Book #158: The Miserable Mill

Book #158: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

January 25, 2015

Once again, I couldn't resist downloading and breezing through the next A Series of Unfortunate Events book (this one, "Book the Fourth"). As I expected, the poor Baudelaire kids were put to work, in a lumber mill owned by a horrible chain-smoker called Sir. The absurdity was over-the-top in this one, and I wasn't really feeling it this time. I've heard that the next book is critical in moving the plot of the series forward, and that's a good thing. It kinda seemed to me like Handler threw this one together as a lead-in to the important boarding school situation.

Okay, so the hypnosis idea was interesting, and it made sense that Olaf would bring somebody with that ability in on his scheme. I'd want to know more about Dr. Orwell...did she and Olaf have some sort of history? After all, her optometry office is in the shape of an eye, same as his tattoo. She seems to be established in pathetic little Paltryville, so the whole eye thing has to be more than a coincidence. 

Apparently there aren't any child labor laws or worker's unions in this world. The employees of the mill are paid in useless coupons, not money. They sleep in bunk beds and get crappy casseroles for dinner, gum for lunch, and nothing for breakfast. I don't really get how Mr. Poe placed the kids there in the first place, as the kids don't seem to be related to "Sir" at all. He's such a useless dolt.

Olaf's disguise as Dr. Orwell's receptionist Shirley was very silly, but there wasn't enough of him in the story. Sorry to say, but I found myself wanting more Olaf. He's behind the whole thing, of course, but was rather minor in this book, and Dr. Orwell ended up being the most evil here. I mean, she was gonna cut a baby's throat. What a bitch.

Snicket was delightful and silly as usual. This book on the whole just didn't really do it for me. I think I ought to just stick to reading the series at work. I am looking forward to "Book the Fifth," as it seems to be a bit of a game-changer. This is the point in the series where the author could lose me, or hook me until the end. In the meantime, I'll spend my reading time outside of work on the much longer, more age-appropriate novel that I spent most of the weekend on, anyway.

Book #157: The Wide Window

Book #157: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

January 24, 2015

Book three (or rather "Book the Third") of the A Series of Unfortunate Events. I stated my intention to have these be my classroom reading books, but I was so into this one that I couldn't resist borrowing the ebook and finishing it. I have been sharing my appreciation for the books with a colleague and some of my students. The colleague assured me that, though this book did follow the pattern I'd detected, they won't all do so. I think my enthusiasm inspired the showing of the film as one of our activity options yesterday. I couldn't watch it, though; I was supervising volleyball in the gym.

Though I'd be tempted to inflict violence on the evil and relentless Olaf, the Baudelaire children are more moral than that. They're practically Jainists; they wouldn't even kill the flesh-eating leeches that were swarming their sailboat. Being on a higher moral plane than their enemy, they will need all of their wits to beat him...if they can. Because once again, the adults in their lives are useless.

Mr. Poe shows that he has some balls, very briefly, near the end of the book, when he yells at Olaf and sticks up for the orphans. But when Olaf ran, he wouldn't go after him or his obese cohort. And he's still a total moron. He was perfectly willing to sign custody of the kids over to "Captain Sham" (oh, come on!) after he thought Aunt Josephine committed suicide. I mean, they'd been with her like a week, and she'd met the disguised Olaf just that day...wouldn't he consider her unstable, and just find the kids a new home? And a bodyguard? Hello?

Josephine was something else. Not only was she an over-the-top grammar Nazi, but she was afraid of just about everything: phones, stoves, doorknobs, door mats, just name it and she had a phobia of it. The kids couldn't hide their impatience for her in the end, but were still upset when Olaf threw her in the lake to be eaten by the leeches. That's the same way her husband died, though I don't think Olaf caused that one.

Olaf kind of drops the hint at the end of this book that he caused the fire that killed the kids' parents. It's a super brief reference, and I don't think the traumatized kids caught it. He's a real bastard. Please let something really bad happen to him!

The next book is called The Miserable Mill. Oh, great. Are these poor kids gonna be forced into child labor? These books would be too sad if it weren't for the silly narrator. I found myself smirking, even laughing out loud, more than anything else as I read this book. There are even more tidbits about "Snicket" in this one, such as the brief story of a girlfriend who was carried off by a giant eagle. Were Snicket a whiskey brewer he probably would have rescued her, but he is a self-confessed coward...though a funny one at that.

