How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous
by Georgia Bragg and Kevin O’Malley

You may know a lot about the lives of some very famous people.  But did you ever think about how they might have died?  19 of the most influential people in history died horrible, gruesome deaths that might have been avoided with modern medicine, and Bragg recounts almost all the gory details.  She also includes other bits of related information at the end of each chapter, such as descriptions of medicinal practices of the times, various diseases, fun facts about the person, etc.

This is a fabulous collection.  They’re not really biographies… I guess you could call them “mortographies” because a little time is spent on the lives of these people and a lot more time is spent on how they expired.  Utterly disgusting details are sure to keep a reader’s attention.  I sat down expecting to read 1 or 2 of these before bed, and I was 3/4 of the way done with it in an hour.  Not for the squeamish; but if you like trivial information, you’ll love this book!

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

All My Friends Are Dead.

All My Friends Are Dead.
by Avery Monsen and Jory John

All of this dinosaur’s friends are dead.  All of the zombie’s friends are undead.  All the mix tape’s friends are obsolete.  All of the pirate’s friends have scurvy.  Everyone is just having a terrible time – and you can laugh at their expense!

This book is so hilariously macabre… it was definitely worth the 6 week ILL wait for it (although you can buy it online for $10).  I would definitely not put this in the hands of a child because of its utter hopelessness, but I would give it to almost all of my teen and adult friends.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

Blanket Bans

This past year, I had a discussion with a friend of mine about blanket bans on epilogues involving children of main characters.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was one of the reasons.  I propose another blanket ban: banning all books about 15 year-olds.  I think that’s what I didn’t like the first time I read (and the time I tried to re-read) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Being 15 just sucks, whether you’re in the wizarding world or the muggle world.  If you’re in the wizarding world, you have OWLs and career choices to think about already.  In the muggle world, it’s freshman year of high school (who ever really enjoyed freshman year?), faced with new cliques and unspoken social rules and you can’t drive yet.  In either world, you probably have acne and a whole rage of hormones roaring within you.

Jim Dale is making this particular experience with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a whole lot better.  As a performer, I’m more and more amazed at his talent as I learn more about it.  I can’t stand Harry’s whiny outbursts (remind me too much of what I went through in high school with other people), but I am instead able to concentrate on the new characters that Rowling introduces and the development of old ones.  They are fascinating people.  Although I must say, it’s very different this time around knowing who’s going to die in the upcoming books.  It’s kind of like when Harry looks at the pictures of the first Order of the Phoenix.

I’ve got a fair bit left to go; only on chapter 16.  But I enjoy Tonks and I love Luna.  I don’t remember much about the movie either (I’m sure there will be a subsequent post about that), but I remember thinking that both were exceptionally well-cast and brought the characters to life the way they should have been.  I also remember that with this book, I began to truly appreciate Neville Longbottom.  Back to the book now, and the formation of Dumbledore’s Army.

For those of you who didn’t get that the opening paragraph was a joke, I don’t support the banning of books for any reason.

Images found with the help of Google.

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska
by John Green

Miles Halter is a shy young man who collects people’s last words.  One phrase supposedly uttered by Francois Rabelais compels him to drastically change his life: the “Great Perhaps.”  In his junior year of high school, he decides to attend the same boarding school in Alabama that his father did.  Completely able to reinvent (or free to be) himself, Miles (now called “Pudge”) finds himself with a group of friends who live life with an intensity he never experienced in Florida.  Whether it’s anger, sadness, joy, passion, or grief, these friends show him how to live more “perhaps” than he ever could have if he stayed home.

