Fire Season (copy)

As of today, over 133,000 acres of Gila National Forest (GNF) in New Mexico is engulfed in a massive wildfire. The Whitewater Baldy Complex Fire, named after the Whitewater and Baldy Fires joined, has become the largest fire New Mexico has ever seen. With high winds and low humidity, it is also the hardest to contain.

Coincidently, I am reading Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors. The author spent eight seasons in a fire tower above the Gila National Forest searching for smoke. A season starts in April and ends the beginning of September. He spots his first plume of smoke while hiking to his assigned tower the last week in April which is the least volatile time of the season.

Connors radios in as he runs to the top of the trail. The smoke is rising from Thief Gulch on the east side of the Black Range. Ironically, he is lucky to have spotted it on his hike. His advantage point in the tower would have had an opposite effect since the smoke generated deep within its hidden alcove. Spotters like Connors name the fire and this becomes the Thief Fire.

Published in 2011, this book won the National Outdoor Book Award for Outdoor Literature. Reading it you can see why the judges gave this non-fiction a literary award. Connors channels the many writers such as Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, Jack Kerouac, and “A River Runs through It” author Norman Maclean. All worked as fire tower employees in GNF or other western parks in America before becoming famous writers.

What a life! Spending five months in a remote forest tower with nothing but your thoughts had to be a writer’s paradise, but not for Connors. He experienced writer’s block from the beginning. Instead, he started to hand write his experiences in the form of letters to his editor. He then mailed them and waited for his editor to either say it was interesting or not worthy of ink.

Do you think you could live in a remote area scanning the horizon for smoke on a daily basis? Connors answers this or variations of the solitary theme in every chapter. It is a major concern as lookers leave spouses and day jobs five months out of the year to attend the forest. Books, hikers, his wife Martha, and the presence of his precocious dog, Alice, are but a handful of techniques used to stave off loneliness for these “freaks of the peaks.” 

Both editor and writer did an outstanding job as Fire Season has me craving a tower to man. 

Fire Season (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/05/fire-season-copy.html

The Sense of an Ending (copy)

Every sentence counts in this short book by Julian Barnes. Readers cannot miss a single step in his writing and one must pay close attention to the words chosen to relate the story. It takes some reading and rereading to get started. Barnes is so concise.

The Sense of an Ending, published in 2011, won Barnes a Man Booker prize last year. When I started reading it, I had to wonder what all the fuss was about, but now I am enthralled. It reads like a memoir and I am left to wonder how much might be autobiographical. I admit to reading and rereading passages slowly.

I got hooked when Barnes’ characters began expressing theories on everyday happenings or rare events. Margaret, main character Tony Webster’s ex-wife, states that some women never change their hair styles. Oh, they might vary it with bangs or a slightly different part, but it remains true to the style it used to be when the woman was at her prettiest. Does this not ring true?

The book is broken into two sections. Part one deals with Tony and his two school chums who accept a newcomer to the group because he is clever. They have never met anyone who can rethink the philosophy spilled out during class and defend his own thoughts on the same subject within seconds of the statements leaving the instructor’s gaping mouth.

Is their new friend, Adrian Finn, too smart for the three friends? This is Tony’s thought as all four receive scholarships to different universities and go their separate ways.

Even though the setting of the book is mid-1960s, the college life is more of a 1950s feel. Free love is not on the menu for Tony and his girlfriend Veronica. He finds himself awkward and frustrated at every encounter and breaks up with her after a weekend spent with her family. She then offers him sex that he finds unsatisfying and never goes out with her again.

Months later Adrian asks Tony if it is okay to date his old girlfriend, Veronica. Tony sends back a letter denouncing the two and moves on to another girlfriend without ever giving the request another thought. A month later, Adrian kills himself by slitting his wrists correctly and keeping the blood in the tub so as not to make a mess. His suicide note even alludes to the hassle emergency workers will face and his regret for the inconvenience.

Part two is where the story really begins to get insightful for readers. What happens to our storytelling selves when the story becomes a fictional memory and not the truth?

The Sense of an Ending (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/05/e-very-sentence-counts-in-this-short.html

Fifty Shades of Grey (copy)

Summertime and everyone is talking about the Fifty Shades trilogy. What? You have not heard of these explosive paperbacks sitting atop the New York Times bestseller list. Crawl out from under that rock and join the discussion centered on three romance books that belong in the sub-genre of erotica.

You should know by now that I am a loather of romance books. I will pick them up in desperation and then throw them across the room for being contrived and formula-matic. For example, two humans meet and do not like each other then something happens and they do like each other, but then something else happens to tear them apart and in the end they are reunited and all is unicorns and rainbows. Blah!

Fifty Shades of Grey, the first book in the series does not have a happy ending! This is one of the reasons publishers say non-romance readers are lured into the series. I can think of another reason – the sex – or is that too obvious?

From an article in Publisher’s Weekly, I learned that this series is one of the best digitalized reads to be published. Along with many a romance, it is less likely to be picked up by your teenager or overseen by your nosy neighbors, if it discreetly resides in your Nook instead of propped open on the counter or kitchen table. 

This claim sounds a little hokey. All three covers are in shades of gray, white and black and sequentially feature a man’s tie, a masquerade mask and hand-cuffs. Where is the shirtless, body-building heart throb to tip off those random guests? To me the covers scream mystery, but Avon is already changing the covers of new releases to look alike, calling them “Shades of Avon Red.”

My explanation centers more on the demographics of the series which Publisher’s Weekly calls “suburban moms.” Many a mother probably got a Nook or Kindle for Christmas making it easier to upload digital books than climb into the family minivan for the local bookstore. Make sense?

Shades author, E. L. James, is a nice English mother of two about to join J.K. Rowling’s social circle. The trilogy film rights have sold and all across the internet people are trying to guess who will play main characters, Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

I am looking forward to getting my hands on the first book in the series. Friends have promised me I will not throw it across the room, but I might turn fifty shades of pink.

Fifty Shades of Grey (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/05/s-ummertime-and-everyone-is-talking.html

Glory Be (copy)

Gloriana “Glory” June Hemphill, second daughter of Brother Joe, is about to turn 12-years-old. This year her birthday party will be at the Hanging Moss Community Pool. Her friends will be thrilled to escape the oppressive Mississippi heat in cool blue water while waiting for the July 4^th parade and fireworks. Glory was born on Independence Day.

Plans have been in the works for months. Emma, the housekeeper and surrogate mother to the Hemphill daughters, is baking Glory a fine cake. Frankie, Glory’s best friend, cannot wait to drench everyone with his new and much improved cannonball. Older sister, Jesslyn, is bringing her pep squad friends, but she promises they will snag a corner umbrella and talk about boys and Elvis completely ignoring others.

Well, that was yesterday and Frankie has just rained on the party plans. During breakfast, (Emma claims the sound of bacon hitting the Hemphill grill in the morning is Frankie’s alarm clock) Frankie states that the pool is closing. His dad, a town supervisor, says cracks have to be mended before it will reopen.

Glory cannot believe the news. They were just swimming yesterday. She did not notice any cracks. Maybe, there were some rusty bobby pins and bubblegum stuck to the bottom, but she did not remember seeing any cracks. Why close it in the middle of summer anyway? Why not wait and fix it in the fall? For that matter, why fix it at all since the hole in the fence has been there for years?

