The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is another book I was immediately attracted to because of the cover. I mean, look at it. It's so intricate and well planned but clearly hand drawn. For several weeks I was so in love with the cover that I was too nervous to read the book. What if the words didn't live up to the pictures? I finally caved in and ended up devouring this mammoth of a children's book.

Let's start with the story. Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance all answer an ad in the newspaper asking, "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?". After a series of tests and riddles, the children are introduced to Mr. Benedict, a man on a mission to save the world. Together the children form The Mysterious Benedict Society and set out for the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, the site of some very bad and mysterious happenings. Can the children stop the evil Mr. Curtain from broadcasting signals of confusion to the masses in order to appoint himself Master of the Universe? One thing's for certain, in order to achieve anything, they'll have to work together.

So let's set aside how awesome the concept of a secret society is and move onto the themes of this book. Love and belonging, huge. The concept of creating your own family, huge. Good over evil, big one. Ingenuity, there. Working together, bingo. All those lovey positive ideals we want our children to come away with, but presented in a smart little adventure.

Other features of amazingness:
1. The cool badass character is a girl.

• Kate is the go-to-girl when you need to get a job done. She carries a utility bucket with her at all times filled with basic tools you just might need, like rope, marbles, a slingshot, or a penlight. How refreshing to have the physically heroic figure be a female. Woot, Kate! (She's not the fall down when the going get's tough type, like Princess Buttercup.)

2. The illustrations are by Carson Ellis.

• She illustrates the album covers for The Decemberists, which is why I was drawn to the book in the first place. What's more, she is the supposed subject of my favorite Decemberists' song, Red Right Ankle.

3. The book's website.

• The Curiousity Chronicle gives us the scoop on the latests news coming from TMBS. Plus, there are riddles and neat little bookmarks to download (I totally made one). You can even read the first few pages, here.

4. There's a sequel.

• The Mysterious Benedict Society is back in action with The Perilous Journey. I've already put it on hold at my public library.

5. The book is full of riddles.

• Most of the riddles I could solve ahead of the team, I mean, I am a grown-up and all. But there's still one hanging on that I cannot solve!

Recommendation: This book is so the total package.

The Corrections

Thanks to 6 cumulative hours on the train this past weekend, I was able to finally finish The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I sort of chose a hefty book to bring me back to my own age group... so several hours of focused train reading was the perfect strategy to make some progress.

Originally I chose this book as part of the 1% Well-Read Challenge. However, I don't think I'll meet the deadline. So instead I'll say this book was recommended to me by a friend in college who may or may not have also been on my huge long crush list sophomore year. (Totally was).

Ok. The Corrections is the story of a dysfunctional (?) family trying to come together for one last Christmas together before the father's health completely deteriorates. The large chunk of the book is devoted to back story explaining why the idea of one last Christmas is either so horribly important (Enid's view) or so horribly taxing (the rest of the family).

I didn't overlook the deeper meaning or the "correction" connections, but I am having a hard time verbalizing my thoughts. Maybe this is a book we should talk about over tea?

Recommendation: Hang in there for the juicy bits and the somewhat tidy ending.

Looking For Bapu

I will admit it. I totally judged this book by it's cover. I'm super glad I did. Looking for Bapu by Anjali Banerjee definitely lived up to it's pretty cover design.

The basic outline of the story goes like this: Anu (called Anus by schoolyard bullies) is extremely close to his grandfather, Bapu. One day while the pair are out birdwatching, Bapu suffers a massive stroke and dies shortly thereafter at the hospital. Anu is deeply stricken with guilt. When Bapu's ghost appears, Anu sets out on a frantic mission to reestablish contact with his beloved grandfather.

3 Things I Loved About This Book:
1. It's based locally in Seattle, Washington

• The Mystery Museum, a major location in the story, is modeled after Ye Olde Curiousity Shop.

2. It's the first book I've read that talks about September 11th from the perspective of a young person who is unjustly discrimated against [as an Indian-American].

• Banerjee includes incidents where Anu is called Osama Bin Laden by his classmates as well as other Indians being interrogated at the airport. Anu even overhears one of the EMTs reluctance to care for his grandfather because he looks "like that damn Bin Laden." Whoa, hello prejudice.

3. The topic is unbelievably unique.

• Ok death and dying is written about all the time. But what about a boy who goes to such great lengths to contact his dead grandfather that he attempts to become a sadhu, a Hindu holy person. Anu shaves his head, embarks on a fast, and becomes a holy roller...literally. He starts to roll, as in somersault, to school. Through Anu's pursuits to become holy and therefore gain a line to the deceased, the reader learns about Hinduism and Indian culture, without feeling like you're reading a complicated explanation.
  

All parts of Looking for Bapu are equally endearing.

Recommendation: A book this unique that addresses important topics should not be overlooked.

(I actually am reading a grown-up book right now... but kid's books are just so tempting. Being surrounded by them all day doesn't help the problem.)

Books of 2008

I love that I've found a New Year's resolution I can actually keep: Read more books than I did during the previous year.

2008 kicked the pants off of 2007. This year I needed to read 58 books... well I read 81! Next year I better at least read 82.

1. Frindle by Andrew Clements
2. Speaking with the Angel edited by Nick Hornby
3. Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff
4. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
5. Six of One by Rita Mae Brown
6. Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the Storycorps Project edited by Dave Isay
7. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
8. The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
9. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
10. The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
11. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
12. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
13. Compost by Clare Foster
14. Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson
15. Mike McGrath's Book of Compost by Mike McGrath
16. Slam by Nick Hornby
17. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
18. King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher
19. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
20. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
21. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
22. I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
23. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
24. Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
25. Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler
26. Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky
27. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
28. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
29. The Moffats by Eleanor Estes
30. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
31. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
32. When I Was Elena by Ellen Urbani Hiltebrand
33. Control Theory in the Classroom by William Glasser
34. Holes by Louis Sachar
35. How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas by Joseph Collins, Stefano DeZerega, & Zahara Heckscher
36. Strider by Beverly Cleary
37. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
38. The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
39. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
40. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
41. The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
42. Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America by Dan Savage
43: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
44: The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
45: Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
46: The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts by Richard Peck
47: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris
48. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
49. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
50. Hold On To Me Tightly As If I Knew The Way by Bryan Charles
51. Dishwasher by Pete Jordan
52. God's Harvard by Hannah Rosin
53. Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
54. Bachelor Girl: 100 Years of Breaking the Rules, A Social History of Living Single by Betsy Israel
55. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
56. Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen
57. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
58. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
59. Shopgirl by Steve Martin
60. Geek Love by Kathrine Dunn
61. Little Children by Tom Perrotta
62. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
63. Criss Cross by Lynne Mae Perkins
64. Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney Book of Lists by the editors of McSweeney
65. Amy's Answering Machine: Messages from Mom by Amy Borkowsky
66. Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas edited by Sarah Brown
67. Tales from the Teacher's Lounge by Robert Wilder
68. Stories from a Moron: Real Stories Rejected by Real
Magazines by Ed Broth
69. Recycle with Redworms: The Red Wiggler Connection by Shelley C. Grossman & Toby Weitzel
70: Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
71. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
72. My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary
73. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
74. The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
75. Crazy Lady! by Jane Leslie Conly
76. The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer
77. Who is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas? by Martha Freeman
78. The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements
79. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
80. Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles
81. Everything On A Waffle by Polly Horvath