Compare/Contrast Review: Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Ophelia by Lisa Klein

Title: Hamlet

Author: William Shakespeare


Pages: 400 (Depending on edition and annotations)

Source: Personal library

Rating: 10/10

Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge #8 - Real and Inspired


Title: Ophelia

Author: Lisa Klein

Pages: 328

Source: Personal library

Rating: 7/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge #8 - Real and Inspired

I'm taking a different approach to my usual reviews with these two. We all know Hamlet is a fabulous read, there's no denying that (Unless you're a hater), and I have some very definite opinions of the version that Klein presents in Ophelia. So, non-traditional, compare-and-contrast-type review it is!

Oh, and if you really want to read this book, I'd suggest not reading this review. It's kind of spoiler-y.

Ophelia: I've never been an Ophelia fan in the original. She was just kind of lame to me (I much prefer Desdemona). Klein's whole purpose for writing this book was to give Ophelia a voice and a better character. I think she did a great job doing this. I actually really liked the Ophelia she painted in this novel.

However, I don't think her version of Ophelia lines up well enough with the original. There's no real precedent or hint of the Ophelia we get in Klein's version.

Horatio: I like Horatio in the original, and I like him in this version. Klein gives him much more space to stretch out and develop, and his development is really in line with what we see in the original. He's probably the best-preserved character from the original to this spin-off. I'm not so sure about his feelings for/relationship with Ophelia, though. I just don't get the sense, from the original, that Horatio had too many dealings with Ophelia other than possibly delivering some messages to and from Hamlet.

Gertrude: While I'm not a fan of Klein's expansion of Ophelia, I think she takes the strangest turn with Gertrude. The Gertrude in the original is very much a background character, and one we're left wondering about. We don't know how she really felt about old Hamlet's death, or why she married Claudius so soon after the death. We don't know, really, how she treats and views Hamlet as a son. She just seems to hang out in the background of most of the scenes, not really saying much.

Klein's Gertrude is a little too knowing for my interpretation, though. If she was so knowing, she wouldn't have done a lot of the things she did and she wouldn't have let a lot of the things happen that happened. Klein's Gertrude is too complicit but still too "innocent" in the whole situation. It just didn't sit well with me.

Events: I'm not going to go into details here, but Klein builds nearly an entire book out of things that happen outside the realm of Shakespeare's play. And, looking at Shakespeare's other plays and many of the conventions of the time period in which it's vaguely set, Klein's events are incredibly plausible. It's a whole book of the what-might-have-beens, and (almost) all of them make sense.

Overall, this is a really interesting read for any fans of Shakespeare, the original version of Hamlet and spin-offs in general.

Show Me 5 Saturday: Push by Sapphire

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here

1 book I read: Push

2 words that describe the book: Overcoming boundaries

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Claireece "Precious" Jones - A 16-year-old severely overweight black girl living in Harlem, Precious is pregnant with her second child by her father. When she gets kicked out of her public school, Precious enrolls in an alternative program that teaches her how to read and write, and gives her a way out of the abusive, poverty-stricken life she has always known.

Blue Rain - Precious' teacher at Each One Teach One, she pushes the young women in the program to write something every day, no matter what it is or how incoherent it may seem. She becomes Precious' champion and her daily conversations with Precious, through a journal, help get the young girl moving in the right direction.

Abdul Jones - Precious' infant son and her motivation for learning to read and write, moving out of her mother's apartment, and working toward a better life for both of them.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked that, although Precious' life up to the beginning of the novel is absolutely horrible and she seems to be caught in a cycle that will never end, Precious still maintains some hope that she'll be able to find a better life for herself. She just needs someone who cares about her (Which she finds) and who knows how to move Precious in the right direction.

I disliked how the entire novel was written in dialect. I know it's Precious' story, and that's how she speaks and thinks, but it just made parts of the book really difficult to read through because I had to figure out what was being said.

I liked the Each One Teach One class's stories written out at the end of the book. We got allusions to where the other girls in the class came from background-wise through Precious' story, but hearing their lives in their own words was interesting.

I liked that the book ends with a lot of hope. It's often easy to write about people in dire situations and leave the book with there being very little hope that the characters will crawl out of it, but not here. Precious has a better life on the horizon, and you know it.

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 4 stars.

