Sunday, October 18, 2015

First SIX done!

I've completed the first five books on my book list!
  1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio 315 
  2. Sisters by Raina Telgemeier 208
  3. Smile by Raina Telgemeier 224
  4. Wool (The Graphic Novel) by Hugh Howey 160
  5. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld 624
  6. The Girl Who Owned a City (the graphic novel) by O.T. Nelson 181
Bringing my page count up to 1,712 pages :) Since this is my book blog, I would like to throw out a brief review of each of the books I have completed thus far.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
I can totally see why this is the required summer read for incoming 6th graders where I teach! Palacio writes in a way that any middle school student can easily understand the content while also being engaged. As I carried the book around school and read it in various SSR rooms, I had a number of students (who I wouldn't have pegged as avid readers) identify it as a book they really enjoyed. The plot itself carries an amazing message for middle school students who often face the challenges of bullying, identity, and coming of age.

Sisters/Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Wool (The Graphic Novel) by Hugh Howey

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

The Girl Who Owned a City (The Graphic Novel) by O.T. Nelson

Friday, August 28, 2015

40 Book Challenge

I'm attempting a 40 Book Reading Challenge for this school year. As of now, I plan to conquer the following books (bolded text indicates a book I have finished):


  1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
  2. Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
  3. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
  4. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
  5. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
  6. Smile by Raina Telgemeier
  7. The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson (Graphic Novel)
  8. The City of Ember by Jeanna DuPrau
  9. Wool (Graphic Novel) by Hugh Howey
  10. Shift by Hugh Howey
  11. Dust by Hugh Howey
  12. Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith
  13. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (#1) by Jeff Kinney
  14. Bone by Jeff Smith
  15. The Ability by M.M. Vaughan
  16. Life of a Loser - Wanted by Lou Zuhr
  17. Matched by Ally Condie
  18. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
  19. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
  20. The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
  21. Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
  22. Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson
  23. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
  24. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
  25. The School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin
  26. Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld
  27. The Cloak Society by Jeramy Kraatz
  28. Mouse Heart by Lisa Fidler
  29. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman
  30. Mosquitoland by David Arnold
  31. In Real Life by Cory Doctorow
  32. The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
  33. Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick
  34. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
  35. The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
  36. George by Alex Gino
  37. TBD
  38. TBD
  39. TBD
  40. TBD

Suggestions are welcome for the final four books...

A Brief Review of My Summer Reads

Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
I'm not sure why Duke University freshmen are giving this graphic novel such a hard time. While it does contain themes of changing adolescence and sexuality, they are entering college. The book shows us the author's personal struggles growing up (family drama, discovering the self/personal identity, making her mark on the world, etc.)...which would be the same general things these Duke freshmen would be (hopefully!) beginning to experience in college. Furthermore, as college students these kids should be open and wanting to learn about different cultures/perspectives. If they plan to be remotely successful, functioning members of society post-graduation, these students need to learn to accept being exposed to "different" themes. As usual, I am stuck and frustrated about how a person can shut down a book (saying it will "violate their Christian morals") without actually reading it. Being shielded or staying away from a certain topic or idea isn't going to make that topic go away. Alas, I have strayed from actually commenting much on the novel itself; it is a fabulous story that a reader of any age (above middle school) will find entertaining and engaging. The art and general comic style is also well thought out and developed. Oh, and did I mention this graphic novel has been made into an award-winning broadway musical? No?

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
I'm not sure how this science fiction piece eluded me for so long...

Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell
Immediately after finishing this book, I got on Amazon and ordered the sequel. Hopefully that says a bit about how great this book was. My boyfriend actually picked this book up for me because he thought is seemed a bit like Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job. He was spot on in that notion. Bazell has an eerily similar propensity for mixing the sardonic with the sad. Like Moore's pieces, I found myself laughing at things that I certainly had no right to be laughing at.










Orphan #8 - Kim van Alkemade

I picked up this novel with the notion of reading it only because it was written by an English professor from my Alumni (Shippensburg University). I put down this novel, finished, about two hours after I picked it up. I'm not sure how I managed to get so lucky with my summer book choices, but you definitely won't find me complaining.