Book #156: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2

Book #156: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 (edited by Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith of the Mark Twain Project)

January 23, 2015

Even though about half of this volume is explanatory notes by the editors (which I skipped, of course), this is still a hefty text. I enjoyed the same things about this one as I did the first volume: Clemens's family anecdotes, his commentaries on contemporary life and society, and his meetings with famous people and royalty. There were some topics in this book that didn't fully hold my interest, like the chapters on the copyright laws. But on the whole, it was as enjoyable as the first volume.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see Susy Clemens's writing in the third volume. Clemens shared the last of it already, cut off mid sentence as Susy was describing a family trip to Keokuk. Undoubtedly the teenager got too busy to continue her work. Her father's mourning of her, his reflections that she would never be able to finish her own work, were still heartbreaking. 

I'm convinced that Clemens was a great father. He harshly criticizes men who were unfaithful to their wives and uncaring for their children, like his frenemy Bret Harte. Clemens himself was a family man, fond of acting out plays and playing educational games and relaxing with cats with his daughters. It's clear, through Susy's writings, that his daughters adored him. 

In this volume, Clemens frequently expresses his distaste for religion. These were some of my favorite chapters, as his issues with religion match my own. Undoubtedly he would have hesitated to share these views of the Christian God openly during his time; I wonder if he ever shared them with his BFF, Reverend Twitchell? Twitchell does not come off as the kind of man who would claim that God has an interest in the outcome of a war, favoring one side or another, or something like that. Clemens is very critical of people, especially clergymen, who give God credit for good or bad luck. I think that even today, Clemens's views would be controversial to a certain extent. Clemens predicted that eventually, the Judeo-Christian God would no longer be a focus, making way for another major religion (a worse one, he thinks), but Christianity is still alive and well (?) in 'Merica today.

Clemens also predicted that the U.S. would eventually become a monarchy. Not so, but the worship of the wealthy is as strong as ever, and they're the ones who are running things. Politics is just as crooked now as it was in Clemens's time; politicians still buy votes, just using different methods from the ones back then.

I'm looking forward to Volume 3, but if it were already out, I'd probably wait a bit to read it. I love Mark Twain, but I think I need a little break from being inside his head. I still like the structure of this autobiography, but it got a little dizzying to have him keep jumping back and forth between topics. Plus, he got a little repetitive sometimes when returning to a topic that he'd previously discussed. By the time Volume 3 is released, I should be ready for another heaping helping of Mr. Clemens.

Book #155: The Reptile Room

Book #155: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

January 21, 2015

These A Series of Unfortunate Events books are perfect for my classroom reading. I read about 10 minutes a day with each of my three reading sections, and can easily get through a chapter or more in each session. I'll probably be able to finish all 13 by the end of the school year, if I'm still delighted as I continue on. So far so good.

What I really love about the series is the voice of the fictitious author/narrator. Lemony Snicket is more of a presence in this second installment than in the first. He is "investigating" the lives of the Baudelaires, and with some secrecy, too. This adds intrigue to the dilemmas that the children face: how will it all end up? Because I get the feeling that creepy Count Olaf is never going to fucking stop until he gets his way, or he gets killed.

In this book, after the daft Mr. Poe realizes the truth about Olaf (though the villain escapes, to continue his terrorizing of the children), he places them with another distant relative, whom they call Uncle Monty. The kids like Uncle Monty, the snake collector and expert, quite a bit, especially after their experiences with Olaf. But Monty is just as dense as any other adult that these kids have to deal with. He's kind of a dick to Klaus, too, snapping at him at least a couple of times. But the kids have a place in Monty's home and in his life, and he excitedly prepares to take them on an expedition to Peru. 

But then, dastardly Olaf comes along in disguise as a new assistant for Monty, having killed his previous one to get the spot. Olaf also kills Monty in cold blood, making it look like a snake attack. I felt the children's frustration as they tried to work around Olaf's violent threats, and when Mr. Poe comes along with luggage for the kids, they of course can't readily convince him that "Stephano" the bald assistant is really Olaf. But the kids, clever and resourceful, finally manage to expose the truth to the knucklehead. But Olaf still escapes.

