Community: Abed breaks the 4th Wall from his first appearance

(Yeah, this isn't about books. Indulge me.)

So my absolute favorite TV show these days is Community. It's been struggling with the ratings, but it's consistently the most clever, inventive show on TV today. It has restored my faith in the sitcom.

Searching around online for Community info, I came across Dan Harmon's original Pilot script. As I started reading, I came across something pretty amazing. Abed breaks the fourth wall from his very first line.

Script fragment: ...[Jeff] is paced and orbited by ABED [20s, Arabic, "geek chic" Weezer fan clothes], who seems generally intrigued by everything all the time.

ABED: I'm only half Arabic, actually, my Dad is Palestinian, I mean, he's a U.S. [...]

When Abed first appears, he is described as "20s, Arabic, 'geek chic' Weezer fan clothes". And Abed's first line?

"I'm only half Arabic, actually, my Dad is Palestininan..."

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Obviously, we're cutting in right in the middle of Jeff and Abed's first conversation. But, as a reader of the script, it's like Abed acknowledges his own character description and corrects it.

Planned or not, it's a fun bit of foreshadowing to Abed's future role as the character who's nearly aware his life is a TV show.

Tiana's great and all, but what about Kida?

:)
Sure, I guess Tiana from Disney's The Princess and the Frog is the first African-American Disney princess... considering the fact that she and Pocahontas are the only ones who are American at all!

But Kida (Kidagakash) from Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a black princess, too - just not one that Disney likes to promote, for one reason or another. (Is it because of the resmblances to the anime Nadia the Secret of Blue Water?)

Personally, I consider Atlantis a highly underrated film. Then again, I do have a soft spot for steampunk, ensemble casts, Michael J. Fox, dorky linguists, conlangs and Mike Mignola. It's like a Disney animated version of Stargate, and for that I love it.

But for all the good PR Disney received for having a black princess in Princess & the Frog, you would think they would want to play up the characters of color that they already have!

Granted, Disney have a very questionable past as far as race is concerned, from Peter Pan's 'What Makes the Red Man Red?' to Lady and the Tramp's cringe-inducing Siamese cats. But Atlantis has a surprisingly diverse cast, including several well-rounded and entertaining female characters. It's definitely a forgotten gem in the Disney canon, to my mind.

Mockingjay Hypocrisy - Reading 'The Hunger Games'... from the Capital

Yes, it's true... Hunger Games mania is in full roar. And it's all a bit silly.

Don't get me wrong - when I read The Hunger Games, I fell in love with it too. Suzanne Collins hit upon a winner with it. It's a real page-turner, a quick read and I'm all for getting teens into reading - especially reading books with a kick-ass female protagonist in a not-so-distant-future dystopian United States.

The film came out, and it was remarkably faithful, but with it comes all manner of the problems that occur whenever something blows up into the mainstream -- including merchandizing, screaming fangirls, and hundreds upon hundreds of 'TEAM PEETA' Facebook statuses.

I'm in the middle of Catching Fire at the moment, and when I ran across this passage I couldn't help but laugh. We are the Capital, and most of us don't even realize it.

K.A. Applegate answers questions on Reddit

So Sean at the Intergalactic Academy is still doing his cracking Animorphs re-read series, and I've been catching up from them. In one of his posts he mentions something that I can't believe I missed out on - last April, Applegate posted an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit - check it out. Ms. Applegate being something of a childhood hero of mine, this is an absolutely fascinating read.

It turns out Ms. Applegate's son is a Reddit user. The author answers many questions on a variety of topics relating to the Animorphs series, from pronouncing alien names ("Hork Buh-jeer") to the topic of ghostwriting (books 25-52 were all ghostwritten, but not the last two of the series nor any of the long 'Chronicles' companion books). There's also a flood of stories and thank-yous, from people my age just like me who became Readers (not just people who read, but people who love to read, 'Readers' with a capital 'R') because of the Animorphs. I have to say, reading these made me quite emotional, because I feel the exact same way. When I went into the bookstore and picked up the book with the funny cover because it looked cool, I had not the slightest idea what I was getting into, that I would be able to watch movies in my head with real, living characters, and soon enough I caught up with the series and dutifully went to the bookstore to pick up the new adventure each month, as if I were buying comic books.

