Last week when I closed the cover of Mockingjay, I was emotionally drained and eager to know how all the other fans of the Hunger Games had reacted to the book. I was really curious as to what reactions would be to the book because while I had no real concrete expectations for it, I knew I what I got was not what I expected. Sure enough, the reactions have been extremely mixed and led to some interesting and thought provoking discussion. I'm a fan of the book and I suspect I will always feel a strong personal connection to it, not only for the way the story itself impacted me, but because it saved reading for me in a really big way during a time I wondered if I would ever love to read again. Here are some of the fascinating posts that have sprung up around Mockingjay:
I LOVED this post from Malinda Lo on fan expectations. This post gave me a lot to think about in regards to the books I read and the shows I watch. And of course on the weight of the expectation we bring to any book we read.
I read Mockingjay as a serious social critique and found this post from Sarah Darer Littman to be a good analysis of the discussion on war found within the pages of Mockingjay and the Hunger Games trilogy.
When it comes to writing heartfelt reviews, I'm pretty sure no one does it like Angie, so you can imagine I was relieved to find out she was similarly affected by this book.
Amanda also has an in-depth review and we're on the same page about a lot of things as well.
And I loved this post from YA author Gayle Forman on the Mockingjay effect...and I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has experienced a certain amount of lingering obsession.
Finally...I've really been thinking about these books being made into movies and I'm extremely curious as to how it will be done. There's a part of me that wants it right now and a part of me that fears Katniss and Peeta will be horribly cast and the movie will sort of miss the plot. In any case, here's an update from the Daily Beast.
I recognize there are many people who didn't really like this book and I do feel sad that it was a disappointment for so many who loved the first two. But I'm grateful for all the discussion that has sprung up and even more grateful for a book that makes me want to continue thinking about it and writing about it...so don't be surprised if I come up with a few Mockingjay essays yet.
How are you feeling about the book one week later? 
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Mockingjay: One Week Later
Review: The Berenstain Bears and the Gift of Courage by Jan & Mike Berenstain
The Berenstain Bears have been around for awhile. I know because one of the first books my parents gave me all my own was The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room. It was a Christmas present that felt a bit like a lesson, much like the ever practical gifts of socks and undies. I've never been entirely organized and my parents obviously thought a good story was the way to one's heart. Much wisdom in that!
Recently, there have been some new Berenstain books that are explicitly Christian. This is interesting to me. The Berenstain Bears and the Gift of Courage is one such book. As with all Berenstain Bears books there's a topic to be dealt with and in this book it's bullies. Sister needs to deal with a bully but fears she lacks the courage. She asks Papa Bear to read the story of David and Goliath to them at bedtime. The story is fully in the book, complete with bear images! Sister expresses her doubt over whether or not she has the courage to stand up to a bully, and Papa Bear assures her she does. Will Sister Bear test this courage? Read the book and find out! :) (Please note I received a copy of this book from the publisher)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Vampire Diaries News
As you all know, I'm a huge fan of The Vampire Diaries, both the books (especially when I was younger) and the TV show. (Ian!!!)
The show comes back September 9th and looks better than ever! Check out this juicy trailer!
In other excellent news, Ian Somerhalder was voted as the sexiest beast during Entertainment Weekly's tournament. There are simply no words for how much I love this!
Finally, a series of Vampire Diaries prequels are going to be released. I do not understand. These are essentially books for fans of the TV shows that will explore the Salvatore brothers' lives during the Civil War era and have nothing to do with the actual books. They will be called Stefan's Diaries...cute huh? Which means I probably won't read them. But here's the cover anyway:
Most important! I will be recapping the Vampire Diaries every week right here on the blog! I invite you to link up your own recap posts. This will be an ongoing part of the L.J. Smith challenge. I'm adding The Forbidden Game trilogy as the books to read this year, and will be making the announcement a little later than originally planned because I hope to do something fun with it! Haven't read the Forbidden Game? One word for you. Julian. The Forbidden Game was recently rereleased in omnibus format from Simon Pulse. These were my favorite L.J. Smith books growing up.
Who's excited for the Vampire Diaries to come back?
Friday, August 27, 2010
Faith and Fiction Saturday Round Table: Godric by Frederick Buechner
Every month a group of Christian bloggers read and discuss a book via email which we then post on the final Saturday of the month. This month we read Godric by Frederick Buechner, a book I've long been meaning to read. You can find our discussion below at the various blogs who participated. My many thanks to them for helping me understand this different but interesting book.
Unfinished Person --The language of the book
My Random Thoughts--Overall Impression
The Fiddler's Gun--Godric's relationship with his sister
Shelf Love--Perception
Book Addiction--Merits of rereading
Books and Movies--Prayer passage
Wordlily--Familiarity with Buechner and the real Godric
What Makes a Book YA?
It's time for the lastest installment in my never ending quest to understand what factors drive a book to be marketed as YA (young adult) fiction.
I've argued before that it's the age of the protagonist and nothing else, but people pointed out to me that some YA books have non-teen protagonists. So I was back to square one.
Then, this year at the LA Times Festival of Books this subject came up several times and many YA authors said that YA books need to have hope or an element of redemption. That I could buy into and it even help explained why I love YA so much...I adore hope! I love stories of redemption!
This year two of my favorite YA series have come to an end. These are both post-apocalyptic series with many bleak dark moments--The Last Survivors and The Hunger Games.
While the reactions to Mockingjay (the final Hunger Games book) have been varied, many people have felt that it no longer qualifies as YA. I disagree (since YA is a made-up marketing category) because I felt the book had hope. But it does lead to an interesting question...does hope look different to different people?
The Road is a book in which I've heard people say it's all darkness with no hope and others say it has hope. I haven't read the book, but I would come down on the side of hope from the movie.
What makes a book classified as YA in your opinion? And what does hope look like to you? Do you need a happy ending? Do all wrongs need to be made right?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Some Awesome Looking Books Coming out in September!
