I picked up The House at the End of Hope Street with the wish to read something out of my ordinary. In this novel, Alba is a studious young woman who is at a difficult spot in her life. That’s when she finds a magical house at 11 Hope Street. It’s a charming novel that will appeal to readers who don’t mind a bit of fantasy mixed with their contemporary issues, especially if you’ve got a soft spot for libraries.
“Also, she hasn’t been to the library in nearly a month and she’s starting to get withdrawal symptoms. It’s not just books Alba craves, it’s standing inside a place that houses millions of them. Libraries are Alba’s churches, and the university library, containing one edition of every book ever published in England, is her cathedral.”
If libraries are your churches, you might like this book. :)
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Isabel Allende is my new literary hero. It has been years since I’ve read her books, but after listening to the Talking Volumes interview on MPR today, I want to revisit her old novels with the new vision of the author as a blunt and sassy lady–not really what I expected from a author of poetic sagas full of magical realism.
She spoke of changes. ”Every two years,” she said, “things change or you die.” In her own life, things have changed many times over. She was born in Chile in the 1940′s, and she grew up feeling shy and never quite fitting in. Now she is an American citizen and a best-selling novelist. Still, though, there is still that quiet little girl inside her somewhere no matter how far she gets from that point in her life. ”You are always in your skin,” she said. You change, or life changes around you, but you are still you with your hopes, fears, and passions. Just stronger and happier–hopefully.
Those magical sagas Allende wrote early in her career? They aren’t her anymore. She said she can’t even read The House of the Spirits now. The worldwide bestseller that launched Isabel Allende’s career is “overdone” as she put it. ”Too baroque.” I know how she feels.
My current journal is almost full, and in a few more pages, I’ll add it to my stack of old journals that I am afraid to look at again for fear of finding them “overdone.” Perhaps even a bit “baroque.” I’ve been keeping a journal since I was a teenager. There are ups and downs of all sorts contained in those pages. Maybe one day I’ll read through them, even the cringe-worthy teenage journals full of bad poetry, but for now they are better left in a stack gathering dust as I move on to a new book of blank pages.
I can’t help but wonder what the next two years will bring.
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Last weekend there was a collective sense of glee in the Twin Cities as we got our first taste of nice weather after months of seemingly endless winter. We were all mischievous little bears borrowing hats with a shout, metaphorically speaking. Of course, I always think life is like a picture book, and in this case, it’s like Red Hat by Lita Judge, in which there are no words–only sounds–to tell the story of some animals having a lot of fun at the end of winter.
We were right there with them. No hat stealing that I saw, but the sounds of spring were in the air. The park near our building was packed with families playing, grilling, smiling. It felt like we lived at the park all weekend, and it was glorious.
This week has been decidedly less glorious outside, and the general glee has dulled as we debate whether we need winter boots and coats now or if spring jackets will do. As we faced a snowy forecast on Wednesday, I tried to avoid complaining, but even my bright-side nature can only go so far against snow in May.
In the end, the snow missed us to dump record-breaking amounts to the south and east of here. I stuck with my sneakers and spring jacket with only a slight sense of regret as I waited for my bus at 7 a.m. with a sharp wind chilling the air. A winter coat might have been a warmer choice this morning, but I very happy to be leaving my boots in the closet. Not exactly a “Roweeeee!” kind of happy, but I’ll take what I can get.
We just need a little more patience, and the cold, rainy, brown will turn to green, wonderful spring. Actually that reminds me of another picture book: And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano. It’s a quieter book than Red Hat. It’s more about the waiting, but the spring, when it finally arrives, is no less wonderful.
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There was a time when I lived and breathed poetry, but somewhere along the way I seem to have lost track of it. Here is my attempt to re-connect with a lost love: discovering new poets.
Space, In Chains by Laura Kasischke – This poet landed in my inbox via the Poem-a-Day email from the Academy of American Poets, and I was intrigued enough by what I read to seek out more of her work.
Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability – I’ve perused much of this collection, and the poet that stands out to me is Ona Gritz (also a picture book author and columnist). She doesn’t just write about disability. Her work is about parenting, stories, and relationships as well as her experiences as a person with cerebral palsy.
Real Karaoke People by Ed Bok Lee – I believe I became aware of Lee through MPR, perhaps it was this story from Euan Kerr, and I’ve been meaning to read more of his work for some time.
