Mini book reviews: November and December

I am currently eight (!) books behind on reviews, so it’s time for some mini-reviews, yes? Yes.

The Daily Show’s Five Questions from Comedy Central: Back when Craig Kilborn hosted TDS, he had a segment in which he asked the celeb guests five questions. This book chronicles his favorites or the most memorable, I guess. I have no real opinion of this book. I read it in the bathroom, and that’s about all I have to say about it. That, and the book was worth the ten cents I spent on it at the library book sale.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling: I really, really, really want to hang out with Mindy Kaling. I think she’d be a lot of fun, and not just because we’re the same age. I liked the longer, more personal essays in this book, but the short vignettes were cute, too. I think I’d have liked this better if it were more of the longer essays or if it leaned more specifically to either personal or comedic essays. Either way, reading the book made me feel like I was sitting down and swapping stories with a good friend. A friend who I could talk about *NSYNC with.

Support Your Local LIbrary: 39; POC Reading Challenge: 23

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman: There is a lot going on in this little comic book–a lot. Tons of characters are introduced as well as scores of conflict. In the end, though, more world building than anything went on. I felt like this book was really to get me ready for the next book in the series since the major plotline wasn’t really resolved. Great characters, though. GREAT characters.

POC Reading Challenge: 24; Graphic Novels: 9/10; Off the Shelf: 12

How Al-Anon Works for Families and Friends of Alcoholics by Al-Anon Family Groups: The first half is an outline of the program; the second half is packed full of personal stories about various experiences with Al-Anon. A great primer if you’re interested in the program. The book really told me a lot about my life as well as showing me that exploring Al-Anon is something I need to do right now.

Off the Shelf: 13

I Hate Being Gifted by Patricia Hermes: As someone identified as gifted in elementary school, I was interested to see what, exactly, the main character hated about being gifted. Turns out she was upset because the gifted class took her away from her friends and then they made new friends. HOW COULD THEY? I couldn’t really connect to or relate to the book because the focus was on friendship and cliques and sixth grade mean girls. Also, the main character was kind of whiny. It’s not like I was the most mature 12-year-old or anything, but I guess I just didn’t see what the big deal was.

Off the Shelf: 14

Best Friends Tell the Best Lies by Carol Dines: Let me just say that the cover art on my copy of the book (another library book sale find) is totally misleading. It shows three people smiling and having a snowball fight, and that did not happen at all! There was no smiling in the snow, only heartache and crying and yelling. I mean, yes, I knew this book was about lying best friends so I didn’t expect all roses and sunshine, but it was really sad. My favorite thing about the book is probably that the ending is really kind of bleak. The characters are well drawn, the conflict is solid, and the plot is realistically messy.

Off the Shelf: 15; YA Challenge: 38; YA of the ’80s and ’90s: 8

Mini Reviews: September

September was not a great month for books for me. I read quite a few, but none made that big of an impression, so it was hard to get motivated to blog about them, especially when I had so many other things to do. Like grade. The grading never ends.

Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge: I won this graphic novel from Vasilly, host of the Graphic Novels Challenge. It was, by far, my favorite of this batch. Not only does the book win for having a protagonist named Paige Turner (her parents love books!), but I loved the illustrations and the storyline. Paige moves with her family from Charlottesville, VA to Brooklyn, NY and has to learn how to navigate the big city and make new friends. There’s a great mix of styles, the characters are ace, and Paige, of course, comes of age with aplomb.

YA Reading Challenge: 28; Graphic Novels Challenge: 8/10

Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler: I won this a book in a contest hosted by Sara Zarr. I was going to say that she sent it to me because we’re besties, but, unfortunately, that’s a lie. She has commented directly to me on her blog, though. I’ll take what I can get.

But I digress. The point is not my fictional friendship with Sara Zarr. The point is this book! Which I thought was just okay. I liked the exploration of family and family secrets, but I found all of the characters pretty flat and didn’t feel like I even know/understood the main character that much and hers is a first-person narrative. I was also disappointed in the way the relationship with the mother was handled. Elements of the book are great; I just wish they had been executed better.

