florida road trip, anyone?

I am way too excited about this:

twenties girls

Lara, the protagonist of Sophie Kinsella’s newest novel Twenties Girls, has a lot in common with Kinsella’s other comedic heroines.  Her life is falling apart, both personally and professionally — her boyfriend dumped her for no apparent reason, and her partner has seemingly abandoned their newly launched business.  She has a lot more to worry about than the death of a 105-year-old great aunt that she never really knew, but her parents insist on dragging her to the funeral anyway. 

It’s at this point that Twenties Girls departs from the usual path of Kinsella’s work. For at the funeral, Lara is suddenly besieged by the ghost of her great-aunt Sadie, who, it seems, cannot rest peacefully until her treasured dragonfly necklace is found — and she needs Lara to do it.  Struggling twenty-somethings, we see regularly in Kinsella’s brand of chick lit; likable ghosts, not so much.

The story that ensues is one of Kinsella’s best.  Always humorous, Kinsella is at her funniest in her scenes with the ghostly Sadie.  The Sadie Lara (and only Lara) is able to see is the 23-year-old version, which is the age Sadie always felt herself to be inside.  She doesn’t understand Lara’s worry and concern; her 1920s life revolved around parties and clothes and dancing.  And she doesn’t understand Lara’s infatuation with one man, especially one who broke her heart, when there are so many others around.

Sadie is a delightfully hilarious character, and Lara becomes far more interesting as the relationship between the two of them develops.  Though Lara initially resists Sadie’s demands, she quickly realizes having a ghost companion has its advantages.  And when they discover that the missing necklace is just one piece of a much bigger mystery, the plot becomes intriguingly more complex.  All of which makes Twenties Girls a fun, whimsical read, and my personal favorite of Kinsella’s novels. 

WHO: Sophie Kinsella
WHAT: Twenties Girls
WHERE: Purchased e-book
WHEN: January 2010
WHY: Have enjoyed author’s previous work
HOW: E-book

wanted: 30 copies of the hunger games

Sometimes, it seems, you need to be careful about what books you give as gifts.

Ever since I read The Hunger Games  (and Catching Fire) I’ve been recommending them to just about everyone I know.  For Christmas, I went one step further and bought my younger sister, who teaches high school English, copies of both.

And then a week ago, I got a voicemail from Katy:

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that since you gave me the book The Hunger Games and I’m kind of obsessed with it now, you are responsible for finding me 30 more copies so I can teach it because I think it’s way better than any of the books actually on my list.”

Right. (And yes, she really talks like that.)

But once we determined that I wasn’t actually going to buy her 30 copies for her classroom, we discovered a way for her to get a class set so she could teach the novel to her freshman students — through DonorsChoose.org.

DonorsChoose.org is set up for exactly this type of purpose.  Teachers, who would like or need materials that are beyond the school’s budget (as so many unfortunately are), can submit a project to the organization.  Once DonorsChoose approves the project and verifies the cost, the project is posted online.  Then donors can look through the posted projects and select which ones they would like to donate to, based on their interests, locality, etc.

Katy’s project was posted online this morning.  As a huge proponent of young adult literature in the classroom, I feel like this is a really worthwhile project — and while I wasn’t willing to purchase 30 copies for her, I was happy to donate enough to cover two books.  If you are a fan of The Hunger Games and would like to help put it into the hands of a classroom of high school students, or if you believe in making reading more accessible to students, or if you’re just feeling generous, please visit Katy’s (or Ms. T’s) DonorChoose page and help out.  Even a small amount can make a difference.  And if her project has already been fulfilled by the time you get to it, check out some of the many other worthwhile projects posted as well — just a quick search of “The Hunger Games” brings up 24 projects where teachers are seeking books for their students.  And thank you!!!

merry belated christmas

Back around Christmas, I put up a few posts about all of the books I received and all of the books we gave for the holidays.  But I did happen to leave out any mention of the most exciting gift I received…primarily because I had not received it yet.

But now it is here, and I proudly present…

My nook!!!

My husband and I both decided we wanted e-readers for Christmas, but we were split as to which ones.  He, ever the tech-geek, had read tons of great things about the Kindle and wanted to go that way.  I, the book-geek, was a little more willing to risk the unknown in exchange for having pretty book covers of all my favorite novels appear in the pretty touch screen menu of the newly released nook.   Since we had some reward certificates for Amazon, the remaining cost of the Kindle was my Christmas gift to him.  I, in turn, told anyone who asked me what I wanted for Christmas that Barnes and Noble gift cards would be much appreciated.  This worked so well that I managed to end up with not only a nook, but enough credit for a nice case to put it in and a number of e-books as well.

