Library Adventure List

Handmade Nation

2009-04-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design by Faythe Levine

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mini-profiles of different well-known craftsters from throughout the country, broken up by region. This is insterspersed with essays about the current craft movement and its significance in a society known for its bloated consumerism. Some of these people come from fine art backgrounds, some do not. Some politicise their actions, some do not. While I believe that this was meant to show diversity within this movement I can't help but wonder whether we are really all so white. I know: this is a perennial criticism for anyone with a liberal arts degree, but it remains so for a reason.

Overall I thought the book was uplifting, if not quite meaty enough. I also thought the West was sadly under-represented and I take issue with the way the book is broken up by region. Can Austen, TX really represent a whole multistate region almost completely on its own?

The last curious thing I noticed was how often those profiled refer to themselves as "makers" rather than crafters, craftspeople, artisans or artists. While I can't really fault anyone for being unhappy with the term "crafter" when it so often seems to be applied to people making a different kind of craft (ie those who are, shall we say, aesthetically challenged), labeling oneself a maker rather than a crafter does seem... well, hoity-toity and just the tiniest bit twee. But if that's what this movement is doing, well, who am I to argue?

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The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

2009-03-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
When he was a child, the Baron climbed up into the trees of his family's orchard because his parents had made him angry. He petulantly promised he would never come down. This is the story of how he kept that promise.

Fantastic.

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Little House on a Small Planet by Shay Saloman

2009-03-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities by Shay Salomon

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was interested in small houses before I found this book, but now that I'm reading it I am convinced that small houses are the way to go. In the US it seems like having a small house has become a sign of deprivation, and it's hard to get around that mental block or to believe - really believe - that less is more. And having a small house would mean, logically, having less stuff. Less stuff can translate into less time cleaning, more time to do other things, more energy to spend on the activities and the people you really enjoy. Smaller houses may also mean less money in heating and cooling costs, less money on rent or mortgages which means more money to save, travel, or simply the freedom not to work full-time. Small houses are often greener than large ones; smaller footprint, lower energy usage and hopefully a more mindful consumerism, which means less waste.

Small houses. Yeah.

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Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

2009-03-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Girl sees fairies all her life and knows the rules: don't attract their attention, don't let them know you see them. She's good at staying under their radar; she knows that fairies aren't nice, fairies are bad.

So, girl sees fairies. But one day, fairy sees girl. And it isn't just any fairy who's taken a fancy to her, but a king. He wants her. He's convinced he needs her. And one way or another, he intends to have her. What happens next will change her forever.

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Haters by Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez

2009-03-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Girl moves from Taos to CA when her dad's comic book makes it big. In her new rich school she tries to fit in, a task made harder by the fact that the queen bee of her school is jealous of her for her dirt bike skills and for the attention she gets from a hot boy. And - oh yes - although she tries not to be, she is conversant with the spirit world, and the spirits are warning her of danger.

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Kin (The Good Neighbors, Booke One) by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

2009-03-28T13:58:00.001-07:00

Kin by Holly Black

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Girl must solve the mystery of why her mother has disappeared and whether her father is really guilty of the crime he's been accused of: murdering one of his students. And, oh yeah, faeries peek out from every corner and ivy is mysteriously growing up over buildings and cars all over the city.

Ted Naifeh's art is fantastic, as always.

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Savvy by Inrid Law

2009-03-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

Savvy by Ingrid Law

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Beaumonts are a special family. When a Beaumont turns 13, they get their savvy. They might be able to make storms, they might be able to create electricity or move mountains, but whatever they do they have to keep their special talent a secret from the outside world.

On the eve of her 13th birthday, Mibs Beaumont's father is in a terrible car crash. He might not wake up. When her mother takes leaves for the hospital several hours away she takes only Mibs' oldest brother, leaving Mibs to celebrate her most special birthday on her own with the remaining Beaumont children and the church pastor's nosy wife and kids. Mibs is convinced that her savvy will save her father, but does she fully understand her new power?

I like the book's premise, and I can see why it got a Newbery Honor. It was fun and I would recommend it to kids. The rollicking language became a little distracting after a while, but I think it adds interest to the writing.

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The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost

2009-03-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
After graduating from college the author spends some time looking for work but mostly lazes around wondering what to do next. Then his girlfriend gets a job in the tiny Pacific island country of Kiribati and he goes with her. This is the story of their two years living on an atoll where there are/is no: garbage dumps, toilets, rain, air conditioning, reliable transportation or diversity in food sources. But there are/is quite a lot of: sharks, feral dogs, intestinal parasites, insects, shit, suffocating heat, vast cultural differences and wonderfully interesting people. Amazing.

