Read. Write. Discuss

May 23, 2013

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a WallflowerAnd while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his year yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can’t stay on the sidelines forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

2 coffees

Fair warning: this review contains lots of curses.

Overall

I know it’s not really fair to compare a book to its film adaptation, so I’ll try not to do that. But I should probably state for the record that I liked The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie, despite Chbosky’s weird use of smash cuts, awkward non-sequiters, and shenanigan-worthy lines like, “I wish I’d studied more during freshman year.” I snorted at that last one. The way I remember it, ninth grade was basically state-run babysitting.

But the movie made me feel good. It was uplifting and well cast. I kind of expected that the book would give me the same sense of enjoyment, or move me on the same level. I was greatly disappointed.

Writing

I found The Perks of Being a Wallflower extremely difficult to sympathize with because of the style in which it’s written. The entire novel is in epistolary format, consisting of letters between Charlie and an anonymous recipient whom he calls Dear Friend. Because of the format, the reader doesn’t get to meet the other characters firsthand and make up his or her own mind about them. We only know what Charlie tells us, and their actions and words are framed according to his experiences, filtered according to his perceptions, etc.

I was also beyond annoyed at Chbosky’s use of quotation marks around nouns. Take this example:

Patrick kept making jokes that I would get an “erection.”

Erection is not slang, a colloquialism, or a euphemism. It’s the actual word to describe a man’s state of arousal. So why the fuck is it in quotation marks? There are dozens of instances of this, and only a handful can be justified as slang/euphemisms/rare words.

Charlie

Normally I would call this tab “characterization,” but since the entire story is framed through Charlie’s impressions and opinions, I don’t think that’s the best word for it. Charlie is the epistolary narrator, and everyone else in this story is only what he sees or reports.

Charlie and I didn’t get along. Normally I sympathize with the socially awkward, but Charlie was just so lame. And his tear ducts might as well be watering cans. This kid cries on practically every page. Part of that is because he’s prone to panic attacks, which is a mental health issue so I won’t pick on it, but the other half of the time he’s weeping because he’s just so damn sensitive about everything. I kept waiting for the part where he gets his first period.

Final Thoughts

This might be the only instance, ever, where I recommend the movie but not the book on which it was based. I think the story just works better as a movie than it does as a series of letters.

 

May 19, 2013

Sunday Digest 19/05/2013

Bookish News

I haven’t been following the world of bookish news as closely as I should this past week. A lot of my time has been devoted to writing and to the next issue of the Ottawa Arts Review. I’m also in the process of revamping OAR’s website. It’s a work in progress, but we’ll get there.

Speaking of OAR, we’re still accepting submissions. Hint hint.

Purchased


I received some money as a birthday gift, so of course I blew some of it on books. I picked up Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell because I’ve heard good things about it.

I also snagged a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I really enjoyed the film adaptation of the latter, but so far I’m struggling with the book. Blame it on only ever encountering epistolary novels in my dry English Lit classes.

On the Blog

I started a new feature this week: For My Children, in which I discuss the books I’m preserving for my hypothetical children. Feel free to stop by and discuss, or to link up your related posts.

So far, the switch to MailChimp from Jetpack has been going great. I can no longer be blissfully unaware of how many people don’t open my emails, but that’s a small price to pay for reliable service and the preservation of shortcodes, right?

May 18, 2013

For My Children (1)

For My Children I’ve decided to start a new feature on Read. Write. Discuss. I recently went out of my way to acquire a hardcover first edition of a book that I haven’t even finished reading yet because I knew it was something I would want to hold on to and eventually pass down to my children and grandchildren. It was a beautiful book, with a gorgeous cover and ink-edged pages. The text was beautifully typeset, and the book had a good weight in my hands.

The thought of buying it not just for myself, but for a future generation of people who aren’t even born yet, got me thinking. This isn’t the first time I’ve purchased or deliberately preserved a book for my hypothetical children. I’ve been doing it for years.

