Quick hit - Dooley Takes the Fall

Dooley Takes the Fall by Norah McClintock
4Q 3P; Audience: J/S (high school)

I thought I'd already started a blog post about this one, but apparently not. It's the last of the books I read a couple of months ago that I wanted to write about. I've been carrying it around with me for way too long, so this will be a very short post so I can get it out on the shelf where it belongs.

Dooley's had his brushes with the law. In fact, he's on parole and under the very strict guardianship of his uncle, a former cop. But sometimes a guy has to breathe freely for a bit before he submits to going back to life's narrow confines. So when Dooley gets out of work a bit early one night, he takes the opportunity to take the long way home. This isn't in his parole guidelines, so it's definitely not information he'd like to get out. But when he comes foot to face with a dead body, keeping quiet isn't an option. Will the police believe him when he tells them he had nothing to do with the guy's death? That he saw the guy jump (fall?) from the bridge, but that's all he knows? They might believe him, if it weren't for his police record - - and the fact that the kid's backpack and camera are missing, and his family swears he never went anywhere without them. Add to that the fact that, while it's true that Dooley didn't really know the kid, it's also true that they weren't exactly strangers either. When evidence suggests that this was a murder, not a suicide, Dooley is in it up to his eyeballs.

What stood out for me with this book is how real Dooley seemed. He knows he's messed up in the past, and he's trying to get his life back on track, but that doesn't mean he enjoys treading the straight and narrow. He struggles with it and he makes mistakes. Costly ones. It's hard for him to trust his uncle and the other people who say they're on his side, and it's hard for them to trust him, too. That leads to more complications. When Dooley begins to fall for a girl, he's afraid to pursue it, knowing that she'd never fall for a guy with a background like his. When he finds out who she really is, he's more afraid than ever to tell her the whole truth. But again, that turns out to be a big mistake, given that she has ties to the dead boy.

Through it all, Dooley wants to do the right thing and struggles with knowing what that is. He occasionally feels sorry for himself, but he also acknowledges that he's earned some of his problems because his past and present actions. His mistakes and his growth felt real and I got caught up in his story, hoping he'd be smart and trust the right people and fearing he wouldn't. The book moves along at a brisk pace and McClintock keeps the tension building and the twists coming. I thought the denouement was weaker than the rest of the book (a little more forced and somewhat less believeable), but it is still an excellent mystery/suspense novel.

I'm not dead...really, I'm not - take 2

Boy, it's been quiet around here lately! I read a lot of great books in a row over the winter, and then I hit a spate of books that I enjoyed well enough, but didn't really feel compelled to blog about. So I haven't posted anything here in what, almost two months? That's too long. I'll bet all half dozen of my readers have given up on me by now. I hope they'll wander back when their news feed shows signs of life here.

In the meantime, in the past two or three weeks I've read three or four books I really liked, so I'll be posting about Wake by Lisa McMann, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, and The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp over the next couple of weeks. (It takes me forever to marshall my thoughts in a semi-coherent manner, so composing a post can take a while.) My thanks to Gail Giles for being such a cheerleader for Tharp's book. It wasn't on my radar before she wrote and blogged about it, and it's a book that should be getting more attention.

On a completely different subject, if anyone can point to style guides that discuss how to cite book titles on the web, I'd appreciate it. I was taught that book titles are always underlined, so that's what I do here. But the underline function isn't an option on the formatting toolbar or in the comments boxes that offer HTML. I don't know if that's because underlining is deprecated on the web or if it's just another example of "we don't really know what the rules of writing proper English are, and frankly we don't care" that seems so prevalent these days. Help?

EXCUSE ME, BUT I'M NOT DEAD. REALLY, I'M NOT.

Newes From the Dead by Mary Hooper

4Q 3P; Audience: J/S

The freaky thing about this book is that it's based on a true story.

Imagine being a servant in 1651. Someone in your class has very little protection. The legal system, such as it is, is not on your side. You also haven't much chance of changing your lot in life. So when the heir to the estate tells you that he loves you and wants to marry you, believing him is tempting, even when your mind knows better. And if you believe, then is it really so bad to give in and give yourself to the man who can give you so much in return?

