I read Cane for my 20th Century American Lit class.  This is not going to be a regular review, because I don't feel as confident in critiquing this book as I do others.  So, anyway, what I mean to say is, this will be a quick review.

Cane is one of the more experimental American modernist novels.  Toomer has collected stories and poems and even a play and put them in one book.  He separates the three sections with half circles indicating a beginning in the South, a trip to the North, and, finally, a return to the South.  All the Southern sections take place in Georgia, and Northern section takes place in D.C. and Chicago.  

In the first Southern section, Toomer creates the most amazing sense of place.  His words capture exactly how I feel about my home state.  The languidness and heat and underlying sense of danger--all of that is in the first section, and it's so lovely.  The Northern section is faster paced, with more introspection and less sex.  

For the most part, though, I didn't feel I had a good grasp of Toomer's intentions, and I didn't really enjoy reading the book.  Once we talked about it in class, I understood more and appreciated more, but I don't think I will ever read it again.  

No grade for this one.  

Coming up next: The Wicked Ways of a Duke by Laura Lee Guhrke, and Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

With This Ring is a Harlequin "American Romance" novel.  I don't usually read a lot of Harlequin or Silhouette novels--this might be my third or fourth-- but I've been trying to get into them so I be up-to-date on current romance novel trends.  I want to work for that industry someday, and I've neglected this whole facet of the genre.  Usually I only read the longer single titles or series because I'm a very quick reader and I want a book to last as long as possible.  Still, these novelas are good for when I don't have a lot of time on my hands, like right now.  So, onto the review...

Summary
Boy-from-the-projects Brent Borden has been in love with high-society Leslie Durrance since high school, but she's never had much use for him until he shows up outside the church as she runs away from her wedding and her two-timing groom.  Brent lets her stay at his house, a safe haven from all the gossip and questions she will have to endure.  

At Brent's, Leslie experiences a simpler life than she imagined, and she even finds herself enjoying living life on a smaller scale.  She discovers a new side of herself when she offers to plan a fundraiser for the local homeless shelter at which Brent's mom volunteers.  But what happens when she must return to her world, so seemingly disparate from the one in which Brent lives?  Will she keep rejecting Brent as she has done for years, or will she what a great guy he really is?

Opinion (a little spoilerish)
I enjoyed reading this book, but I feel it didn't capitalize on all its elements.  

First, we have class tensions.  Brent's mother, a tireless crusader for the poor, doesn't like Leslie and all her high class background represents.  The two have several uncomfortable encounters with each other.  But suddenly, off-stage, those tensions are solved.  I didn't like Brent's mother, and I wanted to see her put in her place.  But no.  A phone conversation between Brent and Leslie takes care of the whole business.  Also, Leslie's mother is a right snob, but all the issues with her are solved off-stage, too.

Second, we have long-standing love.  Throughout high school, Brent tried to date Leslie, but she always turned him down.  Why?  The only reason I can fathom is that she had a lot going on in high school with all her committees and club meetings, so she didn't have time to go out with him or anyone else.  The book sort of alludes to the fact that Leslie was never attracted to Brent in high school.  But why not?  There's really no good reason.  She just wasn't.  Of course, that happens in real life all the time.  But this is not real life, this is a book, and in books there have to be reasons for everything.  Also, I don't really understand why Brent likes Leslie.  He doesn't seem to think she's special for any specific reasons.  She's special because she's Leslie.  But what makes her Leslie?  I don't think she has enough of a personality for him to like anything about her.  

Third, we have new love.  Suddenly, Leslie is all about some Brent Borden, but what makes him so different now than when he was in high school and she didn't like him?  Nothing that I can tell.  Maybe Leslie's different, but I don't think she is.  There's no reason other than gratitude for Leslie to be in love with Brent Borden now.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm not being fair.  Maybe she would have been in love with him in high school if she'd had the time to get to know him.  But maybe that's reaching...

I don't know.  I had a good time reading this book because it was well-written, and I needed something to read, but I thought Ms. McKenzie could have developed more tension between the characters, and given more reasons for their actions and motivations.

All in all, I give this book a 6 out of 10 for personal enjoyment and a 6 out of 10 for actual quality.

