Cinder Review

As I said when I first posted my book list, I would probably end up reading a few additional books that weren't on the list. So, without further ado, here is my first bonus book! Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I have two little girls, ages 6 and 8, and I've set up a summer schedule for them that includes: 30 minutes of spelling practice, 30 minutes of solo reading, and 30 minutes of Mami reading in the morning. In the afternoon they do 30 minutes of math worksheets, and 30 minutes of a Math app on my iPad.

I thought it would be fun for the 30 minutes (and often times a lot more than 30 minutes) of Mami reading if I read them a chapter book rather than a series of picture books. That would leave the opportunity for making predictions,  daily summaries of what's happened so far, and other book related activities that we could build on each week (so far they've drawn pictures of what the main characters look like in their imagination, and i plan to have them each create an alternate ending for the book). In any case, I was on the lookout for a book I thought both girls would appreciate, and continue to appreciate for as long as it took us to finish.

My natural inclination was to read Harry Potter, but we'd done that before, and as much as I shudder to say it, my 6 year-old is just not that big an HP fan... I know it's blasphemy. My 8 year-old also suggested that it be a book I had not read before, so that the book would be new to all of us, which presented another challenge, both because I've read A LOT of books, and because it would be hard to gauge the appropriateness of the text without having read it first. But, I was up for the challenge.

After reading tons of reviews I settled on Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles. It came down to Cinder or Marie Lu's Legend Series. The latter sounded a little too intense for the 6 year-old which is how we ended up with Cinder, but don't be surprised when a bonus book review for Legend crops up some point later in the summer.

I am incredibly happy with my selection. I think this book has been great for my girls, but it's also been really fun for me to read. I must admit I was a little skeptical about how involved I was going to be in a post-apocalyptic YA novel whose main character is a cyborg loosely based on Cinderella, but it has been awesome. Meyer does an excellent job of painting a picture of the world we find ourselves in, and the story is captivating from the very first page. I was also happy that the love story between the main character, Cinder, and Prince Kai is super mild and acts as a C story, rather than the A or B story. Often in YA novels the love story is THE story, regardless of the myriad plot lines available.

The language sometimes goes a bit over my 6 year-old's head, but she is more than comfortable interrupting me to ask when she doesn't know what something means, which provides us with little vocabulary breaks :) Outside of that both of the girls are really into the story, and it makes me smile that every night without fail they ask "Can you read just one more chapter?" "How about one more paragraph." "One more sentence, pleeaaassseee mami?"

Next the girls and I will be diving into Scarlet: Book Two of the Lunar Chronicles and I will get back to my regularly scheduled summer reading list program... stay tuned!

White Oleander Review

I first saw the movie "White Oleander" a few years ago. I think they were showing it on TBS in a loop, the way TBS loves to show movies on the weekends, and I just happened to catch the beginning of it. That's the only way I watch movies actually. If I'm flipping through the channels and there's a movie I want to see, even if I've seen it before, I will only watch it if I can see it from the beginning. I always feel as though something is lost in the experience of the story if you come at it all willy nilly from the middle, or 2/3 of the way through. And the worst is when you've only missed the first 5 minutes. It's heartbreaking! It's so close to the beginning, and yet, so much can happen in the first 5 minutes that if you miss it, you'll spend the whole rest of the movie playing catch up, not fully understanding, and not quite having the same appreciation you would have if you'd experienced it in its entirety. In any case, I digress.

So, a few years ago I was watching "White Oleander" on TV and I couldn't take my eyes away from the screen. I think the best way to describe it would be, beautifully tragic. Both the book and the movie follow the all-encompassing relationship between a single mother, Ingrid, and her adolescent daughter, Astrid, as well as Astrid's own rocky relationship with herself.

In both versions (book and film) Ingrid and Astrid seem to float around in a world of Ingrid's creation, with Astrid's only tether being her mother. Ingrid is tether-less, and therefore able to make the decision to kill an ex-lover who scorned her, with little regard to the trajectory she will send her daughter on in her absence once she has been carted off to prison. The bulk of the story follows Astrid on her physical, spiritual and emotional journey as she bounces from foster home to foster home to foster home to group home in search of her place in the world, and an identity separate from the one her mother has given her.

Now, when watching the movie, I felt as though the development of Ingrid and Astrid's relationship in the beginning of the book was lacking. I felt as though not enough was done to give credence to the hold Ingrid has over Astrid for much of the rest of the film. I also felt as though Astrid's own downward spiral felt rushed, and I wished we had more time with Astrid on her journey. All that being said, it was still a captivating movie, and as I am fully aware of the constraints of the screenplay, I recognize that wanting the movie to be longer, is asking a lot.

The book was different. A few authors of wildly popular YA books have recently taken to re-writing a portion of their first book from another character's perspective. Doing this provides new insight, and literally allows the reader to see events unfold with a new pair of eyes. This is what reading White Oleander was like after watching the movie. Ingrid and Astrid's relationship is expertly crafted, and the time and detail paid to each leg of Astrid's journey is breathtaking. A large part of the book is painful, and there are definitely parts that even in their exquisite language are just hard to read, but if you choose to pick up this book, push through. Keep reading. It is worth it. When Astrid finally comes out on the other side, you feel as though you are right there with her, and you take a breath you didn't even realize you were holding.

Summer Reading List

Am I the only nerd that misses the summer reading list you used to get when you were a kid? I couldn't wait to get my list and make my way to the library. I'd get a special notebook and Papermate pen to write down all my thoughts so I wouldn't forget anything, and it was all I could do to make it until school started again, so I would finally have someone I could talk to about all the characters, plot twists and unexpected endings.

Book clubs fill the summer reading list void, but the only problem is, now that I'm a grown up I wanna read, what I want to read… hahaha. I don't want to read what somebody else tells me to read, and in book club, you eventually have to give the other folks in the book club a chance to pick books too. Now sometimes that works out great and you discover and love a book you never would have chosen for yourself. But other times, you end up spending time and energy on a book, when you'd rather be reading, or doing something else, just so you're not the slacker of the month when your book club convenes again.

Sooo, I have decided to make myself a summer reading list, and would like to enlist all of you to be my book club/ class. I will be reading and writing reviews on all of the books below (and possibly some other bonus books if I can find the time). If you have read, or would like to read any of the books on the list, comment on the appropriate book review, or this post and we can get a conversation going!

Join me my fellow Book-a-holics!!!

 Satya's Summer 2014 Reading List

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Silver Shadows (Bloodlines Book 5) by Richelle Mead

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler