Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly is the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast set in modern NYC.  Despite Kyle's goth transformation in the movie, in the book he really is a beast.  Not quite lion, wolf, or bear, he walks upright but looks like an animal.  That slightly major detail is more true to the fairy tale and far less believeable as a love story.  I couldn't decide if I liked his beastliness or not.  Other than that I thought this was an enjoyable read.  Super fast- definitely an airplane book, but entertaining.  The language and writing is on a 14 or 15 year old level but some of the subject matter is too mature for 14 year olds (at least in my opinion).  Sex is alluded to a couple of times.  The beast also spends his nights fantasizing about sleeping with his true love.  There are no details, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with my 13 year old daughter reading it.  The writing in this book is not nearly as good as any of the Jessica Day George fairy tales which include a great deal more character development and attention to detail.  Although Beastly is not very substantial it was fun refined sugar that only took about 2 hours to read and I would like to read more of Alex Flinn's fairy tales.

Crossed by Ally Condie

I have to say Crossed was just meh for me. I felt like there was very little progress in the story from where it started to where it ended so it came off like a filler book for sales between the beginning and ending of the story (books 1 and 3). Maybe I'm off base but that is what I thought of it.  The story in this book could have been handled in a few chapters in one of the other books just as well.   You can't very well skip this one if you plan on reading Reached, the third installment in the trilogy.  However, it's not engaging and feels sort of futile when you finish and if you could skip it, that would be my recommendation.

**EDITED to add:
HUH.  I thought for sure I had reviewed Matched, the first book in this series.  I must have dreamed it because I distinctly remember writing a beautiful and detailed review about how much I loved the theme of the power of words in this story.  I love that poetry played an important role in the plot.  I loved the issue of self-determination.  I really liked the book and consider it something more substantial.

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

In my effort to keep up with my son's reading I picked this up and read it last night.  Like most Newberry winners it deals with important/mature themes but the writing is very accessible and made both my son and I laugh out loud several times. 

The story is about an orphan runaway who spends some years in search of "home".  Along the way he touches the lives of several other people and finds love in unusual places.  The book deals with race, age, and education in such a way that they are important but lighthearted enough to not be depressing.

I would definitely recommend this book as something more substantial to intermediate readers who are ready for some thought-provoking themes.

Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson

A beautifully rendered memoir by the creator/author of the nieniedialogues (www.nieniedialogues.com).  In 2008, Stephanie and her husband Christian were in a plane crash.  He was burned over 40% of his body and she was over 80% of hers.  The book details the story of how they met, fell in love, got married, became parents and built a life together.  After the crash they painstakingly reclaimed that life piece by piece through their faith, their love for each other, and their family.  The story is a wonderfully honest account of their trials and joys.  At times humorous, and other times poignant, this memoir inspired and uplifted me.  I loved it.  It is triumphant and definitely something more substantial.

I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg

I mostly picked this up because I was looking for something light and fluffy after my battle with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  I thought, "Fannie Flagg!  Author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe!  Perfect.  Whimsical.  Quirky.  Just what I need."  Not whimsical.  Not quirky.  Boring.  With terrible pacing.  Just terrible.  The first half is kind of a downer and reeeeeeeaallly slow.  Then there is an interesting little section in the middle with what appears to be a mystery but is totally predictable.  Then the end which wraps everything up in about two pages.  And they all live happily ever after the end.  Such a disappointment.  Skip this one.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

A lovely allegory of Christ.  Jonas, a twelve, is selected to be the next Receiver of Memories for the Community.  The more he learns, the more he realizes that the people need the memories for themselves.  In a Camazotz-type existence the people know nothing and therefore feel nothing.  Jonas sacrifices himself to save the people from nothingness.  Can someone please explain the ending to me?  Something more substantial

Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Monk Taylor

Hmm.  Well, it was... interesting.  (That's like saying the girl who showed up for the blind date was... "nice".)  It was fun to read this and get a little of the back story on how The Secret Life of Bees came to be.  For those like myself who weren't sure what to do with the wackadoo religion practiced by the wonderful sisters in that book, this one is even worse.  It's one thing to go, "Oh.  They are worshipping a masthead.  That they named the black Mary.  And they smear honey on it and dance around.  Interesting.  Fiction.  Creative...?"  It's entirely another thing when the people behind the book actually do these things for real in some hippie feminist idol-worship religion of their own making.  The making of that craziness is the essence of this book.  It's pretty touchy-feely and although supposedly a "travel book", it has very little to do with either travel or the destinations and everything to do with what happened there.  In addition to the making of the black Mary religion, it is also a coming of age(s) story.  I liked this aspect of the book.  It explores the becoming women experience at pivotal moments in life such as going to college and becoming an adult, having your child get married, menopause, midlife crisis, grandparenting, and the shift in roles and relationships each time one of these pivot points intersect our lives.  Again, pretty touchy-feely, but a lovely portrayal of mothers and daughters and the ties that bind them.  I would like to note that the authors took turns writing chapters and surprisingly, I enjoyed Ann Kidd Taylor's chapters much more than Sue Monk Kidd's.  I might recommend it for a mother-daughter book group but otherwise I would say you could probably skip this one and find something better to read.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

SIGH.  Let's see.  Where to begin?  Yowsa.  This book is not for the faint of heart.  The text is extremely cerebral and gave me a splitting headache every time I picked it up.  The author's I.Q. was 170 at one time and that level of intelligence is reflected in the writing.  It took me enormous concentration to understand what was being said and I believe I am a reasonably intelligent person.  That said, I enjoyed the book and was glad that I read it.  If it had not been on the Rory Gilmore booklist I probably would never have chosen it for my A to Z Challenge.  (So thank you Gilmore Girls!) 

Through logic and reasoning, the author explains his own philosophy about Values and living a "Quality life".  He gives a history of philosophy in general from the Sophists (pre-Plato) to the present but not in a stuffy historian way.  He also briefly talks about the histories of science and knowledge as they relate to his philosophy.  He discusses mathematics and truth and eastern religions and all of this in a way so as to make it accessible to regular people (who concentrate really, REALLY hard).  :) 

From a Christian standpoint it becomes clear to me that the "Quality" which Pirsig works out for himself is God.  It is obvious and lovely.  I appreciate with what order and detail he proves through logical reasoning that this "Quality" exists.  There are many people in the world who believe that God and logical thinking are mutually exclusive and because Pirsig proves this is not so, I enjoyed reading this book very much.  Ultimately, the author's philosophy is that to change the world, we must change our hearts.  We must have "Quality" in our lives in all that we think and say and do.  When individuals achieve a "Quality" life, the world will become a better place.  What a beautiful message, no?

The book covers a two week, cross-country, motorcycle road trip the author takes with his son and the deep thinking the author does during those long stretches of open road.  Actually it is the deep thinking of his lifetime which he reflects back on during the road trip.  At the beginning of the book the author comes off sounding very intolerant and self-absorbed/arrogant.  He seems to find fault with his travelling companions and their values.  As you get further into the book it seems like the initial judgement was more a projection of what the author perceives as people's general intolerance of each other's ways of thinking and nothing like what he really thinks.  In fact, the "why can't we all just get along" question appears to be what the author sets out to solve when he comes up with his "Quality" philosophy.

I read the book in a few days and when I was finished, I wished I had taken it much more slowly.  I think it would have been easier and more meaningful if I had taken it a little at a time and been more contemplative about it.  (Also, it could have saved me some massive headaches.)  A word of warning:  Mental illness is part of the story of both father and son and is a prominent figure in the book, though not the focus.  Those that are sensitive to mental illness-related issues might find the book a little disturbing.

