In My Mailbox (2)

This is hosted by Krisit from Thestorysiren.com, she's awesome. Here are the books I got this week.

Bought:
House Rules - Jodi Picoult (YAYYYYY! I love her and I am so excited to read her new book.)

From Simon and Schuster:
Glimpse - Carol Lynch Williams (I loved her book 'The Chosen One')
White Cat - Holly Black
After the Kiss - Terra Elan McVoy
She's So Dead to Us - Kieran Scott
Amy and Roger's Epic Detour - Morgan Matson
It's Not Summer Without You - Jenny Han
Claire de Lune - Christine Johnson
Morpheus Road: The Light - D.J. MacHale

I also got The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell which I found on a shelf in the back of the store hiding. I am really excited for that one, it sounds awesome. Sorry about now pictures, I still can't figure out how to make it look good, oh well.

Bliss by Lauren Myracle

Before I read this book, the only thing I knew about Lauren Myracle was most of her books were titled after chat room acronyms (ttfn, ttyl) I wasn't so keen on reading an entire book written in instant message format so I was a little hesitant to read Bliss, but boy am I glad I did. Bliss is the child of two draft dodging hippies who is sent to live in the south with her proper old grandmother. Bliss is super laid back and chill and into peace and love, so it's a harsh awakening when she gets to a school where there is one black student and rampant racism. There are also these weird interludes where an unknown character is doing crazy blood rituals and communicating with her kitty. Is it: Sara-Lynn the aloof, bitchy popular girl, Thelma, the hanger-on who just wants to be popular or Sandy, the fat girl who is teased by everyone except Bliss. The best part of this book is definitely the random history that Myracle throws in about the Charles Manson trials. Everyone at Bliss' school is obsessed with them and it is super interesting to read about all these women who were brainwashed and willing to kill for Manson. Good times.

In My Mailbox (1)

So this is a post about the cool books I bought/received for review from work that is on lots of other book blogs. It was started by The Story Siren @ Thestorysiren.com and inspired by Alea at aleapopculture.blogspot.com. I got a lot of fun books this week that I want to share with everyone so I hope I do this right.

Bought:
Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper
Double Helix by Nancy Werlin
The Hole We're In by Gabrielle Zevin (I didn't even know she had a new book coming out, I love her! It's not YA but it looks super awesome)
What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson (yay! LGBT ya!)
Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson ( I love Nelson's book "Teach Me").

For Review (well, they ended up on my librarything so I could potentially review them some day.)

Rules of Attraction: A Perfect Chemistry novel by Simone Elkeles
Mistwood by Leah Cypess
Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn
Numbers by Rachel Ward
The Beautiful Between by Alyssa Sheinmel
7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordon Orlando
Birthmarked - Caragh M. O'Brien

There are more I think but I am at my parents house right now so I don't remember. Now I am off to Vegas for a week! Wish me luck!

Perfect by Natsha Friend

Don't let this girly pink cover fool you, this book deals with some SERIOUS issues, but not in a way that makes you think, "gee this book is sure dealing with some SERIOUS issues." Perfect focuses on Isabelle, an eighth grader who has a lot of problems in her life. She lives with her mother and her sister, all of them still reeling from the death of her father. Her grief manifests itself in her inabilty to stop binging and purging. The book focuses on what happens when her bulimia is found out and what she has to go through to recover. I read this book when I was leading a book club for seventh grade girls at the middle school I taught at in Brooklyn and they all loved it. It is the perfect (no pun intended) book for middle school girls because it deals with a very important issue without being preachy, but it is still an extremely engaging read. One of the main reasons that I read a ton of YA literature is to stock up on good recommendations for my students. This book falls squarely into that category.

