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1. A picture of my best friend and I acting like fools on the London Eye. I went to visit her while she was studying abroad in our junior year of college. We spent a good portion of the time on the Eye thinking of what ridiculous thing we would do when it came time for the picture. We determined to put our hands up and act like we were on the downhill of a roller coaster. Behind us in the photo is a really dour, disappoving looking couple that makes the shot that much more priceless. 2. A picture of my cousin Isaac. He's eight. He still thinks I'm "cool." Gotta treasure these moments. 3. My cell phone. Okay. I know this sounds shallow, but before I started moving all over the country I got one of those Verizon Chocolate phones - a red one. Not only does it make me feel super cool...it has around 120 songs loaded onto it (which came in handy for riding the T in Boston), takes great pictures (it houses the Boston photo documentary - for all those pictures you want to take when you don't feel like carrying a camera around), and I spent about a zillion hours talking to my family on it during all my travels. 4. My computer. Well, this should be obvious. I blog. I BookCross. I keep in touch with lots of friends on Facebook. I apply for jobs (one of which I am greatly in need of). Yeah, I'm lost without this thing. 5. Books! This is another shocker, I'm sure. Seeing as the shelves are in other rooms, only three are in here right now. My last read (The Thief Lord), my current read (Snow Falling on Cedars), and a read I'm considering for after that (Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog). Wherever I go, books aren't far behind. 6. A Ziggy comic I cut out of the Sunday comics. Most of the frames picture Ziggy racing toward the future. The last shows a picture pointing back toward the present and says "If you spend all of your time racing ahead to the future, you're liable to discover you've left a great present behind." It's something I need to be reminded of constantly. 7. My CD collection. It's grown quite expansive, and I find that unless I'm reading I have a hard time sitting in my room without playing some music. It's got all sorts of stuff - rock, pop, country, worship music, Gaelic music, instrumental movie soundtracks...you name it. 8. Feather Boa. I spent my four years of college in the same work study job in the Office of Annual Giving and really loved the people I was working for. They were very fun and easy going and hard working all at the same time. For a long time we had a pink and white feather boa of indeterminate origins hanging about the office. I once asked my boss if I could borrow the "office feather boa" for an event I was attending, which is kind of funny in and of itself. At the end of my time there, they gave it to me as a parting gift. 9. Stuffed Bear. Okay. Yes. I'm a "grown-up." I just moved back in with my parents. I still sleep with a stuffed bear. He's comfy. Wanna make something of it? 10. A Picture of my two favorite college roommates and I at a lacrosse game. They're still among my best friends, and I've never put so much effort into staying in touch. Our wacky lacrosse playing neighbors brought us all a little bit closer together sophomore year, and I don't know what I'd do without my two best friends now! 11. The Gettysburg Alumni calendar. I have little hope of ever loving my life as much as I did in college. Too bad I didn't realize quite how much I loved it then. *sigh* 12. Wood carvings of a toy soldier, a dog, and a bear. My grandfather carved them for me. He can't really carve anymore, but I still love these things that he made for me when he could. 13. The Memories Jar. This was a gift my grandmother brought back for me from a golfing trip she went on. I've stuck all sorts of tickets to events I've been to and all sort of assorted mementos into this jar down through the years. I love to pop it open every now and then and remember the events associated with the stuff in jar. |
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #2
This list is brought to you by my complete and utter lack of creativity. You're lucky, I almost posted a list of my rejected Thursday Thirteen ideas.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
The Thief Lord didn't really inspire me with a full-fledged review, so I'm borrowing Dewey's questiony thing to say something about it.
Title and author of book?
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Fiction or non-fiction? Genre?
Childrens/Young Adult Fiction
What led you to pick up this book?
I'd heard lots of good things about it, and someone took it out of the Teen VBB on BookObsessed, so I bumped it up Mount TBR.
Summarize the plot, but don’t give away the ending!