Glory heads off to the library to ask librarian, Miss Bloom, if this is true. She knows everything that goes on in the town. She is bound to know if there are any cracks.

There are no cracks. The pool is about to be desegregated in 1964 Hanging Moss, Mississippi. This is the premise for Augusta Scattergood’s new book, Glory Be. Written first as a tale about the relationship between sisters, but then evolved into historical fiction.

Scattergood, born Mary Augusta Russell, said the story is based on some truths of her youth. Instead of the pool closing, it was the Bolivar County Library in Cleveland, MS. The year was 1967 instead of 1964, and she was an intern at the library when Freedom Summer came to the South. The stuff about Junk Poker is all true, though. 

Glory Be (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/05/glory-be-copy.html

Raylan (copy)

I am reading a favorite author in our family, Elmore Leonard. Been writing books my dad used to enjoy before he stopped reading, characters my mother-in-law swears by (or with), and plots husband reads when he is looking for something fast and entertaining.

What a career for this man! Books like 3:10 to Yuma and Get Shorty have padded his pockets allowing for a comfortable life in financially strapped Detroit. His books to movies have included stars like Paul Newman, Ann-Margaret, Robert Mitchum, Lee Grant, Rock Hudson, Ellen Burstyn, Morgan Freeman, Rene Russo, Charlie Sheen, and Pam Grier. He has to be a blast at dinner parties.

Picked up his brand new book Raylan and am enjoying the heck out of it. It reads very much like a script. Lots and lots of dialog and a little of the setting to get you around from one situation to another, makes this a fast read. It might even be the first episodes in “Justified” an FX series appearing on cable.

You will recognize all the Harlan County characters that no longer coal mine but have an array of legal and illegal trades. There is Dickie and Coover Crowe who die before page 100. They are called the Bennett brothers who grow marijuana in the series. Easy going US Marshal and Raylan’s partner, Rachel Brooks, always has his back even when a dead rat is thrown at her by Coover.

The book would be nothing without Raylan’s childhood nemesis, Boyd Crowder. I was a little worried he was not going to make an appearance until finally in chapter 15 where (true to form) he is the bad guy.

In the book Raylan Givens has just moved back to his childhood home after a questionable “justified homicide” in Miami. Harlan County is a down grade from the big city, but it seems to offer high-tech crime. His first assignment involves chasing down a doctor harvesting kidneys from salesmen in motels then selling the body parts back to them as ransom. First two victims were small potatoes, but Raylan’s case includes a drug dealer and the price is $100,000 large.

It is good to see 87-year-old Leonard still writing and entertaining us after all these years. Back in 2007 he wrote “10 Rules of Writing.” One of his tips includes this snippet, “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” This book is the perfect example of his philosophy. 

Raylan (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/05/i-am-reading-favorite-author-in-our.html

The Sisters Brothers (copy)

When was the last time you read a real honest-to-goodness western? Have you read the covers off your favorite Louis L’Amour, Max Brand and Zane Grey? Maybe you read Charles Portis’ True Grit during all the movie hoopla and crave more of the same.

I picked up Patrick DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers at Square Books in Oxford last week and absolutely love the western. Funny thing, from the title I thought the storyline might be about Mormons or Catholic nuns.

I do not usually read the book blurb, but prefer to buy books based on awards and cover art. This cover had a round badge declaring its shortlist for the Man Booker prize; plus, the daguerreotype was stunning. Two brothers sit side-by-side with one holding a pistol and the other a knife in the 1800s photograph. Between the two sits a small table holding a bottle where they rest their hands that cradle glasses filled with drink.

Both young men are dressed to the nines with hats, coats and vests. The knife holder has a propensity for fight as demonstrated by his cauliflower ear and attitude-filled hat slant. He even looks ready to gut the photographer. The other brother is smaller in stature and seems delicate displaying a small chin and dainty earlobes. He turns his gun safely away giving the photographer only one brother to worry about. 

It is easy to project the main characters’ personalities onto the daguerreotype. Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired gunslingers who work for the Commodore. Charlie would rather shoot a man than dicker with him over a price. Eli will discuss and analyze a situation before making a move. Charlie feels no guilt where Eli wears his own and his brother’s shame like a heavy yoke. In the cover art, Eli has to be the delicate soul where Charlie produces all kinds of swagger.

The storyline is very typical of westerns where the characters are always moving from one dusty town to the next. In the Sisters’ case, they are to hunt down a Californian prospector named Hermann Kermit Warm. The Commodore is vague with the reasons why and our brothers do not take the time to ask.

They head out from Oregon City to the Sacramento area on horses supplied by the Commodore. Charlie sits atop Nimble while Eli spreads out on Tub. Both horses named suitably. The adventure is off and the Sisters brothers promise an exciting journey.

The Sisters Brothers (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/04/w-hen-was-last-time-you-read-real.html

The Things They Carried (copy)

Disappointing news from the world of book awards this week. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction was not announced. The panel of three judges decided that the three books they were given did not meet the standards of the award.

Apparently, to be considered for the prize, books are stacked high for a three-person jury who then read all the selections. Those three people cull down the entrants to three books that are then sent to the Pulitzer board consisting of three different jurors with outstanding credentials. Current juror, Michael Cunningham, won the Pulitzer in 1999 for his novel The Hours.

I happened to finish a book this week that was a finalist for the same fiction Pulitzer in 1991. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien blew me away.

This book is very popular among our students although it is not assigned reading. It is one of those word-of-mouth books that is checked out and then checked right back out when it comes in. No one ever asks us behind the counter where to find the title, rather we see a student guide a fellow student to its home on the shelf. I even had a student donate her copy because she felt we did not have enough to go around.

Okay, so I am noisy. I had to know what all the fuss was about, but I did not want to stop the current underground movement. I went to the Sardis Public Library and checked out a large-type knowing the students would never be the wiser. In three nights, I read the book straight through then went back and reread certain parts.

Wow, it is the opposite of non-fiction that reads like fiction. It is fiction that sounds so real that readers will swear it is a memoir. His main character is named Tim O’Brien and is a writer such as himself. He talks about a book he has already written and mentions the name within the story. He reports back about a trip he took with his daughter to revisit the battlegrounds of his youth.

All during the vignettes of life in Vietnam during the war, O’Brien tries to explain the truth of a story. But then the reader finds the story not about his war buddy, but about himself instead. He mentions stories like the two Vietcong soldiers whom once cornered in a cave disappeared like ghost while telling the story of how he plays a joke on the new medic involving a sandbag ghost.

Most of the stories are so heart-breaking it is better to believe they are make-believe.

The Things They Carried (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/04/d-isappointing-news-from-world-of-book.html

The Borrower (copy)

First off, Happy National Library Week, and I hope you rush to your nearest branch to see what all the great local librarians have in store for you. We have been sweetening the students with donuts and orange juice, stimulating their minds with a full library scavenger hunt, and throwing a weeding party for the art department.

Busy, busy…but I made time to read the perfect book for this week’s celebration. The Borrower, by Rebecca Makkai, contains a main character who is a children’s librarian in the moderately sized town of Hannibal, Missouri. Lucy Hull, all of 26-years-old, is a college educated single chick doing her best to make ends meet without help from her parents.

Lucy is a hipster librarian. She lives above an active community theatre and is unable to make noise or even flush the toilet between the hours of 6 pm to 10pm. This affords her all the time in the world to read. I got a kick out of her tendency to “name drop” children’s book titles and authors throughout the story.

