Wonder (migrated from Bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

This is the tender story of August, a 10 year old boy who is normal in every way except for his face, which had been devastated by a facial deformity called mandibulofacial dysostosis.  This genetic abnormality gives August the kind of face that scares small children and adults alike.  Up until the book begins, August has been home schooled, but before he starts 5th grade, which is middle school in his New York City district, his parents decide that he should begin to attend regular school.  This book carries August through this first year, which is fraught with the expected difficulties and made beautiful by moments of bravery and true friendship.

The themes of this book are universal, as they champion the ideal of inclusion and tolerance of others.  Anyone who has ever survived middle school knows that this is a harrowing time for even the most attractive, smart, or athletic individuals, but anyone with anything that is not perfect is screwed! August has to confront the involuntary reactions that everyone has to initially seeing his face, but he also has to endure the alienation of the children who are both afraid of him and mean to him.  On the contrary, he also learns that there are some children who do not worry about what others think of them and those children are the heroes of the story.

The story is also told from different voices, which adds so much to this book.  We hear from August, from his sister Via, and from others in the book who give their account of what is happening to August.  I love having these other narratives because it gives that much more depth to the story.

Some would argue that it is silly to read this book because it’s meant for children.  It is true that I am reading it because my 10-year old son asked me to.  But this book is absolutely for adults as well.  Who among us can say that they cannot be more tolerant and inclusive of others?  Who needs not be reminded of the difficulties of others and how important it is to be sensitive to what others need?

This book speaks to us all.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

So you may have seen the movie already (I did), but this book is still a worthwhile read.  It is the story of Charlie as told by himself through letters to “a friend.”  Charlie is beginning high school with a quirky, honest personality and no friends.  He is befriended by a small group of seniors who are just as quirky and interesting and they make him feel, for the first time, like he belongs.  In the course of the year, he learns a lot about himself and friendship and love and gains insight into his past.

The writing is genuine adolescent and both adolescents and any adult who ever experienced adolescence can appreciate it.  Some of it is raw and sad and all of it carries great emotion.  And some of the writing is so beautifully subtle, especially in it’s revelation about his relationship with his aunt who had died.  The characters are also very real and by the end of the book, they all feel like they are your friends as well.  It reminds us adults that teenagers feel very strongly and think very deeply.

I rarely read a book after I’ve seen the movie (and often vice versa) but this was worthwhile in spite of having seen the movie.  It’s an elegant story told very simply and it works.

The Secret of Ella and Micha (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen

If you are familiar with the Kindle, it is likely you have looked on the Kindle Best Sellers lists and combed through to find something fun to read.  This book kept popping up as a best seller and the description peaked my interest, so I bought it and read it.  Got to say…  pretty disappointing!

The story is about a young woman named Ella who is driven home by her roommate after her first year of college (where she has dramatically reinvented herself) to find that her best friend/boyfriend, Micha, who conveniently happens to live next door (and is perfect in every way) has been pining away for her and longingly awaiting her arrival.  She has a difficult past that she’s shared with him (hence the title) which involved the death of her mother, and she has been avoiding him because her memories that she shares with him are too painful to face.  In addition, she is afraid to love him because she is afraid of losing her best friend in him.

The problem with the story is that by the time you learn exactly what their “secret” shared experience is, it is somewhat anti-clamactic and at least I, at that point, didn’t really care all that much.  There is so much reference to the event and so much leading up to it that it is almost inconsequential when it does occur.  In addition, the loss of Ella’s mother does not feel dramatic to the reader because this relationship was barely described. There are no moments described when she remembers something tender that happened with her mom.  There is no vignette that gives us a picture of what her mother was like that made her relevant to Ella in the context of this story.  So when the loss is revealed, it just feels like too little too late.

The story is predictable and poorly put together.   Pieces are left hanging, but really, not much happens anyway, so this reader didn’t really care about what was unfinished.  Both Ella and Micha have pasts they need to confront but more time is spent in the book with descriptions of their sexual attraction and interaction than with the actual issues they are battling.  The dialogue is weak, without any punch at all.  And when there are characters of substance, they don’t go anywhere.  This is best exemplified by Grady, who has been a caretaker, even a father figure, to both Ella and Micha, who is dying.  Well, for all his significance, Ella visits him twice in a matter of weeks.  He tells her he wants to talk to her about something but we never learn what that is.  And, again, there is mention of memories but they are not described in any detail so that we do not have an understanding of why Grady is important to Ella.

A lot missing, a lot of empty connections, and a lot of disappointment!  Don’t bother!

