Week 15: Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson (198 Pages)

TThis book was suggested to me by my mother. She is a 7th/8th grade teacher and this is a book that her students have really enjoyed. I took her up on her suggestion, and I found that I liked the book. It is an intense read and I found it hard to put down - I actually read it in 2 days time.

This book opens on Melinda, our protagonist, the summer before her freshman high school year. She has been shunned by her group of friends, because she called the cops at a party that happened over the summer. Lots of kids got in trouble - and all of the kids blame Melinda for landing them in hot water. The reason that she called the cops is slowly revealed throughout the story and is told mostly through narration in Melinda's head. Since the party and the negative reaction from her peers - she has stopped speaking. 

The author tells a provocative story with all of the pathos and humor that you would expect from a coming of age story. Melinda goes through the motions of high school, barely passing and living as an invisible member of high school society. She finds some refuge in her Art Class where her teacher gives the assignment of a "tree". She must define what a tree is, give the tree emotion, etc. Through this assignment - she begins to put into words the thing that has happened to her. She finds the voice to speak. 

So as not to spoil the story - I won't really go much further, but I do suggest that you read this compelling novel. YA is a genre that sometimes we adults dismiss, but I will say that I have found some true gems out there. This is another in that group.

Week 14: Eating The Dinosaur - Chuck Klosterman (256 pages)

This was my first introduction to Chuck Klosterman and his exciting style of writing. A dear friend of mine, Eric, let me know that he was reading and enjoying this book and after struggling through my original book for this week (The Help) - I decided to give this book a try. It is hard to fully describe this book, but basically it is several essays comparing what seem to be disparate subjects. 

Mr. Klosterman is essentially writing a philosophy book - there were times that my head was swimming with information and comparisons and thoughts that I clearly had never thought of before. This is definitely a thinking person's book. That being said - it was very easy to read, and I found most of the essays engaging. Reading about why Weezer fans are generally disappointed with Weezer albums, made me wonder if I was a true fan - since I have not been disappointed with any of their releases. He discusses Twitter, ABBA, David Koresh, Kurt Cobain and the Unabomber amongst many other topics. 

One of my favorite sections of the book was the section about football. Shocking, I know - but Mr. Klosterman was great about making the intricacies easy to understand and then, he did the best thing ever - he broke the fourth wall and gave me, the reader, permission to skip the section all together. Trust me my friends...I skipped ahead to read about ABBA. 

There were many times that I agreed with the author and many times that I thought he was a bit nuts. I really enjoyed the essays on Nirvana and The Branch Davidians, Ralph Sampson, and ABBA. I was intrigued by the others. I had some problems with the weird interview interstitials. Who who was being interviewed, what did those interviews have to do with what I had just finished reading? Outside of that bit of weirdness, this was really a great book.

Thanks to Eric for suggesting it to me. 

Week 13: The Solitude of Prime Numbers – Paolo Giordano (288 pages)

I really enjoyed this book and it is kind of hard to put my finger on why. In this debut novel – Giordano tells the story of Alice and Mattia, each tragic in their own ways. Using each chapter to tell the story from each of the character’s point of view was genius. Alice and Mattia – children growing up in Italy - have terrible burdens to bear and are each very lonely and isolated people. Giordano is quite good at letting us into their brains to see why it is they do what they do.

The book is a lovely and at times dark coming of age story – starting in 1983 and closing in 2007. Alice is pushed by her dad (quite overbearing) to become a skiing superstar. A tragic skiing accident leaves her scarred and with a limp. Of course she wants to fit in – but children being how children can be – she is taunted and teased and ridiculed.

Mattia is a twin. His sister, Michaela, is developmentally disabled and he is a genius. Strangely (to my American eyes) he and his sister are placed in the same classes at school – as he seems to be the only person that can control her “fits”. His parents insist that he take Michaela with him everywhere that he goes. He is embarrassed and is barely liked and the “burden” of his sister does nothing to improve his standing. While heading to a birthday party, something tragic happens to Michaela and Mattia turns even further into himself.

By chance, they cross paths in high school and an odd friendship grows. Each still withdraws into them self– but they also allow each other to be a part of their lives. They are prime number – numbers only divisible by themselves – but in their solitude they form a bond.  

This was a great debut novel and the fact that it was originally written in Italian is even more astounding. 27-year-old author, Paolo Girodano is a physicist by trade – he makes math fascinating and exceedingly readable. The English version is wonderful and loses nothing in translation. Lonely is lonely in any language. 

Week 12: Chasing Harry Winston – Lauren Weisberger (304 pages)

I took another foray into the land of “chick-lit” this week. Sadly, I was not overly impressed with this trip. Sure this was enjoyable, on the surface – but these characters were not well-developed and just became a bit screechy as the book moved along. I cannot truly say I would want to be friends with any of the three main characters of this novel. Part of the fun of reading, for me, is determining whether I would actually like to hang out with the protagonist(s). This book failed to get me connected in that way.


Lauren Weisberger writes her third novel – after the fabulous “The Devil Wears Prada” and ‘Everyone Worth Knowing” basing it in her favorite city, NYC. The main characters are best friends from college. Leigh (book editor, engaged to an ESPN personality – but she is not happy), Emmy (serial dater, longs for a baby and a great man), Adriana (Paris Hilton of Brazil…dates the rich and famous). These ladies, feeling that they are in a rut, make a pact to each do something drastic in their lives in the coming year. I won’t spoil it for you – but the book follows them through the year and marks their progress.