It feels good to read that the influence that Katherine Applegate had on my life is similar to that of many other people, and it's also so nice to know that she treasures us, still to this day. I can remember when she would how Q&As on the Scholastic website while the series was still running, people would ask her about plot points and she would give answers -- 'What happens if a nothlit used the blue box a second time?' 'If you use the blue box a second time, you turn into Velveeta'. It's so lovely when an author is willing to interact with fans in that way.

Anyway, if you were ever into that series, or Applegate's other books (including Remnants and Everworld), the thread is well well worth a look.

The Knitting Architect - review

Over at Joyarna Knitblog, I've got a review of a knitwear design book - The Knitting Architect by Sion Elalouf. It's an educational book all about constructing knitted (or crocheted) sweaters from the ground up - without the need of pattern, in the traditional European way.

Animorphs Re-read - going down memory lane

Sean at the Intergalactic Academy is doing a fantastic series of posts on an Animorphs Re-read - that's right, he's reading all of the Animorphs series by KA Applegate, one by one, and posting synopses and reviews. If you're of the same generation we are, and of a nerdy inclination, chances are you used to read these books. In the eyes of an adolescent sci-fi fan, they were awesome. Do they stand up to the test of time? Maybe...

Oh, you didn't know they were released with new covers? How awful...

Review: Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

I've been feeling weary of genre fiction lately. I used to be a huge sci-fi and fantasy buff, but the past few years I've been more in the mood for something more literary and... cerebral? I guess I just prefer nice writing over heroes and rocket ships. But, if you look hard enough, turns out I don't have to pick one over the other.

Perdido Street Station is, in a nutshell, about an overweight scientist in a fantastic city. But it's a thousand times more than that.

It has a million different plots and subplots, some of which get unsatisfactorily dropped partway through, some which disappear and then resurface long after you've forgotten about them. But it is the world and the characters that really shine in this work.

I'm inclined to describe it as fantasy, or urban fantasy at first, because it has magic and fantastic creatures, but it has shades of steampunk and science fiction as well. The universe of New Crobuzon is as vivid, expansive, and colorful as anything by Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but even more interesting because technology mixes with magic and half a dozen alien races mingle together within one extraordinary city.

Most of the main characters aren't particularly likeable; they're all flawed in some ways and it adds an interesting dynamic to the story. Even though there are more 'alien' (in the book they're referred to as 'xenian' and it's not clear whether they're extraterrestrial or native) characters than human, they're all written with lifelike qualities and it's not until Mieville mentions wings or antennae that you remember the person speaking is not actually a 'person' after all.

I got out of Perdido Street Station exactly what I wanted from it - an enjoyable read, the way I used to enjoy science fiction and fantasy when I was younger. My tastes may have evolved from Orson Scott Card to Margaret Atwood, but I can still enjoy a good story with magic and monsters and fantastic elements. I'm relieved!

"I am compelled to worship this extraordinary presence that has silted into existence at the conjunction of two rivers. It is a vast pollutant, a stench, a klaxon sounding. Fat chimneys retch dirt to the sky even now in the deep night. It is not the current which pulls us, but the city itself, its weight sucks us in. Faint shouts, here and there the calls of beasts, the obscene clash and pounding from the factories as huge machines rut. Railways trace urban anatomy like protruding veins. Red brick and dark walls, squat churches like troglodytic things, ragged awnings flickering, cobbled mazes in the old town, culs-de-sac, sewers riddling the earth like secular sepulchures, a new landscape of wasteground, crushed stone, libraries fat with forgotten volumes, old hospitals, towerblocks, ships and metal claws that lift cargos from the water."

