Tying up loose ends

Come tonight at midnight, it will be a new year.  Time to start keeping track of my books in a new spreadsheet, time to officially begin reading challenges.  I have quite a few book reviews to write from books I read in 2009, but I’d like to keep all my 2009 reviews in 2009, so here goes!

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy reading Shiver as much as a I did.  This novel is as much atmospheric as anything; Stiefvater creates the cold, winter landscape beautifully and I loved the sparse prose.   There has been a lot of controversy around this book, though I’m not sure why.  I’m sure those who love Twilight, will love Shiver. Maybe they’ll even appreciate the more skilled writing and beautiful language, which is why I bought this book for my sister for Christmas.  The biggest complaints seem to be Grace’s lack of independence and a couple mentions of Grace’s parents.  It is really convenient that Grace’s parents are never around, but at least Stiefvater attempts to weave this into the story with Grace’s frustration with her parents absence.  After reading the complaints about Grace, I was very prepared to feel the same way, but I was surprised.  I thought Grace was very independent, not perfect, but sometimes I want to read a novel about an all-consuming passionate love.  Okay?  All in all, I thought Shiver was decent, if not perfect.  The plot could have used some cleaning up, the conflict was kind of boring to me.  But I know my sister (14) will love it, so that’s all that really matters.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier is an exercise in form that also doesn’t lose important characterization or plot.  Even though I knew the plot and the fact that Micah is a liar, I was still unprepared for the twists and turns this novel surprised me with.  I literally shouted out loud when certain things were revealed.  It seriously was nothing I was expecting, even though I’ve been following the novel since its release earlier this year.  I really appreciated that!  Highly recommended.  This was also a gift for my sister.  She read it in under 24 hours on Christmas day and really loved it as well.  Over at the blog Fledgling, Zetta Elliot compared this book to works by Octavia Butler and it seems really appropriate (and definitely a high complement) and I completely agree with it.  If that doesn’t get you reading this novel, I don’t know what will.

How to Ditch Your Fairy, also by Justine Larbalestier, was a very enjoyable novel that I gave to my younger sister for Christmas because I thought she would appreciate the sports aspect.  My favorite thing about this novel was the alternative reality that the book is set in.  Everyone goes to a special high school based on your talents.  For example, the main characters attend a sport school, where all of their classes are focused on sports: sport medicine, the economics of sports, the business of sports, the literature of sports.  It’s really a clever idea and one I wouldn’t mind seeing in the real world one day.  Some people even have fairies, though some people just call them luck.  Charlie has a parking fairy, so every car she rides in ends up with the best possible parking space, and she hates it. She hates it so much she hasn’t ridden in a car in weeks in an effort to get rid of her fairy.  In this alternative reality all skin colors, cultures and sexual orientations are normal, but it’s not necessarily a big deal in the book.  And it’s not necessarily a perfect world either, which is just as important.  Highly recommended!

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is beautiful.  There are no words in this story, instead it is told in a series of intricate, unbelievably lovely pictures.  It is the story of immigration, of entering a foreign world and trying to fit in there, told through a fantastic conceit.  Go get this one, you won’t regret it.  Savor it slowly and really appreciate its  beauty.

I loved loved loved this graphic novel.  Everything about it was beautiful.  Ehwa is a young girl who is slowly discovering what it means to be a woman and have a woman’s body.  Set in a timeless Korea, she lives with her widowed mother in their inn.  I can’t wait to read the next in the series because this was really wonderful.  There are so many wonderful scenes that I could have picked  to show you, but I love the melancholy nature of the drawing above.

Well now I’m all caught up and ready to start anew and fresh.  Anyone else trying to pick the perfect book to be their first read of  2010?  I think I’m going to read Anne of Green Gables.  Happy New Year everyone!

Today is a special day

Hi!  Guess what today is!  I’ll give you one hint:

Today is my one-year blogiversary!  I posted two posts on December 28, 2008.  The first one read:

Books.
Crafts.
My life.

Get ready.

