A LONG WAY GONE by Ishmael Beah

Please excuse the long hiatus! I am determined to get this year's list all splatted before our exciting choose-your-book-a-palooza advisory block on June 15.

A LONG WAY GONE is a wonderful memoir that will take your heart, rip it out of your chest, squish if 45 ways to Sunday, drag it in the dirt and then rinse it off and re-position it in your chest. I know, a lot of work for one thing book.

It is the story of how Ishmael was conscripted into the rebel army in Sierra Leone at 13 years old, given amphetamines and other drugs and told to kill or be killed. According to the book he lived this life for nearly 3 years before being rescued by UNICEF and eventually coming to America where he is now a graduate student and a speaker on human rights.

The book doesn't spend a lot of time on the overall political picture, but focuses more on the life of a child soldier and his long road back to humanity.

I am not a big memoir reader, nor do I read a lot about military conflict - but I was gripped by this book. My favorite memoir is A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY by Haven Kimmel which is unlike this book in every way - but tremendously funny. As far as children in peril go, you can't beat SOLD by Patricia McKormack - which was on summer reading last year.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Gabrielle Zevin wrote ELSEWHERE, which was on summer reading two years ago. She follows it up with this story of a girl who comes out of a coma after hitting her head to find that she remembers nothing of the last two years. I was surprised at how serious this book was. It is an interesting look at a girl who is given the opportunity to have a do-over and choose to make changes in relationships and situations that normally people would feel that they had no choice but to continue on with.

I like books about starting over. I don't know any other amnesia books, but HOW NOT TO BE POPULAR by Jennifer Ziegler is about a girl who is constantly moving to new towns because her parents are constantly starting over. She decides not to even try to make friends in her new home because she is tired of having to leave them behind.

KEEPING THE MOON is about a girl who leaves her demanding mother to go live with her laid back aunt and finds that other people's opinions of her don't really matter.

HERO by Perry Moore

To liven up the book blogging experience I chose a random picture from by "books to blog" file and it happens to be the one I am re-reading!

I read HERO last spring and I really liked it. I remember being surprised that I was so caught up in a superhero story. I was also surprised that the the "coming out story" part of the book was handled so delicately. I was hazy on the details of the book since I read it more than a year ago and I am pleased that I am enjoying it just as much as I did the first time. It is funny and sensative and full of action. Quite the combo-plate!

This is the story of Thom Creed who is the teenaged son of disgraced superhero "Major Might". His father, who has no powers, but fought crime out of a strong sense of justice, hates people with powers. When Thom realizes that he has powers (and they are gooooooood powers) and when he is invited to try out for the League of Justice, the same people who booted his father, he knows that he is going to have to lie to his father about more than his growing belief that he is gay.

I like superhero comics, but haven't been a huge reader of superhero books. There is a new title out that looks good to me, and that I just ordered called SUPERPOWERS by David J. Schwartz that looks pretty good. If it is the gay angle that interests you, there is a fantastic book called FREAK SHOW by James St. James that was the first runner up for the "gay-friendly" summer reading title. I just loved it. It is almost the opposit of HERO in that our hero is a urban drag-princess who is moved to the Bible belt and has to deal with people who don't understand the magnitude of his powers. It is sweet and hysterically funny and really much tamer than it sounds!

The World Without Us

This book is the story of a bad break up. The players in the relationship are Humanity and Earth. Humanity had been mistreating Earth for awhile, and all Earth's friends are like, "You need to break up with Humanity, Humanity's no good for you! Humanity takes you for granted, you could do so much better!" And Earth was like, "Humanity has been here for so long and I just know Humanity is going to change! You don't know Humanity like I do." And Earth's friends were like, "Little Planet, you need to just think about what your life would be like without Humanity. Would you be better off?" And then we have Weisman's book.

If you have watched any of those discovery channel shows you have seen the science in this book. The writing is interesting and the different illustrations of how scientists have come to these conclusions are illuminating.