Length: 7/10 It's quite a thick volume, but it doesn't drag at all once you get into it. You just keep wanting more.
Grade: 95. Perdido Street Station is a gripping read, a beautiful world, and best of all just downright fun to read.

~Joy

The Book Group

This isn't a book review, but I think this post might be relevant to readers of this blog. I recently discovered a television series called The Book Group. It's a British series starring Anne Dudek, an actress whom you might not know but would certainly recognize - she has had a number of supporting roles on popular shows such as House, Desperate Housewives, Bones, Psych, Big Love and Mad Men. It was very satisfying to see her in a starring role, because I think she really is a great actress. Surprisingly, this show is actually an older one which was shot before many of her roles on American television.

The program is only available on DVD in the UK, in the Region 2 format. However, both seasons (or series as they're called across the pond) are currently available for viewing on Hulu if you live in the US.

Between the two seasons there's a total of 11 half-hour episodes, which makes for quick viewing if you get into the show, and then leaves you wanting more. For each of the two seasons, I ended up watching the majority in a single sitting - each half hour was like a potato chip, and I kept telling myself "Just one more before bed." The series is interesting, compelling, sometimes funny and sometimes gripping. The characters are anything but flat, and it's really just a fun show to watch.

Each episode is focused around a meeting of the very eclectic eponymous Book Group - As you would expect, the characters meet up to discuss a book. But the series explores the many facets of the characters' lives, which more often than not relate to the book they are currently reading or discussing. Titles include Don Quixote, The Alchemist, and even The Little Engine That Could.

I hesitate to call the series a comedy, because while parts are humorous, there are a lot of serious issues also explored. The Book Group tackles such issues as drug abuse, being in the closet, and infidelity - and also contains a refreshing portrayal of disability, with one of the group members, Kenny, using a wheelchair. Kenny is no mere 'token', but rather he displays the issues of disability and ability that he faces from day to day.

The Book Group is great fun: sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes knee-slapping, sometimes thought-provoking. It's short and sweet, which may leave you wanting more, but I found it pretty satisfying. I can't recommend it enough, especially when US viewers currently have the opportunity to watch it free of charge.

~Joy

Review: The Rainbow, D. H. Lawrence (Librivox)

I always have a book I'm reading, and I always have a book I'm listening to as well. Librivox is a fantastic resource for public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers. I'm a knitter, and I like to listen to a book while I knit. Recently I finished listening to The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence.

I had already read the fantastic Women in Love for a history class before reading The Rainbow. Lawrence's Women in Love details the most recent generation of the Brangwen family, sisters Ursula and Gudrun. The Rainbow is the story of three generations of Brangwens, from the Brangwen sisters' grandparents to the sisters themselves.

In a nutshell, The Rainbow is about a family's lives and loves. The book has a very grand scale because of the amount of time it encompasses, and the number of different people experiencing love and desire in similar and different ways.

Because the book spans three generations, one must be careful to keep the characters distinct. I found it a little difficult, especially with the first generation of Brangwens and the second. When you categorize characters into wide boxes such as 'the husband' and 'the wife', since most books only have one of each of those characters, it's easy to get them mixed up when a book has several of each!

I found Lawrence's writing style generally pleasant, though sometimes getting a bit too philosophical for me. In Women in Love, every conversation the sisters or their men had was a Very Deep One indeed, and there isn't as much of that in this one, but plenty of introspective internal dialogue. Reading either book will certainly get you thinking.

I might never have read this book if I hadn't found it as a free audibook on Librivox. I like to unwind by knitting and watching TV or listening to something, so I enjoy audiobooks very much. The quality of Librivox audibooks can vary, even from chapter to chapter with a single book. This recording was all done by a single reader, which was nice. The quality is generally good, though some people might find the reader's voice a bit grating. There were a few mispronunciations I found occasionally distracting, but for the most part the reading is fluent and easy to understand.