Now, I’ve kind of (completely) slacked off on the craft portion of Regular Rumination, but I’m not gonna sweat it.  I love Regular Rumination and everything it has become.  I love everyone who reads my blog, from all of you wonderful wonderful bloggers to my roommates to my family to my friends.  In all seriousness, I can’t imagine my life without book blogging.  It has made reading a more enriching experience and I have read more books than ever before this year.  I’ve made more conscious decisions about my reading and I will continue to do that.  Reading has always been a passion, but it’s grown into something more this year.  I don’t even know if I have a word for what it is.

I’d like to thank all of the people who commented on my blog in the first couple weeks: Heather, Terri, Phantom Inkheart (Lotte), Nymeth, Chris, Charley, Rebecca, Lezlie, Daphne, Eva, Care, Stephanie, Kim, Lesley.  I’ve met so many more people along the way and you guys really convinced me to stick around.  Thanks for everything, kids.  Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Looking Back at 2009

2009 is on its way out and 2010 is about to usher itself into the world.  Things changed a lot in 2009, in the world and in my life and I know that the coming months and 2010 are only going to bring more changes.  One of the  biggest changes in my life was Regular Rumination and my introduction to the book blogging community was on December 28th, 2008, a date that is approaching quickly and I can hardly believe it.  It has been wonderfully enriching to get to know all of you by talking about books and I’m looking forward to another wonderful year!

It’s too early still to put up my favorite books, but there are a few that I know will already make my list.  The Things They Carried was the first novel I read in 2009 and I really can’t think of a better way to start off the year.  It’s not only the best book I’ve read this year, but one of the best books I’ve ever read.  To round off the year, in September I got to meet Mr. O’Brien and see him speak.  It was an incredibly moving experience and one I’m not likely to forget any time soon.

Book blogging brought Young Adult fiction back into my life and like reacquainted best friends who stay up all night catching up, I read a ton of it.  Some of my favorite finds were Scott Westerfeld, John Green, Patrick Ness, Justine Larbalestier, Suzanne Collins, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Olive Kitteridge was a beautiful novel that not only won the Pulitzer but completely won me over, too.  Like The Things They Carried, it has staying power, at least on my top ten list.  2666 might have changed the way I read and my focus of study for my master’s.  The Grapes of Wrath and Something Wicked This Way Comes are two classics I read this year that lived up to their praise and also changed me as a reader.  Even though City of Thieves isn’t perfect, it ended up being one of my funniest reads of the year that still has me chuckling when I just think about some of the jokes included.

Graphic novels were big for me, especially graphic memoirs and non-fiction like Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco and Stitches by David Small.  I made the commitment in 2009 to read more books by women and people of many different colors and nationalities; through that goal, I discovered two new favorite authors that I can’t wait to explore more: Tayari Jones and Octavia Butler.  I hope to make this an even bigger priority in 2010, with authors from around the globe.   Poetry made a comeback in my life and will only continue to become a bigger focus for next year.  I ditched all my challenges a couple months ago, but don’t worry, I’m making up for it in 2010.

Keep an eye out on my blog for a post that looks ahead to 2010 and as we get closer to the New Year, a final year end list that will be nearly impossible to put together.  Thanks everyone for making 2009 spectacular!

TSS – 20 December 2009

This is the great return!  Hi!  I’ve missed you.  I know  I haven’t been completely silent, but my last book review was FOREVER ago.  (Heck, the last book I finished was Shiver back on the 6th!  Ridiculous!  I’m working on a couple novels right now, including Under the Dome by Stephen King, Going Bovine by Libba Bray and the first book of the True Blood series.  Nothing seems to be grabbing my attention, but I haven’t really sat down and given myself time to get into anything.

Christmas is this week!  Have any exciting plans?  All the snow has made my plans a little bit more difficult, because I’m supposed to drive up to the Philadelphia area tomorrow.  Hopefully everything has cleared up by then.  We will see! I’m giving almost everyone on my list books this year, so I’m excited!

I feel like last night when I was thinking about my Sunday Salon post, I had a lot of things to say.  But I’m mostly just excited to be back here and posting reviews  and Poetry Wednesdays.

