Town Boy by Lat

This book, the sequel to Kampung Boy, was even funnier even though it lost the charm of the country setting. The main character Mat has begun attending school in town, Ipoh, and his daily adventures are related through words and pictures. It's the 1960s so all the boys walk around with a classic rock and roll swagger that Lat portrays perfectly through nothing more than a series of lines.

The boys all think they're so cool and original, and Lat draws them all standing in a line outside the cinema, each with the exact same rebellious pose which isn't quite so rebellious when it's ten boys lined up, with the only difference between them all their height.

The book spans Mat's teen years and many of the things that befall him during that time. He spends a lot of time in school learning many different subjects, and because he is now in town , there are people with very different backgrounds than himself, especially Frankie, his soon to be best friend who is Chinese. There is of course a beautiful girl that everyone in town likes, and who Mat actually gets the courage to invite to a movie one day. One of the funniest scenes is when the boys are doing this required run for school, which includes crossing the river, and Mat and his friend decide to use the forbidden bridge. Unfortunately, they are ambushed by the principal at the other end and punished. Anecdotes like this would be interesting even if only written on words, but Lat's drawings make the scenes so much richer and even more entertaining.The book spans Mat's teen years and many of the things that befall him during that time. He spends a lot of time in school learning many different subjects, and because he is now in town , there are people with very different backgrounds than himself, especially Frankie, his soon to be best friend who is Chinese. There is of course a beautiful girl that everyone in town likes, and who Mat actually gets the courage to invite to a movie one day. One of the funniest scenes is when the boys are doing this required run for school, which includes crossing the river, and Mat and his friend decide to use the forbidden bridge. Unfortunately, they are ambushed by the principal at the other end and punished. Anecdotes like this would be enjoyable even if only written in words, but Lat's drawings make the scenes so much richer and even more entertaining.

What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles

This book was quite short and super quick to read, but I enjoyed plowing through it. Up until the end at least.

It's told from the perspective of two teenagers- Kyle Kirby and Cass McBride, and alternates chapters between their two points of view. It turns out that Kyle's younger brother David has recently committed suicide and he holds the popular social butterfly Cass to blame. He comes up with what he considers a fitting punishment, and as the drama unfolds through the narrative, police detectives are working to uncover exactly what happened before it's too late.

Throughout the course of the story, both of the main characters reveal more about themselves and their motivations than they intend to, and it seems that they both have reasons for behaving the way they do.

This was a good story throughout, but I was quite disappointed by the ending. I felt it took what could have been a greater book about serious issues and turned it into an episode of Without a Trace, and sort of made light of the serious actions and consequences of the story.

Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja

Buddha Boy is a YA book about bullying that takes a different and refreshing look at a common topic. Justin, the narrator, is a sophomore at a typical high school in an affluent community, where he is just trying to make it through the year without garnering excessive attention. He has a couple of close friends, Jakob and Megan, and the three of them form a tight knit group. As far as Justin is concerned, the three of them only need each other.

That is, until Jinsen arrives on the scene, a strange new student with no self-consciousness, who begs at lunch tables and who seems impervious to taunts and harassment. Justin doesn't think it's funny when the jocks make fun of Jinsen and throw things at him, but there's nothing he can do about it except not participate. Justin and Jinsen end up paired in a group project, and Justin reluctantly gets to know his partner better. Jinsen turns out to be a fantastic artist and attends the Buddhist temple. It's his faith that enables him to ignore the mistreatment of his peers, but as Justin comes to know, like, and respect Jinsen, it's not as easy for him to put up with the ignorance and bad behavior of his classmates.

Because the narrator was a separate character from the kid who was getting bullied, I was worried for a lot of the book that Justin was only describing events as they occurred and that something really bad was going to happen. Luckily, over time Justin became more involved in the story and was a more active participant, and I felt like this happened at a realistic pace. I enjoyed reading about a kid who felt the peer pressure but didn't necessarily buy into it. Justin was also confident in his friends even though they were less accepting of Jinsen at first, and he was lucky to have a supportive, functional family.

I ended up listening to the book on tape because it was more readily available than the print version, and I am not an audiobook kind of person. I enjoyed the story well enough but I would have probably liked it much better if I had read it on paper. I was never able to go back and check something I had read earlier as I often do. The vocies were distracting as well- they often didn't have the tone or inflection I would have expected. I wouldn't choose a full cast reading if I listened to another audiobook. But I feel like they are worth trying every so often considering their popularity.