"Indeed, it was true as they said, that a man wasn't born before he was married. What a change indeed! [...] When he was a child, he had thought a woman was a woman merely by virtue of her skirts and petticoats. And now, lo, the whole world could be
divested of its garment, the garment could lie there shed away intact, and one could stand in a new world, a new earth, naked in a new, naked universe. It was too astounding and miraculous."
Length: 5/10 (1 is the Cliffs Notes, 10 is Shakespeare's entire oeuvre) The book is hefty enough, but it feels like it goes quickly because it's like three stories in one book.
Grade: 90%. The Rainbow is a wonderful, enjoyable, rewarding read.
~Joy

Book Review Blog Carnival #25!

Today I am hosting the Book Review Blog Carnival. If you're a blogger who has written a review recently, you can submit your review for the next edition of the carnival. The Book Review Blog Carnival runs every two weeks. In addition, I and all the other book reviewers in this carnival would appreciate it if you blogged about the carnival!

There were a ton of great submissions this time around, so I'm breaking them up into some rough categories.

Novels
Reader in Mind reviews Allah is Not Obliged, a fictional journal set in northern Africa.
The Hungarian Bookkeeper revisits a classic, Don Quijote (part 1).
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett at Chewing a Leaf.
The Expanding Life reviews Hattie Big Sky and ruminates over stories of pioneer women.
There's a review in The Viewspaper of one of my favorites, Margaret Atwood's dystopian Oryx and Crake.
Zinemark reviews Twenties Girl, a romance and ghost story.
I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book! reviews Thomas Pynchon's latest, Inherent Vice.
BooksForSale? reviews Shift by Jennifer Bradbury.

Novels: Mystery/Thriller
Mysteries in Paradise reviews Lord Edgware Dies, an Agatha Christie novel also known as Thirteen at Dinner.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a mystery with a philatelic (stamp collecting) twist, at The Hungarian Bookkeeper.
Eye of the Whale is an 'ecological thriller', reviewed at How to Make a Difference with a preview of the first chapter.
An audiobook edition of James Patterson's 8th Confession over at Melissa's Bookshelf.
The audiobook of Death of a Dormouse at Mysteries in Paradise.
At Necromancy Never Pays, there's a review of The Language of Bees, a book starring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.
Mysteries in Paradise reviews The Build Up, an Australian mystery.
Mysteries in Paradise also reviewed Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child.

Other fiction
Fists, a short story collection reviewed at The Truth about Lies.
Chewing a Leaf speaks her mind on Kitchen, a set of two stories by Banana Yoshimoto.
Doctor Brodie's Report, a short story collection by Jorge Luis Borges, at The Truth about Lies.

Nonfiction: Memoirs
Iran Awakening is over at Things Mean a Lot, a book which has been on my to-read list for quite some time.
A guest post at Home School Dad: Trudi's Garden, a memoir about much more than gardening.
BookDads reviews A Worthy Legacy, "the record of a grandfather’s wisdom [and] an evocative memoir of family life in Nigeria".
The Symposium introduces us to an extremely intriguing book, Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement.

Other Nonfiction
I Want to Teach Forever talks about the book that made her love math again, Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.
A DIY guide to your own green energy, Homebrew Wind Power gets reviewed at Frugally Green.
Money Blue Book goes over their favorite Personal Finance Books.
And Bargaineering reviews one of those books more in-depth, the Total Money Makeover.
At Read and Lead, there is a writeup on the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, with related books.

Children's
Coco le Cochon is a taste of France, with a interview with the author by Misadventures with Andi.
A review of Here's How I See it/Here's How it is at BooksForSale?.

Keep reviewing, bloggers! I have a few reviews of my own to finish, so I'll see you next time.

~Joy

Movie Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

Doing something a little different today because I recently went and saw the new film The Time Traveler's Wife. The film, starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, is based on the novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger.