I've written before that in children's and YA literature, it's very common for children to be smarter than adults. But the scariest thing for the Baudelaires  isn't the unrelenting violence of Olaf, but rather the fact that their very lives are in the hands of irrational adults, who constantly put the children in their place. Mr. Poe makes all these important decisions for the kids, but he doesn't really know them, and he's an idiot and seems oblivious to the fact that they're in real, constant danger. So honestly, even though Olaf is absolutely wicked, Poe is another kind of evil himself.

I've started in on the third book. I'm thinking there will be a pattern to this: the kids get sent to a new, strange relative; a disguised Olaf worms his way in and bumps off said relative; the kids outsmart him, saving themselves though he escapes. I hope the next 11 books don't stick strictly to that pattern, but I think the quality of the writing, and my growing interest in the sometimes seen narrator, will keep me reading regardless.

Book #154: Orange is the New Black

Book #154: Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman

January 20, 2015

Due to the popularity of the Netflix show, of which I'm a huge fan, I was on a wait list for this particular eBook for like five months. You can imagine that I was stoked to finally have it show up on my "bookshelf." It's interesting what the writers of the show have taken from Kerman's experiences, and of course a lot of content has been added, for drama and intrigue. But I think ultimately both the book and the series have the same goal: to show people the current problems with our prison system. Indeed, Kerman probably wrote her story to fill a void that she noticed when trying to prepare for her sentence: there weren't really any books about what life's really like for women in prison.

I'm mainly going to run through a comparison of the book and the show it inspired. First off, Piper IRL really did fall for an older woman who was running an international drug smuggling ring. But it sounds like Nora was no Laura Prepon. Plus, Nora and Kerman didn't serve time together, but did see each other again, and kind of reconcile their differences, while on trial in Chicago.

Sorry, fellow lesbians: all of Kerman's prison relationships were strictly platonic. No fun time described in the book; Danbury is much calmer in that regard (or really as a whole) than fictional Litchfield. I don't think Kerman witnessed any physical altercations during her sentence. She mainly focuses her relationship on the friendships she formed, and how she and these other women (all nonviolent offenders) helped each other through the challenges of prison life.

The engaging characters on the show are based on one or two real life people described in this book. Vanessa, the basis for Sophia, does say the line about having to come to prison to become a woman. On the show, a whole backstory is created about Sophia's identity theft crimes, but Vanessa's conviction is never revealed. Pop was the IRL Red, who only told Kerman off harshly for criticizing the food...they actually became good friends. There's a real Pennsatucky, though not a religious nut, and actually a friend to Kerman...she gets new teeth, as on the show. Kerman does butt heads with a religious nut or two, but not even close to the point where her life was threatened.

The real Larry isn't a shmuck like the one played by Jason Briggs. He's a patient support system, and he and Kerman wed after her release. Kerman has a long list of family who come to see her, and her non-judgemental mother comes frequently. As an added bonus, there's no real life Polly, because fuck Polly.

That's not to say that Kerman's stint was easy. She dealt with COs who were often disrespectful; she reflects on stories she's heard of sexual abuse in the prison, or consensual guard-prisoner liaisons that only got the prison in deeper trouble. She was sexually harassed by her first boss in her electrician assignment, but was able to switch to a kinder boss in construction. She makes the point, several times, that the bureaucracy in prison administration is slow at best, and it seems that these people are hardly held accountable for completing the paperwork to grant prisoners their rights. 

But worst of all is that crowded prison systems do nothing to actually "rehabilitate" criminals. Kerman's unique perspective as a woman of privilege allowed her to be concerned for her fellow inmates and friends who didn't have what she had: a place to go home to, a good job waiting for her. Through her story, Kerman seeks to advocate for non-violent offenders who have no resources upon release. 

Though Kerman's story lacks the often over-the-top drama of the show, it is engaging and important. The two big take-aways are first, that the U.S. locks up too many people, and second, that those prisoners aren't given what they really need: opportunities to break the cycles of poverty or drug addiction or abuse that led them to their crimes in the first place. Imprisoned people are among the lowest on society's totem pole, and based on how badly they're typically treated, it shows just how messed up as a whole our society truly is.

