A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy: The President's Daughter series by Ellen Emerson White

Big A, little a: The Tide Knot by Helen Dunmore

Jen Robinson's Book Page: The Zilpha Keatley Snyder Green Sky trilogy

Bildungsroman: Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn: A Discussion Part 1

Chasing Ray: Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn: A Discussion Part 2

lectitans: Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn: A Discussion Part 3

Miss Erin: The Reb & Redcoats and Enemy Brothers, both by Constance Savery

Bookshelves of Doom: Harry Sue by Sue Stauffacher

Interactive Reader: Shake Down the Stars by Frances Donnelly

Chicken Spaghetti: Pooja Makhijani guest blogs with Romina's Rangoli

Shaken & Stirred: Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter Duet

Writing & Ruminating: Dear Mr. Rosenwald by Carole Weatherford

If I explain to you how I first encountered Innocence, then I'll ruin the ending for you.  So instead, I will simply state that it was recommended to me by Little Willow of Bildungsroman.  LW, Colleen of Chasing Ray, and myself discussed the book.  This is part three of that discussion.  You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Throughout the novel, there are allusions to classic literary and mythological characters.  This is our discussion of those allusions.

Why was I running? I was running from images: a sneaker, a mirror, two words. I remember blood hanging in strings off the bottom of a shoe like gum. I remember two words scrawled across a mirror. Two words: ‘Drink Me’. - Page 4

CM: Right at the beginning, as Beckett is running from the suicides, she remembers two words scrawled on a mirror in blood: "Drink me". This has got to be an Alice in Wonderland allusion - thoughts on that or am I way off base?

LW: There are Oz references as well, with one less meaningful describing the steam that surrounds her father's head as he places a hot bowl of food on the table, (page 42) and a few with substance and purpose:

 Beckett mentioning Dorothy alongside Persephone and the Final Girl, the wizard on the computer(page 124 and forward, page 166 and forward, page 178, page 190), and the final line:

And you were there. And you, and you, and you. (Page 199)

CM: Oh crap - how did I miss that final line?

Okay then, let's look at the bigger picture of what Mendelsohn was doing here. Is Innocence then a salute to several of the final girls in literature - the ones who knew the truth but were discounted or  dismissed? (No one ever believed Dorothy or Alice that's for sure).

Interesting aside - I know that Looking Glass Wars is a love it or hate it book but one thing that is prevalent in there is Alice's hatred of Lewis Carroll for turning her life into a story and for everyone thinking it is just hat - no one believes her anymore about where she really came from.

And no one, of course, will believe Beckett. Which makes her wonder if she's really crazy or not.

 What about all the ‘Drink Me’ mentions in the text – which go beyond the words in Alice to something more as the story progresses. Also Beckett is given the pills to take as Alice must constantly eat and drink to transform herself to fit into Wonderland. Is this all about transformation from innocence?

At the sound of a scream, I was standing in a dark alley, looking at Sunday, Morgan, and Myrrh. This time, a fourth body lay with theirs. It was mine. And a paper label with the words DRINK ME printed on it in beautiful letters was tied around my neck. - Page 45

She made it look like a suicide. She left the pink plastic razor. She arranged the bodies. When she finished, she wrote two words on the mirror. Two words in blood: DRINK ME. - Page 151

CM: Not sure how Persephone fits into this though - thoughts?

You know, there's all kinds of crazy stuff out there. You can't just wander around out there and believe what you read. It's like walking out into the street and talking to just anybody. You wouldn't do that, would you? - Page 129

LW: I don't really understand why Persephone was included. When I think of Persephone, I think of the seasons, and of her mother, who wept and waited and wanted for her daughter to return, and her love, who wanted Her to stay in the underworld, not to make her evil but to have her standing beside him.

Innocence lacks the true mother - she's mentioned at times, but not invoked as a ghost or a guiding force, not Beckett's role model, no flashbacks used as a narrative tool, etc - and is much more about the evil stepmother. I haven't done extensive Persephone research, so please tell me if I'm overlooking something!

Another thing: Ladies, if you're ever in the underworld or in a fairy land, DO NOT EAT THE FOOD!