In the case of Anne Greene, saying yes was a seriously bad decision. She wound up pregnant and discovered far too late that everything she'd been told was a pack of lies. He didn't care for her, and he certainly had no intention of marrying her. She tried to hide the pregnancy, but she couldn't hide the evidence when the baby is stillborn. The circumstances were ripe for a charge of infanticide. What a tidy way for the man's family to get rid of Anne for good. For killing her baby, Anne was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead. And she was hanged. And she was declared dead. Her body was then given to doctors so their students could dissect her body for medical study.

The problem was, she wasn't dead.

The story is told from both Anne's point of view and that of Robert, one of the medical students. Yes, I've told you some of Anne's story already. But I haven't told it all. It was chilling to read her part of the story knowing that the first incision is only moments away. Did they make that first cut? When did the doctors discover that she was alive? What was her reaction when she realized where she was and what was about to happen? What was it like to be one of those medical students at a time when people knew so little about the human body? What went through his mind? And most of all, how did Anne's life change when she literally came back from the dead in a time when superstition and religion held sway and science was in its infancy?

3, 2, 1, and...FREEZE FRAME!

Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe
5Q 4P; Audience: J/S

Kyle and Jason have been through a lot together in their years of being best friends. Lots of crazy escapades, lots of bets, lots of fun. But recently, they haven't been as close, so Kyle's surprised and pleased when Jason agrees to a sleep over. Kyle's sister Melanie isn't as happy about it, and things get a little tense at breakfast the next morning. Kyle and Jace take the wise option and get out of the house before things explode, heading to the shed in the backyard. That's where they find the gun. That's where the gun goes off.

What happened between those two moments...that's what Kyle can't remember. He knows that Jace is dead. He knows that he shot him. But he doesn't know how it happened or why it happened. What he does know is that there's no way he should be walking around free. Why didn't they throw him into prison for the rest of his life? Don't they know he killed a boy?

Kyle is a film fanatic. In his efforts to remember what happened that morning in the shed, he keeps trying to write the scene as his favorite filmmakers would direct it. No matter how he approaches the scene, though, everything ends in the same freeze frame: the moment the gun went off. Not knowing what happened that morning in the shed is tearing him apart. What if it wasn't an accident?

Musings:

I like to read before I go to bed, but I frequently go to bed very late, so I figure I'll read just a chapter before I turn out the light. That's what I intended the other night when I picked up Freeze Frame. It was almost four hours before I finally closed the book and went to bed. There just wasn't a good stopping point or a time when I felt that I could leave Kyle until I got to that last page. I'm not terribly prone to crying when I read, but this book had tears dripping down my face on multiple occasions.

Even given that I'm not much of a movie buff, using movies as shorthand for what Kyle is thinking and how he is thinking was a very effective characterization tool/plot device. I imagine it's even more effective for readers who are very familiar with the directors and movies mentioned throughout.

It's painful to read how much he feels he deserves all the hatred and anger sent his way. So I clung to those moments when Kyle makes contact with someone in a positive way. His friendship with Clock, another school outcast, grows believably and gives both Kyle and the reader some comfort. Kyle's scenes with Chase, Jason's little brother, offer some much-appreciated humor and more than prove that Kyle is not a hard-hearted killer, whatever he fears. And Mr. Cordoba, the school librarian, is flat-out a hero in my book. Jason and Kyle had a theory that "Scarface" is on the run from the Mob, but his actual story (much of it implied rather than stated) is far more compelling than that. I think I'm not alone when I say that I hope that I can give to my teen patrons in need what Mr. Cordoba gives to Kyle.

It's very early in 2009, but this book is already on my favorite books of the year, and I can't wait to recommend it high school readers.

(Post begun on 1/23/09 and posted 2/17 - I'm running very behind!)

Hey, Big Spender, Let's Dance!

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher
5Q 3P; Audience: J/S (Grade 9+)


It's Chicago, 1941, and life is tough in the Yards. Money is hard to come by at the tail end of the Depression, especially if you're female and young. Ruby Jacinski's mother's rheumatoid arthritis is so bad, she can no longer work in the meat factory. Ruby has no choice but to drop out of school and get a job to support herself, her mother, and sister. She too goes to work in the hated meat factory, and she loathes every minute of the dull, smelly, bone-aching work. The only bright spot in her life is when she gets to dance. When Ruby hears music, her body wants to take off into it. When she dances, people stop to watch. That and her feisty personality bring her to the attention of Paulie Suelze, recently dishonorably discharged from the Army and a small-time hood on the rise. If her mother knew she'd talked to - kissed! - Paulie Suelze, Ruby's life wouldn't be worth a plugged nickel. But Paulie is exciting, dangerous, and handsome, and all three qualities are appealing to Ruby. Just as appealing to her is the new work he suggests for her. Why not earn money doing the thing she most enjoys doing? Why not teach dancing at the Starlight? Instead of $12 a week, she could earn $50. She could pay off their back rent and grocery tab, get her mother's wedding ring out of hock, and maybe even earn enough to get them out of the Yards and into a nice place. What's not to like about a job like that? As far as Ruby's concerned, this is a wonderful opportunity. But she knows that as far as her mother is concerned, Ruby's dancing with strange men for money is one step short of going to hell in a hand basket. It's just the first of many secrets she has to keep from her mother.

