The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I started reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower for Banned Books Week.  I was also reading Sandman, so I got a bit behind-hand on Perks.

Perks and I are a like ships in the night: it originally published in 1999 when I was busy with MCATs, lab jobs, med school applications, and homework and really wasn't in tune with the world of fiction.  The book is set in the early 1990s, though, making Charlie and I almost the same age (I was a HS freshman in the fall of 1992 - and if you think Charlie is naive you should have met me at the same age).  Charlie has major depressive symptoms (stemming from an unknown source) and he is deeply affected by loss, the most recent being a classmate's death.  He writes letters to an unnamed friend (it's unclear whether these are actually letters sent or if these are actually diary entries, there's a little wiggle room there) chronicling his freshman year of high school.  Charlie is intellectually precocious but socially awkward, perhaps to an extreme but it serves a purpose.

Charlie falls in with two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who take him under their wings, so to speak, and introduce him to a very different world that exists outside the walls of school and home.  They introduce him to the Rocky Horror Picture Show (his reaction on that first live show was about like mine).  There is drinking, smoking, experimentation with drugs, an exploration of sexuality, and the dawning realization that with all these adult choices comes the reality that human relationships are messy, messy things.  From those issues along one can see that Perks is a book ripe for the bulls-eye of those looking to remove books from libraries and schools.  Even though this is usually shelved in the adult fiction section, teen protagonists often translate to teen readers.  Charlie's letters show both sides of his choices: it might feel exhilarating and freeing to have a few beers or smoke a joint, but that laxity can cause one to do or say things that hurt our friends.

Perks is an eminently quotable book, with any number of gifs on tumblr.  Many lines are well-known such as "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."  I may not be on the "rabid fan" bandwagon, but I thoroughly enjoyed Chbosky's writing and the final plot reveal.

The only quibble I have is the oft-stated idea that Charlie is doing extra writing assignments and improving there - yet his letters remain very even in quality, very young and confessional.  Is Charlie a bit of an unreliable narrator when he wants to be?

#readathon 2012 wrap-up!

Well, another 24-hour readathon has come to a close.  I didn't read as much or as long this time (needing to sleep eventually won out) but I had a decently healthy stack of done/mostly-done books:

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (previously started, finished)
The Best American Science Writing 2012 (finished)
Why Jane Austen? (previously started, finished)
McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes (finished)
An Infamous Army (previously started, too much at 2am so unfinished)

The page count ended up at 819 pages read.  Not too shabby.

Thanks as always to the Readathon organizers and cheerleaders!  Mwah!

If you haven't, and are interested, please comment on my readathon give-away post.  Odds are very favorable right now!



In parting, I'd like to share this photo I took on this gray, rainy Iowa October Sunday.  One of those days where color contrasts always pop.  It's just a shrub outside the Starbucks, but I loved the red and green surprise.



 

 

Win "The Deception of the Emerald Ring" audiobook during #readathon!

Hey-hey!  It's my first ever giveaway!  I'd been thinking about doing one for a while and then an opportunity just fell into my lap.

Lauren Willig, author of the Pink Carnation series of Regency spy/romance novels, was cleaning out a closet and found a bunch of finished copies of her books.  So she posted on Facebook that she'd be willing to send out these books to bloggers, etc., for giveaways and things.

She even had an audiobook copy of The Deception of the Emerald Ring.  It's my favorite of her books.  I love Letty and her practicality and how she just never gives up.  Geoff isn't so bad himself.  So I messaged Lauren and she was more than happy to send the audiobook on its way to me.

 

 

And now I am going to send it on its way to a forever home!  Because what better time to do a give-away than during Readathon?

 

 

This contest is open to the US and Canada.  To enter, please leave a comment on this post telling me what book you enjoyed most during the Readathon this go-round and link back to one of your Readathon posts or tweets.  At midnight on next Sunday, October 21 (my time - I live in the Midwest), I'll close the comments then put all the names in a hat - or Ye Olde Random Number Generator if there are too many names for a hat - and pick the lucky winner!

 

Yay, reading!



#readathon Starting Line!

