YA Review: MAUS by Art Spiegelman

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I recently was subbing in a nearby middle school and the students were reading MAUS by Art Spiegelman. I had never seen this book (though it won a Pulitzer and is widely known). After my day teaching, I found the book, THE COMPLETE MAUS, in the library so that I could continue the story. Maus is an early graphic novel (originally published in 1991). It is told entirely in comic strip form. The first part is “A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History” and leads up to Spiegelman’s parents being sent to Auschwitz, while the second part, “And Here My Troubles Began”, focuses on his father’s experience in the concentration camp and after the war for his parents.

MAUS depicts the story of Spiegelman’s father’s survival of the Holocaust in Europe, as he relays it to his son. A Polish Jew, Vladek Spiegelman marries his wife Anja and they are wealthy and successful business owners. WWII is creeping across Europe, however, and antisemitism is on the rise. Vladek relays when they first see a Nazi flag, when their first friends lose their businesses, when people begin to disappear. Slowly you see their world deteriorating, yet through it all, Vladek’s resiliency and resourcefulness shine through. He protects his wife first and foremost, and tries to save her parents as well. They have their young son go to live with friends so that he will be safe (he ends up dying though). Their main goal becomes to survive and make it through to the other side of WWII. The stories become more and more disturbing as the war progresses, and are made all the more disturbing as you know this is a true story.

I know I’m a little late to the party here as this book has been around for a while, but I am so thankful that I came across it and read it. Spiegelman’s depictions of the Nazi’s as cats and the Jews as mice is very clever (the Americans are dogs), and this book can be a great teaching tool in the classroom, particularly with older students. The graphic novel form makes it both easy to read and yet disturbing. Peppered throughout is Spiegelman’s own relationship with his father, especially in the second volume. You can see him trying to come to grips with their relationship, his father’s seemingly eccentric ways, and his father’s failing health, along with his mother’s death several years earlier. This was a touching and brilliant depiction of a Holocaust survivor which stayed with me long afterwards.

Highly recommended for this genre/time period! I got mine at the library.

Saturday Snapshot: Mount Rushmore in Lego

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The US government shutdown is continuing (as of this writing – 10/16) and people are bemoaning the closing of many of the national parks (really quite a tragedy — I realize they don’t have the funding to run them, but it’s keeping people from experiencing our great country!). While I believe Mount Rushmore is now open, at one point I read that it was not only closed, but access roads not in the park to where you could view it were also closed.

So – for your viewing pleasure – and complements of LegoLand- I give you Mount Rushmore —

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Notice that George is having his ears cleaned!! lol

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at http://www.westmetromommy.blogspot.com

You, too, can participate by posting a pic and linking it to her site. 🙂

Quick Kids’ Review: How to Make Friends and Monsters by Ron Bates

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I received HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND MONSTERS from my friends at Zondervan and gave it to my 4th grader to read. Here’s the blurb from Amazon on it:

Some Friends Are Just Worth Making For Howard Boward, science genius, making friends in middle school is hard. The other kids have more fun creatively expanding Howard’s name than actually hanging out, as in How-weird or How-Lame. . So, why not actually make a friend? A little wonder putty, some DNA, a few accidentally spilled chemicals and—boom!—instant friend. Monster friend, that is. Franklin ends up being cool in middle school, and he helps Howard climb the uber-popular ladder, becoming How-Cool. But the new fame and friendship isn’t exactly everything Howard hoped. Turns out real friendship might not be so simple, even when you create your own friends from scratch.

Mini Me says that the theme of this book is it’s hard to be a new kid. Overall, she says it is really funny and fun to read. It had some hard words, but not too many. At 352 pages, she was fine with it, but it may seem like a long book to some. We made sure we got a copy for our school library!

Review: The Clearing by Dan Newman

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Just in time for Halloween! Dan Newman’s THE CLEARING is a suspenseful story within a story. In 1976 four boys were playing the swamps and woods of St. Lucia when one of them dies. The others decide to keep the events surrounding his death secret and instead blame it on island superstition: the monster Bolum. Time passes and while lives are irreparably changed by the child’s death, life does go on.

Fast forward forty years to present day, and our hero, Nate, is returning to the island to put old ghosts to rest. However, in doing so, Nate opens up old wounds and upsets the precarious balance of society on the island. Soon he is being followed and attacked by scary men wielding sacrificed animals and vials of blood. Someone is trying to hush up the events of that night and will stop at nothing to keep Nate and anyone who helps him quiet.

I enjoyed reading this novel which read quickly and was rather thrilling. At the end things tied up pretty neatly, and I felt that Newman expounded the final conclusions a bit too much (just in case someone couldn’t figure it out on their own, I guess); however, all in all, I enjoyed this light read and kept going to the end. A little fantastic – yes. A good read for the Halloween season – yes!