Up next: Not sure, probably Cane by Jean Toomer.

Placeholder- review to come later.

I'm replacing Red Roses Mean Love by Jacqui D'Allesandro for the book with a plant in it pick for my What's in a Name challenge. I admit it, I read this book just to be scandalized by the taboo topics it deals with.  I've wanted to read it for a while, but they never had it at my bookstore.  Finally they got in a copy of it and I scooped it up.  Golly, I wish I hadn't.  

Summary
Set in the fifties and told from the point of view of the oldest girl, Cathy, Flowers in the Attic is about the Dollanganger family- loving father and mother, brother, sister, and baby twins, good house, good neighborhood--a perfect and perfectly normal family.  Then the dad is killed, and the truth comes out--the family is drowning in debt because the mom couldn't curb her spending habits and the dad didn't have a backbone.  So Mom writes to her filthy rich parents, who disowned her years ago for some unknown reason.  The grandmother agrees to let her and the kids live at their palatial house, but only if the existence of the kids is kept secret from the dying grandfather.  Greedy for money, the mother agrees.  The kids are locked in a small room attached to an attic.  At first, they think they will only be there for a little while, but days turn into weeks turn into months turn into years with Mom's visits becoming less and less frequent and the grandmother's visits becoming more and more vicious.  Chris and Cathy, the two oldest, try to keep the twins occupied and happy trapped in that attic, but they must deal with their own restlessness and blossoming sexuality.  In the end, the kids must cope with tragedy and ultimate betrayal.  

Opinion
I struggled through this book.  The prose is stilted and laborious.  The pace is slow, and the truly horrific parts of this throwback to Gothic horror are slogged down by the inexpert writing.  Aside from that, though, the scandalous parts of this book--the sex and incest--made me feel kind of dirty, tainted, for reading them.  I don't mind being scandalized, but the book is written without an ounce of irony, making the taboo parts too real and too serious for me to be comfortable with.  I think that the idea of growing up and going through puberty in a confined space with no contact with the outside world could have been an interesting topic to explore if the author did not have the intent to shock, but only the earnest intent to figure out what would happen, or the intent to scandalize with a wink and with tongue planted firmly in cheek (to borrow a phrase overused by Nora Roberts).  V.C. Andrews seems to have neither intent, or, if she did, she didn't handle it well, I don't think.

Just as a side note, I went on Wikipedia and read the summaries for the rest of the Dollanganger series (actually written by V.C. Andrews herself, and not others writing under her name after her death), and the saga just gets sicker.  

All in all, I give it a 2 out of 10 for personal enjoyment and a 2 out of 10 for actual quality.

Up next: Just the Way You Are

Placeholder.  Comments to come later...

Oh my goodness.  I've spent the past several days reading these books for this publishing company I work for, and I haven't been able to read anything else (okay, I did sneak a romance novel in there somewhere;).  I can't comment on the quality of the books because of conflict of interest.  I will say that the books are for younger kids and because of that made reading them tedious.  I am so glad I'm finished with them.  I don't want to use them in my 100 book challenge, but just in case I get desperate and have to, I'm listing them here:

1. Mystery at the Biltmore House
2. Mystery on the Freedom Trail
3. Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate 
4. Mystery of the Missing Dinosaurs
5. Mystery on the California Mission Trail
6. White House Christma Mystery
7. Mystry on Alaska's Iditarod Trail
8. Mystery at Kill Devil Hills

My second Ibbotson book (and not my last).

Summary
Set after the Russian Revolution, Anna, a Russian countess, and her family have to flee to England and live in impoverished conditions.  Anna takes a job as a temporary maid at the Earl of Westerholme's estate to make some money for her family.  The household needs extra help because they are readying the house for Rupert, the Earl, and his soon-to-be wife, Muriel Hardwicke.  With her innocent, earnest, hardworking ways, Anna enchants the household, below stairs and above.  She also manages to enchant the earl, who has come to find that his bride-to-be is not quite the woman he thought her.   