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Unwind by Neal Shusterman

2008-04-27T10:07:00.001-07:00

The premise: the US has lived through another civil war, this time over abortion. Now abortion is illegal and all pregnancies must come to term, however, when a child is between the ages of 13 and 18 parents or guardians may decide to have the child "unwound." Unwinding is the process by which a person is dismembered but each of their separate parts is kept alive and distributed to the sick or the injured. The person is not really "dead" because each part of their body is alive, but they're not really alive, either. They are, as the book so chillingly puts it, "in a divided state."

Unwind is the story of three runaway teens: Collin's parents were having him unwound because they couldn't quite cope with their unruly teenager. Risa was to be unwound because the orphanage she lived at was facing budget cuts. And Lev has known he would be unwound all his life: he is a Tithe, a way for his ultra-religious parents to give 10% of everything they have in service to God.

A truly disturbing book, but one that will prompt discussion among readers.

MY REACTION:
I was sucked into this book pretty quickly and had some trouble tearing myself away from it, despite the fact that the grim future evoked was putting me in a terrible mood. The book gave me nightmares.
This story may be good for sci-fi fans, lovers of the distopian future, kids who want a look at a world where kids are even more misunderstood than they are now, and people on both sides of the "abortion debate" who want a terrifying story about where extremism can lead.

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth

2008-04-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Set amid the social unrest of Mahatma Gandhi's India, Keeping Corner is the story of Leela, a pampered girl from a loving family. When her young husband dies, Leela discovers that the life of a child widow is neither easy nor fair. Part of her culture's strict mourning procedures require her to keep corner, which means not leaving the house for a year. During this time she is tutored privately and, as social unrest spreads from the cities into the countryside, the newspaper stories she reads of Gandhi's struggle begin to give her hope for the future and cause her to question her own role in society.

MY REACTION:
I enjoyed this book as a historical novel but would have liked there to be slightly more focus on the political aspects of the time period. The characters and setting are well-evoked and the ending is uplifting.
This book may be good for anyone interested in historical settings, India or Indian and Brahman culture or anyone who is looking for something a little different from the usual coming-of-age novel.

Re-Gifters by Mike Carey, Marc Hempel and Sonny Liew

2007-12-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dixie is great at hapkido, a Korean martial art that she and her best friend Avril study. In fact she's probably the best in her class. Unless, of course, she's up against Adam. Or looking at Adam, or even thinking about him. She's fallen hard for him and is way off her game which is bad because there's a big hapkido tournament coming up. In a moment of weakness, Dixie spends her tournament entrance-fee money on a gift to win Adam's heart, only to find that shallow Adam hardly even notices her.

Now she needs to qualify for a scholarship if she hopes to compete in the tournament, the kids she's competing against look down on her because she's actually had hapkido training, her friendship with Avril is on the fritz because of her own spikyness, and she's been lying to her parents. But a series of accidents and chances get her into the tournament, where she has the chance to make her family proud and get revenge on Adam... if she can master her feelings for him first.

MY REACTION:
I really liked this book, although it took a little while for me to begin enjoying the art. Ultimately it grew on me. Dixie and Avril are fun and enjoyable characters and are reminiscent of the earlier Mike Carey work My Faith In Frankie. Actually the whole tone of this book reminds me of Frankie, although this one is much more down-to-earth.

Manstealing For Fat Girls by Michelle Embree

2007-12-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

The cover and the title make this look like "chick lit" but I beg to differ. This is, instead, an 80's-esque working-class misfit teen adventure revenge story, aimed at adults. The story revolves around Angie who, at 16, believes herself to be fat and possibly ugly. She and her girlfriends are teased by the kids at school and each one of them stands out in her own way. Angie's the fat one who's been nick-named "lezzylard." Shelby is an out lesbian. And Heather has one enormous breast. "Spunky" doesn't begin to illustrate these girls' survival-instinct attitudes.

It's not until she gets hit on at a party and another girl calls her a manstealer that Angie begins to realize that she may be prettier than she thinks. Fueled by a slight boost in confidence, Angie stands up for herself against a popular girl and is then sexually assaulted by the girl's boyfriend in order to "teach her a lesson." When it looks like her friend Shelby is going to be "next," Angie fesses up to what happened and takes part in an elaborate plot to get revenge on the assaulter. In the midst of all this Angie gets her first boyfriend, loses her virginity, experiments with drugs, makeup and crash-dieting, and learns to trust herself and her friends a little bit more in the process. Not necessarily in that order, of course.

