and every award on earth goes too....

I was thinking tonight that there has been an abysmal lack of reading in my life lately.  Really, there has been a noticeable lack of anything besides school and work, but reading in particular has suffered. I haven't loved any of the library audiobooks I've downloaded recently (Another Timothy Hallinan book that so far I don't like as much as Crashed, the second Inkheart book, etc.) but I have listened, several times, to the BRILLIANT, MIND-BLOWING recordings of P.G. Wodehouse stories by Martin Jarvis.

I would give Martin Jarvis every award possible for these recordings.  The man is a genius.  He is - dare I say it? - just as good as Fry and Laurie.

If you can spare the cash for a Very Good Jeeves volume or two, I promise you won't regret it.


Dear Martin Jarvis,

Please read all the P.G. Wodehouse books.  We go around the house breathily chanting, "Darling!" in the manner of Mrs. Bingo Little. No other audiobooks have ever made me laugh aloud.

I love you.

Thanks a million times,

K

fast, cheap or good

You've probably heard somebody say something along the lines of, "fast, cheap or good - pick two."  If you haven't, you need to watch more bonus features on DVDs.  Set designers are always being told that.  It really makes them hop.  Anyways, the point I'm trying to make in a very roundabout way is that, from what I've found, picture books operate on the same kind of system.  But instead of fast, good and cheap you have:

• Drop dead gorgeous pictures.  You want to frame every page.
• A good story, truly well written.  Won't make the reading adult's brain shrivel into a raisin.
• A book kids won't loose interest in.

How many times, honestly, can you say you've found all three in one book?  I have never - never - got a kid to sit all the way through Horton Hears a Who.   How many books have truly gorgeous illustrations?  So beautiful that they are almost universally admired?

One of my absolute favorite books right now, Just Being Audrey, has perfect illustrations. They are perfect!  Julia Denos even got the little bump in you could see in Hepburn's jawline when she got older. I'm going to do a post about those perfecty perfect pictures on here some time. But you know what?  I have a hard time believing that any kid could sit through a reading of it. The story just isn't that great.  I can't see it becoming the family favorite for bedtime if I have my own kids someday.  Heck, I don't remember reading it to myself the first few times I looked it through. The book feels like it was made for adults - I bought it at Anthropologie - and while I tell myself out loud that that's okay, an inside part of me mutters that it isn't. A book written for and marketed to children shouldn't be really only good for grown-up Audrey freaks.

I wandered around the kids' section at Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago, picking up every picture book that caught my fancy.  I don't know much about trends in picture book styles, but that back wall seemed very short on good stories.  They all wandered. Very episodic. The character's mom loves them, even though they're a pill.  They play with their toys.  They dance around the house.  They get into trouble.  Things like that.  Olivia is episodic to me - and even in such a fantastic book, it still bothers me just a bit.  In the considerably less interesting and attractive books I perused, the wandering was... well, insufferable. Nothing really happened.  In my mind, a story has a beginning, middle and end.  It does not doddle through every room of the house.

(Also, almost without exception, the stories at B&N were concerned with everyday things.  I don't mind that, but when I was little I wanted some 'igh adventure in my stories!  I didn't want to read about kids getting into trouble for having a messy room.  I had to deal with that in real life!)

I am also sorry to say that there were a lot of ugly new picture books at Barnes and Noble as well.  I know it's probably wicked hard to be an illustrator, but so many of the books seem like they're going to look outdated in five years.  Or look outdated even now. Olivia, Eloise, Winne-the-Pooh and Madeline have all done their various amounts of aging gracefully - so it proves that it can be done.  You might have to be a genius to do it, but it's clearly possible.

So.  That was a lot of paragraphs to explain why The Story of Ferdinand is the best picture book on earth.  Because it is the best.  

Now You See Her by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Another purchase from the discards sale, made entirely on a whim.

This also was a refreshing read plucked from the mire of the teen lit section.  I always think every decent book would be a great movie, but I really think this could be especially cool and timely.  I think in essence it's about knowing yourself.  Which I guess you could say every book is about in some way, but I think that was the overarching thing in this entire book. (Gosh, I am so great at literary analysis.)  It made me think a good deal.

So much of life and the perception of "success" is based in fame.  Heck, the pinnacle of existence in the popular mindset is being famous. If you doubt me, think of how many times you've said or heard someone say, "well when you're a famous ______..."  I've said it many a time.  I'm trying to stop because it's a silly thing to say, but it's still totally unconscious sometimes. Which makes me a tad bit uneasy.

CONCLUSION: All in all, a book very clear-eyed about life and the ways it can get messed up, and what hard work some people have as a result.