Opinion
I liked this book just as much as I liked A Company of Swans.  Again, Ibbotson uses pretty basic romance conventions, but she writes my favorite kind of heroine (innocent, everyone loves her, a little too perfect), and I haven't gotten annoyed with the conventionality yet.  Maybe by the next book.  I didn't like that Anna and Rupert spent very little time just with each other.  In Swans, there is a point when Harriet and Rom are together almost constantly, which gives them a chance to fall in love.  In Countess, Anna and Rupert are hardly ever alone.  I'm able to spend my disbelief and accept that they are in love without having really gotten to know each other, but I shouldn't have to do so.  Ibbotson makes up for it, though, I think, because Anna and Rupert have more powerful moments together than Rom and Harriet do. 

The secondary cast of characters play a huge role in the story.  This is one thing Ibbotson does very well--give all her secondary characters their own personalities.  She never makes them just fillers or walk-ons, so the reader can connect with them and enjoy them.

All in all, I give the book 8.5 out of 10 for personal enjoyment, 7 out of 10 for actual quality. (Same as Swans)

This was book two in my list for the What's in a Name Challenge, but I couldn't wait until the beginning of the year, so it's just a regular book review.

Summary
Set in 1912 Cambridge, England and the Amazon, A Company of Swans stars a ballet dancer, 19-year-old Harriet Morton.  She is the repressed (oppressed?) daughter of a Cambridge professor who is almost engaged to be married to a not-entirely-objectionable-but-certainly-not-ideal colleage of her father's.  She is offered a chance to be in the corps of a ballet company about to tour the Amazon. She escapes from her overbearing father and miserly aunt to join the company.  They travel to South America to perform in an Opera House run by Rom Verney, an Englishman living in self-imposed exile.  She and Rom discover a once-in-a-lifetime love that is threatened by the appearance of Harriet's almost-intended and Rom's former flame.  

Opinion
Ibbotson wrote for these books (A Company of Swans, Countess Below Stairs, and other recently rereleased novels)adults in the eighties, and some of her books have recently been rereleased and marketed to young adults.  I think this was a good move by the publisher (Speak, an imprint of Penguin) because the book is pretty simplistic.  That said, it does have some adult themes and situations like SPOILER lust, exotic dancing, and premarital sex (highlight to see spoiler).  Also, outdated romance fiction conventions feature prominently in this novel: helpless female rescued by male, one-dimensional "Other Woman" character, etc.  I don't really have a problem with this, but I could see how people would.  I could also see how people would have a problem with the plethora of coincidences that carried the plot forward.  Seriously, one Amazon review compared it to Charles Dickens' novels, and she is so right.  At one point, Ibbotson blatantly announces that Rom encounters a deus ex machina, and I wanted to yell that her whole novel is one deus ex machina after another (if you are slightly liberal with the definition).  Oh well, I got over it. 

I really do love this book.  The exotic locale and the 20th century time period are nice changes from the Regency and Victorian England settings I'm used to.  I like Harriet's character, though some may find her too good, too sweet, too perfect for their liking.  She's this innocent, joyful, loving girl that can do no wrong.  I tend to like characters like that because a lot of romance novelists make their heroines shrews because they can't find that balance between independence and niceness.  I much prefer too much niceness to too much shrewness (if that's a word).  

Ibbotson infuses the book with classical references and vivid descriptions of the life of a ballerina and of the ballet.  She is one smart, cultured lady, and her allusions and descriptions make the novel that much more enjoyable.  Sometimes they can make things drag, as can the multiple points of view she writes in, but the story is worth the digressions and time away from the main characters.

All in all, I give the book 8.5 out of 10 for personal enjoyment, 7 out of 10 for actual quality.

So I've joined the My Year of Reading Dangerously challenge.  This is going to be great!  I'll get to read books I've been meaning to read but never really get around to.
  