The public library in Hannibal is similar to the thousands of libraries in our nation. Readers come in all sizes and abilities. In Lucy’s seven years of hard library labor she has made quite a lot of reading friends, but her favorite is 10-year-old Ian Drake.

Young Ian is a reader of everything, but unfortunately his mother limits his taste with a little Christian censorship. He is not to be given books with witchcraft, wizards, magic, Satanism, adult content, weaponry, evolution, Halloween, nor “Roald Dahl, Lois Lowry, Harry Potter, and similar authors.” She hasn’t a clue that Harry Potter is a character and not an author.

A bond grows between Lucy, the supplier of illicit books on the list, and Ian, the voracious reader who sneaks them under his shirt while checking out approved “decoy” books. It truly is a symbiotic relationship that goes awry when Ian runs away from home and into the back of the children’s book stacks.

In a confused moment of wanting to help Ian but knowing he needs his family, she sets him up in the back of her car to transport him to his parents. Tantrums are thrown and she keeps driving her beat up, baby-blue Toyota until she crosses a bridge into St. Louis.

How will they ever get out of this mess? Rush to find this book at your local library and thank a haggard librarian for feeding your own reading addiction.

The Borrower (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/04/borrower-copy.html

Y'all Twins? (copy)

On a quiet neighborhood lawn in Oxford, MS, five kids were fighting the heat of a 1954 summer by making mud pies. The group was instructed by Kat to place them on the stove she and her sister, Margaret, made out of bricks. The pies were stacked like hamburger patties waiting for a grill.

Carol, the oldest in the group, thought she might talk one of them into taking a bite. “Here,” she said. “This is good for you. And it tastes so good, too.”

The sisters were not impressed and responded in unison as twins often do. “Yuck, no way!”

As Carol ran home in a huff, the sisters were called by their older brother, Bill. A familiar sound was coming down the street and the trio had to hide. Clop de clop. Clop de clop.

At the end of the street moved a buckboard wagon being pulled by a mule. The man holding the reins drew on a pipe as he got closer. The children hid behind a huge hydrangea bush at the end of the driveway and watched as the pipe produced smoke that surrounded his whole face.

As the cart slowly inched near, Bill dared his little sisters to hitch a ride. On his count the three siblings bolted from the bush sopping with mud and naked from the waist up and hopped on the back of the wagon. Bill laid back in the wagon to look at the sky while the girls peered uneasy at the smoker whom seemed oblivious.

The smell of the mule became too much and Bill gave the signal. All three hopped back off bare-footed and headed for home. The driver, Mr. William Faulkner, continued in a cloud of smoke to the square.

This is just one of the many entertaining stories that sisters, Katherine and Margaret King, share with readers of their new book, Y’all Twins? I did not do the above story justice. Their version is longer and funnier as family stories can be.

This tag-team memoir opens with a teaser. Their mother spent special care to make them matching outfits for their school pictures. She fashioned a blouse and jumper and was sewing the last button on one jacket that morning before school. She instructed them not to mess up their hair at recess and to take off their jackets before the picture.

On the back book cover are the actual photos taken that day with one twin still sporting the jacket they were told to take off. You are to read the book and say which is which.

Please, if they come to a library near you to talk and sign books, go! They are a hoot!

Y'all Twins? (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/03/yall-twins-copy.html

Room (copy)

He is five today. As he shuts Wardrobe, he remembers that he was four and then over night while he slept he became five. Before he was four, he was three. Before he was three, he was two. “Was I minus numbers?”

“Hmm?” Ma does a big stretch.

“Up in Heaven. Was I minus one, minus two, minus three--?”

“Nah, the numbers didn’t start till you zoomed down.”

“Through Skylight. You were all sad till I happened in your tummy.”

“You said it.” Ma leans out of Bed to switch on Lamp, he makes everything light up whoosh.

He is Jack and Jack was born in a windowless room big enough for a stove, bed, table, bath, sink and wardrobe. That is it and that is all he knows. His mother gave birth to him on Rug for which there is still a stain. She is now 26. Readers are left to guess her age before becoming a sex slave.

Jack relates the story and I am so thankful. You do not get Ma’s perspective except through facial expressions and her answers, at times, can be ambiguous. St. Nick, her captor, is also left to the imagination. He is an older man with a gruff white beard and personality.

The act of reading Room by Emma Donoghue is an exercise in patience. Ma shows great restraint while dealing with her energetic young son. (Can you imagine being locked in the same room as your offspring for any length of time?) Jack must confine his desires for a Sunday treat and his exercise to running around Bed for 45 minutes. St. Nick endures the nagging and readers must curtail their need to read straight through the book in one sitting.

Not only are Ma and Jack suspended in a room, but so are we trying to read the book. We are held in place by a need to see Ma handle the situation. How does she explain these things like the outside world to him? How does she keep her depression from engulfing her? How does she put up with the awful toothache?

This is a fresh take on confinement stories and I encourage you to read it. On the Room website Nelson Mandela is quoted as having said, “I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There is no end and no beginning; there is only one’s own mind.”

Room (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/03/room-copy.html

Maphead (copy)

A co-worker teases me because on vacations I carry a book of constellations. I love looking at star charts and seeing them from another point of view. While staying at a B&B in southern Oregon, we were so enshrined in pines we had to go out into the road to see the stars. We spent (what felt like) hours figuring out what we were looking at through the narrow swath.

My love of aviation also centers on charts. At the airport we had this huge chart of the area hanging on the wall under Plexiglas. At the center was our airport, Smyrna, with a pin stuck in it and a long piece of string with a marker attached at the end. One takes the string and pulls it taut towards the destination then figures distance, time in the air, fuel consumption, etc.

On rainy days, when flying was out of the picture, we would stand by the chart and go to exotic destinations like Muscle Shoals, AL or Bowling Green, KY. Speaking of Muscles Shoals, that was our first destination in training for a private license.

I remember my flight like it was yesterday. My grumpy, WWII fighter pilot, instructor smoked a pipe in the airplane requiring the vents remain open during flight. He pointed out the landmarks as we neared Muscle Shoals. Tower here, interstate over there, grassy strip off to the east, and amazingly the chart and the ground really did correspond.

After our perfunctory nabs, we climbed back into the Cessna 152 and took off for Smyrna. Once level, Col. Haun fell asleep. Being a cold day, the vents were pumping out heat from the engine that made him drowsy or so I thought.

I kept quiet and with chart in hand, I identified the landmarks in reverse order: grass strip to the east, interstate over there, tower going directly under us. My pride oozed as I smacked the plane on the tarmac and Col. Haun awoke. What a feeling!

Ken Jennings, author of “Brainiac,” has written another quirky book that will enthrall readers for hours. In “Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks,” he describes his love of maps and the fascination others have with our innate need for them. Did you know that the Library of Congress has a whole basement with 8,500 cases, five drawers per case, chocked full of every imaginable map?

Oh, and quick tip. If you find yourself lost in the air, find a town and circle the water tower. The town will be spelled out in huge letters. The “you are here” moment is priceless.

Maphead (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/03/maphead-copy.html

Center Hill (copy)

So many Mississippians are writing. This is great but this is also troubling. I like that people are willing to tell their story. I enjoyed Norma Watkins’ The Last Resort. She spoke so honestly she risked her likability to convey the truth behind black-white relations in the 60s.