The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project is a play by Moises Kaufman that culls together interviews conducted by Tectonic Theater Project with various people from Laramie, WY, as well as people associated with Matthew Shepard who was brutally tortured and murdered in October of 1998 in a hate crime related to his homosexuality.
The play deals with the reactions of various people from his hometown including the boy who found him after the assault, random townspeople who knew the boys involved in the assault, the bartender from the bar where Matthew was last seen, various LGBT people from the town, a member of the clergy, associates from the college he attended and many others. There are many poignant essays about the effect his death had on the town, I pretty much sobbed during the entire show when I saw it.
A few important points:
- The movie version (by HBO) incorporates real footage from the news reports covering the events including Ellen's heartbreaking reaction, and a very intense vigil in Washington Square Park in NYC all shouting "shame" over and over again which makes me choke up just to think about it.
-There is a great moment where Fred Phelps and his horrific, bigoted, homophobic, nazi-esque, hate group the Westboro Baptist Church come to protest at Matthew Shepard's funeral and spew there hate. However, they soon find that the people of Laramie are not going to take their hatred lying down. A group of people dressed up as angels with super big wings stand between the funeral and the protesters so that the protestors cannot be hard. NICE.
- During the annual Laramie parade (for the 4th of July maybe? or just civic pride) a small group of people join on at the end in show of support of Matthew Shepard and his family. By the time the parade is finished, thousands of people have joined in.
- One of the most intense moments comes at the end, during the sentencing of Matthew's killers, when Shepard's father basically says Matthew supported the death penalty despite what people might think, and although he (Matthew' father) very much wants them to die for the pain they have caused his family, he knows that sparing their lives will force them to give thanks each and every day to the boy they killed. Intense.
When I was in college my former high school put on a performance of "The Laramie Project" that was protested by Phelp's "church." As it turned out, the protest of the protest was way bigger than the actual protest. We rock!
This is a great play, everyone should read it, if only to see that a community doesn't need to be defined by a tragedy that occurs there, and to always remember the memory of Matthew Shepard in hopes that a similar tragedy will not occur again.

Nappy Edges by Ntozake Shange

I don't really read a lot of poetry. I know that is blasphemous to say and that as an English teacher I am supposed to love poetry more than anything and that my deepest desire is supposed to be imparting this love onto my students but, eh, I don't LOVE poetry. There are however, a few specific poems that I absolutely love (for example, Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost and My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke) and at the top of that list is the poem "With No Immediate Cause," from this collection. I don't know the legality of posting the poem so I will just post a link:
http://iambecauseweare.wordpress.com/2006/09/09/with-no-immediate-cause-byntozake-shange/
If you read the poem you will see that it seems very angry. The speaker is shocked and saddened by what she sees is society overlooking the horrific everyday violence and abuse women face. This is a common theme that runs throughout Shange's work. I can still vividly remember the scene from her amazing play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf," where two children get thrown out of the window by an angry husband. That was traumatizing. This IS a very angry poem but it is more than that. I can remember as a teenager, reading this with my friend who had experienced some of the things Shange talks about and how reading it together opened up a whole new level to our friendship and our desire to educate others about these issues. This is not just a poem about someone who is angry over the state of things today, it is a call to arms, a rallying cry for all women, to come together, and support one another whenever we feel like life has given up on us. Good stuff. That's just one poem btw, the rest of the book is great too, but obviously, that poem really stuck with me.

Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper

So many pictures, yay! First and foremost, let me preface this post by saying "Gypsy" as written by Arthur Laurents, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim is pretty much my favorite musical of all time. I recently saw it (twice) in New York with Patti Lupone starring as Mama Rose, and let me tell you, that was a sight to be seen. As Seth Rudetsky was say, "it was a-MAH-zing." I have seen a lot of musical theater in my life, but I have never seen an audience give a performer a standing ovation in the middle of a number that quite literally stopped the show. Anyway, the book. So this book is the memoir of Gypsy Rose Lee, who during her time, was the most famous stripper in burlesque. She was known for not only being sexy and highly skilled in the art of the strip tease, but she was also hilarious. Unlike other women who just took of all there clothes and ran the stage shaking their junk, she actually put on a show. Her memoir, accordingly, is hilarious and was the basis for the musical. It has been said that a lot of what she says isn't necessarily one hundred percent "true," but who cares! Most of it probably is, and the most interesting aspect of her life (her relationship with her mother) was what the entire musical was formed around. Interesting fact: late in life, Gypsy's mother opened a lesbian boarding house where she shot and killed her lover (who was apparantly making a pass at Gypsy) and got off because it was ruled a suicide. hmmm. HERE SHE IS BOYS!

Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer

Just like my Buffy phase, I also recently went through a phase where I read a multitude of books and memoirs about life as a Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint (FLDS) you know, a polygamist Mormon, like the kind on Big Love. Now, if you know me, you know that the one "religion" that I truly hate is scientology, but I also think FLDS' are pretty crazy. I can't imagine being married off to an eighty year old man who already has six wives, but reading these books help me do that a little! Shattered Dreams tells the tale of Irene Spencer who was:

raised strictly in the Principle as it was lived secretly and illegally by fringe communities of Mormon Fundamentalists- groups that split off from the LDS Church when it abandoned polygamy more than a century ago. In spite of her mother's warnings and the devotion of a boyfriend with monogamist intentions, Spencer followed her religious convictions-that living in polygamy was essential for eternal salvation-and became a second wife herself at the age of 16 in 1953. It's hard to tell which is more devasting in this memoir: the strains of husband sharing with - ultimately- nine other wives, or the unremitting poverty that came with maintaining so many households and 56 children. - Amazon.com

This whole thing is so messed up to me. Far be for me to judge someone based on their religious beliefs, but this doesn't seem like that to me. What is seems like is a way for a few select older men to completely dominate everyone in their lives, treat their families like dirt, and rape innocent little girls. Also, I feel awful for the young boys who get thrown out into the street, because the older men want to keep all the young girls for themselves. Disgusting. I was so happy when the government raided that compound and took out all of those children, but I wasn't surprised when they wanted to go back. It's hard to compete with years of torture and brainwashing. Other really great books that deal with this topic are "Stolen Innocence" by Lisa Pulitzer, "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop and "The 19th Wife" (which is fiction and has an awesome history of how the LDS church came to be) by David Ebershoff. I really urge people to read more about this topic and educate themselves about the horrors that are going on in this country, pretty much right next door.

This next pick comes courtesy of my friend Deena whose favorite number is 16. Thus, she picked page 16, book 16 and I ended up with the wonderful novel “Dark Angel”, part of the night world series by the incomparable L.J. Smith. The Night World is a series of nine (soon to be ten!) books that focuses on, well, the night world. Comprised of vampires, witches, werewolfs, shape shifters and all other things creepy and crawly, the night world books show what happens when various members of the community break the most important law and fall in love with a human. In Dark Angel we discover Gillian who is being watched over by a guardian angel, only does he really have her best interests in mind? Smith is arguably most famous for her Vampire Diaries series which has been turned into the SUPER awesome television show starring Mia from Degrassi, Boone from Lost and Maureen from Freaks and Geeks. VD unlike GG, is a perfect example of when the tv show actually exceeds the written material in amazingness. The show is awesome, the books are kind of lame. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with Dark Angel does it? Oh well. What I love about the Night World series, is that even though each book focuses on (mostly) completely different characters, there is a clear story line that runs throughout all of the books. Soulmates and wild powers, ancient kings and the witch child, the whole series vibrates with intensity and all builds to a (hopefully) Armageddon-y conclusion. Which brings me to my main issue with the series. I read these books when I was in middle school. That was like 1997ish, and I think the books actually came out a few years before. But the final installment, Strange Fate, has STILL not been published. It is supposedly coming out in April or July or something, but there have been potential release dates for years, YEARS, what’s a poor, impatient girl supposed to do? Apparently “Strange Fate” is like 12,000 pages long so I am excited, and the first few chapters are available for consumption which gives me hope, but if I have to wait ten more years, I might go VAMPIRE STYLE on someone’s ass. I don’t really know what that means…