KH: I think the way Persephone might figure in is that the notion is once innocence is lost, it can't be regained.  Persephone eats those pomegranate seeds and is forever changed.  Even though she does negotiate a return to the world above ground, she doesn't get to stay there, and she has seen what it's like in the world below.  So perhaps that's how it fits in: Beckett, unlike so many around her, is aware of scarier underpinnings to the world, and can't forget them.

LW: I wouldn't really put Dorothy in with Beckettt – not with her character directly, that is. The stories, the disbelief, the characters she "knows" being different, the obvious wizard bits - that all makes sense, but I see Dorothy and Beckett as very different characters, with different circumstances and motivations.

Of all of the characters Beckett 'speaks' to and relates to, the Final Girl and Alice make the most sense to me.

It was a mad tea party. The entire room seemed transformed [. . . ] When I opened the door I was on the other side, over the rainbow, down the rabbit hole, into the woods. - Page 182

CM: I put Dorothy in as someone who loses her innocence in OZ. In Kansas she is sad and missing her parents (fitting with Beckett and her lost mother) and so she runs away to that “over the rainbow” place where she thinks everything will be better but in OZ she finds a darker world then she ever imagined…and of course when she gets back she knows that no one will believe her, which is another major theme in the book.

We haven’t mentioned Lolita in here but Mendelsohn brings her up as well. Of course her story is pretty much the ultimate loss of innocence story and it is still being debated on that score today.

[END OF DISCUSSION]

I hope this is not the last discussion of the book I will have with these women.  It is a novel that bears multiple re-reads.  Go to your library now!

I missed posting this yesterday thanks to the day job, so if you missed it like me, here were yesterday's recommendations from under the radar:

A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy: A discussion of author Ellen Emerson White and why she is "under the radar"

Jen Robinson's Book Page: The Changeling and The Velvet Room both by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Bildungsroman: Girl in a Box by Ouida Sebestyen

Finding Wonderland: A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles

Miss Erin: Girl With a Pen and Princess of Orange, both by Elisabeth Kyle

Fuse Number 8: The Winged Girl of Knossos by Erick Berry

Bookshelves of Doom: The Olivia Kidney series by Ellen Potter

Chicken Spaghetti: Natural History of Uncas Metcalf by Betsy Osborne

Writing and Ruminating: Jazz ABC by Wynton Marsalis

Semicolon: Today's topic is middle grade fiction.

The YA YA YAs: Massive by Julia Bell

Christopher Barzak at Chasing Ray

When I was nine years old, I took a class on the fine art of lip synching. Yes, it was a class, for school. I love gifted education in Leon County, Florida. At the end of this class, we each had to perform a song of our choosing, in costume. I performed Madonna's "Material Girl." The best among us went on to perform solo at an actual concert, in front of parents. I wasn't one of those; there was, however, a young man who performed "Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, in full costume, complete with mask, hat, and cape. This was my introduction to the Opera Ghost, and I was in love immediately.

I don't know at what point mild interest in that musical became complete obsession, but in the intervening time I have read every Phantom-related item I could get my hands on, including Gaston Leroux's original novel and several stories inspired by it. That's the wonderful thing about works in the public domain, you see; you can publish and sell your fanfiction.

Basil of Baker Street in The Great Mouse Detective had kindled an interest in me in Sherlock Holmes, and I grew to find him immensely attractive as well.

Yes, I love fictional characters, perhaps more than real people. It was with great glee that I checked out from my public library The Angel of the Opera: Sherlock Holmes Meets the Phantom of the Opera.  There's not a great deal of plot that is new to the story; this is Leroux's book with just a few new characters added in.  What makes it so fascinating is the interplay of two of the greatest minds in fiction: Erik and Holmes.  The actions Holmes takes in solving the mystery of the Opera Ghost keep the story moving forward, and it is this interaction between the two that makes the book worth reading.

Also, look at that cover art.  How can you not love Erik dressed as The Red Death, sweeping down the stairs towards Sherlock Holmes?

If you like mysteries, gothic horror, the Victorian era, Sherlock Holmes, or the Phantom of the Opera, you should give this book a go.  It provides certain entertainment.  And not to spoil the ending, but those who were always upset with the raw treatment Erik got from Christine Daae may find some consolation in the way Siciliano wraps up Erik's story.