Ruby soon discovers that Paulie hasn't given her the full story either. She isn't a dance teacher. She's a taxi dancer. She dances with men who buy her time. And if she works it right, they'll buy her dinner, too. They'll take her out to night clubs. If she sets her line just right, these fish will show her a great time, and all it will cost her is a few dances and a few stepped-on toes. But Ruby is far more naive than she thinks, and before long, she's got herself caught up in a real mess, and the only person who can get her out of it is Paulie Suelze. Dangerous, charming Paulie, who makes her heart race. Dangerous, charming Paulie Suelze, who can't be trusted.

Musings:

Everything in this book is sharply drawn, from the characters right down to the details that bring the early 1940's alive. Ruby is a multifaceted protagonist, and there's no attempt made to make her look particularly good. She makes plenty of mistakes, she's headstrong, cocksure, and unwilling to listen to good advice. She's a naif who thinks she knows it all, and it takes several knocks for her to even begin to realize that she doesn't. Ruby knows how to stand up for herself, but doesn't always know when to lie low. And she most certainly isn't a good judge of character. But Ruby is loving, loyal, and good-hearted, and she can look past her prejudices to value an individual. You get the sense at the end of the book that Ruby has grown a lot and is becoming not only a woman to be reckoned with, but a woman who has learned from her mistakes and is the wiser and better for it.

Atmosphere simply oozes out of this book. With talk of iceboxes, cold water flats, one bathroom shared by an entire apartment building, one telephone in the neighborhood, dancing at the corner drugstore, "black and tans", and the knowledge that everybody knows everybody's business, the 1940's come alive. Period detail extends to the casual use of derogatory terms and rampant racism and male-female relationships. Ruby is at first appalled at the idea that she has to dance with black and Filipino men and her fish (men she has on a string) insist that she does not. Her friendship with a trumpeter in the band has to be their secret, and going to jazz clubs where blacks and whites mingle is scandalous and dangerous. Women are subordinate to men and most just want a man to take care of them. A man beating a woman on a public street simply means that people walking by avert their heads and continue on their way. Premarital sex is wrong, and once you've had it, you know too much to ever be a carefree girl again. Fletcher effortlessly blends all of these elements into her novel, letting period detail enrich rather than overwhelm her story.

This is a book that adults will read with as much enjoyment as teens. Highly recommended.

Shift, Poison Apples, and a most excellent My Excellent Year

Quick thoughts on a few books I've read recently:

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury
Two good friends (or are they?) take off on a cross country bike trip the summer before they head off to college. Neither of them has ever done anything even remotely like this before. Do they have the stamina for it? Do they have the maturity for it? Win's father doubts he has the guts for it. Chris and Win are determined to prove all their doubters wrong. But along the way, Chris begins to have his own doubts. Something is going on with Win, but he isn't talking to Chris about it. Chris is getting a bit fed up about it all. But he had nothing - nothing - to do with Win's disappearance. Too bad the FBI and Win's very, very powerful father don't believe that.

This one was intriguing. The use of flashbacks intercut with Chris's interviews with the FBI agent was very effective, making me impatient and curious to find out what had happened on the trip. I wouldn't call this a mystery. It's more a novel of self-discovery. Ultimately, I didn't buy the whole thing, but I wasn't left dissatisfied, either. Best read by people who don't need non-stop action or heart-stopping suspense but do like reading about interpersonal relationships.

The Poison Apples by Lily Archer
Three girls. Three rotten stepmothers. One boarding school. Not-so-instant bond. And then...revenge!

