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#41-#43: Final Friends Trilogy*

November 23, 2007 in book reviews, books, christopher pike | 7 comments

#41. Final Friends: The Party. Christopher Pike. Young Adult Fiction. 3 Stars

#42. Final Friends: The Dance. Christopher Pike. Young Adult Fiction. 3 Stars

#43. Final Friends: The Graduation. Christopher Pike. Young Adult Fiction. 3.5 Stars

*If you’re just joining in and wondering why a 31 year old is reading a tween trilogy from the late 1980’s then feel free to catch up here.

These held up surprisingly well over time, which is both disappointing (it would have been fun to write a funny Dairi Burger-esque post about these books ridiculing and recapping them) and inspiring (it’s nice to know that not EVERYTHING I read as a tween was complete crap – see: SVH).

In fact, while the material is obviously geared towards younger minds than mine, the mystery that binds the trilogy together is not a “oh I know who did it on the third page” sham…in fact had memories of reading the books not flooded back I don’t know that I would have accurately put the puzzle together much before Michael Olson (dashing crush-worthy protaganist – yes, even now) which is saying something since I can usually put together the “twist” or “shocking ending” on most movies and certainly on every single Law & Order episode well before the characters.

Also, with the exception of the word “neat” as in “wow, that’s neat.” being used too often and the occasionally ridiculous “far-out” as in “Michael is a far-out guy” the books stood up pretty well across the board, with few truly embarrassing lines. I remember having a super crush on Michael Olson and I don’t know whether I’m proud or ashamed to say that I guess I haven’t changed that much, because I still find him super appealing. I suppose he is written pretty much as the “perfect guy” so maybe there is no real mystery and it has nothing to do with me, except for the fact that I’m a predictable girl just like all the other girls. Hmm. *sigh*.

Anyway, overall the plot remains strong enough and the writing is not too bad and the third book, The Graduation is the most interesting, largely due to the fact that the most actually happens in that book and all is slowly revealed, but also because the characters mature a bit and it’s nice to see that Pike, even when writing for tweens was able to delicately age the teen characters as the books progressed. You really do leave with the feeling that they have changed and aged, but it’s not so dramatic and annoying as you would expect for a tween book. Well done Mr. Pike.

I picked up Weekend immediately after finishing The Graduation, to see if Pike’s other books (the FF Trilogy was by far my favorite of Pike’s as a tween) could stand up as well as these did. I remember also liking Weekend very much back then, but so far it’s not holding up as well. Not bad, but not as strong as the FF Trilogy…but more on Weekend and the rest of my Pike Fest in book review #44 – …!

#20 Comic of the Day

November 21, 2007 in books, comic of the day, comics | 6 comments

Home today, taking a well deserved day off, since it turns out I never managed to take a real legitimate vacation this year and I’ll be damned if one single vacation day goes unused. I’m excited to have a nice little chunk of holiday time off to get some things accomplished, although I looked at my to do list and it’s clear I live in a complete fantasy land…I’ll be lucky if I get a third of it done. Wish me luck…I’ll be posting a special Thanksgiving comic tomorrow, so if you’re bored and trying to escape family, be sure to check in.

Happy Holidays!

#19 Comic of the Day

November 20, 2007 in books, comic of the day, comics, movies | 2 comments

We’ll all know soon enough I suppose…

Cheating

November 19, 2007 in books, cheating, christopher pike, sweet valley high, the road | 7 comments

Okay, four things happened in the last week that are causing me to pseudo-cheat on my 52 books in a year goal. Here they are, in order…

1. I found an amazing blog called The Dairi Burger, which brilliantly ridicules books I used to read as pre-teen called Sweet Valley High books (you can read more about that here). This caused me to think about what books I really did love as a teen and what it was about them that was so great…the kind of books that in my mind still manage to seem good and that I suspect will at least hold up partially over time (note: this would NOT include the SVH books).

2. I wrote a book…a while ago. It’s not a bad little book, but it’s not the great American novel that I (and everyone else it seems) so desperately wants to write. I’ve had to accept that maybe this book (and the two parts that go with it – yes, it’s a trilogy, *sigh*) just is what it is,. And maybe that it is just a middle ground between the young adult books that were a bit above the norm and and quite a bit below the great American novel that I’d like to write someday. Maybe I’m just not ready to write the great American novel…maybe I never will be. But perhaps I should go back and re-read some of this YA material and see if I’m nuts, or if it really does hold up pretty well?

