It's Like This, Cat (Emily Cheney Neville)

Hardcover

Dave, a New York teen in the early '60s, befriends a college-age thief, is constantly arguing with his father (which sets off his mother's asthma attacks), is friends with the apartment complex's cat lady, isn't interested in easy bimbos, and adopts a tomcat.

I read this because it's a Newbery winner and I'm working my way through them all.  It took a few chapters to kind of get into its groove -- the writing is both stiff and spars, which made it feel more dated than it already was by its setting.  Once I got used to the style, though, this was a quick and decent read.  The time when young non-gang teens were able to roam freely through a big city without their parents calling the cops may be long gone, but it's nice to have a reminder that it once existed.

B-

Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)

Paperback

I breathed a sigh of contentment after the first couple of pages.  It was such a relief to be so obviously in the hands of a master (especially after traipsing through lots of literary "eh" in the not-too-distant-past).

I was a big fan of the movie based on this book and, while I wouldn't say either is better than the other, the book is definitely a match for its adaptation.  It's just so smart about the way that couples relate -- or fail to relate -- to each other and to other people. There didn't seem to be a single false note.  Though the story felt at times almost too heavy, it's always human.  I alternately loved and loathed both April and Frank; Yates made it possible to simultaneously understand them even as I sat in judgment of them.

A-

Breadcrumbs (Anne Ursu)

Audiobook

Hazel doesn't really fit in with most of the kids in her new school.  But that's OK because she does fit in with her best friend and next-door neighbor, Jack, and he makes sure to meet up with her every day during recess, making the rest of her day bearable.  Jack and Hazel are each other's refuge -- he needs one from the home that holds his depressed and empty-eyed mother and she needs one from what would probably be too difficult a rejection to bear: her father's recent choice to leave Hazel and her mother for a new life.

So, even though Jack has stopped being "Jack," and is now callous and uninterested in Hazel, when he goes missing, Hazel knows it's her job to find him.  And that's where the story becomes a tedious slog.  What was a vivid and honest depiction of how it feels to be sad and lonely in grade school becomes a Forrest Gump-style tromp through the fairy tale woods.  There's a white witch who jokingly offers Turkish Delight, red ballet shoes that dance their wearer to death, wolves to frighten, and birds to point the way, and kindly couples that take you in and then refuse to let you go....  I was bored and frustrated by its end.

Ursu created a couple of great child characters.  They experienced the pain of real life and the joy of real friendship.  Why jank it up with second-rate fantasy thriller rip-offs?

C-

Homestuck Book One (Andrew Hussie)

Paperback

Most of the reviews on Goodreads start with something like, "I didn't actually read the book, I read it online..." which is fine for the content of the very inventive/clever/funny comic itself, but to not have read the author's book-only comments about what he was thinking, what his intent was, and just random laugh-out-loud current observations is to have really missed out.  The book may be a true representation of the online experience, but it's an experience with its own worthwhile extras.

I did "cheat" a little and check out the online pages after reading it so that I could see any flash stuff that couldn't be rendered in the hard copy, but even if I had no internet, the book would stand just fine on its own.  I don't know what lies ahead in the thousands of online pages, but the beginning here is more than promising.

B+

Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo (William Joyce)

Hardcover

Surreal, delightful, and marvelously illustrated.

The interesting and adventuresome Lazardos pick up the most agreeable of dinos while on safari with their stoic bodyguard Jumbu.  Back home, everyone falls in love with Bob -- except the Mayor's wife, that is.

One of those picture books that transcend the genre as appropriate not just for the accepting minds of children but for the adults reading them aloud (or to themselves, as was the case with me).  Smiles all around.

A

After Dinner Games (Jenny Lynch)

Hardcover

I've owned this book for fifteen or so years, and it's been an invaluable resource for dozens of parties.  We've used the games in here successfully at gatherings of work friends, church friends, teenagers, and kids.  There's truly something in here for everyone.

It's got some classics (like charades) and rules to others I've not seen elsewhere -- and having grown up in a church with youth parties and group games every couple of weeks, that's saying something.

A-
Non-fiction #8

Chosen (Denise Grover Swank)

Kindle Edition

Emma is on the run with her young son Jake from "the bad men" her son can sense before they arrive.  She's gotten pretty good at making do, but she's getting tired and the boy's sense doesn't give them the lead time they used to have.  Enter Will, a good samaritan in their most recent motel, who Jake insists they need...and proves himself to be pretty handy in a tight spot.  Thing is, Will's got an agenda of his own when it comes to Emma and it ain't just sexy-time.

Emma and Will bicker like they're in a rom-com while the stakes get higher, the boy gets freakier, and the bad men bear down.  This basically boils down to one long chase.  It's not incompetent, but it's familiar and there's just way too much bicker before the inevitable melting takes place.  It's decently written, but I've both read and seen it before.  Like, a lot.

It's the first in a planned trilogy and it doesn't so much wrap up as it leaves you hanging.  Unfortunately, I'd rather just drop off the cliff than to waste time with the rest of the set.

C