A few summers ago, over the course of three days, I devoured this monster 560-page romance-cum-SF novel, the very first novel of the author and only one to date. Her next novel, a ghost story by the name of Her Fearful Symmetry, is set to be released at the end of September.

The film version of The Time Traveler's Wife just came out, with a mostly starry cast and a bit of fanfare. How does it stack up to the novel that left me with summer reading whiplash?

The Time Traveler's Wife is, in a nutshell, a time travel story and a love story like nothing you've ever seen. It's a classic story of true love with a very large twist. It's incredibly hard to explain -- Every time I try to explain the plot of this novel to someone, I am met with blank stares. Sorry. Basically, my advice is to read the book, then you'll understand.

The movie version of The Time Traveler's Wife manages to remain more faithful than most movie adaptations I have seen. Much is cut, but little is changed and the soul of the story remains intact. The emotional impact is somewhat lessened on the screen, but... well, I still cried.

Reading the book The Time Traveler's Wife, I spent three days spending 40 years (give or take) with the characters, feeling the love between them and living their lives with them. The movie manages to fit the plot into a scant 100 minutes, leaving me feeling rushed and like something was missing. You can't do a massive book like this justice in just an hour and a half.

The acting was wonderful, particularly the adorable child actor portraying Alba. The only time I felt pulled out of the world of the movie was seeing Ron Livingston (of Office Space fame) in the role of Gomez - an important character in the novel, reduced to a face and a name in the movie. All characters who are not Eric Bana or Rachel McAdams get precious little screen time in the movie, because the movie has no room for anything but the main couple's relationship.

Length: Too short. There's a lot to the book that made it such a gripping read, that stuck with me long after I had finished reading it. The film was very enjoyable, and very good, but somewhat forgettable. I don't think people will be talking about it years later.
Grade: 89/100. Scores better than most adaptations of novels. The filmmakers committed no mortal sins. However, it really should have been longer.

~Joy

Apes raised by people - collection of reviews

The guestblogger over at BoingBoing this week, Carrie McLaren, has written up a collection of mini-reviews of books about people raising chimpanzees, monkeys, and gorillas in their families. It's fascinating stuff, especially how different people go about it - treating them as pets or more or less like children.

Books by People who have raised Apes in their Homes

Included are Nim Chimpsky, a 'signing' chimp many linguistics students will be familiar with, and a slew of other apes and interesting anecdotes that make me want to give these books a look.

Viki picked up some of the Hayes' other habits, however. In the morning, she would run out to get the newspaper, sit on the couch and hold it as if scanning headlines, then turn pages one by one as if reading. After seeing "mom" Cathy trying to remove a clothing stain, she started dabbing a washcloth on some clothing herself.

Fascinating stuff!

~Joy

My To-Read list - Nonfiction

I've got quite a large stack of books currently, mostly from BookMooch or through gifts. Most of the books on my list are novels, but there are quite a few non-fiction books as well. Here are just a few of the non-fiction books I'll be reading in the next few months.


Science: I'm not a 'scientific' person by any means, but there are a number of topics in the sciences that interest me. I don't like to read anything too dense, so science books aimed at the general population appeal to me.


Social topics: People fascinate me. The ways they live, the difficulties they face, the ways they interact, it's all very interesting to me.


Books about Iran: I've been studying the Persian language in school, which has ignited a fire in me for learning about Persian culture and politics, especially with the recent goings-on in Iran. Some books I've previously enjoyed about Iran are Persepolis, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and Translating the Garden.


