What I've Been Reading This Summer

What a tremendously busy summer it's been! We just finished our Summer Reading programs at the library, and I'm happy to say that my teens did a great job -- circulation numbers were way up!

Despite being so very busy, I was able to get some excellent reading in. Heads up for these titles:

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

Middle School and up

This book was so fun and so heartbreaking at the same time. Steven is a middle school drummer whose obsession with All-City jazz ensemble is trumped only by his unrequited adoration of gorgeous and unattainable Renee. Into the hormonal frenzy that is life in junior high comes the diagnosis of his baby brother's leukemia. Steven's simultaneous annoyance and devotion to little Jeffy is affecting and realistic, as is his frustration with his parents as they, understandably, focus their attention on their younger son at the expense of Steven. Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny, and others threaten to produce tears. I highly recommend this one.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

8th grade and up

This book is not for the faint of heart. Sixteen-year-old Katniss lives in a post-apocalyptic world where the majority of people stay in abject poverty their entire lives -- unless, of course, they are chosen to represent the 12 districts of Panem at the Capitol in the annual Hunger Games. In that event, they must fight in a winner-takes-all death match against other children (ages 12-18). When Katniss volunteers to take her little sister's place in the bloodbath, she sets in motion a series of events that will change Panem, and herself, forever. I am so looking forward to Catching Fire, the second in this proposed trilogy.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

5th grade and up

I read this book with complete delight and abandon. I love a light read, and though the book has nearly 500 pages, the subtle humor and adventure made it go by fast. This book is for anyone who likes puzzles and mysteries, or who has ever felt a bit like an outsider in a world that doesn't understand. I think fans of Harry Potter will also like the interactions among the four children who make up the benevolent Mr. Benedict's Society -- Reynie, the defacto leader of the group; Sticky, a boy with a photographic memory and a penchant for polishing his glasses when he's nervous, which is most of the time; Kate, a spunky girl who carries a bucket full of odd items fastened to her belt and who prefers using windows and air ducts to make an entrance; and Constance, a girl whose stubborn will to be contrary just might save them all from the evil mechanization of Ledopthra Curtain, a mastermind whose "thing to come" will let him rule the world. Fun, fun, fun!

Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

I just finished the two latest installments of the series Jones started with Howl's Moving Castle, and they did not disappoint. I absolutely adore the way the old familiar characters are woven into two seemingly disparate storylines in these companions/sequels to a book that has become a great favorite of mine.

In Castle in the Air, a young carpet merchant named Abdullah gains possession of a magic carpet and a supremely contrary genie who start him on a quest to save his true love, Flower-in-the-Night. As in Howl's Moving Castle, Jones parodies classic fantasy at the same time that she embraces it, only this time she is working within a world straight out of The Arabian Nights. To top it all off, you will never guess how Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer show up in the story, but when they do, you will laugh at how obvious it was.

In House of Many Ways, we again focus on a character outside of Howl and Sophie's family unit. Charmain is a girl who has lived her life in the most respectable of ways -- which means no magical connection whatsoever. But when she goes to her Great Uncle's home to housesit, she finds herself in the middle of the most magical goings-on her country has ever seen. Of course, Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer are there in the middle with her, with hilarious results.

Read these books in order -- Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways -- if you want a different take on fantasy and several good laughs at the same time.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding

8th grade and up

This book was one of those that acts on its title: it haunted me every time I passed it on the shelf, staying in my mind as one of those I meant to read, but never found the time. "Alaizabel Cray," that tiny little voice repeated inside my brain. "What a cool sounding name." Finally, I picked it up, read the blurb on the inside cover, and decided to give it a try.

The book is set in an alternative London, circa the 1890s, although it’s never quite clear how "circa" it is. There are gas lights and horse-drawn carriages, but there are also dreadful and awesome airships and electricity. In the perpetual fog that blankets the cityscape dwell the wych-kin, gruesome and frightening creatures of the night that prey on the lowly, the forlorn, and the forgotten of London’s people. The wych-kin are growing in strength and number, and only the new breed of wych hunters, those like Thaniel Fox and Cathaline Bennett, with their Wards, talismans, guns, and daggers, stand between the foul, undead things and the citizens in their homes. Thaniel is, if not happy, then at least content in his life as a wych hunter until the night he meets Alaizabel Cray. This beautiful, bedraggled girl, whether mad or possessed, is the key to either London’s salvation or its destruction. For there are dark forces at work in high places, and it’s up to Thaniel to stop them. If you’re looking for a creepy adventure story, with psychology and science thrown into the lot, look no further. This book satisfies from beginning to end.