3. I read I Am Legend this past weekend and really enjoyed it. I would consider it the middle ground of which I speak above. It is certainly more intelligent than a young adult novel and has more ramifications and themes behind it, but it is certainly too “pop” by today’s standards to be considered a “Great American Novel” whatever the hell that even means. Although written in 1954 it was certainly pretty revolutionary for its time and would probably not have been called ‘pop’, but we live now, so I’ll deal with now. So this is maybe the vague middle ground that I am looking for. I read it in a few hours, which makes me feel like it cannot be so important, but I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy in a few hours and I not only thought that was brilliant but it won the damn Pulitzer Prize! Perhaps the real problem here is that I need to redefine my definition of “Great American Novel”. More on that later, back to the point at hand…

4. I found (and by found I mean located on the internet and purchased very deliberately) a few of my long lost favorite young adult novels. I plan to re-read them as “research & development” and if it helps me toward my 52 book goal because they each only take two hours to read then so be it! Yea me! Anyone want to argue with my well documented justification here? Go ahead, give it a shot…

As a compromise, I promise not to count any more than 6 of these books, as that is officially how many books I am behind in my book a week goals…deal? Here’s a little teaser preview…

#40 Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls

November 19, 2007 in book reviews, books, short fiction | Permalink

#40. Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales For Girls. By Danielle Wood. Short Fiction. 3.5 Stars

I enjoyed this collection. It’s a beautiful little book, the shape and feeling of some of the awesome McSweeney’s imprints, although not quite with the same detail as McSweeney’s. I liked the idea behind this book, some stories are told first person, from the perspective of Rosie Little and others are told third person and are mostly women somehow connected to Rosie (although that is not always directly indicated, but rather just subtley implied). Each story is separated by word chapters such as Virginity, Love, Trust, Beauty, etc. I found most of the stories to be well written and at least somewhat powerful and I admit to crying a bit on the Love chapter, which tells me it was at least very powerful for me.

Like I find in all collections, this collection a bit uneven with some truly powerful stuff and some ho-hum stuff. Regardless I enjoyed every cautionary tale and liked that I felt transported to a slightly different/fantastical world than ours, though not too far that I felt lost. My one real complaint, other than the previously mentioned uneven-ness is that each short piece has an excerpt wedged into the middle called “Notes From Rosie” and that basically acts as a little aside to something going on in the story. These were sometimes lovely, but overall I found them distracting. And when they weren’t brilliant, but just so-so inserts I found myself a bit annoyed. I appreciate what Wood was going for and it was a unique and interesting idea, but for me it just wasn’t quite successful.

#39 I Am Legend

November 19, 2007 in book reviews, books, hollywood | 3 comments

#39. I Am Legend. Richard Matheson. 3.5 Stars

This was a great piece. I read it less because of the upcoming film and more because of what Adam told me it was about, which is awesome.

For the uninitiated, I Am Legend is a pretty remarkable story about a man that is the last survivor in a world plagued by “vampires”. I’m hesitant to give away much more so as not to spoil the story plot(s), as that is the best part of the book, it’s a pretty interesting idea, and certainly for its time (written in 1954) it must have been mind blowing in its revolutionary thinking. From reading Legend it is no surprise that Matheson was one of the primary brilliant minds behind many of the Twilight Zone stories. Overall the story idea was what won me over, and what is the strength of Matheson’s piece. I found some of the writing to be a bit weak, and the ending to be rushed, when it should have been milked for all its brilliant revelations, but overall it was a fast and interesting read.

After reading I Am Legend, Adam and I watched The Omega Man, a 1970’s film starring Charleton Heston, which is loosely based on Legend. And when I say loosely based, I mean they took some of the awesome ideas and then went off on their own with terrible terrible ideas (including but not limited to: monk’s robes, sunglasses, “badass one liners”, a stereotypically black power “hot mama” character, young white kids with innocent little faces, and bad white make up) and made a truly horrific movie. It was cringe-inducingly bad. We plan to also watch The Last Man On Earth this week, also based on I Am Legend, which I doubt, but hope, will be better. As for I Am Legend, the upcoming Will Smith vehicle, based on previews, I am cautiously optimistic, from what I have seen there are far more similarities to the original story, and thus a more interesting film.

