Book Nook - January

I love reading other peoples' book reviews on their blogs. So, I thought I would hop on the ol' bandwagon and create my own little book nook here on the family blog.

The invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Caldecott winner for this year. Amazing concept - part novel, part graphic novel, part homage to early cinema. Illustrations, photographs, and movie stills come together to tell the story of Hugo Cabret, a young orphan who lives in train station in Paris where he repairs the clocks. Serendipity brings him into the path of cinematic genius Georges Melies. If you haven't seen his masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon, you absolutely must. It's a visual masterpiece. While I enjoyed the visual elements of this book, I found the story lacking. I never got sucked in. I would recommend taking a look at the book, though.

A girl named Zippy - growing up small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
Laugh out loud funny. I just loved this book. Here is a passage that just made me smile. She is talking about her family’s old trailer. “I figure heaven will be a scratch-and-sniff sort of place and one of my first requests will be the Driftwood in its prime, while it was filled with our life. And later I will ask for the smell of my dad’s truck, which was a combination of basic truck (nearly universal), plus his cologne (Old Spice), unfiltered Lucky Strikes, and when I was very lucky, leaded gasoline. If I could have gotten my nose close enough I would have inhaled leaded gasoline until I was retarded. The tendency seemed to run in my family; as a boy my Uncle Crandall had an ongoing relationship with a gas can he kept in the barn” I wish the library had the sequel - She got up off the couch. Maybe I'll have to get it through Interlibrary Loan. I am way too cheap to buy books right now.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
The third book in the young adult vampire series. If you haven't heard of the Twilight series, you've been living under a rock. I can't put my finger on what makes these books so addictive. I think the books need some serious editing, the pacing is uneven, many of the characters are one dimensional. Why can't I put these books down? Probably because I have a serious soft spot for gothic romance of the Wuthering Heights variety.

The audacity of hope by Barack Obama
Our book club pick of the month. It generated great discussion. Senator Obama comes off as a real person who really wants to bring people together across partisan lines to solve problems. Some interesting ideas but not much beyond what he delivered in his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
Moved me to tears. Seedfolks is a tiny, little, sliver of a book about an inner-city neighborhood of immigrants in Cincinnati that comes together to plant a garden in an abandoned, trash filled lot. Really sweet.

The year of magical thinking by Joan Didion
My mom chose this book for her book club this month and was leading the discussion the day we left California to come back to Texas. Part memoir, part journalism, Joan Didion chronicles the year after the death of her husband. Unfortunately, her daughter suffered from serious health problems at the same time. This is the kind of book that you could read every ten years and get something different out of it each time. I haven't suffered any serious loss in my life but having been married and having a baby in the last few years, intertwining my life with these people makes you fear loss in a whole new way. I would have loved to have seen Vanessa Redgrave in the one woman show based on this book.