Tome Tuesday #7 - Ruined: A Ghost Story

Wooooo, look at me all reading and stuff!

I picked up Ruined: A Ghost Story, by Paula Morris, while working the Scholastic Book Fair in February. I bought it for The Kid, but being a fan of ghost stories myself, I gave it a whirl while she works on another book.

This was the Scholastic Book Fair, of course, so it's Young Adult Fiction or some such thing, but then so is Twilight and it doesn't seem to stop 40 year old women from wearing "Team Jacob" shirts, now does it!

Ruined is the story of Rebecca Brown, a 15 year old New Yorker who is unceremoniously shipped off to post-Katrina New Orleans to live with her adopted aunt while her widowed father heads off for a business trip in China.

Her aunt, a fortune teller said to be descended from a Voodoo queen, lives in a small and cluttered house across the street from Lafayette Cemetery. On that same street are some of the richest and most powerful families in New Orleans.

Rebecca has a tough time making friends with the rich kids, since they have a Roman-style hierarchy that is acknowledged and followed by everyone including adults and the authorities, but the handsome and powerful Anton Grey takes to her (despite his friends disapproval), and she does make one friend while exploring the cemetery one night... Lisette, the ghost of a young girl murdered 150 years before.

Rebecca gets drawn into Lisette's story and the mystery surrounding her death. In one particularly sad and creepy sequence, Rebecca takes Lisette's hand (which makes her able to see other ghosts, but not be seen by the living) and walks with her on her yearly 4-mile journey to her mother's house in one of the most flood-ravaged parts of the city. The city is full of the ghosts of people who haven't been able to move on because of an unsolved crime, or in some cases because they don't appear to know they're dead (one woman repeatedly asks if anyone has seen her baby). Though they can't really hurt anyone, they can be really terrifying because they still bear the sometimes gruesome wounds that killed tham and because, as Lisette puts it, if they were mean or crazy in life, they're still mean and crazy in death.

The story was well thought-out, although there seemed to be some quick jumps between sequences, and the ending was surprisingly abrupt (I wondered if her editor wanted to keep the page count to a maximum Young Adult Fiction standard of some sort), but the pace was still slow enough to draw out the admittedly teen-friendly suspense - I only say that because anyone who's read any kind of Gothic novel will guess the general way of things about halfway through, though it doesn't diminish the surprises that do pop up.

I really enjoyed the story in most part because of the imagery Morris puts into everything. As Publisher's Weekly put it in their reveiw, it's a "love letter to New Orleans". She describes Lafayette Cemetery in detail, the Garden District so completely that you can almost smell the bougainvillea, and a November afternoon in such detail that you can almost imagine the exact grey of the sky before the rain kicks in. She also put in a lot of detail about the behind-the-scenes workings of Mardi Gras, including how the "krewes" work, which I found really interesting; Mardi Gras is apparently an all-encompassing thing there, not unlike the week of the Tucson Rodeo where schools are closed and everyone gets into the act.

I also really liked, given the intended readers age group, that she included a lot of social commentary about race and class disputes in the area that still go on in nearly the same way they did nearly 200 years ago. She details the rich kids in the private school that have no interest in doing anything to help the Katrina-ravaged areas of the city (they'd rather they just disappear), as well as the history of the different black, white and mixed-race populations like Quadroons and the Free People of Color, and what their social situations were like. She offers the history in an engaging way, and it's enough information that I can see kids being interested enough to learn more, but she does it without being heavy-handed. It is a ghost story for young teens, after all, and meant to be entertaining.

If you've got a 12 year old or so who enjoys spooky stories, pick this one up for them...

Just don't do it at Amazon, because they're a bunch of jerks!

Tome Tuesday #6 - Under The Dome

I know what you're saying...

"I thought you gave up on this, Mimi!"

Well I didn't. I was just busy. Stop harassing me, JEEZ.

So!

Under the Dome, by Stephen King.



Let me preface this by saying I LOVE Stephen King.

