| Something's Wrong Here |
[May. 19th, 2009|10:29 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  disappointed | ] |
First off--since I have to admit up front that I watch reality TV--that's sort of admitting that I'm operating without use of a brain and should not be allowed an opinion--but that's never stopped me before. Right? Second, even I have limits--none of those "Real Housewives of TipaCanoenoodle County" shows here. No Bachelor and Bachelorette shows. That's practically porn to me. "Sign me up and I'll fight these other women to love a stranger forever. Pick me from the litter of puppies." Nope, demean yourself some other way, I'm not watching. But Survivor and Idol. Yes, I'm right there. And this year on Survivor--here's a school principal lying and double dealing and back stabbing with the best. I dunno. I've always been a little bothered by the "You have to lie to win this game" attitude that's so espoused. True, it's the easiest way. But can you win without lying? Can someone at least try?
The bartenders and the lawyers and the others lie and I shake my head and figure, whatever. The ones that propose that they are true Christians and they intend to lie and then ask forgiveness, then lie again make me think there needs be a little refresher course on the nature of what the sinner's part of the deal is when asking for forgiveness--but each person has to deal with their own religion.
But I can't shake the principal out of my head. She said the kids understood that in some situations--like hers--it was fine to lie. Her situation is that it was for a lot of money and she really wanted to win. I find this downright scary. Anybody else?
I would think it would be hard for her to go back and demand honesty and integrity from her students. But then--if they don't shape up--she could kick 'em right off the island. |
|
|
| I Couldn't Have Written This One |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|10:35 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  distressed | ] |
Unless you're new here, you know I'm addicted to Court TV and it's spawn. I draw the line at Geraldo but yes, I do watch Nancy Grace. A lot of her abrasiveness, I think, is for show and I get irritated when she baits people then cuts them off but she does bring new facts to crimes that interest me. And last night, oh wow, last night, I saw what I thought might be the bedrock of the case I've been watching. The Casey/Caylee Anthony case. Let's not even speculate if this mother killed her child. I don't think that's the fascination of this case. It's Casey. Her display of "why are you people bothering me?" attitude. Her "how dare you ask me questions, how dare you. . .whatever" demeanor. This sense of "unless you are dancing to my tune--you anger me" vibe she throws off--when she or at least what most people think she should be showing is fear, worry, concern about her child.
So, as a writer, who has to figure out how a character comes to be--I'm on the lookout for the patterns of a person's life and I kept getting these hints from the Anthonys. Casey's parents. First angry at Casey. Furious, wanting her arrested. Then when realizing they had opened a huge, huge can of horrible worms were busily trying to reseal it. Turning their fury on the media. Lots of people were understanding of these poor grandparents. These poor grandparents were in denial about their daughter. I thought I was seeing something else.
And then I watched the tapes of the Anthony's deposition with Zanny the Nanny's lawyers. Wow. A deposition is supposed to be about the lawyer asking questions and the deposed person answering--or not. This was the Anthonys demanding answers, apologies, cursing, shouting, being rude, saying they shouldn't be bothered, furious that the lawyer dare to. . . , etc. Whatever happened to Caylee--I think we can see where Casey came from. Where she learned her sense of total entitlement. The sense that if you disagree you are the enemy and I am righteous in taking you down. I find this total denial of personal responsibility fascinating. This "It's never me-it's someone else." "Rules apply to other people."
It's such a prevalent attitude. I've seen it when I taught. In family members. In people I worked with. I know you have. But when you write them--that character seems over the top--not at all convincing. But maybe that's why this case has me so spell bound. While I know these people exist--it's hard to believe it when you see them. It's why this case has captured our attention. How could a tragedy not have resulted from so much dysfunction and hostility and sense of entitlement? I have seen so little caring, so much lack of tenderness, so little compassion.
Nope, I couldn't make these people up. They look too normal and they are far too frightening. I don't have the talent to make you believe in them. I don't know who did what to whom--I just know--well, I guess that's the point--I haven't ever seen anything like this. But I can't look away. |
|
|
| The Great Wide Sea and Peak |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|09:26 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong and Peak by Roland Smith are what most would lump into the classification of boy novels and adventure novels. And they are that. That doesn't mean that I, female and never allowed to do anything more adventurous than ride my secondhand Schwinn didn't devour these books when I was young and do so in my creaking and croning years (no that's not a typo.)