---

 

Under Radar Recommendations are books that we have read and loved. Period.
They're not necessarily new. They're not necessarily old.
They're books we think you'd love, 'cause we do.

There is, elsewhere, more of the usual awesomeness of the kidlitosphere. Fans of the under-read should also, check out:

Chasing Ray writing on Dorothy of Oz from Illusive Arts Entertainment (the Dorothy comic she says we should all be reading!),

Bildungsroman revisits Christopher Golden's Body of Evidence series,

Interactive Reader, a new convert to the Christopher Golden Body of Evidence fan club, provides more love,

At Not Your Mother's Bookclub: An interview with Robert Sharenow, author of My Mother the Cheerleader,

Bookshelves of Doom is all about The God Beneath the Sea, Black Jack & Jack Holburn all by Leon Garfield,

Writing and Ruminating has an interview with Tony Mitton and a review of his book, Plum ,

The YA YA YAs spread the love on I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson (And I can attest: awesome book, folks.),

A late inclusion from Semicolon on unbeatable picture books.

And Chicken Spaghetti wraps up Monday with The Illustrator's Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabad.

More Under Radar Goodness All Week Long: Stay tuned!

 I love books, and some of them are ones you haven’t heard of. I’m not the only one feeling this way, which is why I’m participating this week in a multiblog event called “Recommendations from Under the Radar.” You can read all about it over at Chasing Ray.

Here’s my schedule:
Monday: The Angel of the Opera: Sherlock Holmes Meets the Phantom of the Opera by Sam Siciliano
Wednesday: Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn, in conjunction with Bildungsroman and Chasing Ray
Thursday: Who P-p-p-p-plugged Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf
Friday: Gentle’s Holler and Louisiana’s Song by Kerry Madden

Each day I’ll be linking to everyone else’s posts.  We’re reviewing more than fifty books!  In October, we’ll be hosting a one shot event called “Bradbury Season,” and in November, we’ll present the Winter Blog Blast Tour!

I have many book reviews to write, but as it is time to set up for the new school year, most of my brain power is absorbed by that.  What’s left from that is going to preparation for next week’s Radar Recommendations.  So today, you get links which I got from other blogs who linked to them.  This is how the blogosphere works, right?  Three people create original content, and everyone else links to them.

No?

I’m glad to hear there’s more than three people creating the internet.  I’m equally glad that the people who create stuff are seen by people I read, thus leading me to cool stuff.

It’s funny, but for all that I am shy and a near-misanthrope (there’s a pun in there), real people’s stories fascinate me.  I love biographies, but more than that I love diaries and journals.  I love personal notes.  So today you get documentation of a process, and inscriptions.

First, via Bookshelves of Doom, I give you the Book Inscription Project.  These folks collect scans/photos of things people have written in books.  My favorite: This Book Stinks.  And of course now I want to go shelf-diving to find my own inscribed books.

Next, BookMoot brings us Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog about her experience creating three Coraline dolls in honor of the special edition release of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.  I love process documents, so this one is excellent.  I don’t have the attention span to look at all of it right now, but I’m keeping it open to check again later.

Now go forth and explore the internet, and find more wondrous things to share with the rest of us!

Each Sunday the ladies of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast ask us to list seven good things from the week.  (To see their longer explanation, go here.)  It'll be interesting to see what I come up with, as the weeks have just seemed to bleed together.  So here's seven things that I think happened this week, but I'm not absolutely sure.

1. My boyfriend, roommate and I re-arranged my house so that it is much more pleasing.
2. In doing this, we eliminated three pieces of furniture from my bedroom, so now my room is much prettier.
3. Because of the new space, I was able to put my beautiful guitar (a Fender Starcaster - it's black and red) on display in my room.
4. When my sister helped me move one of those pieces of furniture (a chair constructed from ORANGE CRATES) to the dump, I got to be with her for a day and treat her to lunch and stuff.
5. I bought a glass head at Pier 1 imports.  It is much nicer for displaying hats than a styrofoam head is, and also much more adult head sized.
6. Upon seeing a hat I made on said glass head, and then trying it on, a friend commissioned a similar hat in a different color from me.
7. I went swimming.

