Review: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Book: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Genre: YA
Rating: ****
For: Fun (keeping up with the awards!)
From: the library

Here's another book that recently won an award (the Printz Award no less!) which prompted me to instantly request it from the library and once again, I'm actually quite surprised it came to me to so fast!

And now if only I can find words to describe what this book was like! The story alternates between two points of view... one is this kid who lives in this small town where there's nothing to do and he just wants out. He loves his brother and family, he loves this girl who seems unattainable, he loves his best buddy and they all have some fun times together.... especially making fun of the strange guy who shows up going on and on about an extinct woodpecker which he claims to have sighted in this town.

The other story line is this strange religious journey that first one boy takes, which he then passes on, in a sense, to another kid. I was baffled by this story and of course, in all my clueless-ness, had no idea what it had to do with anything. But of course, we all know it will make sense in the end.

Anyway, and then something happens, which I'm not going to say here because I think it's better if it hits you out of the blue, but I'm sure other reviews and summaries will tell you what it is, if you are dying to know. And that something throws everything off, especially our teenage kid who was already feeling pretty down and out. Now things are so much worse!

This book had a kind of a Catcher in the Rye feel to me, but at the same time is nothing like that book. I know, I just KNOW there are tons of symbolic messages to be had, but I just can't seem to put my finger on what they are! You know the kind of book though? It feels so DEEP but you just aren't sure why? Yeah?

Or maybe I'm just too tired to really figure it out!

But I liked the style, I like the kid, I liked how he talked to himself (when one does that one starts using the word ONE a lot!) I liked the surprise and twisty moments.

Bottom line: Yeah, I really liked this one!

Other Reviews:

A Book a Day
The Book Nest
My Books. My Life.

Weekly Geeks 2011.2: The Printz Award

In honor the awards that were announced last week, Weekly Geeks asks us about our feelings and/or plans regarding book awards. The option I'm choosing to answer today is this one:

Choose an award (like the Printz and Newbery) and look at the list of previous winners/honors. Which books have you read and enjoyed? Are there any that you hated? Share a few 'favorites' with your readers. (If you haven't read any lately, maybe you might want to write up a post listing a few you'd be interested in reading soon.)


Once, nearly two years ago now, I got all excited about the Printz Awards and even started a Printz Project (mostly Jessica from The Bluestocking Society started it, but I cheered her on!) and I said I would read lots of Printz books! But then, it never really seemed to happen, so one of my reading goals for this year is to re-commit to reading some Printz books. I have a bunch just sitting here waiting for me!

But first, let me share with you some of my favorites from that list, and then I'll list some of the ones I'd really love to read.

Favorites:

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Vol. 1 by M.T. Anderson
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
A Northern Light by Jonnifer Donnelly
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson


Hope to Read:

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Vol. 2 by M. T. Anderson
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Skellig by David Almond
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
how i live now by Meg Rosoff
Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Which Printz books have you read and loved? Which ones do you think I need to add to my list?

Twitter Chatting and Challenge Hosting

Have you ever followed a Twitter chat event? Whoa, talk about eye/hand/brain coordination! For those new-ish to Twitter, this is kind of like the old chat room experience, only it's through Twitter, where you chat about a certain subject for a certain amount of time, and use a hashtag (#) so it's easy to follow only those tweets. Sometimes we call it a Twitter party too! (I feel silly explaining as if I know so much about it!) Anyway, this past week or two I have suddenly seemed to discover this whole phenomenon.

For instance, on Wednesday evening it was the launch of a new Twitter chat meant to be a conversation between book bloggers called #Bblog. (Of course any book loving person can participate) Luckily, I was able to join in for a fun conversation about reading challenges. An ironic topic for me since I just dumped a bunch of them this last week. For the schedule (which looks like it's growing quickly) click on over to their dedicated blog.

Also, just yesterday afternoon, I followed (and sort of participated) in the #followreader chat, which I've seen before but hadn't really paid attention too. This time, there was a roaring discussion about the relationship between bloggers and authors and publishers, and ever interesting ongoing topic. Also, I topic I have pretty much no clue about, so it was fun to see what so many thought and what they had to say. It has it's own blog too, where the Twitter convos are even archived.

Then, of course, a few weeks ago there was that wild Twitter party for those involved in Armchair BEA. That was fun. I would suggest, if you decide to try coming along for a Twitter chat ride, that you use something like Tweetchat.com.... very easy, plus it adds the hahstag automatically for you and it makes it much more possible for you to follow the conversation.

Anyway, one of the things we talked about during the #Bblog chat was what makes a good reading challenge host. It's something I've been wondering about since just this year I started a challenge of sorts meant to support local authors, and last year, Jessica from The Bluestocking Society and I started the Printz Project. And I haven't really done much about them since, except wonder what I should be doing about them!

So here's what I'm thinking. Little mini challenges for each one of them.

For the Support Your Local Author Challenge, I propose that current participants make a page (or post and link to it somewhere on your blog) that lists all your local authors you are interested in, and the books under each one that you hope to read. Then as you review the books, link your reviews to that page. Perhaps many of you have already done this and I just haven't been observant! Natasha from Maw Books has her list here. And I've just created my list here. (though reviews aren't linked up yet as of this writing.) Currently this challenge is a little heavy with participants from Utah (since those bloggers sort of know me) so I'd love to see people from other places, especially, get a list going so I can see who your local authors are!

The mini challenge idea for the Printz Project is simple. Read two Printz books by the end of the summer! I got all excited about this project, and then I don't think I've read a Printz book since! So I especially need to pick it up and get back on the wagon.

Let me know what you think, if you do one of these minis, and if I should figure out prizes to go along with. Here's hoping I can be a better challenge host!

Weekly Geeks 2010.2: Awards!