It doesn’t take a psych degree to trace the behaviour back to my mother’s influence. She read to me constantly when I was little — every day there would be a foot-high stack of Little Critter and Bernstein Bears books that we’d gone through. Most of those books are now in plastic storage bins in her basement, waiting for the advent of grandbabies so she can pull them out again.

My mother handed down very few of her childhood books to me. She moved around a lot as a kid, and artifacts of her early years are scarce. But as adults, we constantly pass books back and forth. We share a deep desire to empathize with the way certain books affect each other.

That’s why I’m starting the For My Children feature. I want to share with many people the way in which these books-worth-preserving affected me, and how I hope they’ll affect future generations.

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The Book Thief

Acquisition

It seems like a good idea to begin this feature with another book that I bought for preservation before I’d even finished reading. In January 2012 I borrowed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak from the library. I’d seen a glowing review on Goodreads, and since I was in a slump of crummy books, I thought I’d give it a try.

By the time I got to the end of the second page, I was deeply, hopelessly in love with this book. I went out and bought a copy the very next day, but continued to read the library copy because it was already beat up. I didn’t have to worry about scuffing it, bending it, etc. Neurotic, I know. Since then I’ve read the copy I bought — very carefully — at times when I wanted to re-experience certain scenes.

Experience

The Book Thief was unlike anything I had ever read. The prose is nothing short of poetic, and the perspective of the narrator is pure genius. By telling the story of Leisel Meminger and her family from the perspective of Death, Zusak transcends the limitations of time, space, and mortality. While this is very much a story about one family, it is also a story about World War II. Death, omnipresent and immortal, has a very interesting view on life and humanity. The Book Thief moved me like no other WWII book ever did before.

Passing it On

The Book Thief is classified as a YA book and the protagonists are tweens, but I won’t pass The Book Thief on to my children until they’re at least in their mid- to late-teens. It takes a certain degree of emotional maturity to appreciate the story. Readers also have to be comfortable with their own mortality, to a certain extent, to read a story through Death’s eyes. When I was thirteen, I was barely at peace with this radical new thought that everyone I knew, including me, would someday cease to exist. The Book Thief would have freaked me out then. Five years later, I could have handled it. I could have relaxed enough to slip into the prose and become consumed in the story, as I hope my kids will someday.

In researching The Book ThiefI found this interview with the author. The inspiration for the book came from stories passed down by his parents. It’s a nice thought, that stories worth sharing between generations thousands of miles away can inspire others to preserve stories for future generations.

What about your children?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic — what books you’re preserving, what you hope your kids will get out of them. If you’d like to participate in the feature, please link up.



May 18, 2013

Accelerated by Bronwen Hruska

Accelerated Bronwen HruskaEvery afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School. Everything at Bradley is accelerated, 3rd graders read at the 6th grade level, they have labs and facilities to rival most universities, and the chess champions are the bullies.

A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who-lunch that congregate on the steps every afternoon. But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy. Or is he?

When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn’t the caviar that was served at last week’s PTA meeting. Toby’s “issues” in school seem, to Sean, to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy.

But maybe Sean just isn’t seeing things clearly, which has been harder and harder to do since Toby’s new teacher, Jess, started at Bradley. And the school has Toby’s best interests at heart, right? But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold? When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined.
Buy This Book from Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

3 coffees

Overall

Accelerated is a very timely book. ADD and ADHD diagnoses are higher than ever, the average American child’s education is a crap shoot, and there seems to be a pill for everything. Accelerated focuses on one family and their struggle with a few difficult questions: How do you make sure your child gets the best chance they can to succeed in this crazy, competitive, over-medicated world?

I’m not really sure how to classify this book. It’s mostly a family drama, but at times it seems like it’s trying to be a thriller. Let’s go with family drama, because as a thriller it would be pretty tame.

