My favorite reads from 2009

Taking a look back at what I read this past year, I’m pleased that there were quite a few really good books at the top.  Unfortunately, I read most of them early in the year.  The past few months have been filled with some mediocre YA novels at best.  Here’s to hoping I can get back to some truly exceptional books again.

1. Marcelo in the Real World – Really loved this book about a high functioning autistic teen who goes to work at his father’s law firm over the summer and learns more about the real world and his father than anyone bargained for.
2. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian – I read a Sherman Alexie book in the early 90s and while he’s treading similar ground here, the story about an Indian boy who goes to an all white school in order to save himself is funny and heart wrenching in equal measures.  He really captures the voice of a middle school age boy too.
3. Hunger Games – This story seems grim at first glance, and it is, but it is so well done and Katniss is such a strong character that it transcends the post apocalyptic, fight to the death genre.  Looking forward to reading the sequel.
4. Outliers – Malcom Gladwell always seems to find something interesting to write about and this book is better than Blink I think, though no where near as good or influential as Tipping Point.  The parts about tracking and how it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy were certainly food for thought.
5. Graveyard Book – I listened to Neil Gaiman read this as an audiobook and I was impressed.  He must have had some theater training at some point because his presentation was stellar. This collection of stories about “Bod”, a boy who is raised by ghosts, is loosely held together by a slim narrative, but it is mostly about snippets of his life growing up in the graveyard.  Bod is the epitome of resilience and it was fun hanging out with him for a while.
6. Shakespeare Wrote for Money – Another great collection of essays about what he’s been reading by Nick Hornby.  Sad to see them end.
7. Book of a Thousand Days – Well done fantasy based on a lesser known Grimm’s fairy tale.
8. Roman Blood – First volume of an historical mystery set in Rome.  Fun to read while we were traveling in Italy.
9. Schooled – Another fish out of water story as a hippy boy raised on a commune is forced to go to a public middle school when his grandmother gets hurt.  A lot of humor makes this one enjoyable.
10. Black Box – a well done look at teen depression and what it does to other family members.
11. Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – Funny, profane and blasphemous, yet takes the core beliefs of Christ seriously, so when we do get to the crucifixion, it breaks your heart.
12. Carbon Diaries 2015 – another apocalyptic novel set in Britain as Carbon taxes are imposed as global weather patterns wreck havoc on people’s lives.
13. All the Broken Pieces – novel in verse about a Vietnamese child in the 70s who is adopted and grows up in the US.  Enjoyed it.
14. If I Stay – Teen girl must decide whether to stay on earth or go with her family, who were killed in a car accident near Portland.  Well done but I didn’t believe she would ever choose to go.
15. Sorcerer of the North – The Ranger’s Apprentice series picks up several years after book 4 and Will is no longer an apprentice.  The characters are still as engaging and entertaining as ever, though we see little of Halt here.  Leaves us with a cliffhanger.
16. Paper Towns – Enjoyable though it’s pace was too slow at the end.  I’m ready to see a different kind of novel from John Green.  Too many awkward boys chasing mysterious, unattainable girls.  He needs to branch out.
17. Crazy Beautiful – Interesting take on the Beauty and the Beast tale set in high school with a boy who has no hands dealing with the effects of his self destructive act.  Seemed better when I read it but doesn’t look as good from a distance.
18. North of Beautiful – Another fair YA novel, this one about a girl with a birthmark who struggles to overcome a verbally abusive father and her self esteem issues.  Travels to China to discover some things about herself and her mother.
19. Last Exit to Normal – City boy heads to the country to get a grip on his life, learns a few things, country folk learn a few things.  It was ok, some parts were overdone.
20. Wordy Shipmates – Enjoy Sarah Vowell’s  work usually, but this one was a little too focused on one time period (Puritans).  I like it when she’s jumping all over the place to talk about all sorts of history.  Listening on audiobook was a mistake too.  It was wierd when all her famous friends were playing various historical figures.  I thought it would be cool, but not so much.
21. City of Bones – first in a YA fantasy series.  It was ok while I was in it, but it “borrows” so much from other stories, that it got to be too much after a while.  Also very predictable.  Kids who have never seen Star Wars or Eragon or Buffy or Harry Potter might be surprised but everyone else will figure it out.
22. If on a Winter’s Night – Wanted to read something by a classic European author before we went over, so I picked up this one from Calvino.  It was interesting in a mind bending sort of way, very meta.  Can’t say it was entirely enjoyable, but I’m glad I gave it a try and made it though it.  I really need to read more classics anyway.
23. Siege of Macindaw – Part 6 of the Rangers apprentice was a bit of a let down.  Finished up a two part story but it seemed to drag a bit.
24. Song of Susannah – It’s taken me years to finish this one.  The last chapter was fascinating but everything else was a chore.  I’ve got one book left to go in the series.  Hopefully I’ll get to it this year.  The Dark Tower was a great series that I’ve been reading since I was 18, but the direction he’s taken in the last couple of books has not been to my liking as Stephen King himself became a character in the story.
25. Under the Banner of Heaven – This book has taken me several years to read as well.  It’s an interesting look at Mormon fundamentalists, the history of Mormonism and how fundamentalism affects Mormons today, but there are some parts that made me so frustrated that I just had to walk away from it for months at a time.
26. Heroes of the Valley – Long fantasy novel that didn’t do much for me, even though I love Stroud’s Bartemeus trilogy.  It’s been suggested that he was trying to create an Epic poem in Norse tradition.  That’s an interesting theory and would explain a lot.
27. Wintergirls – An extremely well written book, but so disturbing to me that it was difficult to finish.  I would have a hard time recommending it to many people even though it was well done.  An excruciating look at mental illness and eating disorders.

