Incredible Journey

Another children's book it's hard to believe that I missed as a youngster. Boy, to read these posts, you'd think I hadn't opened a book until 2005! Sheila Burnford's story of a young Labrador retriever, a older bull terrier, and an aloof Siamese cat speaks to a broad audience. Enjoyable by children and adults too! This book is especially great to read if a child's just read Where the Red Fern Grows or Old Yeller. Definitely an uplifting animal story. Not as complicated to read as Call of the Wild or White Fang, The Incredible Journey gives readers the feel of the wilderness and the search for home & those who love us that's both exciting and comforting.

Highly recommended for grades 3-6. Also highly recommended for anyone else who loves animals & enjoys animal stories.

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

I selected this book for my library's January book club selection (yes, you can see what a slow-poke I am about my postings if you hadn't already noticed!). Being in my early 30's, I can sympathize with Julie's housekeeping (even though my own apartment has never been quite as bad as hers), her relationship with her husband, and friends. I also am able to sympathize with her desire for "something else" - a challenge, something new, something to blast one out of his/her rut.... something.

I found the book engaging, candid, and at points, laugh-out-loud funny. If you're easily offended by the f-word, you might want to select a different book. While it's not on every page, it's sprinkled throughout the text with some regularity.

Highly recommended for most adults - especially those searching for a way out of their own rut. Perhaps the answers are simpler than we think.

Red Chrysanthemum

In this installment of Laura Joh Rowland's series starring Sano Ichiro (he has various titles depending on how far along in the series you are), we find disturbing parallels to the news in the contemporary United States - the horrors of child molestation and child murder. Rowland explores the political intrigue and dangers surrounding exposing & proving these charges in the setting of feudal Japan. More a thriller than a mystery, Sano and his wife, Lady Reiko, find themselves trapped by the roles they are expected to play in their society. While trying to stop the heinous practices of another member of the aristocracy, Lady Reiko finds herself (and therefore her husband and son) in greater danger than ever before.

Rowland masterfully portrays the feudal Japanese setting, explaining potentially unfamiliar concepts without breaking the action. The tension of the social structure as it existed in Japan at that time adds to the suspense of this thriller/mystery. I've read all the books in this series and look forward to her next! The characters are as well-rounded and complex as the setting. Readers interested in this setting will not be disappointed! The dialogue is rich and not stilted.

Interested readers should start with Rowland's first novel, Shinju and will be grateful there are many more in the series to read after that! Her latest book in the series is The Snow Empress, which I can't wait to get my hands on!

Good-bye Mr. Chips

While many reviewers praise this book by James Hilton on its sentimental interpretation of the story of an English schoolteacher, Mr. Chipping (aka the titular Mr. Chips), I found the story to be sad, though not depressing. I thought of it less as a portrait of an institution or a boarding school Everyman, than as a story of someone passed by & not really thought about by his peers or students. Having the people in his life regard him flippantly (though without malice) as "Mr. Chips" made me sad that no one really knew him. Probably, though he cared for his students, the young men they became probably didn't think twice about him after they left school. The picture I saw was a very lonely one. I suppose in a way, he is an Everyman in the sense that we can never really can know those around us, but still - I'd like to think some of us are more sensitive to the needs of others than most of the people around poor Mr. Chipping. Maybe that's the entire point of the sentimental story.

Recommended for middle and high school students. Also recommended for general audience.

The Dante Club

I believe this was Matthew Pearl's first novel. I really enjoyed it - liking the suspense/thriller aspect of the book. His descriptions are excellent. If you can make it past the first murder and all that entails (it's gruesome - you'll look at houseflies askance for awhile), you'll find a well-written historical thriller filled with literary figures. The characters don't just simper away in their studies, but are written as *people* each with his (predominantly male cast of characters) own foibles and point of view. The other murders that take place in the course of the story I didn't find quite so horrible (as in inducing horror/repugnance as opposed to "terror" - it's not a scary book), so if you make it past the first one and enjoy Pearl's writing style, you won't be disappointed.

I'd never recommend this book to readers of cozy mysteries! It's definitely more in the thriller genre. I suspect that if the jacket copy intrigues to someone and they're aware it has some gruesome scenes & they pick it up anyway, that they'll enjoy the book. I'd also recommend the book to people who like thrillers set in the present. They might find they enjoy the historical setting. :) Not for kids!