At the risk of going into a full blown rant, I must say Hollywood pisses me off to no end with their assumption that they can somehow better an author’s original vision. Of course some changes must be made to a novel as film is a different medium and therefore there need to be adjustments to make a story effective in a new medium, but most of the things I see Hollywood doing to films has nothing to do with adjusting for the medium and more with pouring ideas into the “hollywood machine” and mushing things together until they get something nice and bland prepared for the idiotic masses and then cranking them out one after the other like barbie dolls. It’s so very arrogant. I don’t understand why they bother in acquiring an author’s original vision and then not trusting that vision to lead them through. Ahh…it makes me tired just thinking about it.

I Am Legend…3.5 stars, and recommended to anyone who likes Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian stories.

#38. One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box

November 16, 2007 in book reviews, books, dave eggers, mcsweeney's | 2 comments

#38. One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box. Three Collections by Dave Eggers, Sarah Manguso, and Deb Olin Unferth. 4 Stars.

Let’s just talk about packaging. BEA-UTIFUL! It could not be more gorgeous. Three tiny, perfect little volumes, packaged in a small box, and a gorgeous one at that. Now let’s talk about concept, what a great idea this is. Some great authors, given pretty free reign to be as creative and “out of the box” (excuse the pun) as they want. Just wonderful. Okay, now onto execution, there is some minor stumbling here in that the quality of the three tiny volumes, for me, was just not equal.

Sarah Manguso’s Hard To Admit and Harder To Escape shocked me, I mean SHOCKED me with its brilliance. She has 81 blissfully tiny stories that are edited (and perhaps written) with the finest of tuning…they are only the absolutely necessary words and the result is incredibly powerful little tales. Manguso’s book was by far the strongest for me overall (and I’m pretty sure she creeped inside my head at night and stole tale #81, about zombies, directly from dreams – shame on you Ms. Manguso!). It is a pretty powerful piece that can (slightly) show up a collection by Dave Eggers. Hats off to you Ms. Manguso.

Dave Eggers collection How The Water Feels To The Fishes is also very powerful, and my absolute favorite pieces overall were probably his, but his collection was not as consistently brilliant as Manguso’s. Still, a powerful exciting read. I was so into Eggers collection that I almost missed my stop at 86th street on the subway, and then proceeded to almost knock over a blind man. I know, I know, horrible. I’ve felt guilty about it for days now.

Last, and sadly least (though I read it in the middle) was Deb Olin Unferth’s collection Minor Robberies. This was still a great collection and had I read it on my own, separate from the other two collections, perhaps it would have held up better, but in comparison to Eggers and Manguso’s pieces, it just didn’t have the same power for me. The stories were much longer than Eggers and Manguso’s pieces generally were, yet there was actually less punch to the stories. I was disappointed, but again, I think only because read in combination with the other two volumes, the three just did not seem to mesh well together overall and Olin Unferth’s seemed to be the weakest link.

I would recommend this collection to anyone that loves short fiction, as it is a beautiful collection (great gift) and the storytelling within is really quite original and cutting edge. Very few authors out there can handle the short short story, and these three are absolutely at the top of the crop. 4 Stars.

#17 Comic of the Day

November 16, 2007 in books, comic of the day, comics | 5 comments

While I did edit down, I still got two. I have no self control when it comes to books. It’s a shame. Someday though I’ll have a massive (impressive) library and thousands of dollars of credit card debt to show for it…wait…I already have the credit card debt…hmmm…

Sweet Valley High and Eating Disorders…Coincidence? I Think Not…

November 15, 2007 in books, craptastic, sweet valley high | 3 comments

I have discovered the most awesome blog of all time. Thank you Feministing!

