November 22 - November 28

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

This book, the 4th in the Throne of Glass series, successfully holds up to the awesomeness of the other books in the series. I t has been almost a full year now since I last read the previous books, so there were some events referenced and recurring minor characters whose impact was somewhat lost on me because I couldn't remember what context I had last seen them in. It wasn't enough to make me get any less from the story though! I'll probably re-read the whole series when I can though, to get the little details.

This series has gotten progressively more complex and dark as it has continued, which I appreciate. This book had a lot of struggle for the characters between what was right or wrong that gave it a complex moral question that was quite a captivating addition to the already-gripping story. As always, the witch plot didn't grab me so much, but it was still a good addition. Everything seems happily resolved by the end, but it's overshadowed by the knowledge of the impending possible-end-of-the-world thing... I can't wait to read the next one! Basically with this, if you liked the first part of the series then this is a satisfying continuation.

Every Day by David Levithan

If you recall (probably not; I may not have even mentioned it), I read the first chapter of this at the end of Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, It was an interesting premise, but I didn't feel like I was really too drawn to it. However, I needed a quick read for break and this was a featured available book on the ebook homepage for Overdrive. :)

The premise of this book is that there's an ungendered entity (though it sort of reads from male) that wakes up each new day in a new body. As he ages, he is in older bodies according to his own "age" (and I'm saying he here for easy reference). He wakes up in a mean boy's body and falls in love with his girlfriend. They story is them trying to find a way to be together when he doesn't have his own body. Sometimes he's in boy bodies, other times girls. A transgendered kid even comes in at one point which was nice. 

I read and enjoyed this mostly for the interesting concept, but the actual plot didn't really bring me in that much. It was just a love story, albeit with an obstacle to love that was quite unusual. It was worth finishing the book, and I would say this is a good book if you don't have much else going on for your books-to-read list.

I could see this being a really interesting example book for point of view and/or character because it addresses ideas related to both of these. I would probably just choose a few quotes or moments to use with students rather than have them read the whole thing.

November 15 - 21

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
This book made me laugh a LOT, which is awesome to begin with. For a book about cancer, it was hilarious. Actually, though, I think I want to rephrase that: this book is not about cancer, it's about people. One of them happens to have cancer. There is a blurb about this book with a quote that roughly says "This book begs comparison to The Fault in Our Stars, but it's really quite funny!" I really hate that quote. This book is nothing at all similar to The Fault in Our Stars. It's actually funny. It's not all complainy. It's realistic. It's mot trying to be all meta and deep about cancer and life and death. That has it's place, I guess, but jeez, this book was just SO MUCH BETTER. Love story? Nope. No romance. Deep sad ending with death? Nope. Things just happen. For once, a book that has the balls to be... predictable? I don't know that that's quite right. But frankly, right at the beginning it's "She has cancer and will most likely die." At the end, it's "She had cancer, and she died." I feel like this does more justice to the difficulties and pain of cancer than trying to be tricky and sneaky about who might die in a novel. Cancer sucks, and it is often truly just unstoppable.

(In a horrible coincidence, my reading of these two notable books with people who have cancer in it coincided with learning about a cancer diagnosis of someone I grew up with. It looks like she'll be okay, but again, cancer sucks.)

Bomb! by Steve Sheinkin
I'm still plowing through this one. I'm not sure why it's taking so long, since it's very interesting and well-written! It's incredibly interesting to me to see a remarkably unbiased story in these pages. How did Sheinkin manage to write about the KGB in a way that makes me feel sympathetic at times? For spies? That is some incredible disinterest right there. I don't have a lot more to add, other than that this is yet another great example of nonfiction!!