Birdwing by Rafe Martin

I bought this book at the library discards sale because of the cover.  I mean, that's a pretty good cover, especially for a young adult book.

And, in content, I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint. One of the most enjoyable - and certainly most unique - stories aimed at the YA audience that I've read in a while.  Definitely head and shoulders above almost every other book in that category.  It has a timelessness to it that was very pleasing, and a distinct lack of trendiness.

CONCLUSION:  A good story told, I thought, for its own sake - which I can't help thinking is a very rare find.

Bazillionth Percy Jackson book.

I've read so many Percy Jackson books that I've lost count.  Of course Rick Riordan couldn't leave things nice and tidy with the first series - he had to throw in the Romans too! 

This book was much like the others in that I read it in like three days, was not at all surprised, and will read the next one when it comes out.  

I honestly can't figure out why I like these books.  I'm a big Greek mythology fan, and seeing how he interprets gods and goddesses into modern forms is fun.  But otherwise, I'm just not sure. 

CONCLUSION: When is the next one coming out again?

list of recent reads par-tay! (6)

Because I'm too lazy to write about all of them individually!

The Search for WondLa

I can't decide if I liked this.  Kind of a strange tone - but I finished it, so that says something.  I liked that Eva was female, but though she's kind and "pure of heart," it isn't exactly the strong female lead I was hoping for.  I'm considering reading more. It was nice that, though it did have the requisite "this is going to be a series, consumers of America!!" ending, it also had a complete feel.  The cliffhanger thing  came as a surprise - there was already an ending wrapped up.  Interesting illustrations.

CONCLUSION: I KNEW it would have something to do with The Wizard of Oz.

Artemis Fowl

Another one that the jury is still out on.  The scale was a lot smaller than I expected, and I didn't like that the series was so obviously being set up.  When conservative people were all in a furor over Harry Potter, someone suggested this as a safer substitution, which is ludicrous to me.  Harry Potter glorified self-sacrifice, courage, loyalty, kindness and justice. This was about a genius child criminal who uses people shamelessly to get what he wants. Not only is he not as relatable as Harry, he also is kind of bad!!! I can't believe people tried to substitute this for the Harry Potter books. 

CONCLUSION:  It's unlikely that I'll continue on with more books. 

The first two books in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series. 

YAY! I complained on facebook about how Rick Riordan is a meanie, because he ends chapters with things like, "he woke up and they were screaming." and even though it's three in the morning you have to find out why.  I almost get grumpy about it.  Sort of, "well, THANKS Rick. Just GREAT that I have to get up in four hours but I can't stop. Awesome."  

CONCLUSION: I don't know why these books are so fun.  They just are.

Howl's Moving Castle

Borrowed from a friend, sorry I had to return it. 

CONCLUSION: Better than the movie, as the friend promised.  And that says a lot in this case. 

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is a master of the bittersweet ending.  I liked the ending on this so much better than the ending of the movie in some ways, and in some ways... well,  I hated it for being just so darn sad. 

CONCLUSION: Thank you, Lord, for Neil Gaiman. 

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Seriously, it's a miracle this woman can sell books with such an un-typeable name.  Yeesh.

So! I absolutely loved The Scorpio Races and was prepared to love this book too.

And, probably, if I hadn't already read The Scorpio Races I would have been happier.  Of the way, way too many supernatural books I've listened to on tape (in most cases out of desperation during the school year, when I only have time to consume any literature while doing homework for art classes), this was one of the absolute best.  Mainly because it just wasn't as supernatural. It was written before the Twilight explosion hit (if I remember rightly) and it's just so different from that type of book.  When the boy is a wolf - and he is either a wolf or a boy, nothing in between - he can't remember things, or think normally. He's just a wolf. When he's a boy he doesn't have a ton of, like, magical abilities.  The wolf thing seems more like a plot device to make the young lovers angsty than the point of the story - which is often not the case with these supernatural books.  One thing this writer does well is make decent characters.  I liked no-nonsense Grace and her negligent parents - especially the parents.

I'm not sure why I didn't love this book as much as The Scorpio Races.  This was the second time I've listened to it on tape - the first time I didn't get through it.  For some reason I just lost interest.  It seemed like there was too much "oh no he's not going to change let's be sad" in the middle, and that the pace got a bit lost.  But do I only think that because, both times, I was somehow unconsciously expecting the tightly-wound drama of The Scorpio Races? I don't know.

CONCLUSION:
Unusual. Good. I might check out the other books in the "cycle." (Just realized I despise the word "cycle."  Why do I despise it?  What a confusing night.)  But I won't be heartbroken if I never get around to it.

(P.S. Didn't realize that red spot on the cover was blood. Cool!)