MY REACTION:
Embree's created some characters who are both plausible and a little bit out-there, and they are the driving force behind this rough, slightly weird novel. The sexual assault is graphic and there are a couple of other scenes of violence that make for uncomfortable reading, but all in all they help to effect a sense of gritty realism. There are times when I wanted to shake some sense into the main character, but chalk that up to her being an impressionable and angsty teen girl with poor decision-making skills. In the end, however, Angie comes out on top; not on top of the world, but on top of where she needs to be at that point in her life. You get the sense she's going to be ok.
This may appeal to misfits and former misfits, older teen girls, cool feminist punk boys, or anyone in for a dose of gritty warts-and-all working class teen culture.

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

2007-12-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

Jane is less than thrilled when her well-meaning but frightened parents decide to move from the vibrant and urban Metro City to a boring and sleepy suburb. Why are they moving? Jane was a victim of a random bombing, and while her parents react to the crisis by trying to shelter and protect their daughter from the larger world, Jane herself reacts by reevaluating the things that make life interesting.

On her first day at her new school Jane has the chance to take her place with the popular kids but declines, feeling that popularity is part of her past life and preferring to make her own way. When she finds three other girls who seem to have nothing in common other than their name - Jane - she decides to take advantage of what may be a unique opportunity.

Together the Janes form a secret group that creates guerrilla art installations throughout town in the dark of the night. Their identities are secret, but their actions become popular with most of the kids at school if for no other reason than that it makes the authority figures nervous and angry. But for the Janes, their new form of expression breathes life and meaning into their otherwise quiet and dull town.

Meanwhile at home, Main Jane's mother becomes increasingly paranoid and protective, effectively sucking the joy out of their small family. Art might be able to save Jane, but what could possibly save her mother?

MY REACTION:
I quite honestly loved this story. I wanted these girls to be my friends, and I loved the idea of guerrilla art 'perpetrated' by a secret gang of girls. I thought Jim Rugg's art resembles the story itself - neither too cartoony nor overly complicated.

I feel that this story has a lot to offer readers in terms of theme and ideology, particularly with the question of how we can continue to live lives without fear in an increasingly scary world. How do we build meaningful relationships in an environment where violence is becoming a given? And yet the story was still fun and playful. I wish more graphic novels could strike that balance.
This book is aimed at teen girls but may also appeal to fans of the graphic novel or manga, or readers interested in art, alternate forms of expression, and friendship stories.

Freak Show by James St. James

2007-12-05T18:02:00.001-08:00

Billy Bloom is Totally. Freaking. Fabulous. OF COURSE!

He is also the new kid at an ultra-conservative private school for the ultra-rich in Florida (the reddest of the red states). In such an ultra-ultra setting Billy needs to stand out in a big way if he has any hope of survival, but luckily standing out is second-nature to him. And Billy is uniquely prepared: he knows he's special, he's outgoing, smart, funny... and so he waltzes into his first day of school expecting to own it. Except...

Except. Billy Bloom is a drag queen, a gender obscurist, a glitteroid, a FREAK. He's the first of his kind, surely, or at least the first that any of the ultra-blond ultra-popular ultra-cruel kids at his school have seen. He can't be hated by EVERYBODY... can he?

After the popular boys put Billy in a coma (!) he develops an unlikely friendship with Flip Kelly, football quarterback and all-around golden boy. He also develops an all-too-likely crush (I'm sure. Wouldn't you?). Will this friendship be just the thing to save Billy, or will it put him under for good?

MY REACTION:
Billy Bloom is vibrant, hysterical and buoyant. Even in the depths of depression Billy displays his funny acid wit, and I found myself cheering him on every step of the way. This story is definitely character-driven and it's one of the best things I've read all year. What more is there to say?

This book may be good for gender obscurists and their friends and allies, folks in the mood for something irreverent, funny and uplifting, or anyone whose inner freak is crying out for a little recognition and acceptance.

Clubbing by Andi Watson and Josh Howard

2007-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Lottie is a very sharp, very with-it London goth girl. Being so sharp and with-it, she sometimes has to break the rules to get what she wants, but she's not really bad... So. Lottie is being punished for using a fake ID to get into a club, but how can you punish a kid who's got all the requisite gadgets and high-end fashion sense of a young modern urbanite? That's right. You send her to the country.

To be more specific, you send her to the country to stay with her sweet but slightly nutty grandparents who just happen to own a posh country club, complete with golf courses, caretakers, hiking tourists and lots of good English mud. How ever will City Mouse manage?