What I find troubling is the amount that is being written. With so many Mississippi books flooding the market, one has to pick and choose the right book to read. Also, with all this work, what will make the book stand out from others in the crowd?

Maury M. Haraway has written just such a book that needs to be read in our area. Center Hill is the fictional account of those early Mississippians who began their American Dream in the wilds of a budding state in 1836. Center Hill is still on the map today east of Olive Branch.

Our story begins in 1844 after the homes have been built and the dirt paths to larger communities trod. The Henshaw family has worked the land for over 10 years and established friendly terms with neighbors and one Indian family that owned property prior to the banishment of the Chickasaws.

Youngest member of the family, Hern, is about to turn five when something amazing happens. Something so amazing he remembers it for the rest of his life.

Out of the corner of his little eye, he spots movement under the bushes at the border of the yard. Hern creeps low and begins to crawl under the brush. Once enshrouded his eyes become familiar with the dark and he sees the thing that first caught his attention. On the other side of the copse sits a rabbit, a rather large rabbit that stares back at him with understanding in his eyes.

This seems wrong. Why is the rabbit staying still? As they stare at each other, Hern notices the guard hairs on his coat shimmering in the soft light filtering through the leaves. He is obviously scared, but instead of escaping he hops closer. Close enough to be made into a meal, but both stare until finally the rabbit turns and slowly hops away.

Haraway told eager listeners at the Senatobia Lunch with Books group that the Henshaw family is loosely based on his own and that stories told in the book have some basis in truth. Readers will encounter plenty of interaction between man and beast. This prompted Haraway to confess that he wanted to study animal psychology as a boy. Pick up this hero’s journey. It shouts over the crowd.

Center Hill (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/02/center-hill-copy.html

The Fault in Our Stars (copy)

I accidently ran across our younger generation’s Love Story this weekend. Two friends recommended it. One said, “You will laugh, you will cry, you will think about your life!” My other friend keeps leaving me quotes from the book on my Facebook page.

Young Hazel has terminal cancer that began in her thyroid. She is considered a miracle after bouncing back from her last episode, but her lungs are now like sponges. Every time she breathes out a little moisture stays. The effect makes her feel like she is drowning in her own body.

This places 16-year-old Hazel into overdrive. Knowing she has little time on earth, she rushes to complete her GED and now attends classes at a local community college three times a week.

She is usually fine in the mornings although she does not move very fast. She carries an oxygen tank with her at all times. After classes she spends the afternoons napping and reading. Her family shares a mantra, “Sleep Cures Cancer,” and she is left to sleep without interruptions.

Even though her mother encourages the sleeping, it also raises a red flag. The word depression is batted around and Hazel finds herself stuck with attending Children with Cancer Support Group meetings once a week. Something she dreads.

It is the same meeting every week. The leader talks about his battle and then one-by-one members are encouraged to share as they go around the circle. It is the same story with most. The variation comes when one moves from being in remission to recurrence. Prayers are said and the group disperses.

At this meeting Isaac, a rambunctious teenager with one eye, admits to transitioning to the recurrence group. His returning cancer is attacking his healthy eye and blindness is his fate. For extra support, Isaac brings a friend who is also fighting cancer that took his leg.

Augustus Waters is there to support Isaac, but he cannot get his mind or his eyes off of Hazel. She is the spitting image of Natalie Portman in the movie V is for Vengeance. She is also the spitting image of his ex-girlfriend, the one that died of cancer last year.

John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars invades Nicholas Sparks’ territory with smarts and sarcastic humor.

The Fault in Our Stars (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/02/fault-in-our-stars-copy.html

Black History Month (copy)

Black History month is upon us and I have some excellent suggestions for a variety of reading taste. First, let us start with Life Upon these Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It is a comprehensive account of the first blacks arriving to the Americas along with the conquistadors and progresses in timeline fashion to Barack Obama’s presidency.

The book includes a variety of visuals including maps, manuscripts, sheet music, cartoons, posters, portraits, film stills, etc. Gates said after looking through the book that he is, “struck by the sheer diversity of African American expression throughout our nation’s history - how there has never been only one way to be black, religiously, politically, socially, artistically, professionally, sexually, or stylistically.”

Speaking of stereotyping, how many of us black and white, believe that black people do not like water? In the fiction book, A Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate, main character Josie Henderson loves water so much she becomes a scientist who studies dolphins. Her only problem is the alcohol that consumes her father and then her brother. Julia Glass said of her, “[she] can write fat and hot, then lush and tender, then just plain truthful and burning with heart.”

I like the term “burning with heart” and I can say that Jay-Z writes his lyrics as if his heart is aflame. Pick up his book Decoded and sit back and read about the grittiness that is success from this street smart genius. It is a unique format that not only gives you the lyrics but also offers up the lyricist’s own reasons for the rap.

In his song Streets is Watching he raps, “…why risk myself I just write it in rhymes, And let you feel me, and if you don’t like it then fine.” He explains, “In the end, I make it even more autobiographical by talking about my own transition from someone living in the life to someone telling its stories in rhyme, where disagreements don’t lead to death.”

Children will be engrossed by the picture book Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art by J.H. Shapiro. Guyton grew up in Detroit where he pick up discards of others and turned them into usable objects. This habit became art and as he aged he transformed his neighborhood one house at a time. "When trouble still sizzled in one discarded home, Tyree coated it in dots and squares of pink, blue, yellow, and purple, then perched a magenta watchdog on the porch."

Pick up an African American book and enrich yourself.

Black History Month (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-month-copy.html

Sarah's Key (copy)

Reading “Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana de Rosnay, I recognize some of the scenes from recent history. Not too long ago, Hurricane Katrina struck and victims who could not leave the city of New Orleans were evacuated to preapproved points such as the massive Superdome. While people hovered in the squalor of the arena without medication, bathroom facilities and water, Americans sat powerlessly watching the events unfold on TV.

In “Sarah’s Key,” a fictional Jewish family is led away from their home in Paris, France to the Vélodrome d’Hiver or Vel’ d’Hiv’ as it was known locally. It is July 16, 1942, and the Vel’ d’Hiv that once hosted concerts, boxing matches and six-day bicycle races now contains over 10,000 Jewish families of which there are 4,000 children.

Rosnay’s characters experience the same miserable heat that New Orleans inhabitants suffered. Unlike the Superdome, the Vel’ d’Hiv is open air and the sun beats down on them as they sit amongst filth and appalling smells because the French police, not the Nazis, are guarding the arena and not allowing inhabitants to leave.

Earlier that day, in the morning light, Ten-year-old Sarah is roused by policemen banging on her door. She runs to her mother’s room and finds her crying in the bed unable to move. The policemen are now yelling and her mother slowly rises and half drags herself towards the noise.

Once the door is open, the police rush in and demand that she pack clothes for a three day trip. They also demand to see her husband, but she tells them he left a week ago for the south of France. Really, he is hiding in the basement, believing they only wish to talk to the mother and children. He was told that the fathers are being deported.

While mother packs, Sarah asks her little brother to hide in the secret cupboard. It is a tiny place they take turns hiding in since the occupation. Within they keep a flashlight and water. Sarah believes once they leave her father will come up from the basement and let her brother out. So she locks him in and looks for a place to put the key for her father to see. A policeman spots Sarah’s hesitation and starts to herd her to the door.