Matilda

I can't believe that I'd never read this book as a child! Roald Dahl was one of my favorite authors, though I think he and I had a falling out after I read Danny, Champion of the World when I was in ax. 4th grade - I'm not sure why since I liked reading about Danny and his father living in their caravan. Since the 2nd grade when my teacher Mrs. Stabenow read The Boxcar Children to us, I wanted desperately to live in a boxcar & living in a caravan was very nearly the same thing! I remember not liking that nearly so well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. At any rate, my Dahl reading tapered off after Danny. sigh... I missed out on a treasure - Matilda is a wonderful book! I would have loved it as a child. I would have loved the child vs. adult aspect of it - I liked other books like that.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone needing a bit of a break from stern grown-up fare, but also interested in a book not dumbed down for children. The book is well-written enough to appeal to grown-ups & helps give us back a piece of that wonder of childhood. Oh - I'd recommend the book for kids too! :)

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, & War

In this non-fiction title by Nathaniel Philbrick, which won the National Book Award in 2oo6, we return to those American icons, the Pilgrims. Philbrick's engaging prose puts the formation of the Plymouth colony and the Pilgrims' interactions and their relationship with the Native Americans under a historical microscope. (I am imagining an extra diminutive Miles Standish wriggling on a glass slide, but that's beside the point).

This is the only balanced book I've encountered on this subject. The Pilgrims and later, other English colonists, are all too human. Philbrick doesn't venerate the Pilgrims, nor does he vilify them. He treats the Native Americans in the same way and describes as best as possible the cooperation and conflicts that occurred. He doesn't entirely step away to allow the reader to draw his/her own conclusions, but draws us readers into the past to see events as they played out without making heroes or villains of anyone.

The conclusions drawn (at the end in the last chapter) point toward the possibility of living together in a tolerant, cooperative, mutually beneficial society. That this is possible - it was at one point and could be again. Perhaps that's what drew so many readers to the book last year and why it remains so popular at this time. We Americans (and most other people in the world too I believe) want to live in peace with our world neighbors even though our belief systems are different and our cultural values differ. Working together, we can build a world where we all can thrive.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Another great, hilarious play! I had seen the movie with the same title, but had never read Joseph Kesselring's play. I was delighted that the movie is almost an actual performance of the play! I really enjoyed reading the play and am looking forward to when the movie shows up in my Netflix again!

Recommended for beginning drama readers (very madcap & I hesitate to say it.. zany) and for fans of the movie, especially. People who enjoy reading plays would not find this as high-brow as Harold Pinter or maybe Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but I think it'd be tough to find one who didn't have to suppress a smile once in awhile while reading it.

Dark Water

In this collection of short stories, Koji Suzuki, has put together a set of disturbing tales all centering around the theme of water. While American audiences are somewhat familiar to the titular story from the movie, Dark Water with Jennifer Connelly and Suzuki himself is much more well-known for his Ring series, Ring, Spiral and Loop (and the movies based on them: so far The Ring & Ring 2 and Ringu and Ringu 2).

This is a great creepily sinister set of tales perfect for fans of Koji Suzuki, Japanese horror in general, or just wants a well-written book of spooky stories without having to worry about a lot of gore. Disturbing & creepy? Yes. Gory & icky? No.

The Birthday Party and The Room : Two Plays

Again with the plays! I still think that I need to read some more about Pinter's style to fully enjoy these. Of these two, I liked "The Birthday Party" better, but they were both very odd. I think of the 3 plays by Harold Pinter I've read so far, "The Lover" was the most accessible. Interesting to read, probably just as weird to see performed.

Recommended for people into modernist philosophies, neo-intellectual beatniks, and people really into the history of drama. General audiences would probably not find much appeal.

Mousetrap

The classic play by Agatha Christie lives up to its name! Great, quick, & easy to read - though I'd like to see it performed sometime too. :)

Recommended especially for people who think they dislike reading plays, but who feel guilty they don't read more of them. Also recommended for British mystery fans.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I know this is a mini-series documentary now, but this book by Dee Brown is very powerful in its own right. It took me a long time to finish less because it's a long book, but more because I could only read so much about irrational, unfounded savagery on the part of our nation's white imperialists from the past at any given time. I'd say that this would definitely round out any curriculum on the settling of the West (obviously at a high school or higher level - just because I don't think a class of elementary school kids could make it through the book).

Hugely worthwhile for all Americans able to read the book. The prose is not light (by any stretch of the imagination), but is very readable & isn't difficult to read in a technical sense. Highly, highly recommended.