Are you doing anything for National Poetry Month? I particularly like Poem in Your Pocket Day, especially for kids. Hennepin County Library has poetry related events all month long for local readers.
When an ARC of Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel found its way to my desk at work, I almost passed it on without reading it. When you work in children’s books, you get really picky about the general adult books you read because your reading time is a precious work-related commodity. For most people, the name Elizabeth Strout (and the fact that it is attached to the words “Pulitzer Prize winner”) is probably enough to make the book a priority, but I am not most readers.
The extra push that put The Burgess Boys in my “to read” pile? As usual for my reading choices it involved a local connection. Like Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Olive Kitteridge, The Burgess Boys is set in small-town Maine. Maine and Minnesota both have a large population of Somali refugees, and that sometimes results in some cultural misunderstandings–like the recent incident at Washburn High School in Minneapolis.
The incident that begins The Burgess Boys is only part of the story in the book. It is a family story about relationships and motivations. It was occasionally heavy handed in the don’t-assume-too-much-about-people theme, but not so much that it detracted from the intimate story of people trying to make sense of the world in which they live.
Highly recommended.
As a side note for those who know or work with teens, Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian addresses some of the same issues (Maine, Somali immigrants, tolerance) for a young adult audience. Also recommended.
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Check out last month’s book pick: Just One Day by Gayle Forman
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Few writers can compare with Judy Blume. Mostly because, it seems, few writers want to take on some of the subjects she was willing to write about–at least not for young people.
A couple of the essays in Everything take on Forever… (a.k.a. The Sex Book), and Stacey Ballis describes it like this:
“Forever was the book that got passed reverentially from older sibling to younger, usually with key passages highlighted and essential page numbers listed in the back. It was the book that we read aloud at slumber parties, whispered about in the back of the school bus, and was the single most likely item to be stolen from a sixth-grade desk.”
Yes, the book’s notoriety among tweens and teens was related to the fact that it talks about sex. But the book’s resonance went beyond the illicit content. Ballis continues:
“Judy Blume opened a door for me by simply depicting something real and not overly romanticized, which seemed to make it even more, well, romantic.”
That’s what I was thinking about when the teen novel Anatomy of a Single Girl by Daria Snadowsky landed on my desk at work. The ARC had an eye -catching jacket that promised the kind of illicit content that made Forever what it was. In case you can’t read it in the photo below, the jacket says:
“Warning:
Reading may produce the following side effects:
Rosy cheeks
Sweaty Palms
Racing Heart”
Snadowsky does make good on that promise. There is sex in this book and plenty of it. But what reminded me so strongly of Judy Blume was its lack of romance. The sex in Anatomy of a Single Girl isn’t really about being erotic, despite what the warning might make you think. It’s more clinical than sexy, and our narrator manages to be scientific and emotional.
The story began with Anatomy of a Boyfriend, which follows the same storyline as Forever. Life goes on, of course, even after a break up. And we get the second installment in Anatomy of a Single Girl. I don’t know if Snadowsky’s books will have the influence and staying power of Judy Blume’s books, but they definitely add to the list of books that answer all the questions about sex and relationships that girls are often afraid to ask. I think that’s a good thing.
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I have been reading parenting books for much longer than I’ve been a parent. I guess I’ve always been a bit of a child development geek. I probably should have majored in education or something similar, but when I was in college, there was no convincing me that I was not destined to be the next great novelist/poet on the literary scene. I think every English major I knew had the same aspiration.
After college, I realized that I’d probably need a job while I waited for the writing dreams to materialize. That’s where library school entered the picture, and that’s where I discovered children’s literature, which has since become my life’s passion. So it all worked out, I’d say. :)
I still read a lot of parenting/child development books. Now that I am a parent, I have a more practical reason for choosing them, but I’m still just generally interested in how kids think and how we as parents, educators, and random people might best interact with them.
On that note, check out the Best Parenting Books of 2012 from Momma Data (one of my favorite parenting related blogs) for some great suggestions that get behind the headlines and dig into the facts.
My parenting book pick for 2012 isn’t even a parenting book. It’s a self help book that I’d recommend to just about anyone regardless of whether they have children, but don’t let that deter you from reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown as a parenting book. You can skip to the chapter on Whole Hearted Parenting if you want or read a version of her words to parents published on the Huffington Post.