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Unexpectedly, I really liked this play. It's all politics and speeches, and yet it feels like the most realistic play of Shakespeare's that I've read so far (especially for a tragedy). I feel for the main character, though I hesitate to say the same for the title character. Coriolanus is in many ways a different man from Caius Martius; the moment Martius receives the title Coriolanus in honor of his victory over the Volscians, he is basically screwed. He knows that he is not going to do well with begging the plebians who are far below his exalted status for their votes for him as their Consul. He repeatedly tells those who plead with him to apologize and beg for forgiveness and lie that there is no way he will be able to do that convincingly because he is so firmly against ever betraying the truth of his heart. I love this play because it raises many difficult questions. Is Coriolanus' tragic flaw that he won't lie? That would be quite a commentary on societal expectations and rules.

We were so close to a happy ending, but of course it couldn't happen. This has to be the least tragic tragedy in Shakespeare's ouevre, though. Only Coriolanus dies. This is unheard of. The ending is so quiet, Coriolanus so truly confused. We were all so close, and in the end, I am not even sure if I am upset with Aufidius or not. The people I am most upset with in this whole play are exactly that: the people. The mobs! They change their minds over and over and ruin everything in their thirst for equality and blood. In this story, it should have been the mob who met their downfall, as they were the ones who seemed to toss around the idea of vengeance like it was nothing.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Remember this series? I mostly do. I read these books sometime around May this year, and I LOVED them! Unfortunately for me, it was a more recent series, so this last book in the series was only just released this fall. I finally got my hands on it! (Shoutout to Overdrive and Merrimack Valley Library Consortium!) It's almost 700 pages long, which I was quite surprised by, but I'm pleased that this ending will be appropriately convoluted and epic as is fitting for a series like this. I'm about 150 pages in at the moment, and yes, it is appropriately convoluted and epic. Now, I'm going to stop writing and get back to reading!!

November 1 - 7

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Maaaaaan, I have been so unexcited by this book. A cancer book. With a character named "Hazel Grace." PUKE. A character who is 16 and gets into cars with boys who have been checking her out blatantly all evening and who she just met ten seconds ago. Man, that is... stupid. Maybe she doesn't care about death because she expects to die, but ugh. Also, calling the boy character GUS? YUUUUCK. Augustus is good; Gus is horrid.

I like it more than I thought I would, and there have been a few moments that made me chuckle a bit or smile. Still though, ugh. I'm not super feeling this book. I feel like I should read it though, since it is / was so popular with my students. I should try to understand why.

---

Finished it, and ugh. Personally, I did not like this book. I think I just do not like John Green. He makes me think of Nicholas Sparks, whose books I also tend not to like. The protagonists feel really fake and lofty, and I also just hate their names. The plotline of the jerk author disappointed me in so many ways. It just felt... poorly handled. I'd be fine with him being a jerk, but the reactions of the girl to him later on were so awful, I just did not like it. Not to mention that the snippets from his imagined book grated on me with the feeling that they were trying to be really deep by being really vague and insisting that the reader knows so much less than the author. In a word: hipster.

However. I can see how so many younger readers loved this book. Since they have most likely not read the breadth that I have, this could very well have been the first time they encountered such devices. A book stopping midsentence? A character who actually dies? Unfair life? A brilliant author who's actually a horrible person? WOW! These would probably be quite a change from a lot of other popular Y.A. books that are out there (I know because I read them). I have read a lot in my lifetime, however. And so this does not bring to light new things for me as it does for readers who have not yet read as much, regardless of their age. And so, I can see the value of having this book available for my students, as it can expose them to a somewhat different style for the first time in a very accessible and fairly easy way. 

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Well, like I said, I read this again for Shakespeare class and man, I love it! I feel like I missed so much! I'll probably feel like this every time I read one of his plays, but man, I feel like I could just go on and on and ON about all the interesting things in this book! I won't do that here, though. I'll save it for my final project on Shakespearean conspiracies!