Prosper and Bo, two children left orphaned upon the death of their mother, flee their Aunt Esther, a self-serving rich lady seeking to adopt only Bo as more of dress-up doll than a child while packing off his older brother to boarding school. The two take refuge in Venice, a mystical city their mother had often told them stories about before her death. In Venice, the brothers meet up with a gang of street kids who are provided for by the elusive Thief Lord. As it turns out, the Thief Lord is both more and less than he appears which is revealed when the children are sent on a mysterious errand for the even more elusive Conte. Throughout their journeys they meet up with Victor, a kindly bumbling detective originally hired to return Prosper and Bo to their immature Aunt, as well as kindly photographer, Ida, both of whom come to their aid when the worst comes to pass.
What did you like most about the book?
I loved the Venice setting. Funke brings the city full of waterways and winged creatures and hidden places to life. The setting itself contributes mightily to the story and its mystical premise. I liked the gang of kids as well and could picture them in their movie theater hideout. The plot is engaging and moves along at just the right pace to keep you reading to find out what exciting event will happen next.
What did you like least?
There were a few things that bothered me. One was the almost total lack of character development. Here are bunch of kids either without parents or with home lives so rotten they decided to strike out on their own, yet there seems to be almost no history and no context for any of the characters. Several of the main characters seem to be "just there," and we don't get any sort of idea about what drives them or why they are so dissatisfied with their past (or current) lives.
The adult characters kind of bothered me, also. For example, Ida: she grew up in an orphanage, supports the orphanage monetarily, and seems to care deeply about these abandoned children and their need to have a place to belong, but it doesn't dawn on her to actually consider adopting a child until these kids arrive on her doorstep. Nor does she seem to have any qualms about setting two ten-year-olds loose to go live on their own in a warehouse. Weird.
Share a quote from the book:
Back in the narrow alleys he wasn't usually afraid, but it was different here in the wide-open square. Bo called it the Lion Square. He knew that it had a proper name really, but he called it that anyway. During the day every cobblestone here belonged to the pigeons and the tourists. But at night when the pigeons slept on the roofs and the people lay in their hotel beds, the square belonged to the horses and the winged lion that stood among the stars. Bo was certain of that. pg. 75
Overall:
This is a good book...for someone a lot younger than me. I'm sure younger readers would be enchanted by this, but I found myself caught between taking it too seriously and too lightly. It's written like a book that wishes to be taken seriously - a book about homeless kids, rich kids unhappy in their circumstances, kids that want to be grown-ups so that they can be taken seriously. But it's also written in a sort of fairy tale sort of fashion with kids that seem old and adults who behave ridiculously which requires more suspension of disbelief to enjoy. I didn't know what kind of reader I was supposed to be to enjoy it, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have like to have enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this to younger readers, though, who wouldn't need to struggle with my strange dilemma!
Title and author of book? The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Fiction or non-fiction? Genre?
Childrens/Young Adult Fiction
What led you to pick up this book?
I'd heard lots of good things about it, and someone took it out of the Teen VBB on BookObsessed, so I bumped it up Mount TBR.
Summarize the plot, but don’t give away the ending!
Prosper and Bo, two children left orphaned upon the death of their mother, flee their Aunt Esther, a self-serving rich lady seeking to adopt only Bo as more of dress-up doll than a child while packing off his older brother to boarding school. The two take refuge in Venice, a mystical city their mother had often told them stories about before her death. In Venice, the brothers meet up with a gang of street kids who are provided for by the elusive Thief Lord. As it turns out, the Thief Lord is both more and less than he appears which is revealed when the children are sent on a mysterious errand for the even more elusive Conte. Throughout their journeys they meet up with Victor, a kindly bumbling detective originally hired to return Prosper and Bo to their immature Aunt, as well as kindly photographer, Ida, both of whom come to their aid when the worst comes to pass.
What did you like most about the book?