The Whys and Wheres: Personal library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 2 - Blogroll Roulette)

Show Me 5 Saturday: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here

1 book I read: To the Lighthouse
 
2 words that describe the book: Modern fiction

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

The Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye - This is the location of the Ramsay family's summer home and the place where the entire novel unfolds over the course of several years. There's really not much else to say about the Hebrides besides showing you a picture:

Source

Gorgeous, isn't it? Sigh...




Lily Briscoe - Not a member of the Ramsay family, Lily really is the main character in this novel. She begins a shy young painter who takes too much to heart the ramblings of Charles Tansley that women shouldn't be painters. She spends most of the novel doubting various things, most often her abilities. There's an idea for a painting bouncing around in her head for a decade, and the painting finally is finished at the end of the novel.


Mr. Ramsay - A rude, self-centered man, he worries too much of his legacy and his impact in the world. He takes out his insecurities on his wife and children, bullying them into submission. He also is very much a modern character who questions Victorian practices and ideals, but only when they serve him.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked, as always, Woolf's writing. She's one of those writers who could compose a sketch on grass growing and make it beautiful. There's no one that compares to her in my book.

I liked Mrs. Ramsay's character. She's kind and hopeful, buoying up her husband and children when necessary, and protective of the children's innocence. She has a very Romantic view of the world, appreciating beauty and believing it should be preserved.

I liked Woolf's experiment with the second section, showing the passing of a decade. It's a tough section to slog through if you're not paying attention, but the payoff is great.

I greatly disliked Mr. Ramsay's character. He reminds me of all those overbearing, chauvinistic patriarchs that are represented in history and literature. He really had no redeeming qualities to him, in my opinion.

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 5 stars. This is a classic everyone should read.

The Whys and Wheres: Personal library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge #3 - 100 Best Books

Show Me 5 Saturday: The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here
 




 
1 book I read: The Final Solution: A Story of Detection

2 words that describe the book: Detective fiction

3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Setting: England

The 89-year-old Detective: It's never fully said, but it's very obvious that this once-famous detective-turned-beekeeper is the Sherlock Holmes of legend. He still retains much of his mental acuity and deductive reasoning, but loses a lot of the quirks that made him so interesting in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical works.

Linus Steinman: A 9-year-old mute whose past includes seeing some hideous things. When his parrot pet disappears, it's up to the Detective to find out what happened and what's made Linus lose his speech.

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked Chabon's writing. I've never read anything by this Pulitzer Prize-winner, but his prose is the stuff of legends. He's a master of the clever turns of phrase and immense vocabulary.

I liked that the mystery centers around a set of numbers that could be anything: A code, a math problem, a phone number. I don't know why this was so intriguing to me, but I think I enjoy it most when the mysteries in books are a little more brainy and a little less whodunit.

I didn't like the way Chabon basically ruined all that was good about Sherlock Holmes. This may sound harsh, but I have a HUGE fond spot in my heart for the eccentric detective (I'm also not a fan of Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of him, but that's another story for another day) and I don't like seeing the things that once made him so interesting just gone. Sure, he's older and retired, but he should not lose the ability for witty repartee that made him so intriguing in the past.

I liked that Chabon wrote an entire section of the book from the parrot's point of view. It was, in my opinion, the most charming part of the book. I wish there would have been more of it!

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 3 stars. I was just disappointed in this one. It would've rated higher if Sherlock Holmes hadn't been so lame.


The Whys and Wheres: Library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 11: All in the Family)

Review: Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

Title: Red Hook Road

Author: Ayelet Waldman

Pages: 335 (I have an ARC, so page numbers in the final version may differ)

Source: Publisher

Rating: 6/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 11: All in the Family)

Summary (From back of book):

Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherleys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.

My Two Cents:

I really didn't have many expectations going into this book, so I can't say I was as "disappointed" as a lot of the reviews I've read are saying. Overall, I liked this book and enjoyed Waldman's writing, but I can't say I loved this book.

Waldman is a fabulous writer. She has a gift for conveying the varied perspectives of different characters on one event. She's also great at describing her setting. In fact, the picture she painted of the area of the Maine coast in which this book is set was probably my favorite part; it made me want to go visit Maine in the summer.

She also has the ability to create some pretty vivid, memorable characters, whether you ultimately like them or not. My favorite character was Mr. Kimmelbrod, the virtuoso violinist and grandfather of the Copaken family. He was devoted to his students and their music, and at times standoffish with his family, but you could tell that deep down, he loved them. I think maybe it was his emotional detachment to the situations presented in the book that allowed me to like him so much, as every other character spent the entire novel so overwrought with emotion and the ghosts of the past.