Arrogant Invader by Jenny Arden

For one I don't know why I let this book get to me, and for two my life would be so much simpler if I could resist reading everything I see in print. I would never have inflicted this book upon myself. I don't even know how it got into my house- it's a Mills & Boon title from 1990 that I saw lying under some other books, including a Christopher Pike behind a bookcase between my room and my brother's.

Usually I can give this type of category romance some leeway in the realism department because I know what to expect, but lately I haven't able to take them with a grain of salt, which is why this book irritated the crap out of me.

The story opens with Gwenyth and her fiancé Marc flying into Wales from France where they met and fell in love during her junior year abroad. G is taking M home to meet her family as a surprise. So far everything seems good- G & M are in love, he has a successful career in France, she's sporting a big old rock on her finger, he's French and she's a French major. As far as I'm concerned, that's an HEA right there. However, when they land expecting to be greeted by G's father, they're surprised to see Jeb, the arrogant jerk who bought out G's father a few years back when he was injured at his slate quarry.

The antagonism between J & G is palpable as he begins subtly taunting her, slipping into an old familiar pattern. Apparently he's amused by her irritation and dislike of him, which is bad romance shorthand for a latent sexual attraction that she's too sweetly naive to pick up on. J is snide to the fiancé, harasses G when they're alone together, even casting aspersions on M's ability in bed even though G's obviously a perfect virginal heroine, and otherwise comes across as a rude, arrogant jerk, except around the rest of the family who finds him charming and generous.

This is how the book proceeds- J's harassing G left and right, grabbing her and kissing her until she submits to his will, making fun of her fiancé, and eventually blackmailing her, virtually forcing her to dump M and marry him. The one advantage I found him to have over M and which apparently proves that M is bad husband material, is that J wants G to finish the last year of her degree before spending the rest of her life as a SAHM, while M wants her to begin the SAHM part immediately and to quit her fourth year of studies. She already knows French after all, so why get the piece of paper to prove it? I'm inclined to agree with M in this because it's not like she needs the degree to pursue a career or anything; she's never going to work outside the home and she's already successfully been living in France.

But of course J eventually convinces G that M will stifle her and would otherwise be wrong for her. He also issues a challenge to M saying that he plans to court G himself. This made me so mad! He should have respected the ring on her finger. If he had been nice to her at any point during the years of their acquaintance, that would have redeemed him more than his eventual confession that he did it all for love. Not to mention the blackmail- her father needs a job at the quarry because of bad investments, and J says he will offer the job if G agrees to marry him. I can't see a heroine falling in love with a man like that, but more likely with a man who would help her family out because it's the right thing to do.

J and G have their sham of a wedding but she is unable to go through with the wedding night because she has gone and fallen in love with her masterful new husband. After her tearful confession he professes his long hidden love and they proceed to have the best sex ever, and presumably live happily ever after.

I hated that J couldn't just be nice to the woman he loves, and I hated G's lack of self-awareness- apparently all the bad feelings J made her feel were really the hots that she had for him. This is a common romance novel heroine theme- they hate the hero, don't get along with him despite his cold handsomeness, they get angry whenever they're around him, and then one day this is all magically converted into true love. This seems like laziness on the writer's part- the better writers are able to make a conflict out of something believable and can make a budding attraction feel like something delicious and worth exploring.The book really is typical for its time, and I certainly took it way too seriously and personally, but I'm glad category writing standards have come so far since then-well, some of them anyway.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

This book was absolutely captivating and well-written. Everything about it just fit together so well. Green did an excellent job of both characterization and scene-setting.

Colin has just finished high school and been dumped by his 19th girlfriend named Katherine. He's at a loss of how to spend his summer when his best friend Hassan proposes a road trip. They end up in the hick town of Gutshot, Tennessee, where they decide to settle down for a while.