I have grown fond of science fiction, but I am not a big reader of science non-fiction. A couple of science books that have slipped through my pleasure reading radar are STIFF by Mary Roach, the story of what happens to our bodies when we die, and FLU: THE STORY OF THE GREAT INFLUENZA PANDEMIC by Gina Kolata. It occurs to me that all of these books involve humanity expiring, and I just want to point out that I do like humans and I don't want them to cease to be! It is just interesting to read about!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

Sherman Alexie has joined the number of literary writers who have penned a Young Adult novel to great acclaim. The author of short story collection, THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN (part of which was turned into one of my favorite movies - SMOKE SIGNALS) writes a somewhat autobiographical novel about Junior - a kid growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation. He leaves the rez to go to an all-white school in a farm town. He illustrates his story with cartoons. It is funny, sad, funny, hilarious and funny.

I haven't read a lot about reservation life in our time. As far as indian books, Sharon Creech is a favorite, RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME looks good (although I haven't read it yet) and PIGS IN HEAVEN (and it prequal, THE BEAN TREES) by Barbara Kingsolver is amazing.

Why I am the best/worst mother in the world.

I am paying my teenage son $25 to read Stephen King's THE STAND this summer. Am I a crazy person? The book is enormous, but is the only end-of-the-world, "Oh-my-God-we're-all-going-to-die!!!" book that I have ever read and re-read. And re-read it I have! About 15 or so summers I spent a week or so freaking myself out on purpose with this book. Planning my own plague scenario. Where would I live? What would I do? How would I get to Boulder? (Because I'd have to get to Boulder!) Would I be brave like Dana? Would I be able to go through the tunnel? Would I bring a backup flashlight for the love of all things holy???

I love this book and I want my son to read it now that he is old enough. And if it costs me a double sawbuck and a fin - oh well...

Now if I could negotiate a price with my 11 year old to get him to cut his hair... Do you think I could fake a mouse incident like Pa in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE?

The answers to these questions and the long awaited (and much procrastinated) Summer Reading Book Reviews coming soon!

My Apology...

Here is my apology to science fiction and fantasy. In the past I was one of those people who would say, "I love to read everything except science fiction and fantasy." (And I would say science fiction and fantasy in a tone of voice that implied that I found them about as appealing as a bucket of vomit.)

But now that I have matured and had my comfort zone forcibly expanded by librarianship, I find that my four favorite books of the last 12 months are ALL science fiction or fantasy! Shocking, I know!

I am 152 pages into THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO by Patrick Ness and it is blowing my mind! It is the story of a boy who is the youngest person in his town at nearly 13 years old. At the age of 13, every boy in town goes through something horrible (I don't know what it is yet, and I can not WAIT to find out. I bet it is grisly!) There are no women or girls in the town because they were all killed by a virus that made everyone's thoughts audible to everyone else. Which seems like it would be handy, but is actually horrible. This book is amazing and I can't believe I am wasting time finally blogging when I could be reading it!

The next book I adored was UNWOUND by Neal Schusterman - the story of a future where we parents are finally able to get rid of teenagers who aren't living up to expectations. It seems like a brilliant idea in theory, but I am sure you will not be surprised that it goes horribly, horribly wrong. I desperately wanted this on summer reading this summer, but it won't be in paperback for awhile. Next year, for sure!

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins (who wrote the GREGOR books for middle schoolers which I may or may not read on my own for fun because they are great) shows a different future of expendable teenagers. (Are you sensing a theme here? Horrible things happen to teenagers in these books! It makes me not even care that I am getting old and wrinkly and my body is falling apart. I am safe by virtue of being over 18. Whew!) In this case - in a future America, two kids from each district (regions like New England, Appalacia and the rust belt are now numbered 1-12 and it is no fun to live there) are sent to district one - the happiest, richest and most powerful district (the former California - figures...) from which they are sent to the Survivor-type "Hunger Games" where they go up against the 23 other contestants in a battle to the death. This is probably the most violent book I have ever liked. It isn't graphic (well a little) but they aren't kidding about the last man standing thing. Yikes. But it is so good and I can't wait for the sequal to come out (on September 1 which is circled on my calendar!). Look at all the parentheses in this paragraph. See what this book has reduced me to? It is brilliant.

