Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich

Several years ago, I read a book about the history of NASCAR. I couldn't tell you why I picked it up in the first place, but I found it fascinating.  I am not a fan of NASCAR, but I will admit to a certain interest in the subculture. Part of this, no doubt, can be traced to the fact that the race was always on at my parents' house when I was younger. In fact, due to my father's propensity for putting the same thing on every TV in the house so he can watch it as he putters around, it was often hard to get away from it.  

When Janet Evanovich's Metro Girl came out in 2004, I snapped it right up.  I was (and to a lesser extent still am) a big fan of her Stephanie Plum series, and I would have read just about anything she published at that point. I remember liking it, certainly well enough to buy the sequel, Motor Mouth. And now that I think about it, it might have been the impetus for my reading of the NASCAR history.    

Some time ago, I lent it to my dear friend N, who returned it to me Saturday night at her New Years Eve party. I shoved it in my bag, then was grateful to have it as the Metro was predictably slow and I got bored en route to my second event of the evening...and also on the way home. Thus, Metro Girl was my first book of the New Year.

It was...look, it was a Janet Evanovich book.  Many years ago on a message board, I described the difference between Stephanie Plum and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series thus: 

I find the Kinsey Millhone books entirely plausible--I can see the events happening. Stephanie Plum, because the books include so much comedy, is less plausible. Evanovich tends to go for the big pratfall, which is why I enjoy her books. They always make me laugh, whereas the Sue Grafton books are more no-nonsense. 

That's not just true of Stephanie Plum-the Barnaby and Hooker books are the same. There are weird coincidences and ridiculous turns of events and dramatic explosions...sometimes literally. You can't take them seriously. That's fine-I read the Plum series because they make me laugh so hard my stomach hurts-but Evanovich has patterns, and she sticks to them. She has turns of phrase that she uses over and over again. I find the more of her stuff I read at once, the more obvious and irritating it seems to me. And lately I've been reading a lot of her stuff. After I finished Metro Girl, I picked up Motor Mouth right away, but I only got about a chapter and a half into that one before I hit my saturation point.

It is not great art, but it will keep its slot on my bookshelf. It is beach reading, which is a totally valid thing to be. Plus, Sam Hooker has an obnoxious sort of charm to him. Though if I have to read about someone angling out of a car again...

Book 1 of 2012

Better Days

I don't write often about work. At least once every couple of days, something happens that I think would make a great blog post, but I'm a pretty lazy blogger. I'm trying to get better, but usually I just forget.

Today, I had a bad day at work. And as I was thinking about the fact that teaching has such high highs and such low lows, I thought about the fact that I should probably write down some of the things that aren't bad so that I can look to them when I have a day like today.**

This story actually happened last Friday. In celebration of Black History Month, we had a troupe of African drummers and dancers in for an assembly. I attended with class made up of 3- and 4-year-olds, since the assembly fell during their library time. The program was pretty great--all of the kids, regardless of age, were engaged, and it's hard to find something that will do that with kids ranging from 3-11. And then the stiltwalker came out.

I'd heard that there was a stiltwalker, and I had pictured...a guy on stilts. In fact, he was a guy on stilts dressed in a raffia skirt, pants that covered the stilts, a brightly colored shirt and what basically amounted to a hood over his head, with a hat on top. When I first saw him, he made me jump a bit. So naturally he scared the bejesus out of the younger kids.

As soon as he passed by me, one of the girls from the class I was with made a beeline for me, tears streaming down her cheeks. She crawled up into my lap and cried. Then I looked behind me and saw two little girls from another class clinging to each other and sobbing, so I had them come over. There was no room on my lap, so they stood next to my chair, pressed up against my side. All three of them were quite upset.

The stiltwalker made one circuit of the multi-purpose room then sat down on an upright piano in the corner. The kids calmed down a bit, but would not take their eyes off him or sit back down in their seats. They relaxed a little after about ten minutes, and I had just gotten them sitting down when he stood up again. I saw the girl who'd been on my lap stiffen and reach out and clutch the side of the bench she sat on, so I put my hand on her shoulder. She turned around and dove for my lap.