As much as I enjoyed Waldman's writing and her characters, I felt as if a lot of the plot was just too contrived. There was just too much happenstance in everything going on surrounding the accident that it started to become unbelievable. Also, (nearly all) the characters' unwillingness to move on and dig themselves out of the pit of despair was maddening. I just wanted to scream, "Get on with your lives already!" sometimes.

Review and Blog Tour: Life, in Spite of Me by Kristen Jane Anderson with Tricia Goyer

Title: Life, in Spite of Me: Extraordinary Hope after a Fatal Choice

Author: Kristen Jane Anderson with Tricia Goyer

Pages: 204

Source: Publisher

Rating: 8/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge; Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge #5: Title Word Count)

First Sentence: "Numb. The cold Illinois wind chilled my body."

Summary (From book flap):

Overwhelmed by wave after wave of emotional trauma, Kristen Anderson no longer wanted to live. One January night, determined to end her pain once and for all, the seventeen-year-old lay across train tracks not far from her home and waited to die.

Instead of peace, she found herself immersed in a whole new nightmare.

Before the engineer could bring the train to a stop, thirty-three freight cars passed over her at fifty-five miles per hour. After the train stopped and Kristen realized she was still alive, she looked around -- and saw her legs ten feet away.

Surviving her suicide attempt but losing her legs launched Kristen into an even deeper battle with depression and suicidal thoughts as well as unrelenting physical pain -- all from the seat of a wheelchair.

But in the midst of her darkest days, Kristen discovered the way to real life and a purpose for living.

Life, in Spite of Me recounts in riveting detail the trauma of her suicide attempt, the miracle of her survival, and the life-transforming power of hope in Christ.

For anyone struggling to find the strength to go on, the message of this heart-wrenching yet hope-building book is clear:
God loves you more than you can imagine.
He has good plans for your future.
Life is a gift.

An extraordinary reminder that even when we give up on life, God doesn't give up on us.

My Two Cents:

I've never read an inspirational memoir before, so this was a new experience for me.

I think this book could do people in a certain place in life a lot of good. Anyone, teens especially, struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts could easily relate to Kristen's story. She gives a glimpse of what her life was like following her suicide attempt, such as a party she attends shortly after leaving the hospital, but I would have liked to see more of her daily struggles from that standpoint. We see a lot of how she struggles with depressive thoughts and wishing she were dead, but not a lot about the day-to-day problems she faced after losing her legs.

Her message is one of hope. She had these problems and she tried to do something about them, but God saved her for a higher purpose. It's a great message, and one with which a lot of people can identify. But, I also think her faith may have come a little too easily. Perhaps it's because she already was raised Christian, but Kristen just didn't seem to have the same struggles and questions a lot of new Christians have. I wondered if she really did just accept God that easily (If so, awesome for her!) or if she just left those things out of the book.

Either way, this was a really quick read and I would recommend it to anyone struggling with similar issues or anyone who wants to read a story of God working in a person's life.




I received a free copy of this book courtesy of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group,

Review: Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Title: Certain Girls

Author: Jennifer Weiner

Pages: 384

Source: The library where I work

Rating: 5/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review challenge; Take Another Chance challenge (Challenge 7: Break a Prejudice)

First Sentence: "When I was a kid, our small-town paper published wedding announcements, with descriptions of the ceremonies and dresses and pictures of the brides."

Summary (From book flap):

Readers fell in love with Cannie Shapiro, the smart, sharp-tongued, bighearted heroine of Good in Bed who found her happy ending after her mother came out of the closet, her father fell out of her life, and her ex-boyfriend started chronicling their ex-sex life in the pages of a national magazine.

Now Cannie's back. After her debut novel -- a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) verson of her life -- became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable -- knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy's drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha.

As preparations for Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception -- the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy.

My Two Cents:

I'm going to preface this review with a few caveats. 1) I have never read a book considered "chick-lit" before. 2) I've definitely not read this novel's predecessor, Good in Bed. I had planned to read Good in Bed instead of this one, but my library doesn't have it for some odd reason. 3) I don't like novels in which characters have a changeable flaw, whine about it, but do nothing to change.

We now return to our regularly-scheduled review.

Certain Girls started out fairly strong. In fact, I actually liked it for the first 100 pages or so. It was funny, the writing was solid, and I could kind of see people resembling the characters existing.

