Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back // Book Review

Author: Shel Silverstein
Genre: Children’s Book
Year Published: 1963
Publisher: HarperCollins
Length: 112 pages

Shel Silverstein started my love of reading at the ripe young age of five. I’m not too cool to admit that sometimes when I have a bad day I turn to my good friend Where the Sidewalk Ends. So when my little sister bought me a Shel Silverstein book as a birthday present for my 21st birthday I was incredibly, nerdily excited.

This story follows a brave lion who comes to be known as Lafcadio. After eating a hunter and stealing his gun Lafcadio quickly becomes the sharpest shooter in all of Africa. When he gets recruited to join a circus, Lafcadio becomes wildly famous and rich. And in the process might just forget where he came from.

I absolutely love Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back. This quirky tale of self-discover disguised as a children’s book could teach people of all ages a lesson or two. As someone who is about to enter their (potential) last year of college and is trying to figure out what the heck I’m doing with my life, I found great comfort in Lafcadio’s journey. Here are just a few of the lessons I learned from the lion who shot back.

–Use your talents for good! When Lafcadio first starts shooting he uses it to protect his friends and family. But the aspect of endless marshmallow’s leads him down a road of riches. He gets lonely and bored very quickly.

–Being rich and famous isn’t nearly as important as the people in your life. Lafcadio had it all. He had so much that he got bored with all his crazy adventures. He kept searching for bigger and better experiences that ultimately still left him feeling lonely. Even an unlimited supply of marshmallows couldn’t keep him happy.

–Never forget where you came from. Lafcadio got so caught up with his fancy new life that he completely forgot where he came from. When he returns to Africa on a hunting trip he is struck by just how much he has changed. So much that he doesn’t know who he is anymore.

And most importantly:
–It’s ok to not know where you’re going or what will happen: My favorite quote in this whole book was towards the end. “…he didn’t really know where he was going, but he did know he was going somewhere, because you really have to go somewhere, don’t you? And he didn’t really know what was going to happen to him, but he did know that something was going to happen, because something always does, doesn’t it?” This has seriously become my life motto. I don’t know where I am going in life and what I’m doing, but that’s ok because something will happen in my life! Thanks Lafcadio for validating my uncertainty.

Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back was a fantastic, quick read that both transported me back to my childhood and gave me some new perspective about my adult life. I would honestly recommend this book for readers of all ages.

Rating: 5 marshmallows out of 5

Book Review / Feed

Author: M.T Anderson
Genre: Dystopian Young Adult
Year Published: 2002
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Length: 299 pages

Synopsis:
In a world taken over by capitalism and marketing, everyone is constantly bombarded by advertising by the feed, a chip implanted in their brains. Titus and his friends are completely used to this constant advertising. And then Titus meets Violet who is completely different from everyone else he knows. Violent challenges they very ideals and beliefs Titus grew up with, and he’s not sure he likes that. As their relationship develops they also begin to see the feed in a new light.

My Perspective:
This book took a different route than I was expecting. It was more of a love story with social commentary hanging out in the background. I went into this book expecting it to be all take down the man and scream it from the mountaintops. Which in a way made it more powerful. It showed how normally and easily technology came to run everything. Everything felt so much more normal than I was expecting.

The characters were very genuine and relatable. They seem so normal despite the weird feed and everything that goes on with that. Titus and Violet are very much products of their environment. Titus grew up with the feed. Everything about it is so normal to him. Violet, on the other hand, received the feed later in life and grew up with a father who is against it. These teens are trying to reconcile their beliefs and their relationship, and really just trying to figure out life.

M.T Anderson never fails to create interesting worlds with relatable characters. Overall I really enjoyed this read. It was a easy quick read, but also very thought provoking.

My Rating: 4 hackers out of 5

Book Review / The Impossible Knife of Memory

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Year Published: 2014
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Length: 391 page

Synopsis:
Hayley Kincain is far from your typical high school senior. After being home schooled for five years as her dad worked as a semi-truck driver, she finds herself back in the halls of public high school. Throughout first, and last, year in high school Hayley juggles a father suffering from PTSD, trying to access her own memories from her childhood, figuring out the rules to dating, and not doing great at actually passing her classes. Hayley skirts on the brink of disaster in her life on a daily basis. Will she let the memories tear her way through and trust that she can recover? Or will the pressure of taking care of her dad become too much to handle?

