11) Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass
This is a companion to The Selection series and includes four novellas (told by four different characters), sketches, a map, and other sections about the characters (my personal favorite is the "Where Are They Now?" section). My husband and I started this book last year and finally finished it, having read The Selection series last year as well.
I feel like this book is comprehensive. The author demonstrates mastery over her fictional world by keeping the facts straight as she writes from a half dozen characters' perspectives! This book is so satisfying that way. We felt immersed in castle life; ultimately, we knew more about it than any one of the characters. Thanks Kiera Cass!
She really knows these people and loves them. She respects their voices enough to put out this book, and I appreciate that. I liked this better than the series, probably because it crowned the books. Five stars!
12) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Many Americans study parts of Leaves of Grass in school, but I took it upon myself to read the whole thing. It is pretty impressive. Sometimes I gripped the book with white knuckles, feeling like it held answers to life's mysteries. Other times, I felt like I was slipping into a peaceful trance. And once in awhile, I would have shaken the author's shoulder if I could and said, "Whoa, WALT! You can't just WRITE that, EVER, much less in 1855!"
Walt Whitman seemed to think like a modern-day hipster. He wrote in free verse poetry, talked about feelings, secluded himself in nature, talked openly about taboo topics, and sported an unruly beard and casual posture. I like him. I don't agree with many of his theology points: he gives mankind too much credit instead of God. But I would happily be his neighbor (as long as he didn't play "Garden of Eden" around his property like my old neighbors used to--hello, clothes much?). Walt Whitman is weird and edgy for his time and ours, but I can see myself singing kumbaya around a campfire with him and a bunch of other edgy people as a cultural experience if given the opportunity.
I once mentioned my reading challenge that my sister and I are doing together. This book is going under the category "book that was once banned." In truth, many books are banned somewhere. I could have read Harry Potter, The Scarlet Letter, Farenheit 451, or hundreds of others (including the Book of Mormon, no doubt). But I love the BYUTV show "Granite Flats" and have kept in touch with the show's writer, John Christian Plummer, for some time. Leaves of Grass is the show's "Rosetta Stone" for translating symbols into concrete meanings. The names of the season three episode come from Whitman. And every time a show ends, I sit back and think, "....woooow...." It's pure genius.
Early on, the writer (Plummer) gave me a few resources to research, including a lecture series on Whitman, and I ordered them straightaway. So when I saw Leaves of Grass on a list of previously banned books, my choice was obvious.
The reason it was banned was for sexual allusions. Like I said, I'd be like, "WALT, you can't just talk about liking to be naked!" or "WALT, you can't just SAY that about private bedroom things!" But being a hipster, he never listened and went on reveling for another line. Whatever. No wonder we didn't read Leaves of Grass in its entirety in high school.
For the literary experience that is Walt Whitman, I give this work four stars. I mean, come on guys. Listen to this:
"The sickness of one of my folks--or of myself... /They come to me days and nights and go from me again, /But they are not the Me myself."
Hello!
Or this:
"The smallest sprout shows there really is no death, /And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it..."
Also, he LOVED the USA:
"...the genius of the United States is not best or most it it's executives or legislatures, nor units ambassadors for authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors... But always most in the common people. Their manners of speech dress friendships--the freshness and candor of their physiognomy--the picturesque looseness of their carriage...their deathless attachment to freedom--their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean--the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states--the fierceness of their roused resentment--their curiosity and welcome of novelty--their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy--their susceptibility of a slight--the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors--the fluency of their speech--their delight in music, the sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul...their good temper and open-handedness--the terrible significance of their elections--the President's taking off his hat to them not they to him--these too are unrated poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it."
13) The List by Siobhan Vivian
I give this book two stars. It is about the things I chose to miss out on in high school by electing to be a goody-goody and a bit of a loner. High school felt so obnoxiously myopic--I knew it was only an illusion, and that nothing about it--besides the grades and awards that would get me into college--would last. Thus, I didn't seek out boyfriends or cliques or even a lot of dating opportunities. It just didn't matter to me. But it is the whole world to a lot of high schoolers, and this book demonstrates this idea.
