The Lightning Thief AND The Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series
Books 1 & 2
Young Adult Fiction
By Rick Riordan

Ah, summer reading! I've been looking forward to falling into a good book now that I have a LITTLE more time in my days (staying home with a six- and one-year-old only barely affords me more time to read than when I'm teaching full time). Also, I finally figured out how to borrow books from the public library on my Kindle. I know, I'm a little behind the times. And the same goes for reading this delightful series. The first one came out in 2005, and some of my students (and cousins) have been after me to read these books for years. Now I see why.

You probably already know all about these books, being much more up on things than I am. But just in case, here's the premise: sixth grader Percy Jackson finds out in the beginning of the first book that he's the son of an ancient Greek god, only they're not Greek anymore. It's modern day New York. And he's being chased by monsters. For the whole book. It's basically just a very fun, young-adult fantasy romp across the country, with super-cleverly integrated Greek mythology references. I'm learning more about Greek mythology than I ever have from middle school, high school, college, or even teaching the stuff. It's great.

One thing that I can't decide if I love or if it bugs me: it's A LOT like the Harry Potter books. Percy finds out as an adolescent why he's always been so different from everyone else, then goes on a quest with two buddies (a smart girl and a goofy guy), solving one mystery per book but leading up to the major conflict, which is that an evil but previously defeated lord is trying to come back and destroy life as we know it. They go to Camp Half Blood once a year and then return to their regular homes annually. Also, there are frequent interactions with the mortal world and explanations of how mortals don't know about the gods. I kept expecting to hear the word "muggles." So I don't know if it bothers me that Riordan is capitalizing on this successful formula, or makes me glad that there's another chance to experience something like Harry Potter anew.  I guess a little of both. But it doesn't bug me enough to keep me from reading the next three books. I placed holds on the e-reader versions on the library website.  If I get all three at once, I may have to hire a babysitter to take my kids to the park so I can read.

Heaven is for Real

Memoir by Todd Burpo

Well, book club friends, I think this post will be the test of whether you really want to be in this club with me. I debated even writing about this book experience because I would normally only share this with very dear friends. But my husband says I need to be more personal on this blog, that it's what people like and how I'll get made into a movie like Julie Powell (he's only partly joking). So I guess I'll just dive right in and get REALLY personal.

It all started with the last bad book I read, and with me forgetting that I own a Kindle. First,  The River Wife so completely traumatized me with a baby's violent death that I couldn't finish it, nor read the other really heavy emotional books on my shelf. Then, being too busy to go to the library and failing to remember that I can just order books on my Kindle, tiring of reading People Magazine and old Real Simples, I turned to this book. I've had it for a year or so and not been real drawn to it--everything about it made me think "cheesy" (I mean, the color?) But, being desperate for a book, and knowing that at least the child LIVES in this one, I deemed it good enough.

So, it IS a little cheesy, but simply and sweetly told. The author's son has a near death experience at three years old and soon starts telling his family about visiting heaven. The dad (pastor of a small church, like my dad) tells the story with a wonderfully humble, down to earth, real voice, while making lots of references to Bible verses that match his son's descriptions of heaven. It's not life changing but interesting and really quick and easy to read (I read most of it while my one year old took a marathon nap). 

But here's the personal part: at  one point, the little boy tells his mom that he knows she had a baby that died in her tummy because his sister hugged him in heaven. He says she has brown hair like their mom (not blond like everyone else in the family) and that Jesus is taking care of her, but she can't wait to meet her parents. Oh, wow. That is MY story. I have two precious kids, who look just like their dad and not one bit like me. Between them, I had a molar pregnancy, which is when the baby doesn't develop right but becomes a mass of cancerous cells instead. For almost three years I have been carrying doubt and grief about whether that baby I started to love really lived long enough to be a baby and have a soul and be in heaven. And while I know that this little boy's story isn't verifiable fact, it's enough for me to have hope and faith that I have a baby waiting to meet me in heaven. And maybe letting go of that doubt will be a gateway to letting go of the anxiety that haunts me regarding my other two children.