I loved the Venice setting. Funke brings the city full of waterways and winged creatures and hidden places to life. The setting itself contributes mightily to the story and its mystical premise. I liked the gang of kids as well and could picture them in their movie theater hideout. The plot is engaging and moves along at just the right pace to keep you reading to find out what exciting event will happen next.
What did you like least?
There were a few things that bothered me. One was the almost total lack of character development. Here are bunch of kids either without parents or with home lives so rotten they decided to strike out on their own, yet there seems to be almost no history and no context for any of the characters. Several of the main characters seem to be "just there," and we don't get any sort of idea about what drives them or why they are so dissatisfied with their past (or current) lives.
The adult characters kind of bothered me, also. For example, Ida: she grew up in an orphanage, supports the orphanage monetarily, and seems to care deeply about these abandoned children and their need to have a place to belong, but it doesn't dawn on her to actually consider adopting a child until these kids arrive on her doorstep. Nor does she seem to have any qualms about setting two ten-year-olds loose to go live on their own in a warehouse. Weird.
Share a quote from the book:
Back in the narrow alleys he wasn't usually afraid, but it was different here in the wide-open square. Bo called it the Lion Square. He knew that it had a proper name really, but he called it that anyway. During the day every cobblestone here belonged to the pigeons and the tourists. But at night when the pigeons slept on the roofs and the people lay in their hotel beds, the square belonged to the horses and the winged lion that stood among the stars. Bo was certain of that. pg. 75
Overall:
This is a good book...for someone a lot younger than me. I'm sure younger readers would be enchanted by this, but I found myself caught between taking it too seriously and too lightly. It's written like a book that wishes to be taken seriously - a book about homeless kids, rich kids unhappy in their circumstances, kids that want to be grown-ups so that they can be taken seriously. But it's also written in a sort of fairy tale sort of fashion with kids that seem old and adults who behave ridiculously which requires more suspension of disbelief to enjoy. I didn't know what kind of reader I was supposed to be to enjoy it, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have like to have enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this to younger readers, though, who wouldn't need to struggle with my strange dilemma!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Some of us read, some of us just buy books....
Today was a lovely fall day, and I spent it shopping. There was a small library book sale this morning, and I can never seem to resist uh.... supporting the library. Who doesn't love to pick up wish list books at the paltry sum of 50 cents a piece? I got 10, and my mom got 5 or 6...two of which piqued my interest, which is always good since we tend to make our book collection almost entirely shared. After that we headed off to Muncy to partake in a tasty coffee drink at the Seattle's Best at Borders (where I - much to my credit - didn't buy any more books), to scout out some Life Is Good clothes on sale (which is almost as common as pigs flying or hell freezing over - so naturally this endeavor failed), and to swing by the consumerist fantasy (or is it nightmare?) that is Sam's Club to buy chicken in bulk. Adding to the excitement was a moment of terror wrought by my dad's locking the keys in the car. Luckily, with a shout of "Don't panic! It's no big deal!" I was able to save the day with the help of my cell phone and my AAA card. Definitely getting my money's worth out of that one.
And now, the important stuff. A brief rundown of my most recent book acquisition...
Strange Fits of Passion - Anita Shreve
Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
Until I Find You - John Irving
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel - Louise Murphy (a duplicate copy for my permanent collection. Yay!)
The Best of Friends - Sara James and Ginger Mauney
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin
Second Glance - Jodi Picoult
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
Bastard Out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
The Mercy of Thin Air - Ronlyn Domingue
The Art of Mending - Elizabeth Berg
In other news, I'm pretty inspired by all the folks doing the 24 hour readathon and plan on stopping by and doing some unofficial cheerleading. I love to read, but 24 hours is quite the committment! Nonetheless, they're all making me think that I could be doing a great deal more of reading than I am - even if it's far shorter than 24 hours in a row. I have the attention span of a flea these days and seem to always be able to find an excuse to not read, which is a crying shame considering I do get such enjoyment out of it. So here's to reading! You can see what the readathon is all about and go visit the participants here.