Book #153: The Beast

Book #153: The Beast by Walter Dean Myers

January 15, 2015

Myers is one of the most celebrated YA authors of all time. He especially appeals to adolescent boys, making him all the more valuable in my eyes. The only other text I've read by him was the highly-acclaimed Monster, and I appreciated the unique structure of that particular story, and the ambiguity of the main character's  innocence. A couple of my students read the text I'm reviewing somewhat recently, and were enthusiastic about it. So when I was choosing my classroom book, and spotted this laying aside in our school library, I gave it a shot. I was unpleasantly surprised. This is the worst book I've read in a while.

Now, the themes of this book are rather poignant: teen drug use, trying to live in two different worlds (a theme covered masterfully in Sherman Alexie's YA gem, the semi-autobiographical The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian). But the main plot points are implausible to me. Myers fills the narration with so much flowery imagery that I came to think of Anthony, the first-person protagonist, as a shmuck at best (though "whiny little pussy" would be more accurate); Myers should have focused on crafting a much more solid story.

First off, Anthony seems pretty naïve for having grown up in Harlem. I don't even get why he and his parents, who both seem to have decent jobs, even live there. If they wanted a better life for their son, why throw so much money into a single year at an out-of-state boarding school, and instead send him to a prep school in the city, of which there are many? Anthony must be academically gifted, though this is never mentioned. At all. His going to Wallingford is important, but the how and the why of it apparently are not. I also don't get how Anthony feels so uncomfortable in Harlem after only a few months away, while he never seemed to feel as uncomfortable around his wealthier classmates, so far from home. What's his deal?

Secondly, I hated Gabi, his girlfriend, more than any other character, and none were particularly likable. Her sudden drug usage (and heroin at that) doesn't ring true to me. Which essentially is the whole conflict right there, Anthony trying to reconnect with her and help her get clean. Their love doesn't seem like it will survive, either. Gabi goes to rehab and gets a job in a stockroom, while Anthony begins his studies at Brown. They're truly in two different worlds now. Plus Gabi isn't ready to give it up, and Anthony's a young man in college, so...then again, he is a whiny little pussy, so never mind.

I joked to a colleague that our students are into some emo books, and this one was as melodramatic as they come. It could have been good if it had focused exclusively on Anthony's identity issues, or on Gabi's brother. A young teen in Harlem with a dying mother and an absent father turning to gangs and drugs seems more realistic, but it was barely a plot point. But his older sister, with a scholarship to Columbia, throwing it all away? The plot was so poorly constructed that I couldn't believe that.

I understand that "the Beast" is real, anywhere and everywhere. This book could have sent a positive message. It could have been compelling. But it wasn't. I described this book as "kinda shitty" to that same colleague, and I stand by my assessment.

Book #152: Unfamiliar Fishes

Book #152: Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

January 11, 2015

Double-entry day, but of course this is the only book I actually finished today. Theoretically, I should have loved it. Vowell's tone in her writing appeals to me: sometimes snarky, with many pop culture references. Her views on imperialism, religion, and culture coincide with my own. And the book is about the history of the Westernization of Hawaii, and I always want to read about different people and places. But while I found this book to be interesting, I did not love it.

I guess my main beef is with the organization. The book isn't long at all, barely over 200 pages in the edition I read. But it's not divided up into chapters, and there aren't any headings, as Vowell delves in to over a century of Hawaiian history, with lots of supplementary material to go with. It actually reminds me of Mark Twain's autobiography in that Vowell frequently goes on tangents. The difference here is that Vowell's thought process wasn't always easy to follow as she kind of jumped around with who or what she was talking about. Headings would have been rather helpful here.

The story of how Hawaii eventually became a state, as Vowell observes, follows a pattern of colonization seen at that time around the world. First, Hawaii became acquainted with the world at large when British explorers came upon it. They also traded with Asia (particularly China I think) back in the 18th century. Much of Vowell's text deals with the influence of New England missionaries in the early 19th century, and while Vowell acknowledges the positives in this relationship (such as the creation of a written form of the Hawaiian language), she is mostly critical of these puritanical haoles. 

