ah, those little echoes

I love today's Unshelved. I think that character is just naturally like that; I myself had to consciously curb my cursing tendency when I worked at the library. I usually went with "D'oh!"

add it up

If you have a child in school, you must read A Mathematician's Lament; it is very long, but so brilliant. I particularly like the section High School Geometry: Instrument of the Devil. ("nothing is more mystifying than a proof of the obvious" -- oh my God, yes.)

Willy Vs. Harry

Via Blog of a Bookslut, J.K. Rowling has been accused of plagiarism by the estate of author Adrian Jacobs. Having never heard of Jacobs, I did some googling and found some of the most fascinatingly incoherent prose I've ever encountered.

I confess, it's hard for me to imagine anyone plowing through this book even in order to steal snippets of ideas from it. Can't wait to see how this plays out in court.

tell me about it

Finally had time to read some of the "Battle of the Books" Brouhaha over The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and it seems to basically come down to this: Some people love an omniscient narrative voice. Some people hate it.

I'm starting to really loathe the phrase "show, don't tell." Telling can be damn fine; telling can be fabulous. The Man in the Ceiling by Jules Feiffer is another obvious example.

I don't think it would bother me if it genuinely seemed a matter of personal taste, rather than a matter of people being irked by something they've been taught to be irked by.

watching "the Big Bang Theory"

and thinking I should change my Blogger name to "whiny hyper-neurotic snot web."

I love this show. I love Sheldon. He reminds me a tiny bit of my son. And a tiny bit of myself. And a lot of a guy I know who's a total Salsa Geek. They come in many forms...

48 Hrs - I Be Done

My Finish Line Post.

I am So. Tired. Too tired even to check over my math, though I keep wishing I could make it come in over 29 hours, since everyone seemed to do 29 hours. Possibly everyone else is rounding. Can I round?

Anyway, the final results are:

Reading: 25 hours, 14 minutes
Blogging: 2 hours, 44 minutes
Reading Blogs/Commenting: 53 minutes

For a grand total of: 28 hours, 51 minutes. I think. I'm really, really tired. Did I mention I was tired?

Oh, I forgot to say how many books. Uh, I didn't keep track. I think it was 7 complete books, most of an 8th I had already started, a portion of a 9th I didn't get to finish, and about 2 pages of one that I didn't get into. Okay, I checked and that's right.

So what did you learn, Dorothy? Well, this year was the most fun ever. I've never had such a good time getting funky and exhausted--at least, not all by myself. Really making it a priority made it a much more powerful experience. The community aspect was very refreshing, too. It felt great to hear from other people who were going through this same peculiar experience.

I spent much less time blogging this year--previously, I think I wrote about as much as I read. That was fine...I wrote when I felt like it, didn't when I didn't. It was nice to just go with the flow. But also good to really focus on the reading. I'm very pleased that not only was this a personal best, but I read, just read, for over 24 of the hours. Half of the challenge.

Just some random thoughts on the books I didn't mention before:

1) There was a typo in David Inside Out that gave me the impression the author had originally written it in the third person and then changed it. I have nothing meaningful to say about that, I just thought it was interesting. I think it probably worked better in the first person than it would have in the third, though just guessing, of course.

2) SPOILER for How to Ditch Your Fairy - is it just me, or was that ending kind of whack? I mean, she realized it was no fun to have a boy like you when it was your fairy making him a zombie love slave. But she's perfectly fine with having a fairy that makes her better in sports? I suppose since it's generally accepted that all the most talented people in her society have fairies making it happen for them, it wouldn't occur to most people to question it. But it seems bizarre, in context.

Oh, I also forgot to say which book I'd liked the best. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landua-Banks was unquestionably the star act. Fantastic book. I pretty much enjoyed everything I read, except for a good portion of The Awakening.

So, I am done. My thanks to my wonderful husband, who put up with this, and my fabulous son, who only startled me out of my skin by yelling "Boo!" while I was reading a couple of times.

48 Hrs - Slam

Slam by Nick Hornby

I didn't get that far in this one before my time ran out. It seems very well written, though.

So I'm done! Kind of nice to have finished while other people are still going -- I can spend some time on other blogs while half my brain isn't elsewhere.

I will write my official finish line post later -- for now I have a really strong desire to water the plants and do the laundry and watch a couple of episodes of "the Big Bang Theory" and eat something other than cashews.

R: 40 minutes
B: n/a
RB: 3 minutes

48 Hrs - Stargazer

Stargazer by Claudia Gray. Sequel to Evernight

Aaaaand, here comes the separation and love triangle! I hated it in the "Twilight" series, but it's kind of working for me here. Perhaps because the hero of these books, Lucas, is such a cardboard cut-out I don't have much emotion invested in whether the heroine winds up with him anyway. The other guy is actually a lot more interesting.