Did you hear? Some book awards were announced today! How nice it is that for Weekly Geeks we are encouraged to talk about this announcement.

The two awards that I follow most closely and have a constant urge to read from their lists are the Newbery Award and the Printz Award.

The winner for the Newbery Award is When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Cool! I loved this book and reviewed it here. I'm very excited this won and I will look forward to promoting it at the book fair and other such places. It's a great book.

Honor books are:

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

None of these I've really heard of, so I'll be adding them to my reading list.

The winner for the Printz Award is Going Bovine by Libba Bray. I've heard tons about this one, but just haven't had a chance to read it yet. So looks like I'll be bumping it higher on my list.

Honor books are:

Charles and Emma; The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancy

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp

Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance 1973 by John Barnes

None of these I've heard of either! I need to get reading! Sheesh, what have I been doing with myself!

Now is a perfect time to promote the Printz Project, something Jessica from The Bluestocking Society and I started last April. Come join us and read all the Printz books. This award has only been around since 2000 so the list isn't long. Once you read one, come share your review with us. It's an ongoing project, and we are very laid back and easy going over there. Some of my favorite Printz books (winners and honors) that I've read so far are:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Vol. 1 by M.T. Anderson

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

There's an ongoing project for the Newbery Award too. Head on over and check them out. This award has been around since 1922, so the list is significantly longer... but the books are short, so, might as well read them! Some of my favorite Newbery books that I've read are:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath

Holes by Louis Sachar

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The Giver by Lois Lowry

... and I better stop at that, because the list goes on and on. There's lots of favorites on that list!

What Printz and Newbery books of you read and loved? Do you plan on reading any of these new winners?

Announcing the Printz Project!

Yesterday, after writing my thoughts on Jellicoe Road, and deciding once and for all to join something that makes me read more Printz Award books, I discovered that there really wasn't an official Printz Challenge going on. I remembered that Jessica from The Bluestocking Society had mentioned something on her blog about a Printz Project... but when I went there, it appeared that she had just been doing that on her own.

So I said to her, "How about we do one of those challenge things together, and make it official?" Before I knew it, she had this blog created for the official Printz Project!

So if the idea of reading some Printz Award books sounds intriguing to you, please be sure to head over to the Printz Project page and leave a comment to sign up! This will be an ongoing challenge, just something to work on at your own pace, but when you do read a book, then write a review and comment with a link on the post for that particular book. You'll find posts for all the different books on the challenge blog.

Also, I think we plan on doing some sort mini-challenge to get you motivated to start! Stay tuned for that.

Anyway, here are the Printz books I've read up to this date:

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, winner 2009

Looking for Alaska by John Green, winner 2006

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, honor 2007

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, honor 2007

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, honor 2006

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, honor 2004

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, honor 2003

True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff, honor 2002

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, honor 2000

Here are the ones I have planned to read, just for starters:

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson, honor 2007

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt, honor 2005

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson, honor 2009

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers, winner 2000

But I may just go to the library, see what they have, and then this whole list will change!

Anyway, we'd love for you to join us on the quest!

Special Features

Here's a few of the features I'm having fun with on the blog:

Support Your Local Authors: A perpetual (ongoing) challenge where you buy, read and review authors local to you. Promote them to the rest of us! Click here and comment on this post to join, then when you are ready to

review, click here and comment with your link and I'll add it to the main post.

Suey's Top Tens: Every

now and then, I'll make a list of ten of my favorite books in a particular category. Eventually, I hope to have a big long list of categories. Here's what I have so far:

• Historical Fiction
• Childhood Favorites: Picture Books
• Animal Books
• Read Again for the First Time
• Science Fiction/Fantasy
• Love Triangles
• Chunky Classics

Authors Pick Five: Whenever I have contact with an author, my hope is to ask them what five books have been most influential in their life. Here's what I have so far:

• Paul Harris
• Cathy Holton
• J. Scott Savage
• Angela Morrison
• David Ebershoff
• James Dashner

The Bookword Game: An idea hatched by Raidergirl3 of An Adventure in Reading, and she asked if I could be part of it. It's a game where we think of a bookish situation that needs a word to describe, and you, our readers think of, then vote on the words. Very fun! Join us! Here's what we have so far:

• RecommenDud: A book you hate that everyone else love
• CheckBook: A book that you find yourself checking to see how many more pages are left, on every single page!
• Memoread: A book that reminds you of another book you have already read, not necessarily in plot, but in tone and atmosphere.
• Wait-listed: A book that continually gets moved to the 'next in the pile,' but never gets read.
• Marginally Challenged: A book with very little space between lines (likely, it's a public domain book/classic) giving deceivingly few pages to read.
• Misunderbook: A book that you LOVE, but everyone else (well almost everyone) HATES.
• A Flick Pick: A book you read after you've seen the movie.
• Olibook: A book you read because you think you should in order to be well-read.
• Whoopsabooksy: A book you buy that you forgot you already read/own.

The Printz Project: After reading a loving several Printz award or honor winners, I decided I needed to read them all. A project or challenge of this sort didn't exist, so Jessica of The Bluestocking Society and I created one. Join us! It's an ongoing, perpetual, easy challenge.

Weekly Geeks: A wonderful weekly meme started by blogger extraordinaire, Dewey. When she passed on, a few of us came together to make sure Weekly Geeks lived on. I'm happy to be part of that group, and will be posting a question or project now and then on the Weekly Geek blog.

What the family is reading: This is an official feature of sorts where every now and then in a Sunday Salon post , I'll list.... what the family is reading. People seem to enjoy it, so I'll keep it up. The family consists of: The Mr., Bud (20, and away from home at the moment), JJ (17), Moder (14) and Toto (10). Click here for an example.