February 2018 Reads

20. Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass

read on my Kindle
2007 Little Brown Young Readers
251 pgs.
Contemporary YA told in VERSE form
Finished 2/26/18
Goodreads rating:  3.79 - 5250 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:Contemporary America

First line/s:
"For fifty cents and a Gobstopper
I lifted my shirt for the neighborhood boys.
My older brother Matt caught us
and chased the boys with a wiffle bat.
Word got around, and at nine years old
I became the girl
other girls' moms
didn't want them to play with."

My comments:  Told in verse format, I guess you would call this a partial modern-day "Christmas Carol", since Tessa is only visited by the ghost of her past.  It's really cute and insightful, and sad, too.  Not SAD sad, just enough to feel badly for the little girl Tess was growing up.  And her future is yet to be written!

Goodreads synopsis: When 16-year-old Tessa suffers a shocking accident in gym class, she finds herself in heaven (or what she thinks is heaven), which happens to bear a striking resemblance to her hometown mall. In the tradition of It's a Wonderful Life and The Christmas Carol, Tessa starts reliving her life up until that moment. She sees some things she'd rather forget, learns some things about herself she'd rather not know, and ultimately must find the answer to one burning question--if only she knew what the question was. 
          Written in sharp, witty verse, Wendy Mass crafts an extraordinary tale of a spunky heroine who hasn't always made the right choices, but needs to discover what makes life worth living.

MOVIE - Call Me By Your Name

R (2:10)

Wide release 1/19/18

Viewed February 24, 2018 somewhere in PA
IMBd:   8.0

RT Critic:  95  Audience: 85
Critic's Consensus:  Call Me by Your Name offers a melancholy, powerfully affecting portrait of first love, empathetically acted by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer.

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Written by James Ivory, and based on the book of the same title

Sony Pictures Classics

Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet

My comments:  How can you go wrong with a lush set and setting in northern Italy; two wonderful, likable protagonists - one adorable and one gorgeous - and a lovely love story?  Then throw in some particularly cool music, a thundering powerful waterfall, a few different romantic languages and you have this great indie movie.  I liked it a lot.  It was so weird that when the movie ended, the entire very-full movie theater was totally silent for quite a few minutes, even as they collected their belongings and got up to leave.  (I wish I could have the script to the father's soliloquy to the son near the very end of the movie.  It was pretty cool.)

RT/ IMDb Summary:  CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It's the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian, spends his days in his family's 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio's sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio's father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.

MOVIE - Phantom Thread

R (2:10)

Wide release 1/19/18, another that was difficult to find nearby

Viewed date 2/22/2018
IMBd:  7.6

RT Critic:  91  Audience:  69
Critic's Consensus:  Phantom Thread's finely woven narrative is filled out nicely by humor, intoxicating romantic tension, and yet another impressively committed performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.

Cag:  Did I hate it?  Did I like it?  I'm not sure...but 6 months later I still remember what happened, so it's certainly stayed with me!

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Focus Features

Daniel Day-Lewis

My comments:  Okay, I have no idea how to rate this movie.  I guess I liked it.  I had absolutely no idea what it was about other than that Daniel Day Lewis was some sort of famous fashion designer 60 years ago.  I love quirky and odd, and this was certainly quirky and odd.  It is about one of the strangest relationships I have ever witnessed.  Everyone should see it without any spoilers because it's a bit ind-blowing.  And one that won't be easily forgotten.  But even now, after thinking about it and ruminating even more, I have no idea how to rate it.  I did like it, but I was unsettled by it.  Totally unsettled.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants, and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock's life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love.

PICTURE BOOK - Ruby's Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee

Illustrated by Joey Chou

2018, Henry Holt

HC $17.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.35 - 36 ratings

My rating:  4  (why not a 5?  Some of the pages are a little wildly busy for me)

Endpapers:  Bright yellow-orange

1^st line/s:  "Every year Ruby's grandmother came to visit for Chinese New Year."