Since I have made the commitment to slow down reading, I've really been enjoying it. I think the books I'm reading have come to mean so much more. I finished Mockingjay two days ago and that book has so totally disrupted my life that I can't even really think about reading anything else. (or really thing about much else) And that's okay, I love for story to have that kind of impact. I wouldn't trade my slightly dazed feeling for anything.
But I do a few things...like a podcast more focused on new books in which I look through catalogs for books with certain themes. As such, my book lust is constantly being ignited, though I'm committed to really focusing my reading and taking it slowly. So I'm stealing a page from world-famous book blogger Nymeth's book and making lists of books coming out that are tempting me something crazy. The following books are coming out in September alone!
Vestments by John Reimringer is coming September 1st from Milkweed Editions. This books is about: Originally drawn to the priesthood by the mystery, purity, and sensual fabric of the Church, as well as by its promise of a safe harbor from his tempestuous home, James finds himself - just a few years after his ordination - attracted again to his first love, Betty García. Torn between these opposing desires, and haunted by his familial heritage, James finds himself at a crossroads. Exploring age-old and yet urgently contemporary issues in the Catholic Church, and infused throughout by a rich sense of the history and vibrant texture of St. Paul, and infused throughout by a rich sense of the history and vibrant texture of St. Paul, this is an utterly honest and subtly lyrical novel.
It should be fairly obvious why this appeals to me...I enjoy explorations of faith and calling. I love the torturous idea of being torn between a public faith commitment and love. And the pre-publication reviews are outstanding. 
Snakewoman of Little Egypt: A Novel is coming from Bloomsbury on September 14th. Snakewoman of Little Egypt is about: On the morning of her release from prison, Sunny, who grew up in a snakehandling church in the Little Egypt region of Southern Illinois, rents a garage apartment from Jackson. She's been serving a five-year sentence for shooting, but not killing, her husband, the pastor of the Church of the Burning Bush with Signs Following, after he forced her at gunpoint to put her arm in a box of rattlesnakes.
Sunny and Jackson become lovers, but they're pulled in different directions. Sunny, drawn to science and eager to put her snake handling past behind her, enrolls at the university. Jackson, however, takes a professional interest in the religious ecstasy exhibited by the snakehandlers. Push comes to shove in a novel packed with wit, substance, and emotional depth. Snakewoman of Little Egypt delivers Robert Hellenga at the top of his form.
Oh for the love! Another book exploring the tension between religion and science you know it's right up my alley. I always really enjoy stories about small cults and the way community forms in them and the impact they have on the individual as well. This one looks like it should not be missed!
Salvation City is coming from Riverhead on September 16th. Salvation City is about: After a flu pandemic has killed large numbers of people worldwide, the United States has grown increasingly anarchic. Large numbers of children are stranded in orphanages, and systems we take for granted are fraying at the seams. When orphaned Cole Vining finds refuge with an evangelical pastor and his young wife in a small Indiana town, he knows he is one of the lucky ones. Sheltered Salvation City has been spared much of the devastation of the outside world.
But it's a starkly different community from the one Cole has known, and he struggles with what this changed world means for him. As those around him become increasingly fixated on their vision of utopia - so different from his own parents' dreams - Cole begins to imagine a new and different future for himself.
Written in Sigrid Nunez's deceptively simple style, Salvation City is a story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, weaving the deeply affecting story of a young boy's transformation with a profound meditation on the true meaning of salvation.
Again with the religious element! Plus a little cult/dystopia/utopia/apocalypse stuff going on...this one sounds absolutely amazing.
To the End of the Land is by David Grossman and is coming from Knopf on September 21st. Book description: From one of Israel’s most acclaimed writers comes a novel of extraordinary power about family life—the greatest human drama—and the cost of war.
Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is on the verge of celebrating her son Ofer’s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. In a fit of preemptive grief and magical thinking, she sets out for a hike in the Galilee, leaving no forwarding information for the "notifiers" who might darken her door with the worst possible news. Recently estranged from her husband, Ilan, she drags along an unlikely companion: their former best friend and her former lover Avram, once a brilliant artistic spirit. Avram served in the army alongside Ilan when they were young, but their lives were forever changed one weekend when the two jokingly had Ora draw lots to see which of them would get the few days’ leave being offered by their commander—a chance act that sent Avram into Egpyt and the Yom Kippur War, where he was brutally tortured as POW.
In the aftermath, a virtual hermit, he refused to keep in touch with the family and has never met the boy. Now, as Ora and Avram sleep out in the hills, ford rivers, and cross valleys, avoiding all news from the front, she gives him the gift of Ofer, word by word; she supplies the whole story of her motherhood, a retelling that keeps Ofer very much alive for Ora and for the reader, and opens Avram to human bonds undreamed of in his broken world. Their walk has a "war and peace" rhythm, as their conversation places the most hideous trials of war next to the joys and anguish of raising children. Never have we seen so clearly the reality and surreality of daily life in Israel, the currents of ambivalence about war within one household, and the burdens that fall on each generation anew.
Grossman’s rich imagining of a family in love and crisis makes for one of the great antiwar novels of our time.
I have sadly not ever read anything by Grossman, but when I saw someone tweet about this book the other day, I looked it up. It was this blurb that absolutely sold me and made me want to read the book:
Very rarely, a few times in a lifetime, you open a book and when you close it again nothing can ever be the same. Walls have been pulled down, barriers broken, a dimension of feeling, of existence itself, has opened in you that was not there before. To the End of the Land is a book of this magnitude. David Grossman may be the most gifted writer I've ever read; gifted not just because of his imagination, his energy, his originality, but because he has access to the unutterable, because he can look inside a person and discover the unique essence of her humanity. For twenty-six years he has been writing novels about what it means to defend this essence, this unique light, against a world designed to extinguish it. To the End of the Land is his most powerful, shattering, and unflinching story of this defense. To read it is to have yourself taken apart, undone, touched at the place of your own essence; it is to be turned back, as if after a long absence, into a human being.--Nicole Krauss
I felt a little bit like that after reading Mockingjay and I welcome the chance to be completely altered in the same way again. I'm a bit embarrassed to have not heard of Grossman before, but I suppose it's impossible to know every author!