The thing is, the author could have written any series of adventures for these characters and it would have been equally as entertaining. Colin's a former child prodigy who feels that since he has outgrown his prodigy-hood, he has nothing else interesting or unique to show the world. To me it seemed like he had a touch of Asperger's, but that is never mentioned in the book. Hassan is his devout-Muslim-when-it-suits-him friend who graduated from high school a year prior and although he's smart, he specializes in laziness. He's the fat funny kid. The author does really well at showing people's common insecurities, and he effectively deals with the theme of being able to be yourself. All the main characters deal with some form of this issue.

I would absolutely love to read a sequel to this book- I just want to know more about Colin's life and see how things turn out for him.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock

This YA novel was a very enjoyable story that ended too quickly for me. I read it because I had to and didn't expect to like it, or really to sympathize with the protagonist who farms and plays football, but I really ending up liking her, and I felt the author captured the voice of a teenage girl very well.

D.J.’s father is waiting for a hip replacement and is unable to get around without a walker, so D.J. is basically running the family’s dairy farm on her own. A close family friend who happens to be the rival high school’s football coach in a town where high school football is taken very seriously, sends over his quarterback to help out with the chores but also to teach him how to work. D.J. is nonplussed at the idea of training a privileged, lazy town kid the ropes of haying, baling, and milking and makes this clear through her superior attitude, but D.J. and Brian eventually learn to at least get along and work side by side, whether they’re thrilled about it or not. At the same time that she is trying to sort through her own feelings about life and choices we make, she realizes that not only would she make a good personal trainer for Brian but also that she might make a pretty good football player herself.


D.J. has an engaging and amusing personality; she is self-aware but not unrealistically so. She is aware of her shortcomings, often judging herself too harshly. Although she sometimes wishes things were different, like her looks, her family’s lifestyle, her social life, she doesn’t spend time complaining or sulking but has a pragmatic attitude and does what she needs to. She is an admirable character and speaks in a refreshing voice. There is much description of football and of farming, and while it’s clear that the author is knowledgeable about both, her tone is neither condescending nor didactic. Murdock describes both these subjects in a conversational way so the tone of the story is never interrupted but the description is all there. I also loved the way she didn’t sugarcoat anything; she was frank about the hardships people face.


D.J. was a character I would have still enjoyed reading about even if the book was more serious or weighty, which is often not the case with YA novels. I would love to read more about her.

Sold by Patricia McCormick

I enjoyed reading McCormick's earlier novel Cut a few years back, and while Sold can technically be classified in a similar category of problems faced by adolescents, it's clear how much McCormick's talent has progressed over the time in between.

Lakshmi is a 13 year old Nepali girl living a difficult but simple life in the mountains. She helps her mother with chores like planting and cooking and caring for her baby brother. After the village survives the longest drought of Lakshmi's life, the monsoons that come are so fierce that her family's rice paddy and entire livelihood are wiped out. Her stepfather, an indolent gambler, believes he has the solution when he sells Lakshmi to a woman from the big city, who takes her to India where she is forced into prostitution in a seedy brothel. Although she initially is drugged by the madam, she eventually succumbs and numbs herself to the misery of her life. She describes the plight of herself and of the other girls who live there, including one who has young children.

I enjoyed McCormick's style of telling Lakshmi's story in short vignettes, almost like prose poetry. She is very effective at getting a feeling across to the reader, without necessarily conveying every detail. But the details that she does share are enthralling, if depressing.

Although the plot is based in the sex industry, the novel isn't too graphic for teenagers to read. It's obvious what is going on, and why, but the details are not gratuitous or unnecessarily descriptive. It was clear that the author did extensive research for this novel, and that she has the talent of getting inside a young girl's head, as she did in Cut. I finished this book in just a couple of hours, and found it a captivating depiction of an appalling situation, worth adding to any young adult collection.

The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner

The latest offering by one of my favorite authors is a collection of short stories written at different times in the author's life. As always, I found her words captivating, and I was reluctant to stop reading even when my eyes were drooping shut. The reading experience wasn't quite the same as reading one of her full-length novels, where the reader can really get to know the characters and get into the plot, but the end of each story left me hungry for more. Whenever I hear someone dismissing chick lit as girly fluff, Jennifer Weiner is definitely the author to point the poor misguided reader to.