The Sculptor - Scott McCloud
Saga - Brian K. Vaughan
Wool - Hugh Howey
An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir
Secondhand Souls - Christopher Moore

Friday, June 26, 2015

Summer Book Reads!

My list for this summer:
  • Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
  • Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
  • Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell
  • The Sculptor - Scott McCloud
  • Paper Towns - John Green
  • Wool - Hugh Howey
  • An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir
  • Secondhand Souls - Christopher Moore

Friday, October 3, 2014

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Intro and Narrative Structure:
House of Leaves has enough crazy in it to make even the most accomplished reader’s head spin. If you are one who finds it difficult to follow more that one perspective/narrative, this novel is not for you. Which, as I type this, is an entertaining phrase to employ, as the first words after the foreword are, “This is not for you”. This is a pretty foreboding way to start off a 600+ page meta-novel.  As I was saying, if you can’t handle more than one perspective/narrative you probably should try to tackle this beast. The primary narrative is comprised of several documentaries known as the “Navidson Record”.  These are relayed and described to us by a character/narrator named Zampanò (in Times New Roman font). Another narrator (or narrative frame, if you will) is Johnny Truant’s commentary/narration of Zampanò. His comments/narration appear in the Courier New font. Beyond that, we have the narrative frame of “The Editors”; they are never named and comment fewer times than Zampanò/Truant. Finally, there is the narrative frame of the reader. You. I recently sat in on a college class at the University of Buffalo where the students spent almost four weeks reading and unpacking the novel (and becoming increasingly unhappy about life/this labyrinthine novel).  It was immensely interesting to hear so many different takes and theories on the novel after spending many years knowing fewer than three people who had read the book (the vast majority of people I know have never even heard of it). Anyway, the reader (you) place your own narrative frame around the text as you read it. The perspective you, as the reader, shed on the words and the structure is one of the most important narratives of the novel. To put the narrative structure visually:

Navidson Record --> Zampanò --> Johnny Truant --> The Editors --> The Reader (you).
[Yo, we heard you like narrators…so we put narrators in your narrators.]

An additional comment regarding narration: Zampanò, the main narrator, is primarily speaking about the visual documentary (The Navidson Record). I would consider him (and every other narrator) unreliable. I have the most conviction for Zampanò, however, as he is blind. Yes, you read that correctly. Our primary narrator of a visual documentary is blind…go figure.

General Plot Overview & Textual Composition (no spoilers):
Moving forward, one flip through the book gives you a pretty good picture of why many consider this to be an intense and difficult to follow novel. Danielewski created a literal labyrinth with words on the page. Flipping through, one can see text spiraling around the page, text upside down and sideways, text mirrored through (like the window of a house, duh….House of Leaves) the page to the other side, one word per page for several pages, and so on and so forth. I pity the page editors/typesetters for this book. You’ll also notice some color and font patterns that I will unpack a little later on here.  Quite probably, should you choose to read this, you will come to both hate and love the extensive footnotes.

As it’s given on the book jacket, here is a straightforward summary for an extremely complex text:

            Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth – musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists...

Tuesday, August 19, 2014


The Fault in our Stars by John Green

This was, quite possibly, the most evocative and heart-wrenching book that I have ever read. John Green has a unique way of taking a depressing situation like cancer and making you both sob and laugh at the same time [with very disgusting results - think about that gross, sobbing, snotting cry mixed with sporadic laughing and you'll start to see what I mean]. Now that it has been made into a movie, the book has been reviewed and reflected on from every possible angle, so if you've already read some of those you probably won't get anything new here (but feel free to read along anyway!).

Here, I'm going to ramble on a bit about how I came to read this book; if you're looking for the book review, scroll down to the bold header marked "book review"! Green has been one of my top three authors since I was first introduced to Looking for Alaska. After I read that, I read every single Green book I could get my hands on. I even scoured the vast realms of the internet to see what else I could find on Green (much like I did in the days of Harry Potter).  I quickly came to find that he and his brother, Hank, run a YouTube channel [Vlogbrothers] together and often discussed things I was interested in. When John announced on YouTube that he was writing a new book, and later announced that he would be going on tour to promote the new book, I knew I had to read it. On the Vlogbrothers channel, John even read the first chapter of the book weeks before it was to be released. I preordered a copy of the book [it came signed!!!!!!] and read it in about 2.5 hours. Over the course of my first foray through the novel, I laughed, I sobbed, I threw the book against the wall, and I shouted expletives towards Mr. Green for the emotional slalom he was running me though. Then I bought my ticket for the tour; I was able to hear Green talk about the book-writing process, his inspiration for the book, and he answered questions from the crowd [including one of mine!].