A real thinker, uplifting, and inspiring- not to mention a mind bender (genius-philosopher-motorcycle dude sat outside my paradigm before reading this)- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is something more substantial than I usually read and it made my head hurt.  A lot.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Another dystopian novel with similarity to The Hunger Games but with much better writing.  The author makes great use of vocabulary and the world she creates is original and thought-provoking.  Roth explores values and what happens when people focus on only one good thing.  She also explores fear and overcoming it with such effective descriptions that many times I noticed my own breathing was quickened, my heart rate was elevated, and my palms were sweating.  The story does not have a love triangle for which I was grateful as I think that particular plot device is getting pretty tired.  This is the first in a trilogy and I look forward to the next installment (Insurgent) to come out this spring.  Exciting, interesting, and a definite page-turner, Divergent is something more substantial.

Gravity vs. the Girl by Riley Noehren

I loved this book so much it actually brought me out of a year and a half book review hibernation.  It is funny, witty, and relevant.  It's privately published so a little spendy but I understand it is available on kindle so maybe that helps.  LOVED it.  You must read.  Must.  Something More Substantial if ever there was one.

Room by Emma Donoghue

I was surprised by this book.  I really expected it to be depressing.  Actually it was rather inspiring.  The story is about a five year old boy whose mother was abducted seven years earlier and has in the years since been kept prisoner by her abductor in a shed.  (See?  Sounds depressing/disturbing, right?)  Through the understanding of this sweet little boy we see a charming view of the world as he knows it inside of Room.  When they manage to escape they experience bittersweet adjustment to a whole new world but the book ends with hope.

I really liked this book.  I loved the kind of mother this boy has and the efforts she makes to create a happy, healthy, loving life for him.  Reading this inspired me to be a better mother and that's why I think it is something more substantial.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

I've put off getting and reading this for a couple of years.  I wish I hadn't.  Maybe I wouldn't have been so disappointed if I hadn't waited so long to read it.  The story is meticulously rendered like Hale's other fairy tales.  The details are evocative and consistent.  The setting is medieval Mongolia and she paints a believable, breathable picture.  That said, the story was just ho hum for me.  I was bored.  If you're going to read Shannon Hale I would recommend you skip this one and pick up something else she has written.  Not that this book wasn't okay.  It's just that the others are better.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Sigh.  I didn't even want to review this book after reading it.  In fact, I had decided not to but I just saw that it is one of the books on my A-Z Challenge so I felt like I should.  What to say... what to say...?  My mom recommended it.  When I mentioned to my best friend from 7th grade that I was reading it she got very enthusiastic and went on about how it is her favorite book of all time and how she regularly buys new copies since she is always giving her copies away.  SO-  some people like this book.  I guess.  I suppose they would have to for it to keep being printed and selling copies.  I am not one of those people.  Not even a little bit.  Not even just one part.  I think I'll stop there. 

Some objections:  general lack of reverence for the Divinity of Christ (Owen, we are to understand, is the result of another immaculate conception and is worshipped by the narrator after Owen's death), the politics (but if you hate Republicans it probably won't irritate the crap out of you), the language, and this quote:

"...although the subject of the president's personal (or sexual) morality would not have dampened everyone's enthusiasm for his political ideals and his political goals, Owen Meany was not "everyone"--nor was he sophisticated enough to separate public and private morality."

"...it seems that the only people who are adamant in their claim that public and private morality are inseparable are those creep-evangelists who profess to "know" that God prefers capitalists to communists, and nuclear power to long hair."

Truly there are no words.

In addition to my general objections, the pacing is too slow.  We spend hundreds of pages building up to something we're supposed to care about and by the time you get there you are so sick of waiting for the moment that the feeling is more one of "FINALLY!" instead of "Oh NO!  Poor OWEN!". 

Skip this one.  And if after reading this you really feel you must experience it, rent Simon Birch from Netflix instead.  I understand Ashley Judd is lovely as usual.

AACK! Has It REALLY Been THAT Long?!!