Fame by Daniel Kehlmann is coming from Pantheon Books on September 14th. It's about: After some initial hesitation, a man receiving someone else's phone calls begins to play with his new identity. From one day to the next, an actor's telephone falls dead silent, as though someone has stolen his life. A writer takes a pair of trips with a woman whose worst fear is to end up in one of his works. A somewhat confused Internet blogger wants nothing more than to become a character in a novel. A detective-story writer goes missing while on a journey through Central Asia, a fictional old woman on her deathbed quarrels with the writer who created her, and a managing director at a cell phone company goes crazy trying to manage his double life with two women. In Fame, nine episodes coalesce to form a coherent whole as Daniel Kehlmann plays a sophisticated game with reality and fiction—creating, in essence, a dazzling hall of mirrors.
This sounds really different to me, and timely. I'm always up for something different and this certainly seems like it is!
And if that wasn't enough, I talk in-depth about some of the books coming out this September with Nicole on The Underground Literary Society.
What September books are you looking forward to reading?
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Review: John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles
Hilda and her best friend Benji have a fascination with visiting the sites where famous people died in Los Angeles. They also enjoy collecting artifacts from these sites, spending time on websites learning more, and reading guidebooks to find more. They are both a bit outside the mainstream, battling the grief and darkness within.
One day, they visit an apartment where someone died and meet Hank, a grumpy old shut-in. Hilda ends up striking up an unlikely friendship with Hank, only to discover he has secrets of his own.
I loved this book. Charles has created a cast of authentic characters, each so deeply flawed yet entirely sympathetic. There's nothing rosy here, no Hallmark moments, just people trying to come to grips with life and death and their own actions. The city of Los Angeles is a vibrant character in its own right and I have to admit that was part of the appeal of the story. There's such a fascinating history to Hollywood and all that goes on underneath the glamor.
Hilda's obsession with death may seem a bit off-putting at first, but it is easy to understand as you read the book. I think that her relationships with Benji and Hank are interesting and make the story so rich.
There were so many moments throughout the story that I just wanted to sigh with the truth of it. I loved these characters and I cared about their fate.
Charles is unafraid to go where the story needs to go and yet this book is very hopeful. I read it and thought about it for so long afterwards. It's the story of life and also of death and how the living go on after death. It's a story about choosing what's good for you, and taking control of your fate. And it's about love and the many forms it takes, and the ways we reach each other.
Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Profanity
Source of Book: Received from publisher for review
Publisher: MTV (Simon & Schuster)
FIRST: The Devil in Pew Number Seven
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (July 2, 2010)
Rebecca Nichols AlonzoBecky Alonzo never felt safe as a child. Although she lived next door to the church her father pastored, the devil lived across the street. This tormented man terrorized her family with rifle shots and ten bombings. When these violent acts didn't scare them away, he went even further. During dinner one evening, seven-year-old Becky and her younger brother watched as their parents were gunned down. Today Becky speaks about betrayal and the power of forgiveness. She is a graduate of Missouri State University and has been involved in ministry, including a church plant, youth outreach, and missions, for thirteen years. She and her husband, along with their two children, live in Franklin, Tennessee.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (July 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414326599
ISBN-13: 978-1414326597
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
I ran.
My bare feet pounding the pavement were burning from the sunbaked asphalt. Each contact between flesh and blacktop provoked bursts of pain as if I were stepping on broken glass. The deserted country road, stretching into the horizon, felt as if it were conspiring against me. No matter how hard I pushed myself, the safe place I was desperate to reach eluded me.
Still, I ran.
Had a thousand angry hornets been in pursuit, I couldn’t have run any faster. Daddy’s instructions had been simple: I had to be a big girl, run down the street as fast as my legs could carry me, and get help. There was nothing complicated about his request. Except for the fact that I’d have to abandon my hiding place under the kitchen table and risk being seen by the armed madman who had barricaded himself with two hostages in my bedroom down the hall. I knew, however, that ignoring Daddy’s plea was out of the question.
And so I ran.
Even though Daddy struggled to appear brave, the anguish in his eyes spoke volumes. Splotches of blood stained his shirt just below his right shoulder. The inky redness was as real as the fear gnawing at the edges of my heart. I wanted to be a big girl for the sake of my daddy. I really did. But the fear and chaos now clouding the air squeezed my lungs until my breathing burned within my chest.
My best intentions to get help were neutralized, at least at first. I remained hunkered down, unable to move, surrounded by the wooden legs of six kitchen chairs. I had no illusions that a flimsy 6 x 4 foot table would keep me safe, yet I was reluctant to leave what little protection it afforded me.
In that space of indecision, I wondered how I might open the storm door without drawing attention to myself. One squeak from those crusty hinges was sure to announce my departure plans. Closing the door without a bang against the frame was equally important. The stealth of a burglar was needed, only I wasn’t the bad guy.
Making no more sound than a leaf falling from a tree, I inched my way out from under the table. I stood and then scanned the room, left to right. I felt watched, although I had no way of knowing for sure whether or not hostile eyes were studying my movements. I inhaled the distinct yet unfamiliar smell of sulfur lingering in the air, a calling card left behind from the repeated blasts of a gun.
I willed myself to move.
My bare feet padded across the linoleum floor.
I was our family’s lifeline, our only connection to the outside world. While I hadn’t asked to be put in that position, I knew Daddy was depending on me. More than that, Daddy needed me to be strong. To act. To do what he was powerless to do. I could see that my daddy, a strong ex–Navy man, was incapable of the simplest movement. The man whom I loved more than life itself, whose massive arms daily swept me off my feet while swallowing me with an unmatched tenderness, couldn’t raise an arm to shoo a fly.