Enough about my book reading process, let's talk about the book itself. The Fault in Our Stars [TFioS for short] is a straight-up novel about a teenager with cancer who falls in love...with another teenager with cancer. Hold up, you say, this doesn't sound like it would be a great book...not even an "okay" book. In fact, it sounds like total anguish topped with a misery cherry. Why would I ever want to voluntarily read this? By the end of this book, while I did feel incredibly sad and frustrated with Green, I felt as though I had just experienced someone else's life for a few hours. Green spins a tale that winds you right up in it. His characters are dynamic and have a never ending stream of wit and humor coming from their mouths that serves to lighten the oppressive sadness of the novel. I don't want to write much more for fear of ruining such a fantastic book, so I will leave this with my whole-hearted encouragement to pick up the book and give it a chance to rip you to pieces.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Top Twenty-Five Book Suggestions for Young Adults

I've compiled this list based on a combination of YA books that I enjoyed and books that I see my students reading. You're more than welcome to dis/agree with me on any of these or comment with your own suggestions. Additionally, these are in no particular order.
#4 on the List


  1. Looking for Alaska by John Green Themes/topics: death, love, adolescence, growing up, suicide, the meaning of life, and self-discovery.
  2. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak Themes/topics: the Holocaust, survival, war, mortality, identity, suffering, and courage.
  3. How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller Themes/topics: social issues, crime [duh - see the title], revenge, and internal conflict.
  4. The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld Themes/topics: dystopia/utopia, social issues, self-discovery, identity, society and class, coming of age, freedom/confinement, and betrayal.
  5. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Themes/topics: redemption, solving one's own problems, society, war, sexism [to an extent], pacifism, and alternate realities.
  6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Themes/topics: coming of age, illness, death, self-discovery, coping with loss.
  7. Monster by Walter Dean Myers Themes/topics: question of guilt/innocence, identity, prejudice, stereotypes, American justice system, institutionalized racism/crime, life in prison, writing to cope.
  8. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher Themes/topics: coming of age, suicide, guilt, blame, betrayal, choices, love.
  9. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Themes/topics: youth, manipulation, warfare, isolation, freedom/confinement, competition.
  10. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare Themes/topics: versions of reality, revenge, religion, appearances, art/culture, duty
  11. Cut by Patricia McCormick Themes/topics: self-injury, coming of age, choices, keeping secrets.
  12. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Themes/topics: versions of reality, isolation, fear, language/communication, freedom/confinement, identity, truth. 
  13. Divergent by Veronica Roth Themes/topics: dystopian, society & class, identity, power, friendship, choices, secrets.
    #15 on the List
  14. The Giver by Lois Lowry Themes/topics: dystopian/utopian, the past/memory, rules/order, isolation, suffering, tradition.
  15. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs Themes/topics:
  16. Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan Themes/topics: identity, versions of reality, isolation, traditions/customs, lies/deceit. 
  17. The Maze Runner by James Dashner Themes/topics: manipulation, rules/order, fear, sacrifice, justice/judgement, freedom/confinement.
  18. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Themes/topics: epistolary, coming of age, drugs, alcohol, sex, passivity, family.
  19. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Themes/topics: dystopian, society/class, power, politics, sacrifice, 
  20. If I Stay by Gayle Foreman Themes/topics:
  21. Harry Potter by JK Rowling Themes/topics: good vs. evil, sacrifice, choices, mortality, love, betrayal, society/class.
  22. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Themes/topics: rape, guilt, blame, education, isolation, transformation.
  23. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Themes/topics: contrasting regions, coming of age, women/femininity, politics, freedom/confinement, religion.
  24. Maus by Art Spiegelman Themes/topics: the Holocaust, morality, family, race, ethics, guilt/blame, memory/the past
  25. #4 on the List
  26. Blankets by Craig Thompson Themes/topics: sin, pride, religion, coming of age, trust, sexual abuse