My Thoughts:
I just have to start out with proclaiming my love for Laurie Halse Anderson. She is seriously the queen of YA. Anderson takes big issues and weaves them into incredible heart-wrenching tales of love, loss, and belonging.

The ways in which Anderson explained Andy and Hayley’s relationship was so realistic. She didn’t try to sugar coat their dynamic, but showed how complex it was. The constant turmoil Hayley went through of loving and wanting to help her father, but also wanting to just be a normal teenager for once felt was so genuine.

I also loved seeing the highs and lows Andy went through from Hayley’s perspective. This book was a very real exploration of a child living with a parent suffering from PTSD.

I can’t talk about this book without talking about Finn. Hayley and Finn’s relationship was precious, and just as complex as everything else in Hayley’s life. Again, Anderson succeeded in create genuine, realistic relationships between her characters. I think insta-love is all too common in YA. And sure, sometimes it works. But, it wouldn’t have for Finn and Hayley. The fact that Hayley had never really dealt with the realm of boys and relationships became very real in the way she approached her relationship with Finn right from the start. Seriously though, that date he tricked her into? Adorable. Also, the fact that Finn had his own emotional baggage was perfect for Hayley. Sure, they were kind of crap at communicating, but that’s pretty typical for a high school relationship. They definitely learned to be what the each other needed.

For me the sign of a good book is when it makes me emotional. If I am so attached to the lives of these characters that I can’t hold it together, that’s a good sign. This book did just that. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, and I yelled. The Impossible Knife of Memory was just as fantastic as any of Anderson’s other works.

A Really Awesome Mess / Book Review

Author: Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Year Published: 2013
Publisher: Egmont
Length: 275

Synopsis:
Justin is a sixteen year old with daddy issues and a sex drive. Emmy, an adopted Chinese girl, desperately seeks love to the point of developing an eating disorder. Both of these teenagers land in Heartland Academy, a therapeutic boarding school. Thrown into a rag tag group for therapy these two find themselves in crazy adventures, making new friends, and even confronting their own issues.

My Perspective:

I was not the biggest fan of this book. I got it for free for volunteering at a book sale on my campus, so no harm no foul really. Emmy and Justin both annoyed me. I know they were dealing with very valid issues, but they just seemed so whiney. The character change throughout the book felt forced and sudden. They were both so reluctant to work on their own life issues, that when they finally started to it felt ingenuine. I sort of liked the all the other characters in their therapy group, mostly because they were funny. I just had the hardest time getting invested in their lives. Typically, I love books about kids in therapy because usually the characters are complex and I really enjoy trying to figure them out. But, Emmy and Justin just seemed flat and cliche and boring.

Same with the plot. I was not invested in what was happening. It was definitely fun. The kids were all about crazy hijinks. More than they cared about their own character development honestly. Their adventures were a bit unrealistic though.

Overall, I just think this book wasn’t my cup of tea. Or a wrong book at the wrong time type of deal.

My Rating: 1 jailbroken pig out of 5.
You’ll like this book if: You enjoy fun reads full of hijinks and shenanigans.
You’ll dislike this book it: Typical characters that fall flat.

June: The Month of Reading

June was the month of reading! I read more this month than I have read in a really long time and it was fantastic. The combination of ending the school year, only working a few days a week, and a few trips home made for the perfect reading month. Here’s what I read and a few brief thoughts!

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler: I really enjoyed this slightly goofy, mildly dark, and all together different tale of love lost. Handler has a way of writing characters impossible not to fall in love with. I wrote a full review on this one so check it out!

Feed by M.T Anderson: Feed took a route I wasn’t quite expecting it to take, but I liked it more than I thought it would. The love story interwoven with the social commentary on technology was well written and pulled me into the story.

Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up by Grace Helbig: This quirky book is part self-help, part memoir, and 100% funny. Written by Youtube Personality Grace Helbig, Grace’s Guide was the perfect summer read.

A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin: I was not a fan of this one. A Really Awesome Mess follows two teens whose problems land them in a therapeutic boarding school. The characters were whiney. The plot was kind of weird and not that interesting. This book just didn’t keep me interested.