This next pick comes courtesy of my friend Deena whose favorite number is 16. Thus, she picked page 16, book 16 and I ended up with the wonderful novel “Dark Angel”, part of the night world series by the incomparable L.J. Smith. The Night World is a series of nine (soon to be ten!) books that focuses on, well, the night world. Comprised of vampires, witches, werewolfs, shape shifters and all other things creepy and crawly, the night world books show what happens when various members of the community break the most important law and fall in love with a human. In Dark Angel we discover Gillian who is being watched over by a guardian angel, only does he really have her best interests in mind? Smith is arguably most famous for her Vampire Diaries series which has been turned into the SUPER awesome television show starring Mia from Degrassi, Boone from Lost and Maureen from Freaks and Geeks. VD unlike GG, is a perfect example of when the tv show actually exceeds the written material in amazingness. The show is awesome, the books are kind of lame. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with Dark Angel does it? Oh well. What I love about the Night World series, is that even though each book focuses on (mostly) completely different characters, there is a clear story line that runs throughout all of the books. Soulmates and wild powers, ancient kings and the witch child, the whole series vibrates with intensity and all builds to a (hopefully) Armageddon-y conclusion. Which brings me to my main issue with the series. I read these books when I was in middle school. That was like 1997ish, and I think the books actually came out a few years before. But the final installment, Strange Fate, has STILL not been published. It is supposedly coming out in April or July or something, but there have been potential release dates for years, YEARS, what’s a poor, impatient girl supposed to do? Apparently “Strange Fate” is like 12,000 pages long so I am excited, and the first few chapters are available for consumption which gives me hope, but if I have to wait ten more years, I might go VAMPIRE STYLE on someone’s ass. I don’t really know what that means…

The Blinde Side by Michael Lewis

I read half this book. The reason is because while I really enjoyed the story of Michael Oher and the Tuhoy family, the rest was about the specific reason the left tackle (Oher's position) is so important to football, and the evolution of how it become one of the most highly paid positions in pro football, second pretty much only to the quarterback. So that part was pretty boring and I skipped most of it, but what I basically gleaned from what I did read was that the left tackle is superimportant because he protects, you guessed it!, the quarterback's blind side. So he can prevent an awful thing happening like Tom Brady getting tackled and ripping his acl and sitting out from a year and coming back and the Patriots never being quite as awesome as they once where. Bitter much? Yes. (I had to watch the Patriots/Giants superbowl in New York, with all my Giant's fans friends, while I had the stomach flu. )

So this position is muy importante. But I don't really care about that, what I care about is the feel good story of a bunch of white Christians rescuing an African American teenager from bitter poverty and then turning him into the "next big thing" in pro football. Ok, that's a little unfair but it's basically what the book boils down to. I haven't seen the movie yet but I'd like to because Sandra Bullock is awesome. The story was feel good and heart warming and the Tuhoy's are an amazing family and Michael Oher is a great example of a "rags to riches" success story, so yay for everyone involved, and Michael Lewis: next time please focus more on the heart of the story and less on the boring analysis-y stuff. K? Thanks.

Regina's Legacy - Sweet Valley High No. 73

Oh man, I love the Sweet Valley High books. They are about two beautiful, blonde twins, Jessica and Elizabeth, who are a "perfect size six." Elizabeth is the smart, studious, nice one and Jessica is a crazy bitch. This book focuses on Elizabeth, who receives a sweet camera after her friend Regina dies of a cocaine overdose. These chicks are hardcore! While the book where Regina dies is much more interesting, this book is pretty good if only because it involves drug rings, the mafia, and Jessica dating a guy who is only interested in one thing: a photo Elizabeth took (fooled you! it wasn't sex!) So some crazy stuff happens, darkrooms are vandalized, punches are thrown and everything ends up all fine and dandy, except of course, Jessica is hurt by the guy who Only Wanted One Thing, which ultimately ends up to her alienating herself from her friends and family and joining a cult in book no. 82, "Kidnapped by the Cult."