He said, she said a la high school

Lucius Wolfe and Aurora Belle are new to their school.  Lucius is starting over because an accident that he caused blew off his hands, left him disabled and marked him as a pariah to his family and his old school.  Aurora is starting over to escape the memory of her recently deceased mother.  The two meet on the first day of school while on the bus and the they are each intrigued by the other.

While Aurora is accepted by the elites at the new school, Lucius struggles to find his place and deal with the consequences of his past actions.  As Lucius and Aurora get to know each other, each reveals a part of their secret to the other.  But will Lucius’s secret draw him closer to Aurora or push her further away.

Baratz-Logsted takes the Beauty & the Beast story and sets it in a modern high school.  Told from alternating points of view, this is a pretty straight forward romance between the beautiful girl and the disturbed, “beastly” boy with a high school bully in the background who sets up Aurora’s father for a fall, just like in Beauty & the Beast.  Some of the story doesn’t make sense until you remind yourself that this is a fairy tale that is mirroring a classic story.  Much like several other YA books I’ve read recently, this book gives the appearance of being a darker story than it turns out to be.  It would be fine for most middle and high school students though the intended audience is surely high school.  I enjoyed its quick pace, but would have liked to linger on the satisfying ending a little bit longer.

Best music of 2009 according to our iPods

It’s time to check the cumulative totals on our ipods again.  The kids are using our hand me downs more and more, so I’m starting to see a heavy influence from them.  I’m still driving the boat, but they are pushing the accelerator for certain music.  Won’t be long now until I lose control.

Top songs of 2009 by number of plays

1. Say When – the Fray
2. Magnificent – U2
3. Yellow – Jem
4. Don’t Stop Believin – Glee cast
5. Welcome to England – Tori Amos
6. Walking on a Dream – Empire of the Sun
7. Take On Me – AC Newman
8. Pitter Pat – Erin McCarley
9. Enough for Now – Fray
10. Turn It Off – Paramore
11. Ignorance – Paramore
12. Careful – Paramore (more after this but I’m skip them for now)
13. Just Say Yes – Snow Patrol
14. Never Say Never – Fray
15. Kathleen – David Gray
16. Breathe – David Gray
17. Sugar Tongue – Indigo Girls
18. I’ll Change – Indigo Girls
19. Meet Me on the Equinox – Death Cab for Cutie
20. Little Pieces – Gomez
21. So Far Round the Bend – The National
22. Tightrope – Yeasayer
23. White Demon Love Song – Killers
24. Friends – Band of Skulls
25. Fireflies – Owl City (current Fave)