Each of these represent my two favorite type of adventures sailing and mountain climbing. I became adept at one, not deep water sailing, nope I only sailed within sight of land and that had plenty of dangers of its own, thanks and would never put myself through the rigors of the other. I have a theory about these kinds of books. We want few, precious few people to win against the sea and the mountain. And when someone wins it should be at great cost and sometimes only because the sea and the mountain allows it. We want something larger and more powerful than ourselves. Something in which we stand in awe. And if too many defeat it too easily we lose a sense of majesty. And we want that. Even atheists want something bigger than themselves. Didn't Jung say if there wasn't a God we would make him up?
Sea involves three brothers who have recently lost their mother and their father is simply not coping. He sells their house, buys a boat and sets off to sea. None of the boys want to go. Three grieving and moody boys in close quarters, completely alone with a depressed and illogical father. And the boys wake up one morning to find the father--missing. Of course, there's a storm, of course there's injury and illness and looming death. I liked the book most of the way through. Most people will like the ending.
Peak--man against mountain. Again, a problematic father. Missing from our main character's life by choice. The lure of mountain climbing is louder than fatherhood. Through some plot machinations Peak--yep, that's the poor kid's name--ends up with Dad in the Himalayas ready to be the youngest to plant his flag atop Everest. But there's this former Sherpa and his grandson. Adults will see the twist coming from miles away but I don't think the target audience will. Middle schoolers are certainly intelligent enough, I just don't think they are cynical enough yet to see through Peak's father and the former Sherpa's chess game of sorts. While I saw this one coming, I liked the ending much more. And I saw the mountain as accepting the boy's appearance on it rather than feeling they were attacking it. Too Zen?
These books both made the Texas Lone Star List so it appears some smart people think they are worth reading also. Squeaky clean by the way. |
|
|
| An Unsung Hero |
[Mar. 11th, 2009|10:24 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
In Right Behind You the character Carrie is mentioned quite often. People want her for their own mother. This is my most loved character. Well, okay, most of my character's aren't very lovable, but Carrie should be loved. And Carrie stands out for me because she is the only character based on a real person. And that person died today. Blake Beeler was my best friend's mother. Blake's daughter, Mary Blake and I met and became best buds in Junior High and stayed that way through High School and University years. ANd the indomitable Mrs. Beeler pretty much saved my life. Let's just say I butted heads with my own parents and be done with that part--but I knew I needed nurturing--and Mrs. B. knew I need nurturing and didn't turn away. The tradition at the Beeler's was that on a family member's birthday Mrs. Beeler got up early and made friend chicken and biscuits for breakfast. Seriously. In her huge cast iron skillet. And I was invited to spend the night before my birthday so I could have the fried chicken birthday breakfast.
But, like Carrie, this was a no nonsense woman. Responsibility was a mirror Mrs. Beeler held right up into your face. She took prisoners. She released citizens. She did it with a firm but gentle hand. Blake lived ninety four years. And she lived them well. I got the benefit of a lot of them. Her whole family loved her. I wonder how many people that entailed?
The sun is little dimmer for me today, but I grin when I say that. Blake would give me such a ration of grief for being so over dramatic about it. And then remind me of how I almost killed all their cows when I was learning to drive out in their back pasture.
Teach the angels how to have a good time, Blake. Make your joyous noise. |
|
|
| Hippie Chick--my pick for the worst title on a terrific book |
[Jan. 26th, 2009|12:56 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  confused | ] |
I loved this book. Seriously. Now a couple of things bothered me about it, but I loved it nonetheless. I'll tell you what I loved first and what bugged me last, but I have to zero in on one of the bugs because it starts the whole ball rolling. I never would have read this book because of the title. I ran across a review that essentially said ignore the title the book is great and I continued reading the review. I can't agree with that reviewer's statement more. Okay, the main character is described as a hippie chick. First, calling a young woman a chick makes me grind my teeth until they spark, but I digress. This is a tale of survival. But it is the most original survival tale you might read. Lolly is fifteen and sails a Boston Whaler late one afternoon. The boat hits submerged wreckage, turtles, breaks off the mast, and finally Lolly is knocked unconscious. She floats away from the boat, but is wearing a life vest. A manatee finds her and Lolly, disoriented but now semi-conscious climbs onto the back of the creature and he takes her to a mangrove island and hot springs. The book is all very Zen in concept, finding the inner self, releasing control and experiencing the now. Lolly learns that she wants to feel everything not just observe it. It's about survival of the spirit as much as the survival of the body. Nicely written even if you do feel the author's agenda peeking through.