To see him so helpless frightened me.
Yes, Daddy was depending on me.
Conflicted at the sight of such vulnerability, I didn’t want to look at my daddy. Yet my love for him galvanized my resolve. I reached for the storm-door handle. Slow and steady, as if disarming a bomb, and allowing myself quick glances backward to monitor the threat level of a sudden ambush, I opened the storm door and stepped outside. With equal care, I nestled the metal door against its frame.
I had to run.
I shot out from under the carport, down the driveway, and turned right where concrete and asphalt met. The unthinkable events of the last five minutes replayed themselves like an endless-loop video in my mind. My eyes stung, painted with hot tears at the memory. Regardless of their age, no one should have to witness what I had just experienced in that house—let alone a seven-year-old girl. The fresh images of what had transpired moments ago mocked me with the fact that my worst fears had just come true.
I had to keep running.
Although I couldn’t see any activity through the curtains framing my bedroom window, that didn’t mean the gunman wasn’t keeping a sharp eye on the street. I hesitated, but only for a moment more. What might happen gave way to what had happened. I had to get help. Now, almost frantic to reach my destination, I redoubled my efforts.
I ran on.
To get help for Momma and Daddy. To escape the gunman. To get away from all the threatening letters, the sniper gunshots, the menacing midnight phone calls, the home invasions—and the devil who seemed to be behind so many of them.
But I’m getting ahead of the story.
CFBA Book Spotlights: Masquerade by Nancy Moser and Surrender the Heart by M.L Tyndall
1886, New York City: Charlotte Gleason, a rich heiress from England, escapes a family crisis by traveling to America in order to marry the even wealthier Conrad Tremaine.
She soon decides that an arranged marriage is not for her and persuades her maid, Dora, to take her place. She wants a chance at "real life," even if it means giving up financial security. For Charlotte, it's a risk she's willing to take. What begins as the whim of a spoiled rich girl wanting adventure becomes a test of survival amid poverty beyond Charlotte's blackest nightmares.
As for Dora, it's the chance of a lifetime. She lives a fairy tale complete with gowns, jewels, and lavish mansions--yet is tormented by guilt from the possibility of discovery and the presence of another love that will not die. Is this what her heart truly longs for?
Will their masquerade be discovered? Will one of them have second thoughts? There is no guarantee the switch will work. It's a risk. It's the chance of a lifetime.
Relive the rich history of the War of 1812 through the eyes of Marianne Denton and Noah Brenin, who both long to please their families but neither one wishes to marry the other. Noah is determined to get his cargo to England before war breaks out, and Marianne is equally determined to have a wedding so that her inheritance can be unlocked and her destitute family saved. When their stubborn games get them captured by a British warship, can they escape and bring liberty to their country—and growing love?
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Mockingjay
I don't think I'm capable of writing a review of Mockingjay without discussing spoilers and the many things it made me think and feel. I can say that this is the first time in ages I sat down and read a 400 page book cover to cover, completely unaware that I was reading, not thinking about all of the the other things I should be doing and simply losing myself completely and utterly in a story. I laughed, I cried, I felt things--big things. It was hands down my favorite book of the trilogy and it was very unexpected in so many ways. I can't wait until we have the chance to discuss it in depth and I'm frantically going around and reading other reviews to try to get a sense of what others thought. If you have a review up be sure to let me know in comments, or if you just want to talk Mockingjay please shoot me an email, I'm dying to have the chance to hash out little plot points with other readers.
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Beth Effect
Beth Kephart's fifth novel, Dangerous Neighbors, releases today though I spotted a copy in the store yesterday.
I had the great privilege to read Dangerous Neighbors several months ago. For those of you who have read Kephart's previous work, it's a bit of a departure. This is a historical fiction novel and rich in detail. While the protagonist is a young woman, this short book could easily find itself in the adult section of the bookstore. But in every way that's important, this is one hundred percent a Kephart novel.
The language is rich and lyrical, Beth uses words in a way that makes you pause and think about things differently. She paints scenes in vivid detail highlighting the senses necessary to experience what is happening with the characters. But more than anything, she writes with such emotional honesty, that I have never finished her work without sweet aching hope rising up within me.
While chatting with Hannah in Nashville recently, we coined it "the Beth Effect." I always enter in deeply with the characters, seduced by the beauty of the language, my heart opened up to the wounds they also face, but by the end, I feel as though these open tender sore spots have been stitched back together with hope.
There's nothing more I ever want from any story than to close it with hope. Hope is the sustaining force of our world, because even when you cannot love, you can hope for love and it's the first step to making it so.
When I finished Dangerous Neighbors, I recognized the feeling inside of me..that I had been on a journey and come out on the side of hope. I have felt this way before, many times, but always always when finishing a story by Beth Kephart.
Dangerous Neighbors is in stores today. Congratulations to Beth and I hope you all take the journey and experience the Beth effect!
(So you have all the information to make your own judgement, Beth Kephart is a client of Winsome Media Communications)
FIRST: The Berenstein Bears and a Job Well Done
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
The Berenstain Bears and A Job Well Done
Zonderkidz (April 9, 2010)
Stan and Jan Berenstain introduced the first Berenstain Bear books in 1962.
Mike Berenstain grew up watching his parents work together to write about and draw these lovable bears. Eventually he started drawing and writing about them too. Mike is married to Andrea, and they have three children. They live in Pennsylvania, in an area that looks a lot like Bear Country. Visit the authors' website.
Product Details:
List Price: $3.99
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Zonderkidz (April 9, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310712548
ISBN-13: 978-0310712541
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
The Boy with the Bread
There is that qualitiy of goodness that’s hard to overlook, but still...and then I think of it, what Peeta can do so much better than the rest of us. He can use words. He obliterated the rest of the field at both interviews. And maybe it’s because of that underlying goodness that he can move a crowd- no, a country- to his side with the turn of a simple sentence. --from Catching Fire
As I drift off, I try to imagine that world, somewhere in the future, with no Games, no Capitol. A place like the meadow in the song I sang to Rue as she died. Where Peeta’s child could be safe.
