A Blind Guide to Stinkville

A Blind Guide to Stinkville Beth Vrabel 4 / 5	Published October 13, 2015 First Sentence "Even I could see that Tooter was no Seeing Eye dog."
Publisher's Description: Before Stinkville, Alice didn’t think albinism—or the blindness that goes with it—was a big deal. Sure, she uses a magnifier to read books. And a cane keeps her from bruising her hips on tables. Putting on sunscreen and always wearing a hat are just part of life. But life has always been like this for Alice. Until Stinkville. For the first time in her life, Alice feels different—like she’s at a disadvantage. Back in her old neighborhood in Seattle, everyone knew Alice, and Alice knew her way around. In Stinkville, Alice finds herself floundering—she can’t even get to the library on her own. But when her parents start looking into schools for the blind, Alice takes a stand. She’s going to show them—and herself—that blindness is just a part of who she is, not all that she can be. To prove it, Alice enters the Stinkville Success Stories essay contest. No one, not even her new friend Kerica, believes she can scout out her new town’s stories and write the essay by herself. The funny thing is, as Alice confronts her own blindness, everyone else seems to see her for the first time. This is a stirring small-town story that explores many different issues—albinism, blindness, depression, dyslexia, growing old, and more—with a light touch and lots of heart. Beth Vrabel’s characters are complicated and messy, but they come together in a story about the strength of community and friendship.
Dear Reader, This was a sweet little middle grade book. It was charming and adorable, while surprisingly also tackling a lot of pretty serious issues, such as bullying, disability, racism, and depression. The story centers around Alice, an albino girl who grew up in one place and has never seen her differences as being all that noticeable. When her father moves the entire family across the country, though, things change quickly. Alice's limited vision means she is reliant on her family to get her around; she cannot explore her new world on her own. This forces her into new situations and she begins to learn to become more self-reliant. As she does so, she also begins to forge new relationships with townspeople of all ages. She befriends a girls whose mother works as the children's librarian, an old man who spends his lonely days whittling, and a sweet diner waitress who immediately treats Alice like family. But Alice also encounters some of the less savory locals, and her family is dragged into controversy over their beloved dog. This, surprisingly, helps to bring her strained family closer as they band together to stand up for Tooter.  One of the topics I thought the book dealt with surprisingly well (outside of the obvious albinism) was that of  Alice's mother's depression. I have not seen many books deal so honestly with the sickness, and especially not YA books. I appreciated that the mother would have her good and bad days as she struggled realistically to overcome those times when she just wanted to stay in bed, using the covers to block out the world she couldn't deal with. I could identify with this mother, despite wanting to shake her into being there for her unhappy children. It was difficult to read but so true to life that I could easily sympathize. I also liked the character of Alice, a strong young girl who struggled to decide her own character and values as she learned her way around Sinkville. She began to discover herself, something she might not have ever been forced to do in her former life. The book also deals well in balancing Alice's need for independence with the necessity of certain special treatments. I think any kid would do well to read fun this book to understand more about the realities - both the struggles and triumphs - of life. Yours, Arianna

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A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall

A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall Will Chancellor 3/5	Published 2014 First Sentence "-I'm gonna close with a quote from Dr. Johnson: "The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform."
Publisher's Description: A triumphant literary debut with notes of both The Art of Fielding and The Flamethrowers, which introduces the striking figure of Owen Burr, a gifted Olympics-bound athlete whose dreams of greatness are deferred and then transformed by an unlikely journey from California to Berlin, Athens, Iceland, and back again. Owen Burr, a towering athlete at Stanford University, son of renowned classicist Professor Joseph Burr, was destined to compete in the Athens Olympic Games of 2004. But in his final match at Stanford, he is blinded in one eye. The wound shatters his identity and any prospects he had as an athlete. Determined to make a new name for himself, Owen flees the country and lands in Berlin, where he meets a group of wildly successful artists living in the Teutonic equivalent of Warhol’s Factory. An irresistible sight—nearly seven-feet-tall, wearing an eye patch and a corduroy suit—Owen is quickly welcomed by the group’s leader, who schemes to appropriate Owen’s image and sell the results at Art Basel. With his warped and tortured image on the auction block, Owen seeks revenge. Professor Burr has never been the father he wants to be. Owen’s disappearance triggers a call to action. He dusts off his more speculative theory, Liminalism, to embark on a speaking tour, pushing theory to its radical extreme—at his own peril and with Jean Baudrillard’s help—in order to send up flares for his son in Athens, Berlin, and Iceland. A compulsively readable novel of ideas, action, and intrigue, A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall offers a persuasive vision of personal agency, art, family, and the narratives we build for ourselves.
Dear Reader, A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall is very pretentious, but is that the point? Did the Author write the characters that way or did the he want to show off with this writing? I can’t seem to tell. On the other hand, should I care? I found many things to be close to home with this book and the Author does an excellent job describing little things, like a caterpillar dancing, “He watched a caterpillar on the trunk lean back and scribble the air…”, I love that. If the Author didn’t have talent, I wouldn’t have finished this book. I pretty much hated the sections that featured Owen’s father and felt myself wanting to skip them to get back to the art world. I’m not sure if this is subjective since I’m an artist or if this is common amongst all readers. This one scene really had me though, when Owen was describing a shopping excursion when he was little where he would “hide” within the racks of clothes. This was something I did all the time and it was pretty magical, I loved that the Author captured that moment and brought me back to my own childhood. Another scene that brought this close to home was when Owen was told about how pirates use eye patches to keep one eye acclimated to the dark. I’ve used to great little tidbit fact during my work at Nature’s Classroom. We used to tell the kids that in order for a pirate to hop over to another ship and steal all the gold, they’d have to switch the eye patch to the other eye while under the dark deck (where the treasure is located) so they won’t be discovered. I’ve always loved that, and I love that the Author included it. So many questions about art, the artist and the community brought up. I had fun delving into these questions and trying to figure out what side I stood on. For example, someone brings up the idea that “talent is a myth” and that “no one makes it in the art world without a platform.” While I can understand the second statement more than likely being true… does that completely reflect on TALENT? Someone can still be talented but not “make it” in the art world. However, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it… could be similar, if you aren’t discovered… This was another book I read because of the Tournament of Books, which everyone should check out and follow. I’ll leave you with this quote that I really loved, “…life, a blur of birth and death – both and death being the only two moments of life in which we don’t exist.” Yours, Amber/Arianna

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All the Light We Cannot See (Review by AmberBug)

