Chapter 37: A Book Set in the Future

The Giver, Lois Lowry

Newberry winner, turned into a movie, people name their child after one of the characters- maybe my expectations were high for this one. After that insomnia-destroying violin book, I thought this might be a tense enough story to keep me awake. Mostly it did, but was it worth it?

First, let me state for the record that Child #3 did not get his middle name because of this story. I won't ever pretend at some point in the future that it had any influence on the choice. But when I read the author's introduction in which she claims many fans have sent her letters saying they have named their child for one in the novel, well, I expected something original, thought-provoking, and amazing. What I got was ... meh.

The premise of the story has potential- after generations, a community has achieved sameness. Sameness is probably not even the right word, though. People have different abilities and interests, but almost every person has the same life-trajectory. Born > placed with a family unit until adulthood > productive member of society > retirement to the home for old persons > release. Anything other than that is an anomaly and people avoid discussing it because being polite is really, really important. Sounds like things could get pretty interesting, right? You'd think.

Enter Jonas. At Level 12, he gets skipped over in the ceremony that announces what his future job will be. After his peer group gets their assignments, Jonas is called to the center of the room and told he has been chosen for a high honor. He will be Receiver of Memory. His training begins the next day and we are assured it will be painful. Ok, let's see where this is going.

Oh, nevermind. There's snow and a sled and the Civil War and then boom! it's been a year and Jonas is almost done with his training. One of the special things he can do, that no one else can do because it isn't polite, is ask prying questions. Jonas learns what release really involves (I won't spoil it, but it's no surprise. At all.) and decides to run away with the collective memories from generations past. And he takes a baby with him.

Ah! So the journey is going to be a big part of the plot! We're going to see Jonas and Gabriel bond and experience new things now? Nope. It's going to take a single chapter to get through what is a very long journey (I assume). And that's the end. No revolution. No conflict wherein the Elders try to change Jonas' mind. No word at all of what becomes of the Community members Jonas once cared for- his parents, sister, and friends. Just ... The End.

I just can't believe with this much material, this is all we get. And that people love it so much. It's not terrible. It's written well enough. It just lacks so much- character development, continuity, conflict. I guess I could be generous and call it a Revolution of One, but without more information I can't even do that. This story is like a Slim Fast shake instead of one of those insane buffets in Vegas. Overall, I'm underwhelmed. I won't read it again or expect my kids to (but they can if they want). The Giver gets a disappointing 2.5 Marias.

Chapter 17: A Book That Scares You

The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
A couple of years ago, I was reading the Outlander series and just had to take a break from it. I told my best friend that I just couldn't read about another rape. So I had picked up the Millennium Trilogy for a change of pace. I must give her credit for keeping a straight face, as I did not yet know that it also includes graphic rape scenes. She later recommended The Sparrow with the warning that it contains my "favorite topic." So I knew it was coming. And I knew a Jesuit was involved. And that made me a little scared to read it.

The first hundred pages or so seemed to drag on for me. It was all the buildup to the actual mission of first contact with a distant planet. There was, of course, some character development that had to happen here, but I just couldn't read more than a few pages before falling asleep. Once the ball started rolling, I became more interested, but it still took me more than two weeks to finish 400 pages. (Here I will point out that I often have difficulty beginning a new book after one that I really enjoy. So, this one suffered from my Stephen King Hangover.)

One thing I really liked about this book was the treatment of priests. I feel that oftentimes lay believers endow them with superhuman characteristics and non-believers find them easy to vilify. So I enjoyed the frank discussions of the humanity of the priests- their daily struggles with everyday life. I did not necessarily agree with the conclusions of some of the characters as to the best solution for those struggles, but I'm also not going to get into a dogmatic argument with a fictional person.

There were some things I found unsatisfying, too. The deaths of Sandoz' crewmates were anti-climactic. They were vicious and surprising, but they were all lumped together into two events, essentially. I think the tension would build better if the crew was picked off one-by-one. The pace is already hampered by the disjointed chronology, all leading up to The Big Reveal that is not surprising.

Overall, it was a good book that gave me plenty to think about regarding the stories in my head. It was accessible sci-fi, where I did not have to stretch my imagination too far to grasp the ideas. It is interesting to read it almost 20 years after publishing, too, because the radio signals that spawn the mission are discovered in 2016. I'll say this- if we do hear Singers from Rakhat next year, let's agree not to send the Jesuits. The Sparrow gets 2.5 Marias.

Chapter 11: A Book That Takes Place In Your Hometown

Neanderthal seeks Human,

Penny Reid

I'm only 11 entries in and I'm already fudging a little bit. The nice thing about being a nomad for the majority of your life is that you can claim a number of places as home. Lucky for me, I had a kindle book set in Chicago and I once had an address in the City of the Big Shoulders. Because, let's be honest, there are not a lot of interesting books taking place in Tupelo, MS or LaPorte, IN. Yet. And there are too many titles in Los Angeles. I did once read a mystery set in High Point, NC, but I'm not ready to re-read for this journal. Yet. So, I opened up this one that I got as a freebie.

I'm not even sure how or why I got this one for free, but it is much better than many other freebies I have read stared at. I think calling it a smart romance might be a stretch, but that is far more accurate than calling this series "Knitting in the City." The main character doesn't even knit! She goes to her friend's knitting group three times in the whole book, mostly just for girltalk. There is brief mention of projects-on-needles and a ball of MadTosh, but if the rest of the series is about Janie, the publisher should seriously reconsider the series name. Maybe Awkward Girl in the City.

