You Shore Do Got a Purdy Mouth

Reading Challenge 2017: Book with one of the four seasons in the title. Winter Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, was not as exciting as I thought it would be.  I grew angry and sad at the conditions of Ree Dolly, although she surprised me and showed she had "sand" in order to stand up to the other Ozarkians who wanted her to keep quiet.  They were hiding a secret that involved her father, and she wanted to know where he was, or else she and her family would lose their house and land.  Most characters seemed rough and tried to hard to be rough.  I knew either her father was dead or run off trying to avoid the law.  I did not expect that the Milton clan had killed him and sunk him in a shallow lake, tied to an engine block.

I imagine it is that way in the Ozarks, giving me flashbacks of Deliverance, and the hillbillies that come together seeking vengeance.  I almost expected Patrick Swayze and the Next of Kin to come out of the woods.  Not people I would want to hang out with.

It reminded me of a bar that reeks of stale cigarette smoke and warm beer, that hasn't seen a cleaning in years.  I felt cold, hungry, and dirty while I read it, which is partly due to the writing style.  I just wanted to shower after finishing it.

I decided to watch the movie, which was a much tamer version.  Gail and Ree did not have any sexual encounters, nor did Little Arthur giving her special mushrooms and raping her appear in the movie.  Jennifer Lawrence's performance was stunning though.

Indians, Thieves, and Bears, Oh My!

Reading Challenge 2017: book that takes place in the wilderness. The Revenant, by Michael Punke, was different enough from the movie to be better. Getting into the mind of Hugh Glass as he struggled to survive a vicious grizzly attack, Arikara Indians, thieves, and the elements, the revenge he wanted was never exacted. 

A wilderness enthusiast will enjoy the survival techniques shared by Glass in his adventures to seek retribution for those who wronged him. An enjoyable read that makes me want to go camping, sans bears.  I will watch the movie again.

Promposals and Celebrity Dancing

Reading Challenge 2017: Book with a title that's a character's name.  Brian Katcher does it again with Deacon Locke Went to Prom!  Deacon Locke is a tall, tall, tall student who has no self-confidence when it comes to people.  His senior prom is approaching and he does not have a date.  When he discovers his grandmother Jean never went to her prom, due to her husband being in Vietnam, he asks her to attend with him.  That is a turning point for his life.  They take dancing lessons at the YMCA, where he meets his soon to be girlfriend, Soraya Shadee.  Deacon and Jean turn out to be the sensation of the prom as students capture his dancing with Jean on video, which becomes a viral Youtube sensation.  At first I did not think taking Jean to prom would work, knowing that nobody over 20 is allowed at prom (at least at the high school where I teach), yet Jean is allowed entrance as she knows one of the chaperones.  His thoughtfulness when concerning his grandmother takes a sad turn when it is discovered she has dementia.  The viral video lands him a spot on a reality TV show, <i>Celebrity Dance Off</i>, forcing him to question whether or not he wants to stay home and take care of Jean, or go to California to be on the show and help make money for college and taking care of Jean.

Deacon's life is changed as Jean is moved into a care facility, their house is sold to a golf course, and he loses the only girlfriend he had.  It was a change from many happy endings as he does not end up with Soraya, but steps into adulthood through all he has learned in his adventures.  I giggled when I noticed Brian had included his name as one of the admirers of Deacon's dance moves.  

A subplot to the story is Soraya having to deal with idiotic Muslim haters, which only makes her a stronger character as even though Deacon wants to come to her rescue, she reminds him that he has always taken care of others and not really himself, which is another turning point in his growing up.

<i>Deacon Locke Went to Prom</i> is more than just a promposal and dance story.  It is about an abandoned young man (his father left him with Jean) who learns to grow up the hard way.  It ended on a happy note and a promise of Deacon and Soraya meeting up in the future.

