Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.
Showing posts with label Book Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Awards. Show all posts

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Book Awards II Challenge Wrap Up

Well, the Book Awards II Challenge ends today (or technically tomorrow) and I am going to fall 2 books short of the 10 I said I would read. Original challenge can be found at the Book Awards Reading Challenge blog. I really enjoyed this challenge because it got me to take a look at some books that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise - but that I really enjoyed. The following are the books that I finished:

  1. Never Let Me Go by Kazua Ishiguro (Alex Award)
  2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Alex Award)
  3. From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Newbery Award)
  4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Bookseller's Award)
  5. Holes by Louis Sachar (Newbery Award)
  6. The House on Mango Street by Hannah Cisneros (American Book Awards)
  7. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Quill Award) - Review not yet written
  8. Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Newbery Award) - Review not yet written
My favorite book was definitely The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is supposed to be coming out as a movie (I hope soon) and can't wait to see it!

My least favorite was The House on Mango Street - but only because I am not a fan of short stories.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Holes by Louis Sachar (Book Review)

Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Genre: YA Fiction

First sentence: There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.


Holes is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who is wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of tennis shoes that were being auctioned off for charity. The tennis shoes really did fall on his head as he went under an overpass. He is sentenced to Camp Green Lake for 18 months. It is this kind of misfortune that seems to plague Stanley and his family. They blame these events on Stanley's great-great-grandfather and a curse that he brought on himself.

Now Camp Green Lake is not really a camp - nor is there a lake. It is a detention center for juvenile delinquents, at which they have to dig holes every day. Holes that are 5 feet wide by 5 feet deep, supposedly to teach them character. Stanley, or Caveman - as the other boys have nicknamed him, realizes early on that they are really searching for something for the warden.

After 45 days of digging holes and a week surviving away from "camp" - Stanley manages to bring history full circle. Will the curses finally be broken?

I enjoyed this book. The boys did learn something from digging holes -they learned perseverance and friendship - and something about dealing with guilty consciences. I like the way that the author wove three stories together - that of Stanley's great-great-grandfather, the legend of Kissin' Kate Barlow, and Stanley's emerging story in the present. I highly recommend this book for middle schoolers!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Book Review)

Title: The House on Mango Street
Author: Sandra Cisneros
Genre: Fiction/Short stories

I didn't know whether or not to include the first sentence here, as it is a short book with short stories - but it seemed appropriate given the title of the book. So here it is: We didn't always live on Mango Street.

I am not a short story lover, and probably would not have read this book other than I needed a quick read for the New Classics Challenge which ends in a few weeks. I am not even sure that these would classify as short stories. They brought to mind journal entries that a young girl/teenager may make. Does anyone remember back to a time in school where you had to keep a journal that you wrote in daily as an assignment, but the subject matter was your choice? Then think of having it published - and you would have a book of this type. There is a progression through the book though, and you begin to see how the author is maturing -- even as the stories begin to get slightly longer and subject matter of some of them more serious. The book also showed me a different perspective than the one that I had growing up in predominately white, small-town Iowa.

Esperanza (narrator of stories) lives in a small red house on Mango Street with one bedroom and one bathroom for her Mama, Papa and 3 brothers/sisters. Even so, you see that it is an improvement over their previous homes, as this is not an apartment and they do not have a landlord. This home is theirs. I am just going to share with you a couple of stories that stuck with me.

The Family of Little Feet - A family gave Esperanza and her sisters/friends a bag of shoes. These were lemon shoes, red shoes, and dancing shoes that were pale blue but used to be white. The little girls pranced all over the neighborhood taking turns with the different shoes until an old bum tells them they are pretty. He asks one of them, named Rachel, if she will kiss him for a dollar. Esperanza grabs her hand and they run all the way home. They hide the shoes and don't play with them again.

Louie, His Cousin and His Other Cousin - Basically about a boy who shows up with a Cadillac. He gives all the neighborhood kids rides in it. The police show up and he makes them all get out and then tries to get away. But the police catch him and arrest him. They all wave to him as he is being driven away.

And now, here is what it says in the book: Ostensibly, The House on Mango Street provides a framework for the first tentative writings of a young girl finding herself by recording her own feelings about the world around her. But in a deeper sense, the book chronicles in a highly poetic style, the psychological and social development of a writer who struggles to derive emotional and creative sustenance where material and educational resources are absent. Her sensitive portrayal enchants us and reaffirms our belief that art and talent can survive, even under the most adverse conditions.

Like I said in the beginning, I am not a lover of short stories. I am sure there is much that can be gleaned from these, but I was not reading them critically, to obtain any higher meaning. They tended to be depressing, showing the not so savory side of (assuming) Chicago. The last few stories showed a desire on the part of the narrator to want to get out of Mango Street, but she always knew that no matter where she went, she would come back for those who were not as lucky as she, and were not able to get out.


Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Book Review)


Title: The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Publisher: Knopf
Genre: Robinsonades/Fiction
First sentence: When he woke in the woods, in the dark and the cold of the night, he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.
I listened to this book on audio tape and fell in love with the narrator's voice, Tom Stechschulte. The book was so good, that about 1/2 way through, I checked out the written version from the library so I could enjoy it whenever I was able. Well, after a few pages, I missed the narrator so much that I returned the book and continued with the audio version. I could just hear him saying "It's okay, it's o-kay."
The Road tells the story of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world. The bond between them is evident from the beginning. The hope that the father is able to instill in the son in this seemingly hopeless and dire environment is amazing.
Though place names are not mentioned, they are following a map, and it seems they are going through the mountains to the ocean - so I pictured heading west to the Pacific. Along the way they are able to stay one step ahead of the 'bad guys' and with the boy's insistence, help others whenever they are able. People are few and far between, and food and supplies are even scarcer.
With every step traveled, every tin of food found or lost, every imagined and unimagined danger, I was kept on the edge of my seat. Travel with the boy and his Papa on their search for any good that is left in the world as the continue to carry The Light.
I just discovered that this book has been made into a movie to be released this year! This will be a must see for me!
Other reviews:

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro




Never Let Me Go - by Kazuo Ishiguro




From the cover: As a child, Kathy - now thirty-one years old, lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed-even comforted-by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham's nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about thier childhood-and their lives now.

My review (contains spoilers below) - At first, I did not like this book- it took awhile for me to get into the storyline, but once there, I wanted - needed - to know what happened to these three friends and how the story was going to end. It is told sort of in flashbacks by Kathy, so we really only get her point of view of what her friends were thinking or going through. The book definitely kept my attention and was different from any story that I had read before. Although the book is kind of a downer, I would recommend it. With all the advancements in medical technology, it is not hard to imagine a world such as that described. I would hope that humankind would not ever be able to think that they could create a child that would be without a soul though!


Spoiler alert -


The children themselves were clones who were being raised specifically for organ donation -which, after so many donations (usually 4) they would "complete" or die. As children, they did not seem to realize the seriousness of this, or that their lives would be any different or shorter than normal children. The school, Hailsham, that they lived at was hoping to show the world that these "clones" had souls just as normal humans had souls.

It sounded as if every donor first became a carer- sort of a traveling nurse who looked after the donors - once they left the school for their first assignment, book didn't discuss how or where they lived or by what means they lived - so I was lead to believe that they were "taken care of" throughout their lives because of the fact that they were clones. Somehow in the cloning process though, they were not able to have children - so it seemed that sex to them was purely recreational and not really attached to any feelings..

It isn't until the end of the book that I can see that Tommy and Kathy had real feelings for each other and they were finally realizing the frustration of their lives and the hopeless, non-existent future that they will never share. Never Let Me Go was a very apt title! 5/5 stars



Thursday, September 25, 2008

Water For Elephants

Loved this book! It was a very quick read, or maybe it was just that I couldn't put it down! Told in flashbacks by a 90 (or was it 93) year old man living in an assisted living home. Involves many circus "characters" and an elephant named Rosie. From the first page, the first remembrance - I was hooked. Highly recommend!5/5

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I read this book originally for the Daring Book for Girls challenge, but have since added it to the Book Awards Challenge. It won the Newberry Award in 1968. I remember reading this book as a young girl and it quickly became one of my favorites. I even tried to get my own daughter to read it a few years ago, but no luck. She is not the reader that I was...(too much technology these days, I think).

This story is about a sister and brother who run away due to the "injustice of everything.." They stay at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York City. During their adventure they discover that many things are still important no matter where you are living (like enjoying clean underwear! - and having enough to eat). Claudia, the sister, does not want to return home until she has changed in some way. So they set off on an adventure to discover the true sculptor of a statue called The Angel.

I think this is a very good read for elementary age kids. Although quickly becoming outdated because of all high security available today - nice to imagine that if children did this, that they would be "safe". 4/5

Friday, August 1, 2008

Book Awards Challenge

This is my first book challenge that I have signed up for - but pretty sure that I will sign up for more today - now that I have a blogspot... The rules for my first challenge are as follows:
Rules:
Read 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.
You must have at least FIVE different awards in your ten titles.
Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.
You don't have to post your choices right away, and your list can change at any time.
'Award winners' is loosely defined; make the challenge fit your needs, keeping in mind Rule #2.

I am going to post my list of books later, as soon as I have a chance to go through some award sites!

Ok - here is my list of some possible books:
1. Never Let Me Go - Kazua Ishiguro (Alex Award)
2. The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros (American Book Award)
3. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen (Alex Award 2007)
4. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg (Newberry 1968)
5. The Gathering - Anne Enright (Man Booker - 2007

I will have to choose the next 5 after I finish these!

Cormac McCarthy - The Road - Bookseller's Award
Nancy Pickard - The Virgin of Small Plains (Agatha Awards)
Sachar, Louis - Holes (Newberry Award and National Book Award)
Amy Tan - The Joy Luck Club (National Book Award)
Powers, Richard - - The Echo Maker - National Book Award

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