Here's my list:

January: Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens- I've read almost a half of this for school, but I never did finish.
February: Beloved, by Toni Morrison- This is also a school book that I have to read
March: Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut- I've owned this book forever, but have never been able to pick it up even though several of my friends are Vonnegut fangirls.
April: The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier- somehow I missed this one when I was a kid.
May: Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro- I have avoided and avoided reading this, but now I'm going to get through it. 
June: Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
July:  Ulysses, James Joyce- I read most of this last year in school, but I read it quickly and with little comprehension, so I'd like to try it again.
August: Forgetfulness: A Novel, Michael Mejia- by a professor of mine.  It's supposed to be pretty difficult.
September: Selected Poems, W. H. Auden- all poetry is difficult for me.
October: Gentlemen and Players: A Novel, Joanne Harris- I don't know if this is a difficult book, but it's certainly breaking out of the mold for me
November: A Month of Classic Short Stories, Various
December: The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

This is a review I wrote for Amazon.com, and I figured I'd put it up here too.

"I really love Twilight and New Moon. Really love? More like I'm obsessed. I can read them, and immediately reread them. I eagerly looked forward to Eclipse. It delivered, and it didn't.

Others have summarized the story, so I'll just tell my reaction to it.

The Good:
1. Bella finally starts to think about the consequences if she turns into a vampire. She starts to worry about Charlie and Renee, and what she will be like once she turns. In the other two books, she gave very little thought to these things--not very mature, in my opinion.

2. Jacob and Edward both appear a great deal, unlike in the previous two where one of them would go missing for long periods of time.

3. We learn more about the werewolves, their history and their habits. Very interesting stuff.

4. Bella FINALLY gains a backbone and defies Edward in something. Even going so far as to trick him into getting her way. Before, she conceded to his wishes so easily, or he manipulated or guilted her into conceding. Not very attractive, I don't think.

The Bad:
1. A lot of worrying, a lot of planning, a lot of backstory, not a lot of action.

2. Bella is STILL so terribly dependent on the Cullens. They haul her around and risk their lives to protect her while she is helpless. Not her fault, I know, but I wish Stephenie Meyer would give her some kind of human way to defend herself.

3. I suspected this in the other two books, but Eclipse confirmed it: Bella is ANNOYING in her love for Edward. She blocks out everything but him. I don't know, maybe it's because I love Jacob so much that I get angry when she dismisses him. Bella thinks she will die if Edward leaves her. DIE. Really? Is that such a good message--that the ONLY way a girl can be happy is if she is with her one true love, and bye bye happiness if she's not?-- to teach the young girls who are the target audience for this book?

4. Again, I just can't get over it, she is so obsessed with Edward when Jacob is there and he is much more real. He knows Bella. He doesn't treat her like she's glass. He treats her like a girl. He thinks of his own needs as well as hers, like a normal being would be. And he's so warm. He really is like a sun. I've never really believed in Edward's love. SMeyer never shows us why they love each other. She just states it as if it's fact and we should believe it because she says. In Twilight, there was no falling in love. There was just curiosity, a little obsession, and suddenly they declare themselves to each other. So unrealistic.

Conclusion: Despite all my ranting, I really did enjoy the book, and anyone who has been reading the series will enjoy it too. Get it ASAP!"

I originally gave it four out of five stars.  For this rating system, I think I'll give it a 6.5 out of 10.

So I've finished my first book in my first challenge ever!  Except it doesn't count because I had to read this book rightnow and couldn't wait until the challenge officially starts in January.  Too bad it wasn't worth it. I'm still getting this reviewing thing down, so the format might change as time passes.

Synopsis
In Kissing Snowflakes by Abby Sher, Samantha Levy is an almost-sixteen-year-old New Yorker (the state, not the city) headed to the slopes of Vermont for her winter vacation/father's honeymoon with his new wife, Kathy.  On her vacation, Sam has two objectives: fall hopelessly in love and stay as far from Kathy as possible.  She thinks she has accomplished her first goal once she meets the hot ski instructor, Drew, but are his intentions pure?  And what about the lodge owner's earnest son who seems to be around every corner?  Sam is up for one heck of a vacation.

Opinion
I have very mixed feelings about this book.  Parts of it are funny and quirky and realistic.  Parts of it are barely tolerable.  It hasn't been that long since I was fifteen (six years), but I cannot remember acting like Sam does.  I seem to have an inability to get past my own mind and experiences, and this gets in the way of my judging this book.  So just bear that in mind.

