Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2014/What I've Read In 2014

I decided to read the books the kids have been assigned so I could answer their questions, if they had any. I'd read some of these before, while others were new to me.

19. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

A group of English schoolboys survive a plane crash on a deserted island. They try to form a civilized society, but it soon deteriorates into savagery. Like a lot of classic novels of the mid-20th century, it's pretty bleak.

20. 1984, by George Orwell

A futuristic dystopian novel about a society in which everyone is watched all the time by "Big Brother." There is no hope, there is no freedom, and everything you think you know and remember is suspect because every bit of history is being constantly rewritten to suit the politics of the moment. It's a satire of Stalinism turned up to 11, but some of the ideas put forth are still relevant -- like every bit of your data being available to look at by authorities (it's notable that sales of this book suddenly went up last summer after Edward Snowden publicized some information about the NSA). I'd read this one before, and I still maintain my opinion that this is one of the most unpleasant books I've read (and I'm pretty sure that's the point).

21. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I read this one in high school, but had long since forgotten most of the details. Next to the other books the students are reading, this one is downright lighthearted. A con artist of sorts, Jay Gatsby, goes to great lengths to win the heart of the woman he loves. She responds, or seems to, though it's doubtful she cares about him as much as he cares about her, and he idealizes her so much that if he did win her heart he'd be in for a rude awakening, since nobody's that perfect.

22. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Another dystopian novel, though not nearly so unpleasant as 1984. Babies are made in labs and each person is designed to do a certain task and occupy a certain social stratum (natural reproduction is forbidden, and words like 'father' and 'mother' are obscenities). Everyone takes a drug called soma to make them content. Persons who don't fit in are cast out.

With these literary selections, it seems like it's a depress-the-kids semester. Fortunately, for every depressing novel, there are a hundred thousand funny YouTube videos for the kids to watch on their Chromebooks.

7. How to Train Your Dragon by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III as translated from the Old Norse by Cressida Cowell - Hiccup and the other pre-teen boys of the Hooligan tribe need to obtain a young dragon and train it in order to be initiated into the tribe. Hiccup, despite being the son of the Chief, is sure he will fail. This is the story of how Hiccup became a hero, instead.

While Dreamworks made a film based on this book (or perhaps this book series), we have yet to see many similarities between the book and the film other than setting and (some) characters. This story is very entertaining, if a tad violent, brash, and... well, full of humor entertaining to boys. Needless to say, my son LOVED it. My daughter thought the ending was a bit gross. I tended to side with my son in thinking that this was a nice change of pace from the princess stories we've been reading along side it. We've already checked out the next book in the series "How to be a Pirate" for our next selection.

Just out of curiosity, Annie, how often are the kids assigned to read classics written by women? These were all written by men. Where are the "Frankstein", "To Kill a Mockingbird", or the "Pride and Prejudice" (without Zombies) novels? I remember many stories being assigned to me in school ("1984", "Lord of the Flies", and "Great Gatsby", included, as well as the writings of Charles Dickens), but I cannot remember being assigned anything by a classic female author outside of the poetry lesson (and that horrible "Jane Eyre" book, ugh). Most of the great classic female writers I read were on my own *after* graduation. I hope this has changed in the :rolleyes: 25 years since I graduated high school.

For a few years, no novels were taught at all, since the textbooks had little snippets of literature that were supposed to make the kids enthusiastic about literature (I call it Literature: Twitter Style). When this turned out not to work in spite of the opinions of experts who hadn't been in a classroom in years, they started using actual novels again. (Good thing we librarians in the district had just put them away instead of getting rid of them like we were told to -- we knew they'd be needed in the future.) Last year the kids read Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, To Kill a Mockingbird, and A Raisin in the Sun (all written by women). This year the theme seems to be dystopia (other than The Great Gatsby), so they're reading all the depressing books. One teacher showed up with her first period class today to check out a dystopiate novel written by a woman -- The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. This would have been fine, except the teacher and the AP neglected one important detail -- telling me, the librarian, to get the book. As such, the teacher wanted 120 copies, while I have a grand total of 2. (Given a couple of weeks' notice, I could probably scrounge up a class set -- not 120, but enough for the kids to use in the classroom.) Given no notice, I couldn't give them much of anything. In keeping with the dystopian theme, however, the teacher checked out a class set of Fahrenheit 451.

I'd had enough of heavy literature for a while, so I read a couple of humorous novels.

23. Ten Big Ones, by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum accidentally identifies a convenience store robber called the Red Devil, which gets her targeted by his fellow gang members, the Slayers. Funny in parts, and I do like the character of Sally Sweet, the cross-dressing musician and bus driver.

24. Big Trouble, by Dave Barry

This book is hilarious. Teenagers, parents, cops, weapons smugglers, and other assorted weirdoes collide in Miami. This one had me giggling out loud.

LOL - off-topic, I know, but it seems some things are the same the world over.