Recently, Random House republished the first couple books in the series which made me super excited. But then, when I opened them up to reminisce I noticed something fishy. Instead of being "perfect size sixes", the girls were now size four! And instead of Jessica dreaming about a sparkly gold pantsuit with extra-larage shoulder pads and a chunky turqoise necklace, she now wanted the last pair of sevens. COME ON GUYS, the only reason these books were so good was how well they captured the amazing levels of cheesiness that were present in the eighties. What's next? Are they going to to stop swooning over Burt Reynolds in favor of Taylor Lautner? Are they going to to trade their matching lavaliere necklaces for tiffany heart bracelets? Are they going to trade their sporty little fiat in for a prius! Ugh. As long as they keep the six part series where Margo, who is conveniently identical to Jessica and Elizabeth comes in and tries to kill them and take their place and then HER identical sister does the exact same thing five books late, I'll still be happy.

What Would Buffy Do: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide

So, my mom bought be this book during my Buffy obsession phase (which never really ended). She is all spiritual and mystical and stuff and I guess she thought I would appreciate examing Buffy through a different lens. And I did, really, I like being able to look at my favorite tv show in different ways so I can understand new things about it, and for all I know, Joss Whedon is super secretly religious. But I don't think so.

For some reason Buffy lends itself to a multitude of interpretations some legit and some freaky. There are endless academic texts analyzing it's art, it's aesthetics, it's language, it's ethics, it's morals, it's view of sex, it's view of women and plenty of other random things. And just like another gigantic character from a world of fantasy (Harry Potter!) Buffy is often compared to Jesus (in that she sacrifices herself to save the world among other things).

Although I, like my mother, love a good analysis, there comes a time when I throw up my hands and say, ENOUGH!, can't I just watch the show for fun and enjoy it's awesome girl power campiness without discussing if "Buffy is truly a Kierkegaardian knight of faith or if Faith's (the slayer) corruption and return to the good life demonstrate Platonic eudaimonism" (that's from the blurb for BTVS and Philosophy and I have no idea what it means.) I also think it's funny that on amazon, the Buffy books are all under the tab "good & evil" that about sums it up don't you think?

Buffy as a tv show obviously lends itself to much interpretation and discussion and I love that about it. I also love that when you go back and watch it for the 75th time you keep finding new things to say "oh! that's Joss referencing something that is going to happen in three seasons" about. And Joss is brilliant, there is no doubt about that, and he loves to write strong, tough women, which there are not enough of on tv (RIP Dollhouse) but sometimes I just want to sit back, and watch monsters die.

You Know You Love Me: A Gossip Girl Novel

Sorry this imaged is smushed (but not in the Jersey Shore sense where smushing equals something far dirtier) I love these books, they are hilarious and witty and super juicy. However there are a million of them and they all kind of run together in my head. This pick comes courtesy of my boss Greg who likes to pick the highest number possible, when I asked him to give me a number from 1-30, he said 50. I made him choose again so he chose 29. Then when I told him to pick a number from 1-50, he was super excited and mad to pick 50. Thus, Gossip Girl.
This book is pretty much the same as all the rest. Blair and Serena fight and act super bitchy. Nate dates someone who isn't Blair and she gets all testy. Jenny is all innocent and freshman like, and Dan is a super sketchy, weirdo creep. The point of this is that the books are awesome and the tv show is not. In the books (as I just said) Dan is super creepy and a stalker and a lame hipster poet. On the show he is having threesomes with Hilary Duff!!! Oh Lizzie Mcguire, where did you go wrong? Also, on the show Vanessa doesn't have a shaved head and is way more mainstream then in the books where her anti-everything sentiments actually make sense. And Jenny? Don't even get me started. Taylor Momsen is like a crappier Courtney Love and Courtney Love SUCKS. The only redeem quality of the show is how awesome Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) is. In the books he is kind of a secondary character (who wheres scarfs and carries around a monkey, classic!) but on the show he is all, "I'm Chuck Bass..." And then he has sex with you in a limo. Or anywhere basically. He is awesome and his relationship with Blair on the show is amazing. It's like Cruel Intentions incestous sibilings Katherine and Sebastian all over again but without the incest. Oh well, you can't when them all.
So to recap, Gossip Girl books: yay. Gossip Girl tv show: Boo. Leighton Meister and Ed Westwick: Double yay! Taylor Momsen: Barf. Random cameos by Dawn from Buffy: holler!