When I wake, I have a brief, delicious feeling of happiness that is somehow connected with Peeta. --from Catching Fire
While I am unabashedly Team Peeta, it is really more that I just adore Peeta. I fear he will meet his end in Mockingjay. Preparing myself for the loss...
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Review: Come Sunday by Isla Morley
Abbe is a minister's wife in Hawaii, living with her husband and three year old daughter. She is somewhat exasperated by her life, having little patience for the way things go day to day. Then one fateful day, her daughter is killed and it sends her reeling. Plunged into the depths of grief and depression, Abbe must begin to make choices about what she wants her life to look like.
I have to say that this book was hard for me to read, because I disliked Abbe intensely. She was extraordinarily selfish, and I don't think it was all owing to the death of her daughter. She was very self-centered even before that. Her husband, Greg, actually came off very well and yet she treated him like absolute crap. I really don't think anyone could ask for much more love or support than Greg gave her.
Another issue was that this book was pitched to me as exploration of faith and even though Greg is a minister, and the book is divided up by the liturgical year, Abbe had no actual faith herself. It seems she didn't have faith before the death of Cleo, her daughter, but it was definitely gone after that. Her attitude towards faith and people of faith was not very generous. This would be an instance where expectation damaged the reading experience, because I probably wouldn't have minded had I not been expecting something else.
Having said all of that, while this was not a pleasurable read, it was certainly thought provoking in some ways. One of the underlying themes of the book deals with narrative and how we choose the stories we tell ourselves and also how we choose the stories we tell out of our lives. Abbe's story of grief is combined with the story of her mother and how she viewed it one way, how that impacted her life, and later she learned more information that helped her choose to shape her life in a different way.
The extent in which I disliked Abbe made me think about how sometimes I am grateful we don't fully know the inner lives of others. Abbe does come around and this book ends with hope and really rather beautifully. It's just such a messy arduous journey to get there. A lot like life, yes.
The character of Greg is worth a second of examination since I always enjoy seeing how the clergy is depicted in books. As I said before, I thought he was a great guy. I think there must have been some baggage that isn't fully brought into the story, but for the most part, he seemed like a nice guy--a good husband and father. I think his downfall is that he spent a lot of time at the church. I liked him a lot, and I think his depiction was fair. His sermon on faith written after Cleo's death is one of the lovelist things in the book.
Overall, this is a dark novel in many ways, full of grief and depression, the writing is good, though, and the themes are thought provoking enough that it's worth a read if this is your kind of thing. But if you really want a good book about a pastor's wife, I recommend This Fine Life by Eva Marie Everson.
Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: profanity
Source of Book: Received for a blog tour from the publisher
Publisher: Picador
Friday, August 20, 2010
Faith and Fiction Saturday: Is Christian Fiction Really Cultural?
Faith and Fiction Saturday is a weekly discussion of the intersection of faith and fiction. To participate, please leave a comment or write a post on your blog and leave the permalink in comments.
I always enjoy reading literary agent Chip MacGregor's blog. He has a lot of thoughts to share on the market and the industry and he works in both the general market and the Christian market.
His post yesterday was pretty interesting to me as he made some pretty bold claims. Basically he said this:
1) Christians authors don't know how to write for the general population.
2) General market authors don't know how to write for Christians.
Chip seems to think the idea of integrating the CBA and the ABA markets can't happen. It's possible he's right, yet we try!
I do take issue with the idea that the ABA is more money driven than the CBA. What I'm about to say may seem offensive, but they are both BUSINESSES. I think they both take risks for books they feel are meaningful, and both do things, like marketing, to sell books. The argument that Christians publishers are all about the message doesn't ring true with me. I do agree most Christian fiction is too narrowly focused on one evangelical view of things.
I think Mike was right on when he said last week that faith driven fiction is different from Christian fiction. Faith driven fiction has to do with faith while Christian fiction has to do with culture.
I'd love to know your thoughts about this...do you think Christian authors mostly can't write to the general market and vice versa? Do you think the concept of Christian fiction is harmful as it perpetuates an insular culture incapable of speaking the outside language?
Free to a Good Home
As I work on shifting this blog a bit and cutting back on commitments there are two projects I'd love to offer up to any blogger who might be interested in taking them over. If you're not interested, I'm not going to be hurt, there are so many projects out there now and it's always more fun to work on your own! But if you are interested, just shoot me an email and we can discuss!
One is the Book Blog Social Club. I had huge hopes this could be a place where we could do a bunch of fun stuff we didn't necessarily want to clog our blogs up with, but I never had the time to devote to it. Maybe you do?
The other is Buy Books for the Holidays. While I've enjoyed encouraging others to buy books as holiday gifts the past few years, I feel this is no longer my specific calling and that there are many other bloggers who are much more creative who could really give this project what it deserves.
If you're interested in either of these let me know at mypalamyATgmailDOTcom
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
My Week at the Movies
It's been miserably hot here the past few days (we'd had a pretty cool summer up to this point) and I'm a little embarrassed to admit I've been to the theater three times already! All three films were winners, though, so I figured I'd share them with you.
Monday I went to see Winter's Bone. Nicole read and really loved this book and so I've been hoping it would come near where I live. Unfortunately, the one theater that sometimes showed indie or foreign films closed abruptly earlier this summer. But then it reopened managed by a new company and with more indies than ever! Yay! So when I saw Winter's Bone was playing I had to go...especially since I'd seen nothing but rave reviews. This is an intense film, very dark, but not without a glimmer of...something..hope? A seventeen year old girl who is essentially raising her younger siblings in the Missouri Ozarks. She finds out her dad put up their house and property for his bond and if he doesn't show up for court they'll lose everything..so she sets out to look for him, a dangerous quest considering the kind of company he kept. The acting is outstanding, and there are some pretty chilling scenes throughout. 