My comments:   What a nice way to introduce the twelve Chinese Zodiac animals to kids.  Illustrations are extremely bright and go from edge-of-page to edge-of-page without white borders, which I love.  A nice real aloud for Chinese New Year.  With repetition, which is always fun.

Goodreads:   In this picture book celebrating Chinese New Year, animals from the Chinese zodiac help a little girl deliver a gift to her grandmother.
           Ruby has a special card to give to her grandmother for Chinese New Year. But who will help her get to grandmother’s house to deliver it? Will it be clever Rat, strong Ox, or cautious Rabbit? Ruby meets each of the twelve zodiac animals on her journey. This picture book includes back matter with a focus on the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

19. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

listened to on Audible
read by Luke Daniels - bravo!
2007 Simon & Schuster
335 pgs.
YA Dystopia
Finished 2/21/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.18-160,781
My rating:  5

First line/s:  " 'There are places you can go,' Ariana tells him, 'and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen.'"

My comments:  I have a friend who loves everything Neal Shusterman, and since I've had this sitting on my Audible for quite a while, I decided to start this instead of Scythe, which I don't have.  Wow. This is an amazing story. A dystopian America, a place where parents of kids between the ages of 13 and 18 can "rid" themselves of unwanted offspring by sending them away to be unwound. And what is unwinding? It is harvesting every single part of the living body to be used as replacements in other humans. WHOA!!!!
           So much to think about and digest. Thoroughly written, interesting personalities to get to know. Narrated by Luke Daniels, who read the story brilliantly. Neal Shusterman is amazing, I can't wait to read more of his work!

Goodreads synopsis: Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
          The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

PICTURE BOOK - Ella Who? by Linda Ashman

Illustrated by Sarah Sanchez

2017 Sterling Children's Books

HC $14.95

24 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.94 - 117 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers:  white background with 12 different "ropes" of leaves traveling from bottom to top of page.  Lovely.

1^st line/s: "The movers left the doors wide open.  That's probably how she got in."

My comments:  Super clever, funny, and cute story about a little girl whose family members are so "into" what they're doing that they pay very little attention to her (wise up, parents!).  The simple illustrations accentuate the story really nicely...this is the second Linda Ashman book that I've enjoyed tremendously!

Goodreads:  Mom . . . there’s an elephant in the living room. 
It’s moving day—and look who slipped in the door: an elephant! But when a little girl tries to tell her family about their unusual guest, the distracted grown-ups just say, “Ella WHO?” Even as children giggle at the girl’s adventures with the smallishpachyderm, and at the fun, recurring refrain, they’ll relate to the poignant theme about making—and sometimes letting go of—new friends.

18. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Listened to on Audible
2013, St. Martin's Griffin
438 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished  2/16/18
Goodreads rating:  4.11 - 416,019 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting:  Contemporary Nebraska (if I remember right)

First line/s:  "There was a boy in her room. Cath looked up at the number painted on her door, then down at the room assignment in her hand."

My comments:  Yup, I really enjoyed listening to this book.  100% enjoyment, totally and completely into the story.  Cath's story is just delightful.  However, by the end I'd had enough of Simon's story.  Don't think I'll be reading Carry On.

Goodreads synopsis: From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park. A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 
          Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
          Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...
          But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
          Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
          Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
          For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
          And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

17. The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor

read on my iPhone/Kindle/Book/Audible
2018 Katherine Tegen Books
336 pgs.
Mid Grades CRF
Finished 2/15/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.27 - 392 ratings
My rating:  4

First line/s:  "Tell you what.  I already know who stuffed this tee shirt into my locker.  Matt Drinker did that.  He took a Sharpie to it first.  Fat black letters.  He wrote STOOPID on it.  Same way I spelled my word in the spelling bee on Friday morning."