When I look at my music listening from the past year, I’m not even sure what to call albums anymore.  Most of my music has come from Amazon’s bargain of the day site.  I can usually find recently released music for less than five bucks.  I can’t call them CDs anymore, album seems even more anachronistic, but that’s what Amazon is calling a complete work by an artist.  Of course, with ipods, the way I listen to music is completely different.  It’s easy to listen to the same songs over and over and hard to find new things.  The genius function on iTunes helps sometimes but doesn’t always work well.  I bought more music this year than I have for quite a while simply because the price is getting nearly the actual value of the music once you get rid of all the packaging.  Certainly seems like the novel may be going the same way.  Here are my favorite albums of the year (would put Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver in here, but their albums were from last year).

1. Draw the Line – David Gray (almost as good as Life in Slow Motion from 2005, Kathleen & Breathe are the best songs).
2. The Fray – The Fray
3. Dark was the Night – various  (Indie benefit album introduced me to lots of new artists, good stuff)
4. brand new eyes – Paramore (surprisingly good, kind of a female version of Green Day, takes guts to turn down being on the New Moon soundtrack too after Twilight gave them so much exposure last year).
5. Middle Cyclone – Neko Case (listened to it a lot, though no one song comes to mind when I think of it, solid album).
6. Stupid Love – Mindy Smith
7. Poseidon and the Bitter Bug – Indigo Girls
8. Sweetheart – various (Indie covers of older pop songs)
9. Ben Folds Presents – interesting concept having acapella groups record your songs, some worked, some didn’t

Too Soon to Tell – Need to listen to these more

1. Battle Studies – John Mayer (I like his music, sometimes not what he says)
2. Before the Frost – Black Crowes (got it for $3 on amazon, need to listen more)
3. Shaka Rock – Jet (same as above)
4. 11:11 – Rodrigo y Gabriella
5. Burning the Daze – Vertical Horizon
6. Ocean Eyes – Owl City (new artist who I immediately liked the sound of, but I’m wondering if his sound will wear well over multiple listens)

Disappointments

1. Breakthrough – Colbie Caillat (really enjoyed her first album, this one is a snooze unfortunately)
2. Hazards of Love – Decemberists (again, really like their other stuff, this high concept album that tells some sort of story didn’t appeal to me)
3. No Line on the Horizon – U2  (really want to like this, but other than Magnificent, nothing here grabbed me.  Seeing several songs end up on best of lists at the end of the year makes me wonder what I’m not hearing that everyone else is.  But Magnificent almost makes up for the rest of the album.)
4. Ursa Major – Third Eye Blind (I think their time has come and gone)

Shrugs – These didn’t do much one way or the other for me.

1. Grrr…. – Bishop Allen
2. Mi Plan – Nelly Furtado
3. A New Tide – Gomez
4. Vickatemist – Grizzly Bear
5. Under the Covers V. 2 – Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs
6. New Moon Soundtrack

Best music of the decade

I love my lists, so after looking over the CDs I’ve purchased over the last ten years, these are the ones I put at the top.  My main criteria is whether I’ve continued to listen to it or not.  There were several that I liked a lot at the time, but if I’m not interested in listening to them now, then I didn’t put them on the list.