As more and more haoles came into contact with native Hawaiians, disease killed off a huge percentage of the population. After the missionary group in New England ended the funding there, the children of those missionaries would go on to take over Hawaii's government, overthrowing the queen and pushing for annexation by the U.S. Vowell explores the difficulties faced by Hawaii's leaders leading up to this coup; trade made them prosperous, and the leaders who had been educated in missionary schools wanted to Westernize, even Christianize, Hawaii to a certain extent.

There is still discontent in Hawaii today. Vowell writes that, when there were celebrations for Hawaii's 50th anniversary of statehood, protesters held up signs declaring "We are not American". There's still a conflict; on the one hand, tourism is now Hawaii's main economic source, so the haoles are the ones bringing in the cash. But while there's still an interest in Hawaii's traditional culture, there's some bastardization of it to suit tourists. It makes me think of the South Park episode "Going Native," which I think is a brilliant supplement to this text. 

I read a review on Goodreads in which the reviewer stated that she's a fan of Vowell's work, but was not enamored with this particular text. I definitely like Vowell's writing style, if I was put off by the organization. I will definitely have to see what other topics she's written on. I'll give her another shot if any topics jump out at me. 

Book #151: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1

Book #151: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (edited by Harriet E. Smith, Benjamin Griffin, Victor Fisher, and Michael B. Frank of the Mark Twain Project)

January 11, 2015

Well...I actually finished this one two books ago. See, I intended to count volumes 1 and 2 as one book together. They're both extremely large; sick of waiting for my ebook reservation, I picked up volume 2 at the library yesterday, and it's massive. I'm only a few pages into it at this point, and I just found out that there will be a third volume, to be published next year I expect. These three volumes together will be the complete, unabridged (one of my favorite words) dictations of his memoirs. Considering all that, and the fact that Goodreads counts each volume as separate books, I'm going to do the same.

Volume 1, which I completed a little less than a week ago, has a little extra. It includes other writings (some, maybe all, previously unpublished) of Clemens's on various topics that he mentions in his autobiography: former president Grant's later years and their friendship, his writings on the shipwreck survivors he interviewed in Hawaii, some family anecdotes. I felt like they enriched the work. 

As expected, the tone of this work is humorous and critical at turns. Clemens is especially funny when he talks about himself. I laughed out loud as I read his sarcastic lamentation about the harsh criticism about his looks. He jokes of having an inflated ego, and that with the fact that he'd kind of be justified in having one only highlights his humility.

Clemens explains early on that he doesn't intend to follow a tradition structure in composing his life story. Instead, he just sort of mused on whatever came to his mind, frequently connecting current events to past ones as he discusses people he knew and places he'd been, past and present. He states his intention of discussing what interests him, and I for one think it works. His train of thought isn't hard to follow, and each day of his dictation begins with a helpful list of topics that will be covered. 

One framing device used for much of this volume is the inclusion of snippets of Susy Clemens's biography of her father. Clemens and his wife Olivia had four children, a boy who died as a baby and three daughters who lived to adulthood. Susy died when she was in her mid-20s, and Clemens's reminiscence of her is heartbreaking. A little portion of Susy's work would be inserted, and Clemens would go on to elaborate on what she was describing. I enjoyed this book most when Clemens wrote about his children and his wife (who died a year or two before he started his memoirs).

Clemens talks some about his siblings and parents, too, but I can tell that volume 2 will talk more about them, at least Clemens's brother Orion who was a politician. I'm hoping it will also talk more about his riverboat days, as there's only a little of that in this volume. He does talk about the death of another brother, which happened during this time. There's also stories of Clemens's childhood, which I didn't realize was very much the basis for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He himself was Tom; his younger brother was the basis for, though bolder than, Sid; his widowed mother was Aunt Polly; there was a kid who would be Huck Finn, and a real "Injun Joe," who didn't really die in the caves as in the book, and a real-life basis for Jim. Clemens really did mess with the cat, and he really did get lost in the caves with a girlfriend. I don't think my childhood would make a great American classic; his made two.

Clemens seems like he would have been a fun person to be around. As some people do, he calmed down as he got older, but he reflects on how his wife often had to keep his social behavior in check; they even had a system of codes in place for when he committed any faux pas. It's been speculated that Clemens was bipolar, and I could see why that conclusion would be drawn. At one point, he himself questions his extremes in mood, his tendency to feel deeply melancholy or joyous. And there are hints of manic behavior, like when he describes a practical joke he played on a collegiate society in Europe, or something like that. But I wouldn't necessarily label him as "bipolar." Clemens was a wise man; I hold him in higher and higher regard the more I read of his life story. Being wise, he probably was rather in touch with his feelings as well. Why did he feel so deeply? Because he wasn't afraid to. Because he was a thinker.