Cold Skin

In this creepy novel by Albert Sanchez Piñol, a young man trying to escape his past goes to an island in the Antarctic to take weather measurements. The man he's supposed to replace is missing - the only person present is the lighthouse keeper, Gruner. Strange gets stranger in this horror novel that leaves the reader wondering who the monsters really are.

The story is much more similar to H.P. Lovecraft than Stephen King, but if King's explicitness bothers you, this is not the book for you. If not, this is a disturbingly weird read that will be worth your time. If you've mostly read American horror novels, this will be a special treat for you. :)

Recommended for H.P. Lovecraft fans especially, but other horror readers too. Other readers might not enjoy it as much.

Come Closer

In Come Closer by Sara Gran, we come back to the idea of demonic possession vs. mental instability. I didn't really find this book that scary, but others might. Somehow I still felt outside of the main character, Amanda's, situation - despite the insider's point of view. Most of the time I just didn't feel that sympathetic toward Amanda.

If you keep up on psychological fiction or read all the possession books you can, go for it. If you're looking for something a little creepy & supernatural to balance out all those chick lit books set in NYC, go for it. If you're looking for something edge-of-your seat scary or truly scary, find something else. Sinister at best.

Speak

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book for teens about a girl who has been raped and the circumstances surrounding her trauma and the year following as she struggles with reclaiming a place in her world. Largely a book of mental processes and flashbacks, the book tells its story well - bringing the reader into the main character's mind and lets teens experience this event and the start of the healing process from a safe place (outside of the situation). Speak is the Go Ask Alice of this generation (though never fear, there is no shortage of readers for G.A.A.). These books speak to what I like to think of as the "They've got it soooo much worse than I do" appeal factor. This also explains the incredible appeal of A Child Called It to this same audience. In my opinion, Speak is a much higher quality book, though it does not purport to be a true story because it's not so sensationalized and the moral of the story doesn't hit the reader over the head like a sledgehammer. Still, I think probably for a lot of girls (and perhaps a few guys who read this as a required book for school) when they find themselves drifting into a similar situation, they might be more likely to find a friend to take them home before anything happened - or not stick close to their friends so that none of them could be injured or taken advantage of in an inebriated state.

I'd highly recommend this to fans of V.C. Andrews and for people who like to read about other people coming through difficult circumstances (fans of A Child Called It, Go Ask Alice, Mr & Mrs Bo Jones, etc..). For everyone else, it's worthwhile as a teenager, but less impressive for an adult audience. For adults who like this kind of book, I'd recommend Sybil or Ghost Girl.

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

Well, it's a little hard for me to admit that I've actually read one of these, but I *did* read it to increase the number of bestsellers I've read so I can do the Readers' Advisory part of my job better. This is the first book in The Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun and it's all right as far as cozy mysteries go. Kinda bland for my taste, but it IS the first one and usually a few books into a series they improve quite a bit before sliding downhill after too many have been published. I like the hard-boiled mysteries and the more intellectual ones, and this is neither - a great book for the bus, bathroom, or before bed (no nightmares!)

Overall, if you like cozy mysteries (mysteries without overt sex, profanity, violence) and have somehow missed Braun, queen of this domain, then these are for you. If you like more of the rough & tumble, I'd skip them and go for something tougher (personally really liked Matthew Pearl's Dante Club).

Feed

This book by MT Anderson is set in a future not too far from ours - and not too different from our own. Intended for young adult audiences, I think it draws from and bears comparing to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I thought Feed was a good book, but I didn't really like any of the characters. I think their flaws annoyed me (which they're supposed to) - just a little too over-the-top for my taste as a (sadly) early-30's adult.

Some readers will be turned off by the thrill-seeking behavior of most of the book's characters. Reading through the whole thing, I suspect many people will realize the pathetic nature of this behavior and the horror of the boredom bordering on insanity that generates that kind of search for the next thrill.

Very highly recommended for middle school and high school readers - especially who need to write a book report and want to sound smart for their teachers. Highly recommended for readers who enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 and/or like dystopian scenarios.

Pygmalion

Later turned into My Fair Lady by Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe, this play by George Bernard Shaw is much more satisfying than the screen adaptation (I haven't seen a stage production). I think most people offended by Audrey Hepburn's Liza stooping meekly for Henry Higgins' slippers will enjoy George Bernard Shaw's original immensely. The play doesn't take any easy ways out, but it would feel false, I think if it did. Hooray!