And now the buggy part. The little bug. Lolly is a vegan. But she waxes rhapsodic about sherbet, milk and yogurt. Couldn't the author just add the word soy to those things and keep us in the vegan mode? Or have vegans relaxed that rule. I'm always a bit amused that in recent years scads of young people insist on stating they are vegetarians yet they eat chicken and fish. I'm really old and in my day that just meant you didn't eat red meat--a vegetarian meant you didn't eat anything that had a face. No chicken, no fish, not even a worm or a snail. But then we couldn't end a sentence with a preposition either.
My big, big issue is that throughout the book Lolly touches, handles and pet the manatees. She rubs their stomachs and they respond eagerly. She pets their heads. She swims with them and touches them all over and delights in the connection, the "electric" feeling. The novel makes swimming with and touching the manatees seem practically orgasmic. At the very least it is a spiritual thing that transcends the physical. It sent me straight to Google to see where I could swim with and touch a manatee. Where I learned that it is upsetting to manatees to be touched on the head. And indeed, after describing all the joys of touching a manatee, the author, in the afterword tells the reader never to swim with manatees and never, ever to touch one. Well, then shouldn't his character have respected the manatees that saved her the same way. I get that she had to touch them while they carried her to safety, but all the petting and rubbing afterward? Why didn't she respect their space, their privacy in the lagoon? IMHO this was like saying don't do drugs by telling us how fabulous heroin can make you feel.
So, I think that was a huge mistake. One that could have easily been avoided. But as I said this was a good book. An original way of looking at survival--of just why we survive. Of about being present.
And I'm sorry, I can't think of anything nice to say about that title. |
|
|
| The Strange Double Life of YA Writing |
[Jan. 21st, 2009|07:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
This all starts with American Idol. Seriously. I learn so much about people from American Idol. I know, it's not reality, it's edited and sometimes scripted reality, but you can't script and edit the overall mind set that just keeps showing up again and again. The thing I keep hearing is the phrase "But I WANT this so much." Or some form of that statement. Let's look at that. I want it. Really badly. So I deserve it. How did an entire generation or at least such a huge portion become so deluded? Because delusional it surely is. I started out in theatre. When I went to auditions there was never any thought from anyone there that we might get a part because we wanted it. It didn't matter. Were we better than everyone else there? And did we have the reputation or showing up on time every single day for rehearsal. We took our "want" home to cry about it in the shower where nobody could see what a wuss we were.
But I'm not blaming these kids. Nope. I'm blaming the media and marketing and the parents that fell for that bull of "you can be anything you want to be." How many kids did we ruin with ridiculous expectations? First we forgot the second part--if you WORK for it. And I don't if anyone broke the bad news that there was a third part--you have to be realistic about your expectations. Now I believe in swinging for the bleachers, reaching for the moon and all that, but there are some things you can't get past. If you are five feet tall and have stopped growing, I sort of don't think that you are going to be the next Michael Jordan no matter how hard you train. That 6'8' guy that trains just as hard is probably going to push right past you. If your IQ rests in the 80's and no matter how hard you study C's are the best you can do in high school, I think being a neuro surgeon is out of the picture. I don't care how much you WANT to wear scrubs. And all that stuff about You can be Number One. Only one person can be number one--so a lot of other people are getting lied to.
Let's take this back to writing for YA. When I write, I really try to get into the mindset of a young person. And right now, for the most part, and sometimes for the character I want to portray, that's a teen that has swallowed this," but I WANT it "reasoning hook, line and sinker. But the first people that read it, the people that will accept it for publication are adults, then the reviewers, the professional ones, are adults. They were raised differently--or at least have learned that wanting something means less than working for it, having some talent for it, developing the skills for it---I want to be a star simply won't make you one. Adults--many of them have lost understanding the frustration and pain that losing what you want produces in a teen Or how a girl can fall in love during a phone call. Or why a boy in high school is popular just because he--is. When you are a teen--you might not have to have skills or work for something like being the star of the high school-you just have to have the look, the walk and the 'tude and--you're all that. The readers are going to get that. But you have to get through the adults that aren't going to first.