Many criticisms that Clemens has of American society over 100 years ago could be made today. Extreme bipartisanship isn't a 21st century construct, and Clemens establishes himself as an independent voter in a time when this was uncommon, even socially unacceptable. He also observes the legions of fans who follow the daily events of people who are famous simply for being famous...such newspaper articles were the precursors of today's tabloids and reality shows. Clemens himself was a big celebrity in his time, but obviously for good reason.

Clemens writes in both volumes of his distaste for President (at the time) Theodore Roosevelt. He decries the president's reactions to two events: the slaughter of a tribe in the Phillipines, and the brutal ejection of a middle-aged female citizen from the White House. He felt that Roosevelt himself was a brute, and this coming from a man who was acquainted with at least two former presidents. I have no doubt that Clemens would have much to say about today's political climate, particularly that circus called Congress.

So far, Mark Twain's autobiography is no less than I expected it to be. I hope to finish volume 2 soon (I'll be able to read more when the ebook does come through), and I will eagerly await the release of volume 3, which will probably be just as enormous as the others. Certainly Clemens had a lot to say. People were willing to pay a lot of money in his time to hear him, and based on the success of this newest edition of his autobiography, people still want to absorb his wisdom. I envy those editors of the Mark Twain Project; that's pretty much a dream job right there. The only person more fortunate here was Josephine Hobby, who got to record Clemens's dictations firsthand.

Book #150: The Bean Trees

Book #150: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

January 9, 2015

At one point during my winter break, I hit up Half-Priced Books and picked up a few new books for the fancy bookcase my dad got me for Christmas (hint-bombs work). This was one of them. This is the third Kingsolver work I've read, the second novel and, I think, her best-known. 

The cover of the edition I own has a snippet of a review from the New York Times Book Review. It calls this a "Southern novel taken west," and I agreed, but not necessarily in a good way. Some elements made it seem like stereotypical Southern chick-lit. You have:

-A protagonist from modest circumstances

-Women and children who are displaced/in distressed

-A quirky and benevolent middle-aged mother figure, a woman who is just too good (and who probably doesn't have kids of her own)

-Some degree of eccentric Christianity

-A sense of homely comfort that could be shaken any time

You've read that book; I have at least a couple of times. But using this familiar framework, there are some worthwhile elements in this story. The main plot revolves around Turtle, a young Cherokee girl who is foisted onto Taylor (the protagonist; I felt like I'd met her before, too) as she's traveling from her home in Middle-of-Nowhere, Kentucky to wherever she happens to end up. In her early 20s, fed up but also scared of her life in her small town, she takes off to seek adventure. She and Turtle end up in Tucson.

Funny how the last book I read about Kingsolver had her leaving Tucson with her family to head back east. There were definitely signs of Kingsolver's vegetable love in this book. The first words that previously-catatonic Turtle says around Taylor are names of vegetables. Mattie, the already-described mother figure to Taylor, is able to maintain a garden in brutally hot Tucson. And Taylor isn't completely satisfied with the desert; when she's back in Oklahoma, at the Lake o' the Cherokees, she reflects on how her soul had been thirsty in the desert.

Now, Taylor finds a happy home in Tucson with housemate Lou Ann, a fellow Kentuckian whose husband abandoned her when she was seven months pregnant with their son. She has a job at Mattie's tire shop, and even assists her in helping immigrants get away from the border. But it's sad to me that she left her mother. They'd had a good relationship, and while I realize that Taylor had to leave to even have Turtle come into her life, I don't know...is she really all that much better off? I guess I didn't fully get why Taylor left her hometown to end up in Tucson. She has ties there now, but she had ties at home, too. She was on track to become a legitimate X-Ray technician, but in Tucson she's, well, a tire jockey. Not bad, but is it better?