Then, it all went downhill from there.

First, Joy bugged me to no end. Sure, she's 12-going-on-13, so she's bound to be annoying and snotty, but Joy was just far, far too snotty for my taste. She snaps and talks back and sneaks around. If she were my daughter and pulling the same stunts, I would ground her and take away all privileges. She routinely (In her narration) calls her mother fat, and that really got to me. I also consistently wondered where she got a lot of the money she was using to buy things and go places. An allowance was mentioned once, and it's pretty obvious that the family wasn't hurting for money, but the ease with which Joy spent her money on things surprised me. Maybe that's just my disconnect from that world that's talking. Joy was definitely my least-favorite character, even at the end.

I also was not fond of the people surrounding the central family. They all seemed much to money-hungry and concerned with status and fame. Of course, a lot of people are like that, but there was just something about how they all handled and viewed their money that didn't sit right with me.

Cannie got on my nerves, too, but I liked her a little better than I liked Joy. I think a lot of the reason why I couldn't stand Joy was because there was nothing in her background story that would cause her to be so mean and bitter. She just was mean and bitter. Cannie, however, had been hurt many times, and she had been deeply hurt, so there was a reason behind her actions. Did I agree with many of them? No, but I could see where they came from.

I wasn't a fan of how Cannie continually thought she was fat or looked dowdy, but never did anything about it. I have struggled, as many women have, with body image issues in the past, but I'm a firm believer in the power of thinking. If you want to change something about yourself, then change it, don't just think about changing it. Cannie was all thought and no action.

Weiner's writing, however, was what saved the rating on this book. She's actually a very good writer, even if I don't like her choice of characters. I found myself laughing out loud at several times.

I've always thought that "chick-lit" is about shallow themes and shallow people, and I'm sure there's plenty of that out there. I nearly picked up The Devil Wears Prada to read for this portion of the TAC Challenge, but I've seen the movie and hated it, so I didn't want to torture myself. Talk about shallow.

Anyway, while there was a lot of superficiality in this novel, there also were some deeper issues: Parental abuse, body image, infertility. It wasn't all fluff and party dresses, which was OK with me. I just don't think I'll be reading anymore "chick-lit" anytime soon.

Review: Swimsuit by James Patterson

Title: Swimsuit
Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Pages: 391
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge (#6 - Genre Switch-Up); Read 'n' Review Challenge

From Publishers Weekly:

A serial killer with an urge to break into print propels this thriller from bestseller Patterson and collaborator Paetro (4th of July). Ben Hawkins, a former L.A. cop turned reporter and author, travels to Hawaii to look into the disappearance of model Kim McDaniels, who has fallen victim to a sadistic fiend who calls himself Henri Benoit. Ben meets with Kim's distraught parents, but the investigation soon runs into dead ends, even as the body count rises. Back in Los Angeles, Henri gets in touch with Ben, and offers the story of his life and the reasons he continues with his murderous spree. As part of the deal, Henri asks the reporter to write his tell-all book. Ben can't refuse given the killer's threat to his life as well as his girlfriend's. In just one of many clever twists, Henri proves to be the consummate storyteller. Patterson fans will devour this one in a single sitting.

My Two Cents:

Since this book fulfills the "genre switch-up" portion of the TAC Challenge, I will just start out by saying I am not a fan of thrillers. Never have been and never will be.

I know James Patterson is a really popular author (If he weren't, he wouldn't come out with a novel every other month! But I digress...), and he can tell a good story, but there were some glaringly annoying things about this book. Mainly, I wasn't too fond of the way his main character, Ben Hawkins, wasn't particularly consistent.

Sure, people have their public personas, the ones we show when we're on-duty at work, but the thought process going on behind all that doesn't change that dramatically. Or, it shouldn't. Ben is all business while at work, and it shows in his narration -- Taught sentences, quick images. Then, when he talks about his girlfriend, Amanda, it's suddenly a big Ben puddle of love. His thoughts get sloppy and he fawns constantly. Yeah, you could chalk it up to the whole "crazy in love" thing, but it bugged me.

That being said, this was an engaging story. If I had been able to sit down and read it straight through, I think I could have pounded it out in a couple of hours. As it is, I finished it in less than a whole day. And the psychopathic killer, Henri Benoit, is very believable as a delusional killer. He really did creep me out.

