A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

YOU ALL. Listen. You know how sometimes you are maybe somewhere and you get asked, "If you could have lunch with anyone, who would it be"? Well, I never have an answer to that question. Never! BUT, now I do. Hands down, without a doubt, I want to spend some time with Mary Frances Nolan, the protagonist of this most excellent novel. Francie is the most precious heroine in the world and I think will forever be one of my most favorites.

I don't have the patience for plot summaries and all that, but it is a coming of age story and takes place in (surprise, surprise) Brooklyn, in the early 1900s. Here's the Goodreads Book Blurb: The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

And, there ya go. Here are some of my favorite quotes...although, really, pretty much everything that comes out of Francie's mouth is charming.

Responding to her brother's claim of getting drunk she says:
"I've been drunk too...last spring, I saw a tulip for the first time in my life...Well, when I looked at it, the way it was growing, and how the leaves were, and how purely red the petals were, with yellow inside, the world turned upside down and everything went around like the colors in a kaleidoscope-like you said. I was so dizzy I had to sit on a park bench...I don't need to drink to get drunk. I can get drunk on things like the tulip".

 PRECIOUS, right??

And another:
"No! I don't want to need anybody. I want someone to need me...I want someone to need me." 

Yes, don't we all?

One more, quoting her granma:
"To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory."

Ohhhh, I just love this book and I love Francie Nolan.

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral

Book blurb from Goodreads: After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As readers flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, they see a girl on the precipice of disaster.


So.  This book was a brand new experience for me.  Glory's story is told non-traditionally in pictures, photographs, and words.  I suppose someone somewhere has done this before.  I have not been privvy to this type of book before so it felt very new to me.  I finished it start to finish in about 45 minutes and I was being somewhat leisurely. 


Glory is a piano prodigy.  Her mother is dead and her father is raising her solo.  She begins a relationship with "the boy next door", Francisco Mendoza, somewhere in those wild, turbulent, crazy, maddening high-school years.  The story of her rise and fall is told mostly through correspondance between the two of them.  The author and illustrator use everything from ticket stubs to oil paintings to actual photographs to convey what is happening to Glory, both in the outside world and inside her mind.  It is not a "happy" story, but neither is it likely to leave you needing tissues.  


What I loved about this book is the uniqueness of this format.  I really enjoyed engaging my sense of sight while reading.  It was intriguing to see the story through the author and illustrator's eyes.  I wouldn't want to read these books all the time (generally speaking, I like EPIC tales of monstrous proportions), but it was a very enjoyable experience that I would repeat again at some point.


As far as the story goes, I thought it was very good.  I was engaged in the story as it went along, never got bored and I never saw the twist coming.  Call me dumb or the author excellent, I was blind sided.  I did not love, however, the open ending.  I really like closure and this book left me making up my own ending.  Dislike.  Most of it is wrapped up except for a very obvious missing element.  And that's all I will say about that. 


Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Maximum Ride: Saving The World & Other Extreme Sports Book Review

Ok, I have to admit that I have never read an adult James Patterson novel.  I hesitate using the word "novel" because in my mind that word is reserved for some loftier genre of literature other than mystery or romance, but I have no idea what, if any, difference there is between a book and a novel.

Anyway, this was a first for me.  Of course it's classified as Young Adult since I can't seem to pull myself away from that genre of books.  In fact, tonight I am planning on going to the library with Hubby & I am 99% sure that the Young Adult section will be the only one I venture into while there.  Although I did buy the book "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson, I haven't started reading it yet.  This week I have read "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, "Trickster's Queen" by Tamora Pierce, & of course "Maximum Ride" by James Patterson.  No, I don't read like a speed demon...I just read multiple books at once & I tend to subconsciously pace myself so I finish them all about the same time.  No idea why. I am also almost done with a fourth ("As Sure As The Dawn" by Francine Rivers).

