Reading
In the last month I've read a number of books including John Grisham's newest book for kids, "Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer." But I'll get to that later.
I checked the following books out of the library ---
"The Runaway Princess," by Kate Coombs. An amusing children's fantasy, written at a grown-up level, about a sixteen year-old princess who escapes from the tower in order to save the dragon, witch, and band of thieves from the crowd of princes trying to win her and the kingdom.
"An Ice Cold Grave," by Charlaine Harris. An adult murder mystery about a woman who can sense dead bodies in the vicinity, and feel how they died (including torture and death). She enters a liaison with her "brother" (no actual relation) who has been taking care of her and her business as a psychic. They had always loved each other, but the step-sibling thing kept them from expressing it.
"Hundred Dollar Baby," by Robert B. Parker. I can't remember anything about this, so it must not have been very memorable.
"The Runaway Dragon," by Kate Coombs. This is a sequel to the children's fantasy (written at a grown-up level) "The Runaway Princess." It is just as amusing as the first one. The Baby Dragon grows up, the princess has to save her friends from a giant, and save the band of thieves from a sorceress. In the end, the chief thief, who can pass for a prince, is allowed to court her, and she is pleased.
"The Girl With the Mermaid Hair," by Delia Ephron. A young-adult book, the library's summary says: A vain teenaged girl is obsessed with beauty and perfection until she uncovers a devastating family secret. Hmmm, now I remember that she was obsessed with her own image and kept taking "selfies," pictures of herself with her phone camera. Then she wore heels to a football game, sat on the wrong side, fell in the mud, went to a party after the game, was almost groped by the quarterback but ran away ... and then ... it escapes my memory. Oh yeah, Her father is unfaithful and she sees it. Her mother finds out and kicks him out, and then kicks the girl out for not telling her, but in the end she gets to move back in with her mother.
"God is in the Pancakes," by Robin Epstein. A young-adult book about a high-school age girl who has to do community service (for drunk & disorderly) at an old folk's home where she befriends an old man who is dying with Lou Gehrig's disease. He asks her to help him die by crushing 20 pills, but she can't bring herself to do it, at first. This raises the issue of what do you do, when doing the right thing is illegal and possibly wrong. You will enjoy the main character.
"There are no Words," by Mary Calhoun Brown. This short historical novella for young adults deals with autism and asperger's syndrome. It contains excellent descriptions of the feelings a person with asperger's may have, and how they may deal with the overload of sensory experiences the world contains. Entrancing.
"Dragon's Keep," by Janet Lee Carey. This young-adult fantasy tells the story of how fourteen-year-old Rosalind fulfills the six-hundred year-old prophecy by Merlin in an unforseen way, to become the twenty-first queen of Wilde Island, making peace with the surviving dragons along the way. Well written.
"The Wager," by Donna Jo Napoli. I couldn't get into this story set in 12th century Sicily about a man trading his looks and good hygiene to the devil for three years in order to obtain unlimited wealth. He ultimately lives.
"The Ring," by Bobbie Pyron. This is a young adult novel about how the discipline of women's boxing helped turn around the life of the main character. And no, she does not win the final bout, but it was close.
"I So Don't Do Makeup," by Barrie Summy. This middle-school mystery is one of a series. Like Nancy Drew in grade-school, the mystery gets solved. The writing is maybe too simplistic for adults. The sentences are deliberately kept short and simple.
"The Patron Saint of Butterflies," By Cecilia Galante. This is a young-adult story/mystery about two twelve-year-old girls who have lived their whole lives in an oppressive religious commune. In the end, they have to step up and tell the truth, which destroys the commune. I knew immediately that this commune was going to be bad, when the four most important rules did not include love or truth. Also, all of the people in the commune, including one of the girls were striving for perfection, sometimes through self-inflicted suffering. Though things turn out well in the end, this story, while easy to read, is hard to bear. While realistically portrayed, I still wonder how anyone can believe that righteousness may be attained through punishment --- as if God wants people to hurt themselves and each other.
Re-read "City," by Clifford D. Simak. A series of classic science fiction stories relating the end of mankind over a span of twenty thousand years. Mankind is superceded by talking dogs, the brotherhood of animals, "wild" robots and ants (which die in the end).
Non-Library fiction:
"Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer," by John Grisham. This is not young-adult fiction. The language and sentences have been simplified to accommodate middle-school readers. It is not quite as simplistic as Meg Cabot's "Allie Finkle" series. The story is supposed to be about a thirteen-year-old eighth-grader who happens to be taking classes like Government, Geometry, Chemistry and Spanish --- classes I would never have seen until high school. I get the feeling that the book was originally written with a fifteen-year-old main character, and then re-vamped for middle-school instead. Compare this style to J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. Although she is writing about an eleven-year-old, she did not dumb-down the language or plot. "Theodore Boone," on the other hand, is only half finished. All of the plot threads are left hanging and unresolved. The story was a great disappointment to me, and I cannot imagine it would be any more satisfying to grade-school children weaned on material the quality of "Harry Potter." Two pages from the end, the menacing bad-guy faces down the main character from fifty feet away, then "turned and scampered away." In the last sentence of the book, Theodore Boone "scampered out of the office...." Please! Chipmunks scamper. Adult men and kid lawyers only scamper in the eyes of an author who is not looking at the world through a middle-school kid's glasses. Children are only less experienced, not unintelligent and not undiscerning about when they are being talked down to.
Read well,
Logan
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