It's Friiiiiiday! Yay!
Yeeehaaah! Horray for the weekend! I'm covering a high-class shindig tomorrow, and just kicking back Sunday. Not sure about Saturday morning yet, other than water aerobics (I haven't gone for a while, shame on me! 10 lashes with a wet noodle!)
Keep your fingers crossed for me. I hope in a couple weeks, I will have some great news to share.
Now, on to the book reviews!
"A Child Called 'It'" by Dave Pelzer. An incredibly sad, moving, and yet hopeful story. The author narrates his childhood horrors of abuse from his mother, abuse that, at the time, was considered one of the worst childhood abuse cases in California ever investigated. Hanky alert for this one! There are two follow-ups to this novel.
"American Born Chinese," by Gene Luen Yang. An entertaining read, good for middle school and up. It's a graphic novel, which illustrates three seemingly unrelated stories -- the exploits of the Monkey King, Jin Wang and his adjustment to school, and Danny's struggles as he deals with his embarrassing cousin, Chin-Kee.
"Freakonomics," by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. After reading many of the comments about this book here and elsewhere, this book piqued my curiousity. Good points: It's a fast read. It does raise some interesting questions. It's...a fast read. Bad points: The authors want to dispell a lot of long-held beliefs by poking holes in those beliefs,but they leave a lot of holes wide open on their own theories. Example: the authors mentioned the reduction of the crack trade, and state it's because of the increased risk of death and arrest. What they DON'T mention is that crack sales have probably gone down because the drugs of choice now are a. methamphetamine, which is cheap to make, and b. pharmecutical drugs. The assertion that adopted children do less well, even when placed in an affluent home, is a bit suspicious, because the average age of those children is never given. At best, such claims are a stretch. The whole thing about how reading to a child has no bearing in their schooling is absolute balony, and the last chapter on names left my head spinning. I never did figure out the point they were trying to make with *that* one.
66 / 150
(44.0%)
Also tried reading "Robots of Dawn," by Issac Asimov. I gave up about halfway through. If I didn't have about 10 other library books calling my name (and they have *such* a siren song!), I would probably attempt to finish it, but all in all, this tale in the Robots universe was very disappointing. I had expected far better, especially considering the quality in Caves of Steel, I, Robot and, of course, The Foundation series. It was all same-old, same-old. Worse, the same points kept getting belabored over and over and over and over and over and...ahem. Sorry. The final straw for me was the five-page monologue from one character on how much Elijah's light touch on her cheek meant to her. Yes. Five pages. I counted. This is very skippable.
Keep your fingers crossed for me. I hope in a couple weeks, I will have some great news to share.
Now, on to the book reviews!
"A Child Called 'It'" by Dave Pelzer. An incredibly sad, moving, and yet hopeful story. The author narrates his childhood horrors of abuse from his mother, abuse that, at the time, was considered one of the worst childhood abuse cases in California ever investigated. Hanky alert for this one! There are two follow-ups to this novel.
"American Born Chinese," by Gene Luen Yang. An entertaining read, good for middle school and up. It's a graphic novel, which illustrates three seemingly unrelated stories -- the exploits of the Monkey King, Jin Wang and his adjustment to school, and Danny's struggles as he deals with his embarrassing cousin, Chin-Kee.
"Freakonomics," by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. After reading many of the comments about this book here and elsewhere, this book piqued my curiousity. Good points: It's a fast read. It does raise some interesting questions. It's...a fast read. Bad points: The authors want to dispell a lot of long-held beliefs by poking holes in those beliefs,but they leave a lot of holes wide open on their own theories. Example: the authors mentioned the reduction of the crack trade, and state it's because of the increased risk of death and arrest. What they DON'T mention is that crack sales have probably gone down because the drugs of choice now are a. methamphetamine, which is cheap to make, and b. pharmecutical drugs. The assertion that adopted children do less well, even when placed in an affluent home, is a bit suspicious, because the average age of those children is never given. At best, such claims are a stretch. The whole thing about how reading to a child has no bearing in their schooling is absolute balony, and the last chapter on names left my head spinning. I never did figure out the point they were trying to make with *that* one.
66 / 150
(44.0%)
Also tried reading "Robots of Dawn," by Issac Asimov. I gave up about halfway through. If I didn't have about 10 other library books calling my name (and they have *such* a siren song!), I would probably attempt to finish it, but all in all, this tale in the Robots universe was very disappointing. I had expected far better, especially considering the quality in Caves of Steel, I, Robot and, of course, The Foundation series. It was all same-old, same-old. Worse, the same points kept getting belabored over and over and over and over and over and...ahem. Sorry. The final straw for me was the five-page monologue from one character on how much Elijah's light touch on her cheek meant to her. Yes. Five pages. I counted. This is very skippable.