Re-Reading: Empress of the World

Since I've been working at the library, my re-reading has gone WAY down. I love to return to books and immerse myself in a world that I loved again, but there always seems to be something new that's coming in and screaming for my attention, never mind all of you bloggers out there recommending stuff that I must get right away! I'll often return to certain books when I'm emotionally drained or unable to concentrate on something new, but I've never really had a plan to keep me returning to other books that I mean to read again. Until now! Since I'm trying to keep in better shape (readers of this blog probably think I hike & snowshoe all the time, but those activities are mainly reserved for weekends & vacations, and I need to keep up with things at other times, too), I decided to try to combine my re-reading with stints on the stationary bike (I reserve the right to watch various episodes of Buffy or Xena as needed). I'm going to try to work my way through my collection of YA novels with lesbian/bisexual content. First up was Sara Ryan's 2001 novel Empress of the World.

Unsuprisngly, I still found myself loving this book. Nic's voice, the fact that she's so unsure of herself and flees into distanced analysis, her wanting to label everything and finding out that words don't always work to describe people or relationships, all of it combined to create a portrait of a time of discovery and the wonder and terror that comes with it. Nic's life hasn't been shaken up until her summer at the Siegel Institue for Gifted Youth. The people she meets there, their variuos backgrounds, family situations, and passions all expand her world, and the friendships she develops, as well as her relationship with Battle, force her to expand her view of herself, too. The blurb from the Kirkus review on the back of my copy says "Both controversial and long-awaited, this helps to fill a need that is painfully obvious." Empress doesn't seem very controversial these days, and now is one of many YA novels featuring GLBTQ characters. It is a book I'll happily go back to again someday.

Humans Were Born To Run

Christopher McDougall started the quest that became Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen with a seemingly simple question: Why does my foot hurt? Like the majority of runners (from the morning joggers you see in the park to the best trained Olympians), he was plauged with injuries that kept him from participating fully in the sport that he loved. His questions led him to scientists at top research facilities, sports medicine specialists, and ultimately to the Copper Canyons of Mexico and the Tarahumara Indians, a tribe of people who make running long distances a way of life. McDougall wanted to learn the secret to their seemingly effortless running, and along the way touches on the history of the human race as runners, a 100-mile race in the Colorado mountains, the science behind why your expensive running shoes might just be bad for you, and some of the interesting but relatively unknown characters in the ultrarunning world.

You don't have to be a super athlete to enjoy this book. McDougall alternates chapters between scientific research (which is presented in interesting ways--don't worry about a dry presentation of numbers here!), stories of some of ultrarunning's current powerhouses, and his own quests to find the Tarahumara and become a better runner himself. We meet Ann Trason, one of the few people who have given any Tarahumara runner a challenge in a race (and are left to ponder the question of why, as the distances get longer, the times of male and female runners get closer and closer). There's Barefoot Ted, a runner who, you guessed it, sings the praises of running barefoot. Jenn Shelton and Billy Barnett are known for partying as hard as they run. The man who ties the story together is Caballo Blanco, an outsider who has been living in the Copper Canyons for years, earning the trust of the Tarahumara and learning their techniques for both running and serenity. It is Caballo who has organized the race that brings the author, various other ultrarunners, and some of the top Tarahumara runners together and is the focus of the last third of the book.

Read Born to Run to meet some fascinating people, learn a bit of the scienctific design of the human body, and be engrossed in a story. It may inspire you to get out and run, it may make you look at competition and mindset in a new way, it may make you believe that humans really were born to run. Here's an interview with McDougall from the Daily Show if you want a bit more background on how he got inspired to research the Tarahumara.

Cross posted at Guys Lit Wire.

What's Your Monster?

When I saw MotherReader's review of Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty, I knew I had to take it home from the library! I loved the simple story that wraps up the message about how we (partially) shape our own reality. (Harold and the Purple Crayon, anyone?).

Jeremy spends his time alone is his room, drawing. He sees other kids playing outside from his window, but doesn't try to join them (the story is not bogged down by why this might be...which is fine, makes it more universal!). Jeremy eventually draws a monster that becomes very demanding, wanting entertainment and food and a fancy hat to go out in. Jeremy is relieved when the monster leaves, but of course he cannot be rid of his monster that easily. Jeremy simultaneously sends the monster away and starts to find a cure for his loneliness.

I loved the drawnings and the simple text. I don't generally remember the names of picture book authors and illustrators, but once I looked at Peter McCarty's web site, I remembered that I loved his book Hondo and Fabian (I'm a sucker for picture books with cats & dogs). Read this one, share it with the kids in your life, and ask yourself, What's MY monster?

Of All the Stupid Things

First saw word of Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz over at I'm Here, I'm Queer... and I knew I had to check it out. I had to get it through our regional library system, and the cover intrigured quite a few of the folks that saw me reading this one!

The story centers around three friends (with each of them alternating narration): Tara, Pinkie, and Whitney Blaire. Each girl has her own story and unique voice, 3 very different girls who have been friends for a long time, held together now by shared history, as it seems that they are on the verge of growing apart. I had a hard time liking Whitney Blaire and kept wondering why Tara and Pinkie would put up with her leading boys on, speading rumors, and generally acting in her own self-interest most of the time. But she did show moments of loyalty to her friends, and I was reminded that sometimes a shared history will overcome many flaws.

