Case of the Terribles: Library Toilet Paper Goes Corporate

Man, public library funds are really in the toilet at the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library in New York, where they will soon be selling advertising space...on toilet paper.  

I think the moral of the story here is that if you're going to go and...you know...at the library, pay some taxes so that they can buy you TP without car crash lawyer ads staring at you while you're...you know. 
Even if it is a soy based ink. 

Boy 21, by Matthew Quick: Spaceball

Boy 21
by Matthew Quick
Little, Brown and Company: Boston, 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-316-12797-4

Basketball is more than a sport to introverted Finley and his girlfriend Erin.  It has always provided an escape from their racially segregated and mafia ruled Philadelphia neighborhood, and the hardships in their daily lives.  When Finn's coach asks him for his help and discretion with a new student arriving for their senior year, Finn doesn't hesitate.  Boy 21, as the new kid is calling himself, believes he is an alien.  He arrives under sad circumstances, so traumatized that the former basketball prodigy can now no longer even pick up a basketball.  Despite the threat that Boy 21 poses to his starting point guard position, the boys are drawn to each other; Finn also knows about terrible truths you can't bear to voice.  This mesmerizing novel is much more than a simple sports story.  Compelling characters face their personal demons and find strength in friendship to heal and move forward.  The dialogue is excellent and the description rich.  This novel is a coup d'etat by Quick: reluctant male teenage readers will rip through this smart and well written novel before they can put it down.  Strongly recommended for libraries serving teens grades 9-12, but younger readers looking to read up may enjoy it as well. 

Book Talk Hook: The beginning of chapter 9, plus a brief summary, or some choice Boy 21 moments (some listed below)...I am so excited to add this one to my book talk stable!

Liar and Spy, by Rebecca Stead: Is one who spies and lies a spiar?

Liar and Spy
by Rebecca Stead
Wendy Lamb Books (Random House), 2012

ISBN:

9780385737432

Review Copy from NetGalley

Seventh grade is shaping up to be a difficult year for Georges (pronounced George).  After his architect father loses his job, he and his parents must sell their house and move to a nearby apartment in Brooklyn.  His mom is absent a lot, working double shifts as a nurse.  These are things Georges understands, but doesn't like.  He's also saddened that his former best friend has grown apart and now sits at the cool table without him, and frustrated to find himself being bullied at school.  Things start looking up when the move provides Georges with a new opportunity: someone has posted a sign in the building basement for a meeting of something called The Spy Club.  He meets outgoing fourth-grade home-schooled candy addict, Candy, and her furtive, dog-walking twelve year-old brother, Safer.  As Safer takes Georges under his and begins to indoctrinate him into the world of in-building espionage, a friendship begins to develop.   Soon, they are on the hunt to find the truth about a mysterious, suitcase toting man who wears only black.  This story about truth, friendship, and confidence is as simple and realistic as it is heartening.  While there are some difficult life events covered and revealed in the surprise ending (financial trouble, betrayal, bullying, and coping with sick parents), all are well addressed by the characters.  It is strongly recommended for school and public libraries serving students grades 4-7. 

I really enjoyed reading this (despite my NetGalley copy at times being formatted in size four font - what's up with that?); it's been a while since I've picked up a chapter book primarily housed in the Children's Department of your local library/bookstore.  If you haven't read Rebecca Stead's extraordinary When You Reach Me,  you should rectify that immediately.  Liar and Spy is another wonderful example of something I noticed about Stead's writing while reading the previous title, other than that I enjoyed them both.  Stead never ever talks down to her readers (who are presumably largely comprised of kids aged 9-13), nor does she dumb down difficult life problems that other writers gloss over for a similar audience.  She treats them and her child characters with the same respect as she does adults.  Stead writes wonderfully normal kids, who experience the same sadness, frustration, excitement, and life challenges as her readers, and she does it in a way that refrains from preaching.  Keep it up, Rebecca Stead!

Dinner Train Book Club: Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

One book, two beers, two menus, and one hand model.

It's time for confessions! 
1)  I read this book in April.  I know I enjoyed it, I know it moved me, I know I thought it was a stunningly crafted book, and I know I honestly can't quite remember much of my other thoughts about it, a fact exacerbated by confession number two. 
2)  I read it in the midst of training for a half marathon, which meant I had no desire to stand and cook anything after running for two hours.  I also knew that this book was sufficiently depressing so as to not want to make any sort of cheeky, cute, or quirky German sounding dish.  SO I CHEATED.  I treated my fellow book clubber, aka, the one and only PopTart, to some good old fashioned German-style tidbits and brewskis at Jacob Wirth's, a Euro-pub that has been a Boston establishment since 1868.  Fun fact: my grandfather, who worked in a POW camp for German soldiers in New Hampshire somewhere, used to frequent Jacob Wirth's during his med school days.  But I digress.  I normally have pretty good recall for conversations and the interesting tidbits that surface.  However, someone mismapped her training run the morning of book club, which wound up being a full half instead of the scheduled training ten miles.  This mean that one beer became the equivalent of many, despite the brats and schnitzel.  Consequently, the conversation details are...fuzzy.  Self high-five. 
3)  While I'm baring my soul, I'll also take the opportunity to confess something truly naughty: I gave up on Moby Dick for July without even looking at it, and I don't even feel bad about it in the slightest.  I've read a ton of stuff I enjoyed, instead of slogging through one million pages of a crazy dude chasing a whale that obvi doesn't want to be caught because he's heard of the term blubber, and who can blame him?  In short, it was an informed decision to break my New Years Resolve!

Confession time over.  I will now attempt to briefly summarize the few things I remember about Slaughterhouse-Five, but will leave the actual summary to others, because hello, there are nothing BUT summaries of this book all over the internet (here is one, here is another, here is one for you high school and college cheaters out there).  Reflections, followed by food all the way at the bottom:

Tidbits: "See there’s more things to look at on the internet other than naked guys Ann."

As much as much as I agree with "Leslie Knope"'s book blurb about The Bell Jar (“My official statement is that is, overall, a bummer.”), I'm all in for Ron Swanson.  

I can get behind Nathan Adrian...(badum dum) as Finnick Odair.   

Anne Shirley, of Green(back) Gables.  

My favorite YA title confirms my suspicions that I'm "a smart aleck and kind of a badass — that is, you know all the places where a young lady is supposed to scream for help, but you generally prefer to rely on your sword hand. Also you make a killer cherries jubilee."  What does yours say about you?  

Oh snap, King Henry VIII will be playing Valentine in the Mortal Instruments.  Except I'm officially over it.  I want more news about the Beautiful Creatures movie, not this hooey, Hollywood Crush!  OH WAIT.  You did.  I was just on vacation.  

Perhaps my favorite news this week via tweet:

Followed up by this news about a short story just published by Melina Marchetta.  


I was away, and NPR clearly waited for this moment to post their 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels list without several of my favorites on it to avoid my wrath.  If you're going to call it the best of...shouldn't it actually be?  But I digress. Sure I agree with many of the fabulous titles on the list.  In fact, I've read more than half.  But...why are some authors on multiple times, when others, AHEM (see above), didn't make it even once?  And why are some things on the list clearly identifiable as children's classics or as being originally published with an adult audience in mind?  The whole thing is a great idea, but a little too arbitrary for me to agree entirely with.  In all seriousness, good effort, NPR; always great to bring attention to these fabulous YA titles.  (But next time try harder.  Apparently I am still grumpy from my earlier case of the angries).

Here is an interesting read about the overall White-ness of the NPR list.