I am a dedicated Constant Reader. I am a confessed Tower Junkie. I know the location of the Unfound Door, the many names of Randall Flagg, and the significance of the number 19. I can have involved conversations about the deeper meaning of his best works, can tell you his answer to the question "where do you get your ideas", and I even know the name of a few of the "gentleman's magazines" he first published in back in the beginning (one is "Adam", which just makes me giggle).

I am a FAN.

So when I say that this wasn't one of my favorites, please realize that it comes from a place of understanding of where he's at in his life, and not a place of simple dislike.

The thing about King is that since his accident he's been... well, "cruelly realistic" is the best term I can come up with. I think, and really this is just my opinion, that since having faced his own mortality so intensely in the past 10 years, King has really become more realism-happy in his fiction.

I get that, in real life, shitty things happen and people die needlessly, but there used to be allowances made for things like dogs and kids in his work. I'm just saying. Maybe it has to do with being older than I was when I used to read his stuff as a teen. I'm less in my own little bubble, and my life experiences are more advanced; when I used to read about the people who died in 'Salem's Lot, it was with dread, but it didn't really affect me because they were fictional characters. Now I find I can't really enjoy the fiction of it, because I see the reality so often. If I'm choosing to be entertained I want to *escape* from those sorts of things by reading or watching something fictional where things turn out all right, or at least justly, in the end; when my entertainment is just mirroring the real world, it's not really taking me in all the way.

Other than that basic problem with real-life, not-so-happy-ending elements in fiction, which is the only reason I didn't care for this book as much as I might have, Under The Dome had all the elements I desire in a good King tome. It had a quick pace, vast length, multiple plots involving umpteen characters, more exposition than you can shake a stick at... all the things a Constant Reader craves in his best work.

The story starts out with a bang; the Dome drops with no warning on what is subsequently referred to by the residents of the town as Dome Day. Anyone inside the perimeter of the town of Chester's Mill, Maine (which is, I have to say as a Constant Reader, is just a stone's throw from Castle Rock) is trapped with their only power being from various generators throughout the town.

Among those left are a tyrannical town selectmen with a lot of fish to fry (Big Jim Rennie, a truly spectacular specimen of a Big Bad) and an ex-military short order cook who's on his way out of town after a bit of trouble (Dale "Barbie" Barbara). They each quickly take their places as the leads of what end up being the two factions in the town.

This is the meat of the story, the look at what would happen if you trapped a town full of people with minimal resources and no way out. Who would them most likely follow, and why? Would they give up quickly, or fight to the end? Would they work together, or look out for number one?

In the end, I would say I enjoyed the book a lot, it was classic Stephen King fare, but I do wish he'd lighten up a little.

Just a little.

Tome Tuesday #5 - Stacked: A 32DDD Reports From The Front

I'll admit, I've been slacking on my reading... with the holiday looming (and the many crafts I'm trying to pull off) I find myself exhausted, hands sore from crocheting like a fiend, and too tired to look at words in print anymore.

Maybe I should switch to books on CD. No no no, that's cheating.

Anyway, enough whining... on to today's book!



Stacked, by Susan Seligson, is all about boobs, in particular hers.

She is blessed (or cursed, depends on the day) with enormous breasts. They stick out, they get in the way, there are stares.

Why all the fuss?

That's the question she set out to answer, more or less.

The book is more a series of short essays about the nature of breasts than it is an autobiography of her personal experiences, and she covers a lot of ground. Amongst other subjects, there are interesting treatises on...

* Various theories on the reasons behind the sexual appeal of what are basically baby-feeding devices.
* A run down of the various nicknames out there and where they come from, my hands-down favorite of all time being sweater puppies - it's just so cute!
* Finding the perfect bra (it's nearly impossible withough some special handling and a lot of bucks).
* How size affects success in the sex industries - apparently the large, fake breasts of women like Maxi Mounds (yes really) are considered offputting and more a gimmick than an alluring feature.
* The history, pros and cons and realities of breast augmentation, from increasing to decreasing (there's an hysterical rundown of a day with Dr. 90210).
* Some thoughts on why so many women feel the need to change their breasts.
* The lengths to which girls will go to grow bigger boobs, and the lies they'll believe.
* Learning to love your boobs as they are.

