How Do You Lose Those Ninth Grade Blues?

Title: How Do You Lose Those Ninth Grade Blues?
Author: Barthe DeClements
Genre: Fiction
Type: Young adult, slice of life
Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Elsie Edwards has managed to lose the weight that has been encumbering her for years. At the start of her freshman year of high school, she finally thinks things are looking up for her. She gets the solo in choir, her friends seem to adore her, and she meets a great guy from the football team, Craddoc.
However, things at home continue to spiral downwards as her mother lashes out at Elsie, her sister begins to take advantage of her, her father (previously absent)is suddenly trying to get back in her life. Elsie's anxiety begins to take form and she makes several accusations at Craddoc, potentially losing the relationship.


I've been reading Barthe DeClements since middle school. I've always loved her writing style, it seemed so true to life, if a bit dated (like they still play records/cassette tapes). I've always appreciated her honesty when it came to kids being--well kids. Her characters don't have some kind of altruistic motive, they want to be children.

That being said, I thought this book was shorter compared to her other novels. It is young adult fiction though, so I may be wanting something that isn't aimed towards that group.

Elsie has been mentioned in a previous novel; Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade, with a brief cameo in Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You. In Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade, Elsie was introduced as a very complex, catalystic character. I was really excited to finally be able to read more about her.

I did feel this novel fell short of that. There was so much more to talk about, even things mentioned in this novel. Why was her dad trying to get back in her life? Why didn't Elsie confront him?

I've always loved Elsie because she struggled with weight, which was something I could relate to. This novel explored learning to love yourself, something that doesn't happen instantly after losing weight. However, it just--was a bit lack luster.

Shit My Dad Says

Title: Shit My Dad Says
Author: Justin Halpern
Genre: Fiction
Type: Humor, Memoir
Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary: Justin Halpern, age twenty eight, thought his life was going great. Working as a writer, he was offered a job with Maxim.com. Upon accepting it and revealing to his girlfriend his plan of moving in with her, he was crushed when he realized she just didn't feel the same about him.
Justin ends up moving back home with his mother Joni and father, Sam. Shit My Dad Says chronicles the endless humorous things his dad says about life, love, and everything else under the sun. Justin also tells stories about growing up and how his dad helped shaped who he was.

I originally fell in love with Sam Halpern when I was still using Twitter. I started to follow him and share the things he said with my family. We'd giggle and carry on. When I first heard that Justin was writing a book, I was stoked.

My only real complaint with this book is that it's waaaaay short. I'm a fast reader, and I gobbled it up in a few hours. I think if Justin had added in some more stories from his youth, I would have appreciated it better.

However, I will say it was hilarious. I loved hearing all about how Sam was when Justin was growing up. My favorite chapter, though, was when Justin was recounting the time after he'd moved out and gotten a dog. He was unable to keep the dog, and to his amazement, his father agreed to take him. It helped Justin, and the reader, see another side of Sam.

I never watched the television show, which I believe has now been cancelled, so I can't speak for how the two of them correlate, although my understanding is that no--it isn't close at all.

I'd recommend this book as a "bathroom novel" because the chapters are pretty short. There are nice bite sized pieces, so it's easy to pick up and put down.

Sarah's Key

Title: Sarah's Key
Author: Tatiana de Rosnay
Genre: Fiction
Type: Historical/Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Summary: Julia Jarmond is an American living in Paris with her playboy husband and her beautiful daughter. She is a journalist, and one of her assignments is to write an article about the Jewish families who were rounded up in 1942 in Paris by the French police. She starts to uncover the story of Sarah, a ten year old girl.
On the night her family was rounded up, Sarah, aged ten, locked her little brother Michel in a closet. She was under the impression that they would return in a few days, and she would be able to set him free them. It wasn't until later that she realized how very wrong she was.
Julia goes on a journey to uncover the fate of Sarah. She learned about her husband's past, and learns to deal with the future that might lay ahead for them.


First of all, let me say that I read this book a few days ago. It had such an emotional impact on me that it's taken me this long to come back to it. It is not a light, mildly interesting read. It is raw and emotional. There are parts of the book that are graphic, though not gratuitously so.
In spite of that, I couldn't put down this book. I just could not. I devoured it up.
I really enjoyed the contrast between Sarah's story and Julia's sixty years later. De Rosnay did a very good job in showing the difference between them, and yet making sure the reader was able to see the parallels between them. The story, up until about halfway through, is told every other chapter by either girl.
Another thing that I really enjoyed was that a part of World War 2 history that a lot of people haven't really heard of (which is covered in the book) was talked about. BUT, don't think that you have to love reading WW2 literature to be able to enjoy this book. The book does not rely on past knowledge beyond that which is very basic of WW2. You do not have to be a history buff to understand what is going on.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
I spent the whole book rooting for Sarah. I spent the whole book hoping that she'd go back in time to get Michel out of the cupboard or that someone had let him out. Finding out he was dead (which was rather graphically described) was a beautiful let down. My own heart broke along with Sarah's.
ENDING SPOILER
I will say that I was kind of disappointed by the ending. I think it fell kind of flat in relation to the rest of the book.
However, I recommend it ENDLESSLY.

