Yes My Darling Daughter

Again (and I guess finally as the last book of 2009), we have this library find. The cover makes it look like a cheesy novel for empty-nesters (at least to me), but it was actually a pretty well written story about reincarnation and a young mother trying to help her child through some pretty creepy issues.

Taking place in London and Ireland, the story surrounded a young single mother with a very disturbed little girl, who is apparently stuck in her existence in a past life and the murder that ended it. As cheesy as that sounds, it was actually fairly believable and a pretty decent vacation read - the characters were honest and sympathetic and the mystery wasn't too glaringly obvious. Like most mysteries, the unravelling of the ending gets a bit silly but it was no better or worse than any other book of the genre.

3 creepy abandoned mines out of 5.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

This was another Christmas break read - from what I remember it was a decently written novel about people getting organ transplants. To be honest, I don't remember much, so I guess that makes it fairly unremarkable as a book. I don't remember having any huge issues with it though, let's give it 3 bad teenage mustaches out of 5.

Creature of the Night

It's been a while since I've read this (book blog fail), but I remember it being as a whole interesting in it's characters, albeit lacking in it's spooky supernatural elements. That part of the novel never really took off for some reason, although the narrator's life as a big juvie loser took up enough of the airspace to make the book interesting - it could have been a fantastic book had the whole creepy element been dropped.

Overall, a decent read for my Christmas vacation. 3 car-jackings out of 5.

The Chosen One

I received this book for Christmas, having asked for it thinking it was an adult novel. Alas, I was wrong and it's actually written for teens. Luckily, I have never been one to shy away from a good teen novel (obviously).

This was an extremely well-written book about a young girl living inside an FLDS-like fundamentalist Mormon cult. It was truthful, heartbreaking and didn't shy away from the darker issues at all - something I think that should be applauded in books for teens.

My only complaint on this book is that it was short - I wish it had been a lot longer as it was hard to let go at the end. There should be more books like this for both adults and kids - I would love to read a book like this written for adults as well - the issues are complicated and I think they could be explored in a bit more of a complex way in an adult novel.

5 bookmobiles out of 5 - one of the best books I've read in a while.

So Sexy So Soon

I picked this up thinking it was more of a study on the over-sexualization of children in western society, but it is in fact a parenting book. Not being a parent myself, I think that I skimmed a lot of it, so I can only speak to the gist.

While the case studies read like total bullshit, the overall backbone of it was basically not assigning shame to sex but teaching what is appropriate and answering questions truthfully. To be honest, I think I got about the same from a well written SAVAGE LOVE article on sex-positive parenting as I did from this entire book, but I guess everyone can't be as clear and concise as Dan Savage.

3 trampy 12-year-olds out of 5.

Middlesex

This was a book club selection - I've already discussed this at length there, so let's just go with it was good, a bit random in places but overall completely epic in the nature of a good Greek tragedy.

4 teeny weenies out of 5.

Columbine

Alright, technically it's now January 2010 (although the posting will say sometime in November), and I am way behind in this blog. I will do what I can to remember each book, although I am pretty sure I am forgetting something between Columbine and the next one, but we'll hobble along anyway.

So, Columbine. This was a fantastically well researched book about the circumstances surrounding the shootings, the writings, lifestyles and personalities of the boys involved, and the aftermath.

I think it's a particularly poignant topic for me, as I was a year younger than the shooters and in high school myself when this happened. I remember where I was exactly when I heard about the shootings and how we reacted to it in our school. Additionally, there was a copycat shooting at a small town south of the city a few weeks later where a boy my age was killed. A scholarship was set up in his name, and I received university money from it later on, as did many of my friends. Anyway, long story short, it was an important event in my personal history.

I think one of the most interesting things that this book addressed was the media's interpretation of what happened, and how that effected what we all thought reading about it internationally. Finding out there was no real "trenchcoat mafia", the boys weren't all that marginalized, etc. was very interesting.

I have to admit, I had a lot of nightmares the week I read this. However, it was interesting, well researched and I was talking about it for days afterwards. 4.5 disenfranchised, trenchcoat wearing youth out of 5.