If nothing else, this:
“Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting.”
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In fifth grade, I was more likely to be found reading The Baby-Sitters Club than anything remotely “literary.” I was a strong reader, but I was in it for entertainment. (To be honest, that’s probably still true.) So back in fifth grade, when my friends were all raving about some book they’d just read, the eleven-year-old me was interested but apparently not interested enough to get beyond a chapter of Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. It landed squarely in the “did not finish” pile, and I went back to reading comfortable formulaic series novels.
I’m happy to report that eventually my reading tastes up-leveled to more challenging choices–like Homecoming. To my surprise, the novel I had once dismissed as boring was anything but. It was an epic search for a home and exploration of family. Even as an adult, I am still drawn to novels, notably by Joyce Carol Oates and Elizabeth Strout, that take on themes of home and family.
However, one thing I learned doing reader’s advisory on the front lines of a public library is that kids and teens who ask for read-alikes are usually looking for books with similar situations. Read-alikes for adults may focus on writing style or literary themes, but for young people, it’s all about the main plot element.
In the case of Homecoming, it’s actually pretty easy. Kids-on-their-own is quite common in children’s literature. You might direct readers to Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen or Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker for examples of kids making it on their own. They are both excellent books that I recommend often.
But the book that I would reach for is Keeping Safe the Stars by Sheila O’Connor. I would choose it for the kids-on-their-own plot and the Northern Minnesota setting, but mostly I would choose it for the family. The Stars, much like the Tillermans in Homecoming, are a family that will stick with you. And, really, that’s what I’m looking for in a Homecoming read-alike. Highly recommended.
One of the new features on the blog for 2013 will be monthly book picks, and for the kickoff, I have Goliath by Tom Gauld, a graphic novel version of the familiar Bible story.
You probably remember Goliath as the fearsome giant, right? He terrorized the Israelites until David finally vanquished the terrible enemy, at least that’s how the original version of the story goes. In Gauld’s retelling, Goliath is a gentle soul who works an admin position in the army. He’s big, all right. A real giant, but he’s hardly the great enemy we expect.
One day he is reassigned from the desk to the front lines and given a script to read with the challenge we know from the Bible. Goliath is reluctant, but he is assured that it is a war of words, that he’ll be fine.
The result is a heartbreaking look at war that reminds us that our enemies are human too. The book is short, but it is quite powerful. You can see a seven page preview on BoingBoing.
Recommended for anyone interested in alternate versions of old stories, as you know I do. Including teens, according to School Library Journal.
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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Book reviewed from library copy.
In the summer of 2001, I was sitting in a computer lab on the UIUC campus with my fellow Web Design for Libraries & Organizations students when someone piped up with a question: “Do you know what a ‘blog’ is?”
The response was mixed.
Eleven years later, “blog” is obviously a household word. As is “social network,” which I’m not sure I knew in 2001–if it even existed then since Facebook wasn’t around until 2004.
Three years before Facebook, in the fall of 2001, Jennifer Egan published the novel Look at Me in which a fashion model who has had reconstructive surgery after a disfiguring accident is invited to participate in a very Facebook-like project. The book explores identity in a media saturated world in a way that feels more relevant now than it did in 2001. I found the book fascinating when I read it earlier this year. I wonder what I would have thought of her version of social media if I would have read it in 2001.
It seems that Jennifer Egan still has an interest in social media. Check out her latest short story written in tweets as part of the Twitter Fiction Festival. It might seem odd to tweet a story or try to put any kind of fiction into 140 characters, but people are doing some very interesting things with the medium. Plus, it’s participatory. You can join in with a hashtag. I love it. :)
You can listen to Jennifer Egan talk more about the project on MPR here. Tangentially, even if you’re not buying Twitter Fiction as a thing, consider what Egan said about empathy and judgment on Talking Volumes last year. Seems to fall right in with this lovely headline: Reading fiction ‘improves empathy’ study finds.
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I picked up The House at the End of Hope Street with the wish to read something out of my ordinary. In this novel, Alba is a studious young woman who is at a difficult spot in her life. That’s when she finds a magical house at 11 Hope Street. It’s a charming novel that will appeal to readers who don’t mind a bit of fantasy mixed with their contemporary issues, especially if you’ve got a soft spot for libraries.