Top 20 CDs

1. Life in Slow Motion (2005) – David Gray – several great songs, Ain’t No Love, Nos Da Cariad, Lately and more
2. Gold (2001) – Ryan Adams – Also a powerful CD with multiple great songs, wish he could pull it off again, this one is so good.
3. Hot Fuss (2004) – Killers – Took a while to warm up to, but All These Things That I’ve Done really brought me around.
4. Viva la Vida (2008) – Coldplay – Can’t deny that this group put it all together on this CD.
5. This Side (2002?) – Nickel Creek – Great title track and this trio continued to improve and grow.
6. All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) – U2 – Probably my favorite CD from them, great tour didn’t hurt.
7. Bachelor #2 (2001) – Aimee Mann  – What a revelation this CD was as her music was featured in Magnolia the movie at the same time.
8. Under the Iron Sea (2006) – Keane – Again, many great songs.
9. Everything to Everyone (2003) – Barenaked Ladies – Not as well known as many of their CDs, this one was solid from beginning to end.
10. Fleet Foxes (2008) – Fleet Foxes – Bringing acoustic harmonies back in a big way.
11. The Con (2007) – Tegan & Sara – Great duo with interesting harmonies.
12. Become You (2002) – Indigo Girls – Precursors to Tegan & Sara without the edge.  This was their strongest CD in years.
13. Bon Iver (2008) – Bon Iver – Another one that had to grow on me.  I’m more impressed with it all the time.
14. Wicked Soundtrack – I’ve seen it twice now and I keep finding new tracks that are interesting and meaningful.
15. Keep It Together (2003) – Guster – 2 or 3 of the best songs I’ve ever heard (Careful, Homecoming King, Amsterdam)
16. Under the Influence of Giants (2006) – Fun group that sounds just like the Bee Gees.
17. Narrow Stairs (2008) – Death Cab for Cutie – Could have picked any of their CD’s really, their all great.
18. Nickel Creek (2001) – Nickel Creek – First Cd was great too.
19. Draw the Line (2009) – David Gray – His latest release is dominating my listening right now, hard to say how much I’ll like it in a few years, but I’m enjoying it a lot for the time being.
20. Colin Meloy Live (2008) – Lead singer for the Decembrists recorded a great live show for this CD.

Top 20 Songs – Most of these songs are ones I can listed to over and over and not get tired of.  This would be an amazing playlist, in fact, I think I’ll make it in iTunes.

1. Red Vines – Aimee Mann
2. Cannonball – Damien Rice
3. Myk0nos – Fleet Foxes
4. A Lifetime – Better than Ezra
5. This Side – Nickle Creek
6. Savin Me – Nickelback
7. For the Windows in Paradise – Sufjan Stevens
8. Underdog – Spoon
9. Careful – Guster
10. Basement Apartment – Sarah Harmer
11. Ain’t No Love – David Gray
12. See the World – Gomez
13. The Fox – Nickle Creek
14. Arrow – Cheryl Wheeler
15. Homecoming King – Guster
16. When We were Young – Killers
17. Lovestoned – Justin Timberlake
18. Tanglewood Tree – Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
19. Smooth – Santana & Rob Thomas
20. When the Stars Go Blue – Ryan Adams

North of Beautiful, solid YA

Terra was born with a birthmark, not just any birthmark either, a large port wine mark on her face.  Her broken family has spent countless dollars trying to get it fixed and Terra has overcompensated by trying to make the rest of her body perfect through constant exercise.  On the occasions when she can hide who she is, this gets her noticed and gets her a boyfriend.  As Terra approaches graduation, she has some difficult decisions to make.  Can she get her verbally abusive father to pay for a private school education so she can pursue her love of art?  Does she dare leave her mother alone with her father by going far away to school like her two brothers?  Can she ask to try the new procedure that might remove the birthmark even thought it’s far from clear that it will work?

When she and her mom do go to Seattle for the experimental procedure, they get into a car accident that will change their lives forever.  It leads them both on a journey half way around the world to visit her brother in China and on an inner journey to discover who they are and what they want.  Terra must also choose between the boy who is familiar and steady, and the boy who understands who she is inside from almost the moment they meet.

