! I adore everything I've read by David Levithan, whose Love is the Higher Law made the list. I'm also excited to get my hands on some books by Steve Kluger (My Most Excellent Year) and Malinda Lo (Huntress). Happy reading!

Sisterhood?

How did I miss that Ann Brashares released another Sisterhood novel?! Sisterhood Everlasting, in which Lena Carmen, Tibby, and Bridget are all grown up! Definitely something to get my hands on...