I was chatting with a friend from high school the other day and mentioned this blog. She jumped right on here and said something about "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society...". I thought, wait- what? I asked her if that was the last thing I had posted and she said yes. My, how time and books have slipped by. :) Here are some of the ones you missed:

P.S., I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
I had a hard time with this one. I kept comparing it to the movie (which I love) and trying to decide which I liked better. I never really came to a clear conclusion. I think the writing is great. I absolutely love the characters- they are all much more likable in the book. There is a much stronger family dynamic and the characters seem to have a much more firm footing on higher moral ground. I thought the ending was a little anti-climatic. (This is the main thing I liked better about the movie.) Overall, I was glad that I read it and I look forward to reading more Cecelia Ahern so I think it deserves to be called something more substantial.


Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
LOVED this. It wasn't nearly as violent as the first one. It was a little more political and had shades of 1984. Katniss Everdeen faces the fallout of her decision to rebel (in the previous book, The Hunger Games) and finds herself torn between the two men who love her. I thoroughly enjoyed this and it was not too predictable for the most part. (There were a couple obvious things but they did not detract in any way.) I can't wait for the third book of this trilogy to come out. The series makes for some great book discussions and is a great choice for book groups. For this reason I think Catching Fire is something more substantial.


Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi
A very dear friend recommended this to me. She said it was her favorite book and so I delved in with high expectations. The metaphors are wonderful; truly excellent craftsmanship. No matter how hard I tried though, I just could not get into the story. It is so, SO sad. The book is told from the perspective of a Little Person in Pre-WWII/Nazi Germany. It starts when she is a tiny little girl and tells how her mother believed that the baby girl's condition was a punishment from God. The mother could not bond with her, most likely due to postpartum depression, and shuts down completely for years. When the mother becomes pregnant again, the little girl is so afraid that the new baby will be normal and that her mother will not love her anymore, that she eats the sugarcubes left on the windowsill for the stork. She hopes that if she does this, the stork will not leave a baby. The baby is stillborn and the girl believes that she has killed him. Her mother sinks into a depression so deep that she has to be sent to an asylum for shock therapy and eventually dies. The girl believes she has killed her mother. Mixed in with all this are the everyday challenges of being a Little Person, being discriminated against, etc. The father and the Jewish lady across the street are the only bright spot in her life. They show her kindness and love. I only got about halfway through the book when I could force myself to go no farther. I can only assume something horrible happens to the Jewish woman and I couldn't take the sadness anymore. I am sorry that Little People have the struggles they do, but surely there must be a slightly less slit-your-wrists book about it than Stones From the River. Skip this one.

Remembering Isaac by Ben Behunin
Groan. I have this thing. I HATE not knowing how things end. I cannot walk out of a movie, I can't turn off a t.v. program in the middle, and I certainly have a difficult time putting a book down once I've started it. So I REALLY hate it when I read to the last page and the story doesn't end. I'm not talking like Harry Potter where there is an arc and a plotline resolves but other questions are unanswered to keep you hooked for the next one. I'm fine with that. It is what makes reading a series fun. No, what I'm talking about here is when you turn the page expecting at least another chapter- even another sentence- and lo, and behold the book is TO BE CONTINUED. It's a cheap trick and it makes me really mad at author, editor, and publisher alike. Such is Remembering Isaac. It is not a book. It is HALF a book. There was not enough resolution for this to be worth my while. It makes me grumpy every time I remember the day and a half I spent reading it. The writing is stilted and preachy. I agree with the tenets Mr. Behunin is trying so skill -lessly to weave into the book, but I think the way he did it smacks of a public library puppet show for preschoolers. Mr. Squirrel needs to find out where the magical nut stash is and he goes to Mr. Owl, Mr. Bunny, and Mr. Frog, each in turn to ask them if they know where it is. Bleagh. Skip this one.- On the other hand,

