When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead)

Hardcover

Strange how a young-adult sci-fi/fantasy novel can ring truer than memoirs written by and for adults.  I knew nothing at all about this book going in -- and it really sneaked up on me.

Twelve-year-old Miranda is a "latch key" daughter of a capable, single mother whose own life is still on hold after her unexpected college pregnancy.  Although their apartment is somewhat shabby and their family unit somewhat unorthodox for its 1979 setting, they're happy enough.

Then things start changing for Miranda.  Her best friend Sal decides he no longer wants to be friends with her, Miranda finds a new friend in a similarly rejected classmate, she begins to have feelings for a boy, she meets a boy (possibly autistic) who doesn't readily understand the needs and emotions of others, and she also starts receiving secret notes from the future.

So much is tackled here: from racism to the difference in income levels to bullying that it's truly shocking, in reflection, how effortlessly all of the topics seemed to be handled.  I snapped this closed with satisfaction that a new classic has arrived.

B+

Thin Is the New Happy (Valerie Frankel)

Hardcover

I laughed in delighted recognition at the first several pages of this memoir. Valerie and I suffered the same -- completely unfair/ridiculous -- childhood torment of being put on a diet and forced to "weigh in" while disappointed parents shook their heads and sighed. Like Valerie, I was NOT FAT, but I did commit the sin of developing breasts slightly early and of not being able to shop in the petites section like the non-puberty-hitters whose classroom desks surrounded mine. When I brought my best friend home with me at age 13, my mother accused me of befriending the bona-fide chubster just so that I might look small by comparison.

But childhood is where the similarities between Val and me stop. She has spent a lifetime hating her body and accepting criticisms of it as her due -- at one point numbering her self-loathing daily thoughts in the hundreds. She regularly tormented herself by slapping her naked belly in front of the mirror so that she might bear witness to the ugly jiggle. Rather than rejecting her parents' methods of shame as a weight-loss incentive, she tweaked them to a more vicious level. She took a job with a fashion magazine and starved/snorted herself thin to fit in there. She then married a man who dismissed her, after their first meeting (at one of her weight low points), as "chubby" and, therefore, not worth calling. Her second husband (before marriage) told her he'd love her body more without the belly...and she calls him "the best" in her thank yous. Idiot needs to get a clue.

Apparently Val's now succeeding on her "Not Diet," and bully for her -- but I don't believe she's conquered her lifelong battle with poor body image. The real test will be if her next favorite piece found on a shopping spree is a size 10 rather than a size 8. Will she still crow? Will she still be "successful"? Has she learned ANYTHING?

C-
Non-fiction #5

Leonardo the Terrible Monster (Mo Willems)

Hardcover

I was absolutely charmed by this picture book.

Leonardo can't compare to the other monsters -- he's just terrible at being scary.  Because he's seen as more adorable than atrocious, he decides to give everything he's got to scaring Sam...the scarediest kid Leonardo can find.  Well, things don't work out quite as Leonardo intended.  Instead of scaring the tuna fish out of Sam, they each gain a friend.

How I wish this book had been around when my boys were in its target audience.  Guess I'll just have to settle for reading it to my grandkids.

A-

The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle #1 (Patrick Rothfuss)

Kindle/Paperback

Meet Kote: mild-mannered innkeeper in a nothing town.  But...wait up now...he's got a weird sword.  And he seems to be the only one who (secretly) knows how to deal with the giant made-of-rock demon spiders that invade the area.  And, wildest of all, he's got (dun-dun-duuuunnnnn) red hair.  I'm sure that Gary's as excited as I am that I'm finally done with this book as now he no longer has to listen to my constant stream of "And get this" commentary.

Kote's actually Kvothe, subject of bar stories.  He's famous for being super amazing in every situation.  When Chronicler (a dude who, you know, chronicles stuff) comes asking for his story, Kvothe decides that, sure, he'll tell it.  And then Rothfuss neatly deals with any continuity criticisms or poor storytelling by having Kvothe demand that Chronicler not change a dadgummed WORD, not even to clean up the narrative because this is Kvothe's story, dangit!

Kvothe is super smart.  He's super talented.  I get wish fulfillment...but to have a character whose only flaw seems to be that he is smarter than everyone else is beyond ridiculous.  I couldn't have cared less about this arrogant ass -- and even if I HAD cared about him, I was never even tempted to worry about if he'd survive/get out of a situation because 1) he's the greatest mind in the entire world ever and 2) he's fine.  He's sitting in his bar telling the story right now.

Super long and super full of itself without earning my time/attention by coming up with an interesting world or characters.  If this hadn't been a book club choice, I would've quit reading within the first dozen pages.

D+

The King of Lies (John Hart)

Audio/Hardcover

The reader was just horrible for this audiobook.  He sounded like an incompetent film noir narrator, making it really difficult to discern when he was switching between characters or when a certain emotion was required.  To make things more enjoyable, I began supplementing my listening with actual reading...but I found out that no amount reader skill was going to save the mess that is this book.

"Work" Pickens' father has turned up dead after missing for a couple of years and he looks like the most likely suspect.  Work has an awesome girlfriend, a shrewish wife, a bitch of a detective sniffing after him and seemingly zero friends.  He jumps to conclusions, does stupid shit and generally digs himself deeper at every turn -- he's just incredibly hard to root for.  And there's not one but TWO victims of childhood sexual abuse in these pages, so that just adds to the fun.

One of the worst things about going for a book a week is that it's really difficult to quit reading a crappy book.  If I'm more than 50 pages in, I've wasted too much time with a book to toss it away.  Books like this are making me reconsider the value of this resolution.  Blech.

D