You may be thinking "But this is a terrible story! Those kids were terrified!" And yes, they were. And I'd prefer that they hadn't been. But one of the things that I like about my job--the thing that keeps me going through the bad days--is those moments when I know I've had an impact on a kid. And in this case, I could make a scary situation a little less scary. It's different from having a student tell me that the book I suggested for them was perfect, but still hits the same spot.

**Nothing catastrophic happened today. I just had a class that refused to get it together, and turned what should have been a pretty awesome lesson into total crap.

2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge

So I've decided to participate in the 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge. I'm a little late, but I do have my reading journal which gives me a partial list of what I've read so far this year. (I'm not good at keeping up) I'm modifying the challenge a little bit--it includes all books from the library, including children's books. I check out on average 10 children's books from the public library a week for use with my classes; it doesn't seem sporting, so I won't include them. I will, however, include young adult books--but not books that I read from my own school library. And instead of doing 50 books, I'm shooting for 100. I get most of my books from the library these days, so it seems like it won't be a problem.

So, without further ado, the list so far:

January
1. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
2. The War Within by Bob Woodward
3. The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters
4. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
5. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
6. A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris

February
7. Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters
8. Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima by Stephen Walker
9. The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters
10. The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters
11. Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
12. Three Bedrooms, One Corpse by Charlaine Harris
13. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
14. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
15. The Devils of Bakersfield by John Shannon

March
16. He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters
17. Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters
18. The Golden King by Zahi Hawass
19. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

April
20. Affinity by Sarah Waters
21. Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar
22. Blue Bloods by Melissa De la Cruz
23. The Last Undercover by Bob Hamer
24. Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff

May
25. No Angel by Jay Dobyns

June
26. The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
27. The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
28. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

July
29. The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
30. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
31. Spy Mice: The Black Paw by Heather Vogel Frederick
32. Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters
33. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
34. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
35. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
36. Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke
37. The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets by Nancy Springer
38. Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters

August
39. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Back to high school

I've gotta tell you, folks, I do not care for delayed gratification. When I want something, I want it now. This is why I'm likely to be a bit twitchy for the next few days, at least until my copy of Eclipse arrives from barnesandnoble.com. It actually arrived yesterday, but I returned it to the store because the dust jacket was ripped (I'm compulsive, so sue me) expecting to just do an even exchange for a new copy. B&N's method for dealing with this is pretty asinine, and the upshot is I left without the book but with a new one on the way. If I'd known this would happen, I'd have read the damn thing before I returned it.

But, whatever.

The whole situation has put me in a YA frame of mind. I stopped by the library this evening to find something to fill the hole until Eclipse arrives, and I made use of its painfully small YA section. This is what I love about YA. When you read it as an adult, it's usually a pretty quick read but it's entertaining because you have the benefit of hindsight. Yeah, you can see the disasters coming from a mile away because you actually lived through high school, but it's so easy to get caught back up in that high-school, oh-my-God-he-talked-to-me mindset. Particularly if, like me, you were a geek in high school who never got to do any of the exciting stuff.

So without further ado, my list of awesome YA that even an adult can love.

Twilight
I was late on this bandwagon. I finished the first book last Saturday and the second one last night. The wait for Eclipse is going to be brutal. Partly, I've always had a thing for vampire stories, and the whole star-crossed lover deal is always a winner. But really I think it boils down to the fact that I--I who hate chick lit, who won't watch sappy movies, who thinks Nicholas Sparks is Satan incarnate--I am a sucker for an angsty teenage romance. I mean, think about high school. Think about who you were dating in high school. Can you imagine wanting to spend all of eternity with that person? (You don't count, Jenni.) I mean, not everyone hit the unfaithful-drug addict-high school dropout trifecta with their high school boyfriend like I did, but usually those are not romances that are made to last. But damn if Stephenie Meyer doesn't sell it. I was only about 50 pages in before I realized how hooked I was. I'm doing a terrible job of selling it. But it's awesome.