I've been thinking a lot about feminism of late, and so today I chose a poem that relates to the subject.

From On the Equality of the Sexes Part I by Judith Sargent Murray

Yet cannot I their sentiments imbibe
Who this distinction to the sex ascribe,
As if a woman's form must needs enroll
A weak, a servile, an inferior soul;
And that the guise of man must still proclaim
Greatness of mind, and him, to be the same.
Yet as the hours revolve fair proofs arise
Which the bright wreath of growing fame supplies,
And in past times some men have sunk so low,
That female records nothing less can show.
But imbecility is still confined,
And by the lordly sex to us consigned.
They rob us of the power t'improve,
And then declare we only trifles love.
Yet haste the era when the world shall know
That such distinctions only dwell below.
The soul unfettered to no sex confined,
Was for the abodes of cloudless day designed.

Read more here.

Today we're going down under with the Summer Blog Blast Tour group!  It's the first installment of our One Shot World Tour, where we talk about books and authors from just one country (or two, when they're close in proximity like Australia and New Zealand) for just one day.  I'm not contributing my own content this time out, but I would like to bring to your attention the day's related posts.  (List modified from Colleen of Chasing Ray.)

Margo Lanagan Interviewed at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Melina Marchetta introduced at Writing and Ruminating
Big A, little A writes about Anna Feinberg and her "Tashi" series
Jenn at Not Your Mother's Bookclub interviews Simmone Howell
Chicken Spaghetti reviews Kathy Hoopmann's award winning All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome
Gwenda at Shaken and Stirred is all about How Sassy Changed My Life, The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky and a wee bit more with Margo Lanagan
John Marsden's Tomorrow series discussed at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Jaclyn Moriarty and Penni Russon's Undine at Finding Wonderland
Little Willow discusses Finding Grace by Alyssa Brugman
At A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy it is all about Catherine Jinks and her four "Pagan" books
Does My Head Look Big in This? and John Flanagan's The Icebound Land at Interactive Reader
Queenie Chan interviewed by the YA YA YAs
Hot Men of Children's Literature: Australian Edition, as well as John Marsden and "The Rabbits" (Part Two) (Part Three) at A Fuse #8 Production
Nick Earls at Chasing Ray
Peter Temple at Light Reading

I’m currently stage managing a production of the musical Rags, which is about Jewish immigrants coming to America in the early 1900s.  At the beginning of the play, as they approach Ellis Island, the immigrants see “a giant lady wearing a funny hat and holding something that look[s] like a broom."  In honor of the production’s closing weekend I give you one of the most famous poems in America, though people don’t realize it:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma Lazarus, 1883

You can actually see the poem written in Emma Lazarus’s own handwriting at the Library of Congress website here.

In May, Colleen of Chasing Ray started a monthly litblog event: on the first Monday of the month, bloggers write about a book that they think is great and relatively unknown.  I haven’t participated yet, because recently I’ve been focusing on getting myself up to speed on some rather well-known books.  I’m still in that process, and so I don’t have any WCOBs for you today, but I want to point you to Colleen’s post, where she’ll be compiling a list of all of today’s WCOB posts:

Zombie Ass Kicking Edition

Enjoy!

LaVaughn is only 14, but she knows more than anything else in her life that she’s going to go to college.  Her mother has said so, and when her mother speaks a thing, it becomes true.  College isn’t going to pay for itself, though, so LaVaughn gets a job babysitting Jeremy and Jilly, the two children of Jolly.  Jolly is seventeen and works in a factory.  As LaVaughn forms a relationship with the family and begins to see the way Jolly’s life has spiraled out of her control, she begins to question herself.  Is it wrong for LaVaughn to take money from Jolly to avoid ending up in the same situation?  If LaVaughn babysits for free, is she sacrificing her future?  Is she allowing Jolly to keep spinning her wheels without making any forward progress in life?  Should LaVaughn feel responsible for Jolly’s situation?

Virginia Euwer Wolff achieves a great deal in Make Lemonade.  She paints a picture of two families in poverty going in drastically different directions; LaVaughn is poor but has a plan for life and a mother who supports her.  Jolly has no one but her children, and lives from one day to the next.  Wolff creates in Jolly a character who is sympathetic and frustrating at the same time.  She shows the tension between LaVaughn’s responsibility to herself and her desire to help others. 