The last part really struck a cord with me personally. Something you may not know about me is that I have enormous boobs.

Imagine how defeating, even upsetting, it is to see all these magazine pictures of huge breasts that sit somewhere around the armpits. That's not natural and we know it, but when you're shown it enough times you start to think that your rather normal, gravity-challenged breasts are gross and unattractive.

It isn't helped, of course, by the fact that best we big-busted girls can hope for in a sexy AND supportive bra is a little lace, at least if we don't want to shell out 100.00 a pop and go to some hard-to-find specialty store. It ends up being one or the other, supportive and BEIGE or pretty and a constant threat to others... those straps could go any time!

So to read about a woman who has learned to accept her breasts as they are, who even extols the virtues of lettin' em' hang free, is rather empowering for me. I don't think I'll ever be able to go bra-less in public and feel classy, but I have suddenly found myself whipping off the restraints the minute I get in the house.

It's bliss.

Tome Tuesday #4 - Children of Morrow

This week I was all set to write a post about boobs, but it's going to have to wait until next week because I'm not done with that book yet.

I'm sorry.

I was distracted by my favorite post-apocalyptic children's book (you don't have one? Psh.), Children of Morrow by H.M. Hoover. It was sitting on my dresser, all shiny in its library-plastic cover, and I was (for the 100th time) compelled to pick it up.



I came across this book lo these many years ago. I picked it up from the St. Margaret Mary's library shelf in 1986 during 6th grade free-time, and I took it out of the library probably 5 times a year after that.

Tia & Rabbit are two children living in a village of primitive people ruled by their worship of an old warhead. Tia is considered a witch by everyone but Rabbit because of her intelligence, and he himself an outcast because of his strange looks and intense stutter.

Tia & Rabbit discover they are both hearing the telepathic messages of a distant woman named Ashira; Tia can also see pictures in her head of the wonderful place Ashira lives... The Sea.

After Rabbit accidentally kills the head cook, he and Tia have to make a run for it, guided only by the voice of Ashira and the promise of a better life. On the way they pass through what is described in the book jacket as "a vast, open plain, where they come across the strange deserted ruins of an ancient 20th century city".

Years later I had forgotten the name but never the story, and never the scenes of "life after people" it held. Thanks be to Amazon (despite their many faults) for the ability to search strings of text - some parts of the book were so ingrained that a quick search of "Tia and Rabbit" and "Simone" brought it right up.

I of course snapped up a copy on the spot.

Reading it as an adult, I see the deeper meaning of Hoover's story, which seems a bit of a warning about cults and the repression of individuality and intelligence as well as the more obvious warning about the effects of war, but as a 12 year old lonely kid all I really saw was a girl who was misunderstood, who found out she belonged somewhere else and had a higher purpose, and who had to go on a long, dangerous journey to get to that place she should be... and when she got there, she knew she'd be accepted for exactly who she was.

Wow, nothing like a glimpse at my psyche, huh?

Of course it's not just me. There's a reason that books like the Harry Potter and Narnia series are so widely loved - every kid wants to feel like they're special, and more than a few kids feel like they're alone, especially as young teens. Hand them a book where the geeky, unpopular kid comes out on top and they'll be enraptured.

Even Cinderella appeals - put-upon girl on her own makes good, and pwns her stupid stepsisters in the process. Who could wonder at her appeal?

Besides the kid-makes-it-out aspect of the book, I've also always had a fascination with the post-apocalyptic genre, I think mostly because I like knowing everything, good or bad, and feel deeply cheated by the fact that I won't get to see what happens 1000 years from now. I know I'm not alone in that one either.