All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 5 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "At dusk they pour from the sky."
Publisher's Description: Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.
Dear Reader, I adored this book, my favorite of the year... I just wish I had picked it up sooner. Brace yourself for some book gushing because I'll be giving this one loads of love in this review. First of all, I have to mention that ATLWCS is ridiculously quotable. I think I highlighted more than any other book I've read before (highlighted in my Kindle... don't get all book righteous on my butt). Almost every quote I highlighted got the wheels in my head turning, it was hard to turn them off the entire time I was reading. "Does a bee know it's going to die if it stings somebody?" is a perfect example... how can that not make you think? Maybe I should back up a little and give you a little background on the book. I'll make it brief since you can pretty much read the plotline in the description above. The book follows two main plotlines, Marie-Laure who suddenly goes blind and has to learn how to navigate with help from her father. We also get the perspective of Nazi Germany through the eyes of Werner, a radio expert who joins up with the Hitler youth. The story is built perfectly between these two and gives such a great balance of what it was like during the WWII from both sides, I'm not sure it could be done any better. I'll admit that I was a little more attached to Marie-Laure, her backstory intrigued me and it was hard not to love such a courageous little girl overcoming the terrible challenges that sudden blindness comes with. Her story was filled with heart, I fell in love with her Father and his loving but stern ways he taught her to be self efficient and overcome her disability. We get to follow as she learns to navigate the town and slowly gain her self worth in order to survive in this challenging reality. Going back to quotes, Doerr does this thing I love, he will use direct related quotes to have overall meanings and tie into many themes throughout the story. "Open your eyes, concludes the man, and see what you can before they close forever." This brings me to my absolute favorite part of the book, the way the Author intertwined the story Marie-Laure gets for her birthday "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" into the characters and plot of the ATLWCS. It was this section that caused me to cry, her reading this book to the boy trapped underground (all the while the characters in Twenty Leagues are also trapped to die under the sea), it was completely emotional and heartbreaking. I haven't cried from a book (especially from a non-character death) in a very long time, and this one did me in. I'm not going to say if any characters live or die, but I didn't cry because of a death... I cried because of the emotion behind that one scene. I must have really been attached to Marie-Laure and her book because I HAVE to talk about it again. This is the first book (I've read) that introduces Braille and goes into such detail, on how it feels to read one and the differences between books. I find it fascinating that Braille can vary in style, if the words are spaced apart too far or too close, which is relatable to someone adjusting to reading in a different font. Marie-Laure mentions the change from one of her books, "The French feels old-fashioned, the dots printed much closer together than she is used to". I really should mention the other narrative following Werner, I did enjoy this side of the story quite a bit too. It challenges you to look at the other side of the war (the side everyone hates) and see it from the perspective of a level headed orphan boy trying to survive. This boy is super intelligent and has a way with electronics (specifically radios), his expertise in this lands him an unspeakable spot amongst the elite German youth serving for Hitler. At first you think, there is no way this super smart kid would fall for the stupidity behind the mentality of the Nazi party. Slowly, you begin to realize that the perks and reasoning may have been more enticing than you would think, you start to sympathize with those pressured to join and arm themselves with this mentality. What I like about Werner is that he gets sucked into the group with promises of rewarding work with his love of radios, but he learns throughout his journey the true nature of the regime. All the Light We Cannot See teaches us how special things truly are and how we realize this when we don't have them anymore. This is shown with Marie-Laure and coping without sight, Werner and his relationship with his sister, the mundane life Marie and her father lead in the museum, listening to a radio show that is now banned, and so much more. In the face of loss though, each character stays afloat both in mind and body, which is very encouraging for the reader to experience. I have to admit, after spending the time of getting my thoughts down on the blog, it makes me want to re-read this very badly. I haven't been so touched by a book in quite awhile, and I imagine this book will last and have an impression on me for a long time. I highly suggest you read this, I can't express my love for this book enough. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 5 / 5	Published 2105 First Sentence "At dusk they pour from the sky."
Publisher's Description: Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.
Dear Reader, If there ever was something close to the perfectly crafted novel for me, this was it. What an amazing reading experience. Doerr writes beautiful, tender, empathetic prose which unwinds the story with the ideal blend of detail and pacing. I won't soon forget this gem of a book, most particularly for the way it humanized the German side of the war experience as much as the more sympathetic one. I adored the way the two stories unfolded towards one another, like the flattening of Max's paper planes, until their edges just touched. The rich descriptions of wartime Europe struck me on every page, and I was impressed with how well Doerr wrote the entire experience of Marie-Laure's world from the blind girl's four remaining senses. Every experience of the characters was felt by the reader. The little touches were what really got to me: Werner's childhood interest in radios (told in truly believable detail), Marie-Laure's passion for sea creatures (based upon reading Jules Verne at an impressionable age),  Frederik's obession with birds (to the exclusion of almost all else). The miniature cities which Monsieur Le Blanc builds for his daughter, incorporating clever locking mechanisms from his own talents. The hermit, the orphan sister, the housekeeper, the baker's wife, the giant: all carried so vividly through the page, with their own foibles and cares. I wondered often why Doerr chose 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as his parallel text, as it were. Is it because the Le Blancs ultimately ended up living on the edge of Atlantic? Is it because echoes of the maniacal Captain Nemo perhaps could be spotted in Hitler? Was it because there was adventure in exploration, and Marie-Laure needed to learn to embrace it rather than fear it? I am still trying to figure that out, but I think the choice was a great one. The snippets of the Verne work scattered throughout the Doerr novel were well-placed and sometimes surprisingly appropriate. I feel like I can't say it more succinctly or more poetically than this paragraph I stumbled across from Booklist: "A novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr's magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. . . . Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably re-creates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers." —Brad Hooper,Booklist, April 15, 2014 You may have already heard a lot about this novel; it is certainly getting talked about. And deservedly so. I plan to press this into the hands of everyone I know. Or maybe even those I don't know. Yours, Arianna