And now, the important stuff. A brief rundown of my most recent book acquisition...
Strange Fits of Passion - Anita Shreve
Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
Until I Find You - John Irving
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel - Louise Murphy (a duplicate copy for my permanent collection. Yay!)
The Best of Friends - Sara James and Ginger Mauney
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin
Second Glance - Jodi Picoult
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
Bastard Out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
The Mercy of Thin Air - Ronlyn Domingue
The Art of Mending - Elizabeth Berg
In other news, I'm pretty inspired by all the folks doing the 24 hour readathon and plan on stopping by and doing some unofficial cheerleading. I love to read, but 24 hours is quite the committment! Nonetheless, they're all making me think that I could be doing a great deal more of reading than I am - even if it's far shorter than 24 hours in a row. I have the attention span of a flea these days and seem to always be able to find an excuse to not read, which is a crying shame considering I do get such enjoyment out of it. So here's to reading! You can see what the readathon is all about and go visit the participants here.
Friday, October 19, 2007
From Ashes to Life by Lucille Eichengreen
I've long had a passion for books about the Holocaust. Don't ask me why. It may well have to do with The Devil's Arithmetic, which I read somewhere around the seventh grade. Ever since I actively seek out books about the Holocaust both fiction and non-fiction. Maybe because of the importantance of remembering, maybe because I want to see the triumph of the human will to live, maybe because of those moments that crop up when ordinary people - despite overwhelming odds and certain danger - step up and do the right thing for their fellow man. These moments make reading these books, however difficult it may be, always worth the read...at least for me.
From Ashes to Life is a book I bought during college for a class on the Holocaust. At the last minute, the teacher decided to use a different book and gave us the option to return this one. Instead, (and I was probably in the great minority among my classmates), I kept it to read on my own time. And I'm glad I did.
Lucille Eichengreen was born Cecelia Landau in Hamburg, Germany. From Ashes to Life chronicles her Holocaust experience from the first moments of foreboding as antisemitism becomes more prevalent in Germany until after the war when she serves as a valuable witness against those who had committed such atrocities and then moves on to begin a new life in America. Eichengreen's story is told in spare, almost childlike prose that serves to avoid any destraction from the horror of the events described.
Eichengreen chronicles her experience in the Lodz ghetto, where she lost what was left of her family, and in various concentration camps including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. However, what sets this memoir apart from the others I have read is her elaboration on what happened after her liberation from Bergen-Belsen. Eichengreen's memoir goes on to tell us about her role in bringing 42 SS members to trial for war crimes and her experience testifying against them in court. Eichengreen's bravery in facing her opressors in court is astonishing, and she helps us to see both how necessary she believed it to be, how strange it was to have roles reversed, and how painful it was for her to take on this role.
Additionally, Eichengreen tells of her new life in America and of a visit paid to Hamburg long after the end of the war. I was disappointed, as she was, by the relative lack of regret or remembrance she found in Germany and Poland. It was also shocking to see how the Jews that remained continued to conform to a persistent, if not always obvious, view of themselves as lesser humans that continued to exist in Germany and in Poland. Eichengreen spotlights what seems to be a reluctance to learn from history that is frightening.
Eichengreen's Holocaust experience but more importantly her emergence from the Holocaust to a new life is difficult but necessary reading. Her post-war experience includes some unforgettable scenes, including meeting a former kapo in a New York store. From Ashes to Life is important reading for those who would learn about the Holocaust and who would strive to eliminate those attitudes that could keep history from repeating itself.
From Ashes to Life is a book I bought during college for a class on the Holocaust. At the last minute, the teacher decided to use a different book and gave us the option to return this one. Instead, (and I was probably in the great minority among my classmates), I kept it to read on my own time. And I'm glad I did.
