At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

genre: non-fiction

Have you ever looked around your house and thought about how it all got there?  Not how it actually arrived into your dwelling but how both the space itself and everything in it  came into being in the shape that it is in now?  Bill Bryson had one of those moments and, prolific writer that he is, he set about writing an entire book about it.  Now, don't mind his subtitle, it's not really a SHORT history (500+ pages) but it is certainly a wonderfully broad and extensive look at our homes and how they came to be.

I loved it. He has such a knack for making things interesting.  He's wonderfully tangential, so we'll be learning about the bedroom and how beds became what they are and all of a sudden we're learning about nearly-extinct bats.  But it WORKS, and you follow with him because everything he is teaching you is cleverly written with really just the good bits included.  His humorous asides were so entertaining.  I loved learning about bricks and stucco, the evolution of toilets, poorhouses, Chippendale furniture, Victorian child-rearing, the origin of such phrases as "room and board," and the spread of diseases from the old world to the new. And I am telling you, he connects it all to the most mundane and yet essential part of our daily lives: our home.

I listened to the entire 16+ hours (I did enjoy the audio, he reads it himself in his delightful British accent) and rarely found my mind wandering (unusual for me and an audio book), sometimes I was actually thoroughly engrossed and other times disgusted.  I suppose it is probably worth noting, that it really is centered around British and American homes.  There is, of course, world history throughout but it is more thoroughly a history of British homes with a lot of American stuff thrown in.  If you're a sucker for probably useless knowledge, I highly recommend this one.

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Divergent by Veronica Roth

Genre: young adult dystopia

Beatrice, living in a future Chicago, has led a very calm and ordered life thus far. As a member of a faction that prides itself on selflessness, expectations for her actions are quite clear. On Choosing Day, when she decides which faction she will spend the rest of her life with, she knows that she should stay with her parents and her faction. It is certainly what's expected. The problem is - selflessness has never come easily for Beatrice. And she knows that picking a different faction will allow her to explore parts of her personality and experience ways of life that have never been possible. With her choice, Beatrice begins the most emotionally and physically exhausting journey of her life - one that will lead her into her worst fears, incredible pain, joy and even a political intrigue that will force her to decide how much she is willing to fight to feel in control of her own actions.

I was really looking forward to this one, maybe a little too much.  Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a page turner, but the dystopian world felt a tiny bit too contrived for me.  For some reason, I never fully connected with Beatrice, I had a hard time believing her capable of all she is able to do, even though I liked reading about it.  It's an interesting read, I did enjoy the romantic storyline.  One thing I also liked was how clearly the author demonstrates that courage and selflessness are two sides of the same coin.  Totally worth it if you enjoy the genre - but be aware that it is pretty violent.  I think I liked it enough to see what happens next, I just wasn't blown away.

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

genre: young adult urban fantasy

Deidre is wicked talented - she sings and plays the harp like an angel.  But on the day of just another competition, she meets Luke, who is as talented as she is and takes a wonderfully uncanny interest in what Deidre is capable of doing.  Happy enough to not ask too many questions, Deidre soon realizes that Luke is much more that he seems and that the shadowy figures that dart in and out of her consciousness are part of the same mystery.  In a world where Faeries are NOT your friend and special powers make you a threat of the worst kind, Deidre has to skirt a fine line between what she really wants and what is good for her.

As my first Celtic-urban-fantasy novel, Lament was great fun.  The Faeire world was actually a bit more complicated than I would've liked, even at the end I felt a little bit like, "huh?" and not all plots were actually tied up as well as I would've liked.   But it's kudos to the author that I still had a great time reading it.  I loved how much music was a part of the story and while following the age-old formula of regular-girl-loved-by-amazing-guy, the romance was still enjoyable to read.  I'd try another book by this author.


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Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller

genre: middle grade

Having arrived in Alabama, Anne Sullivan has no idea of what to expect when she meets her new pupil, the deaf and blind Helen Keller.  How can Anne reach into Helen's mind and help her not only understand WHAT language is, but how to communicate?  It doesn't take long to realize that the task will be much harder than she imagines.  Helen is wild, angry and insistent on controlling her own family.  Anne, having been without her sight for many years, sympathizes with Helen's frustration but Anne will not tolerate Helen's violence and disobedience.  What will it take for Anne to reach the intelligencence that she KNOWS lies inside of Helen?

This book was so well done.  I am very familiar with the story of Helen Keller but this book was a wonderfully fresh perspective.  I really appreciated how well Anne understood what langauge does for us, how criticial us the link between being having thoughts in our head and being able to share them with others.  Poor Helen, who didn't even have words to CREATE tangible thoughts.  The moment when things click brought tears to my eyes.  A beautifully written narrative about a subject that will never cease to amaze.