 

 

Behold, the stack of Readathon books!  Yeah, I'll never get through all those (particularly since the red thing on the top is my nook and has 500 books on it alone) but I think that's a good variety of books. Even if I only read a chapter or two in some that's totally pages read.

 

Now, my start-time here in the Midwest is 7am my time.  Ugh.  So this is set to post then.

 

I am likely to be sleeping.

 

I'll catch up (and be sure to look for my give-away post around lunchtime my time - so about 5 hours after the Readathon starts).



Best American Science and Nature Writing 2012

Well...this volume hits kind of a weird middle-space for me. Taken individually, the essays in this edition of Best Science and Nature Writing are good pieces of journalism. Six come from The New Yorker, three each from Scientific American, Wired, and National Geographic, two each from Outside, The Atlantic, and Discover, and singles from California Magazine, Popular Science, and Orion. But together...somehow they strike me as lacking in breadth, if that makes sense.

After an introduction focusing in scientific paternalism, Ariely divided the essays into subjects: Bacteria/Microorganisms, Animals, Humans (the Good), Humans (the Bad), Society and Environment, and Technology. However, two of the bacteria/micro essays are about nearly the same thing (normal human microbiota and how that plays into immune response/chronic disease) while the third concerns new food allergy research and treatment. It's hard to determine what's "good" or "bad" about the human sections - I can't tell where the dividing line is ("Sleeping with the Enemy" is in the good section, yet is about how modern humans displaced/bred out the Neanderthal - and extincting species is something we seem to be good at, while "The Feedback Loop" - about how we can modify human behavior to combat speeding and medication non-compliance - is in the bad section). John Seabook's New Yorker article "Crush Point" (which I read in the original publication) is a good piece of human interest/courtroom reporting but doesn't seem to contain a lot of "science" regarding crowd dynamics. It probably would have been better to list the articles alphabetically by author rather than try to group them.

Many of the articles, no matter the scientific ground grown in from paleontology to neurobiology to computer science, apply the information therein to society as a whole. Lab-grown beef, knock-out genes in Mosquitos that could fuel reactions to GMOs, a hazy article about why humans have a connection with an auquarium (the Roberts article about Wallace J. Nichols was an odd one), urban sprawl, molecular gastronomy, an eccentric physicist and the real-world probability of a theoretical quantum computer, if we must defend our humanity from the likelihood a computer could pass the Turing Test/how to be a more "human" human - everything circles back to human or human-like behavior. Given that Ariely is a psychologist that's not surprising but it makes the collection very flat and more like a pet than a presentation of good scientific work across all disciplines.

Current book-in-progress: The Best American Science Writing 2012 (yeah, that other one) - oh, and the Readathon is tomorrow
Current knitted item: Shrug - we are almost to the diamond pattern!
Current movie obsession: Watching The Voice episodes off the DVR
Current iTunes loop: Some free tracks I got from Starbucks - eh, is ok

Best American Non-required Reading 2012

Getting back into the Best American Project groove.  I don't always read the Non-required collection.  Sometimes the pieces just don't resonate with me.  The 2012 volume - it has an introduction by Ray Bradbury.  Likely the last piece he finished before his death (he passed away two weeks after it was turned in).  So I had to buy it and read it.

This collection didn't seem as light-hearted as previous NR's that I read. The "Front Section" bits are usually more light-hearted, in my opinion, with funny Internet lists and in this collection many of them are about the Occupy Movement (manifestos, minutes, essays) or have an undercurrent of exasperation underneath them (Alexie, Diaz, Ragsdale).

The short-story/essay section is amazing. Just amazing. Short fiction from Louise Erdrich, Julie Otsuka (wow, just wow), and Jess Walter. Essays from Olivia Hamilton/Robin Levi/Ayelet Waldman (makes me mad), Jon Ronson (who knew there were actual people dressed up as superheroes?), John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Wesley Yang.

I got a little sniffy over the transcription of a eulogy given at Steve Jobs's funeral by his sister, Mona. And I'm not a Jobs acolyte - she said such beautiful things.