How I Live Now
You have to respect a book--particularly one aimed at young adults--that takes on a topic like incest but handles it sensitively. Set in the near future, it's a story of falling in love with the absolute wrong person. When war breaks out, American fifteen-year-old Daisy is stranded in England with her cousins—and no adult supervision. As the realities of war sink in to the five children, Daisy and her cousin Edmond find comfort—and love— in each other. Their comfort is short-lived, however, as the children are forcibly separated and Daisy and her cousin Piper struggle to stay alive and find the others.

Rats Saw God
Nobody is more surprised than Steve York when he’s selected as a National Merit finalist. Steve cuts class. He spends all of his time stoned. And he planted a marijuana seed in his guidance counselor’s fern. He’s drugged out, depressed and failing English—despite a 760 verbal SAT score. When his guidance counselor investigates, he finds that two years ago, Steve was a straight-A student. He challenges Steve to write a 100-page paper on the topic of his choice in return for a passing English grade. Steve chooses to explore the last two years of his life in the paper—which may be just what the counselor ordered.

Written by Veronica Mars creator (not musician) Rob Thomas, this is an amazing story of a life totally derailed by one series of events. It's kind of like a Catcher in the Rye for a new generation, if Catcher in the Rye didn't suck so much.

I Am Morgan le Fay
Morgan was born into a world where women have little power, where men make all of the decisions, where a son is valued highly above a daughter. But there is a power reserved for the women alone. It is the power of the Fay, the Faerie. When Morgan learns to harness that magical power for herself, she changes history, for she is the half sister of the legendary King Arthur. She is Morgan le Fay, and her power will bring down Camelot.

I also have a weakness for Arthurian legends. Traditional tellings of the story are very focused on the male characters, and the women are often either evil or spineless. Nancy Springer chooses to focus on Morgan le Fay as a child and young adult, ending the story before she encounters King Arthur as an adult. Morgan is classically seen as a villain in the mythology, but Springer’s take on the tale is that of a good if misguided girl who lets the allure of power lead her astray.

Forbidden
Elinor is lucky, so lucky. She is lucky to be part of True Cause, because True Cause is the True Cause. She is lucky to not be an Outsider, because Outsiders don’t know salvation. They don’t know Howard. Elinor is lucky to be one of Howard’s Chosen, because she will become one of his wives when she turns sixteen. Howard is the Savior, and he chooses very few. Elinor is lucky. But sometimes she doesn’t feel so lucky. Sometimes she wonders why telephones and newspapers are Forbidden. Sometimes she wonders why the Outsiders seem so content with their sinful lives. Sometimes she wonders why she keeps meeting the Outsider boy Jamie, even though she knows it’s wrong. Sometimes she wonders if this is all there is to her life.

Creepy and touching. And creepy.

Meet me in St. Louis...

...well, maybe not. Not this version, anyway.

When I start reading a series, I usually use the devouring method. I read everything as quickly as possible and then wait impatiently for more. I worked my way through Janet Evanovich's entire Stephanie Plum series in two weeks*--that was eleven books at the time--and began haunting the library's New Arrivals section the day the next book came out.

Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series is different. Three years into reading them, I'm only on book eight. They're my guilty pleasure, my indulgence--but I can only read them when I'm in the right mood, and that mood only comes around three times a year or so. It's not that they're that good, because they're not. I mean, they're decent books, but Hamilton is a little bit of a hack, and Anita is a classic Mary Sue. No, I don't come for the writing, or for the characterization. I come for the sex. And there's plenty of that, even in the first several books where most of the main characters were celibate.

Actually, that's not even accurate. I come for the sexual tension and the supernatural aspects, although whichever critic at the New York Review of Science Fiction supplied the quote on the back of all of the books was clearly on drugs. R-rated Buffy my ass. The only thing the two have in common is the vampires. The writing on Buffy had subtlety. Hamilton prefers to hit you with an anvil.

As does Anita, actually. As a rule, I can't stand books with obnoxious main characters, and Anita is certainly that. But somehow it works, for now. I understand that the later books in the series are worse--like throw the book across the room worse. I've been told that at some point, Hamilton drops all pretense and begins shoehorning sex scenes in wherever she possibly can--there is a succubus subplot that seems to be universally reviled, but I haven't gotten there yet. They're not erotica, but I can't put my finger on why, exactly--perhaps they're not explicit enough?