And I love it.  I haven’t always been sure about the e-reader thing.  I like the feel of a book in my hand, and I love the way my books look on my shelves.  I’ve had the nook for a couple of weeks now, though, and I’m sold.  As it turns out, they don’t actually make you throw away all of your hard copies of books when you buy an e-reader.  And the cover I bought simulates the feel of a book quite nicely — but the difference is it currently holds about 20 books between its covers (with room for lots and lots more), rather than just the one.

I was able to download a number of public domain favorites for free  (Pride and Prejudice; Jane Eyre; Little Women; and My Antonia, to name a few), and bought a couple of other stand-bys that I won’t mind always having at my fingertips (Bridget Jones’ Diary; Postmortem) as well as a few new releases I’ve heard great things about (Twenties Girls; Juliet, Naked).   I’ve also been able to download some samples of books I’m curious about but not entirely sure are my type of read, which is definitely a nice feature.

I’ve finished two books in their entirety on the nook so far, and reading on it is a perfectly comfortable experience.  It’s easy to hold, and the e-ink screen (as opposed to a backlit screen) reads similarly to a paper page.  The touch screen responds  well, and the battery seems to last FOREVER.  (I literally only need to charge it once a week, if that.)  My only real complaint is with the sleep settings for the lit touch screen — it feels like it stays on way too long on the 30-second setting, but the 10-second setting has it turning off too quickly sometimes (though I still prefer it), and there’s no in-between option.  Overall, though, I’m really happy with it and thrilled that I can be constantly carrying a couple dozen books with me at any given time.

Not that this necessarily means I’ll stop carrying others with me as well…

rebecca and anne

I’ve long considered Laura Ingalls and Jo March to be old friends worth revisiting.  Their stories are both comfortable and comforting, and ones I turn to again and again.  There are few other books that wrap me in the same nostalgia for a time I’ve never even known (and, in truth, have a difficult time imagining myself actually living in), and few other characters I feel as if I would connect with so well were we to meet in real life.

But I now think I need to add Rebecca Randall and Anne Shirley to that list of ficional friends.  Last month, I listened to Anne of Green Gables, and followed that up by spending the past few weeks listening to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Avonlea (and have now gone straight into Anne of the Island).  Rebecca and Anne, like Laura and Jo, live in worlds of scrapes and laughter, hard work and whimsical play.  Their lives, though far from perfect, seem much simpler than ours, and their enthusiasm and energy and determination to make the most of life — in spite of their struggles — practically spill off the page.  Their stories have been a joy to read, and I don’t doubt that I will be reliving that joy many times in the future.

saving cee cee honeycutt

The advance copy of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt I received has a letter from the publishing company just inside the front cover, claiming that while plenty of other novelists have attempted to write Southern coming-of-age stories in the vein of The Secret Life of Bees, Beth Hoffman is one of the few to have succeeded. 

Though it’s been a few years since I read The Secret Life of Bees, I did recognize that the two novels share a number of features.  Both are narrated — in admirably authentic voices — by adolescent girls.  Both do have a coming-of-age storyline.  Both are largely dominated by female characters.  And both submerge their stories within Southern culture. But while Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a pleasant read, it lacks the depth and insight I remember finding in Bees.

That being said, I enjoyed the book very much.  CeeCee is a twelve-year-old that has had to grow up much too quickly; her mother has suffered from dementia for much CeeCee’s life, to the point where the beauty pageants she won as a teenager in Georgia are more real to her than her own daughter and their life in Ohio is.  CeeCee’s absent-more-often-than-not father is no real help; her only support is an elderly neighbor.  But when CeeCee’s mother dies, a great-aunt appears and whisks CeeCee away to the South, immersing her in a world of women and wit.

Set in the 1960s, the novel makes the most of its backdrop of Savannah, Georgia.  Hoffman paints a vivid picture of not only the beautiful houses and foliage, but also the quirky Southern characters that accompany them. Hoffman also manages to interject an appropriate amount of history; enough to give a true sense of the time and place we are reading about, but not so much that it overwhelms the focus on CeeCee’s story.

(Warning: slight spoiler below)

What does threaten to overwhelm CeeCee’s story is the constant parade of characters.  The novel is at its most compelling in the beginning when CeeCee is struggling with her mother’s mental illness and her father’s neglect, and continues to hold this strength as she gets to know her Aunt Tootie and the housekeeper Oletta.  But the introduction of character after character, though done with warmth and humor, eventually starts to dilute the focus on CeeCee and her experiences, and ultimately, Hoffman packages the ending a little too neatly.  I’m a fan of purely happy endings in romantic comedies, but in most other books, I look for an infusion of a little more real life.

(End of spoilers)

None of this takes away from the pleasure of reading what is, in fact, a lovely novel, but it does mean that the book doesn’t leave the impact I think it had the potential to.  Still, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a nicely written debut from an author I would certainly consider reading again. 