My First Computer

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak is labeled as a YA novel, but only someone from the 80's will understand and enjoy it. Having lived during that time, this was a trip back to yesteryear. Will Marvin is a computer geek who has created The Impossible Fortress, a computer game, on his Commodore 64. I remember creating games with my friend on that same computer, having a cassette recorder for storage. The 80's references brought back memories of the clothing styles, the music, and the technology of the time. Will meets Mary Zelinsky, another computer geek, when trying to get a copy of the Playboy featuring Vanna White. With the help of his friends Alf (another 80's reference) and Clark, they begin a quest to get a copy of the magazine, only for Will to fall in love with Mary. The novel is filled with the adventures of these three boys, ending on a positive note for Will and Mary. Rekulak's prose makes the novel an easy read that was an enjoyable romp through past memories. His website includes a copy of the game that can be played and his novel includes computer code from the Commodore 64 in every chapter.

Visiting Japan

Reading Challenge 2017: book by a person of color. Rereading for summer school, I have not read The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima since 2008. It is a simple love story between Shinji, a fisherman, and Hatsue, the daughter of a fishing boat owner. Japanese culture infuses the story with mention of so many festivals and organizations that do not exist in America. The communal bathhouse, or sento, and lunchbox packed by loving mothers, or bento, are just a couple of things that American students are unfamiliar with. Even the discussion of peaches and pickles is something that might be shocking to my students. Reading this novel makes me want to visit Japan.

The Last Novel

Robin Reardon has been a favorite author of mine for a long time.  I pride myself in having read all of her novels.  Giuseppe and Me is an ebook, which I normally do not read, but had to in order to say I have read all of her writing. I love short stories, especially ones that I can read in one sitting and still have time to contemplate what I read. Alex Lupo is a foster child, living with the Dunlops, coming to terms with being gay and wanting someone to experience life with. Having been raped, he is a little leery about having sex with someone else, especially in the midst of getting tested for HIV twice. He meets Ron, an upper crust full of himself individual and thinks that he wants to experience more with him, until he is pushed too far. Ron seems to want to dominate Alex, both sexually and psychologically as he is wealthy and Alex is poor. Alex dreams of his Italian self and receives the best advice from a guy named Giuseppe: "My life is worth more than a few minutes of anyone's pleasure" which is so true. In the setting of Greenwich Village and Stonewall, this message is very important to all.

Found It

Reading Challenge 2017: a book set in two time periods.  Losing It by multiple authors was a quick, enjoyable read.  Honestly, I picked up this book to read the Andrew Smith and Patrick Ness stories, and it was suggested by another author.

I found it delightful, discussing losing one's virginity from different gender's point of view, different culture's point of view, and various age ranges. Dora's frank discussion of sex with her grandchildren had me giggling. Patrick Ness's "Different for Boys" tells Ant and Charlie's story, with words blacked out for humorous effect, made me sad at the same time. Bali Rai's "The White Towel" was the most powerful as it demonstrates how lies can affect someone's life. Andrew Smith's "Green Screen" made me want to know more about the calendar and how Mr. Hertz reacted to it. The varied viewpoints made a colorful blend of discussion about losing virginity, reminding me that is it always different for everyone. 

This book would be great for sharing with students the successes and trauma of losing one's virginity.  It could also be picked apart and the short stories used in support of issues such as gender, race, ethnicity, and culture.