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The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen by Lindsay Ashford

genre: historical fiction/mystery

To read The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen is to meet the illustrious Miss Austen before she has become a published author.  Our narrator Miss Sharp, a lowly governess, comes into the acquaintance of Miss Austen through her employer (Jane's brother), and their acquaintance soon turns into a friendship.  As Miss Sharp recounts all of her various interactions with Miss Austen and her family, she slowly begins to unravel the secrets and infidelities within the Austen family.  From overheard conversations and personal interactions, she picks up and tries to piece together any clues that could help her understand whether or not Jane was murdered - and if so, by whom.

And there you have it. 

I did not love it.

The writing was just not sharp or particularly amazing.  I didn't love the character development - no one stood out as someone I was eager to read about, even our narrator felt mostly nosy and she honestly made me uncomfortable sometimes.  I guess this could be a spoiler, but you figure it out in the first chapter:  the crux of it is that Miss Sharp was completely infatuated with Jane.  In love with her, in lust with her, however you want to say it.  And so her deep desires to get at the root of what happened to Jane just fell flat for me, it felt very forced.  Sometimes I just did not want to be in her head, frankly, and yet other times I did feel sympathetic for her plight.   It know it would be hard to be a lesbian in a time period where there was absolutely no way to live that lifestyle without either being so rich you can get away with anything or being a complete outcast.

What did I like? The time period.  A few of the minor characters were intriguing.   I like the idea of it and the actual mystery itself was good, I think, I just didn't like the story.  If it is possible to like one and not the other :)


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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

genre: middle grade

A tragedy leads to the eighteen-month-old Bod Owens being raised in a graveyard.  Yes.  Raised by ghosts, the spirits of those who were buried in the tombs and under the earth of that fenced sanctuary.  In this space, Bod is safe from those who would harm him - and so, for years, he stays.  He learns and grows, taught by the ancient (and not so ancient) souls that were interred in his graveyard.  Occasionally "alive" people stumble their way into his life, but generally his experience is with the dead, (and the more ghoulishly and frightening creatures of the underworld).  What the dead have to teach him, and what he finds out for himself, will prove to be priceless as he grows older and realizes just how much the world has in store for him - both the good and the terrifying.

Having never read any Neil Gaiman before, I had absolutely no idea of what to expect from this book.  What I had heard about it when it won the Newbery didn't sound appealing to me, so  I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I really, really liked it.   I kept thinking to myself, as the plot was laid out, "what a great idea for a story."  I just liked the novelty of Bod's situation - my disbelief suspended itself without any effort at all and I enjoyed the ride of his experiences.  It was clever, moved quickly, make me chuckle more than once, and ended well (my favorite kind of ending where all the random stuff throughout the book is wrapped up in a tricky way).  Bod is a sympathetic character, with a great arc of growth and coming-into-his-own. 

So, yeah.  I really liked it.  Enough to try more Gaiman.  Other suggestions?



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The Night Sky: A Journey from Dachau to Denver and Back by Maria Sutton

genre: memoir/family history

What if, by accident, you found out that the man you called father wasn't actually your father - not actually the man who gave you life?   And what if your mother refused to tell you the story?  How far would you go to learn about a family you'd never met?

This was Maria Sutton's reality.  Born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany in the aftermath of World War II, she arrived in the United States when she was still very young.  Beyond knowing that her mother was born in a tiny village in the Ukraine, the rest of her history was a secret.  But Maria wanted to know - wanted her own history and needed the details of her own story.  As you can imagine, such a search brings both heartache and joy, especially when your family has been the victims of a period of time like World War II.  Her search takes her, literally, all across the globe as she tries to piece together her family tree.

Maria's story is a pretty amazing one.   The things she is able to learn and the people she is able to meet are nothing short of miraculous.  I think that this book would be very inspirational to family history buffs anywhere, especially because of all the different kinds of records she looks at to find clues in a part of the world that was absolutely ravaged by war. 

Very readable, The Night Sky sometimes waxed a bit redundant.  The writing wasn't super polished and I'm not a big fan of extensive foreshadowing, but for the kind of story she had to tell, the narrative flowed quite well.  I appreciated that she didn't make excuses for her own behavior or anyone else's and when she didn't know the details about a particular event, she gave solid historical information to flesh things out.  It was also interesting to hear about people who were persecuted by the Germans who were not Jewish - their experiences during the war don't seem to be quite as well documented although as many of them were slaughtered.  A solid 4 stars, not only for a book that kept my attention (all the pictures helped)  but for the sheer amount of knowledge that this one woman was able to find out about a family that was lost to her.


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Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Genre: historical fiction

Well. I finished it. If you haven't attempted reading this book, then you may not appreciate what an accomplishment this is.

Imagine the world of knights and maidens, Robin Hood and the bratty Prince John, an England that is not yet the unified blend of Norman and Saxon that it is today. A contentious time, where allegiances guide lives, battles and the tide of a country. As much as this book is a story, it also plays at being a sort of history of the period.

