Mini-Reviews Part 3 (Adult Titles).

This is the third and final post in my attempt to catch up talking about the books I've read this year and haven't reviewed. The first two posts focused on young adult titles and this one is all about those adult books I've picked up and read in the last few months.

Keep in mind that these are just short little blurbs about the books and my impressions of them.

Loteria by Mario Alberto Zambrano

I was actually pitched this book for review and accepted for two reasons. First, the cover. Second, the title. If you are unfamiliar with Loteria, it is a card game-a bit like bingo-from Mexico. I took a lot of Mexican and Mexican-American history courses in college for my history degree (I have a specialization in Mexican-American Culture and Studies), and in one of my courses, a professor taught us how to play Loteria. I haven't played or seen cards since then, but when I saw the title of this book, I knew I had to read it.

Young Luz Castillo has been taken in by the state while her father is in jail and her sister is in the ICU. Alone and feeling very isolated, she takes to writing a journal in a very interesting way. With a deck of Loteria cards at her side, she pulls a card and writes a piece of her history. What unfolds is a very touching and emotional story of her childhood and how her family fell apart.

I loved this book. It was raw, emotional, and tugged at every heart-string. This is one of those books you don't see coming...but you need to read it. I promise.

*I will warn you that Zambano throws in quite a few Spanish phrases. Most you can pick up from context clues, but some are a bit trickier. I figured them out from my background, but some might be hard for you if you don't know any Spanish.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

This was a book not at all on my radar. I really don't read contemporary adult fiction. I really couldn't tell you what's "popular" right now. But I remember hearing someone on the blogosphere raving about this book, and I had it in the back of my mind. So, while down in Indiana in May for the Indy 500, I went to the bookstore with my sister-in-law. This was on a shelf and jumped out at me. So I bought it.

At times this book was...absurd that I laughed out loud. There were phrases that just jumped off the page...including quite a few f-bombs. It just seemed so raw and edgy. It was in my face and aggressive. The footnotes were insightful and interesting. I just sucked them up.

The book is about the life of Oscar Wao, a Dominican living in the United States. Through a series of different narrators, the book explores Oscar's life and how he became the person he is. In some ways, the book reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude-not the magical realism part, but the depth of family history and strength.

By the end of the novel, I was completely obsessed. It was a book that just took me over. And told me that perhaps I need to read more adult fiction...from this era. :)

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

I've never read anything by Sedaris, but he is one of those writers I've been meaning to get to. Then this book came out and I was so intrigued by the cover and title that I figured I would read it soon. Then I happened to win a copy from the 24-Hour Readathon, so it was perfect.

This is a collection of essays from Sedaris about a whole range of topics. Many made me chuckle and I flipped through them rather quickly. I will say that some of them would have gone over better had I been listening to Sedaris talk. I feel like a lot of his humor is lost in the written form. He must be hilarious in person.

I did enjoy my first exposure and have another one of his titles on my shelf (Me Talk Pretty One Day). He is someone I will definitely read more of in the future!


As you can see, I don't read much in the way of current adult fiction and non-fiction, so please give me some recommendations for other titles to check out. I think I read diversely, but I know this is an area I know nothing about. :)

Thoughts on The Girl Who Was on Fire edited by Leah Wilson.

*If you haven't read The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, please don't read this post, as there will be spoilers*

I feel a lot of pressure to make my unit on The Hunger Games the best unit ever. There is so much that I can discuss with this book that I feel like I have to do it all! Last week, I asked you for some suggestions for the unit, and your comments were amazing. I am definitely mulling them all over as I plan out my unit. A couple of you suggested I read The Girl Who Was On Fire as a place to gather some ideas about the novel. I actually bought a copy at a Border's sale over the summer, so my copy was already on my nightstand as a resource.

I wasn't sure what to think going into this book. Basically, the book is a collection of essays by various authors on different aspects of the series. I was hoping to walk away with one or two essays to share with my class, but I ended up with a LOT of information about the series in general!

The essays were diverse enough to keep my attention the whole way through the collection. I thought I would be bored of reading about the series by the third essay, but I was surprised to find myself interested in each one. In particular, I thought I would hate the essays on the reality and fashion aspects of the series, since I started to dislike those sections so much in Mockingjay, but I was surprised that I really loved those two essays! Considering the fact that I am teaching The Hunger Games to high school juniors and seniors, I think those aspects of the book will really appeal to them. I already have a discussion planned around the ideas of reality, reality TV, and false appearances. I hope we can have great discussions about how Katniss and Peeta chose to act while "live" on camera. The essay "Smoke and Mirrors" really focused on those ideas, and since the first chunk of the essay stays true to just the first book, I am going to use that section in class.

One of my other favorite essays in the collection was the third, titled "Your Heart is a Weapon the Size of your Fist" by Mary Borsellino. This essay focused on the weapons in the series-those of the Capitol and District 13. But I also liked the idea that Katniss and a few others fight with emotion-with love. It reminded me a bit of Harry Potter in that love can conquer evil, you know? The author brings up what happens with Rue in The Hunger Games as a prime example:

"The effect of this tiny, humanizing act-singing to a dying child-has immediate and far reaching consequences," (34).

When I read that statement, I had to stop for a moment and think about that word choice-"child." While I obviously know that all of the tributes in the Games are children, there was something different about Rue, right? And the fact that Katniss holds on to her humanity and honors her death as a child, well, that IS powerful. Her choice to share her love has a profound impact on what happens afterward in the novel-Rue's district sending her bread, gaining other supplies from other districts and sponsors, and the choice she makes at the end of the novel with Peeta. Because rather than always resorting to violence, Katniss chooses another route. And it works. Because without that symbol of love towards Rue, would the districts have banded together to fight back? Who knows.

The one essay I wish I could share with my class but can't is "Bent, Shattered, and Mended" by Blythe Woolston. The essay focuses on the mental side effects of what happened to Katniss, Peeta, and others throughout the three books (since I don't want to spoil the second and third books, I can't use this one in class, but I will talk about the mental effects of the Games in general terms). I know that there are some who weren't happy with the ending in Mockingjay-that Katniss seemed to have lost her mind and that the ending was unsatisfying. As I said in my review,

"There is no way a young girl of 17 can handle the amount of death and destruction she sees..."

Woolston expands on this a great deal in her own essay, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. The fact is, Katniss is a battered and bruised war veteran by the time Mockingjay comes to an end. And she is younger than those we allow to enlist in the U.S. Military! That should say something about her psyche! Because as tough and as strong as you think you are, I don't think anyone is prepared to kill another human being-especially in the circumstances Katniss was subjected to.

I am sure that this will be something we'll talk about in class-how Katniss must feel. There is that section in The Hunger Games where she talks about her first human kill, and I am sure that my class will have questions about it. I'm also hoping we'll talk a bit about Haymitch, since he is another example of the PTSD that all Hunger Games Champions seem to suffer from.

In all, I would say that this is a great collection of essays on the series. I was interested in all of them in some way, and I found a lot of interesting tidbits to use as discussion starters in my class. I am also looking forward to my own reading of the book with these ideas in mind. My only wish is that there was one essay without spoilers for the last two books, since I would love to expose these kids to a bit of criticism on a modern book. I will certainly let you all know how they feel about it!