I’ve only ever read one thing by John Green, and it was his short story that appeared in Geektastic.  I have a very good librarian/blogger friend who adores his writing.  This is his first novel.  And I’m not sure how I feel about it.  It certainly wasn’t bad.  I can definitely say that one hundred two days after was hands down, my favorite part.  I wish I could have been present for a prank like that.  Legendary.  But I didn’t cry at this book.  Looking at posts on Mr. Green’s website, people were in tears at this book.  I cry at nearly everything; but I didn’t cry while reading this book.  I don’t know if it was the characters or the situations or what, but my heart strings just weren’t tugged.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak

I don’t know what you’ve heard about this book.  Before I picked it up, I had heard that 1) it was about World War II, and 2) it was narrated by Death.  This is true on both counts.  What I hadn’t heard was how beautiful the book was.  That word doesn’t even do it justice.  I shall try (and most likely fail) to explain.

Death is recounting a story that he watched part of, and then read most of in a young German girl’s memoir.  This girl is Liesel Meminger.  Just before she turns 10 in 1939, she is placed into foster care for reasons she doesn’t understand.  She stole her first book at her six year-old brother’s funeral.  She must build a new life in a new family, a new community, and in a new Germany.  Her new Mama swears and does laundry.  Her new Papa is gentle and plays the accordion.  He teaches Liesel how to read.  The neighbor boy becomes her best friend and falls in love with her from the moment she first beats him in soccer.  Her Papa keeps a promise, and Liesel’s family hides a Jew in their basement.  Words and books captivate Liesel.  Liesel’s story captivates Death.  World War II happens.

There is so much to say about this book.  But in my head, it only comes down to one word: beautiful.  And even that doesn’t seem to do it justice.  It may seem sick that I would think a book that covers this topic is something lovely, but give it a try before you judge me.  First of all, the language is heart-wrenchingly beautiful.  I’ve never been so glad to cry such sad tears.  The colors…  And the characters!  Even Death becomes a character.  And he is not to be feared… it’s not that you feel bad for him, but it makes you wonder.  He asks lots of good questions.  This book is sad.  How can it not be?  There are small glimmers of hope in humanity, but let’s face it–this story takes place during one of the blackest moments in human history.  But this is the kind of book that makes you want to change yourself (or at least more aware of yourself) so that, God willing, should you ever be put up against a tyrant, you wouldn’t just do as you’re told.

There is only one minor, technical thing I would have asked Mr. Zusak to do differently; but that will be between he and I, if we ever converse and if he were to give a lick about my opinion

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

The Naming of Tishkin Silk

The Naming of Tishkin Silk
by Glenda Millard and Patrice Barton

This is Griffin Silk’s first year at school.  He and his four sisters had been taught at home until last year when his mom and the baby went away.  His mom did such a good job teaching him, that he was ahead of most of the kids in his class, so he got made fun of a lot.  School was miserable until he met Layla.  Griffin knew Layla was special when he saw her wearing a crown of daisies like he and his sisters made.  Griffin and Layla become fast friends, and Layla spends a lot of time at the Land of Silk, the Silks’ home where everything has a name and where Nell, Griffin’s Fairy Grandmother lets the girls play dress up in all of her old clothes and makes them snacks.  But even with a wonderful family and new friend, Griffin is still very sad.  He thinks about his mom and his little baby sister who aren’t at home.  The baby didn’t even get to be named properly.  He calls her Tishkin, the sound the leaves make in the wind.  With the help of Layla, Griffin helps all of the Silks find a new meaning of family.

Much like Evidence of Angels, I noticed this book every time I passed it on the shelves for months, and I finally picked it up.  I should know better.  I should grab a book when it grabs me.  I liked the sound of the name “Tishkin Silk.”  It sounded wistful and whimsical.  Those are two good words to describe this book.  A unique family in Australia with beautiful traditions and wonderful imaginations are coping with some serious loss.  Nell and Griffin’s father are wonderful characters who are clearly doing their best to help the family stay true to who they are.  Griffin is a very deep character for a child, yet who still doesn’t understand all of the emotions going through him.  Layla reminds me a lot of Anibelly from Lenore Look’s Alvin Ho series.  This book was absolutely beautiful.  The story was magical and the pencil illustrations provided by Barton added the perfect touch.  I laughed.  I cried.  It moved me.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War
by Robert Cormier