I guess I just didn't connect with the characters in this book. But something else bothered me, too. There's definitely a "men are scum" vibe here. Angel, Lou Ann's husband, is a self-pitying asshole. Taylor grew up without a dad because her father abandoned her mom while she was pregnant. Worst of all, Turtle was molested before Taylor got her; the aunt who handed her niece off through Taylor's glass-less car window was protecting her, possibly from her own husband. And the only prominent make character is Estavan, one of the immigrants whom Mattie helps. He was the perfect man who sometimes shows up in those Southern novels: handsome, well-educated, mild-mannered. And while Taylor, of course, falls for him, there's un problema: he's married, and not really interested in her in that way, anyway. His wife Esperanza is sweet and pitiable, having lost many friends and had her child taken from her. These two were probably the best characters in the book.  But other than Estavan, there are hardly any men central to the plot. I'm pretty indifferent to men personally, but I definitely don't hate them. I believe and know that women are superior to men overall, but I don't think men are monsters. Maybe because I work with troubled young men, and I see how easy it is for such monsters to be created. You know, abuse cycles and all that. Women can be abusive, too, and hateful and monstrous, but I still think that on the whole, women react in less outwardly destructive ways to trauma. I should probably stop here, as I don't want to perpetuate any stereotypes. I get kind of a feel with where Kingsolver's head was at regarding men at the time, being a single mom and all (she must have gotten with Steven Hopp after she wrote this book, though if my math is right, it couldn't have been too long after...). It seemed to me like she projected some bitterness onto young Taylor.

I'm noticing that I tend to not go for Kingsolver's fiction, but I may still check into any other nonfiction she's written. I didn't exactly dislike this book, I just didn't really get into it. For any devotees to Southern chick-lit, this book would be a must-read, especially if they don't go in for romance. 

Book #149: The Bad Beginning

Book #149: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

January 7, 2015

I certainly didn't need a day off from work so soon after winter break, but I couldn't complain when I got the phone call last night. It's one of those insanely cold days, but I've been out and about a little, in addition to getting some reading done.

I'm in a bit of a bind with my ebooks. See, I've finished volume one of a two volume text (I'll count them as one book once I've read both). I'm at the top of the hold list for volume two, and for a book I've been waiting on for several MONTHS. But neither are available yet, so I needed to find a short ebook for gym reading, not too long that I won't be ready when I get one of the other books. But now I've finished that short one...oops.

Anyway, this is the first of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I saw the movie with Jim Carrey in it years back, and it wasn't bad. What I'd heard about it, though, is that rather than attempt a series of films ala Harry Potter, they kind of just took elements of several of the books (and much of the plot of this first book) and made one movie. The consensus is that it didn't work; having just read the first book, I can't really say.

This is an interesting book. There's a mixture of whimsy and darkness in the tone that works here. I think if these books had been around when I was 9 or 10, I would have devoured them as quickly as I could. I was a little older than that when the series started being published, and I do remember hearing about it as a teenager, but it didn't catch my interest at that point. However, this series has an adult following as well, and I get that. "Snicket" (Daniel Handler) includes absurdity and cleverness that might be more easily picked up by adults than children. For instance, while making some of the vocabulary accessible to younger readers with narrative explanations (a motif), some of them are silly jokes. Yeah, shit sucks for the Baudelaire kids, but the heart of the story is the humor.

And, of course, the fact that the children are more clever than the adults. That is, of course, almost expected in children's literature. I'd say this is a good book, and since I'm pretty sure we've got the series at work, I'll probably pick up the second one as my next reading book for my classroom. I will definitely recommend it to my struggling readers; as I said, the book is accessible, but not "dumbed down." A classmate of mine a couple of years ago, who I had a bit of a crush on, had gotten into the series herself as a kid, and pointed it out as a quality text for struggling teen readers. I concur, and I think it's a rather good series for confident adult readers as well. I will definitely find out for sure.

Book #148: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Book #148: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

January 2, 2015

I've seen this book listed on several "must-read" lists, and I always found the title very interesting. It's apparently the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner, but I've never seen it so that doesn't mean much to me. Since I enjoy futuristic dystopian stories, my reading this book was inevitable. It's an earlier work in that genre, published in the '60s. Personally, I was not very impressed with this particular work.

