Editing Blunders

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile friends. School got the better of me.

My roommate came home one night with this fortune: "Your love of the life will be happy and harmonious."

I hope I'm not the only one with a painfully puzzled look on my face. What is this supposed to mean? Will my roommate's dream guy be happy and harmonious? Will her life simply be happy and harmonious? I'm not even sure what to do with blunder because the meaning itself isn't clear.

My poor roommate got jipped. If anybody's interested, I'll find out which restaurant this fortune came from and let you all know so you don't get jipped too.

I hope you've all learned today's lesson: Never trust fortune cookies. And laugh when people make silly mistakes in English.

Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Book Review: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Release Date: 2006

I picked up this book because it's about someone who steals books and thus starts a love affair with words. How could I not read it?

The year is 1939, in Nazi Germany. Liesel Meminger becomes the book thief at the same time that she joins a foster family, both of which change her life. When her foster family decides to harbor a Jew in the basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down by the power of words. Death himself narrates Liesel's story, about her journeys learning to read and to make sense of the world and the war around her.

There are two major techniques present that make me absolutely love this book. The first is Death's role as narrator. How does a writer get any more creative than that? Because of his role, Death becomes as much of a character as any human in the story. Death most often talks to readers in the usual paragraph form, but sometimes he uses something like an aside in a play to interrupt himself or the story to provide another point of view or pertinent fact, a lot like this example from the prologue.

****HERE IS A SMALL FACT****

You are going to die.

If you ask Death, he'll tell you he does that to distract himself. Distraction is his vacation from collecting the dead, since he's the only one who can do his job. Because of his role, Death becomes as much of a character as any human in the story. In the prologue and his introduction he says, "I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice." By using Death as the narrator, Zusak also makes great use of foreshadowing, since Death is looking back on the story as he tells it and because he knows what ultimately happens to every person in the story.

The other technique in this book that I love actually isn't a technique at all. It's a matter of style. Zusak phrases things in the most interesting and provocative way I think I've ever read. He often combines verbs and objects to be affected by the verbs in unusual ways. For example, Death tells us in the prologue that a formal introduction isn't necessary, because we'll all meet him eventually, when he'll be standing over us ("as genially as possible") to collect our dying souls. "At that moment," he says, "you will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air." I've never thought of my soul as being caked inside my body, or of a scream as something that dribbles. Zusak's syntax style extends throughout the book and to other parts of speech, such as when Liesel's foster parents decide to harbor a Jew in the basement and the weather outside reflects the misery inside: "Outside, a mountain of cold November air was waiting at the front door each time Liesel left the house. Drizzle came down in spades. Dead leaves were slumped on the road." I doubt I've ever seen leaves slump, and I hope I never run into a mountain of cold air.

The beginnig is a bit slow, and towards the end of the book it gets sad. I admit I cried. Even Death is appalled at what's happening in Germany in 1944. The words Liesel loves and hates so much can only save her, not the other things she loves when her town in bombed. But the very end, the epilogue, has a good ending. Something else she loves survives the war, and Death talks to her face to face, wondering how mankind "could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant." It's a universal uncomprehending.

The Book Thief is a great read to see another side of the Nazi Germany story, about normal Germans living ordinary lives and helping their Jewish friends. The book also received several starred reviews and many, many awards, including the New York Times #1 Bestseller, the National Jewish Book Award, the Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year, and the Booklist Best Book of the Year, among many others. As a starred review from The Horn Book Magazine put it, this book is "a tour de force that to be not just read but inhabited." Plus, it just feels good to hold it in your hands.

Book Review: Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich

Book Review: Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life

Author: Jenna Woginrich

Publisher: Storey Publishing

Release Date: 2008

I asked for this book for my birthday because I read Jenna's blog fairly regularly and enjoy her opinions and turn of phrase. Made From Scratch is part autobiography, part introduction to basic homesteading skills, and part DIY homesteading projects and ideas.