This was another engrossing read. The world building isn't spectacular, but there are some interesting supernatural conflicts and moral dilemmas raised and not yet completely answered. And here's a big plus... stuff happens. The characters are actually in a very different place when the story ends than when it began. I will be seriously pissed if the author finds a way to undo that in the next book.


R: 3 hours, 20 minutes
B: 8 minutes
RB: 9 minutes

48 Hrs - Evernight

Evernight by Claudia Gray

From the start, everything about this book -- the title, the structure, the narrator -- simply screamed "I wanna be Twilight!" But there is a twist, and though it's an obvious one, it's also fairly well thought out and effective. The story will never win awards for lyrical writing or strong characterizations, but it's smooth and very absorbing and after awhile I stopped making comparisons and just enjoyed it. Should appeal to most readers who like star-crossed lover stories with a touch of creepy.

R: 3 hours, 6 minutes
B: 14 minutes
RB: 14 minutes

48 Hrs - The Game of Love, part III

Phew! Edith Layton has been well and truly commemorated by me. A good book - and so much of it!

R: 3 hours, 40 minutes (!)
B: 1 minute
RB: 4 minutes

48 Hrs - How to Ditch Your Fairy

I didn't enjoy this one as much as I hoped I would. The premise is fun, though rather different from what I'd gathered from reviews. I thought it was about an alternate universe in which everyone has a fairy, but in fact, no one really knows if they do for sure or not and some people don't even believe in them. Anyway, what kind of killed it for me was the slang. I am highly allergic to first-person narratives with heavy repetitions of the same slang. Even if it's new, weird slang or maybe Australian slang.

I think I most enjoyed the narrator's horrible school, because she unquestioningly adores it and because everything she does in it is related to sports. History homework is about sports history, statistics homework is about sports statistics... it's like Miss Pym Disposes gone completely mad.

Do you have a fairy? My husband used to have a cat-loving fairy. Strange cats would literally follow him places and wait hours for him to come back out. It was replaced, handily enough, by a can't-get-laid-off fairy. I have an exact measurements fairy. It is vaguely useful, albeit unexciting.

Why yes I am a bit punchy, why do you ask?


R: 1 hour, 54 minutes
B: 10 minutes
RB: 3 minutes

48 Hrs - Bah!

I looked up last years winner and it was 40 hours! The runners up were both 30. Seeing as I have already slept, I guess I will have to settle for a personal best.

48 Hrs - Ow

Anyone else got a headache?

On the bright side, I just found How to Ditch Your Fairy in my pile. That should be good for a laugh.

48 Hrs - Review: David Inside Out

(I read half of this book earlier in the day, but am putting all the minutes together now.)




David Inside Out by Lee Bantle. Henry Holt, 2009 (978-0-8050-8122-0) $16.99

Trying to figure out how to put the moves on a girl for the first time can be hard. "Was I supposed to touch her knee now?... Should I just drop my hand on her? Were you supposed to squeeze?" wonders David. But David has an extra problem... Kick, the girl who pretty clearly wants to be his girlfriend, isn't nearly as attractive to him as someone else -- his track teammate, Sean.

David is determined not to give in to his feelings. "This wasn't me. It couldn't be. Not gay. Anything but that." He makes a list of ways to be more straight, correcting himself with a snap of a rubber band on his wrist whenever he has a wrong feeling. Then Sean invites him to fool around, throwing all his best straight intentions out the window. David is scared of being out to his friends, but ready to be in love--but Sean refuses to admit he likes anything but getting off. "I don't kiss or write love poems... I don't put it in my mouth." Sean, David will find, is far more determined not to be gay than he could ever be.

Fast-paced and plot-focused, this sympathetic coming out story will probably have the most appeal to readers who are also struggling with their sexual identities. I found myself most interested in the secndary characters, whose actions and motivations are something of a puzzle to David, complicating his life. Sean has the private sex rules designed to prove that he's not really gay. Kick betrays his confession to her and then deliberately seduces him, perhaps in a misguided attempt to "cure" him, only to wind up hurt. Only his oldest friend Eddie, who recently came out himself, is really straightforward about who he is and what he wants... an excellent role model for the newly self-aware David.

The story has a small amount of graphic language and quite a few brief, non-explicit but not coy sex scenes. I was bothered that condoms are only mentioned in a heterosexual context, though it would have been quite narratively easy to have the person David talks to at a gay hotline drop a word about safe sex -- considering Sean's secretive, denial-filled approach to sex, he strikes me as a highly risky person to have unprotected encounters with. Recommended for mature readers. (15 & up)

© 2009 Wendy E. Betts


R: 1 hour, 46 minutes
B: 43 minutes
RB: 4 minutes

Other Blog Reviews:

The Goddess of YA Literature
The 3 Rs of Summer
Queer YA
Stop, Drop and Read -- interesting, albeit somewhat insensitive review by someone who felt "weirded out" by gay people and now has a better sense of the discrimination they face. The book may have more general appeal than I had thought.