And I had to go see Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World of course! This is the kind of fun summer movie heavy on stylistic elements that make it a lot of fun to watch. And funny. It's really funny. And no I don't think it's anti-feminist and personally I think that's a rather shallow viewing of the film, but that's just me. There's a lot of ridiculousness about Scott Pilgrim to love. Recommended for when you want to go see a fun summer flick.
And lastly, I finally saw The Kids are All Right, which I was surprised by just how much I loved. I should warn there's a ton of sex in this one, and human sexuality is rather a large theme in the film. I just loved these all too real characters and how they tried to navigate the circumstances of their family. It's about a lesbian couple with two kids, who both have the same sperm donor. They want to meet him, and when they do it complicates things as he wants to have a relationship with them. At first I felt annoyed by some of the turns the film took, but then I realized just how likely they were. Everything felt so authentic in this movie--I found myself emotionally invested in the fate of the characters. But also, it was heartwarming and funny and I just felt...good after watching it.
Have you seen any movies lately? Anything you're looking forward to coming out this year?
San Diego Comic-Con 2010: Books for You!
It would seem I couldn't go to Comic-Con without thinking of you all. I had the good fortune to meet several authors and pick up all kinds of fun bookish swag. I've divided these up into three giveaways and I invite you to enter for any or all of them!
BUNDLE ONE: Death's Daughter signed by Amber Benson, a Dark Horse tote bag, and assorted and surprise miscellaneous items.
BUNDLE TWO: Rosemary and Rue signed by Seanan Mcguire, a Dark Horse tote bag, and assorted and surprise miscellaneous items.
BUNDLE THREE: A signed copy of the ARC (advance reader copy--this is NOT a finished book) of Kathy Reich's forthcoming YA novel, Virals, a Dark Horse tote bag, and other assorted and surprise miscellaneous items.
To enter, just fill out the form below! I'll draw winners at the end of the month. Open internationally.
This concludes my posting about Comic-Con 2010. Hope to see you there in 2011!
FIRST: Solitary by Travis Thrasher
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
and the book:
David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010)
The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***
Travis Thrasher is an author of diverse talents with more than twelve published novels including romance, suspense, adventure, and supernatural horror tales. At the core of each of his stories lie flawed characters in search of redemption. Thrasher weaves hope within all of his tales, and he loves surprising his readers with amazing plot twists and unexpected variety in his writing. Travis lives with his wife and daughter in a suburb of Chicago. Solitary is his first young adult novel.Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434764214
ISBN-13: 978-1434764218
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
She’s beautiful.
She stands behind two other girls, one a goth coated in black and the other a blonde with wild hair and an even wilder smile. She’s waiting, looking off the other way, but I’ve already memorized her face.
I’ve never seen such a gorgeous girl in my life.
“You really like them?”
The goth girl is the one talking; maybe she’s the leader of their pack. I’ve noticed them twice already today because of her, the one standing behind. The beautiful girl from my second-period English class, the one with the short skirt and long legs and endless brown hair, the one I can’t stop thinking about. She’s hard not to notice.
“Yeah, they’re one of my favorites,” I say.
We’re talking about my T-shirt. It’s my first day at this school, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think carefully about what I was going to wear. It’s about making a statement. I would have bet that 99 percent of the seven hundred kids at this high school wouldn’t know what Strangeways, Here We Come refers to.
Guess I found the other 1 percent.
I was killing time after lunch by wandering aimlessly when the threesome stopped me. Goth Girl didn’t even say hi; she just pointed at the murky photograph of a face on my shirt and asked where I got it. She made it sound like I stole it.
In a way, I did.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” Goth Girl asks. Hersparkling blue eyes are almost hidden by her dark eyeliner.
“Did the shirt give it away?”
“Nobody in this school listens to The Smiths.”
I can tell her that I stole the shirt, or in a sense borrowed it, butthen she’d ask me from where.
I don’t want to tell her I found it in a drawer in the house we’re staying at. A cabin that belongs to my uncle. A cabin that used to belong to my uncle when he was around.
“I just moved here from a suburb of Chicago.”
“What suburb?” the blonde asks.
“Libertyville. Ever hear of it?”
“No.”
I see the beauty shift her gaze around to see who’s watching. Which is surprising, because most attractive girls don’t have to do that. They know that they’re being watched.
This is different. Her glance is more suspicious. Or anxious.
“What’s your name?”
“Chris Buckley.”
“Good taste in music, Chris,” Goth Girl says. “I’m Poe. This is Rachel. And she’s Jocelyn.”
That’s right. Her name’s Jocelyn. I remember now from class.
“What else do you like?”
“I got a wide taste in music.”
“Do you like country?” Poe asks.
“No, not really.”
“Good. I can’t stand it. Nobody who wears a T-shirt like that would ever like country.”
“I like country,” Rachel says.
“Don’t admit it. So why’d you move here?”
“Parents got a divorce. My mom decided to move, and I came with her.”
“Did you have a choice?”
“Not really. But if I had I would’ve chosen to move with her.”
“Why here?”
“Some of our family lives in Solitary. Or used to. I have a couple relatives in the area.” I choose not to say anything about Uncle Robert. “My mother grew up around here.”
“That sucks,” Poe says.
“Solitary is a strange town,” Rachel says with a grin that doesn’t seem to ever go away. “Anybody tell you that?”
I shake my head.
“Joss lives here; we don’t,” Poe says. “I’m in Groveton; Rach lives on the border to South Carolina. Joss tries to hide out at our places because Solitary fits its name.”
Jocelyn looks like she’s late for something, her body language screaming that she wants to leave this conversation she’s not a part of. She still hasn’t acknowledged me.
“What year are you guys?”
“Juniors. I’m from New York—can’t you tell? Rachel is from Colorado, and Jocelyn grew up here, though she wants to get out as soon as she can. You can join our club if you like.”