Anyway, I promise I am going to review this book in this post.  I loved it!  Which surprised me.  I read a lot of books (duh), but I don't love a lot of books.  In fact, I only love probably 5-10% of the books I read.  It was simple of course.  It was extremely light reading...I started & finished it today...even while taking care of a 12-week-old!  Who will be waking up any minute now so I better hurry!  But there is just something about these bird kids that I loved.  They have sass & they have heart.  The good news is that this was the 3rd book in a series of 7...so far!  I have no idea how many Mr. Patterson plans on writing, but I plan on reading them.  They may not stay good...you know how normally the more books or movies are made, the less satisfying they are (except with trilogies...3 can be a magical number).  

I wouldn't recommend these books to everybody because like I said they are very light reads.  But I'll tell you what, James Patterson can write!  He had me flipping those pages so fast! He kind of lost my interest a little tiny bit at the end...things maybe worked out a little bit too cleanly if you know what I mean, but overall a very fun read!  I am very interested in reading one of his adult novels to see if he "beefs" them up at all.  If he doesn't, I think I will be disappointed because if these were written for adults, I would not have liked them so much.  I think it's normal to alter your expectations when you consider the audience. 

For example, I saw "The Last Airbender" with Hubby & I just hope that the movie was M. Night Shymalan's attempt at a movie geared to a younger audience.  If not, then I have to say that other than awesome special affects, it wasn't very good.  But thinking it was made for children makes it a much better movie.  I have no idea what his intentions were, by the way, I'm just sayin'. 

Also, they are supposedly making Maximum Ride into a movie which could be pretty cool.  The concept of flying kids is unique right now (unlike, say, vampires!!!) & it could actually be a very pretty movie.  I mean, wings are gorgeous, right??  I think I would have to read the original Maximum Ride book to see what I think about a movie cuz I'm sure that's the one they would turn into a movie. 

Alrighty, that's all I got.
Happy Reading!!

I'm off to re-read the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
You know they are awesome because I am RE-reading them.  I just bought them all in hardback & can't wait to indulge in the fiction decadence!!

"Life of Pi" Book Review

ok, weird.  But not bad, really. At first I really didn't like it, but it grew on me.  I think it goes slowly in the beginning & I still fail to see exactly how relevant those details about Pi's life are that take place during the first third of the book.


Let me back up.


The "Life of Pi" is written by Yann Martel & is about a boy/teenager/man named Piscine who goes by Pi for short.  It is about his upbringing, but mostly it's about a shipwreck that leaves him stranded on a lifeboat with a Spotted Hyena, a Zebra, an Orangutan, & a Bengal Tiger.  It is one of those stranded stories about survival.   (Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe, The Open Boat by Stephen Crane, Cast Away, etc.) 


The use of animals is one of my favorite aspects in this book.   Which may be so obvious to most readers, but when I picked up the book to read it, I didn't know what it was about.  I don't really know why I picked it up, but I think I had heard of it before or something.  So, anyway, the use of animals was really intriging to me.  In the first part of the book, the author talks about "animalus anthropomorphicus" which basically means giving human attributes to animals.  Like, in your mind, you turn a grizzly bear into a fuzzy, huggable creature because you think bears act like humans.   But, really they are bears.  Dogs are dogs, but a lot of people think dogs have the same brain capacity as children.  They really don't.  So what is up with all these animals?  Tiger=alpha dawg. Hyene=crazy.  Zebra=sweet. Orangutan=brave.  Are these attributes of Pi's? 

It is also a coming of age story.  Pi, in a sense, morphs from a scared boy into a man who becomes dominant over the tiger.  That part I understand.  After this, however, they (Pi & the tiger...the only animal who survives in the lifeboat) end up on an island that "eats" anything warm blooded at night.  By eat, I mean fries them alive. Really strange stuff.  Over my head I assume. 

I don't really know.  It was very interesting, but I'm not sure what it's bigger purpose is (I only assume there is a bigger purpose than entertainment), or what the author is trying to say.  I probably wouldn't recommend it, but it was on the best seller's list (whose?  I'm not sure!) so maybe I am missing something.  Every once in awhile I try to venture out of my Young Adult world, but this time I was unsuccessful.  It is amazing to me that I have a degree in English & love books as much as I need oxygen, but still can read a book & be like "what the...?"

Anyway, this is my first book review so sorry it's not stellar.
I don't really know which books to review & which ones not to...but I think I'll stick to easier ones :)
Happy Reading!!