The book's premise is devastating. A high school has a sick tradition of posting an anonymously-authored list of the prettiest girl and the ugliest girl in each grade the Monday morning before Homecoming. Four hundred copies posted makes it impossible to miss, yet no parents or teachers know about it (???). The book is then broken up into days, and each listed girl's reaction is narrated for the week. In some chapters, there is a lot of swearing because a character is livid. We see labels and assumptions while also examining insecurities and strengths of each girl. But the book is full of labels.
Problems: The authority of the list maker is taken so seriously. The tradition should have been extinguished years before. Also, there is a serious lack of parents in the book. Girls go off to buy gowns on their own. With what money, I'd like to ask? And don't parents care where their kids go and what they wear? Are my attentive parents a social anomaly?
I view this book as a sad commentary on how much people rely on public opinion, which is generally misinformed and wrong. I wanted each girl to grow a spine and not care, but each needed to be skinnier or more girly or less soft spoken. None viewed themselves as okay as they were. And I was not okay with that.
Be aware that there are mature situations--a party with alcohol and resulting misery, eating disorders, make-out sessions, and a lot of teenage angst. Read with caution. I don't recommend.
14) Just Don't Fall: A Hilariously True Story of Childhood Cancer, Amputation, Romantic Yearning, Truth, and Olympic Greatness by Josh Sundquist
The unusually-long title sums up this memoir (I'm enjoying memoirs lately!). Josh Sundquist is an energetic, fast-talking YouTuber, motivational speaker, amputee, cancer survivor, and 2006 Paralympian ski racer. I stumbled on his YouTube channel when looking for something else, and he made me laugh out loud. Because my library doesn't carry this book, I let many, many months pass with his book on my list...and finally ordered it for a penny online.
Josh's high energy shoots through his writing (when he isn't tired with cancer) as he narrates his story. It isn't so much about recounting events as it is about reliving his emotions through those events. He writes in the present tense at the age he is in the story, which is really fun. For example, we react in present tense with his nine-year-old self as he learns his cancerous leg will need to be amputated at the hip; we fee suspicion of the nurse who dug around his arm with a needle for an IV; and we notice with childlike disgust when adults try to lie to him. We feel like he really is in control of his life, because we are him, and we are nine, and we know everything because we read a lot and are smart about this condition. And we don't even notice he is close to dying because we are nine, and we have plans for the future.
Josh is really precocious and polite, having been homeschooled in a conservative Christian home. I really enjoyed reading about his determination through cancer and his recovery, his first stint with motivational speaking (at the ripe old age of, what was it, fourteen?), college, and Olympic training.
Josh talks about how his family doesn't use euphemisms (like "oh my goodness"), so the language and topics are clean for a lot of the book. Then he meets a few people who have massive swearing issues and have lived more "in the world" than he has, and while he handles it with grace, there is definitely a shift in topics. I am aghast as to why the f-word is such a go-to expression in books (is our vocabulary really SO limited?), but it shows up lots toward the end. Bah!
I really enjoyed this book. I really did. Maybe because Josh and I are peers. Maybe because I've followed him on Instagram and YouTube and laughed at his stuff for a long time (his Halloween costumes [a flamingo? a foosball soccer player? a gingerbread man with his leg bitten off?] rock, and the guy who takes his left shoes is his "sole mate"). Maybe because I get some of what he says in my own way. Maybe because he is so expressive. Whatever it is, I think I'll read this book again sometime and read his newer book soon. Four stars.
15) The Book of Mormon
I feel uncomfortable "reviewing" The Book of Mormon except to say that I know it is true and is a book of God. I will be reading it three more times this year. But it is five stars. Actually, ten. I keep uncovering new layers and am edifices with every reading. The Book of Mormon is true!
No comments:
Post a Comment