Part of me wonders if I’d have to wear eyeliner and lipstick.
“Club?”
“The misfits. The outcasts. Whatever you want to call it.”
“Not sure if I want to join that.”
“You think you fit in?”
“No,” I say.
“Good. We’ll take you. You fit with us. Plus … you’re cute.”
Poe and her friends walk away.
Jocelyn finally glances at me and smiles the saddest smile I’ve ever seen.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified.
I might look cool and nonchalant and act cool and nonchalant, but inside I’m quaking.
I spent the first sixteen years of my life around the same people, going to the same school, living in the same town with the same two parents.
Now everything is different.
The students who pass me are nameless, faceless, expressionless. We are part of a herd that jumps to life like Pavlov’s dog at the sound of the bell, which really is a low drone that sounds like it comes from some really bad sci-fi movie. It’s hard to keep the cool and nonchalant thing going while staring in confusion at my school map. I probably look pathetic.
I dig out the computer printout of my class list and look at it again. I swear there’s not a room called C305.
I must be looking pathetic, because she comes up to me and asks if I’m lost.
Jocelyn can actually talk.
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Where are you going?”
“Some room—C305. Does that even exist?”
“Of course it does. I’m actually heading there right now.” There’s an attitude in her voice, as if she’s ready for a fight even if one’s not coming.
“History?”
She nods.
“Second class together,” I say, which elicits a polite and slightly annoyed smile.
She explains to me how the rooms are organized, with C stuck between A and B for some crazy reason. But I don’t really hear the words she’s saying. I look at her and wonder if she can see me blushing. Other kids are staring at me now for the first time today. They look at Jocelyn and look at me—curious, critical, cutting. I wonder if I’m imagining it.
After a minute of this, I stare off a kid who looks like I threw manure in his face.
“Not the friendliest bunch of people, are they?” I ask.
“People here don’t like outsiders.”
“They didn’t even notice me until now.”
She nods and looks away, as if this is her fault. Her hair, so thick and straight, shimmers all the way past her shoulders. I could stare at her all day long.
“Glad you’re in some of my classes.”
“I’m sure you are,” she says.
We reach the room.
“Well, thanks.”
“No problem.”
She says it the way an upperclassmen might answer a freshman. Or an older sister, her bratty brother. I want to say something witty, but nothing comes to mind.
I’m sure I’m not the first guy she’s left speechless.
Every class I’m introduced to seems more and more unimpressed.
“This is Christopher Buckley from Chicago, Illinois,” the teachers say, in case anybody doesn’t know where Chicago is.
In case anybody wonders who the new breathing slab of human is, stuck in the middle of the room.
A redheaded girl with a giant nose stares at me, then glances at my shirt as if I have food smeared all over it. She rolls her eyes and then looks away.
Glancing down at my shirt makes me think of a song by The Smiths, “Half a Person.”
That’s how I feel.
I’ve never been the most popular kid in school. I’m a soccer player in a football world. My parents never had an abundance of money. I’m not overly good looking or overly smart or overly anything, to be honest. Just decent looking and decent at sports and decent at school. But decent doesn’t get you far. Most of the time you need to be the best at one thing and stick to it.
I think about this as I notice more unfamiliar faces. A kid who looks like he hasn’t bathed for a week. An oily-faced girl who looks miserable. A guy with tattoos who isn’t even pretending to listen.
I never really fit in back in Libertyville, so how in the world am I going to fit in here?
Two more years of high school.
I don’t want to think about it.
As the teacher drones on about American history and I reflect on my own history, my eyes find her.
I see her glancing my way.
For a long moment, neither of us look away.
For that long moment, it’s just the two of us in the room.
Her glance is strong and tough. It’s almost as if she’s telling me to remain the same, as if she’s saying, Don’t let them get you down.
Suddenly, I have this amazingly crazy thought: I’m glad I’m here.
I have to fight to get out of the room to catch up to Jocelyn.
I’ve had forty minutes to think of exactly what I want to say, but by the time I catch up to her, all that comes out is “hey.”
She nods.
Those eyes cripple me. I’m not trying to sound cheesy—they do. They bind my tongue.
For an awkward sixty seconds, the longest minute of my sixteen years, I walk the hallway beside her. We reach the girls’ room, and she opens the door and goes inside. I stand there for a second, wondering
if I should wait for her, then feeling stupid and ridiculous, wondering why I’m turning into a head of lettuce around a stranger I just met.
But I know exactly why.
As I head down the hallway, toward some other room with some other teacher unveiling some other plan to educate us, I feel someone grab my arm.
“You don’t want to mess with that.”
I wonder if I heard him right. Did he say that or her?
I turn and see a short kid with messy brown hair and a pimply face. I gotta be honest—it’s been a while since I’d seen a kid with this many pimples. Doctors have things you can do for that. The word pus comes to mind.
“Mess with what?”
“Jocelyn. If I were you, I wouldn’t entertain such thoughts.”
Who is this kid, and what’s he talking about?
And what teenager says, “I wouldn’t entertain such thoughts”?
“What thoughts would those be?”
“Don’t be a wise guy.”
Pimple Boy sounds like the wise guy, with a weaselly voice that seems like it’s going to deliver a punch line any second.
“What are you talking about?”
“Look, I’m just warning you. I’ve seen it happen before. I’m nobody, okay, and nobodies can get away with some things. And you look like a decent guy, so I’m just telling you.”
“Telling me what?”
“Not to take a fancy with the lady.”
Did he just say that in an accent that sounded British, or is it my imagination?
“I was just walking with her down the hallway.”
“Yeah. Okay. Then I’ll see you later.”
“Wait. Hold on,” I say. “Is she taken or something?”
“Yeah. She’s spoken for. And has been for sometime.”
Pimple Boy says this the way he might tell me that my mother is dying.
It’s bizarre.
And a bit spooky.