Headley packs a lot into Terra’s story.  Cartography metaphors are laced throughout and she weaves geocaching into the story as well.  A large chunk of the book is set in China and Headley does a nice job of describing the various real places that Terra and her mom visit.  As it became clear that her father was abusive, I prepared myself for a rough ride, but the abuse was never physical and the climax was not explosive.  This is a story about a girl (and her mother) finding the courage to be who she is and not what others expect her to be.  It is not one of those YA novels that is focused solely on the abuse the child suffers, and that’s good.  This is a much gentler story than I was expecting about self discovery.  While it might not have the impact of some of the intense YA novels out there, it is a nice alternative that would be easy to recommend for teens looking for realistic stories about teens in difficult circumstances.

Essex County – another transformational graphic novel

What your typical graphic novel is about is almost impossible to characterize anymore.  Each genre has it’s own following, but you can add Essex County to those that you give to your non graphic novel reading friends to show them how emotionally affecting they can be.  I want to say “literary” but I think that term does them a disservice since it excludes the artwork and how the art interacts with the prose.  I know many comics creators won’t be happy until their works are on the shelf next to regular books, but reading a great work like Essex County is so different than reading a book that I would hate to see them lost in the stacks with all the other prose.  It is an entirely different experience, more akin to watching a movie than reading a book at times.

Essex County includes all three stories previously done by Jeff Lemire (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories & The Country Nurse).  Each book focuses on a different character, yet we learn each is connected to the other by the end of the completed story.  I thought the most affecting was the first story about a boy, Lester, who has lost his mother to cancer and who now lives with his uncle on his farm in rural Canada.  His uncle tries to do what he can for the boy, but Lester is often lost in his own fantasy world of drawing and comics, even to the point of wearing a cape and mask all the time.  Drawing and fantasizing about being a hero provides an escape from his sadness.  Eventually, he meets a large man, Jimmy, who used to be a local hockey star until a head  injury changed his life.  Lester, much to his uncle’s dismay, befriends the man and is able to deal with his loss a little better with his help.

Ghost Stories (the second book) introduces us to an older man whose failing mind slips easily into the past as he remembers his early days playing hockey with his brother (who resembles Jimmy) and how the rift developed between them.  We are introduced to the nurse who cares for him and she becomes the focus of the final story.  As we follow her around, we also get the story of how her grandmother came to Essex County with several orphans under her care and we find out how all of the characters’ lives are connected through this event.  Like other graphic novels  including Blankets and Local, the art here creates a strong sense of place that complements the storytelling.  The ability to drift into the past or some character’s fantasy is one of the things that comics allow you to do easily and Lemire uses this to his advantage.  Essex County is well worth your time, especially if you’re a hockey fan or even if you’ve spent much time in Canada.

Other comics read recently:

Old Man Logan – What could Wolverine have possibly done that would turn him into a pacifist in the future?  Millar and McNiven tell a great post apocalyptic story as Logan goes on a road trip to save his family.

1985 – Marvel villains start creeping into our universe in 1985 as a boy and his father try to figure out what to do about it.

Huntress: Year one  – Helpful retelling of the modern Huntress origin that goes a long way towards explaining her motivations.

Fables: the Dark Ages – Almost wish I’d have stopped with volume 11, a natural ending point.  The story is still excellent, but it’s clear that we are in for a long resolution to this story arc based on what I saw in this story.  Willingham explores the unintended consequences of the Fables’ war and victory over the Adversary.

Janes in Love – The sequel to the successful Plain Janes.

Eternal Smile – Not as cohesive as American Born Chinese, but some great stories that touch on loneliness, personal failings and more.

Delusions R Us – Wintergirls & Under the Banner of Heaven

Honestly, once I started reading these books, I never thought that I would finish either of them.  The fact that I finished them both within a few days of each other is strange considering there are some eerie similarities between them.

Both deal with difficult subject matter and how a person’s mind can create delusions so strong that it threatens their own health or the lives of others.  One made me so angry that I had to put it down for months at a time while the other frightened me more than any horror book I think I’ve ever read.  I’m not sure I could recommend either of them to others, but they are well done and I have a lot of admiration for both authors.