48 Hrs - The Game of Love, part II

Can you believe I'm only halfway through this book? They really don't write 'em like they used to.

I have a confession: I've decided to put my all into this. I skipped a social engagement last night and will skip two today. The dishes are piling up on the counter; the laundry is unfolded; I could really use a shower. If my son doesn't get that drawing, well, it won't be for lack of trying.

I sure wish I hadn't decided to go on the spur of the moment though. I have plenty of books, but not much variety; I've been pawing through the piles, desperately trying to find something funny.

R: 1 hour, 25 minutes
B: 5 minutes
RB: 2 minutes

48 Hrs - the Awakening

The sequel to The Summoning. I didn't like this one enough to want to review it--also, I enjoyed more of it this morning than I did last night, so possibly I was too punchy to do it justice. My overall impression was that it's almost nonstop action, which is surprisingly boring. Chloe's frequent references to movie tropes only highlights the fact that at times it almost feels more like a screenplay than a novel. There are so many twists, most of which don't make much sense or flow plausibly from the previous book. I was interested in the relationship developing between Chloe and Derek, so I might want to continue reading the series to see how that plays out.

R: 2 hours, 23 minutes
B: 7 minutes
RB: 12 minutes

48 Hrs - The Summoning

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

Fifteen year old Chloe, five foot nothing and still being given the kiddie menu in restaurants, would like to shake her life up a bit. But she's thinking more along the lines of dying red streaks in her hair than of starting to see ghosts.

A particularly horrific vision lands her in the hospital, and then a group home for mentally disturbed teenagers, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. As Chloe gets to know the other kids in the home, particularly the seemingly normal Simon and his frighteningly large, hostile foster brother Derek, it becomes harder to believe that what's happening to her--and perhaps to all of them--is really mental illness. And having supernatural powers might turn out to be far more dangerous.

Narrated by Chloe, The Summoning smoothly blends the everyday and the paranormal as it sets up its supernatural world, with time for reflection and character growth as well as action and horror. Although it has both sad and frightening moments, it isn't particularly emotionally powerful, which makes it harder to ignore that it's also somewhat derivative. (With Chloe a devout Hollywood film buff, the lack of any reference to The Sixth Sense is really an elephant in the room.) But it's an absorbing, increasingly exciting read; even before I reached the cliffhanger ending, I was looking forward to the sequel. (13 & up)




R: 2 hours, 35 minutes
B: 1 hour
RB: 2 minutes

running totals

R: 7 hours
B: 1 hour, 16 minutes
RB: 2 minutes

48 Hrs - The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

What a thoroughly awesome book! It reminded me of a mash up of "Veronica Mars," "Gilmore Girls" and the essay portion of Dorothy Bryant's A Day in San Francisco, as written by Judith Ivory. And more!

I don't dare attempt an actual review, I would still be at it long after the challenge was over. Wish I had the time right now to browse around and see what everyone else has written about it, but that will have to wait til Monday.


R: 2 hr, 25 m
B: 4 m

Running Totals

R: 4 hours, 25 minutes
B: 16 minutes

48 Hrs - The Game of Love

I won't write much about this, since it won't interest most of the readers of this blog, but my, what a densely written book. Edith Layton was really a master of wordplay and it seems as if almost every line has a double or triple meaning. I keep reading and rereading to make sure I'm getting all the nuances. Add in paragraph-long sentences in the old style and teeny-tiny-eyestraino-vision print and I'm not getting through it very quickly.

Anyway, I will save the rest for tomorrow's gym trip; now on to Frankie!



R: 2 hours
B: 4 min

Running Totals:
R: 2 hours
B: 12 m

48 Hrs - on my mark, get set...

GO! Starting 2 p.m. on Friday

I wanted to dive right into the YA pile, but realized I need to go to the gym soon and I don't have any YA small enough to hold in one hand while I exercise. Also, I kind of hate reading a book I might choose to review while exercising, because it could affect the way I perceive the book.

So I'm going to keep reading the adult book I was already reading, The Game of Love, which was chosen in honor of the memory of the wonderful historical romance author, and fellow Georgette Heyer list member, Edith Layton. After the gym, I plan to start on The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, because it came up so many times, in such intriguing ways, during the recent Books Wars.

memories

It was during the first 48 Book Challenge that I realized my son was truly reading.

Last year, during the third, he was inspired by my involvement to try his very first chapter book.

This year, he will probably completely disrupt my reading by playing a prank on me he's learned from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

What was I thinking, not planning to participate this year? It's such a family tradition.