Ivanhoe is a disinherited son, a distinguished soldier and an honorable friend to King Richard. He loves the beautiful Saxon Rowena, whom he is unable to wed. There are all kinds of villains, jousting (of course), a fierce and bloody battle, woodland warriors, as well as all kinds of wicked church-men. Either you are for the defeated Saxons, you fear John enough to support him or you are holding out for King Richard. Whichever you choose, you'd better be ready to die for that loyalty or be ready to get out of the country quick.

Really, only about three major interesting things happen, unfortunately. And even those things are so drawn-out and so heavily-laden with bigotry, anti-semitism and just plain egocentrism that sometimes it was all I could do to keep reading. I get that Scott was trying to be true to the time period, but caricature without depth is just annoying to read. On the other hand, though, the Jewess Rebecca is a very interesting and sympathetic character. Her beauty and conviction just weren't enough to carry all the boring parts. Also, Scott just tended to use twenty words when five would have sufficed and when you have to read that for 400+ pages, it gets exhausting.

I just didn't appreciate it. Maybe if I hadn't already read and absolutely loved The Once and Future King, I might have appreciated it more. I can absolutely tell TOaFK looks to Ivanhoe as its forefather - I thought of it often, especially with both novels' present-and-commenting-narrator style (which I like). I DID like that in Ivanhoe I found so much familiar lore - this book and its portrayal of that period of time is truly something that's become a part of our English culture's fabric, and that's SOMETHING.  However, If you have to pick one of these really long medieval books to read, I personally would recommend The Once and Future King instead.


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War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

genre: middle grade

When I sat down to read this book to my nine year old, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be TOO graphic for my boy, and I was also hopeful that it wouldn’t bore me. I lucked out on both accounts.

War Horse is the story of Joey, a beautiful and unique creature who becomes completely attached to a British boy named Albert. As Albert comes of age with Joey by his side, they create a wonderfully reciprocal relationship, a relationship whose course is drastically changed by the advent of The Great War.

What I particularly liked about this story is that it is told from the point of view of our horse, Joey. It’s Joey’s journey that we follow as he becomes a cog in the wheel of the great British War Machine. His experiences throughout the war in France give us as readers the unique opportunity to learn about the war from the point of view of a creature without political or cultural views. All our narrator wants is a warm place to stay, some good food to eat, and a job that he is able to do without pain – and anyone who treats him kindly is a character to be appreciated.

Rarely do we get to read about “the bad guys” and feel sympathy for them, but I loved that this book shows us that there are good and kind people on both sides of any conflict – and that war makes no judgments about who gets killed. Reading War Horse really made me think about how, horse or human, a life is a life is a life, the loss of which is always a tragedy.

Yes, there is wartime violence. Yes, there is death and mean dads and barbed wire. This book is not for people who will be upset by bad things happening to good people (note that there are a few curse words that I edited out in my read-aloud). But there are these beautiful and touching moments, where Morpurgo really captures the amazing ability of animals to be a peaceful influence and a common denominator. I was brought to tears more than once. My darling boy begged for more at the end of every single chapter, and we read the last pages with me on the floor, leaning against his bed with his head on my shoulder. When we finished, he asked me, "has this author written anything else??"

That’s a winner for me.


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two new picture books for the Chinese New Year

Well, my six year old son is home from school with pink eye, bless his heart.  We have, however, had a wonderful day together, of course with a storytime -  including two books that were recently sent to me by Candlewick Press.

The first one we read is called Crouching Tiger by Ying Chang Compestine.   It's about a little boy named Vinson who is getting to know his Chinese grandfather, who has recently arrived for a visit at Vinson's home.  He sees his grandfather doing tia chi in the backyard and wonders why he can't do more COOL stuff, like kicks and punches.  It's sort of embarassing, right?  All that slow moving and standing around?  Slowly, though, Vinson realizes all the cool stuff his Grandfather CAN do - and creates a relationship with him in the process. 

My boy REALLY liked this one.  Twice he lept up from the couch while I was reading because had to try out a tia chi pose.  We talked a bit about Chinese culture as we read, about how you can show respect with a bow and some of the New Years traditions.  I think Vinson and his initial lack of enthusiasm about his grandpa makes him very relate-able - lots of great discussion points in this book. I'd say good for 5+.

The second one we read is A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong.  This is a story of a family whose father has to be gone at his work all year, only able to return for a week at the New Year.  I was very interested in this one because of a documentary I saw recently called Last Train Home, about all the millions of people who migrate from the city back to their home villages for the New Year. 

When Papa comes home, it's time for traditions and celebrating - the foods and excitement of his homecoming are beautifully illustrated.  I love, especially, an illustration of the little girl snuggled up in bed between her parents.  It felt so secure and beautiful.  I love how this family is just making it work - that Papa works hard and loves his family, even if he can't be with them all the time.  I think there is a lot of heart in this story, and could be a wonderful resource for children whose families might be in a similar situation.  My boy didn't love it as much as the one about tia chi, of course, but I don't think he is who this was necessarily written for, the text is a bit young for him.   I highly recommend it for 4+, maybe younger if your child has some familiarity with Chinese customs.


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