Well, I have two more of the Harry Potter books to go before July 16! I definitely don't want to be left out of all the fun then.
Book three is pretty good, I don't think it is quite as imaginitive and whimsical as the first two, but I guess those were hard acts to follow. I was actually kindof put off by the Star Trekishness of the "Dementors" who make you feel the emotions caused by your worst memories. I half expected there to be a Professor Spok who would call the whole thing "fascinating." It also seemed strange to me that Scabbers was the bad guy all along. It seemed that Scabbers/Wormtail would have attempted something before that point. I mean he was living with the Weasleys for years right?
But again I am probably being overly critical. It is written for children. The fact that 2nd and 3rd graders are reading these books and understanding them is cool.
Rating: 3/5
This book is great. It's absolutely hilarious. It was publihsed posthumously by Silverstein's family. I let a few of the kids I work with take it home to read because there was no way I could read it to them. It is just too hard to read outloud. Here is a small example:
Do Whid It?
Runny Babbit with his axe
Chopped down at trerry chee
When Raddy Dabbit asked,, "Do Whid It?"
Runny said, "Mot, ne."
Weorge Gashington heard Runny lying,
And he said, "Oh my,
You'll never pe the bresident
'Cause you just lold a tie
It's cute. It's also pretty darn funny when you consider just how much you have to lie to become president.
MY RATING: 5/5
I haven't read this before, nor have I seen the film. I need to get with the program and read all of these Harry Potter books before the new one comes out. I work at a school so all of my students and co-workers will be talking about it during the summmer program.
I liked this book a lot. I must have, I read it in a few hours. I didn't like it as much as the first one though. The first one seemed more myserious. I knew what was going to happen with this one, I just didn't know how it was going to reveal itself. First of all I suppose Rowling expected you to believe the "Heir of Slytherin" was a particular individual but that seemed too obvious to me. Maybe younger readers were more surprised by who it really was and who was helping him.
I'll probably start on the next one later this week. Maybe even tonight.
My Rating: 3/5
I can't say I didn't like this book because I definitely did. However it's just not as funny as Lamb which had me laughing out loud (and driving my husband crazy).
Don't get me wrong there's plenty of silliness and obsurdity in this one. Including a floozy-like research assistant, a surfing native New Jersy Rastaman and a strange Hawiaan woman who receives phone calls from whales.
All in all, I recommend it. But it's probably more important to read Lamb.
My Rating: 3/5
Well I had to read it in preparation for the movie. I'm glad I did. I totally forgot about Marvin! This book is a classic. Anyone who hasn't read it really should. It's laugh out loud funny and a quick read. Go read it and go see the movie.
RATING: 5/5
My boss loaned me this book yesterday and it's a hoot. It's the only one of these books I've ever read. My understanding of the basic premise of this book is that the young lads are given a magic book. But being boys they don't bother to read the directions for how to use it. They just use it and end up being transported through space and time.
In this story they boys are about to begin summer vacation when one of them accidentally slips the entire school's summer reading list into the magic book. At that point all heck breaks loose. There are characters from many different stories (appropriate for Kindergarten through 8th grade) turning up in Hoboken. It's a hoot.
The author started this series of books because he wanted to provide easy-reading fiction that would appeal to younger boys. As a teacher he was dismayed by the lack of fiction for young boys. So he decided to do something about it. I don't know if he succeeded with that since I have never been a boy but it is a fun read and I'm going to have to get the rest of these books to read them.
My Rating: 3/5
This is a pretty neat book for a kid's book. It draws on mythology from the Norse, Native Americans, East Asians and the Greeks. It tells us how one little league player in Washington State (along with a few friends) can use baseball to prevent Ragged Rock (The End of the Universe as we know it--HA!)
I must say that the middle of the book was a bit slow moving but those familiar with Chabon's other works would expect that. I don't know how well young readers would take to that though. Another downside to this book is the ending. It's just a bit too saccharine. Everything ends up far too neat and happy in the end.
On the other hand the book has a lot of good qualities too. The story shows how a widower tries to pick up the pieces of his family after the death of his wife. How he tries to use baseball as a means to reach out to his only son. It's also amazing what this man is willing to do to save his son's life. The book also makes many nods to Negro League Baseball and the Homestead Grays in particular. Which I thought was very cool. That's not a very surprising fact though since many of Chabon's books have Pittsburgh area references.
