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listersgirlShort list today, because I actually managed to do this two weeks in a row, instead of forgetting for months at a time.
Kendall Hailey The Day I Became an Autodidact
A recommendation I picked up off of Chicklit. Chicklit is always good to me. This is an autobiography of a girl who decides not to go to college, but instead to stay home and read her way through the classics, teaching herself. Such a fun book - like peering over someone's shoulder as they read, and I loved her writing style (although I thought the ending didn't really match with the rest of the book). I'm still trying to think of a way to convince my parents to support me while I sit at home and read. Maybe if I offered to do all the housework, too?
John McWhorter Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Music and Language and Why We Should, Like, Care
I still can't decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I think the author is a fabulous writer, and you can feel his enthusiasm and love for his subject. On the other hand, the book smacked a little too much of "why things used to be better", and the parts about music, although great, felt very tacked on, like he was really just looking for a place to rant about how Andrew Lloyd Webber can't write more than 8 bars of melody. Not that I have any objection to people sticking musical theatre stories in wherever they want, and anyone who disses Frank Wildhorn is ok by me, but still. Plus he doesn't like William Finn and Jason Robert Brown. Buh?
Tamora Pierce Alanna: The First Adventure
Have you ever noticed how first books (or series) by fantasy authors often tend to be darker than later works? Or maybe it's my imagination. Anyway, this is Pierce's first book, as far as I could tell, and it had a much darker tone, although still within the confines of YA lit. Alanna, destined for a religious life, disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother's place in training to become a knight. Very enjoyable and I'm just ignoring the fact that the Amazon page I'm looking at right now says reading level ages 9-12.
Kendall Hailey The Day I Became an Autodidact
A recommendation I picked up off of Chicklit. Chicklit is always good to me. This is an autobiography of a girl who decides not to go to college, but instead to stay home and read her way through the classics, teaching herself. Such a fun book - like peering over someone's shoulder as they read, and I loved her writing style (although I thought the ending didn't really match with the rest of the book). I'm still trying to think of a way to convince my parents to support me while I sit at home and read. Maybe if I offered to do all the housework, too?
John McWhorter Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Music and Language and Why We Should, Like, Care
I still can't decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I think the author is a fabulous writer, and you can feel his enthusiasm and love for his subject. On the other hand, the book smacked a little too much of "why things used to be better", and the parts about music, although great, felt very tacked on, like he was really just looking for a place to rant about how Andrew Lloyd Webber can't write more than 8 bars of melody. Not that I have any objection to people sticking musical theatre stories in wherever they want, and anyone who disses Frank Wildhorn is ok by me, but still. Plus he doesn't like William Finn and Jason Robert Brown. Buh?
Tamora Pierce Alanna: The First Adventure
Have you ever noticed how first books (or series) by fantasy authors often tend to be darker than later works? Or maybe it's my imagination. Anyway, this is Pierce's first book, as far as I could tell, and it had a much darker tone, although still within the confines of YA lit. Alanna, destined for a religious life, disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother's place in training to become a knight. Very enjoyable and I'm just ignoring the fact that the Amazon page I'm looking at right now says reading level ages 9-12.
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Alanna
Date: 2004-08-12 01:23 pm (UTC)I first read the book when I was 12, when it came out, and that was the original recommended age (i.e. 12 and up). It's her other series (Circle of Magic) that had a starting age of 10, but it seems like publishers are pushing ever downward?
Anyway, I love the Alanna books the most! Although I'm very hazy on some of what happens in the last book, especially, as it took a long time to come out and I wasn't really reading YA fic at the time.
Re: Alanna
Date: 2004-08-12 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-12 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-13 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-13 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-12 02:33 pm (UTC)Actually, mine would too, but there is no way on earth I (or any other puny human who hasn't made a home-cleanliness deal with the devil) could meet my mother's standards.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-13 05:33 am (UTC)More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-13 07:46 am (UTC)1. Roger Scruton's "An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture"
Rantings about how art and music (particularly Wagner) are dead, and we're all gonna suffer thanks to this newfangled low-culture of Ebonics and rap. So tighty-whitey pseudo-racist it made my eyeballs hurt a little, but an excellent read for forming arguments against the extreme right and a well-articulated summary of the "world going to hell in a handbasket" argument.
2. Arthur Danto's "After the End of Art"
I would pay big money to see a debate where Danto and Scruton go head to head about what the hell we mean when we use the word 'art'. Danto is passionate, arguing for the proliferation of individual stories and histories in the post-modern world, and how human growth through artistic pursuits can be achieved now that we're stretching our wings beyond painting and sculpture into other media. He sinks his teeth into the idea of the death of art and the positive results that we may see in the aftermath. A great accompaniment to Scruton's snotty-assed, conservative exclusivity.
3. Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass"
These are amazing, dark novels in the YA range (although again, very adult in content) and I relished reading them. Witches and polar bears and Oxford university make for a good mix. Pullman is not afraid to tussle with the big ideas: he touches on organized religion, God, human origins, death, after death, magic, leadership, birthrights, and the question of the soul. It's closer to Narnia than Harry Potter, which it seems is the only thing people can compare children's lit to these days. Please, please give it a go.
Re: More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-13 08:05 am (UTC)Re: More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-16 11:51 am (UTC)*hugs*
Re: More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-16 11:54 am (UTC)Re: More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-16 11:57 am (UTC)I will bring you back Why Girls Are Weird the next time I see you.
Re: More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-16 12:57 pm (UTC)Re: More good reads for you
Date: 2004-08-16 01:33 pm (UTC)