~Joy

New poll (movie books) and new layout

As you may have noticed, This Girl's Bookshelf now has a new layout. It is still highly experimental (read: I am not a web designer) so if anyone has any problems with the new layout let me know ASAP. Suggestions are welcome also. :)

The previous poll has closed. The question was, How long do you prefer books to be? There were 28 votes and here are the results:

Less than 150 pages	14% (4)
150-250 pages	14% (4)
250-350 pages	39% (11)
350-450 pages	14% (4)
450+ pages	17% (5)

As expected, most of you prefer books somewhere in the middle - that is, 250-350 pages long. Not too long, not too short. However, a number of you like them very long too!

The next poll is about movies based on books. There are a number of big book movies coming out, such as the Twilight series, Harry Potter 6, The Time Traveler's Wife and The Lovely Bones, which I recently reviewed. What do you like to do with book movies? Do you read first or watch first? Or do one or the other? Vote in the poll and leave your comments here. :)

~Joy

June Adgitize Advertising program Payment

I just received my monthly payment from Adgitize, a blog ad network that you can see on the sidebar and bottom of the page. I have been using Adgi for a few months now and it is really paying off! This month's payment was $21.28, which pays for my $14 advertising cost (I ran an ad for my knitting blog) and gives me $7 extra.

The Adgitize program is based on a points system, which then determines how much you earn. The maximum number of points you can earn per day is 500: 100 points for being an advertiser, 100 points for clicking ads, 100 points for page views on your website, 100 points for ad views on your website (you can have up to 10 ads on your page), and 100 points for publishing an article every day.

I am very happy with the Adgitize program, and if you already use Entrecard then I can't recommend it enough. The two services work perfectly together, because many Adgitize blogs are also Entrecard blogs. At the same time you drop, you can also click the Adgitize ads. So basically, I am earning money for things I already do like drop Entrecards and post to my blogs. I am getting paid to advertise!

The Adgitize advertising program, besides earning me a few extra bucks each month for things I already do (visit blogs, write blog posts), has also brought me almost 2,000 visits in the last month. What blog couldn't use 2,000 extra monthly visits? I really, really, really can't recommend the Adgitize Advertising Program enough.

~Joy

Book Review Blog Carnival at INFtDIRaB

Over at I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book! (what a great title!), the 21st Book Review Blog Carnival has been posted.

There's a huge variety of a ton of book reviews for you to go over and read, so check it out! If you have a book blog, you can also submit your reviews for the next edition or apply to host the carnival. The Book Review Blog Carnival is bi-weekly.

~Joy

My favorite book source, BookMooch

So, I'm a college student. That means I don't have a lot of cash to spend on books, however voracious my appetite may be. The library is great, but the two libraries in my area don't always have what I'm looking for, and sometimes I really would like to own a book, to read it over and over or to pass it on to a friend.

That's when I turn to BookMooch. BookMooch is a book-swapping site - there are others out there, and I can't vouch for whether they're good or bad, but I've loved using BookMooch. It's easy to use, free, and the people there have been very nice.

In addition, there are book moochers all around the world - It doesn't matter what country you're living in or what language you speak (or what language you want to read!), you can still use Bookmooch. Many people will ship internationally. You have the option whether you want to always accept international mooches, never accept them, or have the moocher ask you first if you'd be willing to send the book. I've mooched books from several countries, in a few different languages, and I've sent books to a few other countries myself. I usually can't send heavy hardcovers overseas, but I'm always willing to ship a small paperback. That's why I love the "ask me first" option.

You list your collection of books you're willing to part with - I had a TON, mostly children's books - and if someone wants your book, they "mooch" the book from you, giving you points. You send it to them (media mail is cheap), and you have points to spend towards a book that you want. Bookmooch organizes it all for you, so books are easy to list and find.

Listing a book gives you .1 points, so if you have 10 books you want to give away, you can mooch a book yourself right away. I find that my points build up pretty quickly - I send out more books than I mooch - and if you've got points that you don't want, you can give them to any of a number of charities that have partnered with BookMooch. Give some books to a new school, or a library in Kosovo. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?

I can't ever bear throwing books away, and I love that with Bookmooch, my books will go to people who will enjoy them as much as I did. It's a really great service that has kept me in summer reading for the past two years! So I recommend that you mooch a book today!