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson: This is the last book I read in June. I finished this book eleven days ago and haven’t really read all that much since. I think I still have a massive post-book hangover from this one. Catalyst is definitely not easy to move on from. I loved everything about it from the characters to the plot to the writing. I even loved how much it broke my heart.

So that’s June for you. Hopefully July is just as productive! I just bought a couch for my porch, so I anticipate a lot of reading to happen there. How’s your summer reading going? Any summer recommendations?

Happy Reading,
Sam

Why We Broke Up

Author: Daniel Handler
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Year Published: 2011
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Length: A 354 page letter

Synopsis:
“And that Ed is why we broke up.”

When Min Green and Ed Slaterton breakup Min goes on a mission to give back everything she has collected over the course of their month long relationship along with a letter explaining exactly why they broke up. Why We Broke up details the crazy adventures and explosive break up of this unlikely couple.

My Perspective:
The Pictures: First off this book is beautiful! Every story that Min includes in her letter is accompanied by beautiful illustrations. This makes the story even more intriguing and definitely pulls the reader into the world of Min and Ed.

The Characters: I love these characters. Ed is the basketball star and your stereotypical high school jock bro. Min is not arty but…different… Seeing Ed and Min interact was so interesting. Min brings out the sensitive side of Ed and Ed turns Min into a basketball girlfriend. Yet both are still so caught up in their own worlds.

The Plot: This book was so real and easy to get into. I was so invested in the relationship and lives of Min and Ed. Also, I had to keep reminding myself that they had only been dating for a month. Crazy! It seemed as though they had been dating for so long!

Overall, I really enjoyed Why We Broke Up. It was so fun reading a book by Daniel Handler other than the Series of Unfortunate Events, which I haven’t read since I was young.

My Rating: 5 obscure movies out of 5.
You’ll like this book if: You enjoy you like contemporary young adult books about relationships.
You’ll dislike this book it: You don’t enjoy books about dramatic teenagers.

Leaving Time

I recently had my heart ripped out of my chest. Well, at least that is what it felt like when I got to the end of Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. To top it all off I was at school and had to sit through class going through one of the biggest post-book crises of my life.

Alice Metcalf, an elephant researcher, disappeared after a death at the elephant sanctuary she ran and the only witness was her three year old daughter. Ten years later Jenna Metcalf sets out on a mission to find her mom, or at least find out what happened to her. Partnering up with a washed up psychic named Serenity and one of the policemen that originally worked the case, Virgil, Jenna begins to piece together the clues in search of the truth. What she finds is shocking beyond belief.

This book took me through an array of emotions. I thought it was really boring for a while. Honestly, the only thing that kept me reading was the fact that I have a signed copy. You can’t own a signed copy of a book you’ve never read. That’s weird. However, Leaving Time took me a really long to time to work my way through. Not a lot happens for the first 200 pages honestly. Little details of the night of the death are revealed and a whole lot of boring backstory is told.

Then it got really weird. Stuff finally starts happening in the weirdest way imaginable. I was left perplexed, but wanting to finish reading just figure out what the heck just happened.

And figure it out I did. Because next came the twist ending that Jodi Picoult is so wonderful at delivering. I gave up while ago trying to guess how Picoult’s books end because I am literally always wrong. And boy was I off with this one. I had many theories floating around my head as I read this book, but this one not only took me by surprise, but also ripped my heart out and left unsure of how to continue on with my life.

Jodi Picoult is a master of narrative. Even if I thought the beginning of this book was boring, it was so worth it for the shock of the ending. I would recommend Leaving Time to anyone who loves getting invested in the lives of characters, but also enjoys emotional roller coasters. Just know, you are in for a long haul when you start this book.

Happy reading,
Sam

Like a Thorn

Author: Claire Vidal
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction
Year Published: 2002
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Length: 119 heart-wrenching pages

Synopsis:
Melie is a strange child with an interesting relationship with her mother. Her mother goes from “Rosey Mother” to “Dark Mother” in a blink of an eye. Melie begins to invent rituals she believes will counter her mother’s erratic behavior. This slowly, but surely spirals out of Melie’s control.