Finally, there was one essay that just grabbed me.  It was such a courageous act of memoir and confession.  Jose Antonio Vargas wrote "Outlaw", a short memoir detailing his life as an undocumented child immigrant, sent here by his mother to join his grandparents for the chance at a good education, and his decision to tell his story.  I hope Vargas gains his citizenship. If you need evidence why the Dream Act should be passed then you need to read this essay.

Current book-in-progress: The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2012
Current knitted item: Shrug - further along on the second sleeve!
Current movie obsession: The Avengers (is Joss Wheedon's commentary kinda obnoxious?)
Current iTunes loop: Imagine Dragons - again, love them

Nobel Prize for Literature 2012: Mo Yan

I was slightly dreading the Nobel announcement this year.  There was buzz about Bob Dylan and I just didn't want the prize to go to him, no matter how outside a chance it seemed (and then there were the chuckleheads to said it should go to EL James - sorry, my egalitarianism doesn't extend even remotely that far).  I'd be much happier to see the prize go to Haruki Murakami, Joyce Carol Oates, Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, AS Byatt, or comprable (or, if dead people were allowed, Kurt Vonnegut who totally got the shaft in his lifetime).

And the committee managed to surprise me yet again - they selected the Chinese writer, Mo Yan. 

Now, I don't think I've run across him before.  I don't mind.  Finding authors new to me is half the fun of the Nobel when it doesn't go to a favorite of mine.  But the nice thing is that he does have a significant body of work translated into English and is either currently available or will be available soon and it is accessible.  The committee said nice things about his imagery - "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary" - so I'd like to try on his words for size.  This is much easier done than for the awardee last year, Thomas Tranströmer, who writes Swedish poetry and is really hard to find stateside (compared to the 2010 winner, Mario Vargas Llosa, whose backlist catalogue is just filthy with available books). 

The NYT has a nice article which ends with a quote from Mo regarding his decision to attend the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair when China refused to allow dissident writers to attend:

“A writer should express criticism and indignation at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, but we should not use one uniform expression,” he said. “Some may want to shout on the street, but we should tolerate those who hide in their rooms and use literature to voice their opinions.”

Your Hate Maill Will Be Graded

I ran across John Scalzi's blog Whatever a few months ago via Wil Wheaton's twitter.  Caught some posts here and there, noticed he had a book titled Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded.  Love.  The.  Title.  I.  Must.  Read.  It.  So I borrowed a copy from a friend and settled down to read. 

Scalzi had me from the second post in the book, "Jesus's Dickheads".  Mwahahaha.  My thoughts exactly.  Nearly every post was really funny. I love pointed, witty humor and many of the Whatever posts collected here are chock full of witticisms.

Some of the entries are serious in tone - supporting gay marraige, advice for young writers (and the financial advice could be applied to everyone...note to self...) - and I appreciated those all the more due to the posts with surrounding levity.

Two regrets. 1) would have loved to see more of the comments/hatemail since Scalzi's responses are totally boss, and 2) while I appreciated the thought behind the random nature of the order of collected posts, but I think I would have appreciated a more linear or topical organization (just my OCD nature).

Current book-in-progress: The Best American Non-required Reading 2012
Current knitted item:  Shrug - second sleeve!
Current movie obsession:  2005 Pride and Prejudice
Current iTunes loop:  Amanda Palmer

FTC disclaimer: I borrowed this from a friend.

Petition: Remove Broun from House Science Committee

You know, I don't usually get terribly political. Too much bickering.

But this petition - I think this is important. Science literacy in this country is terrible. We do not need people like Broun who are unable to separate their religious ideologies from rational, scientific concepts to sit on a House Science committee that promotes science.

Please visit the Change website link and sign the petition - they need 150,000 signatures.

Change.org|The Proven Petition Site

The Sandman, Vol 4: Season of Mists

This is, by far, my favorite volume of Sandman yet.  Season of Mists is dark and funny.

Morpheus, bullied by his Endless family, must right a wrong: he condemned a former girlfriend, Nada (from the opening story of A Doll's House), who refused to live with him in the Dreaming forever, to Hell, to be tormented for eternity.  Morpheus must visit Hell, to ask Lucifer for her soul - the problem is that the last time Morpheus visited Lucifer (back in Preludes and Nocturnes) things didn't end on a very...friendly...note.