My comments:  This story is about bullying, friendship, love, and a sweet, sweet boy.
     I don't understand bullying.  I don't understand parents that allow it to happen,when they know it is happening.  Both and the giving and receiving ends, as in this book.
     I really enjoyed the story, but it didn't quite rate as a five to me.  There were a few too many weaknesses.  Shayleeen, for one. (They have so little money that they're selling off bits and pieces of their orchard to a developer and they take in a stray young adult - someone they don't even know - and let her spend all sorts of money - their money - on the shopping networks?  Take her in, great, feed her and cloth her, that's more-than okay, too, but let her rule the roost?)  And come one, Mason is being chased and abused by neighborhood kids and his grandmother and uncle either don't know about it (they should!) or don't do anything about it?  It's not as if they don't love him and carae about him.  And they are not oblivious people.  It just doesn't make sense to me.
     There ARE a couple of characters that do totally make sense to me - the wonderful counselor and friend to Mason at his school (oh what a wonderful, klutzy, classy, real person she is!)  and the cop who is trying to figure out what is happening.  They were believable.
     I kept drawing comparisons to one of my all-time favorite books, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick.  There are a lot.  That might even make and interesting paper/examination/comparison for me to write one day as I circumvent my journey towards a doctorate in children's literature, lol!
   
Goodreads synopsis: From the critically acclaimed author of Waiting for Normal and All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, Leslie Connor, comes a deeply poignant and beautifully crafted story about self-reliance, redemption, and hope.
          Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.
          Both Mason and his new friend, tiny Calvin Chumsky, are relentlessly bullied by the other boys in their neighborhood, so they create an underground club space for themselves. When Calvin goes missing, Mason finds himself in trouble again. He’s desperate to figure out what happened to Calvin, and eventually, Benny.
           But will anyone believe him? 

16. Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger

listened on Audible - read BEAUTIFULLY
2013 Atria Books
307 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 2/14/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.15 - 48,224 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting:1961 New Bremen, sourthern Minnesota

First line/s:   "All the dying that summer began with the death of a child, a boy with golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks outside New Bremen, Minnesota, sliced into pieces by a thousand tons of steel speeding across the prairie toward South Dakota."

My comments:  This story is about a minister's family in New Bremen, Minnesota in the summer of 1961, told in the first person by the middle child, a 13-year old named Frank, called Frankie by his family.  The story examines faith and the "awesome grace of God."
     I am genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.  Usually I go running in the other directions - screaming - when I discover a book contains ruminations about religion.  This one never ever shoved religion down my throat, and the minister father, Nathan Drum, was everything anyone could ever want in a minister.  It certainly game me lots to think about, particularly about grief.  It also made me ponder so many people's unquestionable belief that anything that happens is "God's will."  And, if anything, it strengthened my own beliefs. 
     So many strengths here - wonderful characterization, beautifully crafted plot, and really lovely writing.
     So many great things bout this book, but the best for me?  I really like the relationship between Frank and his stuttering younger brother, Jake.

Goodreads synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger comes a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.
         New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were at the ready at Halderson’s Drug Store soda counter, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a summer in which death assumed many forms.
          When tragedy unexpectedly comes to call on his family, which includes his Methodist minister father, his passionate, artistic mother, Juilliard-bound older sister, and wise-beyond-his years kid brother, Frank finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal.
          On the surface, Ordinary Grace is the story of the murder of a beautiful young woman, a beloved daughter and sister. At heart, it’s the story of what that tragedy does to a boy, his family, and ultimately the fabric of the small town in which he lives. Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, it is a moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

Postcards Received from Wyoming

736. Wyoming

A native of Wyoming, the Jackalope has never been captured alive.  It can only be hunted on June 31st between sunrise and sunset.  It mimics noises, especially the human voice and runs at lightning speed, therefore, the Jackalope is seldom seen.  Some folks drink Jackalope milk to cure eccentricities.  Best time to milk a Jackalope is after midnight as it sleeps i=on its back, belling shining in the moonlight.