I liked this well enough, but I thought there were things that didn't hang together well. For instance, we're given to understand that Reena is a compulsive liar. Why introduce that personality trait if it doesn't play a significant role in the book? The subplot about Molly's mother is forgotten for large portions of the story. When it finally comes to the forefront, my first thought was, "Finally!" My second thought was, "Wait...she just found out (:x - not going to give it away here) and she does nothing about it?" The ultimate resolution of that story point seemed to come out of left field and felt tacked on, as though it wasn't very important to either Molly or the reader, even though it most certainly is. I also kept wondering if I'd missed or forgotten something when the romance elements crept in. I don't remember Alice meeting Jamal, but suddenly she had a huge crush on him. Say what? I also thought that the girls' voices weren't distinct enough. I could tell who was talking (each girl gets to narrate parts of the story), but only by what they said, not how they said it. Despite these quibbles, it was still an enjoyable read. I recommend it to teens looking for something quick and light. But readers looking for something with depth and complexity will probably want to look elsewhere.

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
This book is also told in three (well, mainly three) voices, and unlike the previous book, the voices are distinct. You can't possibly confuse T.C. with Augie or Augie with Alé. The book purports to be written as an English assignment as they look back on the diaries they kept during their "most excellent" freshman year. It's the year that T.C. falls in love and is forced to realize that being charming only gets a guy so far. It's the year that Augie realizes he's gay (it's no surprise to anyone else) and falls in love for the first time. It's the year Alé discovers that her talents lie in the performing arts, not the diplomatic corps, and that she's not as immune to charming as she'd like to think. It is also the year they meet six-year-old Hucky and get a whole new appreciation for Mary Poppins and American Sign Language.

Quick thumbs up/thumbs down:

• Thumbs down: Of course Augie loves musicals and is a wonderful perfomer. He's gay, isn't he? (I'm a little tired of this stereotype.)
• Thumbs up: Augie is also good at sports. Lots of them! And so is his boyfriend (who is not quite the performer that Augie is).
• Thumbs up: Yeah, they're gay. So what? (This brings to mind David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy. Not realistic, but very refreshing to read about a gay guy whose only angst is due to not being able to figure out if his crush likes him or not.)
• Thumbs up: The notes, faxes, emails, and chat room conversations which break up the diary entries. I especially liked the ones between T.C.'s father and adviser as they play the "we're not really falling in love" game. (Adults actually get quite a lot of page time in this book.)
  
• Thumbs downish: Some of the parental notes get a wee bit cutesy, and Augie's mother's notes seem a bit tacked on.
• Thumbs up: Parent-child relationships are strong and positive.
  
• Julie Andrews comes through! (Hey, what can I say? Hucky's not the only one who loves Mary Poppins!)
  

Though this is a light, fun read, at its heart, it is about the power of love. Though romantic love seems to get the most attention, there's also the love between two best friends and their families who decided long ago that biology counts for nothing when it comes to what brotherhood is really all about. There's the love between parents and their children, both when it's there in abundance and when there's no parent to provide it. It's also about the love that causes people to go the extra mile for someone. It's a hug of a book.

Audrey A-muse-d Me

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
4Q 4P; J/S (Gr. 9+, language and a few sexual references)


If you're looking for a fun book that will make you laugh, this is the one to grab. It's one of my favorites of the year. (I know, I've been saying that a lot lately. What can I say? A lot of really good books came out in the fall/winter of 2008!)

When Audrey breaks up with her boyfriend Evan, she expects that he'll be hurt. But she doesn't expect that he'll ask her if she'll still come to hear his band that night, and she doesn't expect that his band will debut a new song that night -- a song about their break up called "Audrey, Wait!" The absolute last thing she expects, though, is that that song will become a huge hit and make her famous. How horribly embarrassing! She could kill Evan!

Suddenly, everywhere she goes, people are staring, pointing, and taking pictures. Everywhere she goes, she hears, "That's Audrey! She's the one that song is about!" For crying out loud, kids are cutting school to go to her school to see her! They're lining up to see her at the Scooper Dooper (doubly embarrassing, since it's the suckiest afterschool job a girl could have). They're even writing about her on message boards on the web! They're blaming her for the breakup, even though Evan was so wrapped up in himself that she could tell him her cat was on fire, and he'd just say, "Cool. So, we've got a gig on Friday night." They don't even know her, but suddenly what she wears starts fashion trends. (And then, of course, people start snarking about how out of style she is!) It's crazy! They're crazy! And it's all driving Audrey crazy.

Of course, there are some perks. She goes to a concert and gets invited upstairs to the VIP section. She even makes out with the lead singer of one of her favorite bands. But um...that doesn't work out so well, actually. To put it mildly.