Discovering Isaac by Ben Behunin
is much, much better. I read it because, as previously stated, I can't stand not to know how it ends. It's a compulsion. Even if it's a Lifetime Original Movie from the 80's, if I see more than 5 minutes of it, I have to see it through to the end. Probably I could take medication...? I digress. The book is still TO BE CONTINUED (ARGGGHHHHH!), but the writing is leaps and bounds over the first one. The little moral lessons are much more subtly woven into the story and the love story picks up enough that you really want to find out what happens to their relationship. Maybe the last book in the trilogy will actually be good. Since it is still not a finished story, I am going to say skip this one too.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
In an effort to connect with my boy, I picked these up to see what he was reading. They are funny, irreverent, and made me feel guilty for laughing out loud at things that I shouldn't laugh about. (e.g.- Greg's friend Rowley gets blamed for something Greg does and Greg is trying to decide what the right thing to do is. He comes to the conclusion that the right thing to do is to let Rowley "take one for the team on this". Then when his mom asks him if he did the right thing or not and he answers Yes, she takes him out for ice cream.) The stories are a little mean-spirited, but I think the point is to teach right and wrong through irony. This might be great for middle schoolers, who deal almost exclusively in sarcasm, but for my 3rd grader I am afraid that all the implied lessons on virtues may be a little lost. I enjoyed this very much and it got my son to read four books in three days so I'm going to say it's refined sugar.

My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
Another in an endless supply of airplane books, My Best Friend's Girl is sweet but a little ho hum. The story is about Kamryn, a woman whose best friend dies of leukemia leaving her five year old daughter to be raised. Kamryn takes her in and the book is sort of the story of the adjustment she makes to the new life of being a mom and falling in love with both the girl and a would-be father. I was in love with the love interest by the end and I liked the main character, but this book isn't going to stick with me. I would be surprised if I even remember reading it a year or two down the road. It's not substantial but I did enjoy it so if you have nothing better to do or you're looking for that perfect weekend on the beach book, this is good refined sugar.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
This was another book that my son was reading and I had been recommended it several times in the last couple years. The story was a fun romp through Greek mythology, set in modern times in NYC. I liked it as much as the first Harry Potter book and I can't wait to read the next one in the series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians). Because it drew me in and because it makes Greek mythology so accessible to young adults, I feel this is something more substantial.



The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Another book that I read because I loved the movie so much. The characters were more loveable in the movie, more realistic in the book. Even though I knew what was coming, I bawled my eyes out at the end and when I closed the book I marched upstairs and made love to my husband. It was really good. The book is peppered with strong profanity and there is mention of illicit drug use several times. Overall I liked it though and because I really had to concentrate to wrap my mind around and make sense of the paradoxes intrinsic in time travel, I feel like this is something more substantial- profanity notwithstanding.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer and Annie Barrows

Bad Germans. Good Germans. This account of the German occupation in British Guernsey has them all. Artfully woven vignettes that paint a vivid picture of WWII England and what the Occupation experience was illustrate how goodness is not so much a matter of geography as it is a matter of the heart.

The story is told though written correspondence amongst the different characters in the book and I found the many voices charming. (I kept holding auditions in my mind with various British and Irish actors/actresses for the movie. My cast was great.) : ) Because of this letter-turned-story format, I expected to find the plot disjointed. I was pleasantly surprised that the story flowed along quite nicely. The characters were quirky and endearing and the authors did an amazing job of balancing the heavy and sad things in the story with accounts that were equally uplifting and inspiring.




My one criticism for Guernsey was that it was really easy to put this book down. Because the letters are each only two or three pages long, there were natural breaks in the book all the time. This is fine for someone who is very busy but wants to take a couple minutes each day to read. I, however, like a book that will suck me in and eat away the hours without giving me the slightest hint that I am beginning to petrify on the couch. : ) In spite of the ease with which I could disengage, I still thought the overall message of the book was quite beautiful. The love story was sweet and not completely predictable. Something more substantial to be sure.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is easily something more substantial. It wasn't my intention to read two of these in a row. This was a happy accident though. The writing is excellent. The language is surprising. The perspective is original. The message is touching. Read it. It's good.*

*You should know going into this story that it is a Holocaust book and therefore may contain themes which are difficult to read.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Hmmm. There were little moments when I loved what Elizabeth Gilbert was saying and how she was saying it. There were bigger moments where I hated the book and her attitude and everything about what she is peddling as spirituality. This made for a pretty good book group discussion. Overall I would have to say I didn't like it but I would recommend it. I'm not sure if that qualifies as something more substantial or what, but for lack of a better category I will give it that. I would like to share some of the little gems that struck a chord for me.