Lucille Eichengreen was born Cecelia Landau in Hamburg, Germany. From Ashes to Life chronicles her Holocaust experience from the first moments of foreboding as antisemitism becomes more prevalent in Germany until after the war when she serves as a valuable witness against those who had committed such atrocities and then moves on to begin a new life in America. Eichengreen's story is told in spare, almost childlike prose that serves to avoid any destraction from the horror of the events described. Eichengreen chronicles her experience in the Lodz ghetto, where she lost what was left of her family, and in various concentration camps including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. However, what sets this memoir apart from the others I have read is her elaboration on what happened after her liberation from Bergen-Belsen. Eichengreen's memoir goes on to tell us about her role in bringing 42 SS members to trial for war crimes and her experience testifying against them in court. Eichengreen's bravery in facing her opressors in court is astonishing, and she helps us to see both how necessary she believed it to be, how strange it was to have roles reversed, and how painful it was for her to take on this role.
Additionally, Eichengreen tells of her new life in America and of a visit paid to Hamburg long after the end of the war. I was disappointed, as she was, by the relative lack of regret or remembrance she found in Germany and Poland. It was also shocking to see how the Jews that remained continued to conform to a persistent, if not always obvious, view of themselves as lesser humans that continued to exist in Germany and in Poland. Eichengreen spotlights what seems to be a reluctance to learn from history that is frightening.
Eichengreen's Holocaust experience but more importantly her emergence from the Holocaust to a new life is difficult but necessary reading. Her post-war experience includes some unforgettable scenes, including meeting a former kapo in a New York store. From Ashes to Life is important reading for those who would learn about the Holocaust and who would strive to eliminate those attitudes that could keep history from repeating itself.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #1
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Because I've only really been keeping track for the last four years. In no particular order... 1. Wonder When You'll Miss Me by Amanda Davis - I love a good circus story, and the damaged narrator of this story was pitch perfect. 2. No Matter How Loud I Shout by Edward Humes - A view of the LA juvenile court system from just about every possible angle. It's an awesome piece of work that is occasionally heart-wrenching and frustrating but absolutely worth the read. Along similar lines is True Notebooks by Mark Salzman, another great book. 3. The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque - The relatively unknown cousin to All Quiet On the Western Front that follows the former soldiers after their return from the war. 4. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis - I'm of the crowd that sees the very strong Christian parallel in The Chronicles of Narnia. That being the case, the final scenes of this one brought me to tears. 5. Spilling Clarence by Anne Ursu - A novel about what happens to people when their memories are set free of their normal restraints. 6. Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman - A semi-mystical book about a family actually living in a glass house. It turns out, however, the family is far more fragile than the house. 7. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy - This is the best book I've ever read that nobody seems to have heard of. It's a very beautiful and haunting World War II/Holocaust story molded into the Hansel and Gretel story. I can't recommend it highly enough. 8. Black & White by Dani Shapiro - A story of a an artist and her daughter and what happens when the line between her art and her love for her daughter becomes blurred. 9. Small Island by Andrea Levy - It's so hard for an author to write from several different characters' points of view and make them distinct from each other. Levy nails it. Her four characters are perfectly drawn, and their intertwined stories are subtly written and all the more powerful for it. 10. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett - If I could write anywhere near as great as Ann Patchett, I could die happy. This memoir of her friendship with Lucy Grealy author of Autobiography of a Face is beautiful and recounts a true friendship at its best and worst. 11. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - This story of a mysterious world below London was so good that I took my best friend to Borders and made her buy it. Imaginative, suspenseful, not to mention a very quick read. 12. The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich - I love a book capable of making you feel like you got to know a whole community by the end. Instead of feeling overburdened by getting to know so many characters so deeply, you just want to spend more time with them. 13. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - Have I mentioned my weakness for circus stories? This one is great. It's got characters you won't forget - especially the animals! And maybe one of the less recognized elements of the story that sucked me right in was Jacob's narration when he is old and confined to a nursing home. Having spent some time working in a nursing home, I couldn't get over how spot on this character was. |
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