By the way, I'm not making any money off of this ;) I'm recommending it because I love this site and Bookmooch has kept me in books when money is tight. And the more people that use Bookmooch, the more books we can all share. Isn't that swell?

~Joy

Review: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold

Here's one of those books that I've always meant to read, but didn't get around to it until now. I'd seen the bright blue cover all over bookstores, with the enigmatic charm bracelet and clean text. Mysterious. And very, very popular. There is a sticker on my hardback copy: "Read this! Good Morning America." It's been a huge bestseller, gotten critical acclaim, there's a movie in the works to be released next year. So what's all this fuss about? What is The Lovely Bones anyway?

The Lovely Bones, is, in a nutshell, about a murdered girl. But it's also about so much more than that.

Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, our narrator, is murdered at the beginning of the story. An older neighbor lures her to his backyard, into a fort he dug in the ground, rapes her and kills her.

But this isn't a murder mystery, and it isn't a horror. It isn't a religious book, or anything like that. After describing the events surrounding her death, Susie spends the majority of the book sitting up in her heaven, watching her family and friends deal with life after loss.

That's all she can do, for the most part. It may be a comfort to some people to think that the dead miss us as much as we miss them. Susie longs to talk to her family, to help them fill in the hole she left, to live her life that had so much potential until it was cut short. But Susie does not dwell upon this, and overall I would not say it is a sad book - though there are certainly many sad parts.

But mainly the story is about learning to move on. The family are crippled by grief at first, and Susie watches as they come to terms and go on with their lives, some more slowly than others. Their desire for healing, for justice, and for happiness are explored.

Susie is in heaven - not the Heaven, but her heaven. It's a heaven tailor-made for her, with all the things she likes. Those that share these desires, share bits of her heaven with her. It's not a Judeo-Christian Heaven and there is no mention of Hell, or any gods or angels or any of that. Susie resides in her own heaven, full of simple childish pleasures until she, too, can learn to move on, and let go of her obsession with her life as her family lets go of their obsession with her death.

"Our heaven had an ice cream shop where, when you asked for peppermint stick ice cream, no one ever said 'It's seasonal'; it had a newspaper where our pictures appeared a lot and made us look important... I could not have what I wanted most: Mr. Harvey dead and me living. Heaven wasn't perfect. But I came to believe that if I watched closely, and desired, I might change the lives of those I loved on Earth."
Length: 4/10 (1 is Dick and Jane, 10 is War and Peace) You can breeze through this pretty quickly. There aren't many sections that I would say 'drag on'. It's substantial but quick to read.
Grade: 85% A worthwhile read, to be sure. Full of a wide range of emotions - sadness, grief, yearning, but also love, suspense, and sweetness - but never sappy. The writing is smooth and pleasant, and in places quite beautiful.

~Joy

Now Entrecard-enabled

Welcome! There's a pretty good chance you've found this blog via Entrecard. This blog got accepted into the program a few days ago and I am now doing regular drops from here and my knitting blog Joyarna. Since this blog is still small, I will try to reciprocate drops for anyone who drops on me. :)

This Girl's Bookshelf is a book review blog. I'll post my thoughts, lists, and other stuff, but the main meat of the blog will be reviews -- which will be posted as fast as I can read. ;) Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Until then, take a look around, and vote in my poll. :) Drop me a comment if you like. I love comments and suggestions!

~Joy

Book length poll

I will be running regular polls regarding your preferences about the books you read, or the books I should review. You can see the current poll in the sidebar to your left. They will close when they reach a certain number of answers; then I will release the results and put up a new poll.

The first poll question is How long do you prefer books to be? Do you like little books you can read in a day or do you prefer long, massive, multi-volume epics? Or perhaps somewhere in between?

Leave your comments on this post after voting, and tell me what you think!

~Joy