Big Fish by Daniel Wallace

High School/Adult

If the title sounds familiar, it may be because of the Tim Burton film adaptation, starring the oh, so handsome Ewan McGregor as Edward Bloom. That movie is the primary reason I asked that the library get this book: it was that phenomenal. Quirky, yes. A bit over-the-top, yes. But that is the nature of myths (and of Tim Burton films). They challenge us to reach outside the blah of our everyday lives and see something larger and more profound. And the idea that this profundity (yes, it's a word -- look it up) can be found in an ordinary man's life is terribly appealing, since it affirms that all our lives, however simple they may be, can be the stuff of dreams.

The book, like the movie, is about a son's search for who his father really was and is. Edward Bloom is a teller of tall tales, of jokes, of everything but the hard facts of his life. There is a wall between him and his son, a wall made of words, of lost time, and of myth. For that is what Will has done his whole life -- what all sons (and daughters) do at some point -- mythologize his father. Now he wants to know the "truth" behind the fish tales before his father dies; he wants to know the real Edward Bloom before it is too late, only to realize that the stories of his father, that the stories of any father, are as close as he can come. And perhaps, just perhaps, that is close enough.

Don't expect the book and the movie to be exactly the same in every aspect; the stories are a bit different. But the heart and the voice of Will as he tells his father's stories and the stories of his father's death make them as humorous and heart-wrenching as anything the movie produced. But go ahead and let Ewan McGregor run around in your mind's eye -- that never hurt a thing.

I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

Middle/High School

I must say, I had the hardest time getting through this book, and I should admit that I just skimmed through the last half of it. The writing is dated (the book came out before I was born), but that isn't so much what bothered me. The dialogue seemed so stilted -- no one talks like these kids do -- and the characterization was just . . . blah. I couldn't care about any of these people; some I loathed for their self-absorption and disregard for others' feelings, and others I pitied in a "squash the dying bug and put it out of its misery" sort of way because of their total obliviousness. I really wanted to like two characters. I honestly tried to be interested in them. But they were just so unreal that I couldn't muster much more than a "well, it'll be slightly sad if they die, so here's hoping they get a generic pulled-from-the-clutches-of-death ending."

If you've seen the movie, you've seen the absolute basics of the plot, though the film did take liberties. Four teens accidentally kill a little boy in their car and make a pact to keep it secret. They go a year with everything fine -- except their consciences -- until mysterious notes start to appear insinuating that someone out there knows what happened. And that someone wants them dead. Now, granted, I'm not the biggest mystery fan in the world. I like my "who-dunnits" to be more on the supernatural side, if you know what I mean (Mulder and Scully shippers unite! Wow, that really dated me). But I'm willing to give anything a chance as long as I can care about the characters. And here, I just don't. Just kill them already, creepy note-writing guy.

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn
8th grade and up

Good luck finding these on the shelves at the library! I have quite literally placed Twilight out on display and seen someone go home with it ten minutes later. My 13-year-old sister was the first person I heard rave about these books – and I mean rave. For months, all she could talk about was how Bella and Edward belonged together, but, oh, poor Jacob. I almost felt like I already knew the story by the time I gave in and actually started reading what I thought would be a sappy teen romance series.

Well, I was right; it is a sappy teen romance series. But it is a very cool sappy teen romance series, and if you aren’t careful, you might find yourself analyzing some of the most significant human themes in books rife with non-humans. Where is the line between obsession and love? What would it be like to need someone whose very existence is against nature, against everything you hold dear? What would you be willing to sacrifice for true love, and will such love really make you happy? These are the questions 17-year-old Bella faces when she falls irrevocably in love with Edward, a member of a “family” of vampires who have sworn off human blood, but whose presence in the tiny Washington town of Forks nevertheless threatens the destruction of Bella’s own family, her best friend, and her very soul.

Be prepared to be seduced by these books, to feel deeply the emotions of all the characters, to put yourself in the places of a vampire, a werewolf, and a magnificently human teenaged girl.

The Bumblebee Flies Anyway by Robert Cormier

High School and Up

I saw this as a movie starring Elijah Wood and Rachael Leigh Cook a really long time ago, so when I found out it was actually a book by late great Robert Cormier, I had to give it a try.

It's the story of Barney Snow, an amnesiac living in a research facility for terminally ill kids. He tries to keep himself, the only "healthy" person in the place, separate from the other boys, thinking that if he doesn't get attached, it won't hurt as much when they inevitably die. But when the beautiful sister of one of the guys asks Barney to try and befriend her self-pitying, belligerent brother, Mazzo, Barney forges friendships and embarks on a mission to build a car for Mazzo's last glorious ride. And these friendships will be all too important as Barney slowly discovers the painful mysteries of his past and of his own mind.

The writing is phenomenal. Sometimes poetic, sometimes gritty and vulgar, the book really gets inside Barney and evokes the fear, depression, and determination that living in such a place would bring. I highly recommend it.