No Fault, All Star

From John Green's Tumblr - he also is the co-creator of Vlogbrothers - wow!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
New York : Dutton Books, c2012.
1st ed.
318 p. ; 22 cm.

This is a very popular novel in our library - and this is a beautiful novel.  That is a wonderful thing to be able to write, and I'm really pleased to have recently had to buy a second copy of this novel (and will probably buy a few more when it comes out in paperback).

John Green has always been one of those solid author's in our collection with books like An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska, but with Fault in Our Stars - there has been a notable uptick in interest in Green.  In fact, I read the book after a couple of students said I had to read it.

It is really a testament to Green's skill as a writer that he takes on such a fraught topic as teens with cancer, and is able to create a deeply moving, tough, realistic, and existentially wonderful love story out of it. 

The story manages to deal with love, art, death, parenting, passion, fear and hope without feeling overwrought and forced. There are a few moments where the characters are just a little to facile with words and "profound," but those moments are few.  The plotting of the novel is also really nice.

Without giving away the plot, I will just say that by the end of the book, Green had me completely swept up in the emotional life of his characters...and it was hard to close the book when I was done.

One last note: the copy I read was loaned to me by a student.  I told her our copy was out and that the next one was on order, but that I wanted to read it soon.  She said, I'll loan you my copy.  Perks of being a librarian!

Gone But Not Forgotten

Map of Perdido Beach as posted on WikiFayz

Gone by Michael Grant
New York : HarperTeen, 2009, c2008.
1st pbk. ed.
558 p. : maps ; 21 cm.

This is the first book of the popular  Gone Series by Michael Grant.  It is a blend of science/paranormal fiction, action, horror, and thriller set in a small beachside California that is suddenly hit by a disaster of fantastic proportions: all persons 15 or older instantaneously disappear, the town is surrounded by a 20 mile radius bubble/force-field that is impenetrable, and - to make matters worse - many humans and animals are beginning to develop physics-defying powers and mutations.  Needless to say, it's a setting for the sorting out and conflict of the best and the worst human behaviors.

First, I should say that the book is VERY readable and entertaining, and moves along at a smart clip with lots of action, intrigue, surprises and hooks.  It is also skillfully written with many moments where the interactions of characters are subtly handled. On his website, Grant writes,

"When they're done with the first book, I want them to need that next book desperately. I want to surprise that reader and scare that reader and make that reader fall in love. In the end I want the reader to put down the book and think, 'Man, that was fun.'"

I think he has succeeded well.  Definitely fun, but for me I won't be hurrying to grab up the next installment - Hunger - in the series.  My main problem with Gone was that the necessity for the "willing suspension of disbelief" is stretched to the breaking point.  I was willing to accept the disappearance of all humans, 15 and up (pretty cool set-up), I was willing to accept the morphing preternatural powers of some of the characters and even the strange forcefield bubble that defines the FAYZ as this little landscape of horrors is called (could it be rationally related to the nuclear mishap referred to in the novel when a meteorite hit one of the reactors and fortunately buried its uranium deep underground?). But when the "Pack Leader" coyote started talking - and when he began communicating with some evil presence deep in the gold mine...well, you get the picture.

My second problem was with the ending.  It seemed rushed, chaotic, and not believable.  There is a scene where one of the "good guys" has a chance to easily kill one of the bad guys - who is truly a murderous psychopath - and just can't do it, alllowing the "bad guy" survives for another day (and another sequel). The ending seemed clearly dictated by the demands of allowing a sequel - and that really drives me nuts.

Complaints aside, I would happily recommend Gone for a student who is looking for a fun, somewhat scary, exciting read.  Especially a student who like long series - this one has five more installments: Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear and Light - all of which our library owns.

Maybe a Masterpiece

Image scanned by Gerald Ajam

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
London ; New York : Penguin Books, 2001.
xl, 866 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.

This should really go under my "summer break" reads, but I only finished it this weekend - so here it is as an fall semester post. As you can see from the page count (866!) it is a bit of a long book.  I had been wanting to read Vanity Fair for some time, and since summer is a good time to take on a thick book, Vanity Fair was on my list.

I found it fairly enjoyable and an interesting read.  It is hard not to be entertained by the pretenses, schemes, dishonesty and greed that infects the cast of characters from various classes of mid-19th century English society that are the subjects of Thackeray's novel.  He has a rather cynical and sarcastic tone throughout much of his work - in some ways closer to a satirist, than a straight novelist. 

The book wouldn't be the success it is without two characters in particular - the shrewd and scheming Rebecca Sharp - and the long-suffering lover, William Dobbin.  Rebecca, or Becky as she is more commonly called, has nasty character flaws - duplicity, appalling mothering, and scorn and ridicule for those she pretends to care about - but the reader can't help but appreciate her intelligence, cunning, and resourcefulness (and realize that she is no worse than the majority of characters that people Vanity Fair). 

Dobbin, as the introduction points out, is surely modeled after the author himself - who, like the character, endured unrequited love for years of his life, enamored of an already married woman.  Dobbin really is the only truly redeeming character in the book and serves as a foil to the many scoundrels populating the novel.