You Gotta BE the Book

So my coworker Lauren thoughtfully provided me with my next pick, page 29, book 49 (that's pretty much the end of my whole collection!) I'm gonna be honest here, I read this book at least three years ago when I was an undergrad in English Education at NYU and I remember nothing about it. I will however, tell you a super hilarious story from the class where I maybe read this book (I totally don't remember which class it was for.) So back in 2006 (or 5 or 7) I took a class that combined English Ed students with Social Studies Ed students. For one of the assignments my group asked the rest of the class to respond to the material we were teaching in a "creative" way. Most of them just wrote poems or something similar, but one student, who was a total jerk, decided to do an interprative dance. Now this wasn't a guy you would picture as a dancer. He was not graceful or fluid, but he was EXTREMELY serious about his art. The rest of us pretty much dissolved into laughter from the get go with a few of his peers running out of the room, attempting to hide their snorts of laughter. Even the teacher couldn't contain herself. It was the greatest thing ever. Anyway, that has nothing to do with this book but it pretty much sums about my entire undergraduate educational experience at NYU. Two words: Interprative Dance.

In A Heartbeat

So for my first review I picked page 14, book 15 which ended up being a book I just read (lucky me) called "In A Heartbeat" by Loretta Ellsworth. (And I added a picture! go me with my computer skills!)

Here is a short summary from amazon:

When a small mistake costs sixteen-year-old Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition, she leaves many things unreconciled including her troubled relationship with her mother. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Eagan reflects back on her memories, and what she could have done differentl,y through her still-beating heart.

When fourteen-year-old Amelia learns she will be getting a heart transplant, her fear and guilt battle with her joy at this new chance at life. And afterwards when she starts to feel different - dreaming about figure skating, craving grape candy - her need to learn about her donor leads her to discover and explore Eagan's life, meeting her grieving loved ones and trying to bring the closure they all need to move on.

Told in alternating viewpoints, "In a Heartbeat" tells the emotional and compelling story of two girls sharing one heart.

Ok, so full disclosure here: one of my closest friends had a liver transplant a while back so reading books about this topic seem to hit close to home for me. I recently read a similar book called "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" about the exact same thing and I am pretty sure that Lurlene Mcdaniel has a similar type book as well. Obviously there is no shortage of books about this topic and for that I am grateful.

This book was great, Ellsworth compellingly tells the story of both girls pre and post transplant. We learn about Eagan's life through flashbacks she has in a sort of purgatory she's waiting in and how Amelia ultimately ended up with her heart. While the separate stories of the girls are incredibly interesting and moving, the best part of the novel is towards the end when both girls learn about each other and come to terms with life (Amelia) and death (Eagan) While I didn't sob uncontrollably at the end of this book like I did with "Elsewhere" by Gabrielle Zevin, there is a moment towards the very end that will make anyone choke up (but look closely, it's never fully explained.)

Overall, while some might think that this book reads like a slightly more literary Lurlene Mcdaniel novel, I believe it's worth the read. Amelia and Eagan's stories are heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time and anyone who has ever experienced any kind of loss will appreciate their tale.

Rating: four out of five stars.

Hello

Hi, maybe I will post here more often than my other, failed blogs. Here's what I am going to do, pick a number between one and thirty, and then pick another number between oen and fifty. That will result in a random selection from my librarything account which currently contains 1,456 books. Then I will review the book. I have read most of the books in my catalog so hopefully I won't end up reviewing something I haven't read. If that happens, I'll read it!