To Be or Not To Be

Reading Challenge 2017: book from a non-human perspective.  Willful Machines by Tim Floreen fits this category as one of the main characters is non-human.  I will not spoil it and reveal what he is, but it makes the story more interesting. I always enjoy a novel with a new story, something that is unique. Lee Fisher attends Inverness Prep, where his grandfather is the headmaster. His father is the President of the United States and in charge of a anti-android organization who wants to keep humans separate.  Sounds like our country right now. Lee is also a closeted-gay. He meets a new boy, with his best friend Bex, at school and is instantly intrigued by him.  This weird combination of YA, science fiction, gay love story has many themes about segregation, hiding who you are, and constant surveillance. Lee soon falls in love with the new boy, Nico Medina, and learns a special secret about him which makes him question his existence, much like Hamlet did.  There are many quotes from Shakespeare's plays throughout the novel that only one who had read these plays would understand, especially when referencing the 2B androids and the weapon to destroy them, Not2B.   Lee's tale left me wanting to reread various Shakespeare plays. I am reminded of the movie A.I. where a boy discovers he is actually an android and has to deal with the fact he is not human.  The boy also has a quirky sidekick, much like Lee's Gremlin.  The novel makes the reader question what is the difference between a chemical construct (humans) and an artificial construct (android) and also do we have true free will.  If we are influenced by our family, friends, and society, do we really have a pure sense of choice? This novel is a love story with action, science fiction, technology, scary Spider robots, and a cute creature construct named Gremlin.  I did get teary when something tragic happened to Gremlin, especially that it was constructed by Lee's dead mother. Without revealing too much, the story gets intense and builds all the way to the end with a lovely twist. But now I want more in a sequel with the characters as there are still some unresolved parts that are left up to the reader to create. Definitely a novel that will be enjoyed by techno geeks, literary fans, and those who enjoy a good love story.

Red = Death

Reading Challenge 2017: book with a red spine. Redshirts by John Scalzi was a hilarious spoof on Star Trek and all the impossible situations that occur in each show, including the death of the infamous red shirts. We discover the crew of the ship Intrepid are based on a 2016 television series The Chronicles of the Intrepid as whatever happens in the show happens to the very real crew in the world of the Intrepid. Death by exploding head, killer robots, strange alien plagues, and general mishaps that would occur on the television show. There are some last minute saves, time travel, and miraculous endings that could only happen in the impossible world of science fiction. I laughed at the references and enjoyed the quick read.

Redshirt has always been a Star Trek fan laugh.  They are usually the first to die in each episode, having very little back story.  Some barely have a name, usually called "security officer", which is ironic considering they should be more prepared to fight than the average crew member.  Interesting, Scotty wears a red shirt and died in one episode of Star Trek: the Original Series, but then was brought back to life.  In subsequent sequel series, the command officers wore red, thereby stopping the curse of the red shirt death.

Who knew that a cultural phenomenon such as Star Trek would affect a color so drastically.  Of course, I have always preferred blue, especially that it signifies medical and sciences.

Always an Education

Micah Jaeger is just like any other teenager in high school. He is trying to discover who he is and be happy in his own skin. This parents are divorced and he lives with his drunken mother, a strange woman who is obsessed with her dead son. Through a medium named Madam Alberta, his mother discovers that Dylan, Micah’s brother who died in Afghanistan, is supposedly “alive.” To complicate matters for Micah, his father wants to him to be like other boys until Micah reveals he is gay. Add Walker Donnell, whom Micah meets while photographing a dead seagull, and Micah’s life becomes more complicated with the discovery that Walker is intersex.

As always with Reardon’s novels, I learn something. Yachting terminology is explained in a way that landlubber would understand. Micah’s galeophobia, due to a shark biting him when he was young, is tested while yachting with Walker’s parents and overcome when he saves Walker’s cousin Cam from a bull shark. I have watched Shark Week numerous times and always have been fascinated by these hunters. 


Photography has always interested me, enough to become a yearbook teacher for three years, but a new appreciation of black and white photography is introduced through a reference to Vivian Maier. Micah’s photography inspired me to take up the camera again and take my own photos.


Another aspect I learned was Reardon’s inclusion of Muslim customs, which enlightened me on a religion I knew very little about. This is integral to the story as Dylan is alive, married to a Muslim woman who is moving to the States, and Walker’s sister, Paige, was adopted from a Muslim family. Raised a Catholic, comparative religions and mythology forces me to question the differences and similarities.


The characters are memorable and unique, descriptively vivid in my mind. The anxiety the comes with each of Reardon’s novels has dissipated with the resolution she provides the reading, nicely wrapping up each character’s story. And lastly, the Star Trek reference to Anton Yelchin is always a plus in my book.