Tag Archives: Reading

Caught in before and after time

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On the plane ride home I read The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow. It’s one of those books you give each character a specific picture in your head without realizing it. The story is centered around Rachel, a ten year old girl who moves to Portland, Oregon to live with her grandmother after her family is involved in an accident. Durrow weaves Rachel’s version of events with other view points to create a layered, interesting window into Rachel’s world and the event that altered her life forever. Her story is sad, but compelling. You want to follow her through to the end.

Here is a taste:

“When Aunt Loretta says ‘Mama,” I think of saying ‘Mor’ and how I don’t get to say it anymore. I am caught in before and after time. Last-time things and firsts. Last-time things make me sad like the last time I called for Mor and used Danish sounds. I feel my middle fill up with sounds that no one else understands. Then they reach my throat. What if these sounds get stuck in me?

I laugh harder, but the real laugh feels trapped inside too.”

I think I know many girls who have been caught in before and after time.

Currently: Wishing you a Happy New Year and staying warm by cuddling up in a pink fleece blanket

Banned Books Week

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It’s banned book week! I feel kind of silly that I didn’t know about this before. This year I’m celebrating the freedom to read by buying a banned book I’ve never read before, rereading passages from favorite banned books, and participating in the virtual read out tomorrow! The virtual read out is an event hosted by the American Library Association where you upload a video of yourself to YouTube reading a passage from a banned book, describing eyewitness accounts of local challenges with banned books, or, simply, a video focused on banned books in someway (they have examples on their website). You can find out all about it here. In Salt Lake the King’s English is participating and I plan to head over and join in their activities.

As I was looking into this week’s events I stumbled across the ALA’s summary of the reasons behind these book bans and challenges. As I was reading this I realized that I often take books for granted. These books aren’t still around “just because.” People have fought for them. They’ve been fired from jobs and put on trial for keeping some of these books in circulation. Books that I love. How can I be anything but grateful? If you have the time I suggest checking it out (here).

I’ll also thought it would be interesting to include the American Library Association’s list of top banned and challenged classic novels in this post. These are all novels on the Radcliffe Top 100 Novels of the 20th century (hence the numbering) that have bans or challenges on record with the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Just for kicks I’m starring the ones I’ve read. Are any of these on your favorite book list? There is also a list of recent challenged books organized by years available on the ALA free download page for 2004-2005,2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011. These list include some of the classics, as well as more recent titles such as: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen  Chbosky, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
  • The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald*
  • The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger*
  • The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck*
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee*
  • The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  • Ulysses, by James Joyce
  • Beloved, by Toni Morrison*
  • The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding*
  • 1984, by George Orwell
  • Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
  • Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck*
  • Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
  • Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley*
  • Animal Farm, by George Orwell*
  • The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
  • As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner*
  • A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston*
  • Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison*
  • Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
  • Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
  • Native Son, by Richard Wright
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey*
  • Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
  • Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
  • All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren*
  • The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
  • Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
  • A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess*
  • The Awakening, by Kate Chopin*
  • In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
  • The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
  • Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
  • Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
  • Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
  • Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
  • Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
  • Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
  • The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
  • Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
  • An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
  • Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
Happy reading everyone!
Currently: ready for fall. I kicked off the Halloween season with a viewing of Psycho!

Reading Makes Life Better

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It’s a fact. Reading makes life better. The other day I gave in and impulse bought two books and read them in two days. Which is honestly how I wish it could be all the time.

First up was Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. Sara’s a local young adult author who I had the pleasure of listening to before I actually ever got a hand on one of her books. She was a national book award finalist for her book Story of a Girl.

Sweethearts

Here are the basics (sans spoilers of course): On her birthday a girl gets a note from her best friend, a boy who supposedly died years ago when they were in grade school. I won’t tell you more, but essentially she has to deal with this boy, Cameron, reentering her life and all the complications that brings with it. What I liked most about this book was how much I identified with the main character, Jennifer. She is the kind of character that I connected so well with that when I took a break mid-book crisis I carried her with me (I was in quite a mood actually, haha). On a side note, it was a little bizarre to read a book that was set so exactly where I live. I know Salt Lake so much better now I knew practically every place mentioned.

You can check out Sara Zarr’s website sarazarr.com You can also follow her on twitter @sarazarr.

Next I finally picked up Mazerunner by James Dashner. He’s also a local young adult author who I’ve heard loads about. In fact I heard him address a writer’s conference one time and I was crazy impressed by him. He is the type of author that always writes and never gets up. The kind I want to be.

Maze Runner (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 1)

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I was I really couldn’t stop thinking about it. Dashner creates a world that is unique and, honestly, a bit strange, but still completely relatable. I won’t get into the specifics, but the story centers around a boy, Thomas, who wakes up and finds himself in a strange box. He can’t remember anything except his own name and finds himself attempting to adjust to a strange and dangerous world (think distopyian setting). Things quickly change and progress and Thomas has to find out if he’s up to the challenge.  This book went by way too quickly. Good thing this is the first installment in a trilogy, and it’s been optioned for a movie. Although it does kind of bend my brain to think about how they are going to portray these things on the big screen.

You can see James Dashner’s website at jamesdashner.com and follow him on twitter @jamesdashner.

Oh yeah I’ve done a few other things too. I made homemade fruit snacks, rewatched Overboard (that movie always makes me smile, even if the real world version would be a series of terrible crimes), witnessed a live version of make way for ducklings, went on a little hike/campfire adventure up Millcreek canyon, and started a new job. But not all on the same day, thank goodness.

I made fruit snacks! Or fruit snack-like cubes anyway. They tasted pretty good (ignore the austerity of this picture, haha) and were actually quite easy. However, I don’t think they’ll replace those addictive little snack packs I’ve come to love. The best thing about this cooking adventure was my search for silicone ice cube tray/ jello molds led me to my new favorite store, Spoons n’ Spice.Seriously, this place is cooking heaven.

I followed these cuties all around Liberty Park. There were a few of us actually. The mom kept getting up on the curb and not understanding that her babies couldn’t jump that high.

We went on a little hike at church fork in millcreek canyon. Then we made “hobo dinners.” It turns out none of us are very good at outdoor cooking, but we still had a fun time. We couldn’t get the fire started on our own, so we ended up taking over someone else’s fire after they left to get ours started.

Currently: Happy that life brought me sushi today. Everything at Ginza was amazing. Oh, and eating dinner off paper Christmas plates, because some days I just can’t stand to wash another dish.