So welcome to my crazy. I guess now that I've told you all that, there isn't much need to hold back anything else. I hope it doesn't scare you away, but that we can connect a little more now. Maybe it will help make sense of why I can't, just can't, read stories where terrible things happen to children.

By the way, I just ordered a free Kindle book (who knows? could be good), a Kindle preview of a Jennifer Weiner I haven't read (hello, light reading), and a mail order library book recommended by my aunt. And, it's four days until summer vacation for me. That's a pile of goodness I am happy to dive into!

Fail: Two bad books in a row

I am traumatized. First of all, I don't think I've ever quit on TWO books in a row. What a fail. But second, and worse, the most recent of the two quits made me SOB.

Let me back up. After I read Charlotte Bronte's fictional diary, I was inspired to re-read her sister Emily's book Wuthering Heights. I read it the first time either in high school or college and hated it, but I thought maybe the wisdom of years would teach me to enjoy it more. Uh, no. Still hate it. It amazes me that Charlotte can romanticize the moors and harsh men so much in Jane Eyre and yet Emily's landscapes and lovers make me want to throw the book across the room. It's dark, disturbing, not one bit romantic, and frankly, boring. When I found myself watching re-runs of "Friends" rather than reading, I knew it was time to call it quits. So I looked up the rest of the plot on Sparknotes.com and called it even.

Then I picked up one of those "wife" titled books I was talking about before, The River Wife by Jonis Agee. It's historical fiction, set in both pioneer days and the 1930's, as one new wife discovers and reads the journal of her husband's grandfather's first wife. The story was intriguing, the writing both clear and descriptive, and the characters multi-faceted. There was a certain sense of foreboding that kept me thinking about the book. All good things. Then I read a scene, probably the one that was being foreboded, that made me want to do more than to throw it across the room. I wanted to burn it. Really. I couldn't get it out of my sight fast enough...but it's not mine, so I just...put it by the front door. The scene is the horrific, violent death of a sixth month old baby. I don't want to go into more detail because it will just make me sick again, but I WILL tell you what happens if you ask, just so you won't have to read this book. Maybe you'll read it anyway, and maybe the rest of it IS good, but I don't want to risk reading another horrible scene. Some things just shouldn't be written about, I think.

So... I'm going to spend a few days watching happy movies and maybe reading some celebrity gossip magazines. Then I need a light, airy, beachy read to take my mind off the trauma. I'm going to let the World War II book sit on my night stand a while longer. Any good suggestions for light reading? Message me on facebook, or better yet, bring it straight to my house (and maybe bring some chocolate ice cream, too).

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte

Novel (ish) by Syrie James

Is it a novel? Is it a biography? Who cares, it's delicious!

Like a few other "novels" of historical figures that I have read recently, this story takes factual events and presents them with fictional dialogue to create a seamless story.  It's just interesting that some authors choose to call these books novels (such as James does here), while others call them history (such as in The Zookeeper's Wife).  Jeanette Walls called Half Broke Horses,  the story of her grandmother's life, a "true-life novel," though it read more like a memoir. The first encounter I had with this type of book was Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens, a title which confused the heck out of me for a lot of the book. Was it real or wasn't it?

Regardless of what they are called and how the lines sometimes blur, this relatively new genre seems to be here to stay, and I'm glad.  Because these stories meet my two most important criteria for books: learning and loving it. Seriously, I enjoy books more if I've learned something. But I have to like the story, and true history often fails to captivate me.

From The Secret Diaries, I learned a great deal about one of my favorite authors AND about the writing process. It's always amazing to me to see how autobiographical most books, especially first books, are. As I read, I recognized the bits of Bronte's life that would go into Jane Eyre, even before she planned to put them in herself. It helps that I've read Jane Eyre multiple times, and seen two or three movie versions of it. But even as she wrote her less familiar books, it became apparent how she modeled them on her own experiences. Also, the story obviously contains Bronte's interactions with her sisters, Emily and Ann, who also wrote famous novels, and how the three sisters spurred each other on to writing. How cool would that be, to have a built-in writing community? I guess not as cool considering they all three lived with their father as adults.