October 25 - 31

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
I FINALLY FINISHED THIS! And you know, I'm okay with the ending. I didn't think it was spectacular or anything, to either of the endings, but it was certainly okay. What I really liked best about this book was the interesting duality of getting two books in one. If you got sucked in to the one that "Darcy" wrote for her NaNoWriMo (which is about to start for real!!) you would be disappointed by the next chapter when she's talking with Imogen about writing the ending and what things happen. It's weird to read a book where one character is spoiling the plot of another book for you all the way through. It's not all explicit, but when you hear things like "I killed one of my favorite characters" you're gut wrenches and you're dreading who it will be all the way through the next chapter. 

I would be REALLY interested in seeing how people interpreted this book or even just felt about it if they read it differently than just straight through from page 1 to 499. For example, what if they read the Lizzie story first? They would lose the bit of suspense from when Darcy is worried about writing the ending because they'd know what she got. The spoilers would not longer be spoilers. If they read the Darcy story first, then they'd know more or less exactly what to expect when reading the Lizzie story. It's neat to have so many different ways to read this book (these two, or even three?! books). 

Also, out of curiosity... how many words is the Lizzie story? If it's supposed to be for NaNoWriMo, then it should be probably 50-60,000 words. I'm curious as to what the count would actually be. 

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
This book is solidly okay. It's kind of intriguing, but it's nothing that I haven't heard before. Similar to a young adult version of George Orwell's 1984. Many people have made that comparison, but that's because it's pretty accurate. I'm at least happy with the ending because it's open and does not give the reader exactly what might be wanted. I really appreciate that. The language was awesome, and there were lots of lines that I wrote little hearts next too, but I'm still just sort of feeling meh about this one. I don't know that it'll be one I remember forever.

Also, the pictures were gross and seemed unnecessary. Like really? The maggots had to explode out of the dead rat's stomach? No, I didn't need that. It was really distracting from the book itself because I'd keep thinking "Ugh, DON'T LOOK AT IT..." and having to position my hand so that it wasn't touching that part of the page when I was holding the book. YUCK.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare
I've read this before several times, but as I am reading it again I wanted to include it in here. I especially wanted to do so because of how much more I'm picking up in this play than any other time I've read it. In the very first scene, for example, one of the captains raves about how Macbeth scorned Fate as he plowed through a field of enemies and managed to win the day and survive as well. Yet the entire book is a question of Fate and whether Macbeth is subject to Fate or if he made his own Fate. So interesting! Also, fear is a huge thing. The word fear is in here in so many different situations. I love it! Right after they carry out their plot, the randomly exclaim "Hark!" and I only now realize that's them being startled at some small noise, like an owl's hooting or the wind, because of their guilty consciences! Awesome.

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
I don't know why I had it in my mind that this is a young adult book, because after reading the first 100 or so pages, I definitely don't think it is anymore. I'm having some trouble with this one, and I'm honestly thinking of just stopping for now. Maybe I'll read it another time, but I don't think right now is that time. It's strange because the writing itself is interesting and beautiful a lot of the time, but the plot the words talk about, the characters... man, I just don't care. And that's not a great feeling to have about a book. I have others waiting right now, and I don't think I'm going to bother with this at the moment. I want my reading to be fun!

Bomb! The race to build--and steal-- the world's most dangerous weapon by Steve Sheinkin
WOW, this book is really blowing me away. Haha! Get it? Anyway. It's amazing that Steven Sheinkin is able to write about the very sciency technical side of splitting atoms and fission and all these very high-level sciency things and not only make it understandable to the average person, but interesting! I found myself sucked right in. I love the different people whose perspectives he writes from because they come from all walks of life. Hearing from the side of the Soviet Union and actual KGB spies in America is super cool. Hearing about how Albert Einstein himself was like "Oh no, this is bad!" and wrote letters to the president is super cool. I'm not very far in yet (maybe about 60 pages) but it's awesome! I love the way it looks too. The chapter headings and font and even just the weight and feel of the book are all excellent. I can see why this won a nonfiction award! I can also totally imagine my kids getting into this book.