Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee

Although I'm seriously behind on writing my review blurbs - this will be corrected when school ends next week - I have to give my shout out to an awesome book store we visited while in Milwaukee this weekend for the wedding of a former student. Boswell Book Company is on a cool street that was worth the short drive from our hotel. Stacie William's short story book display caught David's eye, and although we once again had promised we were not there to buy books, Stacie's recommendations sent us home with Volt, a story collection by Alan Heathcock that David started on the plane. Check out their Boswell's book blog.

Senior Tribute First Period

First Period Senior Slideshow

Senior Tribute Third Period

AP English Third Period Senior Slideshow

Citrus County by John Brandon

Citrus County (McSweeney's Rectangulars)

This one took me by surprise. I ran out and got Citrus County from the library when I read that John Brandon had been named one of New York Public Library's Young Lion Award winners and novel is published by McSweeney's. An awkward middle school boy named Toby is the protagonist at the center of this equally hilarious and disturbing tale. I want other readers to have the same reaction I had when I got to the end of the first chapter and realized this book would be a wild ride.

The Uncoupling by Meg Wollitzer

The Uncoupling
Meg Wollitzer loves to tackle the awkwardness of sexual relationships. Her new novel is about a high school whose production of Lysistrata causes a spell to be cast over the whole suburban neighborhood. Suddenly wives and girlfriends lose interest in sex! Amusing premise and clever characters, especially the husband/wife English teacher team, kept me chuckling through this novel.

No Permanent Scars by Michael Hemery

No Permanent Scars
Michael Hemery is a former student and very good friend, so unbiased praise for his memoir about growing up in the same town where I teach and live is impossible. Sorry! But I enthusiastically recommend it to any one interested in reliving a lazy summer day of bicycle riding in the suburbs, or the agony of a poorly timed allergic reaction, or the wrath of an evil music teacher. Mike's combination of nostalgia and coming-of-age experiences vividly recreate not only his childhood, but the childhood of any one blessed enough to grow up the only child of loving parents who never sugar coated life's lessons. Perhaps because I am also an only child, the book rings true. The cover photograph only shows the hands of Mike's dad, whose memory the book is dedicated to, and whose wisdom and frankness permeate the vignettes.

Mike Hemery's website

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by D.C. Pierson

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To (Vintage Contemporaries)

Love and Summer by William Trevor

Love and Summer: A Novel

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Swamplandia! (See all Contemporary Literature)

Because I am a huge fan of Karen Russell's story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves", I anxiously anticipated this novel and wanted to love it and rave about it to my friends. Developed from a short story, "Ave Wrestles the Alligator", Swamplandia is the story of an alligator wrestling family that manages the Swamplandia theme park. The plot is quirky, the characters are less than believable and the best I can say is I'm glad I read it but would unenthusiastically recommend it to a friend.

Another Cool Independent Bookstore

Glad to have found Park Road Books today. Although I walked in saying I didn't need any more books, the great recommendations of Sally Brewster had me walking out with three new ones to add to the to-be-read pile.

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran

Pomegranate Soup: A Novel
- book #3 in the Irish Book Challenge - was a delightful read for a snow day in February. Appropriately described on the cover as reminiscent of Chocolat and Under the Tuscan Sun, the book tells the story of the Aminpour sisters, who have fled Iran and opened the Babylon Cafe in Ballinacroagh Ireland. Each chapter of the novel begins with a recipe that figures into the plot of the chapter somehow. At first I thought the book was going to be a fluffed up romance, but the emotional baggage that the sisters have brought along with them makes the book more complex, weaving in the history of the Iranian Revolution. I am tempted to try a recipe or two - especially fessenjoon - a chicken, walnut, pomegranate dish. Also, one of the characters climbs Croagh Patrick in the novel, as did the author, who is married to Irish American.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Skippy Dies: A Novel
- Book #2 of my Irish book challenge - was worth every minute of the time it took to read the 661 pages of Skippy Dies. I would loosely describe it as Harry Potter meets Animal House meets Dead Poet's Society. The setting is Dublin's Seabrook College for boys, and the title delivers it's promise early when 14 year old Daniel "Skippy" Juster dies on the floor of Ed's Doughnut Shop during a doughnut eating contest with his pudgy science-geek roommate, Ruprecht Van Doren. The book, which is sometimes sold under three separate covers, flashes back through the first two books, Hopeland and Heartland, to give readers the background into Skippy's demise - which includes drug-dealers, deluded and corrupt educators and young hormone-racing love. The final section, Ghostland, finds teenages trying to deal with the loss of a friend and sort out the mysteries of death. But the absolute joy of this entertaining story was the literary richness that it offers as well. Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost and some engaging history lessons mingle with some beautifully written passages about the redeeming qualities of story-telling to make this a book I won't stop talking about for a long time!