Ah, "experts". It's good you proved them wrong. Literature via cribnotes doesn't work, either, I've heard. This librarian must wear glasses because she's really a superhero in disguise. As such, the teacher wanted 120 copies, while I have a grand total of 2. (Given a couple of weeks' notice, I could probably scrounge up a class set -- not 120, but enough for the kids to use in the classroom.) Given no notice, I couldn't give them much of anything. In keeping with the dystopian theme, however, the teacher checked out a class set of Fahrenheit 451. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's a good book. I read it when it was book of year in L.A. about 10 years back (I was told that L.A. chooses a book every year, which it encourages and promotes for it's citizenry to read, so they can have impromptu book club conversations with strangers while waiting for their Starbucks. Strangely enough, F451 was the only book I heard of which got this honor, and I lived in L.A. -- and worked at a bookstore -- for almost 2.5 years.) Thanks for answering my question. I'm surprised that they would pick anything so recent (Hunger Games) to read in the classroom.

I once worked in an office, where someone had a sign up in their cubical which read: "Just because you waited until the last minute, doesn't mean I'm in a hurry." In that vein, You deserve the "Just because you're unprepared, doesn't make it my fault" award.

Yes, the whole Hunger Games series is good. (I enjoyed it so much that I decided to write an LnC/Hunger Games crossover called Panem.) There are also numerous books written about the Hunger Games, some of which are better than others, and the series inspired the current young adult dystopia craze (some of those books are good; others are somewhat less dystopiate than real life).

The Hunger Games is more recent than most books taught in school, but nevertheless the teachers are using it (and showing the movie). A couple of the other high schools in the district have large sets of the book, but I couldn't borrow them because the classes at those schools are using them.

The receptionist at the first school I worked for, who was also the copy clerk, had a sign on her office wall that said: "Your failure to plan ahead does not constitute an emergency on my part." I should get one of those for the library.


Female Hawk: Yes, there are "experts" the world over who have plenty of education, but lack practical experience. Putting them in charge is like teaching driver's ed. out of the book, then putting the person behind the wheel and expecting them to drive safely. The knowledge is necessary, but without the experience to go with it, it's just theory.

14) Doctor With a Sandwich Practice by C. Stewart Richie III . A man going to medical school when his father can no longer pay his tuition. He decides to start a Sandwich Stand in the Stanford Medical School Courtyard to pay for his tuition. He was selling over $100.000 in sandwiches by the time he graduated. The founder of Guckenheimer Sandwiches based in Redwood Shores , California. He graduated medical school and did his residency but never practiced medicine.

Creepers - David Morrell

A charity shop pickup, from the blurb I expected a middling horror novel. A poor man's The Shining. Actually, although it started slow, it turned into a surprisingly taut thriiler.

Heaven's Needle - Liane Mercial

This one caused a bit of a ruckus apparently among fans of the first book, who objected to its abrupt shift from fantasy to horror. As a fan of both genres, I didn't expect it would be an issue for me. I did greatly enjoy the first half, but as the book progressed, the unremitting gore, despair and pages of boring exposition began to wear on me. It was a long, wearisome slog to the end.

LabRat

#15 Wool the Omnibus edition by Hugh Howey

I'd only read the first of the five sections of this book. Great mystery about the silo civilization. I've already picked up the next installment.

Joan

15) Things That Matter by Charles Krauthammer. 88 essays.

16) 1001 Reasons to Love Chocolate by Barbara Albright and Mary Tiergreen

17) Modoc by Ralph Helfer-The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived. Wonderful story!

18) Live Free or Die by John Ringo
19) Citadel by John Ringo


Books 1 & 2 of the series I started with #3. Good plot and story. His characterization is a little weak in this series. It's hard to get into the characters.

20) Ice Bears by Steven Kazlowski ---mostly beautiful photos.

21) The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witten . Excellent history of the group of people who saved many of the art works during WW2. It's amazing they managed to save as many as they did.

22) Never Go Back by Lee Child . A Jack Reacher novel. One of the better ones.

#16 "The Unwanteds: Island of Fire" by Lisa McMann

My son is excited about this series, so I'm reading along. This is the third book. It's an inventive plot with magic and intrigue but it reads more like a YA book.

Joan

*Finally* got through The First Confessor, by Terry Goodkind. I enjoyed it, as I have all/most of the Sword of Truth books.

8. Unlocking the Spell - by E.D. Baker - Sequel to "Wide-Awake Princess". - Now that Annie has found her sister's true love, so that the inhabitants of Treecrest's castle are awake once more, Annie and Liam set out on a quest with Gwendolyn's true love to find the person who cast the evil spell on him and have it reversed. Gwendolyn follows them to join the quest, making it more difficult as she's the fairest princess in a the known world. Meanwhile, Annie and Liam's relationship seems not so happily-ever-after as Annie thought it would be.

They meet a lot of interesting fairy tale characters through-out the story and my daughter delighted in guessing which ones they were. Baker does a good job of showing those well-known stories in a completely new light, or perspective.

Katherine, The Virgin Widow - Jean Plaidy

I went through a phase of reading Plaidy's historical novels back when I was a teen, so there was a nostalgia element here. I enjoyed it. It focused on the years before Katherine married Henry VIII, so it was a little fresher than I'd expected. Plaidy's style skims along the surface a little, but it seems to work for her.

Three Kings of Cologne (Roger the Chapman Mysteries) - Kate Sedley

I do love a good medieval whodunnit from time to time. This was an author new to me, but with an engaging narrator in Roger and a nice sense of time and place, I did enjoy this one.

LabRat

24) Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman. Piper goes to prison for 15 months for a 10 year old drug offense. Her story of prison life.