Mother is distraught as they are led to the middle of the street. Her neighbor hollers from an upstairs window to leave them alone, they have done nothing wrong. Her mother collapses and yells three times her husbands’ name. He breaks from the apartment and joins the family on their way to the bus. Everything is alright now. Sarah can hand him the key.

Sarah's Key (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/02/sarahs-key-copy.html

American Bee (copy)

I spent a lovely evening judging the Senatobia Coterie Club’s annual Spelling Bee. All the participants, (word in last night’s bee) ranging from 5^th through 8^th grades, did an amazing job and should be proud. The winner of the event, 8^th grader Christian Hughes from Strayhorn High School, advances to the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee in Memphis.

It was a fascinating experience. First, these students must stand in front of a large crowd consisting of eager parents, a

nnoying siblings, beloved teachers, and mean looking judges. Ha. Then, they must spell a random word (possibly from another language) correctly. It takes grit to perform under these circumstances.

Spelling words is a talent. If not for spell check, my nose would be in a dictionary daily. I blame my horrendous spelling skills on a hatred of reading that I claimed as a characteristic in elementary school. Now, we all know I really did not hate books, but I did see them as nerdish enterprises. I was athletic and preferred adventures outdoors to ones found inside books.

Imagine my astonishment when my father told me he won a spelling bee once. What?!? My dad was and still is one of the most athletic people I know. He coached football, basketball and today coaches women’s tennis at Hendersonville High School. Ugh, and all of those baseball games I had to sit through because my dad was the umpire still haunts me.

It is silly to be shocked. These kids last night were in competition. Just because they were not kicking goalies or knocking it out of the park, did not mean they were not face to face with the enemy. The sport is spelling and last night’s opponents sat side by side on a stage fighting for the right to take home a shiny trophy.

So, you ask? What does this have to do with books? Here are some suggestions to ready you for next year’s competition. Parents pick up James Maguire’s American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds. Follow it with Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis and a nightly round of scrabble. Practice makes perfect.

Students will enjoy Barrie Trinkle’s How to Spell like a Champ: Roots, Lists, Rules, Games, Tricks, & Bee-Winning Tips from the Pros. For inspiration the night before the bee, I suggest you Netflix the movie Spellbound. This nail-biter follows eight young spellers as they ascend the spelling bee ladder.

Good luck next year and C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S to Christian Hughes.

American Bee (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-spent-lovely-evening-judging.html

The Last Resort (copy)

I was up early this morning to complete reading a new Mississippi memoir. I could easily use the sleep but I was compelled to finish it. My nails suffered and I sat on the edge of my seat anticipating the outcome. This book is good.
The story brings to mind The Help by Kathryn Stockett; although, it is a truer story of “the help” as seen through Norma’s life than the romanced version currently creating Oscar buzz.

We follow the life of Norma Watkins from child to 30-year-old adult. At the beginning of the book she moves to Allison’s Wells, an old family spa, while her father is away serving in the Pacific theatre of WWII. She, her mother and younger sister, Mary Elizabeth, have the run of the place taking the best rooms in the heated section of the hotel.

Mother is unhappy. Her husband elects to go to war rather than being selected. How can a married man with two young children just volunteer? Many nights she stays up later than she should and drinks and smokes more than she should according to Norma. She is very unhappy even though Norma can catch her constantly laughing.

When they move to Allison’s Wells, they bring with them Marie. Norma considers Marie her true mom. Latte colored Marie does everything for the family except cook. She can boil carrots, but that hardly makes a meal.

After a year at Allison’s, Marie is suspiciously gone. Norma sneaks under tables and behind doors to hear the gossip. Why would Marie leave her and Mary Elizabeth? Why would she not say goodbye? All she gets from the adults is a hushed story involving the bar tender, Bee-Bee.

Why do I love this book and Norma’s voice? The book demonstrates the subtle stories told that form our opinion of race. For example, at the age of 12, Norma is referred to as Miss. Norma. No matter how many times she tells them to stop, “the help” continues the missus nomenclature.

I love Norma’s voice because she reminds me of the fact that women really did not have that many career options. That generation was doomed to secretary, bank teller, teacher, nurse, librarian, or housewife. My skull would explode if I thought I could not at least try something else. Funny, Melvil Dewey of Dewey Decimal System believed librarians should all be men!

Read The Last Resort: Taking the Mississippi Cure by Norma Watkins. Lee Smith says, “This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read.”

The Last Resort (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/01/last-resort-copy.html

The Night Circus (copy)

It appears out of nowhere. Back in a field near the town but far enough away to be mysterious. The tents look to have been raised over night. Instead of bright red, orange and green colors the tents are muted in black and white stripes. No one sees the train they arrived on or circus employees mulling around within the grounds.

There are no posters or flyers mucking up the landscape thus forcing the curious villagers closer for more information. The circus remains surprisingly black and white even up close. There are no other colors visible from the entrance. The wrought iron fence enclosing all the tents glistens in the sun with its oil black paint. The posts too close to squeeze through and the arrows on top too sharp to cross over.

Set back from the fence about six feet, the tents sway slightly in the breeze and all around the green grass is covered in white powder or paint. Looking past the gates at various size tents, onlookers see a unique black and white wooden grandfather clock. At each hour a new wooden performer graces its front and displays a trick before disappearing into the dark housing.

Better than any newspaper advertisement, the citizens rush home to tell their neighbors, friends and families all about the huge black sign dangling from chains on the front gate. “Opens at Nightfall – Closes at Dawn.”

The crowd is a large one from the town and neighboring boroughs. News has spread, and those waiting shuffle in the early evening as the sun slowly descends and the fireflies rise to flit about in the gloaming. Still there is no movement within as darkness slowly falls over the landscape.

Circus enthusiasts are starting to wane as the stillness creeps over them like an encroaching fog. Those gathered begin to turn towards the town. Maybe the circus is not ready. Maybe they will open tomorrow. Before they take that first step away, a slight popping can be heard from the enclosure.

Random lights around the tents flicker on slowly. One here then another behind a small tent and then all the sudden the gates come alive with crackling lights. The arbitrary beams morph into shapes that form words and then all is clear. The sign reads, “Le Cirque des Rêves.”

Enter the magical circus of dreams at your own risk. Erin Morgenstern’s new book The Night Circus pleases. There is mystery, suspense, magic, and romance waiting within the black and white book’s cover.

The Night Circus (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2012/01/night-circus-copy.html

Invention of Hugo Cabret (copy)

He stares at the old man through the five in the clock face. From his position above, the old man looks to be taking inventory. He knows it won’t be long before the old man begins to doze, but he wonders if the old man has started to notice things missing. Little things really, he doesn’t like stealing and only takes what he absolutely needs to finish his automaton.

Hugo is alone now. The automaton is all that is left of his previous life. His mother died when he was a wee boy, but he spent many happy days with his father. As museum mechanic, Hugo’s father made sure Hugo had a mind for gears, pulleys, and springs. If not in school, he brought Hugo along with him on all repairs.

Their favorite thing to work on together was the automaton. Someone had stored the lifelike man in the museum attic after it broke, and the father and son team took it on as a mission. Hugo’s father would draw its small pieces and parts in a notebook as he disassembled the work. From this notebook, he hoped to turn around and put it back together with clean pieces and parts and have a working machine.