Amidst all this, Wolff uses language that is both artful and accessible.  Written in verse, Make Lemonade feels like poetry but is not at all stilted.  Each line flows into the next, but it’s clear that each line break is carefully chosen.  Make Lemonade would be an excellent introduction to the verse novel for those who may be wary of the genre.

I would recommend Make Lemonade to readers who enjoy verse novels, as well as anyone looking for a story that is uplifting without being saccharine.
 
Book: Make Lemonade (Affiliate Link)
Author: Virginia Euwer Wolff
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Original Publication Date: 1993
Pages: 208
Age Range: Young Adult
Source of Book: Library

Emily Beeson has declared July 16 Tell An Author You Care Day.

I'm getting in on this at the end, with a rather short entry, but I want to participate.

The author I want to thank today is Dia Calhoun.  Ms. Calhoun is the author of The Phoenix Dance, a fantasy novel which captures the essence of Bipolar Disorder by using a fantastical metaphor: The Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Brilliance.

I don't have bipolar disorder; I do have clinical depression.  I have experienced the Kingdom of Darkness and Ms. Calhoun writes about it in a way that I think makes it much more accessible than any explanation I've been able to give.  I have several friends with bipolar disorder; one of my friends with bipolar disorder killed herself this past March.  The Phoenix Dance helped me to understand what she had gone through, what my friends who are still living with this disease deal with every day, and why it is so important that all of us take our medicine, even if it does make us far too emotionally even and affects our bodies in unpleasant ways.

Tomorrow evening I will write up a full review of The Phoenix Dance, complete with my favorite quotes.

For now I will just say:

Thank you, Dia Calhoun, for writing such a moving book that uses fantasy for its greatest purpose: to expose and make familiar ordinary situations by putting them in extraordinary circumstances.

You're The Poisonwood Bible!
by Barbara Kingsolver
Deeply rooted in a religious background, you have since become both isolated and schizophrenic. You were naively sure that your actions would help people, but of course they were resistant to your message and ultimately disaster ensued. Since you can see so many sides of the same issue, you are both wise beyond your years and tied to worthless perspectives. If you were a type of waffle, it would be Belgian.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

I'm leaving tomorrow for a week-long vacation in Florida.  The state of Florida is my favorite place in the world.  The moment you drive across the Georgia-Florida border, life improves, because now you're in Florida.  Florida is a magical place; just ask Piers Anthony.  (For the record, my current home, North Carolina, is also pretty magical; and in a letter Piers once told me that if Xanth hadn't been in Florida it would've been in North Carolina.)  Florida is my heart's true home, and in honor of my trip there and my love of that great state, I am posting the state song today.

Commentary from me is in bold.

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home. 

The Suwanee River is in Northern Florida.  For some reason the words "Swanee River" are associated with Yoohoo and snack cakes in my mind.  I think this is because in Tallahassee there's a street named after the river, and on that street there is a convenience store, where my parents purchased Yoohoo and snack cakes for me.

Chorus
All the world is sad and dreary,
Ev'rywhere I roam;
Oh! loved ones, how my heart grows weary,
Far from the old folks at home! 

Since a year or so before my sister was born, my maternal grandparents have lived in Florida, and my paternal grandparents have been there since my dad was about three.

Second Verse
All roun' the little farm I wandered,
When I was young;
Then many happy days I squandered,
Many the songs I sung.
When I was playing with my brother,
Happy was I;
Oh! take me to my kind old mother,
There let me live and die. 

When my dad was in library school he and my mom made friends with a couple, and the woman in this couple had a family farm.  It was a cane farm, and every year they'd have a big family reunion on Thanksgiving.  The couple invited us there a few times, and I would run around with all the kids of this family and with my little sister.  It was a lovely place.  I liked watching them make cane syrup.  I also liked drinking cane syrup.  I've recently discovered that I prefer things sweetened with dried cane juice.  Yay, Florida!  Cane is also a major crop of the West Indies, and a source of great wealth for the people pirates plundered.