The False Prince (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

I love it when my kids ask me to read books that they’ve read.  I love sharing in the experience with them, discussing it with them, and hearing their reactions to special parts.  This was one book that my youngest son, who is not a huge reader, has been SO excited about — so I had to read it also.  The False Prince is an extremely well-written middle grade children’s book about Sage, a clever and brave orphan with an attitude.  Sage learns, after being bought by a wealthy noble named Connor, that he must compete with 3 other orphans for the position of prince, to replace the lost prince of (fictitious) Corythia.  Connor, who has the secret knowledge that the king, queen and older brother of the lost prince have been murdered, claims that if the lost prince and next heir to the throne is “found,” it will save Corythia from civil war.   Sage rebels against Connor and disdains his plan, but he realizes that he must vie for the position in order to save both himself and his country.

The tale is somewhat reminiscent of The Hunger Games, in its competition to the death theme and in some of its gruesomeness, but it is not nearly as violent or as disturbing.  It does have a torture scene, which was surprising to me for this reading level, but throughout the book there is more the threat of danger than actual danger.  The story takes unexpected twists and turns and was really suspenseful till the end.

There will be a sequel, so expect to see it later in this blog!

A Long Way Down (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

This book, written by the author of High Fidelity, is a crazy novel about 4 very disparate people who happen to meet on the roof of a building on New Year’s Eve because they’ve each made a plan to kill themselves.  As they begin to realize that they are all there for the same purpose, they begin a discussion about why they are up there.  And so begins a bizarre sort of friendship among the four that somehow persists in spite of themselves.  Their dialogue is honest and raw and insane and their story is odd and quirky, and the mood vacillates from laugh-out-loud to profoundly sad.

What adds to the color of this book is the change in the voice.  Each chapter is narrated by one of the four main characters, and each of their voices is unique.  They are really so different from each other — really their only common thread is their mutual suicidal inclination.  They do not even seem to like each other, which adds to both the chaos and humor in the story.  Each one is philosophical in his or her own way, though, and through them the author manages to comment on life and life struggles and questions of why we bother with it all.  Each character, in joining this weird brotherhood of sorts, searches for what gives his/her life its meaning and makes it worth carrying on in the face of what seem to be insurmountable troubles.  And it’s fairly entertaining to join them for this ride!

Oxford Messed Up

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Oxford Messed Up  by Andrea Kayne Kaufman

This book was a disappointment.  It sounded like a fun love story about an American, Jewish girl, albeit one with severe OCD, who goes to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship and meets an equally screwed up boy with whom she shares a bathroom.  They bond over their mutual obsession with the music of Van Morrison and their relationship becomes mutually therapeutic.  It’s a cute idea that unfortunately is poorly executed.  The writing is exhaustingly repetitive and each idea is drummed in ad nauseum.  There are no complex characters — they are all unidimensional and flat.  A number of subplots are left unfinished and there are many ignored opportunities to develop characters more deeply.  In addition, dialogue is limited and dull.

There was also a surprisingly offensive sentence in this book:  “While her family was not particularly observant, they were not among the reform and conservative Jews who celebrated Christmas.”   While some Jews may choose to celebrate Christmas, this sentence makes it sound as if anyone who is not Orthodox generally celebrates Christmas.  This is simply not true.  It’s a weird statement in a weird book.

If you are interested in knowing more about what Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is like, you might find this book something of a psychology lesson.   I was just kind of hoping for a good summer read and this was not that book!

Slammed and Point of Retreat

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Slammed,  and Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover.

A “slam” is a poetry contest where the contestants perform their poetry before an audience who then judges them, sort of an American Idol for aspiring poets.  It is a slam which brings together the 2 main characters of these books:  Lake, a girl whose father has just died and who has just been uprooted with her mother and younger brother, to Ypsilanti, MI, and Will, her new neighbor across the street.  They connect immediately but quickly stumble upon a huge barrier to their relationship.  Obviously, since there are 2 books, there is an ongoing relationship of sorts, but the ups and downs are extreme and the reader is pulled right inside their hearts to feel the rollercoaster ride right along with them.  The poetry woven in so beautifully throughout the story gives it an added dimension and the quirky characters that surround Lake and Will add some welcome levity.  Possibly the only characters who remain somewhat flat are their 2 younger brothers who play a huge role but are not developed to their fullest, in my opinion.

In the second book, however, a couple of new characters are introduced, and one, the younger brothers’ friend, Kiersten, is my favorite.  She’s an 11 year old poet, sage and wiseass, and everyone in the book adopts her as their best friend for very different reasons.  I sort of felt that way, too.  She becomes quite the heroine at the end and you can’t help but smile and silently cheer for her when you read about it.

Basically, I laughed, I cried…  but for real.  When I don’t want to read another book right away because I still want to live with the characters for a little while longer, I know I’ve read a good book.  This is one of those.  Actually, this is two of those!