This and That and Nothing Much

I had no idea it's been so long since I blogged! Good grief! Life has been quite busy. 'Tis the season, you know! No, not the holiday season. I mean the school season. When school is in full swing, I barely find time to breathe, much less blog. To be honest, I haven't even had as much time to read as I'd like (gasp!).
 
I've actually been opting to read middle school books lately, as I'm always on the hunt for good book club books for my middle school students. I'll review some of them on here over Christmas break, once I have a few more under my brain. It's not always easy for me to review middle school books. I don't always agree with the messages.
 
(Now, here's where I start sounding old...)
 
You know, it used to be that most books had a good message. And, the way I figure it, life sucks enough without reading a book that just agrees with that theory. Life doesn't really suck, it's all in the way you look at things. Believe it or not, kids aren't as optimistic as they used to be. In fact, I venture to say there is much more depression among pre-teens and teenagers now than there was when I was growing up. It concerns me...a lot.
 
I don't think it helps that a certain series of books made vampires popular literature for teenagers. As if anyone would actually want to follow some undead guy around, fall in love with him, and have his baby. Really?? I mean, guys have their issues (don't we all?), but I'll take a warm-blooded man over a dead guy any day! Did I mention she wants to be dead, too, just to be with him? Now, I ask you, WHAT kind of messed-up message is that to send to young teenage girls? Especially girls who are already depressed? Let's think this through, folks. Seriously.

And another thing...

Just because paranormal books have become so popular doesn't mean they are well-written. I'm really getting tired of seeing all the vampire books floating around my school's library. I try not to be critical without sampling a few, so...I sampled...and spit them back out. Yuck. Shouldn't there be some standard for what publishers dish-out to pre-teens and younger teenagers? Are good editors in short supply these days?No wonder kids aren't reading if they think this junk is what passes for good books!

(Sigh)

I seem to be sighing a good bit these days. It's mostly because I see that people don't know what they're missing. Sometimes by 'people,' I mean my students. Other times, I mean adults. There is such a vast, wonderful world of great books out there that I get a bit discouraged when the only books anyone claims to read are the ones that are movies. Really?

I'm beginning to feel like I belong to the lost generation of people who actually read books to learn more about myself and others and the world around me...

Wait.

No, we wouldn't be classified as 'the lost generation' - it's the generation that doesn't read that is lost.

Do me a favor, would you? Please read to a child today. Do voices for the characters, and show them the pictures in the book. Talk about the story. Help them understand it. Grow a good reader. You'll make the world a better place. :)

Happy reading!
 

City of Too Many Details?

I get it. I finally get it! I now understand what it is to skim through long, detailed descriptions that are unnecessary to move a good story along. This hasn't always been a clear lesson to me. In fact, when my book club discusses books, I am the one who falls on the side of enjoying all the detailed writing. Defender of the Details, that's me! I'm a Henry James fan, for goodness sakes! How could I possibly want to skim text and not read every word? Is that even possible for me?

Well, it is now.

If you'll remember, I was reading Daniel Hecht's City of Masks during my spring break. It's a really good mystery and spooky enough to make me jump at noises in my house. I am not normally a fan of the paranormal genre, but I really liked this ghost story, and - really - it's so much more than that. It's about the terrible secrets families keep and the lies they tell each other...and themselves. I enjoyed the suspense and the thrills, liked the characters in the book and loved the setting.

What I didn't like? All the details that described every little piece of every little thing. The suspense would be building, I was ready to find out what happened next and, suddenly, I would be lost in a forest of words describing the character's scenic drive through a neighborhood in New Orleans. I felt...frustrated...and, about the time I hit my third forest, I began to skim past the descriptions. 

Are you shocked? I was.

While I read the book on my Kindle Fire, I noted that the paperback version has 464 pages. Trust me, I could have saved some trees and made it a shorter book without losing anything valuable from the story. It wasn't that the descriptions were bad, they were spot-on, just...unnecessary.

But wait.

That's not exactly fair,...and it isn't the whole truth. 

What the author was describing in all those forests?  Details about the city of New Orleans. He was trying to capture the essence of what it's like, and he did an excellent job. If I had never been to New Orleans, I may have needed those descriptions to understand the many worlds that collide there to help build a movie in my head. Because I have been to New Orleans, I understood exactly what he was saying and didn't need him to interpret a place I already knew. Perhaps another reader, who has never been there, would have appreciated those detailed descriptions.

I did notice, at the end of the book, the author thanked all the good people of New Orleans who helped him out and welcomed him to their city. He was specific in some of his gratitude. It would seem he was treated quite well by the city during his stay there, so I began to wonder if he was also trying to write a travelogue...or, perhaps, he was just so enamored by the city that seduces so many, he just couldn't say enough about it. 

Details aside, I enjoyed the story enough to purchase the next book in the series. I won't read it right away, I have others waiting impatiently that were in line first, but I know I want to read it. I also want to test myself. I checked the setting out for the second book, and I've never been there - so, I'll see if I feel the same way about the descriptions. My own little experiment, so to speak. 

You know I don't like to commit to a series, but this series is the kind I can live with because there's really no commitment. The next book isn't a continuation of the first story. All the same main characters are there, but each book is different.  It's the kind where the main character goes on another adventure, another ghost hunt...

You know, like Scooby Doo. ;)

I should note that my friend, Jane, said the book seemed to be set up like a television series - the intro, the adventure, the truth revealed, the wrap-up, even the light-hearted banter at the end. I hadn't thought of it that way until she said it, but she's right. Makes me wonder...

Could Hecht have written the series with television in mind?
 Jinkies! Now, that would make me run screaming into the night!