Is this fair? What's fair? I think we need to lift the level of YA writing to well above the ordinary. So, yes. If there is a double standard then I want and am willing to meet both of them. And honestly, I don't want to keep promoting the "you can be whatever you want to be" mind set. It's not a means to encourage. It's a means to placate. It doesn't get any one to try harder. It makes the young settle back and think, hey, I just have to want. I can do that already.
I'm all for kicking butt and taking names and fulfilling your destiny, but I want to make sure the legs are strong enough to kick often and hard. And the brain needs plenty of workouts and strength training to know when to kick, when to run and when to turn away. And I need to know how to meet both standards. I'll keeping working. |
|
|
| Wintergirls |
[Jan. 14th, 2009|11:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
It would seem I'm on a Laurie Halse Anderson obsession lately. I guess there could be worse things to obsess over. I happen to have in my hot little hands an ARC of Wintergirls, to be released in March. So I really have to be careful not to give too much away. The Wintergirls are the girls that MUST be thin. Not healthy thin--lost their way, can't see themselves, ambulatory skeleton thin. Lia and Cassie were best friends and they each wanted to be thin, with reasons of their own. Their friendship has floundered, Lia has moved from her mother's house to her father and stepmother's house when she learns that more than their friendship is over. What was inevitable is merely pushed closer to the tipping point.
As with all of her books, Ms. Anderson spins her web with style and elegance, the prose amazes me with its ability to hum a lullaby or make the crystal shiver with the clear high notes. While Lia has a problem, do not think this is a "problem" novel. It whisks the reader down Lia's dark alleys and you come away with the knowledge that it's not about the food, it's not about the pounds. Almost every problem when you finally root it out is about fear and not having control. When we find inappropriate things to substitute for that loss of control we damage ourselves or others. Usually we do both.
There's plenty that goes wrong in this book, but there's no real blame passed around. I like that. Life goes wrong. Sometimes it is incredibly hard to get it back on course. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we don't.
Wintergirls is fascinating and furthermore--it's important.
ANd I was supposed to spend the day revising my own manuscript. I thought, "I'll spend thirty minutes and get a start on Laurie's new ARC." So dinner was late, laundry is still sitting there and my manuscript will have to have double duty tomorrow. Ah, well, worth the trade. |
|
|
| I MUST be getting old |
[Jan. 14th, 2009|08:24 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blank | ] |
I'm either mellowing with age--and I kind of hate that thought--or the fact that I removed an extremely negative influence from my life about two years ago has definitely made me less judgmental,less defensive, and more willing to look at both sides of things--but Ann Coulter. I had to watch You Tube to see The View dust up. I can't watch The View. They all talk over each other and the old teacher in me wants to snap my fingers and make them behave, stop being rude and wait their turn to speak--besides, I have Court TV to watch where the judge is doing that for me to the bickering lawyers. BUt, I did, indeed, watch Ann Coulter's appearance on The View. And I didn't even get angry. Wow, a Zen moment. Oh, don't think for the tiniest minute that I like her or what she says or represents, but I had to wonder--this is so over the top. Does she really believe and think all this hate mongering? Or is she is being as outrageous as she can be to stir the pot so her book will fly off the shelves in hard economic times? Does the role of bad witch appeal to her as long as she can be the baddest witch of all?
Or what happens to a person that makes them that judgmental, that incredibly mean spirited, that openly rude, that obviously arrogantly superior, that RIGHT about it all? And then complain she was attacked?
I guess I feel a little sorry for either Ann Coulter. One lets herself be used badly for the almighty dollar and the other is such damaged goods. But either way, she does such damage with her hurtful words. She's exclusionary and she's so busy telling other people how unworthy they are. It makes me wonder who did that to her first? She had to learn it somewhere.