Plot

When Accelerated began, I thought it was going to be a family drama. The protagonist, Sean, is trying to keep it together for his eight-year-old son, Toby, in the wake of his wife’s abandonment. The tension between Sean and his ex, Ellie, is a big component of the plot, but not a constant. The main focus of the story is Sean’s struggle with Toby’s school and the question of whether to medicate Toby for inattentive ADD. Accelerated does a good job of spotlighting the questions faced by many parents today. Does my kid really have ADD? Will the meds help or harm? What if they help and I screw up his life by foregoing them? It also raises questions about who makes mental health diagnoses, and how such diagnoses are made. There’s some flawed methodology here, of course. There always is. Science is inexact, frightening as that is.

There were aspects of the plot that I found farfetched and difficult to believe. Serious, life-threatening reactions to ADD meds are very, very rare, but two kids from Toby’s school have them within a two-month period. It was extremely convenient and made it impossible to suspend disbelief.

Characters

Initially I liked Sean, the protagonist. He was very much an average father, trying to juggle a kid and a job while his wife was off on a bender. His insecurities and desires made him real, but in the last chapters of the book I found him very difficult to like. Basically, he acts like a brash teenager and does something incredibly risky. I won’t spoil it, but it’s something that would rightfully screw up anybody’s life. Conveniently, he gets away with it and it all works out in the end (of course). The happy note on which Hruska leaves Sean felt forced.

I do, however, have to commend Hruska for the way she wrote Toby. He actually reads like an eight-year-old kid. So many fictional children end up sounding way younger or older than they’re supposed to be. It’s hard to get kids spot-on, and even harder to avoid the temptation to use them as comic relief or emotional bait.

There was instalove in Accelerated, but Hruska follows it up with an actual relationship, so it didn’t leave a totally horrible taste in my mouth. Maybe it’s better that it was instalove; the romantic aspects of the story didn’t distract from the central plot.

May 17, 2013

Feature & Follow Friday

FF_2013Button-300x300 It’s been a while since I joined in the Feature & Follow Fridays, but I’m trying to get back into it. I’ve discovered some great blogs this way in the past, and hope to find more this summer. Never mind that it’s barely summer here in Canada — now is a good time to start.

Q: School is out! What is your favorite Summer Reading book??

I always tackled long books during my summers off (when I actually got summers off — if you still get those, don’t rush to grow up). I liked having the free time to completely throw myself into a long, epic read. Old favorites include The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer-Bradley — I read this one at my grandparents’ cottage, and my Nan wondered why I wasn’t bouncing off the walls like her other grandkids. Uh, because I was absorbed in an awesome book…

This summer I’m looking forward to reading Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, and She Rises by Kate Worsley (tour date: June 18th).

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May 14, 2013

From Jetpack to MailChimp

Blog Button Read Write DiscussSome of you might have seen a funny looking email in your inbox this morning. That’s because I’ve switched up my review format, and Jetpack doesn’t enable shortcodes. In light of this, I’ve switched the Read. Write. Discuss. mailing list over to MailChimp. Their RSS-driven campaign tools will ensure that posts are actually readable by email for those of you who subscribe.

What do you have to do? Absolutely nothing. Your subscription information has already been migrated to MailChimp. They will allow you to control how often you receive emails via confirmation link.

Thanks for sticking with me during this transition. I’m sorry for any confusion caused by this morning’s shortcode-laden email.

Cheers!

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Other ways to follow via email:

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May 14, 2013

The Waiting Tree by Lindsay Moynihan

The Waiting TreeEighteen-year-old Simon Peters wants to stand up for the truth about who he is. His love for Stephen is unwavering, but does he have the courage to defend it when his entire church community, including his eldest brother has ostracized him? Trapped in a cashier’s job he hates, struggling to maintain peace with his brothers after their parents have died, and determined to look after his mute brother, Simon puts everyone else’s needs before his own. It takes a courageous act of self-sacrifice on Jude’s part to change both of their lives forever. Jude, who knew that when the fig tree in their yard began to bloom, it was his time to finally be heard and to set Simon free.