A rumor that Tara's boyfriend, Brent, has something on the side with one of the male cheerleaders starts these friends on a journey of transformation that will leave them all changed by the time the book is over. Though the rumor is retracted, Tara can't stop thinking about the possibility, and breaks up with Brent, and then allows herself to believe that Whintey Blaire is after him. Pinkie just wants everyone to get along, when she isn't obsessing about her twentysomething honor society advisor, who seems interested in her. The arrival of a new girl at school, Riley, further complicates matters as she stirs feelings of instant hatred in Whitney Blaire and of something quite different in Tara. Tara and Riley's developing relationship further isolates Tara from her friends, but they do eventually realize that they need one another.

Each girl also has a complicated family situation--Whitney Blaire with parents who travel a lot and mostly ignore her, Pinkie's mother died when she was 4, she lives with her father, stepmother, and stepsister, and Tara's father left her & her mother for a woman somewhere in South America. One can imagine that it was supporting each other through these things that may have kept the friends together. They all felt like real teens, dealing with their own drama and the drama around them in the best ways that they can, not always making the best choices. This is a first novel, and I'll look forward to more from Alexandrea Diaz.

Bullying & Suicide

I've been looking forward to Julie Anne Peters' latest book, By the Time You Read This I'll Be Dead, even though I knew it would be a tough read due to its subject matter, bullying and suicide. Peters has a way of making you feel for her characters, get into their heads, understand why they are making the choices they're making, even if you wouldn't make the same ones yourself. She has created another such character in Daelyn, the narrator of this book.

Daelyn has been bullied all of her life, emotionally and physically, by classmates, teachers, camp counselors. Others have contributed to the abuse by looking on as she suffered, saying nothing, offering nothing. Her parents don't understand the extent to which her life is ruled by the bullying and her reaction to it. Daelyn has attempted suicide several times, the most recent which has left her unable to speak.

Daelyn's isolation and self-constructed armor are keenly felt--you can almost hear the overtures people make to her bouncing off of her shell. She has learned to survive life by turning inward, shutting down her feelings, and planning her own death. Her main interaction with others is online, mainly through a suicide discussion board that she stumbles across. Unlike other similar sites she's found, no one on this board tells her it's going to get better or encourages her to seek alternatives. The site details methods of suicide and rates them on pain, availability, and effectiveness. It also sends users questions designed to make them thoughtfully consider their life and death. Daelyn uses this site as a way to purge herself of her stories, telling others for the first time about the pain and humiliation she's experienced. The stories that she reads there are equally painful.

A boy named Santana sees Daelyn every day after school and attempts to befriend her. While Daelyn desperately wants to lose herself in the romance novels she's chosen as the reading material for her final weeks, she finds her thoughts returning to this boy, who turns out to be in his own struggle between life and death. Daelyn has purged her life of people and objects, but Santana allows a glimmer of trust and human connection to creep back in. Daelyn is determined in the end, but we're left wondering what she is determined to do.

I would love to talk about this book with a group of teens, and there is a wide-ranging discussion guide in the back, prepared by C.J. Bott, who has researched and written extensively on bullying. There are also resources about bullying and suicide, including hotlines and web sites. I think this is one of those books that will stay with me, keep me speculating about Daelyn's choices, keep me hoping that teens and parents will read this book and talk about it.

Coraline Three Ways

Sunday night I finally saw the movie version of Coraline, based on the book by Neil Gaiman. I admit, I'd been avoiding the story in this format--I loved the audio version of the original book and the graphic novel (by Gaiman and P. Craig Russell), and I was worried about it being translated to film. A friend was celebrating his new television by having us over & showing us Coraline in 3D, how could we refuse?

I listened to Coraline shortly after it was released. Neil Gaiman is a great reader, and the creepy music by Gothic Archives really added to the whole experience. I found the 2008 graphic novel adaptation of the story just as creepy and engaging. While I did miss the singing rats in the movie, overall it was satisfying, and I espcecially enjoyed the opening title sequence. It's great to see so many ways for folks to get interested in this story, and I hope people that find one will also try out the book,audiobook, graphic novel, and/or movie!

Thereby Hangs a Tail

Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quinn is the second in the Chet and Bernie mystery series, following Dog On It. While I liked book #2 ok, I liked Dog On It more.

This series is narrated by Chet the dog. Chet's person is Bernie Little, owner of the Little Detective Agency. Chet helps Bernie in his work by intimidating the suspects/perps, even if he is easily distracted by the smell of food or the sight of a javelina. This book's mystery revolves around threats to a dog show star named Princess, which turn more serious when Princess and one of her owners are abducted. The action is fast-paced, and the suspense is kept up with various corrupt characters introduced. Chet's narration is humorous and also keeps the reader guessing, since he often drifts off to sleep or wanders away to investigate an interesting scent during crucial bits of conversation. What he thinks is important isn't necessarily what the reader needs to know to solve the mystery. Chet does get a bit repetitive, using such phrases as "whatever that means" and "for some reason" enough to annoy me a bit. I could see people thinking that this is how dogs would think, circling back to the same ideas in much the same way they circle their beds before going to sleep, but this is the part of the book that worked for me the least. I read Dog On It over a year ago, so don't remember if I had the same issue with it (actually, I listened to Dog On It, which gave me a very different experience of Chet's voice, and that may be the disconnect for me here). Chet does have an appreciation for the small things in life which is admirable. I would recommend this series to dog and mystery lovers who want something a bit edgier than you usually find in the pets solving mysteries genre.