And finally TENDER MORSELS by Margot Lanagan which was brilliant and weird and disturbing and a little painful, but also the most original thing I have read in ages. It is a fairy tale with its boots in the muck. It tells the story of Snow White and Rose Red, but in such a strange way that I didn't even recognize it until I had finished it and read a review and went, "Oh yeah - of course!" The basic plot is a young girl who is horribly abused by her father is allowed to live in heaven before her time. But a nasty little thief begins to break down the membrane between her world and the real world with massive consequences. And bears.

I swear I will start the summer reading reviews soon.

We may have a list!

It looks as if the books for this year have been chosen! The students who had English in the fall semester voted on them, the faculty is currently vetting them and I am wholeheartedly hoping that no more nasty surprises come up.

What kind of nasty surprises you may ask? Well, three books I had high hopes for are not going to be on the list this summer!

The first is THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. It is the story of a kid who realized that he is one of the reasons a classmate committed suicide. He finds out because she made a set of tapes before she died telling her story. The narrative switches back and forth between her story and the story of the night the boy listens to the tape. It is fantastic. But it isn't going to be out in paperback until October.

The same thing happened with UNWIND by Neal Schusterman. I LOVE this book. It is a science fiction novel about a future where teenagers are found to be somewhat expendable and quite useful for organ transplants. It is full of action and asks some great ethical questions. But alas, it will not be out in paperback until August. Rats! Look for it on next year's list, without fail.

And finally, I just put down ROCK AND ROLL CAGE MATCH, which is a great concept - music critics match up pairs of corresponding bands, singers, concepts or producers and choose a "winner" - but those music critics are a real potty-mouthed lot and many of them have unresolved issues about their adolescence which I am uncomfortable reading about. I laughed out loud a lot, and I still like the idea - and you can feel free to check it out at the library, but I think the summer reading list is going to have to be without it.

I will start reviewing the books here soon. For now we have a list that may or may not be complete! And I am going to try to write a six word synopsis because that is the sort of thing librarians like to do on snow days.

Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Funny geek fears he betrays heritage.

Airhead by Meg Cabot
Super model brain transplant - enough said?

Before the Legend by Christopher Farley
Bob Marley was young once too.

Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits by David Ortiz
Baseball player is super nice guy.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Death observes girl in Hitler's Germany.

Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
Entertainment is weird in alternative world.

The Fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Calletti
Teenage waitress gets million dollar tip.

Harmless by Dana Reinhart
Girls regret lying to avoid trouble.

Hero by Perry Moore
Saving the world is hard work.

Hypochondriac’s Guide To Horrible Diseases You Probably Already Have by Dennis DiClaudio
Man, you can catch gross stuff.

A Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah
Boy soldier in Africa writes memoir.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Memory loss allows for new life.

My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay
Teen missionaries caught in violent uprising.

Plato and a Platypus Walk in to a Bar by Thomas Cathcart
Philosophy explained through really bad jokes.

Right Behind You by Gail Giles
Accidental murderer tries to redeem himself.

Runaways: Pride and Joy by Brian K Vaughn
Parents are super villains, children rebel.

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner
Girl translates Salem witch trial diary.

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
New enlistee recounts life in Iraq.

Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
Football playing orphans kick Texas butt.

What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sondra Sones
She's way out of his league.

What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
Girl disappears, repercussions felt years later.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
Crazy uncle lures girl to Antarctica.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Humans are extinct. Earth responds well.

I will write longer reviews as the books get vetted by the faculty.