Third Verse
One little hut among the bushes,
One that I love,
Still sadly to my mem'ry rushes,
No matter where I roam.
When will I see the bees a humming,
All roun' the comb?
When will I hear the banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home?

I never lived in a hut in Florida.  House, townhouse, duplex.  No hut.  I also don't really care for bees, and I'm indifferent towards the banjo.

This is the story of what really happened.  This is the truth.

When Emma moved to Orsonville back in the third grade, Anna introduced herself.  They soon became fast friends, and Emma hasn’t really spent time with anyone else.  Now the girls are in ninth grade, and the glamorous and edgy Mariah has introduced them to her circle of friends, broadening their social horizons greatly.  One night the girls tell their parents that they’re going to the movies when really they’re going to Mariah’s boyfriend’s house for a party.  They get caught in this lie by their parents and make up another, bigger one, to cover it up: they were on their way to the movies but took some time to just hang out by the river.  When they were at the river, a strange man attacked them.  They managed to escape, but never made it to the movies.

When the girls tell the lie, they think it will get them off the hook and that will be that.  Instead, their parents get the police involved, their school holds assemblies to discuss the event, a man is arrested, and the women of the community stage a “Take Back the Night” rally.  

In Harmless, Dana Reinhardt tells the story using each of the girls’ voices.  We get a different perspective from each of them and learn their motivations and see what their lives are like from the inside.  This unique form of narration allows each girl to be a whole character, rather than limiting us to one girl’s perspective on the other two.  We also see how each character changes: Anna, the good and unpopular girl, decides to open up and finally start being a little wild; Emma, the “normal” one, withdraws into herself; Mariah, who has always been rebellious, starts to take life more seriously.  

Harmless is very different from Reinhardt’s first book, A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life.  The tone is darker, though the subject matter is of equal seriousness.  Harmless is, above all else, intense.  It examines what can happen when we lose control of our lies.  It also shows us that people may not be just the way you perceive them.  Mariah’s inner thoughts reveal her to be not at all the girl Anna thought she was.  Emma’s family has secrets she doesn’t share, even with her best friends.  Anna has a desire to be different than she is, but doesn’t express this until Mariah presents her with the opportunity.

Harmless is an excellent book.  I would recommend it to readers who like books that make them think.  It contains language and content that make the YOUNG ADULT label necessary and emphatic: parents may want to read it before giving it to their children.

Book: Harmless (Affiliate Link)
Author: Dana Reinhardt 
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Original Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 240
Age Range: Young Adult
Source of Book: Borders
Other Blog Reviews: Big A little a, propernoun.net, interactivereader, Becky’s Book Reviews, Sara’s Holds Shelf, Kids Lit, I’m A Reading Fool
Extras: My Interview with Dana Reinhardt, Interview at Interactive Reader, Interview at Bildungsroman

In honor of my cat-related article up at Associated Content, I’m posting a cat poem today.

Had Tiberius Been a Cat
Cruel, but composed and bland,
Dumb, inscrutable and grand,
So Tiberius might have sat,
Had Tiberius been a cat.

Matthew Arnold 1822-1888 

Tiberius was the second emperor of Rome.  You can read more about him here.  I’m not sure if this is the Tiberius the poet intended, but it sounds a lot like him.

Associated Content has published my article Unique Websites for Cat Lovers.

When my students ask me, "What can you DO with a Classics major?" I answer:

"Well, you pretty much have two options.  You can either become a Latin teacher... or you can be a world famous novelist."

J. K. Rowling majored in the same thing I did, folks.  But she's got more money.  It's okay, though.  I'm glad she did it, because it means her Latin is pretty darn accurate, excepting the nonsense words.  And I can use things like the subject heading of this post to teach students the meaning of words like "accusative case."

Regardless of our respective tax brackets (which probably have no bearing to one another anyway as we live in different countries), J. K. makes me happy with her books.  They are good and fun and I don't care if she's not Tolstoy.  I don't require Tolstoy from a book.  In fact, I put Tolstoy down a few times, and never finished Anna Karenina.  I'll try again later.