I loved how the book was structured.

"Introduction

or

How This Book Works

or

The 109th Bead"

"When you're traveling in India...you see a lot of people wearing beads around their necks. ... These strings of beads are called japa malas."

"The traditional japa mala is strung with 108 beads. Amid the more esoteric circles of Eastern philosophers, the number 108 is held to be most auspicious, a perfect three-digit multiple of three, its components adding up to nine, which is three threes. And three, of course, is the number representing supreme balance, as anyone who has ever studied either the Holy Trinity or a simple barstool can planinly see. Being as this whole book is about my efforts to find balance, I have decided to structure it like a japa mala, dividing my story into 108 tales, or beads. This string of 108 tales is further divided into three sections about Italy, India and Indonesia- the three countries I visited during this year of self-inquiry."

I loved this. Each section has 3 names as well. I thought it was very clever writing.

There was a bit her friend in Italy told her about cities that I also loved.

"He said, "Don't you know that the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn-what is the word of the street?" Then he went on to explain, in a mixture of English, Italian and hand gestures, that every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be- that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there. "What's Rome's word?" I asked. "SEX," he announced. "But isn't that a stereotype about Rome?" "No." "But surely there are some people in Rome thinking about other things than sex?" Giulio insisted: "No. All of them, all day, all they are thinking about is SEX." "Even over at the Vatican?" "That's different. The Vatican isn't part of Rome. They have a different word over there. Their word is POWER." "You'd think it would be FAITH." "It's POWER," he repeated. "Trust me. But the word in Rome- it's SEX." ... Guilio asked, "What's the word in New York City?" I thought about this for a moment, then decided. "It's a verb, of course. I think it's ACHIEVE." (Which is subtly but significantly different from the word in Los Angeles, I believe, which is also a verb: SUCCEED....)"

I found that so intriguing. I've been trying to pin down my own word ever since reading it.

There was one other part I had intended to share about how prayer works but I really don't want to spoil it for you if you are going to read the book. If you do, it is on the 58th bead (p.176).

Trespassers Will Be Baptized: The Unordained Memoir of a Preacher's Daughter by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock

This was so much fun to read. Another airplane book but very enjoyable. On second thought, you wouldn't want to read it on an airplane. The number of times I laughed out loud would definitely draw stares in an enclosed space.

Emy is a very precocious child. Her stories are poignant, sometimes inspiring and always entertaining. I appreciated that the ending was unpredictable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I want to thank Kim at Good Clean Reads for the recommendation. When I finished this book I felt as if I'd walked- well, not a mile in someone else's shoes, but at least to the end of the driveway- and because of that I'd say it is something more substantial.

Specials by Scott Westerfield

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Adrenaline rush on paper! I am so glad that Scott Westerfield made reading Pretties worth the effort. : ) There is definitely an environmentalist agenda in this one so be aware if you have not yet succumbed to the mass marketing of "being green". I am so relieved that this was something more substantial.

Girls In Trucks by Katie Crouch

Skip this one. This is what I get for judging a book by its cover. Love the picture. Hated the book. This is a light-minded-read-on-a-short-airplane-trip book about making all the wrong turns in life. I have nothing against fluff books. Sometimes I really enjoy a good airplane book. Not this time. I kept waiting for the girl to learn her life lesson and change her ways or her path or something. I was disappointed. She never does get a clue and I think we're supposed to feel happy that she meets someone at the end who is not a total slimeball. I don't go in for man-hater books and I definitely felt this was one. Total waste of time. In the words of a good friend, "I would like those three hours of my life BACK please."