Holy Conspiracy Theory Paranoia Batman!

Doctorow, Cory. (2008). Little Brother. New York: Tor. 365 pages.

Disclaimer: I love Cory Doctorow.

I've been an rabid Boing Boing reader for a while now. So while I hadn't gotten around to reading any of Cory's other fiction, when I saw this I knew I had to read it pronto. I also need to preface this with saying that, yes, I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist and do not trust the government as far as I can throw it.

That said, I loved Doctorow's book Little Brother. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time takes on a whole new meaning for Marcus and his friends when they are scooped up by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after a terrorist attack and brought to a secret prison (read: Guantanamo-like). Had Marcus and his friends not been the hacker/computer types they may never have been given a second look, but because they were aware and knowledgeable of technology and their rights as US citizens they were targeted. After being released Marcus et al. realize their home of San Francisco has been turned into a police state where everyone is a suspected terrorist. Knowing that he will forever be watched and that no one will believe his story, Marcus decides the only thing to do is to take on the DHS himself. Creating a phenominal underground network of teen hackers (remember the movie Hackers with Angelina Jolie?!?) Marcus will teach you more about computer technology and security, as well as it's history, than you ever thought possible. For those who don't like the mini computer science lessons this book may not be for you. Those who are technilogically inclined or are eager to learn more about technology will love this book.

Now for the (few and far between) things that I did not like. I thought that the writing was choppy in places. It just didn't flow as nicely as it could have. Could be it just needed a little more time on the editors table... The only other thing that peeved me was the portrayl of Marcus' Dad. A librarian! It miffed me that he was so closed minded about everything. In real life Doctorow is a champion for libraries and librarians and spoke at the big ALA shin-dig this year. Besides those pretty trivial things I loved the book.

I would definitely booktalk this but only to a selective audience, it's not a book for everyone and I can appreciate that. The conspiracy theory and computer hacking aspects are great pull-ins for kids.

Twilight can just suck it

Westerfeld, Scott. (2005). Peeps: A Novel. New York: Razorbill. 312 pages.

Yeah, you heard me. I'll be the first to admit that I like vampire books that are filled with good, steamy sex. Twilight's okay for that. Peeps isn't exactly what you would call sexy (there's a sexual element to the plot but it isn't "sexy"), and that's probably why I liked it a little bit better than Twilight.

Westerfeld's main character Cal is a young lad from Texas who came to New York City to go to college. We can sort of plug in the typical happenings from there. Cal imbibes too much alcohol and gets seduced into a one night stand that he doesn't really remember the next day. Quite an exciting way to lose your virginity, no? Unfortunately we don't get any of the steamy details. The whole story is told in a very sterile and scientific manner, which really does fit the story nicely. After his little adventure Cal goes on as usual; going to classes, having girlfriends, until he notices things seem to be changing. His sense of smell and night vision are enhanced, his strength increased, and what's with those weird meat cravings all of a sudden? He's been infected with a parasite that causes vampirism. Luckily for Cal he's one of the few that remains a carrier and never reaches full blown vampire status. Now he has to retrace his steps and find every girl that he's ever slept with to try to contain the spread of the parasite. Kind of like an STD. Except this STD causes you to start eating people. Nice. Add in an ancient, secret city agency (think Men in Black but for NYC) and you've got quite a story.

At the same time that I liked this book there were definitely aspects that I had problems with, and these might just be my particular tastes and have no literary merit what-so-ever, but they bugged me nonetheless. It annoyed me that the history of what was going on with the virus was so disjointed and long in coming. And then I almost thought that the whole alternative plan/army building to fight the worms thing was kind of random.

If I were to booktalk this book I would use a sort of "Twilight for Sci-Fi fans" approach.

I've always wanted to move to Alaska...

but Sarah Palin totally ruined that.

Green, John. (2005) Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Books. 256 pages.

Fortunately for us Sarah Palin has absolutely nothing to do with this fantastically written book by John Green.

More times than I'd care to admit I'm reasonably unimpressed with the quality of the writing in YA books. The stories are great and the characters reasonably well developed but it just falls short somehow. This is absolutely NOT the case with Green's Waiting for Alaska.

I'll admit that even with all the hubabbaloo on yalsa-bk and on the interwebs about this book I managed to come at it without knowing anything about the plot, not even that Alaska was a person and not a place (well it is a place in real life but, you know what I mean). So I was very pleasantly surprised when I read this.

Green's character Miles Halter (a.k.a. Pudge) is just snarky and thoughtful enough to make him one of the most "real" teen characters in a book I've read in a while. On his quest for "the Great Perhaps", Miles knows that things just aren't going the way they should living in Florida with his parents and his "school friends". The private boarding school in Alabama, where his Dad went to high school, offers the possibility of a new start and a different path. At the start of his junior year Miles meets his roommate Chip (a.k.a. "the Colonel") and the moody but absolutely gorgeous Alaska Young. Along with a few other friends, Chip and Alaska teach Miles what it means to have real friends, along with drinking, smoking, and sex that is. It's not until Alaska's sudden death in a car crash that her moodiness is truly identified as deep depression. Miles and Chip are left to try to pick up the pieces and reconcile with what they know really happened that night.

Am I detecting a pattern in some of the books I've chosen to read lately? Wallflower and now this? I think Mr. Salinger might have stumbled on to something here, no? Now, along with the "Hero" and the "Damsel in Distress", can we say that there is a literary archetype known as the "Holden Caufield"? I kind of like that idea, whether it's an original one or not.