Highly recommended for all drama lovers and anyone who saw the film version of My Fair Lady. Overall highly recommended for a broad audience from more sophisticated middle school readers to adult. :)

The Oxford Murders

For a change from the drama, children's books, and other classics, I read this mystery by Guillermo Martinez (who I believe is from Spain). This mystery combines math/logic puzzles with murder mystery! However, not all mystery readers would enjoy this book - those looking for a little intellectual stimulation will find it here. Those looking for cats with antics or hairdressers with a knack for private investigation would probably not like The Oxford Murders much. I am not very "mathy" and I liked it because it didn't feel like a fluff book.

Recommended for "thinkers" and people who enjoy math, chess, or other logic puzzles.

The Crucible

I found Arthur Miller's play very relevant to the current state of American politics (as a political statement about witch hunts, whether for terrorists or communists), but it's also great as a dramatic work aside from any potential political undertones. I was an English major, so I find those kinds of things - some may not & we may both be right!

Very highly recommended for all Americans 15-16+. Reading this play was great on my own, but would benefit from discussion also. Make your friends think and talk to them about it. ;)

Sarah, Plain and Tall

This children's book by Patricia MacLachlan was a great story. I enjoyed it now as an adult, but I would have adored it during my "Little House" phase as a kid. Ah well! Don't let the kids you know escape their childhoods without it! If they have time to read Goosebumps, they have time for this one too!

Very highly recommended for all children 5-10 years old & all kids who enjoy Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series or stories about pioneer times. Also recommended for any adult who enjoyed those kinds of stories as a child, but never actually read this one (like me!).

T. Rex and the Crater of Doom

Walter Alvarez's book is a great discovery story! Well-written for the lay audience, it captures one's attention and takes readers through the many dead ends and ultimately, discoveries, that make up science and the process that scientists go through formulating and testing their ideas.

Highly recommended for all science lovers, dinosaur buffs (if you haven't read it already!), everyone wanting to find out more about the world around us, and of course, anyone who's ever wondered what really happened to the dinosaurs.

The Elephant Man

This is another play (reading them is fairly quick and boosts my yearly "books read" total while being culturally with it!) - this one by Bernard Pomerance. The play is about Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man and his interactions with high society and his caregivers. It's very philosophical, but more optimistic, I think than The Glass Menagerie was. I don't know that everyone would agree with that, though.

Overall, I liked G.M. better, but this is definitely worth your time - especially if you are interested either in drama or medicine. Recommended. :)

Glass Menagerie

This Tennessee Williams play is terrific! I really enjoyed it, even though it's sad. I think it would be enjoyed by a lot of teenagers who feel alienated from their parents or who feel overly protected by the same. Probably why it's read in so many high schools, eh? I can't wait to see a production of it! :D

Highly recommended for ages 14-15 and up. Great stuff and it's short! Might as well expand your cultural literacy with the short things at the very least!!

An Ordinary Man

Paul Rusesabagina is most well known in the United States as being the hotel manager depicted in Hotel Rwanda. This book is his own account of the events during Rwanda's genocide. Very well-written & I'd say impossible not to be moved by the horror or the survival of the hotel's guests. Definitely well worth reading. I can't say too much about it, as I feel my words are meaningless in comparison.

Must read for everyone who believes in human rights & current events. Probably should be read by those who are inclined to think that what's on the news doesn't affect them. I would say that the book would be a benefit to teenagers who are growing up as global citizens, but should probably be read with adult guidance - or someone to turn to & ask questions of (whether it's in a classroom, with family, or a pastor, etc..).

The Alchemist

This book by Paolo Coelho had been talked up to such an extent that I had very high expectations for it. Sure it's semi-philosophical about life's journey, paths not taken, etc..., but overall it's kind of simplistic. The message seemed to be "do what you need to do" regardless of the other people you care about and who care about you and if it's gonna work out, it'll work out - if not, it wasn't meant to be. That seems awfully self-centered to me. Not that I believe the individual is unimportant or that one's journey through life can't be synchronistic, but I don't believe that at a certain point your life has passed you by and given you the bird 'cause you weren't ready (or were afraid or whatever) to go for the ride. Yes. That opportunity was missed, but there is always something else waiting for you around life's corners and bends. Will the opportunity be the same? - no. Will the experience be identical? - no. Does that mean that it's bad or that your life is unfulfilled? I don't think so. Different than it might have been, but bad, sad, or pathetic - not unless that's how you want to live it.

Anyway, I would say that if you're looking for something inspirational, go for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. If you have to read it, at least it's short & won't take up too much of your time. Not recommended unless it's required (or you want to find out what I'm talking about! ;) ).