I realize that Harrington County High in Solitary, North Carolina, is a long way away from Libertyville.
I think about what the odd kid just told me.
This is probably bad.
Because one thing in my life has been a constant. You can ask my mother or father, and they’d agree.
I don’t like being told what to do.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
CFBA Book Spotlight: The Malacca Conspiracy by Don Brown
Navy JAG officers Zack Brewer and Diane Colcernian race against the odds and a 24-hour deadline before nuclear attacks hit the United States. Departing from the sea of books barely better than soap opera romance and using the frantic pacing of suspense fiction, Brown glides flawlessly among global hotspots of terrorism--including the United States--and the book's principal settings in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
The President of the United States orders ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet towards the Malacca Straits to reassert control over the sea lanes, but with time quickly ticking away, will they arrive in time for Zack and Diane to survive this dangerous and final high-stakes drama of life and death?
**This is not a review. I received this book from the publisher.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Reading to Become
Last week I attended a sort of retreat (for lack of a better word) called Hutchmoot organized by the Rabbit Room. During the weekend, we were invited to attend sessions on certain authors who had a meaningful impact on the Rabbit Room bloggers, and one session I chose was on Frederick Buechner. Eric Peters and Jason Gray led this session and shared with us how they view Buechner's works and also the impact he'd had on their lives. I left the room feeling like I immediately needed to read absolutely everything he's written (and I was in the thick of reading Godric at the time so that is pretty amazing) and even now I'm entertaining the idea of a themed week later in the year.
Eric Peters read a beautiful essay he'd written (I'm sort of pulling for him to write a book) and one of the things he mentioned was a conference he'd attended last year. At this conference, Barbara Brown Taylor talked about how we have endless stories from which to choose, there are no shortage of narratives in the world, and how we need to pick the ones we'll pay attention to. (totally paraphrasing his paraphrasing here....for a clearer write-up, see Stephen's post)
Actually since reading an account of this same lecture on a friend's blog earlier this year, coupled with a discussion about reading things that make us uncomfortable I've slowly been forming stronger feelings about what I read and what I want to read. I think the days of grabbing a book off the shelf and simply reading it for the heck of it are gone...as the past few years have seen huge shifts in my way of thinking, so it's all coming to a crisis point in my way of reading.
If you've read between the lines on this blog for the past few months, you must know this is a tension I constantly battle. There are in fact, so many stories I could be paying attention to. Not only are there so many books, but there are so many bloggers, so many twitter streams, so many people I've met along the way. But I can't do it all. Time is limited and I must choose which stories I'll give space to in my life. If I look back at my reading in 2009, I need to think about the stories that have impacted me, the ones that helped shape me into the better parts of who I am today. I want to seek out these same kinds of books.
These won't be the same books for everyone, we have different ideals, different areas we want to improve in. And I know some people don't ever think this hard about what they read and which blogs they enjoy, I get and respect that. This is not a commentary on anyone else's choices.
I want to read to become. I want to read and be confronted with the all the ways I fall short of who I wish to be and also inspired to be a better me. I know some of this sounds so cheesy, but it's the truth of how I feel....I think coming to this realization has been what all of my angst has been about. I have been unable to really commit to this before. It was in my head as what I wanted, but I was so easily distracted. But that's changing...and yes I know I've been writing a lot of posts about reading and how hard it's been lately and also how my feelings on in it are changing. I guess what I mean to say is that this blog is headed in a new direction, even as I am headed in a new direction.
It will take some time and maybe it won't look that different to you, I don't know yet. I only know that I'm excited by the idea of reading deeply, reading to become. I get that some of you who want more frequent book recommendations or are uninterested by other forms of story-telling may head in the opposite direction, but I feel like I'm finally going to be able to give shape to what I've always wanted this blog to be but never quite pulled off...a place where I interact with the books I read and a place that hopefully fosters community around books and the other pop-culture arts.
Thanks for sticking with me these past few months as I've wrestled through these issues. Your support has been touching and I really appreciate it.
How about you? Do you try to read to become the person you want to be?
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Reading Reflections: Reading Like a Child
I've been thinking of the piece Michelle Slatella wrote for The New York Times a couple of years ago a lot these last couple of days since my nieces have been visiting. She wrote about the unreserved way in which her children read books, unhindered by the critical mind, able to lose themselves entirely in story.
I've completely enjoyed watching my nieces love the Harry Potter series these past few days. Ridiculously, I felt a pang of envy watching my seven year old niece tear through the first half of the second Harry Potter book, reluctant to put it down to join in the real world, even as we went shopping, I knew her mind was still caught up in the world of Hogwarts.
Reading as an adult is such a different experience. Reading as a book blogger just complicates things further. There are times when I remember barely knowing what was out there, now I feel like I have so many choices, so many things I want to read, I can't choose one. Even today as I settled down to read a memoir written by one of my favorite bloggers, the work of the week caught up to me and I fell asleep exhausted and unable to get past a few chapters.
In fiction, I have little patience for the suspension of disbelief to begin, even books I'm pretty sure I would have loved at one time remain unread past a few pages. I can still talk books with the best of them, I'm just not reading for myself.
Sometimes I'd like to feel it again for just a minute, that compulsion to keep reading. But, I feel like I'm in detox after overdosing on books, book talk, and knowledge of the publishing industry. A book never feels like just a book anymore.
They say children give us hope in this world. Their innocence, their young faith, their fresh discovery of the world around them. Their bright eyed wonder sparks something inside of us that motivates us through the dark and seemingly endless sameness of days. And this week I've felt that in regards to my reading life. Watching my nieces love one of the stories I've loved best, observing their tiny frames bent over the huge books, devouring the words, expanding their worlds, seeing the tattered well worn oft read books scattered everywhere they've been...it's been a jolt of energy to the weary reader inside of me. It gives me hope that one day I will recapture the ability to read and lose myself in the wonder of story. It has me turning once again to the stacks of books in my life and seeing them for the possibilities they are.