2012 Q2 Reading Report

Sooooooooo late on my 2nd Quarter Reading Report. With no further ado…

March (addition)

Louisiana Saturday Night, Alex Cook – Read the 225 Magazine review here.

April

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins – This was me re-reading the trilogy again for the third time, around the release of the first movie. I re-read the first two books before I saw the movie and this one afterwards. It was really interesting applying all of the actors to the delicious craziness of the third book, imaging who would be cast for other roles, how they would depict certain things. I like these books better each time I read them.

Rose Sees Red, Cecil Castelucci – This is such a weird, cool book. It’s listed as “historical fiction” because it’s set in the 80s, which is pretty weird for me since that’s the decade I was a kid. It seems like a pretty random time to set a piece of fiction, but I think as writers like Cecil Castelucci (and myself) are reaching a certain stage of our development, we’re naturally turning to this time, mining it for all the weirdness and coolness it contained. It’s about dancers (which comes up more and more lately for me) having this one fantastic, rebellious night in New York. I love books and movies about that One Fabulous Night and this one certainly didn’t disappoint.

The Arizona Kid, Ron Koertge – On his website, Koertge says he’s one of the oldest people writing kids’ fiction and his young readers are always surprised to see an “old guy” walk into the room. That’s probably because, judging by this book, he writes about things that kids are actually dealing with in a real way. I read a lot of YA and kids’ fiction, but even I was pleasantly shocked at some of the subject matter of this book. He has a book coming out this month that looks really, really good – Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses – and I can’t wait to read it, as it deals with the most shocking of material, fairy tales.

Bayou Vol 1 and Vol 2, Jeremy Love + Patrick Morgan – These graphic novels are pretty overwhelming. The art is gorgeous and disturbing, lush. The story is about a young girl on a mythic journey to find her missing friend and save her father, who’s been accused of kidnapping/killing the girl – in the 1930s South. The way these stories deal with race and history is fascinating (and terrifying), but it’s the storytelling aspects that are most astounding. I’ve been waiting impatiently for Vol 3 and I think it’s coming out sometime this year.

Anya’s Ghost, Vera Brosgol – Here I have to admit to judging a book by its over. I saw this graphic novel laying on a rack at the library and I snatched it up. It felt like I was reading a movie and I was constantly entertained as I read about Anya’s fall down a hole in a field, discovery of and friendship with a girl’s ghost and then her bid for independence from her new best friend. I think all these graphic novels I’ve been reading are the result of conversations I’ve been having with Dana and Maurice from Peauxdunque and it’s been amazing to discover them.

What Doesn’t Kill You, Iris Johansen – I definitely like Johansen’s new character Catherine Ling better than her most famous character Eve Duncan. A fast, entertaining read. I’m on the fence about whether I’ll read the next Eve Duncan book where she discovers she has a…half sister! Drama. Yet, why do I keep reading these books? There’s something enjoyable about them, even as the melodrama and write-by-numbers style drives me nuts.

Hell or High Water, Ron Thibodeaux – Read my 225 Magazine review here.

Bossypants, Tina Fey – Parts of this book were sheer genius and parts were kinda eh. I hate to say it, cause I love Tina Fey so much. I definitely loved reading how she became the Comic Genius Tina Fey and I love reading both funny women and women who have a true sense of themselves. I think Tina Fey is both kind of woman.

May

The Bridge to Neverland, Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson – Love these Peter Pan books so much. Barry & Pearson continue to find ways to reinvent and enrich the original story and also, now, to tie to to our modern world. This one might just be the best one. I’m also really interested in how two such different writers work together on such a cohesive, complicated story. I think they may be the best role models for how my sister and I will write together.

Delirium, Lauren Oliver – Lauren Oliver is a seriously good writer. Her book Before I Fall devastated me and this one is very different, yet also just tore me apart. It’s a fat book and has a really unhurried pace at the beginning, yet still feels compelling. Then, there’s this breathless rush toward an ending that slams into you like a train.

Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup – I have been meaning to read this book for at least a decade. I think I worried that I would find the language too old-fashioned and the story too sad. It’s taken me a long time to read non-fiction eagerly. Boy, was I wrong. This book, a narrative of Northup’s experiences in the 183os-50s as a Northern freeman sold into slavery in the South, is enormously compelling. Though it’s a horrific story, there is such subtly in the way that it’s told, and it’s an important story.