In the book, the people are living in the world after the "Great Destruction", and the baser Family group Tia & Rabbit escape worship a warhead and are physically deformed by the effects of living in that world; even their crops suffer still in what is clearly a thousand years or more after the event that ended the old world.

It wasn't subtle, and although it was written in 1973, when I read it in 1986 we were constantly in fear of nuclear holocaust so it really hit home. The thing I feared the most wasn't the end of the world though, it was the end of humanity - the idea that all the art and music and culture and remnants of our existence would never seen by anyone who would understand it again.

Books and movies like this and The Stand and The Time Machine and Logan's Run and even Planet of the Apes contain such powerful imagery of our most iconic symbols left in ruins that it's hard not to feel like they're some kind of time travel to the possible future. Rotting books that have become so much meaningless paper, fallen monuments nobody can put a name to, buildings left to rot but which are still recognizable, if to no-one but us as the viewer/reader... those images of nameable destruction put a face to the fear that we all have.

The fear we'll be forgotten.

But at the same time, they give us hope that somehow, a piece of the humanity we recognize will survive and thrive, even in a small part. We won't live to see it, but at least we know we'll go on.

Tome Tuesday #3 - Equal Rites

So. Discworld.

Apparently there's an absolutely huge following for Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which is easy to do considering it spans 37 novels (according to Wikipedia), so you know... nothing like spreading yourself around to really gain readership.

I tend to shy away from things like this that I haven't found my way to naturally like the Dark Tower series. I've been reading Stephen King books that exist in or at least live next door to the Dark Tower universe since I was 8 or so, and I've got all the background information needed, but trying to catch up (which involves basically reading everything) would take ages, so if I wasn't already where I am with it and presented with the reading list required, I'd never even try to get started. There's just too much.

Given that sort of devotion usually required of a long and involved series, I think it's understandable that I've never tried to jump into Discworld (or Pern for that matter) because I was pretty sure I just wouldn't get it, and frankly don't have time to figure out where to start.

I was mistaken.

Terry Pratchett is ridiculously clever, howlingly funny, and writes his novels in such a way that someone (like, say, myself) who's got no knowledge whatsoever about what Discworld MEANS TO PEOPLE (you know who you are) can enjoy it thoroughly.

Just to keep everyone on the same page, he does explain Discworld, and does so thoroughly enough that I know what he means later in the book when he talks about this or that feature or member of that universe, but also fairly succinctly so that long-time readers I'm sure don't feel the need to skip the first chapter of every book.

That's a rare gift, I think.



Equal Rites is the tale of Esk, a girl from the town of Bad Ass (yes, really) who inherets the powers of a dying wizard as she's being born. The problem... wizards in Discworld are male.

Everyone decides to ignore this and just hope for the best, but as she grows up, Esk starts exhibiting powers and it becomes clear she needs to be taught to control them (at one point she turns her brother into a pig - not that he didn't deserve it).

Granny Weatherwax, the local Witch, hopes Esk can be taught as a Witch herself, that being the acceptable female-oriented magical role in Discworld, but it just can't be done and so it's off to the Unseen University, where all Wizards are taught. Refused entry, they get in the only way they can figure, as servants - the hope being that Esk can observe and learn in a side-lines sort of way.

Esk links up with a Wizard named Simon (whom she had met on the way to the University) and together they manage to get into trouble (there are monsters and other dimensions involved), but in the end come out alright and end up creating an entirely new way of thinking.

The thing I love about Pratchett's story is that although he could easily have taken this on a Quarterback Princess-style route wherein Esk gets into the University on a technicality and PROVES HERSELF EQUAL (you know the drill), instead he takes the tale in a realistic direction (all things considered).

In the real world, without some serious legal action, you wouldn't be accepted into a club that didn't want you without some sort of subterfuge, and maybe you'd prove yourself, or maybe you'd just make a mess of things and have to clean it up, and if you were very lucky maybe once it was cleaned up there would be changes made.