The Commoner

Title: The Commoner
Author: John Burnham Schwartz
Genre: Adult fiction
Type: Historical
Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Haruko is a young Japanese woman who grew up towards the end of World War Two. Though she wasn't from an "old" family, she did have wealth and luxury due to her father's sake breweries scattered through Japan.
AS she grows, she becomes a well educated woman, and her parents begin to look for a suitor for her. To their surprise, she falls in love with the Crown Prince of Japan. To even greater surprise, he proposes, and she accepts.
Now Haruko must live like a Princess, even though she finds that love sometimes just isn't enough. When her son falls in love with a commoner, she must decide if it's worth sending another woman to her fate.

I was entranced by this novel. I picked it up thinking that it would be like Memoirs of a Geisha, which is one of my favorite books. I was pleasantly surprised. Even though it takes place in roughly the same time frame, the stories and voices are vastly different, although, once again, I was impressed by a man's ability to write a woman character so convincingly.
I found out this whole story is actually based on a true story, and is told pretty closely to the real story of Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko, who was the first commoner to be married into the Japanese Imperial family.
I really liked the elegant details of the wedding that Haruko and her Prince had, and I loved watching the tension rising between Haruko and the Empress, who saw her as something of an upstart.
The story did start to drag after Haruko had her first child and fell into a deep depression, even losing her voice. Yes yes, I get it, you're sad you aren't raising your own child. Can we pick up the pace a little.
The ending especially shocked me, but I found it deeply satisfying. Haruko's son falls in love with a commoner, and she convinces that woman to marry her son, because he did love her. However, I was a little upset that when Haruko's daughter, Kumiko, marries a commoner, not much is mentioned other than Haruko, now Empress, reflecting on how she doesn't regret her children, but potentially her marriage.
It's a heartbreakingly beautiful story of love and society.

The Cardturner

Title: The Cardturner
Author: Louis Sachar
Type: Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Rating: Four out of five stars.

Summary: Alton Richards, seventeen, is in a bad place. His girlfriend dumped him for his best friend. He doesn't have a job. His car is a piece of crap. In general, he's just slogging through life. His blind great uncle, who is very wealthy and not very friendly, is an avid bridge player, and asks that Alton come and be his card turner while he plays. This means that he would put down all the cards for his uncle and read him the cards that were in his hand.
Alton agrees, at the behest of his mother. His parents demand he find out if they're included in the will (as Trapp is very ill with diabetes). Alton just wants to get over his heartbreak.

This was a really interesting read. I picked it up because I love Louis Sachar. I have ever since I was in fourth grade and my teacher read Sideways Stories from Wayside school.

In a way, it was pretty surprising. I find that Sachar always includes some kind of surreal element in all his novels. And while that did hold true in this, it wasn't quite so obvious as it has been in his other novels. The characters did not just accept that something strange was happening to them, they commented and were even afraid of it.

I really liked the character of Toni Castaneda, who comes from the family that Alton's mother is afraid will take Uncle Trapp's fortune from them. She (Toni) was previously Trapp's card turner. They had a falling out when he told her to make a play and she asked; "Are you sure?" You have to understand that Trapp was a magnificent card player, even making it to the national championships. He didn't like to be second guessed.

I found Toni to be the most honest character in the whole novel. Though she is supposed to be mentally ill, it was refreshing to find someone who wasn't cutting themselves, slumping around in a depression, or locked up. I get tired of that happening in stories with someone who is supposed to be crazy.

I only gave this four out of five stars for two reasons. One; while I appreciated Louis Sachar including chunks of the book that explained bridge (which I had barely heard of and certainly never knew anything about) I found it dragged. I had to read the sections that explained the rules two or three times to even KIND OF understand the plot points that relied on that.

Two; I thought that Alton, that narrator of the story, was whiney about the same things. His girlfriend dumped him. He never shut up about her going out with his best friend. I understand that it was part of the story, but I don't understand exactly how it happened, which was probably the most frustrating party. All you know is that Katie broke up with Alton for Cliff and they're dating and see each other a lot, and Cliff and Alton are best friends. But who really enticed whom? (It IS hinted that Cliff did it, because he ended up also dating Toni, who Alton was attracted to.) But I kind of wanted it spelled out so I understood the whole picture. I was also frustrated that Alton never told his parents how brilliant Trapp really was, or told them to lay off about his millions of dollars.

I did appreciate the different layers to the story. It wasn't just about Alton and Trapp, it was about Trapp and Alton coming to move forward through what he was letting drag him down.

However, I feel that I should mention that this is no Holes. Don't come to this book looking for that kind of story. It is a great read, and I do recommend it highly!