When Jenna first began considering a vegetarian diet, she researched how the food she ate got to her plate, and the truth of it disgusted her, as well as increased her respect for small farmers and her desire to live a more self-sufficient life. Her only skills at the beginning of her journey were basic knitting and soap-making, which she did for fun; with the help of friends and more research, the list of homesteading skills she developed grew to include gardening, raising chickens, beekeeping, training work (and sled) dogs, shearing angora rabbits, collecting antiques (especially hand-powered kitchen appliances), sewing clothing, and making her own entertainment by learning to play the fiddle. In each chapter devoted to one of these skills, Jenna tells her story, then directs us how to get started. At the end of the book in something like a bibliography or reading list, Jenna points the way even further with the books and websites she used to research these skills.

I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it for anyone who misses summer now that we're in January or who likes the ideas of controlling how necessary items get to them, learning basic self-sufficient skills, or living closer to the land. Jenna's humor and honesty draw you in and really make you part of the community she herself has joined, while the story of her mistakes and successes and growth encourage you to do something productive, something real and authentic. As MaryJane Buttars (to whom Jenna refers multiple times) said, "Jenna walks you to the door of your fantasy and points the way towards a more self-sufficient and authentic lifestyle."

To get a taste of the book before you buy (or borrow from me), check out Jenna's blog. And as always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Book Review: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Book Review: The Lightning Thief, book one of Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Miramax Hyperion Books
Release Year: 2005

I chose to read this book because it's the favorite series of a good friend of mine (and then I saw the trailer for the movie). All I can say is...Wow. I read this book in about six hours. It was the first time I have stayed up so late it was early to finish a book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. As a starred review from Kirkus Reviews put it, "Look no further for the next Harry Potter; meet Percy Jackson, as legions of fans already have." I simply could not put this book down. I have since read three of the four remaining books in the series, all in a similar timeframe. I'm hooked.


Weird things always happen around Percy Jackson. He's been kicked out of a new boarding school every year and it's about to happen again in the sixth grade, but that's the least of his problems. Greek mythological monsters and gods keep appearing in his life. Zeus's master lightning bolt--the one from which all other bolts are copied and the most powerful weapon in the universe--has been stolen, and Percy is the number one suspect. Now Percy and his friends have just 10 days to find the bolt and return it to Zeus before all-out war starts on Mount Olympus. But in order to find the thief and the stolen property, Percy must come to terms with the father who abandoned him, solve the riddle of the Oracle, and unravel a powerful treachery.

The first thing I love about this book is the chapter titles. They're creative, provactive, and usually hilarious, and they are consistently so throughout the series, with titles like "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher," "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," and "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom." You just can't help being sucked in with titles like these.

The clues about Percy's parentage, the quest he undertakes to find the lightning bolt, the treachery he discovers as he attempts to prove himself innocent of theft, and the gods themselves are well spaced and delivered so the reader can see just a bit further ahead than Percy. The battle scenes are believable and intense, and as are the abilities and powers of gods, monsters, and certain individuals. I am highly impressed with how clean this book is. There is absolutely no inappropriate language or behavior. The battle scenes are the only violence, but they are never gruesome or bloody; some people die and some get hurt, but these battles are always ultimately an issue of good versus evil.

I may not have studied Greek history and mythology for several years, but I still think the Greeks are a huge part of our collective cultural history. I think students in whatever grade learns about Greek civilization should read this book at the beginning of the unit as an introduction to and creative application of the subject. This is a very, very good read. I read this book and then almost immediately bought the whole series because after the first book, I knew I would love them all. That is a rare gift. I highly recommend this book and it's series.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book One: The Lightning Thief is a New York Times Notable Book of 2005, a Child Magazine Best Book of the Year, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. As the New York Times Review put it, this book is "Perfectly paced, with electrifying moments chasing each other like heartbeats."

The new movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief comes to theaters February 12, 2010.

As always, I welcome your comments. Let me know what you think.