The automaton was a little man sitting posed behind a desk with his arms raised above the desk. In his left hand resided an ink well and in his right a pen. If things worked correctly, after being wound the automaton would write something on a sheet of paper placed underneath the arms on the desk. Father and son dreamt of those words.

Ah, the old man was asleep. Hugo quickly climbed down from the attic, slipped into the alley, ran across the road, and shimmied into the cracked air grate. From there, he silently made his way to the toy booth, and his goal. He could see the old man still sleeping as he slowly moved the air vent cover.

His prize in reachable site, he outstretches his arm to grab the little blue mouse. The old man suddenly comes alive and grabs Hugo around his wrist and begins to yell for the station inspector. Hugo is doomed! If the station inspector discovers he is alone it will be straight to the orphanage and good-bye automaton. He must talk fast!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is a 500 plus-page picture book that won the American Library Association’s prestigious Caldecott Medal for 2008. I wrote article the summer of 2008, but after seeing the movie last night I want to shout to everyone, “Read this Book!”

Invention of Hugo Cabret (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/11/invention-of-hugo.html

Ntl Picture Book Month (copy)

I give thanks every Wednesday morning when I start writing these columns. First, I am thankful that there are great Mississippian or Southern authors to read and discuss. Second, I am thankful that I have great eyesight and leisure time to read. Third, I am thrilled that I have a job I love and that reading is a requirement. Lastly, that I have people willing to read these columns.

At the annual Career-Technical BBQ, I was honored among many fine members of the division for some work the library did in their behalf. It was very nice to be included and I was thankful that the LPN program could use my help. They have an excellent school and I enjoyed my time working with everyone involved.

As a little bonus, they gave me a gift. It was Christmas in theme and I got a cool spreading knife and green napkins, but at the bottom was the best gift ever. It came from people that read my columns and know me. It means the world.

They gave me Bruce Whatley’s The Night before Christmas. This fully illustrated picture book displays the magic of the season on each page. Big presents under the tree can stir young ones to all kinds of wishes. I grew up with the Santa Mouse and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, so my 70s Christmas either had tiny gifts or no gifts at all.

November is National Picture Book Month. I bet you are scratching your chin thinking, hum, I did not know that. Well, they are special. It is a format that will never fit comfortably on a Kindle or Nook. Picture books, with their 32 pages of bliss, are meant to be flipped through, carried with small hands, and sometimes even chewed on.

Picture books are the corner stone of childhood. Every child’s first stuffed animal should be accompanied with a book. I like the tie-ins myself. Books such as Elmer, with the calico elephant or Where the Wild Things Are with hairy but kind monsters are the best. I picture a child in yellow-footed pajamas with a Curious George book tucked under one arm and his hand pulling the monkey along with the other.

Thank you Career-Tech for the gift, thank you Northwest for the job, and thank you to all my readers. It gives me great pride to know that we Mississippians like our books.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ntl Picture Book Month (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/11/ntl-picture-book-month-copy.html

Outlaw Album (copy)

Every Sunday after church we would head to the grandparents’ houses to visit. First mom’s family then dad’s until we were all visited out. Sweetheart and Papa talked politics and money with my parents while Granny Smith and Paw ran-on about the ole days. One family lived in the here-and-now while the other lived in the past.

I liked the ole stories. Granny Smith and Paw could entertain for days with these crazy uncle and aunt antics. Who cared about tobacco prices?

To encourage Sweetheart’s story telling abilities, I would thumb through the family photo albums and ask her about certain pictures. What is Papa doing? Who is this guy standing next to you? How many brothers and sisters do you have, Sweetheart? Why do none of you look alike?

I thought about this weekly ritual after finishing The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell. My grandmother rarely answered my questions with more than a quick name or two. This got me to thinking…she might not want me to know the answers.

The Outlaw Album is set in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. The short stories involve different families, but it makes one heck of a grim photo album. After each story, I can picture the main character, always the narrator, and place him on a page in my “Outlaw Album.”

One story, set during the Civil War, has a regiment of rebels dressed in union jackets riding the countryside of Missouri unchallenged. At the Sni-A-Bar creek they come across a family stopped to water their team as they travel west. The father hollers a correction to the boy and our narrator notices he is Dutch.

Once the Dutchman proclaims his loyalty to the Union, it is all over for him. The men circle and snare him while one fashions a rope. A discussion flares over the proper noose size, seven or thirteen coils, as the condemned man blathers in the confusion. Once the man swings, his boy runs to his aid and is shot in the back.

The photo I would place in my album would feature our yellow-bellied narrator sitting proudly on his horse with the Dutchman’s lifeless body dangling from a tree.

I love Woodrell. His style of writing is amazing, but this is not a collection for the faint of heart. His outlaws include young girls, rapists, and old men getting away with murder one story after another. Woodrell makes the Ozarks one scary place.

Outlaw Album (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/11/outlaw-album-copy.html

Winter's Bone (copy)

Among a small group at Northwest, chatter is occurring around the characteristics of the “dirty south” or “rough south” genre in American literature. Two English professors discussed Harry Crews, father of the genre, enough to request the book Feast of Snakes. Set in Mystic, Georgia, this southern horror story centers around a fallen high-school athlete, Joe Lon Mackey, and the craziness of the annual Rattlesnake Roundup.

Also known as “grit lit,” another instructor loves Mississippian, Larry Brown. Every so often, I have a curious student ask about a Brown title and he explains the “grit lit” expression. Of course, I am in awe. Not necessarily because he knows the term, but the motivation to read an author the instructor casually mentioned during a lecture.

I have spoken separately with a husband and wife teaching team who love Missouri author, Daniel Woodrell. He excites me too, since he is writing actively in the genre. Both Crews and Brown have gone to the great double wide in the sky. Winter’s Bone by Woodrell is one of his best.

Ree Dolly is in charge of a wayward family. Her mother spends her days by the potbelly staying warm and mumbling. Her father is eating three squares under the supervision of the Missouri Correctional Department. Her two younger brothers are suffering under quilts and eating the same ole grits Ree cooks daily.

Today is a little harder on the family’s stomachs. Across the creek hangs venison curing in the open air. They live in a hollow in the Ozarks surrounded by kin. Little Harold makes the mistake when he asks if they will offer any to the family. Ree is quick to turn his ear and say, “Never. Never ask for what ought to be offered.”

After the boys’ meager breakfast, they are sent off to the bus stop and Ree begins her daily chopping of wood. The snow slaps her in the face as she dreads the washing that will have to hang in the house to dry.

Within an hour the boys are returning to the house in the back of a cop car. Ree greets the officer with a quick, “They didn’t do nothin’!” and is reassured they did not. School has been cancelled. The policeman, an old friend of her father’s, has something to tell her before he leaves.

“Jessup’s out on bail and I can’t locate him. Girl, you better find him by November 8, or you will lose the house, barn and timbre acres if he don’t show. He signed them over”

Winter's Bone (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/11/winters-bone-copy.html

Mind Chi (copy)

A monster has been created! I had so much fun in the business book section last week that I stayed a full two hours looking over titles and scanning content. What I pulled out to read is Mind Chi: Re-wire your Brain in 8 Minutes a Day by Richard Israel and Vanda North.

Mind Chi according to the two authors is an act of changing negative energy to positive energy. The reader is to use the B.E.A.T. method. The person takes whatever issue they face destructively within their body, emotions, actions, and thoughts (BEAT) and changes them to positives. It takes two minutes per section for a total of eight minutes.