But for now, for me, these books feel decadent. They're made to be read in the bathtub with a glass of wine and some sort of bath-related smelly thing. So that's where Blue Moon and I are headed right now.

* If you have not read these books, do it now. You'll die laughing.

Here there be spoilers: What I thought of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

These are my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, and it contains serious spoilers. If you haven't read the book, but intend to, DO NOT READ.







SPOILER SPACE















It's over, and Fred Weasley is dead.

I'm really upset, but I also find it odd that of the many people who died in the book, that one affected me the most. In the very beginning of the book, when George lost his ear, I thought that meant he and Fred were safe. I knew that she wouldn't go ahead and kill George after he had his ear cursed off, and I thought it was an all or nothing thing--either both twins would die, or both would survive. The only other death that affected me that much was Dobby.

In retrospect, it's not suprising that one of the Weasleys died. It even makes sense that it was one of the twins. Charlie hasn't had a prominent enough role in the series to make his death as affecting. Bill had just gotten married, and he was attacked by the werewolf in the last book; I thought he was a long shot. I considered Percy the most likely--I assumed he would realize the error of his ways and return to his family, and be killed in the final battle. I was half right.

I couldn't imagine her killing either Ron or Hermione, though I did think it was a good possibility that Harry would die, so I thought Ron was safe. And Ginny--I just couldn't see Rowling killing off Harry's love interest.

I was thrilled to see Neville take such an active role in the final battle--only in Harry Potter could he attack the enemy with plants and be successful. And it seemed very fitting that he was the one who destroyed the last Horcrux. I almost expected Harry to tell him that he was the other person to whom the prophecy could refer, but I can understand why he didn't. And the image of Trelawney beaning Death Eaters with crystal balls from a balcony was priceless.

I was suprised that Rowling killed Tonks--Lupin didn't come as a huge suprise, but I didn't expect them both to die only months after having a baby. And I was shocked when Snape died.

I love, love, loved Snape's story in this book. I couldn't decide whether or not he was truly a traitor or not. I went into the book thinking he was acting under Dumbledore's orders, but his actions in the beginning of the book--including cursing off George's ear--convinced me that he was evil. I was so wrong. The scenes with Lily and Petunia even before he and Lily went to Hogwarts--the true reason that Petunia hated wizards--the fact that Snape tried to save Lily's life--the fact that he was in love with her--it was all so incredible. I loved the revelation that when Petunia made reference to "that horrible boy" books ago, she was likely talking about Snape and not James. I loved that Harry and Ginny named one of their sons for him. I loved that Harry cleared Snape's name after he was dead.

I also liked Kreacher's arc, and the fact that Hermione's endless harping on elf rights had a point. I had read that the screenwriter for the fifth movie originally cut Kreacher out entirely, and Rowling hinted strongly that he had to at least make an appearance in order to facilitate the filming of the seventh movie. And I absolutely loved that Molly Weasley was the one to kill Bellatrix Lestrange. She's always been portrayed in the kitchen, or in stereotypically motherly roles, and I felt like this was a perfect break from that. I was a little suprised that Rowling used the word Bitch in what is still technically a kid's book, though. It will be interesting to see if she gets any flack for that.

I did think the epilogue was a little corny--not finding out what happened to them, exactly, but it read like a bad fanfic. I liked the fact that Neville was teaching Herbology at Hogwarts, and I liked the brief mention of Draco, but all in all it seemed very--I don't know. Badly written, maybe?

I also actually wanted to see more of the Dursleys in this book. I would have loved to see more of Dudley's evolution, to see if Petunia was affected at all at being exposed to the wizarding world again, and to see if Vernon completely lost his mind. I think that could have been some fairly good comic relief, and I'm curious.

I get that this is basically a coming of age story, and Harry is now more or less an adult. But I would love to see some post-Hogwarts books--I don't think it's incredibly likely, but I want more details on what happens next. Unfortunately I suspect I'm going to have to turn to fanfic. Luckily, there's some really good Harry Potter fanfic out there--if you're willing to pick through all the crap. So in the spirit of helping you get started on that, I'll leave you with this, which is an extremely amusing, extremely NOT work-safe story that was written several books ago, so it doesn't follow canon. In more ways than one.