The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins

So as a way to spice up my already over-active reading goals, I have decided to take Laura Miller's suggestion and enter into a reading challenge for 2011. Since we have been talking about making a trip to Ireland, I chose the Irish Reading Challenge and decided on The Outside Boy: A Novel
as my first read because my cousin Martha had been trying to get me to read this book last summer. What a great novel to begin with. Set in Ireland in 1959, it is the story of 12 year old Christy Hurley's quest to determine the real story of his mother's life. He has been told by his father that his mother died giving birth to him - that they only shared 7 minutes on this earth. The story is sweet and engaging but also very informative as I knew nothing about the Pavee culture. Reading this novel led me to research these nomadic Irish travelers who are largely tinkers and constitute 0.5 percent of Ireland's population today.

Deadline

I have long been a Chris Crutcher fan and bought this book when it came out back on 2009 but hadn't gotten around to reading it until now, when I have to decide which novel to use with my Junior students 2nd semester. This book has everything that high school kids would love, and is a pretty quick and easy read. The premise is a bit far-fetched. Ben Wolf discovers that he has leukemia just before the start of his senior year and decides to tell no one. He spends his year going after the affections of a hotttie girl, trying his hand at football, befriending the local drunk and arguing with his history teacher. The book touches on pretty strong issues - sexual abuse, pedophilia, drinking and drug abuse. I'm going to recommend it to students but not teach it this year. It is a great high school book.

Sunset Park by Paul Auster

David gave me this book for Christmas and Paul Auster is a great writer, but the story was so-so and I found myself putting it down more often than picking it up. Two stars.

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon

Luckily, a Christmas break lunch visit with Salvatore Scibona reminded me that I had purchased Lord of Misrule the day after it won the National Book Award. On a strong recommendation from Salvatore, I started the book on December 27 and read it as much as I could over the remainder of the Christmas break week - stealing time from family visits and getting out of bed to read after everyone else was asleep. Although I didn't think that a book about horse racing would appeal to me at all, the beauty of Jaimy Gordon's prose made the subject matter secondary. Her vernacular was a quirky as the names of her minor characters - Deucey Gifford, Medicine Ed, Kiddstuff, Suitcase Smithers, Two-Tie, and Joe Dale Bigge. I had to read slowly to isolate plot details from West Virginia dialect of stall conversations and metaphoric descriptions. I would describe it as something like the Cannery Row of horse racing. A lovely Christmas present to myself was carving out the time to read this beautiful book.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

My second ibook was a Christmas break comic treat that allowed me to read early in the a.m. by the light of the Christmas tree with my backlit iPad screen. Quite a luxury. I loved the crazy complications that 4 wives and 28 children brought to Golden Richard's life. This book reminds me a bit of a John Irving novel, with plot details that evoke wry laughter.

False Friend by Myla Goldberg

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Room by Emma Donahue

I can't say enough about how heartbreaking and lovely this book is.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Much anticipated and worth the wait.

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Gary Shteyngart is the new American satirist. I plan to use sections of this crazy, funny, cautionary novel opposite Brave New World in AP English this winter. It is a super entertaining and pretty spot-on depiction of modern relationships, politics, economic disaster and obsession with technology.

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

A wedding night tragedy opens this novel which follows the lives of the family members of the bride and groom through the next four summers. For some reason, none of the characters really won my sincere support. Waldman is the wife of novelist Michael Chabon.

Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbes

Wow! This one may win the prize for the book that kept me up the latest on a summer night turning pages to find out how Vanderbes' Thanksgiving day tragedy would finally end. The Olson family has plenty of issues - unmarried daughter Ginny's recently adopted, mute Indian child, son Douglas's strained relationship with his wife Denise, and the unspoken wounds in the marriage of the parents, Eleanor (the perfectionist) and Gavin (the Vietnam war-scarred quiet man). Mix in a malfunctioning oven, two angry teenager burglars, and a heavy serving of mayhem with dessert and you have a shockingly violent novel that somehow also had me snickering.