For example, let us say I am having trouble meeting goals. For one minute I analysis my body and determine that I am burned out, my back aches and I lack concentration. Using Mind Chi, the second minute will be used resolving the problem by being more responsive, doing yoga or taking pills to be pain-free, and preparing my body to be ready for action. Obviously, these are all concepts in my mind. It takes longer than two minutes to do stretching exercises like yoga.

Moving on to step two and my emotions, I do not achieve my goals because I feel hopeless, sad and stressed. Not really, but I play along. So, I am looking to change these emotions to enjoyment, buoyancy and eagerness. How many of us really take into consideration our feelings when meeting a task? Alas, I do not want to mow the yard because I feel stressed during the process. The real reason being I am lazy which leads us to step three, actions.

Instead of meeting my goal, I am actively talking on the phone or wasting time with lower priorities. I should be planning ahead and completing little tasks towards the goal and managing my time more wisely. Remember this exercise is happening in two minutes and all in my head.

The final step involves checking my thoughts. Am I dragging my feet because I do not see the reason for the goal or maybe I think it is unattainable no matter how much effort I spend? My thoughts should be moving forward for the greater good, or enjoying the challenge, or even realizing I will get satisfaction in the completion when obtained.

Mind Chi provides 50 BEAT maps for common issues in business such as sales, communication, training, health, and management skills. I think it will be useful in my running, too. Maybe one day, I can Mind Chi to a faster me.

Mind Chi (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/10/mind-chi-copy.html

Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus (copy)

Business books are a dime a dozen. Seems like every week one is released to great hoopla and then lost among the hordes of others sitting on our shelves. In short – business books sell but have a limited life span.

I have become quite attached to the short and sweet versions in this category. Who has time to really delve into Collins’ Good to Great when I can cover the basics reading Blanchard’s One Minute Manager in an eighth of the time?!?

Along with being short the gimmicky format stands out. A busy boss needs information quick and the gimmick usually adds to her retention of the material. Three examples that come to mind in this gimmicky sub-genre of business are Peanut Butter and Jelly Management by Komisarjevsky, Fish: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morales and Improve Results by Lundin, Paul and Christensen, and The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam.

The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus by the employees of Walk-the-Talk has it all. Choked full of useful information and in a cutesy but effective format, this book can be read in one sitting.

Busy bosses can lament with Santa Claus as he relates the perils of one day delivery. “There are workers to lead, letters to read, orders to fill, processes to manage, stuff to buy, stuff to make, standards to maintain, new technologies to adopt, skills to develop, elf problems to solve, and reindeer droppings to scoop (although I delegate that one).”

There are eight secrets amongst the eight chapters such as chapter 6, “Share the Milk and Cookies.” Be sure your employees realize the difference they are making in the company. Santa, the elves, and the reindeer all have a part in the “big ‘making people happy’ picture.” One way is to reward those who do a good job with verbal praises and letters of gratitude. Santa says make, “‘attitude of gratitude’ one of your most important workshop values.”

Other secrets include: “Build a Wonderful Workshop, Choose Your Reindeer Wisely, Listen to the Elves, Get beyond the Red Wagons, Find out Who’s Naughty and Nice, and Be Good for Goodness Sake.”

As a boss your mission may not be “making spirits bright,” but then again, maybe it should be.

Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/10/leadership-secrets-of-santa-claus.html

Girl's Guide to Homelessness (copy)

As I read Brianna Karp’s memoir, The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness, I am struck by her understanding of the word homeless. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines homeless as having no home or permanent place of residence. Karp owns a recreational vehicle (RV) that was bequeathed to her from her dad’s estate. She also owns a truck to haul the RV from Wal-Mart parking lot to Wal-Mart parking lot.

Technically, Karp has a home. She has a roof over her head. She has shelter from the elements. She is able to place her stuff such as books, toiletries and food within its rooms. She can lock the door and drive away for supplies. She is drawing unemployment and blogs on her own laptop during the day at Starbucks.

One could argue that the RV is not a permanent place because she moves it around. How many of your friends have sold their homes and moved into an RV to see the world? They see the RV as a home. They take showers in another location possibly, but still call the tin-can home.

Now, I admit, I am only a third of the way through the book. She may end up spending a night or two on a park bench and for that I will take back everything I said, but somehow I doubt it.

Karp is part of an elite group if she is truly homeless. She states on her blog by the same name as the book, “I am an educated woman with stable employment and residence history. I have never done drugs. I am not mentally ill. I am a career executive assistant – coherent, opinionated, poised, and capable. If you saw me walking down the street, you wouldn’t have assumed that I lived in a parking lot. In short, I was just like you – except without the convenience of a permanent address.”

I bounced my ideas off a co-worker who is also reading the book and she said, “But I like her.” I like her, too! Heck, I love someone that pulls herself up by the boot straps. Karp was sexually abused by her father and physically and mentally abused by her mother. She deserves better.

I just get an uneasy feeling knowing Karp will profit from the book. Why shouldn’t she? She did write it while homeless and looking for a job. Read that last sentence ironically. What about those truly homeless who need our support? What will happen to uneducated minds that might see her choice as an alternative to everyday life? Is this really something one wants to glamorize?

Girl's Guide to Homelessness (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/10/s-i-read-brianna-karps-memoir-girls.html

Water for Elephants Redux (copy)

Do you ever return to a book for a second or third reading? My husband returns to the Charles Portis’ well every year when he rereads Gringos.

I recently reread Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen for the Reading Round Table sponsored by Sycamore Bank. The experience is comparable to watching a movie for the second or third time. You catch things that you missed in the first viewing like you miss in the book.

Unlike re-watching a movie, I forget so much in a book. For instance, I read Gruen’s book back in May of 2007 and completely forgot characters and plot. How in the world did I suggest it to anyone to read with my faulty memory? I am sure it was lame, something like, “It’s a good book.”

The prologue starts with a flashback from Jacob Jankowski. He remembers a turning point in his life as it unfolds over 60 years ago. In the memory the character August is killed. In my first reading I knew Rosie killed August, but in the second reading I was sure it was Marlena. Why such a discrepancy?

In the first reading I focused on the “redlighting” of roustabouts. To redlight a person is to throw them from a moving train. It can be certain death if the subject is thrown while the train travels over a trestle. I remember two episodes in the book where our hero, Jacob, is threatened with the custom by physically being dangled out the train’s car door. In the rereading, it only occurs once. Where did this extra episode in my head originate?

What happens to your brain when they make a movie and now all you see are the actors as you read? I habitually substitute actors for characters as I read. In Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, I picture Sandra Bullock although she has outgrown the part. If a book features a little person, I see character actor Billy Barty. Morgan Freeman looms large in my reading, too.

It shakes my brain up to see someone placed in the part that is against character. Throughout Gruen’s book brunette Marlena is constantly moving one hand up to cover her mouth. Readers can guess she is either embarrassed about her teeth or afraid of what she might say. Reese Witherspoon is neither brunette, snaggletooth nor afraid to speak; thus, wrong for the part.

Ask me about the book and for the next few weeks and I will have lots to say before I drift back into, “It’s a good book.”

Water for Elephants Redux (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/09/d-o-you-ever-return-to-book-for-second.html

Me...Jane (copy)

I believe I hold in my hands the 2011 Caldecott winner. The winner and honors will be announced in January, but this one, published in April 2011, has to be sitting at the top of the committee’s stack.

