A modern day children's classic

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne




What a shocker!  I was lucky not to have known all about it beforehand.  I started the book with no more than the mental image of a small boy sitting on the ground behind a tall, barbed-wire fence.

After the end they had an interview between the author and the publisher--I wish all books would have that!  They talk about where the idea came from, how the book was written, and what the readers' reactions were. He didn't give very many specific reader's criticisms, unfortunately because I was wondering if some people were upset at the things he left out.  Not me--I was glad to be spared the details.  Some were things you wouldn't expect a 9-year-old to understand or even recognize, like his mother's issues.  And a few were simply to awful for him to speak about, if he even knew the words to use. I think Mr. Boyne  made a very wise choice to leave some pages blurry and let the reader imagine what he would, based on his age and level of sophistication.  It broadens his base of readers. I hope the movie did the same.

Not deep but interesting

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

, from Childhood to Go Set a Watchman
by Charles J. Shields

This was published in 2006 so don't expect it to answer the question of whether she did or did not authorize the publication of her second novel.  I've read enough about the novel to believe that it's about what you'd expect from a writer working alone, without the collaboration of an editor, publisher, or group of colleagues.  In other words, a first draft.

It's funny that in all his research Mr. Shields never found out that she actually completed the manuscript. He only said that she stopped working on it. I wonder if she really did?

Better leave that question to the experts.  This is a pretty good biography although it didn't exactly have the depth I sought for.  I imagine it's harder to write about a person who doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve and blurt out all her private, personal thoughts in endless letters to her best friends.  I wonder if it's easier in this age of twitter and instagram?

Pile on the agony, humorously

Fat Cat
by Robin Brande

One of the really good teen books I've encountered lately.  Starts out simple--overweight girl wants to win the science contest because she's sick and tired of losing to her former best friend.  A boy, of course.  But it doesn't stay simple for long.

Soon we're dealing with some pretty intense issues of self-loathing, food comfort, control, betrayal... and maybe even dating.  At first I thought the girl seemed impossibly naive about sex--she seemed to be shockingly ignorant about what seventeen-year-old boys thought about--but I was wrong. She had such a negative self image that she never considered herself attractive.

Lots of good stuff here. My only quibble is that she didn't dress the part for her final presentation.

Trip in time and place--the best kind

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

by Laurie Lee

Best travel book I've read in a long time. A year or so long time, anyway.  He really gets it--you know?  Some travelers don't, and their books are a bore.  But Laurie Lee knew how to travel!

So it starts out in 1934 with Mr. Lee stepping out his door in Stroud, ready to walk to London via the scenic route.  He stops in London, working for a while as a manual laborer, then heads to Spain--for no apparent reason other than he knew a sentence in Spanish.  Literally--A sentence.

But he can play the violin and has tough feet, so he sets out to tramp around Spain. Not all is well in pre-Franco Spain; if life had been prosperous and generally happy, the country might have undergone an easy transition from a monarchy to a republic and Franco wouldn't have been able to seize power. There's not a lot of politics in the book, but there are a lot of villages where food is scarce and jobs nonexistent. People who don't have a future and can't imagine one--people easily fooled by a big-talking bully who agrees with their nonsensical theories about "what's wrong" and promises to make it all come right.  Does that remind you of someone?

It's surprising Mr. Lee didn't get taken for a spy. But he appears to be a likeable tramp and certainly doesn't have any money. He's just a bum on the road who can fiddle like crazy. And write a darn good memoir.

Graciously, and Grandly

The Grand Sophy
by Georgette Heyer

A regency romance?  Me?

Finished it?  And loved it?

No way!  But true. I screamed and cheered at the end. (Figuratively, of course--not being you-know-who, I'd never dream of exhibiting such shocking behavior.)

Don't expect deep meaning, symbolism, harsh criticism of societal mores, or psychological observation.  Go with a light heart and a willingness to suspend disbelief, and go very prepared to be entertained.  It's like an Avengers movie set in Regency-era England and minus the super powers or evil genius.

I immediately started looking for another of Georgette Heyer's books on CD at the library. They have several, but the only ones that people liked as well as this were checked out.

Sort of okay, or somewhat okay

The Mystery of the Periodic Table 
by Benjamin D. Wiker, Jeanne Bendick

More like what I wanted "The Disappearing Spoon" to be but still not what I wanted.  This one was much shorter and better organized; I closed it feeling like I'd learned a bit. And I was entertained, which is the real reason I read these sort of books.  If I wanted to learn chemistry I'd pick up a textbook.

That sounded sarcastic but really wasn't--a well written textbook can be eminently readable.  And so was this.  And I now remember what an isotope is.

It's a pretty good history and recommended for budding young chemists who want to go back and see how we figured all this out.  Definitely a sokay.

Didn't Bomb at all

Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

by Steve Sheinkin

Shelved as YA but they could put a copy on the A shelf if they wanted to.  It's a quick but seemingly comprehensive story of the race of the U.S. to beat Hitler to the atomic bomb and of the equally determined race of the Soviet Union to steal the science behind it.  Oppenheimer is the central figure in the building of the bomb--I'm not sure if that's completely accurate but certainly not inaccurate.  Harry Gold, David Greenglass, and Klaus Fuchs are the villain spies.  Not so villainous villains, however. Spies have reasons for doing what they do--don't assume that all spies are simply out for the money.

Ethyl and Julias Rosenberg are only mentioned briefly at the end, so it's odd they're the only ones I even heard about. I guess being executed makes you notorious.  The book really made me interest in poor Oppenheimer, almost enough to read a book about him. I wished he'd lived to see the arms race end.  The one between the US and Russia, of course.  Will it ever really end?

Great book; lively and fast but not skimpy.  I guess if he'd been writing for adults he could have put in more detail, especially about Oak Ridge, the Rosenbergs and the Russian scientist.  But that might have slowed the pace.  I recommend the audiobook highly, for pacing and suspense, but I don't think I would have been disappointed with the written version.

(Seems like there ought to be an easy semantic to use in distinguishing 'audiobook' from 'book'. You know, like 'email' vs. 'snail mail'. What is it?)