People are sending her free stuff, too. What girl wouldn't want free cosmetics? Or use of a really cool BMW? Who wouldn't want to star in her own reality show? Her best friend Victoria thinks it's all great and thinks Audrey is nuts for not wanting to take advantage of everything she's being offered. But Victoria's not the one everyone's looking at. Victoria's not the one that the paparazzi are chasing. It's not Victoria's love life that's suffering.

Oh, did I forget to mention James? James is one of those guys who's really easy to overlook. He's tall, geeky, and waaaaaay too into his job at the Scooper Dooper. He's a dork. At least, that's what Audrey thinks at first. But on second thought, dorks are surprisingly cute. Hot, even. And...whoa! Surprisingly good kissers. If they could just get a few minutes alone somewhere a little more romantic than the freezer of the Scooper Dooper. Just one more reason that fame stinks! Because if there's one thing that Audrey doesn't want to wait for, it's another kiss from James.

Quotes for your reading pleasure:

...But it wasn't all bad, of course. I mean, I had loved him, I really had. There were better times, the quiet moments when no one was talking and even our breath was the same, rising and falling under our tent of blankets like we were made to breathe with each other, for each other. It's funny how bed and pillows and covers can change a conversation. Words turn quiet and you mean more and say less. It's like you can build your own little world, Population 2.
Evan would play with my hair and wrap it over his wrist and reel me toward him until our lips touched. They were small moments but I could only hold them like water in my hands before he was slipping away, pulled back by melodies or friends or rehearsals, leaving my hands empty and my heart too full to hold alone.

Victoria paused and I could tell she was trying not to smile. "Did you just say 'frolic'?"
"Is it not a word?"
"Who the hell says 'frolic'?"
I spun the lock on my locker and waited for it to stick like it always did on 33. "I say frolic," I told her. "And more people should."
"They should say frolic or actually frolic?"
"Both."

(Audrey, needing something to keep her hands and mind occupied during school so she can pretend not to notice the staring or hear kids calling "Audrey, wait!" in the halls, has braided her hair in lots and lots of tiny little braids.)
[Victoria] was giving me the fish eye. "What's up with your hair?"
"Oh, um..." I reached up and fingered a braid. "Nervous habit."
"It's sort of like Bob Marley meets Pippi Longstocking."
"That's not a compliment, is it?"
"Hell, no."

"Audrey." Now Victoria was using her please-don't-f**k-with-me-or-so-help-me-God-you-will-regret-it voice. (She's gonna make an awesome mom one day.) "Get over here and talk to her. She's a reporter, not a Dementor."

(Audrey's parents are setting some new ground rules, for her own safety, since Audrey's fame is getting her a lot of unwanted attention.)
"We're not trying to ruin your life, you know."
"Yeah, I know."
"Because if we ruin your life, then you're going to be one of those kids that lives in the den and never moves out, and your father and I have plans to retire someday. It's not in our best interest to ruin your life. We'd like to see Tahiti."

If kissing Simon had been like wildfire, kissing James was something smaller and stronger. It was birthday and prayer candles, ones made for good thoughts and strong hopes and wishes and promises.

I grabbed her by her hoodie strings. "Victoria," I hissed. "We kissed."
That stopped her short. "Who kissed?"
"We did."
"We did?"
"No! James and me, in the freezer at work last night!"
[several lines skipped]
Victoria squealed with delight. "I knew it! I knew it! Oh, can I do the I-told-you-so dance? Please? I'm so good at it."

I loved Audrey. You have to admire her determination not to let the fact that everyone else thinks she's famous/special affect the way she lives her life. She's also got personality to spare. She definitely gave off an "I'd enjoy knowing her" vibe. I also loved Victoria and the girls' relationship. It felt real. I also liked Victoria's boyfriend Jonah and the dynamics between the three of them. James starts out a little pale in comparison, but he comes into his own in the latter half of the book. I enjoyed his sense of humor and liked him for being able to roll with the punches of Audrey's fame. And it's also a welcome change that Audrey likes and respects her parents and vice versa. (And hey, they're funny too!) In other words, these are characters who feel like someone you not only could know, but would like to know, in a situation that is absolutely believable, if you just squint a little and cock your head at the right angle. Audrey, Wait!, you rock.

(I can't tag this as BBYA yet, but it has been nominated. I'll eat my hat if it doesn't make the final list.)