Ann needs a vacation. I definitely need a vacation from Ann. How does this relate to books? It's about one I won't be buying or reading. I don't think there's enough Zen or age to keep me mellow enough for that. |
|
|
| The Underneath |
[Jan. 11th, 2009|01:44 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  enthralled | ] |
It's one thing to read a book. It's another to experience one. I experienced The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. I fell right down the rabbit hole when I opened this book and began the tale of the calico cat, heavy with kittens that has been abandoned in the hot and fetid swamplands somewhere near the Sabine River. One thing is that's my old stomping grounds. That's where I grew up, and back when the streets were mostly dirt or crushed oyster shell and the yards were weedy and the houses were far apart. When you ran around bare foot and mud squished between your toes almost everywhere and you had to be on guard for snakes, venomous snakes and stinging bugs and snapping turtles. And there were mean people like Gar Face, those men or women that drank or were abused that became abusive and hermit like and kept dogs on chains and kicked those dogs around just because they could. Yes, and the old wood house, up above the earth that stray cats and the bedraggled dogs crept under to find shade and cool in the summers that lasted half the year--I knew those houses also and those Underneaths.
There was harshness in all of that, just as the cat and her kittens and Ranger the hound experienced it, but there was also the magic of the swampland and the magic is in the sound and the smell. The swamp does tell stories. It just does. It doesn't keep it's secrets, but it does whisper them and when you see the breeze stir the Spanish moss you know it's time to listen. Kathi Appelt knows her stuff and she gets it right. This book is a gem. A piece of magic between covers. The prose is lush as the swamp and bursting with all the senses. It is dark and sweltering and has that touch of hoo doo that makes it perfect.
I can't remember experiencing something like this since I read The Yearling so many years ago and charge me with blasphemy if you will, Appelt's prose beats Rawlings. This is a must read. It's a must have and must keep. If you have ever lived in swamp country it will sing to your soul. If you haven't you will learn why we swamp rats always keep those little webs between our toes.
One more thing: Wow! |
|
|
| Bragging Rights |
[Jan. 9th, 2009|09:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | ecstatic | ] |
Found this on on Jill Wheeler's blog. Hope she doesn't mind me quoting. It's about Cass McBride.
"Good book. Seriously. Anyone who can hook you like that has got to be talented. Her prose was cool in a Laurie Halse Anderson-type way, although I don't think she quite lives up to Laurie."
Jill, I'll take being in the same sentence with Laurie Halse Anderson any day, any time--and not quite lives up is still a HUGE compliment in my book.
Wowee, zowee! |
|
|
| CHAINS |
[Dec. 14th, 2008|11:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | impressed | ] |
CHAINS by Laurie Halse Anderson is a gem. Take that literally and figuratively. Many faceted, filled with flashes of light, purity and clarity and deep rich color--that's not a pun. As much as I like the Octavian books (and I do) by M.T. Anderson--this book covers the same time frame and a lot of the same issues (the slaves during the opening salvos of the war for independence. Do they side with the Loyalists or the Patriots? Who is promising freedom? Who will keep that promise.) but it is much more accessible. And while Mr. Anderson keeps his Octavian emotionally distant from the reader for a good purpose for his books--I loved the emotional bond-the closeness we were able to share with Isabel. Her courage runs deeper than she is aware--she allows no self pity, she suffers physically and mentally. We travel with her as she is confused and tired and betrayed and depressed, but she does not know how to quit. ANd when she wants to, another slave refuses to allow it. And Isabel returns the favor later.
This is a hard book to read. We don't like to read the history of our mistakes and our cruelties, but this book is lyrical. Isabel knows the beauty in the world even if people are trying awfully hard to take it from her. It's an honest book. Not everything works out well and though there's a sequel, I'm guessing there won't be a tidy ending there either. But I'm betting on Isabel to find the triumphs she can and make some that she can't just find.
Read this one. Then you might want to read it again for the details you missed. It's chuck full of them, but used so deftly and subtly that I was racing through the book for plot and for Isabel that I wanted to go back and find those little treasures along the way.
This has been a terrific year for fiction. This is one of the one of the reasons why. |
|
|
| DEAD IS A STATE OF MIND |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|09:02 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
Marlene Perez and her Giordano sisters are at it again. There's spooky doings in Nightshade and Daisy and her two flower named sisters are in the thick of it. This time a teacher ends up dead and there seems to be more werewolves popping out and her sister is in love with a ghost. Daisy's own boyfriend is acting weird and might be cheating on her and there's a guy claiming to be a Gypsy fortune teller new in town. And Daisy has to sort through all this.
The second in the series and it's catnip for the mystery reader or the paranormal reader or just the reader. Fun, fast, and quirky, these books leave me smiling and wanting more.