WHO: Beth Hoffman
WHAT: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
WHERE: Received an ARC from publisher through LibraryThing
WHEN: January 2010
WHY: Appealing premise
HOW: Hard copy

2010 award winners

On Monday, the American Library Association announced the winners of its annual awards for children’s and young adult literature.  The full press release is on the ALA web site, but here are the winners of the most notable awards:

When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead
Winner of the John Newbery Medal
for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature

The Lion and the Mouse
illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney
Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal
for most distinguished American picture book for children

Going Bovine
by Libba Bray
Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
for excellence in literature written for young adults

I’ve read (and sincerely enjoyed) When You Reach Me, and I’m interested in looking into Bray’s novel as well.  I’ve heard good things about Bray previously, but haven’t taken the plunge into her work.  This may be enough incentive to give her work a try.

the mysterious benedict society: the perilous journey and the prisoner’s dilemma

When a first novel is as charmingly imaginative as Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society is, it’s a tall order for the subsequent books in the series to be on the same level.  But with The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma, Stewart delivers cleverly constructed adventures in quite the same vein as the Society’s debut.

The most noteworthy aspect of the Mysterious Benedict Society is Stewart’s creation of a highly colorful cast of characters.  With the second and third installments, he introduces new ones, but also offers further development of those we’ve already come to love or, in a few cases, loathe.  The four children who make up the society — Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance — have always been quirkily precocious, but as their adventures together continue, they become more of a team while also honing their individual skills. 

Their interactions are at the core of the books; though their relationships with the surrounding adults certainly add value to the story, the books are at their most exciting when the action centers on the children.  This factor makes the Perilous Journey, in which the children are on their own for more of the book than in Prisoner’s Dilemma, the stronger of the two sequels, but both are highly enjoyable reads that any fan of The Mysterious Benedict Society  should appreciate.

WHO: Trenton Lee Stewart
WHAT: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey; The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
WHERE: Received as Christmas gifts
WHEN: January 2010
WHY: Loved the prequel
HOW: Hard copy

a year of bookhopping

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I started bookhopping a year ago.  Being discovered as the witty book reviewer some major media outlet was looking for would have been nice, but I kind of figured spirited ridicule and a slow (or even quick) fade into oblivion were more likely.

A year later, I’m still reviewing as an amateur blogger rather than a professional critic, but given the facts that A) minimal ridicule has been involved and B) I’m still blogging at all, I’ll happily take it.  In fact, I’ve really enjoyed this past year and am grateful to all of you who visit for reading my random ramblings.  My postings have fluctuated from nearly daily (when I first kicked off) to closer to weekly at times, but keeping up with this blog has allowed me too accomplish several things:

• Become more purposeful about my reading, which I love to do but can get lazy about
• Write on a regular basis something requiring more thought than email, which I haven’t really done since grad school
• Plug into an online community of readers and book lovers
• Stretch my reading comfort zone and try some books I wouldn’t have otherwise picked up

I’ve also learned a few things:

• I almost never read next what I say I’m going to read next.
• I’m not so great at the challenge thing (see above point).
• Sometimes the hardest books to write about are the ones you like the most.

And so I look forward to bringing bookhopping into its second year, with more opportunities to read, write, connect, and learn.

And to celebrate this milestone, I am doing a book giveaway — and the winner will get to pick what book I will give away!  Well, within reason…

The choices are my favorites of 2009:

• The Help
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Hunger Games
• Catching Fire
• The Book Thief
• The Thirteenth Tale
• The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

 

Here’s how this is going to work:

Step 1: Check out my “best reads of the year” post and/or my review of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (my favorite non-fiction of 2009) to read about the giveaway options.

Step 2: Leave a comment here telling me which of those seven books you would like to win — and why – if you had your choice

Step 3: Watch your email and/or check back here to see if you won!

I will accept entries for a week and will announce a winner next Friday, January 22. 

Best of luck to you all, and here’s to another fun year of bookhopping!

this week

2010 has already been a good year for reading.  I’ve recently finished two books: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, which was a Christmas gift and which made me fall in love even further with this fun series, and Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt, a new release I received an ARC of through LibraryThing.  I will be posting more on both soon. 

Currently, I’ve started Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked and Sophie Kinsella’s Twenties Girls.  And after being so charmed by Anne of Green Gables last month, I decided to give another children’s classic, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, a try; I’m doing this one on audio and so far have found it to be nearly as delightful as Anne.

But here is the most exciting news of the week (at least as far as this blog is concerned) – drumroll, please -

Tomorrow, bookhopping will be marking the first anniversary of its creation!!! 

And to celebrate, I will be doing a book giveaway.  Be sure to check back tomorrow for details on what you can win and how to enter!