All in all, this was a great book, and I look forward to reading more of his work soon.

Tome Tuesday #2 - Candy Girl

Okay! Week 2!

I did not, as yet, finish the more involved book I started awhile back (is it cheating if I don't actually finish the book in a week?), however I *did* find time to read something fast this week, and I've gotten some great recommendations so I think I'm off to a great start!



Candy Girl is the true story of Diablo Cody (she of Juno fame) and her year spent stripping and working in the sex industry in Minneapolis in the early 2000's.

(Point of note... this is not for your teen daughter who loved Juno. Not even a little. This is definitely a NSFW book full of really graphic descriptions of exactly what you might imagine.)

She had been working a normal office job and decided on a whim to try stripping with the blessing of her then boyfriend (now husband). She figured she'd make a little money, have some fringey, slightly risky fun... where's the harm?

The refreshing thing is that, with the exception of a few bruised knees and most likely a lingering lower-back issue (those heels!), there really *wasn't* any harm. Truly after all those horror stories you hear about strippers and their dangerous lifestyle choices, had I not known the outcome from the start (she being a rather famous face and all these days) I probably would have been waiting for the other stacked-heel platform to drop.

She wasn't raped, she wasn't debased (without her consent), she wasn't forced to do drugs or do porn. She was in control of herself the whole time, and when she got tired of it, she quit. It's certainly empowering if nothing else... it's not going to spur anyone into going to their nearest booby bar for an audition or anything, but you come away feeling like she was pretty brave to do what she did (I mean could you?).

She had fun, in fact, and in all likelihood doesn't regret it at all.

I, in turn, enjoyed the smutty fun of getting the nitty-gritty descriptions of what goes on in those clubs and shops with all their red lights and neon.

The only real issue I had with the book was...

Well...

Diablo.

I mean she seems nice, I'd love to have lunch with her, but she strikes me as sometimes trying a little too hard to be cool. I kept finding myself distracted by her constant need to work counter-culture elements into everything that only a limited demographic would get.

Of course, not everyone's going to pick up a book about stripper, and since she is who she is her fans *do* get her humor and references, but it still seems a bit over-reaching, like she's trying really hard to show you how edgy and alternative she really is, from referring to her move from her apartment in Chicago to be with her boyfriend in Minneapolis as having to "motor" (Heathers refrence, check) to describing the ad agency she worked in as "Kubrickian" (film dork, check) to her use of the word "rad" (saw Point Break/hearted Anthony Kiedis/lusted after skater boys, check) on a regular basis.

Okay, Diablo, we get it. You can hang.

I have to wonder of course if it's my own desire to still be in the cool crowd that makes this stick out more to me, and if that isn't why I truly do like her not despite this need to be edgy all the time, but because of it. I understand her, I think...

She's a dork with tattoos and way too much pop culture knowledge.

Takes one to know one!

Tome Tuesday #1 - You Suck: A Love Story

Is there an echo in here?

You may remember reading a few weeks ago that I've decided to throw my hat in the ring and read a book a week for a year as part of the Cannonball Read project at Pajiba... well I neglected to notice that it didn't start until 11/1.

Oh.

So, to answer your unasked question, yes you *have* seen this post before, and yes you're also probably hallucinating too.

Crack is whack!

"You Suck: A Love Story" by Christopher Moore.



I picked this up, admittedly, because the cover and title amused me.

I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd known this was a sequel to Moore's first vampire novel, "Bloosucking Fiends" and read that first, but somehow I doubt it because it wasn't so much an "I'm lost" dislike that comes from dropping in at the middle as it was a "he phoned it in" feeling.

Our story begins with C. Thomas Flood (Tommy) waking up to find he's been turned into a vampire by his girlfriend Jody.

"You bitch! You killed me! You suck!" says he...

... and wackiness ensues. That's about it.

The whole book just seemed too thrown-together for my taste, less a series of events that relate to each other and more a bunch of episodes of bad judgment and miscommunication tossed at a wall, and those events that stuck made it into the final draft.