YA Reading Challenge: 29; Off the Shelf: 10

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron: A collection of essays about aging that I picked up at the library book sale because I saw it mentioned on a few blogs. This one was strictly a bathroom book. Though, I did love the essay about purses. And this quote:

Every so often I look up from the book and see a roomful of people waiting for me to make a decision…and I can’t believe they don’t understand that what I’m doing is Much More Important. I’m reading the most wonderful book.

Off the Shelf: 11

Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style by RuPaul: This book is worth it for the pictures alone. Seriously.

I wanted to like it more than I did. Ru focuses on how to look and feel good. He also tells his beauty secrets and! I learned how to tuck. Which I don’t need to know, but, you know, for those who wonder. The big issue I have with the book is that it’s kind of all over the place. Is it how to be the best drag queen? How to have confidence out of drag? The secret of Ru’s success? All of those things but in no real cohesive style or order.

Fun fact: Ru refuses to dress up for Halloween on principle. Because why is it not okay every other day of the year? Love.

Like I said, the pictures are fantastic. Get it, Ru!

Support Your Local Library: 32; POC Reading Challenge: 18

Mini Book Reviews: August

I spent most of August grading. Grading, grading, grading. Every time someone asked me what I was doing, the answer was grading. Grading! Then, once grading was done, I spent most of my time on prep for the fall semester. So here we are at the end of August, and I have books to review and no time to review them all in depth. Mini reviews it is!

How to Avoid Making Art by Julia Cameron – This one is actually a reread. Cameron explores all the reasons and ways we avoid being creative, accompanied by illustrations/comics. The first time I read it, it shamed me a little bit. This time around, it inspired me. So if you’re someone who sometimes has a hard time committing to doing the things you love, it’s a cute little book to check out.

Graphic Novels: 6/10; Off the Shelf: 8

Athena the Brain (Goddess Girls #1) by Joan Holub – This is a super cute, fast read that does mythological retellings from the goddesses’ points of view. The setting is a middle school, so some of the retellings are super tame. At the same time, they’re pretty loyal to the mythology. Athena still sends olives to the Greeks, she still turns Medusa into a snake-haired woman, her dad is still Zeus, she still sprang out of his forehead, etc. I love the way the Odysseus story is handled: the kids are taking a class and are responsible for moving their particular heroes through the quest. I consider this book more elementary level than middle grade as it is way shorter and less complex than, say, Percy Jackson. Still: super cute.

Support Your Local Library: 29/30

How Not to Spend Your Senior Year by Cameron Dokey – I liked the plotting of this book a lot. Several unexpected twists and turns that I did not see coming. I mean, yes, the romantic stuff was all predictable (so predictable), but the way the plot moved forward was not. My only problem is that the characters are kind of flat and have no real depth, which means I was less engaged in what they did. Everything is very on the surface here, and if the character development were amped up more, the book would have been stellar. As it stands, this book was strictly bathroom reading material. I think it’d make a cool movie, though.

Off the Shelf: 9; YA Reading Challenge: 26

Excalibur: The Legend of King Arthur by Tony Lee, illustrated by Sam Hart – The King Arthur story in graphic novel form. I found this to be really boring. I mean, Lee and Hart managed to cram just about everything in the book, but I didn’t feel the characters were that well developed. I liked the art for the most part, except I hate the way the faces are drawn. All of this amazing detail on the page, and no real detail for the faces. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t connect to the story.

Support Your Local Library: 30/30; Graphic Novels: 7/10

Book Review: Level Up

To provide that boy with the life he has, I’ve had to eat much bitterness. He must learn to do the same.

In Level Up by Gene Luen Yang (illustrated by Thien Pham), Dennis Ouyang has to decide whether he wants to pursue medical school (his dead father’s wish) or continue pissing his life away playing video games.

I’m being kind of facetious, but that’s the basic gist.

The story has some really great elements, especially Dennis’s motivations for the different changes he makes in his life. The cast of characters around him (his gaming buddy, med school cohort, parents, angels of father’s dreams) are fantastic. Some great mini-conflicts also arise, especially with all of the various people in his life.