You know I also need a happy ending to be completely satisfied. This was a case where, I admit, I skimmed the last few pages early, to make sure it WOULD be a happy ending. Because I had done some fact checking part way through, reading some online biographies of Bronte to see just how much of this was historically accurate. Most of it is, it would seem, but there is disagreement about her death (that's not a plot spoiler, we all know she's dead). One resource online speculated that Bronte had perhaps hastened her own death, feeling unhappy in her circumstances. Hello, NOT happy ending. So I read ahead, to be sure that this version of her life doesn't follow that train. Thankfully it does not.

So now I have to choose: do I reread Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, or keep going to the stack on my night stand? I decidedly did not get Wuthering Heights the first time I read it--it's so dark and creepy, how can Catherine and Heathcliff really be one of the most romantic literary couples of all time? And why is his name Heathcliff? Do I want to delve into these questions again, or move on? We'll see. I'll take tonight off and think on it.

The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great

Historical fiction
By Eva Stachniak

One wonderful benefit I've received from starting this "book club" is a widening of my perspective. Instead of seeing each book as a single experience, I now have an awareness of how it fits in the scope of my reading. Stories remind me of something I read in college, or of why I like or dislike certain genres. I reflect on where I got the book and what that says about me as a reader. And often I end up comparing books to others by the same author, or, as in this case, by a different author in the same genre.

This book came to me in one of my favorite ways: I requested it from the library because I saw it on a book list, forgot I requested it, and was delightfully surprised when it showed up in my mail box. (By the way, my almost-six-year-old daughter has also discovered the joys of books by mail. She's a little more...impatient? persistent? Let's just say we check the mail a lot.)

So I requested this because it sounded like a variation on the many Philippa Gregory books I've read (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Constant Princess, etc), just not set in England. Don't get me wrong, I love Brit Lit and British history. But I was ready to branch out. And also, Gregory's books overlap so much, with the same real characters being either on the way in or out of power, or being part of the previous or next generation. This story is a start of something new. From the perspective of a palace servant, the plot starts with Elizabeth, empress of Russia in the 1700's, as she looks for a bride for her young nephew and heir. When she chooses Sophie, a minor princess from Germany, there is much political maneuvering and very little romance. Sophie is renamed Catherine after she joins the Orthodox church and through much more political maneuvering and only a little more romance, becomes Catherine the Great, the next empress of Russia. Without her husband. Hmmm.  Like most historical fiction, we know the outcome before the beginning, but it still unfolds in interesting ways, and with some beautiful description of Russian imperial life, family relationships, and the power of friendship.

While the new blood and setting is refreshing, one complaint I have is the timeline. Like with Gregory's books, I was a little confused when sometimes a few weeks take chapters to explicate but other weeks take sentences. I know some authors can do that successfully, but this hops, skips, and jumps so much I was disoriented.

Also like Gregory, Stachniak is going to continue her story in another book about Catherine. I haven't decided yet if I'll read it. Since the original appeal was a new story line, I'm thinking no. Please let me know if you read it and what you think!

The Distant Hours

Novel by Kate Morton

Ok, weird story... in two ways. First, how I came to read this book is different. And second, the story itself is weird. 

I bought this book for my grandma's birthday gift, never having heard of author or title. It just looked like something my grandma would enjoy--a pastoral European story with nostalgia and a hint of mystery. I almost didn't get it, because the paperback version is pretty fat, and heavy books hurt Grandma's hands as she reads. But in total honesty, I wanted to read it too, and Grandma always shares.  Throwing caution and carpal tunnel syndrome to the wind, I bought it and gave it to her. A surprisingly short time later, she put the book in my hands and said, "Read this and tell me what you think." Uh oh. I asked her if she liked it and she said something like, "Yes. No. Just read it." So after I finished The Zookeeper's Wife and before I started rereading the YA books for my class book project, I picked up The Distant Hours. 