My main problem with the whole thing was that just didn't find myself sympathetic to any of the characters. I don't know about you, but that's essential to me being able to have any interest in what's going on. Tommy & Jody just seemed whiny, Jody's "maker" is boring and one-note and more lecherous than evil, and Tommy's n'er-do-well grocery-store employee friends generally just seemed like a pack of assholes with no ability to function as adults and who instead make knee-jerk bad decisions that perhaps a fan of "Jackass" might find hilarious, but which just irritated me. (It's subjective of course - I don't begrudge you enjoying Johnny Knoxville giving himself another concussion, it's just not my cup of tea.)

Plus, there's a blue hooker. Why?

The one exception to me not caring about any of the characters was Abby Normal, a human teen with goth tendencies and a dirty mouth. Her diary entries throughout are hysterical, typical "OMG" teen-talk peppered with the purple prose I remember so well from my very own black-clad youth - even there, though, the schtick is used so often here that it gets tiresome after awhile.

This one's getting donated to the library - someone else might enjoy it, but it wasn't my favorite. Give it a shot if you've read "Bloodsucking Fiends", but if not...

Pass.

Since I usually like Christopher Moore (a good recommendation: "Practical Demon Keeping") I wondered if it was just me, but a quick perusal of the Amazon reviews seems to support the theory that this wasn't his best work... then again lots of people loved it, so who am I to say? I'm no critic.

Happy Tuesday!

Totally Random Tuesday: Late Breaking Godtopus Edition

Yeah, so it's Wednesday morning... does that mean I can't do a Tuesday blog? No it does not.

So, nerd alert, but when I was in 2nd grade (I think - Mom, want to verify?) I won the MS Read-A-Thon, in tandem with a girl I remember distinctly only because of her massively awesome black pigtails. I was a total reading nerd even then (my 6th grade favorite was Jane Eyre) and am sorry to say I've slacked off mightily since then.

Enter Pajiba. Not only are they funny over there (if occasionally overly in-joke snarky) they are also doing something completely awesome.

I am officially throwing my hat in the ring for the second annual Cannonball Read... you should too, if at all possible, because a) you'll make your brain bigger and b) it's an easy way to donate bucks to a good cause without having to, you know, actually donate money.

Pajiba will do that part.

Here's the text of the Facebook group (go join it!):

A group of Pajibans (www.pajiba.com) competing to read 52 books in 1 year. Anyone can participate. All you need is a blog, a library card, and gumption. (Gumption can be replaced with gunpowder.)

If anyone is interested in joining the Cannonball Read, you can! It's so easy, it's easier than Sunday Morning. Or bad song lyric puns.

Basic Rules:
1. Your book needs to be "of substance": 150 pages or so. No Pokey Little Puppy. But the Phantom Tollbooth? That's fine. Unless you're in elementary school. And if you are a kid doing the Cannonball Read, you've already won. At life. Collect your trophy.
2. Post your thoughts on a blog or on a website, or somewhere where others can read it to prove you've read. The reviews need to be at least three solid paragraphs, as they may be possibly be published on Pajiba.

Again, those are parameters. But if you are interested in participating, go for it! You can set your own rules, like, every other book has to be non-fiction, or I want to read nothing but books written by old dead white men, or I must read every recommendation people give to me. It's all up to you!

This year, Pajiba (www.pajiba.com) was kind enough to promise that for everyone who completes the one book, one week, one review requirement, they will make a contribution in your name to the Lil A' College Fund. Please read The Legend of Cannonball Read to get more details.

Cool, right?!

I should read more anyway, so I'm totally getting on this.

Starting with next Tuesday, I will be posting a review of a book I've read that week, and if you have any recommendations I'd love to hear them! A book a week may involve raiding The Child's collection of Magic Tree House books in a pinch, and if you could spare me I'd so appreciate it.


It may come to this