June

Zone One, Colson Whitehead – I can’t believe I only read this book last month because I feel like I’ve been living with it for years. It has been haunting me since I started reading it. Phenomenally clever and well-written, this novel luxuriates in the zombie movie aesthetic and tropes, but is constantly stretching and pushing it further. With enough gorgeous language to send any word nerd into ecstasy, there’s also enough true danger and gore to please horror buffs.

Deadlocked, Charlaine Harris – The t.v. show True Blood doesn’t feel anything like this book series anymore. They are each their own monsters at this point. Harris’s series is cozy in its own graphic, humorous way. I feel like her Sookie has a lot more dimension and the relationships are far deeper, so it’s kind of like checking into the paranormal version of Mayberry from time to time and seeing what everybody is up to.

Pandemonium, Lauren Oliver – I had NO idea how this sequel was going to be as good as Delirium. I thought if anybody could do it, Oliver could because I’d loved both of her earlier books. I just didn’t see how it could be done. Pandemonium goes into far different places and gives us a far different Lena from the first book. It is delicious to see how she’s been scarred by the events of the first book and how she’s grown over the scars. While I totally predicted the “shocker” ending, I was still very, very satisfied by it and excited about what it will mean for the third book, which I’m trying to wait patiently for. February of next year! How will I survive now that i have no more doubts that it will be incredible?

Just a head’s up for the 3rd Quarter Reading Report – I have been working on another film, with just a short break after my previous one (in April, which is why I read so much). Probably, July and August will be light on reading, but hopefully September will be plentiful. However, as I usually do, I’m reading several books at one time and I can’t wait to tell you about them.

 

Reading in Q3 – August

I really picked up the reading pace this month, making up for lost time and visiting the library a lot. Whenever I’m between movie gigs and freelancing, reading and library visits are two of my favorite things.

Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead to Worse, Dead and Gone, Dead in the Family, Dead Reckoning, Charlaine Harris – I’m taking something of a reading vacation for myself and breezing through these books in 2-3 days each. Definitely Dead was a bit confusing in some places, especially at the beginning with the timing. Something pretty interesting happened in the gap between books and Sookie mentions Bill was with her when it happened, so that was a bit strange to me. I’ve been loving the series so much that I’m actually becoming increasingly disappointed with True Blood and how much it’s veered away from the plots and characters of the books. Trying to enjoy the books and the show as two separate things, though I was incredibly disappointed with the Season 4 finale. I don’t know if I’ll keep watching the show.

The Southern Cross, Skip Horack – My review will be published in 225 Magazine. Link coming soon. here.

Twenty Boy Summer, Sarah Ockler – I specifically requested this book from the library after reading about it being banned. The description of the book sounded really good and the reasons for it being banned were so incredibly dumb, so I was intrigued. I’ve so rarely read a book that addressed grief so well, especially grief processed by a teen. It really resonated with my own experiences and relationships growing up, and then also with things I’ve only experienced now, as an adult.

The Devil She Knows, Bill Loehfelm – My review is upcoming in 225 Magazine. Link to come.

Bumped, Megan McCafferty – Really fascinating look at a very possible reality where teenage girls are the only ones who can conceive and so become the most important people on the planet. Up until they’re about 19. Really says a lot of powerful, interesting things about our tech-addicted society, the marketplace, relationships, growing up, all of those things. I’m increasingly impressed with not just the books that are available for teens, but the teens themselves for being such a hungry audience for these extraordinary books.

Matched, Ally Condie – And this one just blew me away. Set in a “perfect” future society that orchestrates every detail of the lives of its citizens — their meals based on ideal caloric intake, their deaths on the their 70th birthday, their jobs and their “matches” — it really demolishes the idea of perfection. This Utopia has selected 100 of the greatest paintings, songs, poems, etc. and banished the rest, a form of banning so extensive that it’s terrifying. There is no new art, no new creative thought. Citizens don’t even know how to write with their own hands, only how to select words to form messages, a cut-and-paste method. The teen characters in this book are so hungry for choice that unauthorized poems become a way of communicating connection, love, secrets and history and learning to write your name by hand becomes an enormous act of rebellion. This book has a lot in common with Fahrenheit 451 (as well as 1984), but is so cleverly wrapped up in juicy, romantic melodrama. And the most haunting thing is that the future depicted here is not at all unlikely or very far away.