 I hope this is a good addition to your collection

MOVIE - Fifty Shades Freed

R

Wide Release 2/9/2018

Viewed February 12, 2018 at Carlisle 8

RT Critic:  12  Audience:  38
Critic's Consensus:  Fifty Shades Freed brings its titillating trilogy to a clumsy conclusion, making for a film franchise that adds up to a distinctly dissatisfying ménage à trois. 

Cag:  3.5

Directed by James Foley

Universal Pictures
Box Office:  96 million

Jamie Dorman, Dakota Johnson

My comments:  Two words.  Jamie Dorman.  That is all.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.

MOVIE - Maze Runner 3: The Death Cure

PG-13 (1:54)

Wide 1/26/18

Viewed 2/11/18 at the Carlisle 8
IMBd: 6.7/10

RT Critic: 42  Audience:  66
Critic's Consensus:  Maze Runner: The Death Cure may offer closure to fans of the franchise, but for anyone who hasn't already been hooked, this bloated final installment is best left unseen.

Cag:  3/Liked it

Directed by Wes Ball

20th Century Fox

Based on the book by James Dashner

Walter Googins

My comments:   I read the book for and saw the first movie in this series.  Totally skipped the second, and this was the final segment of the trilogy.  Lots of bangs and booms, zombies, and Walter Googins as a half-zombie - the bad guy that will stop at nothing.  A surprise, supposedly dead, character from the past.  An especially long entertaining movie with an okay ending, though nothing spectacular.  A good way to spend the evening after a long weekend of work, in the dark, with a cold soda, feet up in a recliner, and the big screen in front of me.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Thomas leads some escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions that the Gladers have been asking since they arrived in the maze.

PICTURE BOOK - I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer

Illustrated by Gillian Newland

2016, Second Story Press, Canada

HC  $18.95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.29 - 385 ratings

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers:  pale sage green

1^st line/s:"The dark figure, backlit by the sun, filled the doorway of our home on Nipissing Reserve Number 10."

My comments:  I'm not sure if you would consider this a very short fiction book for middle-graders, or a quite long picture book for middle graders, but no matter which you choose it's a powerful story of how the Indigenous people - in this instance Canadian - were treated for most of the 2oth century.  Rubbish!  Ripped from their families, sent away to be practically starved and "taught" by nuns and religious factions, these children were neglected and abused and shamed.  It's sickening, and I'm glad that some of this history is hitting the bookshelves for older kids. This story is true, based on the life of the author's grandmother.

Goodreads:  When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

PICTURE BOOK - Around the World in Numbers by Clive Gifford

 Illustrated by Josh Hurley

2017, Red Shed (UK), Sterling (US)

CH $14.95

pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.5 - 2 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  Orange with darker orange animal sketches

Illustrations:  Edge - to - edge, no white, bold colors, great illustrations that jump out at you.

1^st line/s: "Grab you rsuitcase and fill it with facts as you travel through the different countries that make up Europe.  Packed with over 740 million people, there are lots of enormous and tiny numbers to discover, as well as some really surprising ones."

My comments:  I so enjoyed pouring over the facts, numbers, and illustrations in this book.  Although jam-packed with super interesting information, it's not so dense that it's off-putting.  On the contrary, I read each and every statistic and was dazzled by almost all of them.  Such though-provoking information - AND, I discovered a couple of new places to ad to my bucket list.  For older kids, the kind of kids who love maps and encyclopedias and World Record books.  And adults, too!

Goodreads:   Welcome to the fun and surprising world of numbers! 
Did you know there were about 10,000 light bulbs on the Titanic? Or that the Eiffel Tower is repainted every seven years—using 1,500 paintbrushes and 60 tons of paint? This engaging collection of statistics encourages kids’ curiosity by sharing some unbelievable numerical facts from across the globe. From famous landmarks and bustling cities to hidden treasures and incredible creatures, no number is too big or too small. Lively graphic illustrations add to the fun.