3 coffees

Overall
I found The Waiting Tree by Lindsay Moynihan to be a touching read about a troubled family in small-town Louisiana. The protagonist and narrator, Simon, is facing the fallout of being forced out of the closet, and at the same time his entire family is recovering from tragedy. The four brothers must figure out how to pick up the pieces after their parents’ sudden demise, and The Waiting Tree is largely about the struggles they face, and the bitter unfairness of life.
Plot
The Waiting Tree is largely a symbolic journey that Simon must travel within himself. That particular premise may bore readers who crave more action, because Simon accomplishes very little on the outside. This is a story about a young man, beaten down by society and circumstance, deciding to take charge of his life and not sacrifice everything for other people. Simon is pretty passive until he comes to that decision — until he’s forced to make it, really — but when he finally does come into his own, it’s a very cathartic moment.
Writing
I think this book could have benefitted from a little more editing. There were countless descriptions of mealtimes that weren’t really necessary, and at times Moynihan narrates the details of daily life that add nothing to the setting or plot. Overall I think The Waiting Tree could have been more polished; more tightly written.
Characters
I absolutely loved Jude, Simon’s gentle, mute twin brother. Jude has an intellectual disability that prevents him from being independent of his brothers, but he’s very sensitive and has his finger on the pulse of family life.

But as much as I love Jude, I didn’t really care for the other brothers. Paul, the eldest, doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. The reader is pretty much encouraged to hate him, which I think is a little unfair. The villain should always have a human side, in my opinion. The second eldest, Luke, is basically a placeholder character. He’s a doormat, and his role in The Waiting Tree is to take care of someone else whenever Simon isn’t around to do it.

I expected more range from the characters, especially in a book about such serious, gritty subjects.

Similar to...
If you enjoyed these other books, The Waiting Tree might be for you.

May 12, 2013

Sunday Digest 12/05/13

Bookish News

Last week I made a personal resolution to comment on more blogs, and I actually followed through. I stumbled across some lovely blog designs that I never knew were out there because I mainly view posts in feed-reader apps that strip styling. Makes me wish I knew more about HTML and CSS.

And now for three seconds of shameless self-promotion: my book is on sale for 99¢ for the month of May, across all platforms. In the past promos like these have been limited to Kindle (sorry), but this one is available for Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and other epub ereaders as well.

Purchased

I preordered a copy of Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson, sequel to the carnie-punk Wicked as They ComeI greatly enjoyed Dawson’s first book, and can’t wait to read Casper’s story.

Wicked as the Wants by Delilah S. DawsonWhen Blud princess Ahnastasia wakes up, drained and starving in a suitcase, she’s not sure which calls to her more: the sound of music or the scent of blood. The source of both sensations is a handsome and mysterious man named Casper Sterling. Once the most celebrated musician in London, Sangland, he’s fallen on hard times. Now, much to Ahna’s frustration, the debauched and reckless human is her only ticket back home to the snow-rimmed and magical land of Freesia.

Together with Casper’s prickly charge, a scrappy orphan named Keen, they seek passage to Ahna’s homeland, where a power-hungry sorceress named Ravenna holds the royal family in thrall. Traveling from the back alleys of London to the sparkling minarets of Muscovy, Ahna discovers that Freesia holds new perils and dangerous foes. Back in her country, she is forced to choose between the heart she never knew she had and the land that she was born to rule. But with Casper’s help, Ahna may find a way to have it all….

May 9, 2013

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Ask the PassengersAstrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother’s pushiness and her father’s lack of interest tell her they’re the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn’t know the passengers inside, but they’re the only people who won’t judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she’s falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can’t share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don’t even know she’s there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers’ lives–and her own–for the better.

Buy This Book from Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

5 coffees

I came across Ask the Passengersby A.S. Byatt on Owl Tell You About It, and immediately requested it from my library because it looked like just the sort of book I love. Ask the Passengers is the story of high school senior Astrid Jones’s questioning and coming out in small-town Pennsylvania.

Ask the Passengers is narrated in first person from Astrid’s perspective, and the reader has a front-row seat to all her confusion, joy, anger, hurt, and burgeoning sense of self-confidence. Astrid is a lovely narrator because she doesn’t do drama. Where other teenage protagonists might kick up a fuss, Astrid keeps her head down and gets through her issues with dignity. In a genre full of drama queens, I admired her patience and perseverance. She has more than I would in the same situation.