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Bird Box

Bird Box Josh Malerman 5/5	Published 2014 First Sentence "Malorie stands in the kitchen, thinking."
Publisher's Description: Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn't look outside anymore. Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.
Dear Reader, I just want to gush all over this book, and I probably will, reader be warned! Everything I love about creepy, scary books is hidden inside this gem. It reminded me of "Blindness" (which I just read and reviewed) mixed with a King novel (or something along those lines). I loved that it didn't follow the regular formula and how the story was broken up in two parts; essentially working back and forth through a timeline. Bird Box delivers a chilling future of darkness and paranoia, with particular attention to the main characters unique storyline, delving into even more horrific circumstances of an already twisted world. To be clear, there is something out there. This something has the ability to cause massive havoc with a glance, you can't open your eyes because if you do... you'll see one of these "things" and kill yourself and anyone around you. To counter this, some survivors have determined to live life hidden indoors with the windows boarded, venturing outside with blindfolds only. As I was saying earlier, the Author went a little further and decided to make the main character pregnant! The survivability of a woman going through birth and then raising kids in this new world!?? A fantastically chilling concept. It worked.The part that had me freaked out the most was related to the title of the book, BUT... I really don't want to say too much about this book because I think you have to experience it for yourself. So... Although this review is short, it by no means reflects any negativity towards Bird Box. I'd love to discuss this book with those who've read it, so if you've delved into this one, please let me know what you thought. And for those of you looking for the next book to prickle your skin, this is the one I would pick up. I dub this one of my favorite books of 2014! Happy Reading, AmberBug

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Blindness

Blindness José Saramago Translated by Giovanni Pontiero  3/5	Published 1995 First Sentence "The amber light came on."
Publisher's Description: A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her charges—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. As Blindness reclaims the age-old story of a plague, it evokes the vivid and trembling horrors of the twentieth century, leaving readers with a powerful vision of the human spirit that's bound both by weakness and exhilarating strength.
Dear Reader, This book has been sitting on my shelf for at least two years now and I finally broke down and picked it up. Don't think that the book sat on the shelf because I wasn't interested in it, on the contrary, I was so intrigued by it I didn't want the movie to spoil my experience. The movie came out in 2008 and apparently waiting worked because when I lifted this book off the shelf to read it, I had forgotten it was made into a movie until Arianna mentioned it. After that, it all started flooding back to me. Unfortunately, I liked the movie better! There I said it. Okay, so to be fair... I should pick up the movie and watch it again just to be absolutely positive my feelings stay the same on this, but I'm pretty sure the movie wins out on this one. Why? Glad you asked. I believe the movie SPOILED my experience with this book. I hate to say it but sometimes that happens and I find it truly heartbreaking. Just like when a movie doesn't live up to the book, the same can be said vice versa. Now I know some of you will rebuke that the writing of the book is so phenomenal it stands out on its own... Ohhkay, but I'm on the fence about the writing. Obviously the Author has a style that is very unique and I'm hoping the translation didn't dissolve some of that. I'm very weary of translations, I always wonder if the faults are from the Author or the translator?! The style is written like a huge run-on sentence without punctuation. It was VERY distracting to read and slowed this book down to a crawling pace. Maybe the Author wanted that? Reading slowly opens our eyes to things we might fly past normally, so this could be a motivated way to get the reader to fully comprehend everything written. However, I can't say that I wasn't annoyed by it, because it was very distracting for me. I kept screaming at the book, "WHO THE HECK IS SPEAKING!!!!", the dialogue was madness. What did I like about this book? The dark, bleak and horrifying cautionary theme underlying the book. This was fully expressed in the movie, therefore might be the reason why I prefered the movie to the book. Nobody wants to suddenly go blind! The Author takes it one step further and makes the whole world go blind, if thats not horrifying, I don't know what is. The Author brings up so many thoughtful questions about society, humanity, good/evil and just the overall sense of discomfort from lack of control. This book made me think hard in a really good way... I just didn't like the style of writing the Author used. It looks like this book has overall excellent ratings but those that didn't like it, gave it a one or two rating. I have to stick with the middle because I was impressed on one end but annoyed on the other. I would love to know what you thought of this book!!! Happy Reading, AmberBug P.S. - Check out the link below - the digital kindle copy of this book is only $2.99 (not sure how long that will last).

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