The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han – Swoon. This was a just delicious teen romance set during the summer, but written so very, very well. I loved Jenny Han’s Shug and I knew I’d love this series, too. Belly, the main character, was so vivid and ferocious in her desires and uncertainties that it was impossible not to completely fall for her and identify with her. And then it turns out the book is so much more than “just” a lighthearted teen romance and I’d gotten so beautifully conned into reading a deeply emotional book about families and friendships. I had to read the next two books as quickly as I could, but my local library didn’t have them. Good thing I have a library card in three cities and two states…

The War of Art, Steven Pressfield – This book kicked my ass. It’s a drill sergeant of a book, but also calm and encouraging. It’s a short book, often with just a little text on each page. But I read it s l o w l y because each page kinda punched me in the gut. I read passages aloud to my friends, fellow writers and artists, and they never failed to kind of gasp after I finished, cause they’d gotten punched in the gut too. I can’t recommend this book enough. I actually kept it out from the library because I want to re-read it.

Reading in Q3 – July

July was a month for freelancing, which meant lots and lots of good reading.

While I Live, John Marsden – If you love Hunger Games, you have to read Marsden’s Australian series, which starts with Tomorrow, When the War Began. I think of it as a precursor to Hunger Games, because it features a strong, kick-ass girl as a protagonist and kids fighting a war. While I Live is the first of a trilogy, The Ellie Chronicles, that follows the Tomorrow series. It features Ellie and the gang recovering during an uneasy peace following the treaty that ended the war. Except this “peace” includes some pretty brutal stuff, as well as Ellie’s struggle to run her family’s farm and take care of her and Gavin. I was 19 when I read started reading the Tomorrow series, so it’s a bit odd and cool to read the follow-up trilogy after experiencing The Hunger Games.

A More Noble Cause, Rachel L. Emanuel + Alexander P. Tureaud, Jr. – Read the 225 review here.

The Cinderella Deal and Trust Me On This, Jennifer Crusie – These are plain fun and also, funny. Toni introduced me to Jennifer Crusie. I read all of Crusie’s books that Toni had while I was staying at her house during Gustav. The intro to Trust Me On This says it’s Crusie’s first screwball comedy, which was odd to me because all of her books seem like screwball comedies to me. They’re comedic romances which usually feature a cast of interesting characters and implausible but interesting events, if I’d have to describe them.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling – This was my third time reading the last Harry Potter book. I probably shouldn’t have read it right before seeing the last movie, because I was extremely conscious of the differences between the book and the movie, which has never really bothered me before. It was pretty cool to watch Part 1 of the last movie while re-reading the book, though. And it’s always fun to re-visit this world, which is so comforting and real.

Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris – I read the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series back in December of 2009 and bought this second book soon after, but didn’t feel terribly compelled to read it. I’d enjoyed the first book, but wasn’t caught up. Reading this second one, I did get well and truly caught up. So much so that I asked my mom to find the next few books at the used bookstore we love and send them to me. It boggles my mind that some people don’t realize that True Blood is based on a series of books, this series, but several people have been surprised to find that out. Now that I’m more invested in the books, I have to say that while there are a lot of differences between the show and the books (of course), Anna Paquin has really nailed Sookie. But maybe I think that because I picture Paquin’s Sookie in my head while I read. 🙂 Well, regardless, the books confirm that I really prefer Eric to Alcide and Alcide to Bill.

Hollywood Car Wash, Lori Culwell – Read the NOLAFemmes review here.

Club Dead and Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris – Eating these up like candy, reading one book every three days or less. Dead to the World may be my favorite so far, but as an Eric fan, that’s probably to be expected. Also, since this book covers the current season of True Blood, it was interesting to see Sunday’s episode. It diverged enormously from the book and in some ways, I was okay with that and in some ways, I was actually a little disappointed.

I read a TON of books in August and I’ll post my mini-reviews later this month.