The only thing I wasn’t really a fan of is the artwork. I mean, it’s fine, but it’s more washed watercolor than the vibrant kinds of colors I like.

You can see a preview of the novel and its artwork here.

Support Your Local Library: 27/30; YA Lit: 24/20; POC Reading Challenge: 16/15; Graphic Novels: 5/10

Book Review: I Saw You…

I picked up I Saw You…: Comics Inspired by Real Life Missed Connections edited by Julia Wertz for two reasons. (1) The cover is cute. (2) I love the idea of authors/artists creating stories from want ads or Craigslist missed connections or, well, anything like that. It just appeals to me. I was really interested to see what different ideas the artists would come up with to explain the people who placed the ads and the people who inspired them.

As for the book, it’s basically like picking up any short story collection. There are some hits and misses, some stories and ideas I just don’t get. Some of the artwork appealed to me and some of it didn’t. As a project it was exciting and inspiring. As a read, it was okay.

And, if I’m being honest, I was also expecting longer entries. Some were a nice length, but most were essentially comic strips. (I don’t know why I expected longer. I mean, it is a collection of short comics. But I just did.)

All of that said, if you’re interested in storytelling and POV and all of that fun writing stuff that comes when different people are given similar prompts, then it is a fascinating read.

Support Your Local Library: 20/30; Graphic Novels: 4/10

Book Review: Static Shock Vol. 1: Rebirth of the Cool

This is an incredibly difficult review to write. Not because of the book or anything in it, but because looking up links to post about Dwayne McDuffie makes me so incredibly sad. He was just so talented, and he did such a great thing creating Milestone Comics and characters like Static and Icon in a city like Dakota, and it just makes me sad. He was so young. I mean, he was an incredible blessing and talent in the comics and animation world and I don’t want to take away from that, but he was just so young and awesome and now he’s gone.

I was going to say that my first introduction to Dwayne McDuffie and his work was through the Static Shock cartoon (which is unfortunately not available as a complete series), but that’s not true. I was introduced to him through the Justice League cartoon on Cartoon Network. Whenever I saw his name at the beginning of an episode I knew it would have great one-liners or a fun plot. Whenever a new DC animation movie came out, I would check to see if either he and/or Bruce Timm were listed before giving it any of my time.

My daughter and I did watch Static Shock when it aired on Cartoon Network, and we really enjoyed it. We especially loved the Li’l Romeo theme song, and cannot, in fact, say Static Shock without adding the “Superhero” and “woo woo.”

As for the actual book, there are lots of differences between the comic book and the television show. Big, obvious differences such as Frieda is his best friend instead of Richie (and he is in love with her). Oh, and his mom is alive in the comic. Also, the tone is lighter on the TV show. Virgil isn’t a bullied kid, though he does still have a smart mouth. I don’t remember his origin story on the show except that he was present during the Big Bang, but in the comic he goes to get revenge on the kids who are pushing him around.

It’s hard for me to even write a review about the book because I was reading it as a celebration of the artist Dwayne McDuffie, not to read critically. I liked the look at the expectations for Virgil from his family, the way his mouth gets him in trouble, his angst about being a superhero, his romantic exploits. I like the different villains and not-so-villains. His relationship with Frieda is very interesting, and it would be nice to see how that continues to play out.

I think, if you like the television show, it’s worth the read. I think, if you are interested in the formation of an inner-city black superhero, it’s worth the read.

I think it’s worth the read.

R.I.P. Dwayne McDuffie. You will be missed.

YA of the ’80s and ’90s: 3; Support Your Local Library: 14/30; YA Reading Challenge: 9/20; POC Challenge 8/15; Graphic Novels Challenge: 3/10; Page to Screen: 1/5

Mini Reviews: A Mish Mash

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore: I really liked this book. The premise is…different: a showgirl is plucked from obscurity to sing with a wealthy magician’s automaton. See, doesn’t that just sound different and interesting? There are some shades of gothic here (nods to Jane Eyre, even), and the main character is fun. My only complaint, really, is the romance, but if I just accept the fairytale aspect of the novel, it’s easier to swallow. The only thing I don’t like is that it has a sequel, and I have to wait to read it. Blast and tarnation.

