Books read in September 2015

There was a little bit of everything this month.

Picture Books: Swan: the life and dance of Anna Pavolva
Middle Grade: Goodbye Stranger
Young Adult: Everything Everything, Out of Darkness
Adult Fiction: Order of the Stick: Blood Runs in the family
Young Nonfiction:  Drowned City, Terrible Typhoid Mary
Grownup Nonfiction: The Tao of Vegetable Gardening

Swan: the Life and Dance of Anna Pavolva
Laurel Snyder J. Morstead
Read for Librarian Book Group
Beautifully illustrated and well-written tale of an important woman.

8. An Animal Alphabet
Elisha Cooper
Read for Librarian Book Group
An “animal” alphabet that includes many creatures who are not actually animals.  This brought out my most annoying “exact words” Marsha Brady-style nitpicking.  I also wanted the drawings to be a slight bit more precise. That said, I enjoyed the variety of different “animals’ for each letter as well as the finding/counting element.  I swear sometimes someone invented X and put it near the end of the alphabet just to raise the tension level in these situations.  “What are they going to have for X?”, “There can’t be that many animals that begin with X, can there?”

The Moon is Going to Addy’s House
Ida Pearl
Read for Librarian Book Group
I found the story to be fine, but if I were a person with a picture book collection, I would include this simply for the incredibly stunning cut-paper illustrations.

Tea Party in the Woods
Akiko Miyakoshi
Read for Librarian Book Group
A perfectly serviceable tale.

Goodbye Stranger
Rebecca Stead
Read for Librarian Book Group
Man oh man, did this check off a lot of “publishable” boxes.  Diverse characters? Check!  Insight into another culture? Check!  Important Issue-du-Jour?  Check!  Multiple viewpoints?  Check!  Major and minor story arcs?  Check!  Wacky writing thing to make it unique? Check!

While reading, I noticed all of the above while simultaneously enjoying all of the above as the story.  It was very well done.

I was not into the title, however, as it didn’t jump out at me as a reasonable title and also had the unfortunate effect of repeatedly planting the Supertramp song (Goodbye stranger it’s been nice/Hope you find your paradise) in my head every time I picked it up. Happily, the main demographic for this book will escape my fate as the vast majority of them probably have no idea this song even exists.

George
Alex Gino
Read for Librarian Book Group
Very illuminating story about a transgender girl named George.  Her struggle is heart-felt and the supporting cast is well developed.  I found it most interesting how words of comfort were exactly the opposite thing she needed to hear.

 

The Accident Season
Read for Librarian Book Group
Fowly-Doyle
This  name-dropped We Were Liars on the cover and it really wanted to be something like that book: an engrossing event read with lots to talk about.  Unfortunately for me, it was the opposite.  But I had ample time to ponder what made this so unsuccessful.  I think everything was murky for too long.  What was this accident season?  What’s up with the stepbrother/stepsister relationship? What’s up with this girl in all the pictures? What’s up with the sister?  Whereas in We Were Liars I got a very clear picture that became murkier as I turned the pages until everything snapped into horrifying focus, in this book it was unclear from the beginning and things became clear so slowly that I just wasn’t interested.

However, I loved the author bio in the back.  More of that would be great.

Fangirl
Rainbow Rowell
Read aloud
Upon re-reading I can report that all the Simon Snow parts are still not interesting to me and could have been cut down substantially.  Also, who is the editor who let Ms. Rowell get away with using so many ellipses?  Most all of them could be eliminated.  Or should I say, Most…all of them…could…be…eliminated.

Anyway, other than that, this was still a very good story that was fun to read aloud.  Plus, I discovered that boyfriend Matt thinks the kissing parts are boring.  No really, he does.

This Lullaby
Sarah Dessen
Man, does this book ever epitomize lackluster writing.  The main love interest is in a band, for gods sake and he might as well have been selling insurance.  Plus, the teenagers act like they are well-adjusted middle-aged people.  Perfectly mediocre.

Everything Everything
Nicola Yoon
Read for Librarian Book Group
Travels the well-worn YA path of a teenager finding her place in the world.  The complication for this particular teenager is that she is unable to go outside due to severe allergies to everything.  Also includes bonus first love story that is super fun.

Out of Darkness
Ashley Hope Perez
Read for Librarian Book Group
Excellent multiple point of view narrators illustrate the less-than-ideal situations that had me angry and frustrated for the entirety of the book.  As a teenager I would have loved that feeling and loved this book. As an adult, I found it hard to keep reading.  Worth reading, but with a brutal ending.

 

Order of the Stick: Blood Runs in the Family
Rich Berlew
We rejoin our stick-figure team of D&D-style fighters bent on saving everyone from the potential end of the world.  Complications ensue, puns fly, and there is much humor and drama, including some worrisome parts.  I look forward to more of Mr. Berlew’s creations as the story continues.

Drowned City
Dan Brown
Read for Librarian Book Group
This book probably has fewer than 3000 words and it took two weeks for me to read.  I had to keep putting it down, because it turns out just reporting the facts of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is enough to cause me to weep.  The pictures that accompany the sparse dialogue really drive home the point of how much this country failed to help the survivors.

Terrible Typhoid Mary
Bartoletti
Read for Librarian Book Group
While I grimaced that it was longer than a picture book (I’m so lazy when it comes to nonfiction) I ultimately found this to be a quick and interesting read.  I appreciate the care Bartoletti took when pointing out other people who were carriers of Typhoid, but were not treated as Mary was.

 

The Tao of Vegetable Gardening
Carol Deppe
I bought this book because I enjoy Deppe’s conversational educational style and also because there was something in the press about eat-all greens.  The eat-all greens section was great and I’m going to focus on that next gardening season.  And there was a ton of other advice packed into these pages.  You will never look at your hoe the same way again.

Image from: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/swan.html