Lucifer, still in a pique, decides to do Morpheus one better: he empties out Hell, setting all the demons and deceased souls loose upon the world, locks it up and gives Morpheus the key. 

What...the...fuck.  I was laughing so hard.

So Morpheus, who now must now dispose of Hell is he wants to find Nada, finds his castle invaded by importunate cultures and religions of all stripes - Faerie, the Demons of Hell (who'd like a little self-governance), Egyptian gods, Norse gods, any and all cultures you can think of - to barter for the ownership of Hell.  Morpheus's sister, Death, is having trouble because people aren't staying dead.  In the end, it's God (yeah, that one) who solves the whole problem.

Such a great, cheeky, creative book.  What have I been missing all these years?

Looking ahead: #dewey's #readathon on October 13, 2012!

I try to join Dewey's 24-hour Readathon every fall for at least part of the day/night (there's one in the spring, too, but my schedule puts the kibosh on that).  It's strange, but I feel oddly comforted knowing that bloggers/tweeters all over the world are all reading for a day at the same time.

In preparation, I've started accumulating a pile of "planned reading" - more than I ever could possibly read in a day, even with no interruptions, but I like the size because I try to pull in a hodge-podge of genres.  I tend to need a little bit of everything in my Readathon pile otherwise Murphy's Law states that I will still end up staring at my bookshelves, wasting time, because I didn't put any lit crit in my pile.  Considering that I finished Bloom's Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human my first Readathon and The Best American Essays 2011 last year I'm definitely not one of those bloggers who will read just about anything.

I am also, get ready for it, going to hold my first-EVER giveaway during the Readathon.  Yeah, yeah??  Are you excited?  I am.  I recently got lucky in that a favorite author was clearing out a cache and offered the various books and audiobooks up to bloggers, etc. as giveaway prizes.  So, I'll be giving away an audiobook (much as I'd like to hoard it, because it's a favorite book, but I'll be good and send it off to a forever home) - watch your GR, twitter, feedreader, hashtag, etc Saturday!

Now, the only thing left are my snacks....thanks to other bloggers' TSS posts, I've been reminded that I never seem to have food on hand and have to go out to the store on the morning of the Readathon for snacks.  I have a note in my shopping list for Wednesday: buy Readathon snacks!

Bring on Saturday!!

The Sandman, Vol 3: Dream Country

I dove straight into Dream Country and got quite a surprise: it's a story collection.  Four separate story arcs, with Morpheus as a minor or tangential character, as opposed to a much longer novel-length arc.  So cool.

"Calliope" recounts the story of a hack writer, struggling to find success, who is offered a muse.  Not figuratively, literally.  He is literally gifted the Muse Calliope from another writer - as long as Calliope is his captive, he will churn out story after story after story, all successful.  But Morpheus owes a favor....

"A Dream of a Thousand Cats" is a whimsical little tale, about a dreaming kitten.  We meet Morpheus in cat form who tells a story about how cats could once again be rulers of the world, if only enough of them dream...the older cats slink away but the dreaming kitten, he believes.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is, you guessed it, about the Shakespeare play.  Morpheus contracts Shakespeare to write two plays to his specifications, the first of which will be about the intersection of the human and faerie worlds.  Ultimately, the play is performed for the rulers of Faerie and Puck decides to get in on the action.  This short story won a World Fantasy Award (which makes it the only comic ever to win that, because the rules for the category were changed after that year).

"Facade" is a heart-rending tale about the downside of gaining superpowers.  Element Girl is caught in a crippling depression, unable to present a "normal" face to the world beause of her acquired powers.  Death, Dream's elder sister, is "visiting" upstairs and stops by to offer her help....

Four very disparate stories, but very intriguing each on their own.  I loved "Calliope" - fabulous concept and it offers up a bit more of Morpheus's history for consideration.  The volume I read had the script for "Calliope" in the back and it was interesting to read how a comic is conceived and put together, truly a collaborative effort (as well as Gaiman's notes and reasons for not getting as far as he ought due to creepy phone calls at 2am!).