Sunday, February 26, 2012

Review: Where Things Come Back


Where Things Come Back
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



What I liked about this story was the relationship between Cullen and his brother Gabriel and the one between Cullen and his best friend Lucas. What I didn't like was the relationship between Cullen and the various women in his life. And, there was another minor detail that really annoyed me, so I might as well say it: why do authors choose such similar names for two of the important characters, Ada and Alma, or whatever their names were. Come on, there are loads of different names available, even ones that sound Southern. Why do they choose ones that are so similar? It makes all the females sort of run together in one depiction of the female gender. After all, they are just accessories to the story, so we don't really need to have them have individual characters.

The plot for the story is quite convoluted and I must admit that about halfway through, I started losing interest. It does eventually all hang together, but it takes quite a while to get there.



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Monday, February 20, 2012

The Lions of Little RockThe Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book, but I wasn't completely wowed by it. I like the idea that it follows the year after the schools in Little Rock were first integrated. Sometimes the follow-up is just as interesting as the original news story.

One of the things I am not so sure about is the selective mutism aspect of the story. I have an acquaintance whose son had this difficulty and it would be interesting to find out if his experience over-coming the problem had any relation to the protagonist's experience.

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Review: The Lions of Little Rock


The Lions of Little Rock
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I enjoyed this book, but I wasn't completely wowed by it. I like the idea that it follows the year after the schools in Little Rock were first integrated. Sometimes the follow-up is just as interesting as the original news story.

One of the things I am not so sure about is the selective mutism aspect of the story. I have an acquaintance whose son had this difficulty and it would be interesting to find out if his experience over-coming the problem had any relation to the protagonist's experience.



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Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Piper's SonThe Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There are some books that you devour - you read through them at a lightning pace, racing toward the end; there are some books you plod through, slogging through to the end just because of some sense of obligation; there are still other books that you start and abandon, lured on by something else more appealing. And then there are books that you pick up and put down and pick up and put down, not because they aren't appealing or motivating, but because the feelings that well up in you when you read them can overwhelm you on a bad day - or even on a good day. This was, for me, one of those last kind.

For me, many Australian writers have a stronger sense of family than American writers. I am not sure why, perhaps it is only in my own mind. But this book is chock full of examples. Little turns of phrases, gestures, plot elements - they all add up to a very powerful account of the importance of family, and, in this case, also friends. This is a love story about friendship and family - and how they deal with grief.

Years ago, two friends of mine died - one through suicide, the other by murder. Both were an extreme shock to me. I guess you never really come to terms with either. This book deals with two family deaths - one through terrorism, the other through war. And it is a painful journey for them.

It also deals with the complications of relationships - the death of one form of the relationship and then the much more hopeful rebuilding of them. It is this latter aspect that gives hope for the dealing with the deaths.

There are a lot of characters in the story - almost too many to really care about. But each of the glimpses into other characters does add depth to the understanding of family and friends. None are unnecessary distractions. The novel is expertly crafted.

The only question I would have is whether it should be pitched at young adult or as adult fiction. It is certainly aimed at least at the older end of the young adult spectrum. It isn't that it is too risqué for younger YA, but more that they won't get it. The things that are most powerful about the book, the deft turns of phrase, the subtle orchestration of interactions, the ambiguous feelings - these will likely be missed by the young YAs, looking for action and adventure. I have a similar feeling about the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. It can be, and often is, read by children as young as 4th or 5th graders (9 - 11 years old), but there are certain aspects of the book that simply won't have their full power until the reader is a bit older - at least in puberty. This book seems to require that the reader know about loving relationships - their power and, at times, their fragility. Perhaps you can find that in younger children, but not often.
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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Review: In The Sea There Are Crocodiles: Based On The True Story Of Enaiatollah Akbari

In The Sea There Are Crocodiles: Based On The True Story Of Enaiatollah Akbari
In The Sea There Are Crocodiles: Based On The True Story Of Enaiatollah Akbari by Fabio Geda

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This impressive account is simply, but compellingly told. I enjoyed reading it, although it does detail many difficult and horrible events.

On greater reflection, I was thinking about the difference of what happens to young boys in danger of the Taliban to what happens to young girls. A girl could not have made it all the way to Italy. It would be more likely for a young girl to have been subject to some sort of gender-based compulsory service, either through marriage at a young age or sold into sexual slavery, similarly to the tale told in Patricia McCormick's Sold. There is hope in this story, the one about Enaiatollah, but we have to remember that it was told by the boy who made it - not by the several who died along the way or who suffered other dismal fates. There is less hope in Sold, but even there, some of the young women escape. Somehow the sexual slavery is worse to me, but I am a woman, so perhaps that is why I react so strongly to that.

Either way, both books make a contribution to knowledge about a part of the world that Americans now know more about than in previous decades, due to our military efforts there, but which we still don't understand.
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