I like Patterson's young adult series, Maximum Ride and Daniel X, and I went into this book hoping to see much of the same funny, snappy narration. I didn't really get that, and I was disappointed. But, I do have to give the man a lot of credit: He can tell a really compelling story.

Part of my prejudice against thrillers comes in that they are just so popular. They're full of action and suspense, so they make great movies. I prefer a little more cerebral work with my reading, thank you, so I have never thought twice about picking up a thriller. They fly off the shelves at my library, but I usually just smile and say I haven't read it when someone asks.

If you're a fan of thrillers, you'll love this. As for me, I think I'll stick to Patterson's young adult series and steer clear of anything with the thriller label from now on.

My rating: 5/10

Reviews: The Lightning Thief and The Book Thief

Note: I am writing two reviews in one post today because they fall into the same category in the Take Another Chance Challenge.

Title: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1)
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 400
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge (#9 - Same Word, Different Book); Read 'n' Review Challenge

From School Library Journal:

At the outset of this fast-paced tale by Rick Riordan (Hyperion/Miramax, 2005), it would seem that Percy Jackson is just another New York kid diagnosed with ADHD, who has good intentions, a nasty stepfather, and a long line of schools that have rejected him. The revelation of his status as half-blood offspring of one of the Greek gods is nicely packaged, and it's easy to believe that Mount Olympus, in modern times, has migrated to the 600th floor of the Empire State Building (the center of Western civilization) while the door to Hades can be found at DOA Recording Studio, somewhere in LA. With his new friends, a disguised satyr, and the half-blood daughter of Athena, Percy sets out across the country to rectify a feud between Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. Along the way they must cope with the Furies, Medusa, motorcycle thug Aires, and various other immortals. Mythology fans will love this take and kids who haven't been inculcated with the Classical canon will learn aspects of it here while having no trouble following a rollicking good–and modern–adventure.

My Two Cents:

This book was such a refreshing change from a lot of young adult literature; it was a HUGE breath of fresh air. Most young adult books either have pathetically one-dimensional characters (I'm looking at you, Twilight) or their characters are stereotypically awful kids (Gossip Girl, et al) that no amount of great storytelling is going to make up for it.


Riordan, however, manages to not only make Percy Jackson, a demigod (But I won't tell you whose son he is!), a likable character with just the right amount of teenaged sass (He knows who to mouth off to, but shows proper respect to his mother), but he also tells an enthralling story filled with hilarious allusions to Greek mythology.


The writing here is also solid, neither talking down to the target audience nor too over their heads, and Riordan sucks you in from the very beginning. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.


My rating: 8/10


Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Pages: 550
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge (#9 - Same Word, Different Book); 451 Challenge; Read 'n' Review Challenge


From School Library Journal:

Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.

My Two Cents:

Wow. This was one powerful book.

When I first began reading it, I had read several glowing reviews touting this book as "life-changing," but I wasn't so sure. I was intrigued, especially since the book is narrated by Death, so I kept plugging along.

Then, I fell in love with Liesel. She is one of those adolescent characters who is wise beyond her years and that I always wish I had known when I was a kid. She is strong, mostly by virtue of her situation, and her tenacity pays off when she learns to read and write through a series of late-night sessions with her foster father, Hans.

Hans is another character I simply adored. He has a deep-reaching kindness in his heart, a love of music and a tender nature that anyone would be lucky to have in a father or friend. He's also one of those people who is so committed to doing what is right, he is willing to put himself and his entire family in danger by harboring a Jew in his basement.

I could gush all day about the characters in this book, or Zusak's unconventional narrative style, but I am still in a little bit of shock from the incredibly emotional ending. I kid you not, I was sitting in the library with tears streaming down my face, choking back sobs, as I neared the end of this book. It's that good.

My rating: 10/10 

Review: The Giver by Lois Lowry

Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Pages: 192
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 4: Prize Winner Book - Newbery Medal, 1994); 451 Challenge; Read 'n' Review Challenge


From Publishers Weekly:

In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.

My two cents:

I don't know why I waited so long to read this book. From what I can tell, this book came out when I was in either third or fourth grade, and I would have been in the perfect target range for this book. I read Number the Stars with my class in fifth grade and loved it, but I don't know what kept me from reading The Giver as well.

This is one of those books that everyone should read. It has so many lessons on things we should never take for granted, but often do; on the importance of memory; and on how one person's bravery can change the world.