Sher writes in a very conversational style, truly in the voice of a fifteen year old (really, she sounded thirteen to me, but remember my biases).  Sometimes this, and sometimes it's just annoying.  Really, I felt like I was reading my old diary: "Well, today this happened, and can you believe how hot [crush of the week] is, and, oh my goodness, BFF and I are not getting along at all!" 

A lot of the conflicts in the book are superficial, glossed over.  Sam deals with some real issues--a new stepmom, a fight with her best friend, her first experience with boys--that could and should have been explored much more fully.  The resolution of the stepmom issue is contrived and predictable.  The fight Sam has with her best friend Phoebe is never resolved.  As for the boys--and this is a problem with the rest of the issues, too--I just don't feel that Sam learns anything, or learns what she should have.  

I did like some parts of the book, though!  Sam is a sweet character.  She's awkward and nerdy and assertive.  The awkwardness produces some cringe-worthy moments--you know, those that you remember for the rest of your life they're so embarrassing, and you don't know whether you want to laugh in sympathy or yell at Sam to stop being fifteen and show some discernment.  But it also allows for a more likable character.  

The ending is divine.  I love the ending.  I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say more, but it really is a nice finish.

All in all, I give the book 5 out of 10.  

Up Next: A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson  (probably, or maybe a new challenge!)

Wow. I didn't realize I'd find a challenge I liked so quickly.  I found this one here, and here's my list:

1. A book with a color in its title: FOREVER IN BLUE-Ann Brashares
2. A book with an animal in its title: A COMPANY OF SWANS- Eva Ibbotson*
3. A book with a first name in its title: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS- Gertrude Stein
4. A book with a place in its title: BIG SUR- Jack Kerouac
5. A book with a weather event in its title: KISSING SNOWFLAKES- Abby Sher,* THE SUN ALSO RISES, Ernest Hemingway
6. A book with a plant in its title: FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC- V.C. Andrews

I've got all of 2008 to complete these.  The Stein, Kerouac, and Hemingway ones I have to read for school anyway, so I'm sure those will get done, and the other three are young adult or romance (or both!), so those shouldn't be hard either. 

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

This book is the sequel to Twilight, which I read I think right before I started this little project.  New Moon.  I can't remember how long it took me to read this, but I can't imagine it took very long, because this is a kick-ass book.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen (vampire) are in their senior year of high school, enjoying every minute of being together.  The only thing spoiling Bella's happiness is the fact that she just turned 18 and Edward is still in his 17-year-old's body.  But at her birthday party at the Cullen's house, Bella nicks her finger, and the Cullens can barely control themselves.  Edward decides that he is a danger to her, so breaks up with her, and the whole Cullen family leaves.  Bella becomes distraught, and basically shuts down.  She does not come out of her zombie-like state until she reconnects with her old friend Jacob Black, who's going through some rough changes of his own.

Some spoilers

Good Stuff

Jacob and Bella's relationship makes up for the fact that Edward is missing from most of the book.  I had checked Amazon before reading the book, and I was a little distressed to learn that Edward wasn't in the middle of the book, but I didn't even notice his absence with Jacob there.

The whole book is about love and relationships.  It's a young adult supernatural romance novel sans sex (sadly).  

I love books where everything is exaggerated and in which things that happen that you just go, "Real life isn't that way."  I'm not explaining this very well, but I don't want to give away too much of the story.  Suffice it to say, the romance is heightened by unrealistic happenings, but it makes everything so good, you just don't care.

Meyer described Bella's break down in the most amazing way possible.  LOVED IT.

Lots of other good stuff, but way too much to list.  Just go read the book.  It's PHENOMENAL.

Bad Stuff

Bella only cares about Edward.  She does care about her dad and Jacob, but Edward supercedes everyone.  It's a little annoying.

Bella relies too entirely much on Edward and his family and, when the Cullens are gone, Jacob.  She can't hardly take care of herself.

BIG SPOILER coming up (part of bad stuff)



At the end, Edward proposes marriage to Bella, and she doesn't want to have it.  The girl wants him to make her a freakin vampire, but she won't marry him.  Idiot.

There really isn't a lot of bad stuff in the book.