Support Your Local Library: 6/30; YA Reading Challenge: 6/20: POC Reading Challenge: 5/15

Smile by Raina Telgemeier: This was another fun one. It’s a graphic novel memoir about Raina’s orthodontic adventures after she trips and breaks her two front teeth. Oh, and, of course, her adventures through middle and high school. The illustrations are great, and I love, love the coloring. The dialogue is authentic and, wow, middle school. I mean, it’s painful enough without having extra orthodontia issues, and Telgemeier really gets into the shifting relationships and societal expectations of those in between years. Bonus! The author also did the graphic adaptations of the Baby-Sitters Club, and you can view some of her webcomics on her site.

Support Your Local Library: 7/30; Graphic Novel Challenge: 1/10

Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman? by Allan Heinberg: Wonder Woman has an identity crisis after killing a dude, basically. (Don’t worry; he’s a bad guy.) So there are three different Wonder Womans flying around, but the main one (Diana) assumes a secret identity and joins a task force to find herself. Literally. It’s interesting enough. My favorite bit is probably when Circe confronts Diana about being so concerned with mankind that she neglects the very real issues of violence and poverty women face in their day-to-day lives. Easy read, nice graphics. My daughter did complain about the extra-sexiness of the drawings, so.

Support Your Local Library: 8/30; Graphic Novel Challenge: 2/10

The Dream Book: Symbols for Self-Understanding by Betty Bethards: The most useful part of this book for me was the dream dictionary in the back, but that’s only because I already read Jeremy Taylor’s book, and a lot of the same information is covered. Bethards’ book is less dense and faster to read, but it also tends to be kind of foofy in places. (I’m not making light or fun, but she talks about her spirit guide and uses that kind of language, and I find it foofy, for lack of a better word.) So it was a nice, complementary read to Taylor’s book.

Support Your Local Library: 9/30

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen, narrated by Tara Sands: Sammy Keyes is awesome, her grandmother is awesome, and her best friend is awesome. She is predictable and unpredictable all at the same time. My daughter and I listened to this one on audiobook, and the narrator is great. Believable as a twelve-year-old, great variation in voices. We missed some stuff because a few of the CDs were scratched (this is what happens sometimes with library audiobooks on CD), but we were able to follow along easily and enjoyed the humor and the conclusion. Also, the characters are great. Did I mention that?

Support Your Local Library: 10/30; Audiobook Challenge: 1/6

Nice Dreads: Hair Care Basics and Inspiration for Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Locking Their Hair by Lonnice Brittenum Bonner: I already have locs and so does my daughter, but I picked this up just to see if there was any information in here that I didn’t already know from message boards, etc. There wasn’t really, but Bonner has a conversational style that made this book a breeze to read. I would totally recommend it for someone considering locs who has questions about maintenance.

Support Your Local Library: 11/30; POC Challenge: 6/15

2011 Reading Challenges

I have decided to sign up for the following reading challenges for 2011.

Quirky Brown Reading Challenge: The focus here is on books offering an offbeat black experience, which I’m taking to mean no hood lit and no books about slavery (although 47 counts as offbeat, I’m sure). I’m going to do Level II, which is three books.

Books Read for the Challenge:

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley
Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis
Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson
32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter
Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money by Christopher Paul Curtis

YA of the ’80s and ’90s: You had me at YA. You won me at ’80s and ’90s. And that graphic! So much win all around.

Books Read for the Challenge:

A Star for the Latecomer by Bonnie and Paul Zindel
Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Static Shock Vol. 1: Rebirth of the Cool by Dwayne McDuffie, Robert L. Washington III, and John Paul Leon
If This Is Love, I’ll Take Spaghetti by Ellen Conford
Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Best Friends Tell the Best Lies by Carol Dines

Support Your Local Library Challenge: No brainer. I get all of my books from the library anyway. I’m doing the mini level: 30 books. I don’t really get the image for the button there, but whatever.