The artwork has a sepia feel. The colors are brown, yellow and green with a cream background. The art leads the little reader’s parents down memory lane while the child experiences a little girl who carries her stuffed chimpanzee, Jubilee, everywhere.

Parents will be amazed at the 19th and early 20th century engraving, while the child seeing the same images might lift his pretend arm to trumpet like the elephant or tell her father the time from a pocket watch stamp. Included on three pages of this easy book is artwork by the subject herself. Our subject has a very detailed eye.

Inspiration can be found in the pages, but readers will have different experiences. Moms and dads will dream of their child’s future. Because my child loves to play with Legos, she will become the next great architect. Our boy makes the best mud pies! He is destined to be the next Julian Childs. The child reader may not make the same connection when they see a woman touching a real chimp at the end of the book.

Laying on the cool grass and looking at the birds in the trees our main character, Jane, dreams. This small act is enough to send any child running outside to commune with nature, but Jane is also curious. She takes Jubilee to the barn where they discover the origins of chicken eggs.

Jane creates puzzles with animals as answers and she starts the first ever Aligator Society! She might have had more participants had she spelled the glorified animal correctly.

Little Jane reads and rereads books about Africa. She is especially enthralled by the Tarzan series. She climbs a tall Beech tree with Jubilee hanging around her neck. Once she reaches the top, the two sit on a limb and she pretends to swing through the jungle.

Have you guessed whom I am referring to? It is Jane Goodall!

Mark my words. Come January the committee will announce to the world that Me…Jane is the 2011 Caldecott winner. Cartoonist Patrick McDonnell, producer of the syndicated strip MUTTS, will be thrilled with his award.

Me...Jane (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/09/mejane-copy.html

Freak the Mighty (copy)

Have you ever read a book that makes you pump your fists in the air in triumph? I finished Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick last night and although sad at the end there is still this feeling of unmistakable victory.

Max is our narrator and he begins telling his story by relating the first time he met Kevin aka Freak. Max had a nickname of his own, too. He was known in preschool as Kicker. Apparently, he lashed out at anyone who got near. Day care workers, mommies, and even children covered their shins when passing Max.

When Kevin came to preschool that first day he was not quite known as Freak, yet. He was the same size as all the other students back then and his crutches were so tiny they were hardly noticeable. Um, that was before he started hitting other people with them. Day care workers, mommies, and even children began to cover their shins when Kevin passed by.

The two bonded over the similarity noting that neither one ever kicked or whacked the other during the first week together. It was a nice week for both the boys, but then Kevin did not return the next week or the following week or until some years later.

It was the first day of seventh grade when Max, towering over his classmates, saw Kevin at the entrance. Then he lost him in the sea of middle school heads. Before long Max could hear the yelps getting closer as Kevin made his way down the busy hall by whacking those close enough to step on him.

Their differences were undeniable. Max had grown two feet taller than his peers while Kevin was only a slight taller than his preschool days. Max hardly ever spoke while Kevin was want for breath between sentences. Max was assigned the learning disabled classes while Kevin would enter the advance placement classes.

Max begins the book, “I never had a brain until Freak came along and let me borrow his for a while, and that’s the truth, the whole truth. The unvanquished truth, is how Freak would say it, and for a long time it was him who did all the talking. Except I had a way of saying things with my fists and my feet even before we became Freak the Mighty, slaying dragons and fools and walking high above the world.”

Trust me. You will raise your fists in solidarity!

Freak the Mighty (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/09/freak-mighty-copy.html

Unbroken (copy)

This week I got my hands on Laura Hillenbrand’s new book Unbroken and do not want to take them off. So much so that I ignore phone calls and annoying text chats so that I can read to the end of a chapter. Somehow laundry has magically been sorted, cleaned, folded, and put away while I immerse myself in the events. Oops, I confess. I take my hands off only to chew my nails to the quick!

Hillenbrand’s name may sound familiar because she wrote Seabiscuit back in 2001 that became blockbuster gold two years later. During the 10 years taken to write this new book, she remained in her bed. She suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: possibly, choosing her subjects like racehorse Seabiscuit and foot racer Louis Zamperini as a way of vicariously exercising.

Unbroken begins with the ultimate in scary cliffhangers. Our running hero is lost at sea with two fellow crew members after the bomber they serve in crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Louis Zamperini is sharing a life raft with one serviceman while the other man lays tethered alongside.

During the 27 days, sharks circle and brush up against both rafts while they drift into Japanese-controlled waters. The men are burnt and displaying an odd color of yellow as their lifesaving floats deteriorates into a jelly-like substance.

The future looks gray until they hear the familiar noise of a piston engine. The men yelp and raise their arms to signal the plane as Zamperini launches two flares and pours orange dye into the water to attract the help. The plane passes by without acknowledging them.

But, wait a minute. It returns and begins to bank very low and close. Zamperini gets a good look into the man’s eyes before the plane opens fire on the stranded soldiers. All three jump into the water as their rafts take the pelting blows.

They pull themselves back into the one remaining raft as the plane circles for another run. Zamperini looks at the men and realizes they will be too weak to disembark for a second time as he enters the shark infested waters alone.

Argh! I will have to read 167 more pages to find out what happens because this is the opening preface! Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption delights.

Unbroken (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/09/unbroken-copy.html

After the Fall (copy)

Back in the 90s, I used to go to the coast with my girlfriends each summer. We were a fun group of air traffic controller wives who liked to tan, shop and dance. In the beginning, all we could afford was a drive to the coast, but later we began to fly to Clearwater Beach, Florida.

The year was 1996 or 1997. Lots of water has been under the Clearwater Bridge since then, but there is one thing I remember that still haunts me. On a trip to Ybor City for dinner and dancing it happened. Ybor City is like Beale Street where visitors walk from bar to bar in a party atmosphere with no traffic.

The drive was 45 minutes from our hotel and there were nine of us. We rented a taxi van for the night. Nothing memorable so far, but hold on. We all piled in chatting about all kinds of things when one of our most outgoing girls who sat shotgun began to flirt with the driver.

He was a young, good-looking Middle Eastern who was a tad hard to understand. Our front seat talker was very Southern in speech and their conversation was becoming comical when he asked if we were all married. With a huge yes reply, he began to tell us we look like “ladies of the evening” (my words, his started with a “W”) and that our husbands should be ashamed.

As you can imagine, we were slightly shocked hearing this from someone who expected a tip. I tore into him. Not only was I an air traffic controller wife, I used to worked there! With 300 men and about 30 women at the Memphis Enroute Control Center, I was well versed in the machismo mentality and began to pummel him with question after question.

We were dropped off at the entrance and he parked and waited for our return. With a good solid five hours of fun and libations, I entered the van ready for round two. After 15 minutes, I knew I had him. His frustration over flowed and he said, “You will be sorry; America will pay for its misdeeds. The World will know come nine-one-one.”

Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about and looked confused. “Come September 11, America will be taught a lesson. All Americans will be dialing nine-one-one.”

Can you believe it has been 10 years since 9/11? There are three new books filled with memories of that horrible day and its aftermath: After the Fall edited by Clark, Bearman, Ellis, and Smith, A Decade of Hope by Dennis and Dierdre Smith, and Until the Fires Stopped Burning by Charles Strozier.

After the Fall (copy)

http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/08/after-fall-copy.html