All in all, I recommend this book. I'm not sure what children think of it. Especially since the story moves so slowly in the middle and at 500 pages it's not something that the average third grader is going to whip out in a single evening. If you are a Chabon fan this book is no Mysteries of Pittsburgh or Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay. Those books are hard to beat but this book is definitely better than most of the kids books out there.
My Rating: 3/5
This book may not seem worth buying to most people. I first heard about it while watching "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." The author appeared as a guest on the show to promote the book. It seemed like a riot so I finally got a copy.
First of all this book is short. It's more like an essay. But its mere 67 pages are filled with very interesting questions and information. I'm no expert on philosophy but this book makes me wish I were. First of all the entire premise of the book borders on the ludicris1. Second This baby is filled with quotes that you never thought you would find in a serious work. Such as:
"Is the bullshitter by his very nature a mindless slob? Is his product necessarily messy or unrefined? The word shit does, to be sure, suggest this. Excrement is not designed or crafted at all; it is merely emitted, or dumped. It may have a more or less coherent shape, or it may not, but it is in any case certainly not wrought."2
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered how bullshit is different from humbuggery or balderdash. I also recommend it to anyone with a childish sense of humor who will get a kick out of so much use of the word "shit" in a semi-serious context.
My Rating: 4/5
NOTES:
1: ludicris is the way to spell ludicrous with street cred.
2. Frankfurt, Harry On Bullshit Princeton University Press Princeton, NJ 2005 pp 21-22.
Wow. Double Wow. Triple Wow.
It's upsetting to me that the only reason I knew about this new ranslation of Under The Glacier coming out was that the New York Times printed Susan Sontag's introduction a few Sundays before its release. This should have been much more publicized. This is an important work.
I think I can say that Laxness deserved his Nobel Prize for Literature. Not only does this novel cross into many genres. It's sci-fi, it's fantasy, it's romance, it's historical fiction, it's political and social commentary...(the list can go on forever). This book is very engaging and yet a crazy read.
The style of writing is a bit different than most novels. The young man working for the bishop is referred to as Embi (Emissary of Bishop, I guess) and he uses a tape recorder to conduct his research. Much of the book is written as if it is a series of interview transcriptions. The translation seems quite good. I have heard that many of Laxness' works had been poorly translated to English. I think this is done well. There are probably things that wouldn't please the author himself, but it is better than many other works of translated literature I've read.
RATING: 4.5/5
MORE INFO AND SPOILERS FOLLOW
In this story the Bishop of Iceland is concerned about rumors he has heard about goings on in Snaefells Glacier. If that name sounds familiar it is because that location plays an important part in Jules Verne's classic novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Bishop sends an emissary a student who has not yet been ordained to observe the goings on at "Glacier" and report back to him. It turns out that the Pastor at Glacier is an old-style Christian Mystic who no longer says mass and spends more time working as a handyman for the community than as a man of cloth. The Pastor remains married to a mysterious woman who disappears for over 30 years.
Strange things happen at Glacier. There are women who never seem to eat or sleep. Corpses disappear or are taken up to the glacier and a strange building is built next to the boarded-up church.
I realize it is only March but I am declaring this the "Book of the Year." I was so excited about this book coming out and it didn't disappoint me. I liked it so much that I kept re-reading parts of the book because I didn't want to put it down, but I also didn't want it to be over. It is that good.
RATING: 5/5
SPOILERS FOLLOW
The hero of the story is a young boy whose father was killed on September 11. The child seems to have obsessive compulsive disorder. It also appears to be hereditary. He was having a lot of trouble dealing with his father's death and was having trouble mourning for him. When looking through his father's things he finds a key inside a vase and an envelope. He then becomes obsessed with finding the lock that the key opens. From there it's adventure.
This was a very fun read. It took twists and turns that I didn't expect. It was an interesting look at a classic story from a different point of view. The thing that did surprise me was that I thought the book would portray Dorothy as a villan. It didn't do that at all. She was just a regular girl.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading Maguire's other books.
RATING: 3/5
Like the first book in this series it was quite a fun read. Because of the unfortunate-ness of the story much of this was predictable but I still enjoyed it. I definitely understand why kids like this series so much. It's very comical how these children's lives are so messed up.