The blog The Dairi Burger, run by the brilliant ihatewheat, is essentially a hilarious recap of the terrible old books that many of us (mostly women, but I’m sure there are a few boys out there as well) used to read as tweens. Specific to me on the blog are the Sweet Valley High Books (SVH) starring the Wakefield twins, Elizabeth and Jessica, which I ADORED, but which I see now are just horrible horrible things and it’s amazing that I escaped as unscathed as I am (though I am in therapy so perhaps my optimistic “I’m okay, I survived the bile that is SVH” is just a cover). Reading her recaps (and seeing copies of the books on her site, which is a surprisingly powerful memory jogger) you will remember everything you loved and then remember now all the horror, which as an adult you can now understand and appreciate, but which rolled past your tween eyes with frightening ease.

Regardless, the site is brilliant because ihatewheat manages to recap and ridicule, but with a great sense of humor, and keeping the anger and the “these books ruined my life feeling” to a minimum. If you read these books as a kid, I highly recommend you check out this site asap and become a devoted follower. A word to the wise, make sure you have some time on your hands, there are currently 42 SVH books reviewed on the site, and you will feel compelled to read every word.

I’m sure there would be rights/permissions issues, but considering the popularity of this blog (averaging around 900 hits a day) and the rabid fan base, ihatewheat would be smart to think about putting together a book deal based on her blog. I for one, would be first in line to purchase.

Here are some book covers to help jog your memory, it’s like I’m 10 again, but in an oh so bad way…

Dave Eggers and Me

November 8, 2007 in books, dave eggers, mcsweeney's, writing | Permalink

I often dream of meeting Dave Eggers, as he is a writing god to me. However, sometimes when I think about meeting Dave Eggers I become concerned that he would actually find me silly and inconsequential and then I think perhaps I am better off just dreaming of meeting Dave Eggers than actually meeting him. That way the dream that he and I are twin souls that will have some great laughs can stay alive…if only in my deluded mind.

I have been itching for (and honestly looking all over New York for…what’s wrong with you New York!) Eggers and McSweeneys (and Manguso and Unferth’s) new book titled 145 Short Stories In A Small Box. I finally got my greedly little hands on it last night (thanks Adam!) and found it to be even more delightful than expected (and I haven’t even read any stories yet – we’re just talking packaging people). Anyway, there is a little one page insert by Dave Eggers and it’s the kind of brilliant little fluffy thing that again reminds me that if and when I finally meet Dave Eggers I will simply blush and faint, and then just lay there unconscious while he feels uncomfortable and is forced to walk away from the “scene” I’ve created. He’s just too brilliant for me to stand that close to…and remain conscious. And if I lose consciousness then I don’t have to worry about saying anything stupid that will make him think I am silly and inconsequential… instead of being those things I can just be ‘that ridiculous girl who fainted’. Anyway, I’ve pasted the text from the insert below in the hopes that you too will find it brilliant and you will run out immediately to get your own copy of 145 Stories In A Box (and all the other McSweeney’s you can get your hands on). According to Eggers…pick up at least ten, although he doesn’t specifiy that you can only buy McSweeney’s books, it certainly doesn’t hurt…and at least then you know you’ll be getting “the right kind of books”.

Thankfully for me (and less for my credit cards) I pick up WAY more than ten books a year…so maybe that will give me a better shot with Mr. Eggers when our paths eventually cross…

“THE NEW RULES” by Dave Eggers

“I don’t know why it came down to me to tell you about this, but anyway, here goes: if you don’t buy at least ten books a year, you’ll be struck by lightning, or maybe a bus. It’s the new rule. Yeah. You’ll probably be sent a more official notice in the mail pretty soon, but for now, you’re hearing it from me. Ten books a year, or the bus or lightning, each of them very painful and likely deadly. Is the rule a bit harsh? Well, maybe. Some people might think so, but then again, those people won’t be with us very long, because anyone who complains about the rule will be disemboweled by bears. Again, not my idea – I’m just the messenger here! – but that’s the way it is. I don’t know whay you’re worried, though. Just buy the ten books a year and don’t whine about it, and you won’t be struck by anything or have your insides ripped out by a grizzly. Doesn’t seem so complicated, really. Also, make sure you buy the right kind of books, or else someone in a cardigan will push you off a building. Again, nothing to worry about: just buy the best kinds of books, not the bad ones, or else you’ll be looking over your shoulder pretty much forever. And you can’t read that way, anyway, so it all works out.”

I say again BRILLIANT! And oh so funny. That Dave Eggers, what a character. What a laugh he and I are going to have someday…assuming I’m conscious.

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