For one thing, I found myself picking holes in the plot. For one thing, just why does this Rosen Corporation or whatever want to create humanoid androids that could honestly pass as human beings? It's established that that's a goal, but why? It's not wrong what the bounty hunters do. The androids that Rick hunts down killed people. So there you go: the major points of the plot fall apart right there. Oh, and why create young "female" androids with unevolved bodies? That's just creepy.

I felt like the whole Mercer thing was heavy-handed; Dick was trying too hard for symbolism I think. Maybe if the plot had focused more on Iran (Rick's depressed wife) or Isidore, or if we'd seen more interactions between the ordinary or even "special" people during the story's 24-hour time span, the whole concept of Mercerism would make more sense. 

Overall I though the plot was underdeveloped, but there were some strong points. The whole thing with the animals was the best part of the book (though I have to wonder, if they are so endangered, wouldn't the government step in and keep them in a controlled environment?). See, war and radioactive dust have destroyed Earth's atmosphere, and nearly all non-human life (and a lot of humans as well). To own an animal, any animal, is a status symbol, and considered a patriotic duty or something. Because animals are really fucking expensive, cheap electronic ones, lifelike but just not quite good enough, are popular. Rick and Iran have an electric sheep, and Rick longs for a real animal. That's what really drives him, because what the hell else is he gonna get excited about?

The planet is mostly abandoned as people have fled to other planets, colonies of Earth. Mars is the largest one, I think. But only people of a certain intellect can go. Isidore is apparently "special," labelled a "chickenhead" with an IQ too low to qualify for emigration. He doesn't seem all that dim-witted to me, maybe someone who would have an IEP in school but resourceful enough to live in isolation and hold down a regular job. I mean, if he's not intelligent enough to emigrate, then I would think a lot more people would still be on Earth. His intelligence on the whole seems pretty average. 

I found the idea of Buster Friendly to be very interesting. Unsurprisingly, the perpetual TV and radio personality is an android. And, besides providing the kind of mindless chit-chat that brings in ratings for many shows today, it seems to be vying for the attention of the people of the solar system with the whole Mercer thing. Who created the empathy boxes, and who created Buster Friendly and his friendly friends? I could venture a guess that Friendly and the Rosen people are working to help androids eventually take over the Earth...but to what end? They die out after like four years...what's the point? What was the point of this whole book? 

So in spite of a few promising elements, I found this book to be half-baked and sloppy. At this point the best early dystopian-themed works that I've read have been the short works of Vonnegut and Bradbury. I certainly wouldn't recommend Fahrenheit 451, as that book is just straight ridiculous...though it, too, have some promising elements, and is also regarded as a classic in this subgenre. Though I found this book to be second-rate, I am left with one burning question: is Ryan Seacrest, tireless television and radio personality, an android?

Book #147: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Book #147: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (translated by Reg Keeland)

January 1, 2015

The "Millenium" trilogy by Larsson is probably the best-known literary work to come out of Sweden since Pippi Longstocking (which is referenced more than once in this book). Overall I found the story to be pretty run of the mill; neither of the issues that Mikael Blomkvist dealt with were particularly compelling. What kept me interested was the setting in Sweden, and the title character, Lisbeth Salander.

I thought it was rather insightful of Blomkvist to identify Salander as a person with Asperger's (lol, "assburgers"... I don't know if that will ever stop being funny to me). Only part of her past is presented to the reader, and some things can be inferred. I imagine that the other two books will tell more about what Salander has been through, she and her family. She definitely hasn't had it easy, but she is tough and smart and she's learning to open up to others. 

The mystery of Harriet Vanger was kind of interesting, but I felt that it was resolved predictably, as far as what happened to her. The crimes of her father and brother were shocking, to be sure, but there's more of an implication of horrible deeds than many descriptions of these. At least, I found it mild compared to, say, American Psycho. 

In spite of this, I found the whole Vanger situation to be way over the top. This was a busy book; Salander goes on to help Blomkvist ruin a crooked businessman, Hans-Erik Wennerström, who had first tried to ruin Blomkvist when he, a journalist, wrote about his shady double-dealings. I would have honestly wanted to see more of that situation, and less of the whole Vanger thing. 

This book has gotten attention internationally in recent years, and the film trilogy has already been made in Swedish. I don't think I was all that impressed with this first installment. I could do with less Blomkvist and Berger and more Salander. She's the only reason I would consider reading on in this trilogy.