Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse by Helen Dore Boylston
Genre: fiction, romance
On my TBR list?: Yes
Book 3 of 7
Blurb: In this installment of the series, Sue Barton has graduated from her nursing program and has been accepted as one of the famous Henry Street nurses in NYC. She loves her job, but will she choose it over marriage to Dr. Bill Barry?
I'm not sure what age group this book was intended for when it was published in 1938, but I imagine that it gave young girls a good idea of what public nursing was about. I know that it drove me to find out more about Lillian Wald and the real Henry Street program.
Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed is that Boylston shows Sue Barton as something of an independent woman, or as independent as a woman could be in the 1930s. Not only does she insist on having some time on her own before she marries, but this agreement with her fiance becomes a major plot point. This is in contrast to "The Real Thing" by Rosamond DuJardin, a book that was probably aimed at the same audience but that made husband-hunting sound like the main reason for going to college.
This is the type of book I would have no problem handing to my 12-year-old, but she probably wouldn't read it because of the outdated writing style. It is a good "palate cleanser" for an adult who just finished reading a more intense book, though.
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06 November 2009
The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught by Neta Jackson
Genre: Christian fiction
On my TBR list?: Yes
Book 5 of 7 in a series
This book gives the reader another roller-coaster ride with the Yada Yada Prayer Group. They deal with people going into jail and getting out of jail, young love, pregnancy, job changes, a church merger, and domestic violence. All the while, our narrator Jodi struggles with staying strong in her faith.
Reading this book was like talking to a friend that you've known for a while. Old friends tend to repeat their stories, and Jackson did a LOT of recapping in this volume. I know that it is difficult to know how much you should reference previous events for the benefit of the new readers or those who haven't read the other books in a while. Still, this installment seemed to have a lot more references than the others. I found myself skimming a lot to get to the new plot points.
There also seemed to be a lot about transportation. This is the fifth book in the series; I'm not sure that we still need descriptions of how the various characters get around town, except in the instances when it is germane to the plot. Besides, shouldn't the Baxters have a second car by now?
All in all, it wasn't a bad installment of the series, but I'm starting to feel like I did when I watched the last season of "7th Heaven". I kept watching to the bitter end because I had invested time in the characters. I'm hoping that the last two books take the series out with a bang and not a whimper.
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02 November 2009
"The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey" by Lisa Papademetriou
The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey by Lisa Papademetriou
Genre: YA, fiction, fantasy
On my TBR list?: Yes
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Brief description: Two girls who are total opposites get zapped into the fantasy book that they are studying for English class, changing the plot and themselves in the process.
I checked this out of the library for myself, but my 12-year-old daughter got to it first. She devoured it in two days and proclaimed that I had to read it. Her enthusiasm was the only thing that got me through this predictable book.
To be fair, the one-dimensional characters probably wouldn't be so predictable to a middle schooler who hasn't been exposed to as much television and film as I have. You have the nerdy girl and the rich airhead, the less handsome guy who turns out to be a better person than the buff hotties, and the wisecracking talking animal thrown in for comic relief. I knew before the end of the first chapter what lesson each girl needed to learn. This would be the perfect set-up for a Saturday night movie on Disney Channel, so I wasn't surprised to find out that the author has written novelizations of Disney series like "Lizzie McGuire" and "That's So Raven".
Not only was the book predictable but it also had an identity crisis. There were a couple dark secrets thrown in that didn't fit the otherwise light tone of the book -- not too dark for a 12-year-old to handle, but dark enough to make you wonder which direction the book is going in. If I had a choice, I would have gone with the more serious tone and get rid of the lame jokes that sound cute coming out the mouths of Disney's young ingenues, but fall flat on the page.
Bottom line: although many YA novels appeal to adults, this is not one of them. Save it for your kids.
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30 October 2009
Sunday Salon: Putting a Halt on the Alice Books
My daughter C1, age 12, got interested in the Alice books by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds after we watched a movie based on them (Alice Upside Down). All I knew about the series was that there were several books and they start with Alice in 6th grade. I'm all about my tweens reading books with characters that are their age, so I checked out a few of the books from the library. C1 is a speedy reader and these books are relatively short, so she was devouring one or two of the Alice books a week.
If you are familiar with the Alice series, then you know where this little tale is going. C2 read so fast that she ended up at Alice On The Outside. In this book, Alice is in 8th grade and is curious about sex and the things she believes her late mother should be teaching her. It has some frank talk about sex in the first chapter that I'm not sure C2 is ready for -- or maybe I'm not ready for her to be reading. Seeing this made me do a little more research about the Alice series and now I realize that the subject matter will probably be getting even more adult in the later books. The author's intention seems to have been for the books to grow with the reader, and I respect that. It is just makes things difficult for kids who pick up on the series years later.
I know that other people would say that I should take this an opportunity to discuss sex with C2. Other mothers would probably hand her the book and deal with the questions that arise. Unfortunately, C2 is a smart kid who thinks she knows everything, so she would read it and not ask any questions. I am just uncomfortable enough that I wouldn't know how to draw her into a conversation. So I put a halt to C2 reading the series for now, to give us both time to grow up a little.
READ: Last week was a good reading week for me; I finished three books!
I have several other quick reads on my stack, so I expect this week to be another good one, reading-wise.
TBR LIST: The list stands at 109 titles. I'm trying to be good about not adding any more titles because I would really like to see the total go down. The longer some of these books sit on my list, the less I am interested in reading them. I start to feel like I already read them just because I've read so many reviews. Isn't that crazy?
CURRENTLY READING: I am still picking at Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible in between other books. His comments on the Bible are mildly interesting, but the book is divided in sections so it is easy to put down and pick up again.
29 October 2009
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Genre: fiction, supernatural, vampires
On my TBR list?: yes
Book #2 of the Southern Vampire Mysteries
This is the second book in a series, so if you read the first book you already know whether you like these characters. Here are few things that I like particularly about this installment:
--Harris makes sure to show that there are good and bad supernatural creatures, just as there are good and bad humans.
--Sometimes an author repeats big chunks of the previous books in order to bring a first-time reader up to speed. This can be annoying for the hardcore fans. Luckily, Harris keeps the explanation in this book to a minimum.
--The sex in the book is in plain language but not overly graphic. I would put it between PG-13 and R.
I can see why these books are being adapted for TV; each book is like watching a TV movie. I can't wait to pick up the next one!
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I'm not a book buyer, but . . .
. . . I was rather tempted to buy a few paperbacks when I was in Wal-Mart today. I'm almost finished with Living Dead in Dallas">Living Dead in Dallas and I saw that the next book in the series, Club Dead">Club Dead, is selling for $5.97 at my local store. Yes, I know that Wal-Mart is evil and all that. Still, it is hard to turn away from $6 for a paperback, especially since I know that I will have to wait another month to get the book from the library. Temptation, thy name is Wal-Mart!