So, recommend INCREDIBLY highly.  Everyone should read this book and Twilight before.  There's a third one coming out next year I think.  Also, everyone should go check out Stephenie Meyer's website, www.stepheniemeyer.com, because she's got a bunch of great extras on it.  She's got extra chapters from Edwar's and Jacob's points of view, playlists that she feels captures the mood of the chapters, even info on the movie they might make of Twilight. 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Interesting book.  Reading a book from an autistic kid's point of view is by turns hilarious, heartbreaking, and tedious.  It took me a while to finish, because I had to keep putting it down from both boredom and frustration.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Not many spoilers, I don't think.

Christopher Boone suffers from autism.  He's a math genius, but socially incompetent.  He lives with his dad after his mother's death.  One day he finds a neighbor's dog dead, apparently murdered with a fork.  He decides to investigate the murder, and the investigation leads him to lots of startling discoveries.  

Note- I didn't feel very strongly about this book, so I don't have too many good points or bad points.

Good Stuff

Christopher's thinking process is intriguing.  He thinks about situations and people so differently from everyone else- logically and without the least bit of, I don't want to say imagination, because that sounds bad.  It's like, he doesn't concern himself with people's motives or thought processes.  He accepts what they say at face value.

Bad Stuff

Sometimes I just felt like yelling at the kid, shaking him to make him understand.  Even though I knew that his autism made him unable to understand complexities and subtleties and the like, it still made me very frustrated when he just couldn't calm down for a minute and behave normally. 

How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot

I bought this book today and finished it today, so, obviously, it was a quick and easy read.  I'm a huge Meg Cabot fan, my favorite book of hers being Avalon High.  This one also ranks pretty high.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Lots of spoilers

Steph Landry has been unpopular since sixth grade when she spilled a drink on uber-popular Lauren Moffat's Dolce and Gabbana skirt.  Lauren's made her existence one of constant teasing, and even thought up the phrase "Don't pull a Steph Landry" that the whole town has picked up.  During the summer before her junior year, she finds a book in her soon-to-be step-grandma's attic called How to Be Popular.  She decides to implement the strategies the book gives on gaining social recognition when she goes back to school to stop the teasing, get back at Lauren, and get noticed by Lauren's popular boyfriend Mark, but her two best friends, Jason and Becca, are confused by her sudden change.

Good Stuff

Steph's a really likeable character just because she's so normal. 

Whenever you open a Meg Cabot book, hilarity ensues, and this one does not disappoint.

Steph isn't as stupid and high-strung as some of Ms. Cabot's other characters, and, as a result, was much less annoying.  

The characters did a little more wrong than in Cabot's earlier writing.  Like cussing and thinking about sex every now and then.  Avalon High is pretty grown up, too.

I really like how Steph made the right decision before her grandpa's new observatory messed up.  I hate when authors make their characters mess up in such a big way, because that just shows a lack of maturity (which is ok because maybe they are not ready to be mature yet) and common sense (which is not ok because I don't want to read about a stupid person).

I also really like how Steph never outright ditched or dissed her friends.  That's a tired storyline.

Bad Stuff

Meg Cabot's heroines always feel the need to clarify themselves with the phrase, "I mean," which can get really tedious after a while.  

It was a little disconcerting to read about a boy who wasn't born in 1987, and couldn't have lived through a certain football game. I'd been alive for a year in '87.  Also, these kids are only like sixteen years old, so they could have been born in 1990.  1990!

I don't really like first person viewpoint because I want to see inside all the character's (or at least the love interest's) heads.  I know that would lessen the suspense, but, come on, are we really not supposed to know that Jason likes Steph?  Really.  But, the first person-hating is just a personal preference, not something that Ms. Cabot does badly.

Despite the fact that there is some cussing in here, it gets a little annoying reading stuff like "'That's just a load of B.S.,' Jason said, except he didn't say the initials" or "'Don't spit where you eat,' he said, except he didn't say spit."  (those are paraphrases, not direct quotes).  Now that I've gotten older and read non-young adult stuff, I wish they would just go ahead and say the real words.  But the publishers prolly won't let them, so whatever.



So, recommend highly.  Not as good as Avalon High, but not as shrieky and hysterical as Princess Diaries