We meet Janie on the Worst Day of Her Life. She broke up with her cheating boyfriend, got fired, and now has nowhere to live (see cheating boyfriend). She takes her meager possessions to her friend's apartment for alcohol and ice cream. They talk about the most important event of the day- riding in an elevator with a hot security guy. Like many overzealous crushes, this one has been knighted Sir (Something-Something) Hotpants. Really, it's so dumb I can't be bothered to remember or look it up. But these are young, single women and I can't pretend I didn't suffer my own boy crazy phase.

Except Janie is not really the boy crazy type. She's a Curator of Fact with a dysfunctional mental/verbal filter. She doesn't recognize obvious flirting and innuendo. She is not social. She also repeatedly talks about how ugly and monstrous she is. Yeah. Big boobs and long legs are gross. Despite all this, her friend takes her to an Outrageous night club where people are fornicating in glass cages. I'll let you guess who happens to be working security there, too. It's Hotpants. Are you gobsmacked? Janie sure is.

From here, all other characters are peripheral and we watch a bizarre courtship between the two. So many things make no sense at all. It is so incohesive and implausible. I kept waiting for The Thing that brings it all together, but it never appeared. And then the resolution (if that's even the right term) comes out of nowhere and ends abruptly. I am still so disoriented, that I have no interest in reading more of the series because I do not care about any of the characters. Plus, THERE'S NO KNITTING!

What did I enjoy? Hotpants (whose name is Quinn Sullivan and can never be separated in my mind from this guy)



sends Janie nerd jokes via text. I chuckled at the binary one. I also found some of the facts Janie blurts out at inappropriate times to be interesting, although I still need to check some of them. (Here is where I'd like to point out that being able to recite things from memory is not exactly the same thing as smart. It can be if one can then apply it to appropriate situations, but Janie can't.) And I like that, despite having some sparky bits, it doesn't go into detail about all the humping. Which brings me to a tangent.

At one point, Janie's friend (I'm sure she has a name, but she's totally forgettable) says that she knows Janie didn't like sex with her ex-boyfriend because she never talked about it. This has been running around in my brain for days now. Maybe it's the difference between married and singles sex. Maybe it's an age thing. Maybe my friends and I are all prudes. But I just don't witness many conversations about sex. I'm not really interested in grabbing a margarita with a gal pal and exchanging play by plays of our most recent romps. This leads me to believe that I'm not really the target audience for this series. There are worse things in life, I suppose.

So I've been trying to come up with a rating system for this journal- a way to quickly see what I liked and didn't, what I recommend you pick up or burn. So far nothing has really been quite what I am looking for, but a friend suggested this.

So until I come up with something better, which I may never do, I give Neanderthal  2.5 Marias. It was easy to read, didn't take much time or gray matter, didn't make me fall asleep, nor did it make any sense. I won't read it again or continue the series, but I don't hate myself for reading the whole thing, and I won't be sending glitterbombs to the author.

Chapter 9: A Book Based Entirely On Its Cover

The Book Of Bright Ideas, Sandra Kring

"Your dad looks like Elvis," Winnalee said when Daddy and me got back to the yard (not even bothering to whisper), but that wasn't so. He had black hair like Elvis, and eyes the color of a navy crayon, but not the same nose and mouth, just regular ones.

Before I can even get into discussing the writing, I have to talk about this cover. It's popped up on my online library page a few times and has always been a Maybe Read. It's obviously Chick Lit and looks like it's probably pretty funny. This sassy little girl appears to be up to something. I finally decided to find out what and I was not disappointed.

Bright Ideas is narrated by 9 year old Button. She tells story of one crazy summer as only a timid child can. Winnalee (the cover girl) and her sister Freeda blow in to small-town Wisconsin and set Button's world on end. By the time Labor Day rolls around, no one is the same. The characters are lovable, if somewhat one dimensional, and the story, while predictable, is entertaining in large part due to the narration.

Early in the book, I assumed it took place in the South. People say things like "Bless her heart." I don't remember people talking like this in the Midwest of my childhood, but the turn of phrase is very charming. As I neared the final pages, I began to tire of the expressions, but for most of the book, I enjoyed how Button describes emotions as physical attributes: twirling me until my belly got the giggles and Some sad was sitting in her eyes. These were more powerful than the incongruent dialect, so I could look past that.

Another confusing aspect was the weather. Daffodils are blooming, but school is out of session, but people still need sweaters. Now, I am well aware that the climate of the Midwest can be unpredictable, but these little details just don't make sense. Perhaps school let out much earlier in 1961, or this town is somehow above the Arctic Circle. Even still, Wisconsin has four seasons and the shift described is too abrupt. And I'm the girl who had several feet of snow fall down the back of my parka while on spring break in Chicago. I think it's the flower detail that sticks in my craw because daffodils will even come up through snow in the Midwest. Regardless, these details rubbed me the wrong way.

Looking beyond details, the story is formulaic and shallow. It's not groundbreaking or revealing of some under-analyzed part of the human experience. It doesn't need to be any of those things, though. It is tender entertainment told in the light of childhood magic. Kring does an excellent job of creating and maintaining a voice for each character. The way they speak reveals as much about their personalities as their actions do. At times the author gets carried away with exposition, like when Freeda goes off on Button's mom, but I probably prefer the efficiency of it to a clumsy attempt to show these truths over time.

Overall, this is a cute book for some light reading. I doubt I'll read the sequel, but I did enjoy this one. If you like chick lit, a little absurdity, and family drama, this book is for you.