Wintergirls is the story of Lia.  Her former best friend recently died because of  complications from an eating disorder and this has sent Lia into a downward spiral of her own nightmarish eating disorder.  Lia strategizes about how she is going to avoid the calories her worried parents and stepparents keep offering her.  She develops methods of tricking her family when it is time to weigh her, but most disturbingly, she is seeing the ghost of her dead friend, and she wants Lia to join her.  Anderson gets deep into the mindset of a girl suffering from anorexia.  The writing itself comes to resemble Lia’s tattered mind as the reader can see where Lia redacts herself as she tries to retrain her mind to be the strong, rebellious girl she wants to be.  Frankly, it was so disturbing to be inside this girl’s head that I didn’t want to finish.  I picked it up again to prepare for the possible awards that this book might win, but I am going to be very careful in suggesting this title to others.  I’m really not sure if it would help or hurt a teen suffering from an eating disorder.  She does such a good job depicting the delusional mind of this person that I suspect it could easily provide affirmation to someone suffering from their own delusions.  Like I said, an extremely well done book, but disturbing on a level that few books can reach.

Under the Banner of Heaven also deals with delusions, but these are the religious delusions of a pair of Mormon fundamentalist brothers who murdered the wife and child of their brother because they believed God told them to.  The book goes on to examine the sometimes bloody and troubled history of Mormonism and how extremism, fundamentalism and polygamy are affecting the growth of this flourishing religion.  The practices of some of these fundamentalists sects – multiple wives, many children, defrauding the government that they don’t even believe in of money, and more – angered and frustrated me to the point of not wanted to continue.  The fact that many Utah politicians have tried over the years to prosecute some of these polygamists, yet then get voted out of office by the populace also didn’t help my frustration level.  I decided to finish the book because I want to start Krakauer’s new book and I’m glad to finally be done with it.

When I worked with emotionally disturbed kids in the early 90s, I got my first inkling of how powerful the mind is.  I’m convinced that many of those kids were so good at manufacturing their own reality that they truly believed that they did not do some of the awful things that they did.  I could watch a kid throw a knife through a window, then marvel at the fact that the kid truly did not believe that they did it.  And I don’t think they could remember that they did it, even though I saw them do it and told them that they did.  It was above and beyond lying.  Of course, they didn’t get that way on their own.  They each had their own horrific childhood trauma to deal with and each was trying to cope the best they could, but these were the kids that weren’t functioning in society well, who knows how many other kids were out there dealing with their abuse silently.  It scares me to think about the adults that those kids became.  These two books remind me again how powerful the mind can be and how difficult it is to redirect patterns of thinking when they go awry.

On movie companies sticking it to libraries

Been seeing some posts today about movie studios trying to put the nail in the rental (and library) market coffins.  Looks like we are going back to dual pricing – one price for retail editions of movies and one for rental copies.  Remember when videotapes were $80?  Of course Fox seems to be leading the charge.  Looks like the rental versions will be the movie, no extras and many more previews.  Retail copies will be what we are getting now.  Pressure is on library distributors to only sell the rental copies to libraries.  One has to assume they will cost more as well.  Netflix says physical discs will be the majority of it’s rentals for only two more years, this move by the studios will only accelerate that change.  Digital downloads get easier for those who have access to them (wealthier city dwellers with high speed access) while everyone else will struggle with fewer choices, libraries included.  We’ll be in the same line at Target or Costco getting our movies instead of from our distributors.

This move seems short sighted to me, but maybe it will work out for the movie distributors.  Ultimately, it makes it harder for people to see the studio’s movie.  Maybe the extra money they get will make up for fewer people seeing the film, but it’s a dangerous game.  It smacks of social engineering at a time when they should be trying to streamline the process of getting their product in people’s homes.  They seem to be trying to give everyone a big shove in the direction of digital distribution but not everyone is there yet and for the poorer segments of society, they may never have that capability.