Jerry Renault is a freshman at an all-boys Catholic school, and his mother recently passed away from cancer.  He and his father are practically strangers now.  That’s why his father doesn’t know about the school he’s sent his son to.  This school is very corruptly run.  With the headmaster ill, the crazy and sadistic Brother Leon is in officially in charge.  However, all the students and most of the teachers know that the Vigil, a crafty and powerful gang, unofficially run the school.  Archie’s job is to give assignments, which gives him the most power in the Vigil, even without being president.  Everyone lives in fear of the assignments they might get.  However, when the Vigils give an assignment to little Jerry Renault, a pathetic weakling who barely made the football team, things get outrageously out of control.  Brother Leon’s crusade is the annual chocolate sale – and he has over-committed the school to sell way more product than ever before.  He says it’s voluntary to take the chocolates… so Jerry’s assignment is to refuse them for the first 10 days and then take them like everybody else.  But something happens to Jerry in those two weeks of school.  He’s not going to let this school turn him into a drone like it has done to everyone else.  He continues to refuse the chocolates, in doing so defying both Brother Leon and the Vigils.  No one is going to let some punk freshman get away with that.

The Chocolate War is one of the most frequently banned books of all times.  With that reputation, I was expecting something as grotesque as A Clockwork Orange (by far, the most horrific book I’ve ever read).  Now don’t get me wrong: this book is not sunshine and daisies at any point; however, its disturbing depictions of this particular school address some terrible truths that many teens deal with.  While I’ve never been utterly alienated like Jerry Renault, I do know to some degree what it’s like to just want to be yourself and the self-appointed kids who seem to run the school don’t like that.  Jerry describes it best when he talks about “a familiar voice – the voice of all the bullies in the world.”  This kind of thing happened 35 years ago when this book was written, 15 years ago when I was in elementary school for goodness’ sake, and it happens now.  I think that this book is banned primarily because it confronts adults with the terrible things that their kids might go through (albeit possibly exaggerated in this particular novel) and they don’t want to know about it or they don’t want their kids to know that these things go on in the world.  I think that is absurd.  If kids don’t know that there are things wrong with this world, how are they ever going to develop a heart of compassion and a yearning drive to change them?  Yes, dare to disturb the universe!

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Wintergirls

Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia is a senior in high school, and her former best friend, Cassie, has been found dead in a motel.  On her last night on earth, Cassie called Lia 33 times, and Lia never picked up.  Now Lia is constantly haunted by Cassie’s ghost; she sees her everywhere.  Lia is a wintergirl – somewhere between the living and the dead.  Wintergirls are strong, small, beautiful.  They do not need food; they are in control.  Lia is anorexic, Cassie was bulimic, and both swore that they were going to be the skinniest girls in school.  It got the better of Cassie; Lia has been to rehab twice and thinks she knows all the right answers and tricks to hide her compulsive diet/exercise/cutting behaviors.  Lia’s life is spinning out of control with her divorced parents, her step-mom, and she has no idea who she is or what she wants.  Everything she does is shift the pain from emotional to physical… but when it big-time hurts the one person she really knows she loves (her nine year-old step-sister, Emma), something needs to happen so she doesn’t end up in the same place Cassie did.

I read Anderson’s Speak when I was in middle school and I thought that she was brilliant and totally got me and my world and what I was going through.  Reading Wintergirls, I don’t think she’s any less brilliant, but I am SO glad that I don’t ever have to be in high school again and go through any of that junk.  Written in diary format, Anderson amazingly captures the feelings of a compulsive, depressed teenager in angsty poetic stream-of-conscious sentences.  You are not comfortable reading this book.  You are as uncomfortable reading it as Lia is in her own skin.  It scares you and makes you wonder if you know anybody who is doing this, and how badly you want them to stop.  And it makes you appreciate the life you have and the choices you make you didn’t even know you could.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com