Kick butt girls without a lot of gore but armed with wit and charm. |
|
|
| The Spectacular Now |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|08:43 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | ecstatic | ] |
Tim Tharp is a genius. There. I said it. Now, why aren't more people saying it? Why aren't they shouting it and dancing in the streets and giving him truckloads of awards? Beats me. KNIGHTS OF HILL COUNTY, his previous book was--okay--spectacular. It's a football book that's not really about football but about the people who play it. And it blew me away. His writing is simple and direct, like the characters that people his novel. That are hard scrabble and you root from them. You care for them a lot, even when you know that they are flawed. And THE SPECTACULAR NOW is even better. Sutter charms you. He charms everyone but himself. And that's his fatal flaw. And he has to drink it away. He can't connect except as a charming mingler. He's all surface because he's killed or is killing anything real about himself. He's funny. I laughed out loud at this book, but Sutter is the quintessential sad clown and he's doomed and you know it, but you can't let him go. He's a lost and bewildered child and I've never wanted to help someone more. But there's no self pity in this book. There's no pity at all. I've lived in Tharp's world as he's pictured it in his novels and life is too hard for pity. You help if you can, but you save yourself if you can't. Some places are sinkholes and Tharp's setting is a character unto itself and it's killing the characters as surely as the drink is killing Sutter. A death of hope.
I know this sounds depressing. And I guess the end is. Tharp has my undying admiration for his honesty. He honors his audience and does not insult their intelligence nor their courage to accept reality's grimmer aspects. But the whole of the book is not depressing. Sutter thinks all along that he has the world by the tail, so he's cocky and funny and witty. And don't expect him to be an illiterate hick. Tharp doesn't go there either. But the novel shows us by wryly amusing but sad degrees how Sutter unscrews the cap of the bottle and pours out his future and jams himself into the bottle and screws the cap tightly back on.
Repeat until necessary: Tim Tharp is a genius. |
|
|
| What feminism means to me? |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|08:11 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | curious | ] |
I wrote an article about boys and reading and it certainly stirred the pot. Some people seemed to hate it and me. That's all fine. I'm not arguing that point. I do have a few issues with the woman that called me a bonehead while admitting she didn't read the article. And then she used a line made famous by Truman Capote while not giving him credit, but . . .
The point here is that I advocated that far more males than females don't read. And that one part of that problem is that males don't see reading as a "manly" thing to do. And I advocated getting more role models--male role models for young and teen males to see and hear reading. Moms, librarians, teachers--just try to corral men to come read or be seen reading by your boys.
I'm not going to defend that stance here. What I found interesting is that many of the responses I received were that I was anti-feminist. That I was flying in the face of everything feminism stood for.
Okay, hold yer horses and stop the weddin. I come from an age where I blasted through the roof of my SAT's and ACT's and the counselor said "It's sad that with scores like these you aren't a boy. You could go to law school or med school. I could get you scholarships. But you could be a teacher." I know on either coast during these years women were already doing these things, but in a tiny little one high school town in Texas--teaching was pretty much the top of the line for professional women. Unless you had an oil rich dad to get you past some major hurdles.
I got myself to school, I worked most of my life at teaching, now at writing, and raised a child as a single mother until he was thirteen when I married for the second time. I still maintained my own identity--ask my husband. If someone told me I couldn't do something because I was a "woman"--I just told them to stand back and watch. But let's get something clear here.
I understand that equal is not synonymous with identical. I knew when my son needed male role models. I found them for him. I am not and will never BE a man. Boys need to see men do some things, they need to learn some male ways of thinking that jive with their own. It just makes things clearer. Yes, I taught him to fish. But after that--he liked the camaraderie of male friends to fish with.
Women do behave differently with a batch of women. Why do we expect men won't do the same with other men? And why is that wrong? Why can we not celebrate our differences?
I know some women want to fish and hunt and go to drag races and climb mountains. And I'm all for them doing that. And if men want to knit and wear make up and scrapbook, I'm happy for that too. Frankly there's not one of any of those things I want to do. I have tried to do each of them.
Feminism is the ability to choose. It's equality. It doesn't mean that men are undesirable or, worse, no longer necessary parts of our society. Our children need them for more than giving them life. The idea that feminism means women can and should do it all is just--well--ego. Can a woman raise a child without male influence? Absolutely. Should she? I think no matter the gender of the child--the experience will be poorer for it.