I will admit: I was crying from around page 50 on. I had a feeling that "releasing" wasn't as joyful and great as it was made out to be, but that made it no less shocking when Lowry finally shows us a release. I think I bawled for five minutes straight, put the book down and tried to regain my composure before someone asked me what was wrong.

The best juvenile and young adult books speak not only to their target audience, but also resonate deeply with adults. This is definitely one of those books. I now want to purchase a copy and keep it in my house for when I have children. No one should miss this book.

My rating: 10/10

Review: The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

Title: The Year of Fog
Author: Michelle Richmond
Pages: 369
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge ("Read Your Doppelganger"); Read 'n' Review Challenge





From Publishers Weekly:

In this spare page-turner, Richmond (Dream of the Blue Room) draws complex tensions from a the set setup of a child gone missing. Photographer Abby Mason stops on San Francisco's Ocean Beach with her fiancé Jake's six-year-old daughter, Emma, to photograph a seal pup; by the time Abby looks up, Emma has disappeared. Abby, who narrates, flashes back to her growing relationship with high school teacherJake, and sketches its transformation over the course of the search. Emma's mother, Lisbeth (who abandoned the family three years earlier), wants back into Jake's life—even as he is giving up hope on finding Emma. Abby delves into the bereft missing children subculture and into the vagaries of memory. A hypnotist helps Abby unearth promising details of that singular last day with Emma, but the information requires major follow-through from Abby. The book's twist on missing child stories is wholly effective. Richmond develops the principle characters, and Abby's dysfunctional parents make for sharply drawn secondaries, as do local surfers. The book is beautifully paced—one feels Abby's clarity of purpose from the first page. The sure-handed denouement reflects the focus and restraint that Richmond brings to bear throughout.

My two cents:

I chose this book because its author, Michelle Richmond, shares my first name. And, it looked interesting.

I had no idea I was in for one of the most intense reads I've experienced in a long time. It wasn't intense in the thriller kind of way, or the challenging-to-read kind of way, but intense in the, "I-can't-imagine-this-happening-to-me-OMG-I-have-to-find-out-what-happens" kind of way.

The book begins with 6-year-old Emma's disappearance and follows Abby, Emma's father's fiance, through the next year and her search for Emma. It captured me from the first page. Perhaps it's the fact that missing children capture the public's attention on a fairly regular basis, as the situation is a parent's worst nightmare. Perhaps it's Richmond's writing style. Either way, I didn't want to put this book down.

I agonized along with Abby through her long hours of searching and wandering the streets of San Francisco on the ever-dimming hopes that she would find Emma waiting there. I thrilled as she found the possibility of a new lead in the case. I watched as she tried, desperately, to remember every small detail of that foggy morning on the beach.

The sign of a good book, to me, lies in the characters. Do you care about them? Does it matter what happens to them? If you don't, that's usually the sign of a bad book (Although there are a few exceptions). This novel has characters I cared about in spades.

Abby, of course, was the character about whom I cared the most, as she is the narrator. I cared what happened to Emma and Jake, too, as they were directly related to the disappearance. But there were also several peripheral characters of whom I grew fond, and, if you read this book, you'll meet them, too.

This book, obviously, has a lot to do with memory. Abby reads constantly about the attainment of memories and those who have tried to recall past memories. She not only deals with her memories of Emma's disappearance, but also many memories of her life before meeting Emma and her father, Jake.

Richmond has a talent for details and a clear writing style that helps this novel flow along. Sometimes, I would pick it up and in no time flat, realize I had read another 50 pages. That's a sign of an engrossing novel, in my book. And, it's not a difficult read, by any stretch of the imagination.

I would recommend this book with no reservations, although you may find yourself being much more wary out in public with children after reading it.

My rating: 8/10

I've Done It Again...

I've gone and joined another book challenge. This one sounded like far too much fun to pass up!

It's the Take Another Chance Challenge hosted by Find Your Next Book Here.

The challenge points sounded particularly intriguing, and I've got books for the first nine (of 12) challenges decided already.

Here they are:

Challenge 1: The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
Challenge 2: Push by Sapphire (via Bermudaonion)
Challenge 3: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Challenge 4: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Newbery Medal winner)
Challenge 5: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (5 words)
Challenge 6: Swimsuit by James Patterson (Thriller)
Challenge 7: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner ("Chick-lit")
Challenge 8: Ophelia by Lisa Klein and Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Challenge 9: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan ("Thief")

I really need to stop Googling "book challenges." This is going to get ridiculous.