I’ve often marveled at how smart the movie studios were to drop the prices on their DVDs below the prices of music CDs at a time when people were reevaluating how much they thought a music CD was worth.  If they are trying to walk that back now, they might have a difficult go of it.  It is interesting to see where the big box retailers like Best Buy put their merchandise these days.  Games have moved close to the front with more space, movies & TV have stayed the same, while music CDs have been pared way back.  At the same time, musical instruments are more prominent which I attribute to the success of video games like Rock Band.

Where does this leave libraries?  I wish I knew.  Circulation levels continue to go up in most areas, but I can see a day when the bottom is going to drop out for music CDs.  DVDs may not be far behind that.  It will all depend on how fast they can roll out digital downloads.  Can libraries leverage services like Library2Go enough to be a part of the digital download wave?  I think we’re about to find out.

Confusing vintage song award – Young Turks by Rod Stewart

Ok, I heard this ditty on the radio the other day and as I reveled in the nostalgia, I may have actually “heard” the lyrics for the first time.  So let me enumerate the ways that this song is ‘wrong’.

1. Obviously the title.  Young Turks is never uttered once in this song.  That wouldn’t be so troubling except “Young Hearts” is repeated over and over.  Seems needlessly confusing and distracting to me.
2. What are Young Turks?  I always assumed this was referring to young people in general.  A cursory search of the Internet reveals that Young Turks was actually a movement in the Ottoman Empire to liberalize the empire around 1900.  They were made up of university students and military cadets and were driven underground when the government annulled the constitution.  They would go on to form secret societies and cells (ulp!) to further their goals. They laid the groundwork for Ataturk’s rise later.  What this has to do with Billy and Patty, I’ll never know.
3. Is this song a cautionary tale?  Teens Billy and Patti run away, have fun for a while, then have a baby out of wedlock.  Yet the chorus urges young hearts to “be free tonight. Time is on your side.”  Is time really on Billy and Patti’s side by the end?  Seems like time has caught up to them to me.  And how free can you feel with a baby?  My head hurts just thinking about the mixed signals here.  You can fix just about everything wrong with this song by getting rid of “Patty gave birth to a ten pound baby bo-yo-yoy.”
4. 10 lb. baby boy – why ten pounds?  Isn’t Patty looking at enough problems without some gigantic baby?
5. Don’t let em ever change your point of view.   Who is them, I mean “em”?  Is this the “Man”?  Why shouldn’t you let em?  Figuring things out for themselves isn’t working particularly well for our heroes.

Ok rant over.  Enjoy the video.

Marcelo: a character almost too good to be true.

Marcelo in the Real World was a perfect read, almost too perfect.  I want so fervently for there to be a Marcelo out there somewhere, but I’m not sure he could possibly exist.  In this new book by Fransisco Stork, we are introduced to the 17 year old Marcelo, a boy who is developmentally different from other kids as he has a form of high functioning autism.  He has attended a special school for kids with special needs his entire life, but as his senior year approaches, his father wants him to go to the regular high school so that he can learn to get along in the “real” world.  They agree to have Marcelo work at his father’s law firm for the summer as a test run.  If Marcelo can do what is asked of him while working there, he can return to his old school, but if he cannot follow the rules of the law firm, he will have to attend public school senior year.  This is the basic conflict for Marcelo.  But what he finds at the law firm is a place filled with dangers; for Marcelo, for his co-workers, for his father and for their relationship.  As Marcelo learns to navigate the complex interpersonal relationships of the law firm, he develops a close relationship with one of his father’s assistants.  Jasmine respects Marcelo’s honesty and work ethic, even though he is not as fast as her previous assistant.  As one learns more about Jasmine, the potential for a romantic relationship with Marcelo seems like a real possibility.

Ultimately, Marcelo uncovers a mystery at the law firm and he is faced with a series of painful and potentially devastating choices.  He deals with this in an admirable and life affirming way that is the heart of what this book is all about.  I’ve read several great books this year and this has to be in the running for one of my favorites.  Like I said, Marcelo may be too good to be true, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him.