In the introduction to the book, John Carey argues that Vanity Fair is as great a masterpiece as Tolstoy's War and Peace.  I'm doubtful.  It's been more than ten years since I read War and Peace, but only two years since I read Anna Karenina, and I really don't think Thackeray's work is on par with Tolstoy.  I agree that it comes close at times, but Thackeray's general misanthropy and caustic view of humanity ends up depriving Vanity Fair of the pathos needed to overwhelm the reader, the way Tolstoy does.  Nevertheless, Vanity Fair is a remarkable work of fiction, and I would recommend it to any student asking for a recommendation from the classics of English fiction.

To Boneville - Finally!

Graphic is from Out of Boneville and comes from the Comic Book Legal Defense fund's article about a school library challenge being defeated.

Bone: out from Boneville by Jeff Smith
New York : Graphix, 2005.
1st Scholastic Ed.
138 p. : col. ill. ; 24 cm. 

I've been meaning to read Bone for a long time.  Too long!  When I first started in school librarianship over 10 years ago, and was looking for graphic novel recommendations, Jeff Smith's Bone consistently appeared in many graphic novel "Best" lists.  Bone has had great publishing and critical success.

I enjoyed Bone a lot, though I'm a little surprised (and pleased!) at how popular it is in the high school library.  I think I am surprised because it is so good-natured, likable, and lacking violence, sexual situations, and obscenities and even makes references to Moby Dick! It is a comic book series that continues to circulate frequently at my library.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that there is a lot of humor, likable characters, action, adventure and ambitious (dare one say epic?) plotting to the Bone tale.
I don't think I'll be reading all of the Bone books (we currently have numbers 1-8), but I can recommend the book and say that it does not disappoint. Fans of Bone might want to visit the author's lively web page.

A Terrible January

A torchlight parade of SA formations passes in review before President Paul von Hindenberg, who sits in the window of the chancellery, on the night when Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany - USHMM

Hitler's Thirty Days to Power: January 1933 by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.
Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1996.
xii, 255 p., [32] p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.

This was a very readable and informative book.  It is also a very disturbing and painful book to read, since I had not realized that the fortunes of the Nazis were very much in decline at the start of New Year, 1933. It really is a remarkable look at how Hitler insisted on an all or nothing offer of power, in spite of many pressures from within and without of the Nazi party for him to accept a coalition role in governing Germany.

There is much to ruminate over in this short, powerful look at the fateful month of January 1933: the willingness of the bourgeoisie to accept the violent and racist rule of the Nazis, the role of the rule of law in allowing the rise of dictatorial powers, the mistakes of elites in assuming they can control the representatives of vulgar right-wing populism.  There is also just the awful realization of what handing the reins of power to Hitler will mean for the Germans, the Jews, and the world.

I would definitely recommend this book to any student interested in the rise of the Nazis.

Southern Gothic

The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor
New York : Noonday Press : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c1988.
243 p. ; 21 cm.

I saw the movie Wise Blood a long time ago in college, back when I was living in the South, and Flannery O'Connor fascinated me with her brooding and disturbing portrayals of people lost in moral quagmires of obsessions and religion.

Well, The Violent Bear it Away, does not stray far from religious obsessions - and their troubling effects on the subjects of the novel.  The novel develops the intense conflict between Tarwater, an orphan raised to be a great prophet by his religiously crazed uncle and his nephew, Rayber - the strict rationalist - who is out to "cure" Tarwater of the effects of his upbringing.

The forces and personalities at the heart of the conflict hint at irreconcilable tragedy and the ending will leave the reader either satisfied at the resolution, or - as in my case - feeling that it was a bit contrived and rushed.

I can't say I'd recommend the novel to students, but a student looking for a southern writer to read and research might find O'Connor fascinating.  Her writing is also interesting and tinged with dark humor.

Not Your Great Grandfather's War

Bitterly Divided by David Williams
New York : New Press, 2010, c2008.
Pbk. ed.
310 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

This is one of those great history books that causes you to rethink the things you thought you knew about a major event.  In this case, the author is reexamining the Civil War - particularly the prevailing view of the Confederacy as society committed in wartime to the success of an overwhelmingly popular cause - the the desire to preserve secession and the white southern way of life.

Williams instead details how the secession movement was an anti-democratic takeover of southern legislatures by powerful elites - especially the large slaveholders.  He presents a wealth of documentation showing that secession never had a popular mandate - until armed conflict actually broke out.  Williams also points out that the Confederacy had to rely on severe conscription laws to fill the ranks of the army and how the exemption of large slaveholders created mass discontent. Finally Williams documents how the large landholders of the Confederacy contributed to the defeat of the South by dedicating much of their land to luxury items on which they could make exorbitant profits (due to the blockade) instead of foodstuffs that would have helped feed the soldiers and their families who struggled to feed themselves due to shortages and the lack of manpower.

The book is a powerful indictment of war profiteering and the exploitation of the lower classes by the rich southern aristocracy during the Civil War - themes that still have resonance in the current US landscape of war and wealth inequities.