My Perspective:
I got this book for free a few months ago for volunteering at a book sale on my college campus. The cover is beautiful and the blurb intrigued me. When I decided to start this whole read my book shelf in a year thing, I figured this was a good place to start. It’s tiny, only 119 pages, and the print is pretty big. But, oh man, does this book pack a punch. I don’t think I have ever felt so many conflicting and confusing emotions before in one little book. I couldn’t decide if I was on Melie’s side or I thought she was over-reacting. I couldn’t decide where exactly to place her mom in the middle of all this. I also feel as though I was missing so much of the story. It was so small and simple that I felt like I needed more information to decide what my emotions were.

That being said, I did think that even though it seemed simply written it was beautifully written. It probably sounds even more beautiful in French. Like a Throne is a simple, yet complicated story of a young girl spiraling into mental illness and how those in her life react to them. This quick, but heart wrenching read will keep you thinking for days.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 antique gifts
You’ll this book if: You like thinkers. If you like dark books and psychologically challenging reads.
You’ll dislike this book if: Happy reads where everything turns out ok in the end.

An Atrocious Number

The other day I decided to partake in one of my favorite, nerdy activities. Reorganizing my bookshelf.

Really I was just trying to avoid doing the insurmountable pile of homework I should have been working on.

Anyways, as I was strategically mapping out how I wanted my bookshelf to look I came to realize a tragic thing. The majority of the books that I own I have never even opened! And even more of them I have never read all the way through. Of the 160 books currently living on my shelf I have not read 109 of them. What an atrocious number!

And so I came up with a challenge for myself. I’m pretty sure it is crazy and I don’t how it is going to happen, but it seemed like a fun idea.

Over the next year I want to read every book that currently sits on my shelf. By April 20, 2016 I will be able to boldly proclaim I do not own a book I have not read cover to cover. And I’m taking you along for the ride!

Like I said, this is probably crazy. I am still a full time student with a part time job and somewhat of a social life. But, I’ll never know if I don’t try right? So for the next year. No buying books, unless they’re for school. No going to the library. Just reading what is already in my possession.

It’s going to be a whirlwind of a year people.

Happy Reading,
Sam

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

*Disclaimer: We can thank my Young Adult Lit professor for the format of this review.  I actually wrote this for an assignment, but I really  like the format of it so here it goes!*

Author: M. T Anderson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Year Published: 2008
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Length: 353 pages that should be accompanied by a dictionary
 

Synopsis:
Octavian, a boy raised amongst hordes of academicians in Boston, is given an education to rival that of European Princes all in the name of science. Octavian and his mother are given the riches of the world and adored by all the scholars that ever visit, all while every detail of their being is monitored and recorded. After forming a friendship with a servant named Bono, Octavian dares to step through the one door in the house he is forbidden to enter, thus finding the true nature of the experiment where he himself is the subject. Finally discovering the complicated, slightly horrifying truth, Octavian’s life is shifted forever. Never will her return to the blissfully ignorant life of simply academia.

Set in the backdrop of the American Revolution, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is an intelligently written exploration of the battle between science and humanity and the true nature of liberty.

My Perspective:
First off, holy moly did this book stretch my vocabulary to the moon and back. I read this book with the dictionary app on my phone open and at the ready. Not that this is a bad thing, just made it a little more challenging to get through. In fact, the language used in this book helped set the stage for Octavian’s life. This book is set in a) the late 1700s and b) a house full of scientists, philosophers, and academics. It wouldn’t be believable if it had been written in the language that I am accustomed too, that of a twenty year-old college kid in the twenty-first century.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing took me through a whole roller coaster of emotions. I began to feel attached to Octavian very early on therefore I was definitely rooting for him throughout the entire book. I also found many of the other characters in this book incredibly odd. As Octavian grew older and began to face more hardships, I was sitting on the edge of my seat in suspense. I wanted so badly for Octavian’s life to turn out ok, but I really doubted that this book would have a decent outcome. It was, however, fairly comforting that I knew a sequel existed so I knew the end couldn’t be that bad.

M.T. Anderson not only pulled me into the age of the Revolution, but also weaved a narrative that made me laugh at the ridiculous moments, my heart break with injustice, and rejoice at the idea that there is still some hope in the darkest places.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 cups of tea!
You’ll like this book if: You enjoy emotional, yet highly intellectual narratives that complicate views on well-known histories or if you find conversations about what is just and ethical interesting.
You’ll dislike this book if: You enjoy easy, light-hearted reads that wrap up nicely at the end.