Shelf Discovery Challenge

I am completely failing several challenges and, yet, I feel compelled to join this one too. What's the definition of insanity? Never mind. This challenge just calls to me by dangling my childhood favorites in front of me. The books that I devoured as a girl are all fair game in this one and I have to take the bait!
Here's what the challenge is all about lifted directly from Booking Mama's post...
Details:

The Shelf Discovery Challenge will run for six months (November 1, 2009 - April 30, 2010). To join me in this challenge, all you need to do is grab a copy of SHELF DISCOVERY and pick out what six books you want to read (of course, you can read more than six!) Then, after you read a book, just write a "book report" to share your thoughts with others!


The titles I picked are mostly books that I "remember" that I LOVED but I am kind of sketchy on the details since it has been 30+ years since I actually read them! I wonder if I will still love them now. (The exception is A Little Princess which I have on my nightstand at all times and reread fairly often, at least the good parts.)

Here's my list...with the covers of my youth - when I could find them!

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler









Harriet the Spy









Are you There, God? It's Me, Margaret









A Little Princess









Wifey





Flowers in the Attic

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

From Amazon's product description: Standing on the fringes of life...

offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Once I started this one I could not put it down. Chbosky took me right back to high school - the feelings of being left out, doing stupid things to fit in, having good friends but the relationships still being somewhat volatile. Egad, I wouldn't go through that again for a million dollars but for the afternoon and evening that I spent on the couch reading Charlie's letters, I was right there. He nailed it - even Rocky Horror Picture Show - I think I could recite every line by my senior year.

Charlie was both socially challenged and academically gifted which made me wonder about his mental health or perhaps an Asperger's type diagnosis, when the truth came out in the end, it all made sense. I knew the character at the heart of that conflict was going to be important in some way but I didn't guess why in advance. Apparently I was as blind as all the other people in Charlie's life.

Some of the friends Charlie makes are too good to be true. I know we're supposed to feel like Charlie found acceptance despite the odds against him but I think the oddds are even worse - I found it hard to believe he lucked into these healthy, healing relationships. My glass is half empty.


I can see why a parent might not want their tween to read this book but I think most high school students are surrounded by the characters of this story and will simply feel affirmed that everyone has their moments of insecurity. I'll have to send out a thank you to the parent who got this book banned from their child's high school - it brought the book to my attention and I loved it!

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

From the author's website: Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades — from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

What a wonderful book! Pat Conroy lives just a few islands over from me here in the Carolina Lowcountry and he captures the feel of this place better than anyone else. He does it especially well in this one - gorgeous prose as he describes the scenes. This is my favorite kind of Pat Conroy book - rooted in the Lowcountry and the relationships that are formed here by birth, by race, by class - he explores them all. There are discussions all around town about who each character might be in real life but because Conroy always manages to root out each character's worst flaws, I'm not sure anyone wants to own up to being included. All I know is that one of my husband's extended family members is an ex-nun who was an educator and married to a teacher...hmmmm.

What's On Your Nightstand October 2009

This monthly feature is hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month. Click on the logo to go and check out all the participants.

From last month's post, I read and reviewed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and Revolutionary Road; the latter completed the A-Z Reading Challenge for me. I didn't get to all the others - got sidetracked by football, soccer, tennis, and dance - all the things my kids do in the fall that require me to drive them around town!



John Adams is still there but VERY close to getting finished just a mere nine ten months after I started it! Next is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown; I've loved all his other books so I am anticipating enjoying this one too. Twelve Ordinary Men I am going to take to church and read during adoration. I've signed up for the Maud Hart Lovelace Challenge but haven't read my Betsy-Tacy book yet - I know it will go fast once I get started! Above that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for the Everything Austen Challenge although I still have two movies I wanted to watch for that first so it may not get done (again!) this month - we'll see, I think the challenge is open until December so I will have time. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran is the November selection for the Facebook Historical Fiction book club. And, on top, is The Perks of Being a Wallflower which I am reading at the suggestion of Jennifer at The Literate Housewife, it was banned at a high school near her so she decided to read it as a protest against banning books. Next she spread the word on her blog and started a Facebook Book Club for us to discuss it - very fun!

A Fine Dark Line by Joe Lansdale

From the Amazon product description: For young Stanley Mitchell, Jr., 1958 is quickly becoming a year of newfound joys and thrilling adventure. Beginning with the discovery of hidden love letters, Stanley learns about blues music, Sherlock Holmes, racism, and lost dreams. Through the natural course of growing up, he discovers the true nature of his father's heart; learns about love from his mother, sister, and house servant, Rosy; and becomes involved in a forbidden world that exists beneath Dewmont, Texas, like dirt swept under a beautiful carpet. But when Stanley enters a forbidden world of secrets filled with death and darkness, jealous lovers, and ghostly occurrences, he finds the real murderer of the young girl who wrote the once-secret love letters...and becomes the next target.

Wow - all I could think about as I read this was that the main character, Stanley, is right smack dab in the middle of my two boys age-wise. My boys are 10 and 12 and Stanley is supposed to be 11. I can't imagine having the conversations with my boys that occur with Stanley over the course of this summer story. School may be out but Stanley gets quite an education - racism, masochism, sadism, homosexuality, domestic abuse, incest....it goes on and on. I really thought when I picked it up, it would be a sweet coming of age tale with a little murder mystery on the side; boy, was I surprised. It was a wonderful surprise though, because although I like the sweetness of Mitford or Zebra Drive, I really do prefer stories with a bite to them and this one had some sharp teeth. I enjoyed hearing it - it was the kind of book that made me sit in my car and listen a little longer even after I had arrived at my destination. What a nice surprise!

I've finished up the audio book challenge but I'm adding the extras as I finish them.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

A few weeks ago it was the Catholic Church bazaar, this week it is the Methodist Church bazaar. I have a small stack of "new to me" books from their book sale!



First is Away by Amy Bloom. I have seen some reviews of Amy Bloom's books around the blogosphere. I can't remember where, I can't remember if this was one of them, I can't remember if they were good or bad, but when I saw it for fifty cents, I though, "why not?". If nothing else, it has a really pretty cover.

Next is Anne Rice's Christ the Lord;Out of Egypt. Awhile ago I bought the trade paperback for the second book in the series, Christ the Lord; Out of Cana, but I set it aside because I wanted to read the series in order. So I was delighted to find this one, I'm always tickled to find a book that is on my mental wish list.

Finally, is another No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency mystery, Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith. It's the third in the series and somehow I skipped over it. I've read 1, 2, and 4 and I have another that I found at the Catholic bazaar in my TBR pile, maybe 6 or 7. These are good rainy afternoon lay on the couch books so they can just sit around in my TBR pile until that day comes around!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Product description from Amazon: Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

This was an intersting book. The premise and format were creative with all the trivia and footnotes interjected seeming to capture a sense of autism. I say "seem" because at least one reviewer on Amazon claimed to be on the ASD and did not agree with that. Working with families impacted by autism, I was sad to see that the parents marriage did not stand up to the difficulties of caring for their son. Divorce is a very common occurence in families of children with special needs and speaks to the need for support systems to help parents cope before the marriage dissolves.

Back to the mystery..when the mystery was finally solved - it was very fun to go back and reread the first part of the story and see the clues that were missed! Because Christpher doesn't spend any time reflecting on other's motivations, it's not until you know the truth that you can go back and have those "aha" moments. It was easy to go back and reread because this book was a very quick read to start with - made for a fun afternoon curled on the couch!