All Quiet on the Western Front...Round 2

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I did it. I read all of All Quiet on the Western Front, and finally I get it. I get the subtle beauty, the tragedy, the disillusioned heartbreak. True to classic literature, it is not an easy read, It is not a book I would recommend to many, but Remarque spoke for a generation that lost their voice and their possibility. It's a great predecessor to Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried", and I am finally glad for the chance to teach it.

Happy reading--

Before I Fall

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of my favorite book reviewers said, "Can't really decide what to think of this book." And I don't really know either.

I hate the "Mean Girl" mentality of the main characters.
I love the inner dialogue of how fragile mean girls really are.
I hate the profanity and the triviality of the things teenagers (and let's be honest, adults too) are obsessed with.
I love Kent. He's the kind of guy every girl should fall in love with, rather than the silly boys we crush on in high school.

This could go on for a long time, and so let's boil it down to three things:
1) I love teen fiction.
2) I love the concept of Groundhog's Day, so a book that follows that format resonates with me.
3) I could not put it down. I started carrying it with me on the off chance that I could find a minute to read it.

So despite my reservations and distaste for some of the behaviors and mindsets, I gladly read Before I Fall and was SO frustrated by it. I don't know who to recommend it to because it's the type of book that teenagers would love, but also would seemingly get bad ideas from it. Adults who read it might be too put off by the attitude and triviality of the teens, but will have a much clearer understanding of what it's like to be on the other side of be an adolescence...and see now the big picture that we so often miss when we're young.

I would give this book 3.5 stars, but I can't because despite my constant writing about it, the Goodreads gods haven't made it happen. So I'm giving it 4 stars because it's well written and haunting.

Read it, don't read it. Ambivalence all the way, but as always, happy reading--

The Selection

The Selection by Kiera Cass
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I chose my past three books based on student recommendations - dangerous path to follow, I know. However, I wanted to be able to bond with my new batch of kiddos over their love of reading, and YA fiction is much easier to wade through once my grading stacks start growing.

Let me say first - The Selection is not a great book. It's a Dystopian version of The Bachelor that's aimed at angsty teenage girls. {Why didn't I think of that?} We love to devour bad reality television. It's like that cheap Halloween candy that you'll stash in a drawer and pretend not to have (oh, wait - is that just me?) for the next month. There's something ridiculously satisfying about it, and I'm not sorry to have read it (or eaten it for that matter). I know there's no literary merit, and sometimes the plot twists are contrived, but I enjoyed it. Just like I'll enjoy the next one, and I 100% understand why my freshmen girls cannot get enough of this story. It's first kisses, forbidden love, drama, princes, fancy dresses, and dreams. So pass me the Butterfingers and book two. I'm ready.

Happy reading and happy fall--

What I Know For Sure

What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a fool for many things - Anne of Green Gables (you know this if you've read my recent reviews), fall leaves, my husband's smile when he's genuinely amused by something, and books that teach life lessons. While Oprah may not be the greatest philosopher or scholar, she is one of the most well connected people on the planet. Over the course of her career, she has encountered some of the most brilliant and inspiring men and women. And so here are some of the lessons she has learned. For better or worse, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself hurriedly noting one liners that resonated with ideas and ideals I had already been pondering. Sometimes I need books like this - life affirming truths that make me want to be better and even more importantly see the hope and possibility in the world around me. You can judge the messenger, you can judge me as the reader, but really, if it makes me a little kinder or a little more willing to step out of my comfort zone, you can't judge that.

Happy reading and happy reaching-- Life's too short to not aspire for more.

Anne of the Island

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Who knew that Anne actually got to go to Redmond College after all? Okay, everyone who didn't grow up on the Anne of Avonlea movie knew, but I was so surprised when I started reading this book and found out that Kingsport Ladies' College and Morgan Harris are made up (at least in the sequence that I know them...still haven't gotten to book four). Instead it is the handsome Royal Gardner that woos Anne while she attends college. All the while Gilbert is studying hard and loving Anne from a distance - not sure why pining or unrequited longing is so romantic in books when it's actually miserable in real life, but how I love Gilbert for always loving his Anne girl.

I loved this book - not as much as the first two, but I found myself unconsciously grinning or sighing as Anne spoke (unhealthy obsession levels here). I just love her. That said, her friends are frustrating. If I could shake them by the shoulders and say "get a grip" or "please stop talking", I would. For Anne and Gil though, I'd endure just about anything. Happy reading---

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As a lover of words, I would like to think that I am capable of forming my own forms of expression - that the way I speak is unique to me and not an amalgamation of other people's style...but then I watch Rory and Lorelai speak in quick succession back and forth on Gilmore Girls or hear the cast of Friends banter back and forth and I hear phrases that I adopted as my own. Reading Anne of Avonlea was no different. I had thought Lucy Maud Montgomery to be entirely too over-dramatic and florid in her descriptions when I had read Emily of New Moon, but when Anne says those same type over-dramatic speeches, I feel everything she says...and I love her all the more for it...

The short version of this view is that my Anne and Gilbert obsession is rekindled. I'm so happy to have spent time on Prince Edward Island with some of my favorite characters. It had been far too long. Happy reading!

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've never loved any character as much as I love Anne Shirley. It took me until this summer to finally finish Anne of Green Gables, but I am so happy to have finally read this book. Anne helped shape the woman I am today, and so as I read I was eight and eighteen and thirty-one and every age in-between. I've tried a half dozen different ways to phrase what reading this book meant and what I thought about it, but I can't separate the nostalgia from the critique. It's too personal and too defining. The character that Lucy Maud Montgomery created is a part of me in a way that only a few stories and characters have. I wish I could thank Montgomery for giving voice to a part of me I didn't know how to express as a child. Like I said before, I love Anne Shirley. When I wasn't pretending to be Jo March or Laura Ingalls Wilder, it was Anne that I most wanted to be. And in some way, I'd like to think I am like her - teaching and writing and living with my sweetheart in our own little house of dreams. What a happy life it is.

Happy reading--