All of this is to say, it's full-blown Harry Potter madness here in lecti-land.  I am in the middle of crocheting myself a fabulous pink wig to wear to the release party in Hillsborough (yes, 

and , I said Hillsborough - y'all have the best party, I'm told).  I designed a Weird Sisters logo to iron on to a T-shirt and then accentuate with fabric paint.  Tomorrow I'm going shopping for jeans to tear up (thrift store!) and wacky socks (Target!).  I'm going to have fun if it kills me.  I am not going to the Raleigh preview for the new movie tomorrow though, as I've decided it's more hassle than it's worth.  It'll be the same movie in a couple of weeks.

What are you doing for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

 

Barbara Johansen's ALA roundup mentioned a museum visit that sent me in search of one of my favorite DC museums, The National Museum of Women in the Arts.  I decided to take a look in their shop and found this:


This is the Women Writers Umbrella.  I love it!  The writers on it are, starting with the very bottom and moving clockwise, Emily Dickinson, Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, Virginia Woolf, Emma Lazarus, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sylvia Plath, and Jane Austen.  It's $27.50.













I also found in their store books by the Guerilla Girls, who I'm now reading all about and finding rather exciting.

There's also this fabulous Emily Dickinson scarf.

If you’re in Dallas, Portland, Sacramento, Raleigh/Durham, Minneapolis/St Paul, Pittsburgh, Atlanta or Orlando .. you can get into a sneak preview of the new HP movie.

Check out http://www.myspace.com/blackcurtain for more details on it.

Simone’s family is perfect.  Her father is a political cartoonist, her mother is an ACLU attorney, her brother is a high school freshman with great hair, and she’s a math whiz.  Sure, she has dark hair, olive skin, and almond-shaped eyes while the rest of the family is blonde all over.  But they’re still a family.  And that’s what matters, right?

Simone’s known since early in her life that she’s adopted.  She doesn’t know anything about her biological family, though, and what’s more, she’s never been curious about it.  In spite of her lack of curiosity, Simone’s about to learn a lot more about her origins than she ever expected.

The central story in Dana Reinhardt’s debut novel A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life deals with Simone’s discovery of her birth mother’s heritage, and the struggle she goes through to reconcile her Hasidic Jew history with her Atheist upbringing.  Rivka, Simone’s birth mother, emerges as a force in Simone’s life that changes her perspective on everything in some way or another.  Side stories include Simone’s best friend dealing with her recently changed body and subsequent, eventually unpleasant, sexual awakening, as well as a potential romance for Simone with a fellow staff member on the school paper.

Brief Chapter has a lot of great things going on.  I’m reluctant to single one out as its best, so I’ll just list some.  First, Simone’s voice is wonderful.  Simone has a wry sense of humor, and is a deep thinker but not at all pretentious.  Second is the delightful normalness of Simone’s family.  They are not without flaws, but they aren’t ravaged by tragedy or creepily perfect.  Third is the way the book handles the normal and important subject matter of young adult life - self-discovery, rapid change, understanding love and sex, crises of faith - while tying these themes into a larger story about the definition of family.

I would recommend Brief Chapter to just about any reader high-school aged or up.  It has broad appeal, and is especially good for readers interested in adoption and interfaith issues.

Book: A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life (Affiliate Link)
Author: Dana Reinhardt 
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Original Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 240
Age Range: Young Adult
Source of Book: Amazon.com
Other Blog Reviews: Tea Cozy, bookshelves of doom, interactivereader, Bildungsroman, Young Adult (& Kids) Books Central, propernoun.net
Extras: My Interview with Dana Reinhardt, Interview at Interactive Reader, Interview at Bildungsroman

The Summer Blog Blast Tour concludes with Justina Chen Headley at Finding Wonderland.

Colleen Mondor, grand organizer of the tour, reflects on its success at Chasing Ray.

Today's Interviews Tim Tharp at Chasing Ray Justina Chen Headley at Big A, little a Ysabeau Wilce at Shaken & Stirred Dana Reinhardt at Bildungsroman Julie Ann Peters at Finding Wonderland Cecil Castellucci at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy Bennett Madison at Bookshelves of Doom Holly Black at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast Justine Larbalestier at Hip Writer Mama Kirsten Miller at A Fuse #8 Production (Part Two)

Tomorrow’s Interviews Justina Chen Headley finishes out the week at Finding Wonderland

Revelations in the Key of K