For book suggestions, check out the BAM blog.
Showing posts with label BAM Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BAM Challenge. Show all posts
Monday, April 14, 2008
BAM Challenge-- The Missing Month
I missed the BAM Challenge in March! The theme was "craft", which is a theme near and dear to my heart. I love to sew and embroider, and dabble in some other crafty pursuits. Since I didn't get a book read, I will share some of my favorite craft blogs.
Posie Gets Cozy
All Buttoned Up
Wise Craft
The picture above is of the yo-yo quilt that I am making.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Heart-Shaped Box O' Horrors
I don't normally read scary books. I've read just enough to be able to feel I've done my official Readers' Advisory duty-- lots of Anne Rice, a smattering of Steven King, a few zombie books, a little Poppy Z. Brite....hold on. I have apparently read quite a few scary books, but my mind has enacted some selective amnesia to shield me from my choices. Scary books give me nightmares, and keep me up at night, imagining every bump and thump to be a bloody-toothed madman come to murder me in my sleep. Somehow I don't think my cats are going to come to my rescue, either.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill scared the ever-lovin' be-jeebers out of me. I picked it up one evening, and actually put it down again because it seemed just too disturbing. But then I goaded myself on, with a whole "You can't read multiple books every month for the BAM Challenge, you indecisive weenie" line of logic. I started Heart-Shaped Box during the late afternoon on a Monday (because daylight keeps you safe, you know)and finished at 2 AM the same night. It seemed to make sense-- once you break the seal, you have to read the whole book straight through and then you will magically be protected from all spooky recriminations and nightmares that might ensue. No? I also have a signed pact with the monsters under my bed that if I keep my toes under the blanket, they will leave me be. No? Nobody else does this? Ah, well.
Joe Hill is determined to scare you stiff from the beginning. No slow build here-- Hill leaps right into the terrifying action within the first few chapters. Jude Coyne, a middle-aged rock star with a taste for macabre objects, buys a dead man's suit online. This suit is supposed to come with its own ghost-- the seller's step-father. Jude soon finds out that the item description was absolutely correct, but the ghost is only the tip of the horrifying iceberg. I won't say anymore about the plot, but I was pleased to discover that the first part of the book was scarier than the second half. My frayed nerves sang hallelujah, and I was actually able to go to sleep with the light off.
If you're a horror fan, or a devotee of films like The Ring and The Grudge, you should give Heart-Shaped Box a try. Hill's collection of short-stories, Twentieth-Century Ghosts, is also a good choice. I made it less than half-way through that one before I chickened out, so it's plenty scary. Now I am off to confront my obviously conflicted feelings about horror fiction-- I am sure that there will be therapy and possibly medication involved.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill scared the ever-lovin' be-jeebers out of me. I picked it up one evening, and actually put it down again because it seemed just too disturbing. But then I goaded myself on, with a whole "You can't read multiple books every month for the BAM Challenge, you indecisive weenie" line of logic. I started Heart-Shaped Box during the late afternoon on a Monday (because daylight keeps you safe, you know)and finished at 2 AM the same night. It seemed to make sense-- once you break the seal, you have to read the whole book straight through and then you will magically be protected from all spooky recriminations and nightmares that might ensue. No? I also have a signed pact with the monsters under my bed that if I keep my toes under the blanket, they will leave me be. No? Nobody else does this? Ah, well.
Joe Hill is determined to scare you stiff from the beginning. No slow build here-- Hill leaps right into the terrifying action within the first few chapters. Jude Coyne, a middle-aged rock star with a taste for macabre objects, buys a dead man's suit online. This suit is supposed to come with its own ghost-- the seller's step-father. Jude soon finds out that the item description was absolutely correct, but the ghost is only the tip of the horrifying iceberg. I won't say anymore about the plot, but I was pleased to discover that the first part of the book was scarier than the second half. My frayed nerves sang hallelujah, and I was actually able to go to sleep with the light off.
If you're a horror fan, or a devotee of films like The Ring and The Grudge, you should give Heart-Shaped Box a try. Hill's collection of short-stories, Twentieth-Century Ghosts, is also a good choice. I made it less than half-way through that one before I chickened out, so it's plenty scary. Now I am off to confront my obviously conflicted feelings about horror fiction-- I am sure that there will be therapy and possibly medication involved.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Time Keeps on Slippin'...
So-- I have to confess that I did not get off to a great start with my Book a Month Challenge choice. January's theme is "Time", and it seemed like a good opportunity to read a nonfiction title (I lean toward the fiction side of things). I chose Calender: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year by David Ewing Duncan. The topic? Very interesting, a great vantage point from which to observe the way we humans interpret the world around us and how that has changed over time. The writing? Not so great. The prose seemed muddy and unclear. I kept rereading passages, expecting that I would get it eventually, but alas, that did not happen. I admit it-- I gave up, about 4 chapters in.
On a recommendation from a fellow librarian, I decided to read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies. It's a young adult novel, set in a future (Future? Future time? TIME? Get it?!! Of course you do! It's painfully obvious!) where everyone is "ugly" until their sixteenth birthday, when they receive surgery that makes them "pretty". The new pretties are the elite of society who party all night and mesmerize with their symmetrical loveliness. Tally Youngblood, the novel's 15-year-old protagonist, can't wait to be pretty, but her new friendship with another ugly named Shay threatens to postpone her pretty-making surgery indefinitely. Tally ends up joining a group of rebels called Smokies, who have discovered a troubling "side effect" of the pretty surgery. The Smokies are determined to live life a different way, and soon Tally finds herself immersed in their cause. I found the story engrossing and fast-paced, and I am in love with the slang Westerfeld uses throughout the novel. If something makes you uncomfortable, it's "nervous-making". If something is particularly cool, it's "bubbly".