Eloisa James

This is currently my favorite romance author- I am trying to read all her backlist. Her novels are set in the Regency period, and they are quite amusing, which is very rare for me to say about a romance. Each of the books I have read so far has characters that are linked in some way to previous characters, so it is super easy for me to get caught up in the world she has created. I'm not entirely convinced that her characters behave entirely realistically for the period, but I don't really care- they are entertaining and personable, and have personalities and characteristics that are their own. Most of the females that James writes use some kind of makeup, which I absolutely love, whether they darken their lashes or brows or color their lips. I know obvious painting was frowned upon, but I have always found it difficult to reconcile women's insecurities of today with the images of the flawless heroines in historical romances. I also enjoy James' literary allusions; as an English professor and Shakespearean scholar, she certainly knows what she's talking about and always has the right quote for the occasion.

Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty

This is the third book in the Jessica Darling series, and covers a lengthy time span. It opens at the beginning of the summer after her freshman year at Columbia, when she is about to start an internship at a hip magazine. It had been so long since I read the first two books that I forgot many of the details, but old times are mentioned enough that I am mostly up to date. She is still with Marcus, but he is at a Buddhist college in California so they hardly ever get to see each other. The story is told through her diary and through letters to Marcus and her friend Hope, but only during summer and winter breaks, so a lot of time has gone by between each section.
When I started reading these books, they were YA but they are now in the adult fiction section at the bookstore. This sequel has way more adult themes; for instance, Jessica writes about sex a lot, and in rather detailed descriptions, as would any typical college diarist. It's not like it was more shocking than anything else I've read, but I feel as if I've known Jessica Darling through her high school years when she had hardly ever been kissed and now she is growing and changing.
On the other hand, she is still immature in a lot of ways. She hasn't grown up enough yet to see her parents as people, and is totally surprised when her big sister Bethany tells her things about their parents that Jessica never even bothered to find out. For someone who is so intelligent and usually so industrious, Jessica shuts down entirely under stress.
I find that what annoys me about this book has nothing to do with the actual writing but more Jessica herself, but that's because I can't help but see her as a real person, which is really a testament to McCafferty's writing.
Apparently we will be seeing Jessica's post-college life as the back book flap says the author is working on another Jessica Darling book.

The Thirteenth Tale

This new book by Diane Setterfield is the best book I have read all year! It's complex, engrossing, captivating... It took me a long time to read, but I would do a chapter or two a night, and then it was in the forefront of my mind all day. Margaret Lea is a reclusive woman who lives over her family's antiquarian bookshop, and is content to spend her life surrounded by the written word and her father's company. She spends some of her time conducting biographical research, and has managed to have some of her work published. This has brought her to the attention of one Miss Vida Winter, an incredibly famous but secretive author who commands Margaret's presence at her mansion so that she can dictate her life story to Margaret.
Over the course of Margaret's stay there, she learns as much about herself as she does about the incredibly fantastic past of her new employer, a story involving all the classic elements: love, betrayal, scandals and secrets. She also finds a way to take control of her own life, and make decisions rather than just letting things happen. Overall, The Thirteenth Tale is a book that I would recommend to anybody, with no reservations, for its attention to detail, originality, and extremely entertaining story.

Writing on the Wall by Lynne Reid Banks

This is a book that I got from the library when I was in about fifth grade- actually my mom checked it out and I read it. As an adult I was trying to remember what it was called, but all I could recall were a few details of the plot and the cover. When I read it as a kid, the cover made a huge impression on me because it had a naughty word on it- the boy and girl are standing in front of a wall which she has just graffitied, and so are partially blocking out where she sprayed "Kevin is a bastard". I thought that was the ultimate in badness and slightly cool as well. Anyways, after an extensive search for the book last year, I found out the name and that it was by Lynne Reid Banks, who I've always liked for not only the Indian in the Cupboard books, but also her other J and YA novels. So I was really excited to get a library's discarded copy for Christmas.

It's about a London girl who gets into the punk culture in the early 1980s, and whose new boyfriend, Kevin, is more of a handful than she is really ready for. On an end of school year bicycling trip through Holland with friends, Kevin convinces her to break away from the group and go with him to Amsterdam. Although she starts to realize that Kevin is really not the greatest guy, she's not ready to lose him and is still willing to go along with his ideas. However, what he puts her through in Amsterdam makes her realize that she needs to get back with the group and get back to England, but it's not as easy as she expects. It is a good story, although amusingly dated, and while my main reason for reading it was to recapture a childhood favorite, it's definitely worth it if you can find it at one of the local libraries.

