So last Thursday I felt good enough to go out to the card store. Of course back then I was only suffering from a sore throat. On Friday morning I awoke to the wonders of the stomach flu and then the coughing set in and then the fever and pretty much life is a blur of lying in bed and whimpering since then. I did watch The Sound of Music Saturday night and loved it, as always, but I've been useless for the last few days. It's good to be sitting upright and eating (soup and toast) again.
The flu sucks!
I'm working on an interview with Paul Collins about The Trouble with Tom and how he researches for his books. Very interesting stuff and if you are a fan of his, like I am, it's fascinating to see how he stumbles into things. Of course any guy who can find wicked cool monkey books is clearly a master researcher, but I like hearing from him exactly how he gets the job done.
I fired off an email to Michael Winter with some questions on The Big Why. I'm hoping to have a review of that book up in January, but I'm not sure. Depends on if I can get all the questions answered in time.
I read a slew of YA novels while I was half dead. I'm in the middle of a fantastic book for Booklist right now, but my brain hurt too much to focus on all the big words (ugh!) So it was YA to the rescue and I have several titles to recommend.
Befiddled is a very cute coming-of-age type story that has several twists. It's about 13 year old Becky who loves the violin and misses her father and is wishing that her mother would mellow out a bit. Her little brother is a hoot - with a friend he edits his own newsletter and he's pretty much the best friend Becky has in the world. What I liked about this book is that it showed how Becky could have more in the way of friends and a life if she opened herself up a bit and took a chance or two. The biggest thing was gaining some confidence and learning that some adults suck and you don't have to respect their opionions - something I wish I knew when I was a kid!
I'm planning on doing historical novels for my April column in Bookslut, partly because I just received what looks to be a great book set during the SF Earthquake (celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2006). More on that later. I read Bowery Girl thinking it might be interesting, but not quite sure - a book set in the late 19th century NY about a thief and a whore can be a major downer - but I'm going to include it in April for sure. It's very realistic and because of that it can not be a happily ever after story in the Cinderella sense, but it tells the story of girls we have forgotten, a way of life we largely have distanced ourselves from and as author Kim Taylor states at the end, these girls are still there in places like Mexico City, Bombay, Detroit and Cleveland. It's a book about how you end up with no choices, and then what you have do in order to make a few and live, rather than just survive.
The Weight of the Sky is a novel written in prose form, something I usually don't like but wow - it's a great and original story! This is the first book I have read in ages about someone struggling to come to grips with their identity and how their religion fits into it. Sarah is Jewish and American but tired of feeling separate and different from her friends (hard to believe in all this Merry Merry Christmasing...right?) she is also under a lot of pre-senior year kind of pressure. So she heads off to Israel to volunteer at a kibbutz and meet some distant relatives. A lot of growing up and seeing the world differently happens while she is there along with some very thoughtful insights into being Jewish in Israel vs the US and about what it really means to have to carry a rifle for your country. This is a great and timely book and I hope it gets some notice.
Finally, in preparation for the upcoming sequel, A True and Faithful Narrative, I read At the Sign of the Star by Katherine Sturtevant. I remember hearing about this historical novel (1677 London) several years ago when it first came out, but never got a copy. It's a lovely look at the sort of decisions a young girl had in the 17th century and how hard you needed to work in order to have a different life then the kind that society assigned. I liked that Meg was spunky but not artificial - she is still very much a girl of her times. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens in her story next and will update when I receive that ARC.
That's all for today! Check out my column over at Metaxucafe about John Kipling - and then be sure to read my review of Kipling's Choice in the current issue of Bookslut. It's a fantastic book and the world needs to know about it!