Last week I got another book, this one is AWESOME.  I’ve never read The Bookworm’s blog, and as far as I know she didn’t read mine before, but she really got a pair of great books and obviously took the time to look through my blog and see what I would like:

Wow!!!!  I squealed with glee when I saw this!  Thanks so much, Bookworm!

Today I’m going to  be reading Under the Dome, what about you?

CONGRATULATIONS Beth Revis!!

Beth Revis!

I’ve been following her blog for a while now, loving her stories about the writing process, revisions, and especially the silly things her students say.  She just revealed that she has gotten an agent and that’s just so exciting, I wanted to say CONGRATS .  She’s doing a big giveaway to celebrate, so head on over there and tell her how excited you are for her!

Don’t enter, because I want to win!

Hey everyone!  I’m entering this here giveaway and wanted to let you know about it.  Maybe because it would give me an extra entry, but also because you could use it to blog anywhere and everywhere!  And I’d love to read more blog posts from all of you lovely people.  Though I would highly discourage you from entering so I might have a better chance

Go here!

Guest Review – Little Sister Book Reviews!

Today I have a very special guest, my little sister!  I asked her what she wanted her blog pseudonym to be and she said, “Bob”.  Then I told her it should be a girl’s name and so she said, “Bobita”.  Yeah, that’s my sister for ya!  So I realized recently that I have very few books to recommend in the middle grade genres, and since Bobita is 10 years old and reads a fair amount, I thought I’d ask her about some of the books she’s read over Thanksgiving break.  She’s caught the book reviewing bug and even gave me some advice on how I should ask questions.

Judy Moody Gets Famous! by Megan McDonald

Lu: What is Judy Moody Gets  Famous about?

Bobita: It’s about a girl named Judy Moody who wants to get famous because she’s jealous of her friend Jessica Flinch.  Jessica’s famous because she won a national spelling bee.  So Judy Moody tried a lot of things to get famous, but none of them really worked.  Her brother was reading the Guinness Book of World Records and one of them was the Human Centipede, so Judy Moody, two of her friends and her brother, Stink, tried to do the Human Centipede.  They tied their shoelaces together and they tried walking to one of her friend’s house.  While they were doing that Judy was in the front and Stink was in the back, but Judy Moody stepped on her friend’s foot and they all fell.  He broke his pinkie and had to go to the hospital.  While he was in the emergency room getting x-rays, Judy Moody and her brother went into the magical playroom and they met a little girl named Laura who just had a heart transplant and was in a wheelchair.  Everything in the playroom was all broken.  Judy finally came up with an idea to get famous and help people.

Me: Who was your favorite character?

Bobita: Judy.

Me: Why?

Bobita: Because she was clever for all the ideas for her to get famous.

Me: What was your favorite way that Judy tried to get famous?

Bobita: The Human Centipede.  It’s where a lot of people get together and they tie their shoelaces together so they’re really long and they walk around for a couple blocks to try to beat the record in the book.

Me: Did you like this book?

Bobita: You should ask me if I would recommend this book.

Me: [glaring] Okay.  Would you recommend this book?

Bobita: Yes, I would recommend this book.  Because it was a very clever book.  Judy tried a lot of interesting things to get famous.

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park

Me: What’s this book about?

Bobita: The book is about a girl named Junie B. Jones who is just starting Kindergarten and has to ride the stupid smelly bus.  She calls it the stupid smelly bus because she thinks it smells and it’s very loud and she doesn’t like it.  The first day of school she hid in the cabinet because she didn’t want to ride the stupid smelly bus.  When she thought everyone left, she came out and she looked in the cabinet and found some clay, and that is her most favorite thing in the world.  So she got it out and she played with it on the ground and after she made something, it was covered with dirt and hair.  She put it back in the little container and put it back in the cabinet.  And then she pretended she was the teacher and was bossing all the kids around.  There was this one boy named “That” Jim and she pretended  to send him to the principal’s office.  Then she got bored of being the teacher and went to the nurse’s office and pretended to be the nurse.   Then she spotted some crutches, which are also her most favorite thing in the world.  So she got the crutches and tried to use them, but they were too big, so she stood up on a chair to use them.  But the chair was on wheels and fell away and she bumped her knee on the desk.  So she pretended to call 911 and told them she hurt her knee.  She wanted to run in the hallway, which is also her most favorite thing to do, so she ran to the bathroom, but it was locked, so she ran to the nurse and actually called 911 and said she was about to have an accident.