Crusader by Edward Bloor

I wanted to read this book because I loved Tangerine so much, but even after I got it I didn't read it for many months because the picture on the cover made me think it was some medieval fantasy. Way to judge a book by its cover! The cover does have a crusading knight with a holy cross on his chest, but the book actually takes place in modern Florida. The protagonist works in her family's video game store in the local run-down mall, where all the games are virtual reality "experiences", and are generally along the lines of one group of people, like the crusaders, trying to wipe out another group of people, like Muslims. The mindless killing prevalent in the games' plots mirrors ignorant local attitudes. Roberta watches as racial tensions heat up among local residents and businesses, and at the same time she begins to emerge from the protective shell she built around herself after her mother's murder years ago. Like Tangerine, Crusader is full of secrets and surprises, and it's almost as good.

Shadow Children Series

I read an interesting interview with Margaret Peterson Haddix about the end of the Among... books. Since we all read and love those!
My brother and I drove to a used bookstore today to sell some books; we made over $50 so it was worth it, but on the way home a small town library was giving away books on the lawn! We managed to contain ourselves to one bag, but I ask you, what is the point of trying to pare down our collections when we can't resist any books that come our way?

School Days by Robert B. Parker

This was my first venture into reading Robert B. Parker. School Days is a quick read but is really satisfying. Spencer (the main character) is a no-nonsense man whose heart belongs to one person - even if she is far away! His mission is to solve a mystery behind a Columbine type school shooting -did the kids do it? How? Why? The characters can be somewhat cartoonish - but that just adds to the charm and humor of this book.

Warning : Spoiler don't read below if you don't want to know what happens!
The book is not a tidy novel where one can figure out everything from the first chapter. Parker does an excellent job of throwing twists, wrong turns and dead ends to keep the pages turning.

Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy

I just started this book because I had a really slow day of subbing today, and I am halfway through already. I didn't expect to like it at all, but it is very cute. The main character, Amanda is a spoiled heiress who learns to depend on herself when her father cuts her off, and she takes a job as a sitter in the small Ohio town where she is stuck. Along the way, Amanda and the girl's father fall in love. The whole plot outline sounds hackneyed, but McCarthy gave the plot new twists and the characters dynamic, complex personalities.

Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes

This is a different type of emotional roller coaster ride from what I've been reading lately. The story is told through a series of progress report by Charlie Gordon, a grown man who is mentally retarded. He is the subject of a research experiment, focused on increasing his intelligence. Algernon is the mouse who has also undergone the same experiment. As Charlie's intelligence grows, his world becomes more complicated, the facade breaks and truths begin to surface. As his intelligence has surpassed his doctors, Charlie sees his future in Algernon. Although we see everything through Charlie's eyes, the other characters (Alice, Faye, Drs. Strauss and Nemur) are real. Their emotions and actions mean a great deal to Charlie.

The successful academic librarian: winning strategies from library leaders

Edited by Gwen Meyer Gregory

mood: hopeful

This advice guide is packed full of information from experienced librarians. Each chapter has tips and tidbits for aspiring librarians and even those who are already in the field. Easy to read and helped me with my phone interview. I worked with Anna Gold, who wrote one of the chapters. She provided good insight on what it's like to change jobs and even the type of library in midcareer. I also took the information from the "Come on down your the next contestant" to heart. The chapter clearly explained expectations of the academic library interview process. Hopefully, I'll be able to experience it for myself soon....

I'm reading I promise.....

Since I'm trying to kick my depressing-infidelity Shreve/Sparks Slump - I'm slowly (because I have more pressing things on my to do list and because I haven't been riding the bus) reading the following books:

• Flowers for Algernon
• Adam Canfield of the Slash
• Eragon
• The successful academic librarian: winning strategies from library leaders

More on these books soon.....

At First Sight

Nicholas Sparks

Mood: Sad with a Pout.

A story which continues A True Believer (which I haven't read), it's typical Sparks fare, just when you think that all is well and good between Lexie and Jeremy, a wicked twist comes out of nowhere. I should remember that when I read his books. That's part of the reason why I've created this blog. I'd like to try A True Believer, since I know how the story will eventually end. I'd like to read more about the lights at the cemetary and the psychic/diviner.