I'd structure my booktalk much the same way as with Wallflower, though leaving out the first year of high school stuff obviously. More than that though I'd highlight the whole "what they know really happened that night" aspect of the plot maybe. That does give away the ending. I would also add it to my list of books for kids to read and then compare with Catcher.

Insert thoughtful title here

Do you ever stop to look over old relations,
Or look to the belly of another one's emotions,
Someone young in the winds of a revolution
Trying to save his face in the evolution.
~ from "Asleep at the Wheel" by the Wallflowers
(lyrics by Jakob Dylan)

Chobsky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV 1999 224 pages.


Stephen Chobsky, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. Okay, so maybe that's a bit much. But I really did love this book. I wasn't as thrilled to find out that MTV was the publisher, that sits a little odd with me, but I think that I can disregard that now that I know that the book kicks ass.

The year is 1991 and Charlie is a freshman in high school. He is quiet and he doesn't have very many friends. In fact, when we meet Charlie he is dealing with the suicide of his best friend and a little quieter and more introspective than usual as he tries to figure out his new place. Luckily for Charlie his quirkiness lands him a friendship with the brother/sister senior duo of Patrick and Samantha, and through them finds himself part of a group of thoughtful friends. Typical high school coming of age ensues; drugs, sex, music that really "means" something and more than one realization that leads to a sort of breakdown/grand epiphany.

The story is told as a series of letters Charlie writes to an unknown "friend". Open and honest, Charlie lays his feelings out for the intended reader (who we never know the identity of), making it hard not to feel some sympathy for the poor kid.

I loved the book. I was in high school at the same time (though I would've been a sophomore when Charlie was a freshman) and could relate to a lot of the pop culture references. More specifically, my friends and I used to have Rocky Horror Picture Show parties and go to the theater at midnight for the (infrequent) showings (I was Magenta).

That said, I don't think that I would use that information in my booktalk. I would maybe tout the book as a more up-to-date Catcher in the Rye in many ways. I'm not sure in what grade they read Catcher but it would be neat to get some kids to read the two and then compare them.

"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable." ~ from Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell

Collins, Suzanne (2008). Hunger Games. NY: Scholastic Press. 384 pages.

I LOVE a good dystopian novel. Big Brother, corrupt governments, citizens rising to overthrow the dictatorship, conspiracy theories. It's all just a little too close to home, minus the nuclear winter, and it feeds into my paranoia nicely. Think "The Lottery" meets "Running Man" for teens and you have Hunger Games.

The story takes place in Panem, what's left of North America. Split up into 12 districts, each with it's own specific gross national product, some are more wealthy than others. However, all twelve are equal in that once a year they must send one boy and one girl to fight in the Hunger Games. A fight to the death that leaves one winner. A televised event that the whole of Panem is forced to watch.

Katniss is my kind of girl. It didn't happen over night but eventually it sank in, they would starve if Katniss didn't step up after her father's death. She gets up each morning to hunt and forage for food to feed her family knowing full well that her mom and little sister would have been dead long ago if it weren't for her. She's managed to avoid being picked for the games so far. Unfortunately her little sister isn't so lucky and is picked in the first year of her name being added to the lottery. Katniss isn't about to let her little sister die and takes her place instead. I'm not going to go into any more detail about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything. The author does a really good job of not giving all the gory details but at the same time it's pretty gruesome. How could a fight to the death among teens not be!?

I'm not really sure how I feel about the romantic aspect that takes place in the story. It's okay in this book but this is the first in what will be a trilogy or series and I just can't figure out where the author is going to go with this. I like it as a stand alone book. I'll definitely read the next one to figure out where the story is going to go but right now I don't have a clue.

I would booktalk this book with something like, "What if you had to support your family? What if you couldn't just go to the grocery store but instead had to hunt and forage to survive? What if you lived in a place where your every move was monitored and you couldn't voice your opinion for fear of being taken away and never seen or heard from again?" A good book for older teens. Maybe 10th - 12th grade.

Official NaBloPoMo FAIL + book journal

Yup. I failed. Again. Oh well. C'est la vive. I should have known better than to try it during school again. Next year I will no longer be a grad student and will give it another shot.

Alexie, Sherman (2007). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. NY: Little, Brown Young Readers. 240 pages.

Arnold Spirit, otherwise known as Junior, tells us his story of growing up a Spokane Indian in Wellpinit, WA. From his miraculous survival at birth (he was born with water on the brain) to his not so shabby basketball skills, Junior navigates the waters of adolescence on an Indian reservation. There are a lot of family issues, a lot of death, and a lot of stereotypes (those that are more or less true and those that aren't) and only one or two nervous breakdowns.

Junior encounters a teacher his freshman year who pleads with him to want more out of life (after Junior breaks his nose). Realizing that he'll end up just like everyone else on the rez if he stays, Junior makes the decision to go to high school at the public school in the neighboring (white) town. Now the outcast in both his home and his new school, Junior stays the course and faces his battles bravely.

Alexie's sort-of semi-autobiographical first YA novel is a complete hit. Winner of the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature in Fiction (among others), Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is a book I can see having an entire freshman class read the summer before they start high school.

And my recommendation is not made solely on this extremely cool video of Alexie getting more laughs than Colbert:



I would booktalk this book to 7th - 9th graders. Those years are totally sucky and reading about a kid of the same age going through some really rough shit of his own, yet in a lighthearted way, might resonate with some.

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Yup. Yup!