Me: Would you recommend this book?

Bobita: Yes, because it’s very funny.

Me:  You don’t seem very sure of yourself.

Bobita: Well, I like Junie B. Jones, because it’s funny.

Me: Do you think you’re too old for Junie B. Jones?

Bobita: Yes, I do think I’m a little old for Junie B. Jones.

Me: So, Judy Moody is better for girls your age?

Bobita: Yes, because it is for girls ages 6-10 and I am 10.

Me: Anything else you want to say?

Bobita: Nope!

I edited Bobita’s descriptions just a little bit because she didn’t understand the concept of “Don’t give away the ending or anything too important.”  I had a lot of fun interviewing my little sister and will probably do it again in the future!  All my sisters like to read, so maybe I’ll get them all in on the  game!

Any MG books you’d like to see my sister review?  Let me know in the comments and I’ll see if our library has them!

Review – Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

“I can’t remember what it’s like to eat without planning for it, charting the calories and the fat content and measuring my hips and thighs to see if I deserve it and usually deciding no, I don’t deserve it, so I bite my tongue until it bleeds and I wire my jaw shut with lies and excuses while a blind tapeworm wraps itself around my windpipe, snuffing and poking for a wet opening to my brain.” (209)

Review – The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud

The first thing I feel like I should tell you about The Emperor’s Children is that I almost stopped listening to it because there is not a single character in this book that I understood or liked.  They all made horrible decisions and did horrible things to each other and were generally self important ass-holes.  Excuse my French.  But then, after a good five or six hours of listening, I started to be really interested in their stupidity.  It was like watching a reality show and being sucked in, even though you keep saying to yourself, “I’m better than this!”

All of that is not to say that The Emperor’s Children is poorly written.  If anything, it’s a little over-written, but the characters, though unbelievably frustrating, are also really believable.  The novel follows several New Yorkers, all in their early thirties, in the year before September 11, 2001.  Marina Thwaite, daughter of the famous journalist Murray Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff, a documentary producer, and Julius Clarke, a freelance critic, have been friends since they were students at Brown University and have little to show for their post-college years.  Marina has been working on a book about children’s clothes (hence the title of the novel) for the past ten years.  Danielle is moderately successful, but rarely gets to make documentaries about what she wants and Julius is just barely staying a float, often taking temp jobs to supplement his income.

Then in the summer of 2001, Ludovic Seeley and Frederick “Bootie” Tubb (Murray’s nephew) enter the picture and things are never really the same again.  Ludovic is a “revolutionary”, attempting to dismantle the hypocrisy of figureheads like Murray Thwaite, who falls in love with Marina.  Bootie moves to New York after quitting of college because of his disappointment in the system to work for his uncle and try to get an “in” to the elite society that his uncle dictates.

These characters are wheeling toward September 11, with no knowledge as to how their lives are going to change in the  coming weeks.  They are dismantling their own lives, rushing into marriages, entering abusive and adulterous relationships.  They hurt each other and themselves and are the physical embodiment of the hypocrisy they deny.  It’s amazing, really, how expertly these characters were created.  I had to constantly remind myself that these people were in their thirties, but that seemed like just the point.  They never grew up and were still children and not even September 11 changed that, though perhaps they were exposed for what they really were.

So do you have to like a character for a novel to be good?  I might have said yes before reading this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this novel.

So go read this!: now | tomorrow | next week | next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR pile

Other reviews:

New York Times (The NYT book review is much more culturally aware than I am)
Ready When You Are, CB

Did you read and review The Emperor’s Children? Let me know in the comments section and I will link to your post here!

Note: This review was already published once, but there was an error with the page.