 And I have to say, I feel the same. Do I like it? Yes. No. Just read it. The book is billed as historical fiction, but it's really not. The main narrator is a 30-something single from London in the 1990's, but she's investigating (for personal and professional reasons) a mysteriously published book and a mysterious disappearance at a castle in England during World War II. (Side note: my mom was just commenting how many WWII books she's read lately, and I didn't even realize this was another one until I typed that just now. Crazy.) What's weird about this book to me is not that the narration spins around violently in time (not just present/past, but past/past/past/1990's). It's also not that weird that there are many strands of mystery going on at the same time: what happened to the young man? why is the mom so secretive? who is the mystery lover? why did he write the book?  why all the secrets? No, what's weird about the book is that I wouldn't consider it that great, nor do I particularly like any of the characters, but still I looked forward to reading it every moment of the day until I could pick it up at night. On two occasions I even read during my lunch break, a time I usually work on school stuff so I can pick up my kids earlier. On Friday I accidentally left it at work and went back to get it after my kids were in bed even though it creeps me out to go to the school after hours. I am a reader, but I haven't read a book this voraciously in a while. 

So maybe that's what my grandma meant. Yes, she liked it. No, it's not the best book ever. Just read it. 

Next up: I will NOT be blogging about the YA fiction because it's three books I've already read and just need a brushing up so I can teach them in class. So maybe it will be The River Wife (another "wife" book) or Fall of Giants (another war book, this time WWI). I'm a sucker for a trend. 

The Zookeeper's Wife

History by Diana Ackerman

Wait, what was that? This blog isn't only about novels? You're kidding me. I know, I know. I say I read other stuff, but novels are really my first love. And I'd love to be all high brow here, but really I borrowed this book from my mom's shelf thinking it WAS a novel. With a name like The Zookeeper's Wife, it sure sounds like one. There have been so many "wife" books: Ahab's Wife, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Pilot's Wife, to name a few. (Hmmm...maybe my future novel should have wife in the title.) But you see my point. And the good thing is, this historical account really does read like a novel most of the time. Written based on many first hand accounts and journals, it contains descriptions, dialogue, and thoughts that make the story very real.

The zookeeper mentioned is Jan Zabinski of the Warsaw Zoo in Poland. Along with his wife, Antonina, Jan creates an oasis for animals, animal lovers, and culture at the zoo. The beginning of the book describes the Zabinski's idyllic, slightly odd family life as they live in and run the zoo. When the Germans invade Poland and the zoo is bombed and ransacked, the Zabinskis turn the tunnels, cages, and their home into an oasis of a different sort-- they hide Jews. Hundreds of refugees hide in their keeping during the war, some for a short time before moving on to more permanent hiding places, and some for almost the duration of the war. Jan is also part of the undergroup resistance, a connection that helps the family feed and move the refugees, but also brings them into more danger at time.

One of the reviews of the book calls it a lovely story about the Holocaust, which seems a contradiction, but it's true. The book, like the zoo, is full of the art and culture of Poland, which never interested me before but now sounds so appealing. Ackerman also goes into detail about a number of other topics involved in the war, such as the Nazis' fascination with the blood lines of animals and people and the scientific developments of the time period. Most are interesting; some are distracting.

Even with as many rabbit trails as Ackerman explores, Antonina is clearly the central figure in the story. Jan is the official zookeeper, hence Antonina is, in name, just the zookeeper's wife. But in both the zoo and the resistance, she is much more than this submissive and subjugated person.  She is the heartbeat of the family, the provider of emotional and physical needs, a tireless worker for the zoo and refugees, and just as brave as her husband in the face of extreme adversity. Ackerman often refers to Antonina's almost supernatural connection with animals and ability to calm both animals and humans. More than once, Antonina faces a marauding soldier and mentally wills him to back down. She IS the resistance. Actually, this makes me think I will NEVER title a book of mine "someone's wife."