Continuity was one of the problems I had with the book. Often, in the middle of a chapter, Ms. Weisberger would advance from present to past with just a paragraph change and a bad transition. That had a jarring effect on my enjoyment. I felt I had to read back a couple of sentences to ensure I had not missed something. Though – I had interest in the ladies of the novel – it was more to see if they would fail, rather than rooting for them to succeed. That’s never a good feeling! I don’t know if I can blame Ms. Weisberger completely, but having read “…Prada” and really loving that book – I had an expectation that this book would be as well-written and developed as her debut novel.


This is a good book for an airplane flight – just enjoyable enough to block out those passengers that are annoying you, but not too great for in-depth inspection. You may say it is only “chick-lit” what did I expect? As I said in week 5 http://whatdeejahisreading.blogspot.com/2010/02/week-5-good-in-bed-jennifer-weiner-375.html just because it falls into that category doesn’t mean it has to be mindless. Unfortunately – I cannot say that about this book.

Week 11 : When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead (197 Pages)

I am not sure how to begin to write this review, this is a complicated, fun, deep and at sometimes depressing children's book. It is also, at the heart - a mystery. So there is only so much I can tell without giving away the story. It is also one of the best children's books that I have read and I can't wait to share it with my daughter when she is a bit older.

So - here is a very high-level overview. Set in the 70s, Miranda is a 12-year-old girl that is obsessed with Madeline L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In Time" (another favorite of mine). She is the daughter of a single mom who is destined to be on the $25,000 Pyramid. One day her best friend, Sal gets punched in the stomach out of the blue and her whole world changes.

The storytelling in this book is quite well done. Stead kind of does of show and tell in the story. She slips in that Miranda was named after the "Miranda's Rights", she casually mentions that she does not eat grapes because her mother does no approve of how migrant workers are treated, the fact that there is a fully operational dentist office in the school that Miranda attends is casually mentioned. It is those little pieces of information that keep the reader intrigued and that make the book hard to put down. As a matter of fact - this would be a great book to re-read, because as the end came, I could see how the puzzle comes to shape. I saw that things that were casually mentioned actually meant quite a bit to the story.

I suggest reading this book! It is phenomenal and then we can discuss it in depth.

Week 10: The Opposite of Love - Julie Buxbaum (384 pages)

What is the opposite of love? Many say it is hate – but I find that it is apathy or fear or the inability to love…that is what the main character of this book Em finds out as she faces challenges in her life. This is a very believable portrayal of a 29-year old woman that has to find the strength within herself to move forward with her life.

The book opens on Em, a young New York lawyer who seems to have it all together. She has a job, a boyfriend, and some great friends. Everything appears to be great – but the first line of chapter 1 is telling: “Last night, I dreamt that I chopped Andrew up into a hundred little pieces, like a Benihana chef, and ate them, one by one.” Something’s going on and the story takes us on that journey from the word “go”.

This book is more than mere chick lit, though – it certainly has its moments. I would say that it is an intelligent read. Em struggles with an ass of a boss, a grandfather who is struggling with Alzheimer’s, a very cold and distant relationship with her father and the breaking and repair of her relationship with her boyfriend. The pace of the story kept me connected, the humor kept me laughing and there were times that I even got a little misty as truths were revealed.

This book provided the perfect amount of escapism. Julie Buxbaum’s debut novel showed that she can mix humor and pathos perfectly. This was an enjoyable read.

Week 9 – Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris (336 pages)

I am a fan of a vampire story and I have been for as long as I can remember. My earliest attempt at vampire literature was “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” when I was about 12 years old. This book scared the wits out of me, but I was hooked.  In my 20s I got into the Anne Rice “Vampire Chronicles” and fell in love with Lestat! A couple of summers ago, I found myself caught up with grown women and tweens alike when I fell in love with Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series of books.  So – when a friend suggested that I read this book for my project, I was all about it. I have never been afraid to suspend my disbelief – and suspend it I did so that I could immerse myself into this novel.

This is the first in a series of books also known as the “Sookie Stackhouse” series. There is a very popular TV show on HBO that is based on these books as well, “True Blood”. I will admit that I did not jump on the band wagon when the show debuted and I still am not a viewer. If there is source material in the form of a book out in the world, I really try to check it out before I get another impression from a different medium.  This book follows Sookie, a waitress/bar maid in the small town of Bon Temps, LA. Vampires have been “accepted” as part of society in these United States and it seems that quite a few of them are bound and determined to fit into mainstream society. Sookie makes the acquaintance of one such vampire, Bill Compton. Bill is nearly 140 years old and has been “dead” since 5 years after the Civil War. These two strike up an unlikely romance in this very prejudiced Southern town.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the fact that it was just a tween romance that you could get swept up in. This book touched on how whites treated blacks, how vampires were vilified even after the government gave them rights to be an active part of society, it was a murder mystery and there were some great laugh out loud moments as when Sookie obtains a bodyguard called Bubba who it turns out is Elvis Presley (though the author never says his name – that would make Bubba upset)!

Stronger language and violence than the Twilight series (this precedes those books by 7 years or so) it is a captivating read and similar to Lays Potato Chips – it is going to be hard to “eat” just one.