Do I think when they used to pay me less for teaching than they paid males that it was bull? You'd better believe it.
Do I think those are two different issues? !!!! Do I think they get confused for too often? !!!!! |
|
|
| Testimony by Anita Shreve |
[Nov. 21st, 2008|06:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
TESTIMONY by Anita Shreve is marketed for adults but it is primarily about high school students and IMHO a must read for young people. It concerns three high school boys, two basically good and one, not so much-- who have group sex with a not so innocent fourteen year old girl. The boys are seniors. The girl may be the instigator, but repeat after me--she is fourteen. There are all kinds of mitigating circumstances that bring these boys to this act--which is taped and adults behave badly as well. But there are some eye popping, mind boggling questions for discussion that this book brought up for me and should be brought up for high schoolers. First, boys are encouraged to date younger girls, but should they have sex with them they can go to prison. Why are they encouraged to play with the fire? Second, didn’t the media rape all the participants, yet they are not held responsible? Third, if a fourteen year old can be tried as an adult, why can this girl not be deemed an adult in this case? Why do the courts judge a person not capable of knowing right from wrong because of age when a victim, but not when the perpetrator?
Where do you start finding the perpetrator? The person who sold the liquor? Didn’t that start the whole thing? The boys were underage. Nothing would have happened without the drinking. The school that put a troubled boy into the mix because he was a basketball star? The society that encourages the upperclassmen to date underclassmen, even by giving dances so they can meet?
The book is honest and unflinching. As in Romeo and Juliet “All are punished.” But I got the feeling that because of the media and the mismanagement of just about all concerned that the ones most responsible are hurt the least.
Read this one. It’s important. |
|
|
| Book Reports |
[Nov. 7th, 2008|08:36 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | discontent | ] |
First, this is hard for me. I like to help students. Second, blogging is words and words can be read without the tone of voice behind them. Try to assume my tone is soft and seeking for understanding and not strident and complaining. But I want to talk about book reports.
I used to get a few scattered requests from readers that I could easily tell were not from an awed reader as professed in the e-mail, but from a teen that had not read my book and wanted me to do a book report that was due TOMORROW. I just waited a week and answered a few questions that I hoped would generate interest in the book and figured the problem was solved. When I could surmise that the reader had read the book and needed help in something he or she just didn't understand and wanted to glean insight--I answered right away. That's the teachable moment. You don't mess with the teachable moment.
But something has changed. I have begun receiving e-mails in droves and piles and heaps and they are not requests they are DEMANDS to answer these ten or twenty questions and get this back immediately. No please, no boo, no squat. And the questions are personal. Maybe some of you don't think they are personal--and I might choose to give this information in speeches or whatever--but I don't choose to give it because a stranger demands it.
I also have been getting the bulk book report syndrome. I get a flurry of twenty or more e-mails of the same ten -twenty questions. This has to be an assignment. This has happened several times. Oh--I have to be a class assignment. Contact the author and ask these questions. Now, however well intentioned--that's an invasion of my privacy and a huge sap of my time. Especially when said teacher didn't contact me first and ask if I was willing.
I have always said that my readers come first. I will always reply in 24 hours if a teen reader contacts me. But I'm going to be forced to change that. And it's all because of book reports.
And for anyone that wants to know--I don't care if you know I'm old--I'm really old, but to give out my birth date over the internet is an invitation to identity theft. That's not paranoia, that's just fact. Besides, it doesn't affect the understanding of the book. Neither does any of the other personal questions that are asked. And many of the answers to the innocuous questions can be found in the ABOUT ME section of my web site. It SO doesn't matter how I felt when I saw my first book on the shelves. I am not going to give you my address. I will not tell you the themes of my book. Now, if you are confused about one of the themes and ask a legitimate question--I will help you out. In a heartbeat.
But let's just get this straight--if you don't read my book--don't ask me to do your book report. If your teacher assigns you to contact me--you need to tell him/her that he/she needs to contact me first. I am a person and not a study guide.
And when did we get to a place where I had to say any of this at all? |
|
|
| Black Rabbit Summer |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|08:54 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | enthralled | ] |
Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks is fabulous. Seriously, his best ever. And I've loved a lot of his books. I've liked them all, but this one knocked me sideways. I'm totally jealous of Kevin's ability to communicate sense of place as if it's a character in the book. Broody, moody and with a sense of. . .grit. In this one, his ability to show a middle class neighborhood that exists and you step just one street over in the rough, dangerous neighborhood, from well kept garden plots to trash strewn streets and broken concrete--it reminded me so much of Chicago. And he uses that to great effect because he's making such a point in the novel. That where you land in life can be such an accident. That you can end up by accident of birth having steep hills to climb, broken, rough streets to navigate or possibilities that are easily tapped. THe book is rich with metaphor the most stunning being the black rabbit that speaks to the main character and to his friend. This book is a fast paced mystery on the surface, but the surface is a shining facade like light on a deep lake. The book has depths, it's about innocence and loss of that innocence and it's about deception and disappearances and ultimately, like any good book should be it's about truth.
Some people like their book all tied up at the end. I find books like that easily forgotten. They are finished and done. Kevin always leaves things, some things at least not quite so. . .knowable. Leaving the reader to ponder. THink. Discuss. Unless you're new here, you know that I'm surely going to like that a lot.
This one's a keeper. Go. Now. Read. Find out about that rabbit.
Kevin--this one's a beauty! |
|
|
| The Whole Palin Thing |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|08:39 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | distressed | ] |
I just have one thing to say about Palin. I think it's the only thing that needs saying. Since when has it come down to such a sad fact that a person who could possibly end up a heart beat away from the Presidency is considered by her own party as WINNING a debate as long as she doesn't vomit, freeze up, run off the stage, or fall down?
When did the bar get this low? |
|
|
| Living Dead Girl |
[Sep. 5th, 2008|10:24 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | excited | ] |
Ever hold your breath for one hundred and seventy pages? Read a book as fast as Michael Phelps can swim the fly? Had a book leave you gasping? Seriously. I am not overstating my case here. Short version of synops: Girl, ten, kidnapped, kept as sexual child toy for five years. Man then wants girl to find her replacement. Will she? She's spent five years being nothing but abused in every way possible, controlled, bullied, constantly afraid.
There are no easy answers in this book. And how I loved the ending. Honest and inevitable. All characters flawed. Yet, all have reasons behind their flaws. We understand how they got to be what and who they are. None of this is pretty. BUt the book is magnificent. Spare, lean, we know everything that happens but we are never forced to read graphic descriptions. While there's not a lick of "bad" language--I wouldn't recommend this for middle school, but I would recommend for any adult. For the YA's for who it is intended--it's perfection.
The language is spare but powerful. Evocative, searingly painful and unshakable.
This one stays on my shelves. |
|
|
| DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|11:34 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
Dead is the New Black is a totally fun new read by Marlene Perez. The school's most popular cheerleader (Nightshade High School) appears totally Goth including the "it" accessory, a small rolling coffin. And then things really get strange. Daisy has two sisters, Poppy and Rose. Daisy is a "normal" but her sisters and mother all have paranormal powers. And then there's a pesky werewolf and a coven and vampires that suck life force instead of blood and. . .well, how much fun can you have in one book?
I had a great time with this one. It skips along like a lilting tune with a hint of mystery that trails through out. Clever one liners sprinkled here and there. And the best part? It's the first book of a trilogy.
Now there's something interesting. I read another book, an adult read WHAT THE DEAD KNOW and it is about two girls that go missing and thirty years later one shows up claiming to be the youngest of the missing sisters. She knows things about the sisters she shouldn't know unless she was who she claims she is, but some of what she claims is inconsistent with known facts. Who is she? Now my interest was piqued because the girls were named Heather and Sunny. Both flowers. I wrote a book with a girl that returns claiming she is the dead Jasmine and her sister is Sunny (for Sunflower) and all the women in the family are named for flowers. Now we have three mysteries dealing with death and the paranormal the girls are all named for flowers. There has to be something psychological about this. All these females are strong in these three books and set against the big boogey man of all--Death. Do our fevered little author minds go straight to dichotomy,want the juxtaposition of the fragile beauty of the flower against the dark power of death? I know I had the idea of something that blooms bright then fades quickly but comes back, reviving and blooming again. Just wondering if the other authors were thinking along the same lines.
But I digress--Dead is the New Black. Get it. Read it. Have a great time. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
notjazz's journal