The whole "let's make observations about our current culture through the vehicle of science fiction " idea is really one of my favorite things about the genre, and there is a wealth of social critique to be had in Uglies. Appearance--the increasingly radical things we do to look a certain way, as well as the question of who defines the cultural norm of appearance-- is certainly a hot-button topic in these 21st century days. Uglies also looks at what happens to both an individual and a society when that individual fails to fit in or conform. Is Tally a rebel and a hero, or a troublemaker whose nonconformity threatens to destroy the very world she lives in? Also, what do we lose as human beings when we attempt to create a uptopian society where everyone is supposed to be the same and equal? Can we truly create equality or will there always be those who are different?
Read Uglies, and let me know what you think.
Titles Read:
Calender: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year by David Ewing Duncan
Uglies, Pretties, Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Further Reading:
The Giver by Lois Lowry-- This is another YA title, and another look at a uptopian, future society. I obviously love YA books, and I will tell you why. They are often better written than books intended for an adult audience-- a YA author has to try to capture and hold the attention of a twitchy, hormone-addled audience that would rather be doing something, *anything* else than reading. So YA novels tend to be beautifully concise and eloquent, full of heart and truth. The Giver is just such a book, and if you haven't read it, you should.
The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood-- These are adult fiction titles, both dystopian and disturbing in what they unveil about the human psyche. The Handmaid's Tale is set in a theocratic society where women submit to men, and all interactions between the sexes are highly regulated. Oryx and Crake takes the dystopian theme one step further and is set in a future where humanity's obsession with technology and the manipulation of the natural world have ended in global catastrophe.
Are you participating in the Book a Month Challenge? Please post your review in the comments!
On a recommendation from a fellow librarian, I decided to read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies. It's a young adult novel, set in a future (Future? Future time? TIME? Get it?!! Of course you do! It's painfully obvious!) where everyone is "ugly" until their sixteenth birthday, when they receive surgery that makes them "pretty". The new pretties are the elite of society who party all night and mesmerize with their symmetrical loveliness. Tally Youngblood, the novel's 15-year-old protagonist, can't wait to be pretty, but her new friendship with another ugly named Shay threatens to postpone her pretty-making surgery indefinitely. Tally ends up joining a group of rebels called Smokies, who have discovered a troubling "side effect" of the pretty surgery. The Smokies are determined to live life a different way, and soon Tally finds herself immersed in their cause. I found the story engrossing and fast-paced, and I am in love with the slang Westerfeld uses throughout the novel. If something makes you uncomfortable, it's "nervous-making". If something is particularly cool, it's "bubbly".
The whole "let's make observations about our current culture through the vehicle of science fiction " idea is really one of my favorite things about the genre, and there is a wealth of social critique to be had in Uglies. Appearance--the increasingly radical things we do to look a certain way, as well as the question of who defines the cultural norm of appearance-- is certainly a hot-button topic in these 21st century days. Uglies also looks at what happens to both an individual and a society when that individual fails to fit in or conform. Is Tally a rebel and a hero, or a troublemaker whose nonconformity threatens to destroy the very world she lives in? Also, what do we lose as human beings when we attempt to create a uptopian society where everyone is supposed to be the same and equal? Can we truly create equality or will there always be those who are different?
Read Uglies, and let me know what you think.
Titles Read:
Calender: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year by David Ewing Duncan
Uglies, Pretties, Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Further Reading:
The Giver by Lois Lowry-- This is another YA title, and another look at a uptopian, future society. I obviously love YA books, and I will tell you why. They are often better written than books intended for an adult audience-- a YA author has to try to capture and hold the attention of a twitchy, hormone-addled audience that would rather be doing something, *anything* else than reading. So YA novels tend to be beautifully concise and eloquent, full of heart and truth. The Giver is just such a book, and if you haven't read it, you should.
The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood-- These are adult fiction titles, both dystopian and disturbing in what they unveil about the human psyche. The Handmaid's Tale is set in a theocratic society where women submit to men, and all interactions between the sexes are highly regulated. Oryx and Crake takes the dystopian theme one step further and is set in a future where humanity's obsession with technology and the manipulation of the natural world have ended in global catastrophe.
Are you participating in the Book a Month Challenge? Please post your review in the comments!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
January BAM Challenge: TIME
The January Book a Month Challenge theme is "Time". Check out the BAM blog to see some suggestions for titles.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Book a Month Challenge
Starting in January 2008, I am going to participate in the Book a Month Challenge. At the beginning of every month, a theme will be posted. Participants are asked to read a book based on the theme, and then post a review on their own website/blog or in the comments of the Book a Month (BAM) Challenge blog. I love that this is a very flexible set-up-- you don't have to read one particular "assigned" book, and you have all month to read and post. It's going to be exciting to see the spectrum of books chosen for each theme, and I suspect that the story behind why someone chose a particular book is going to be as intriguing as the actual book review. I can see my "to-be-read" list growing by leaps and bounds, because I love book suggestions that come from other readers.
Please participate in the BAM Challenge with me! Every month I will post the theme and my book review. You are all invited to post your book reviews here at Booked Up in the comments section of my post. Happy reading!
Please participate in the BAM Challenge with me! Every month I will post the theme and my book review. You are all invited to post your book reviews here at Booked Up in the comments section of my post. Happy reading!
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