The story is very much about the Jones family as a whole and how they function, how they react to Astrid coming out, etc. They’re all very believable people. Astrid’s mother, Claire, is a complete witch for most of the story, but even in her most unattractive moments it’s easy to see that her bitterness and frustration are caused by her deep unhappiness, which she takes out on other people. She’s not a villain for the sake of being a villain; she’s simply human. Astrid’s dad, Gerry, is present but spaced for most of the novel. He has his own ways of dealing with his dissatisfaction with life — ways that are mostly, ahem, medicinal.

Astrid’s sister Ellis is an interesting figure, because like a lot of fictional siblings, the sisters are often compared to each other. Astrid is the outsider, Ellis is popular. Claire is close to Ellis, but has nothing positive to say to Astrid. Astrid is academic, Ellis is athletic, etc. etc. etc. Their sibling rivalry is both standard and complicated, because their parents and friends tend to pull them in different directions, increasing the tension. There were times when I was disappointed in one of the sisters, but eventually they manage to pull it together.

Ask the Passengers also has an interesting dimension that takes place outside of the main storyline. Astrid sends her love to commuter jets that she sees flying over her town, usually with a particular thought in mind. King affords the reader glimpses of what’s going on in those planes, and how the receipt of anonymous love affects the passengers on board. It was a nice way to pull back from the main story, to show that love really is a uniting force, and to keep all the local drama from becoming too myopic.

I love the honesty of Astrid’s voice, the joy and tragedy that she goes through as she questions her sexuality and eventually comes out. It’s one of the most touching books about LGBT youth I’ve ever read, and I can’t give it a high enough recommendation.

You may also enjoy…

May 7, 2013

The Honest Toddler by Bunmi Laditan

Honest ToddlerBracingly candid, sweetly indignant, and writing with an unchecked sense of entitlement, the Internet’s wildly popular Honest Toddler delivers a guide to the parenting techniques he deems acceptable (keep the cake coming and the apple juice undiluted).

The toddler stage can be a rude awakening for parents, whose sweet infants morph, seemingly overnight, into tyrants ready to turn simple errands into hellish and humiliating experiences. Trying to convince your defiant darling to do something as simple as put on her shoes can feel like going to war. It’s not all blood, sweat, and tears, though. Toddlers can be charming little creatures, with their unfettered enthusiasm, wide grins, and ready hugs. In fact, what makes toddlers so fascinating is their unique blend of cute and demonic behavior. A toddler will take your hand and say “I love you,” then slap you in the face.

Now, The Honest Toddler provides an indispensable guide to parenting that places the toddler’s happiness front and center. Who better to instruct parents on the needs of toddlers than a toddler himself?

Buy This Book from Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

3 coffees

I requested The Honest Toddler by Bunmi Laditan from NetGalley because I’m a fan of The Honest Toddler blog and Twitter feed. I thought THT was an apt form of social comedy, and was looking forward to the book.

After reading the book, I think THT was better as a blog and Twitter feed, because in short bursts this stuff is great. Just like the blog and Twitter, The Honest Toddler is told from the first-person perspective of a righteously self-entitled, badass toddler. In the book, the toddler pontificates on all the things parents are doing wrong (expecting kids to behave in restaurants, setting bedtimes, etc.) and helpfully suggests the things they can do to improve their performance (keep gummy bears on hand at all times, praise your child as a god, etc.).

I think The Honest Toddler is best read in short sittings. If you try to read it at a stretch, the voice of the toddler will start to sound screechy in your head. Don’t get me wrong — the writing is funny and you’ll laugh out loud, but the whole book is basically the same joke. “I’m a little tyrant who thinks the world revolves around me, and you should too! LOLZ!” That’s why I gave this book 3 stars — I was expecting more diversity and originality. I wanted the concept of the Honest Toddler to expand beyond the limits of Twitter and Tumblr. It didn’t really do that, though it is entertaining in its own way.

I suppose it would make a great gift book — not something to take seriously, but good for a chuckle when you’ve got five minutes to kill.

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