RATING: 3/5
This is a good book, but it took me a very long time to read it. Unlike many other books written for the layperson this one required me to wear a "thinking cap" the whole time. I must admit that I don't have a lot of knowledge in the biological sciences so I'm sure that impeded my progress a bit.
The book's premise is interesting and original. Dawkins traces the steps of evolution backwards beginning with homo sapiens and ending at the "dawn of life." The story is arranged in a sort of Canturbury Tales manner (Chaucer's masterpiece is mentioned several times). In each section a particular species (or two) tell their own tale about what special evolutionary "advance" they have made. Dawkins also includes little asides about current world politics and his opinions about religious institutions (something that was common in Canturbury Tales).
I put the word "advance" in quotes for a reason. Part of the point of this book is to explain how most laypeople have an unscientific view of evolution. Dawkins points out that if we could go back and restart "life" all over again, we probably wouldn't exist. There is no invisible evolutionary arrow pointing to homo sapiens or any other species for that matter. I highly recommend this book, though it is probably boring for those who have studied the life sciences in depth.
RATING: 5/5
How to Keep Dinosaurs is one of the best kids' books ever. At first I thought the books seemed really familiar and then I realized (realised?) that it's a parody of Bruce Fogle DVM's The Encyclopedia of the Dog.I bought it because I'm supposed to be doing a unit on dinosaurs with the kids I work with. Not only does this book teach a great deal about how much the dinosaurs would need to eat and how much room they would need to survive. There are great diagrams that show how these things measure up to things from modern everyday life. It also does a great deal of speculation about how dinosaurs might behave in captivity. The speculation isn't just humor, it's also a somewhat good exercise in speculative logic.
The pictures in the book are also wonderful. Some of them are interesting takes on classic animal pictures and others are probably soon to be classics. There are several that I'd love to have as posters.
There are a few problems with the book. First of all, I think a lot of the humor would be lost on children, at least American children. The book was initially published for British children and the culture is just different enough that some just might not get the sarcasm inherent in the text. It's also written at a pretty high level, so it's definitely something that would have to be read with an adult. Not that it's a bad thing. I just wish there were more truly humorous things that young people could handle reading on their own.
MY RATING: 4/5
Not a bad book at all. I've heard people say that these are nearly impossible to read because the children really are that unfortunate but I quite enjoyed it. For an adult this book is an extremely quick read (I finished it in a single bath). I recommend it to all lovers of children's literature. As for the movie, I still don't know. I plan on seeing it after I read the first three of these books.
My Rating: 3/5
Okay, either this is the most blasphemous book ever written or it is genius. The book starts out with Raziel (an angel of the Lord) bringing Biff back to life in modern America so that he could write a gospel explaining Christ's life between the ages of 4 and 33. Biff and Jesus (who he called Josh) made many travels to seek out the Magi who came to his birth. Much hilarity ensues. Obviously the book is full of speculation and non-truths. That's why it's called fiction. However Christ's message of kindness, humility and love is somehow preserved amid all the satire.
All important Questions Answered:
#1. Bunnies being associated with Easter has nothing to do with the Norse/Druids.
#2. You find out how it became tradition for Jews to eat Chineese food on Christmas.
And again, none of it is likely to be true...
My Rating: 5/5
This is one of those books that I had been waiting to read for some time. Everytime I went to check it out of the library, it was unavailable. For some reason, I never bought the book. I got it as a Christmas gift. It is a fantastic read.
The story takes place in South Carolina. A teenage girl with all of the typical teenage girl problems feels unwanted by her father and the community around her. She starts off on a search for her late mother. This of course not only leads her to discover things about her mother, but also things about the world at large and herself.
This book is an example of good American storytelling. Every chapter leaves you satisfied yet wanting more. I haven't read a book this good in some time. I'm definitely going to need to read more of Sue Monk Kidd's works.
This book is also relevant to the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday this weekend. This book spends a lot of time dealing with segregation and race issues in the South. Since this dark era of American history was before I was born, it is helpful for me to read books dealing with these issues to help me understand how far we have come--and how far we have to go.
My Rating: 5/5
Well. I must say that this was a stunningly fast read. It went very smoothly and I found the book to be interesting even though it was written for the layperson with little knowledge of higher mathematics. Is this book the new Cosmos? Only time will tell, but Greene has done a fantastic job of making science available to the masses. Many young folks today will probably cite this book (and the PBS series based on it) as their main reason for studying science.
My Rating: 4/5