But despite feeling supremely sorry for herself she does manage, with sufficient style, wit and aplomb. She wins a cake decorating contest. She meets a strapping lad. She sabotages a crusty, leering golf shop owner. She discovers a corpse on the back 18.

Whoops! Did we forget to mention that this gothy little graphic novel is a mystery? Lottie's a far cry from Miss Marple but the quaint English setting does beg the comparison. Most clues seem to point to Lottie's own gruff-but-not-unpleasant grandfather as the culprit. The plot twists - not unpredictably - as Lottie and strapping Howard try to unravel the clues using their wits and the Internet, and what they discover leads them unwittingly into the lair of a somewhat Cthulhean cult.

I'm not sure, but I don't think Miss Marple ever had dealings with tentacled beasties.

MY REACTION:
Now, I've got a big soft spot for graphic novels, goth aesthetics and tentacled beasties. And when I find myself in the middle of reading a mystery I'm willing to give it a go, even though I don't find mysteries terribly thrilling. But even so I have to admit that, while perfectly suited as a light-hearted distraction, for me this book fell a little short of expectations. I like some of the other things that Andi Watson's done (I thought Paris was both lovely and fun) and I do still harbor some high expectations for the Minx line of graphic novels, but overall I thought Lottie could've been fleshed out a little more, perhaps made a little more 'real,' (that's not to say vulnerable. I liked that Lottie isn't overly vulnerable) by being a little less... I don't know... a little less with-it.

And to be honest, the only reason I'm even being this critical about the book is because I do have such high expectations for graphic novels. I want them to offer readers a little bit more to think about while still being fun. Having said that, there's really nothing wrong with this book as a quick, light-hearted fun mystery. This book is aimed, of course, at teen girls but may also be interesting to fans of the graphic novel, manga fans, folks who enjoy a little mystery in the English mud, and lovers of tentacled beasties everywhere.

Grief Girl by Erin Vincent

2007-11-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

One month Erin was a normal teenage girl in Australia and the next month she was an orphan, having lost both parents (her mother instantly and her father a month later due to medical complications) to a car accident. She and her older sister are left alone to care for one another as well as for their young brother. What follows over the next few years is Erin's struggle to keep her head above water while finishing school, working, helping to raise her brother and, not least of all, trying to come to terms with this devastating loss. It's a long row to hoe and without trustworthy advice coming from any quarter Erin is hard-pressed to make it happen. Will she ever have a normal life again? Why did this happen? Is it her fault?
MY REACTION:
This is a convincingly-written memoir, and by that I mean that it is easy to see the person Erin Vincent was during this time in her life. As a person who lost both of my parents during my teen years I found myself thinking "YES! Exactly!" several times while reading this book. I also found myself shaking my head at some of Erin's misinformed decisions and phases, but I was rooting for her throughout. There are books that make you relive painful and hopeless times in your life without giving you anything new to take away from the experience, and then there are books that allow you to relive those times in a way that allows you to forgive and heal. This book is the latter. Thank you, Ms. Vincent.
This book may be good for readers who have had a large and unwieldy grief to contend with in their own lives. It may also be good for readers who are grief-curious, readers who like memoirs, or readers who are into "sad stories" or teen problem novels.

This Is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis

2007-11-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

Logan is a kid with a problem, and despite the strenuous efforts of his parents (they have moved the family across town and Logan has changed schools) it is a problem Logan can't seem to shake. Logan also can't seem to voice what the problem is, either to defend himself or to tell his side of the story. As a result, he spends most of the novel agonizing over the effects that his past is having on his present and being physically, verbally and emotionally brutalized by other kids at his school. Despite the rumors that have been circulating as to the nature of his involvement in this mysterious "incident," Logan manages to nurse a fledgling friendship with Laurel, another outsider with a penchant for palindromes.
THE SPOILER:
It's not until the bullying gets out of hand and Logan is encouraged by his therapist to write down what happened that the reader - or anyone else, for that matter - finds out the nature of the incident and Logan's involvement in it. Logan was the sole witness to the attempted rape of a girl by his former best friend's father, and the subsequent near-deadly assault on the father by said best friend. Logan had nothing to do with what happened, but he blames himself for his own failure to do something about it at the time and it is this very paralysis that is at the center of his current predicament.
MY REACTION:
I did not enjoy reading this book. I found it painful and upsetting. This is testament to Ellis' skill as a writer for evoking uncomfortable emotions and for detailing (in an almost detached kind of way) the specifics and depths of teenage cruelty. The ending, however, is upbeat. Readers who sincerely enjoy the "problem novel" may want to give this a go.