I got mine as an ARC from Net Galley (Exhibit A Publishers) – thanks!

Review: SILENT NOON by Trilby Kent

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If you read my blog, you know I enjoy reading books by a former student (now grown up!), Trilby Kent. Trilby published SILENT NOON this summer in Great Britain and Canada. I was able to get it on Kindle here in the States.

In SILENT NOON, it is the early 1950’s, and Barney Holland is sent on scholarship to a boys’ boarding school in England. Post-war England is still recovering and the boys are a scrappy lot. Barney doesn’t fit well with the others, and finds a companion in the older (but troubled) pupil Ivor. Then one of the teacher’s daughters starts attending school as the only girl (she was sent home from her boarding school) and she and Barney form an unlikely friendship. Unfortunately, all the plots converge into a somewhat traumatic and unsettling ending.

There’s a lot going on in this book: peer relationships, budding sexuality, a ghost story, and more. Trilby has a wonderful way of making post-war Britain come alive. The details of daily life are quite vivid and one can feel both the coldness of the dormitory and the coldness of the relationships. One note: if you are looking for a neatly tied up ending with full resolution to all plot lines, this isn’t the read for you! I really enjoyed it, and it kept me thinking about it afterwards.

You can see it on Amazon for Kindle, where I got mine.

Saturday Snapshot: Peak Color!

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The leaves are peaking around here now, and it is so beautiful!!

Here’s the private drive to our house and the most beautiful tree:

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Here’s our driveway: (I took this a few days ago — still some green!)

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Here’s that favorite bush I keep taking pictures of in our side yard:

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And here’s another from the side yard:

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Happy Fall!!

Saturday Snapshot is now hosted by Melinda at http://www.westmetromommy.blogspot.com. You, too, can participate by posting a pic you took and linking it to her site!

Saturday Snapshot: More Fall Color!

/ drbethnolan / 7 Comments

The leaves are turning – here in New England! We are certainly not at peak yet (the news said it was peaking in Maine; we still need time for the color to move south), but it is changing! Here are some pictures from my sideyard (click on them for best results!):

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I think I like the yellows best! We have all sorts of trees around us – we basically live in the woods. They were all here when we built the house (which is in what was a meadow). The birch trees are so pretty in the fall! Our neighbor has the most lovely red maple trees that turn a gorgeous color, too.

I’ll keep posting as the weeks pass.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at http://www.westmetromommy.blogspot.com. You, too, can participate by posting a picture and linking it to her site! (Appropriate pics, please – and no swiping!).

Kids’ Review- Charis: Journey to Pandora’s Jar by Nicole Y. Walters

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My friends at Booktrope contacted me to see if I wanted to review this middle grade book. I thought Charis’ story sounded a bit like a female Percy Jackson and I was interested, so I said yes.

I just loved this story about thirteen year old Charis, chosen by the gods (Greek ones that is!) to find and save Pandora’s jar with its last true hope inside. Charis is a pretty typical teen, with typical teen problems with peers and schoolwork, but she is destined to be a great hero. Along with her buddy Gabe, and her love of Greek mythology, Charis has to face down some pretty powerful and scary opponents in order to save the world.

I just loved the character of Charis! She was strong and smart, but not perfect. Her relationships with her family and her friend Gabe were realistic. Charis is a great role model for tweens and teens, and I’ll be giving my daughter this book to read.

While the viewpoint changes throughout this story, from Charis to the gods and back again, it was not overly confusing. I think kids who like a good fantasy/adventure would enjoy this story, girls and boys alike.

Blog Tour Review: The Reality of ESP by Russell Targ

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The Reality of ESP by Russell Targ (2)

Today I am happy to be part of the blog tour for THE REALITY OF ESP – which is subtitled: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities – by Russell Targ.

First let me say that I have always been fascinated with the concept of ESP – extra sensory perception. It’s the type of things that logic tells me I should not believe in, but intuition tells me there is reason to believe (at least to some extent). In his book, Targ, a laser physicist who worked for Lockheed, examines the evidence for a variety of ESP phenomena, including case studies of psychics, remote viewing experiments, NASA and CIA work in the area, precognition, and even how he and a group of colleagues predicted the silver market and made a lot of money in the 1980’s.

As I read this book I was reminded of a class I took as an undergraduate at the University of California: Altered States of Consciousness. Not surprisingly, my professor from that class, Charles Tart, is cited on the back of the book!

THE REALITY OF ESP is an interesting look into parapsychology and the unexplained. Using case studies, his own experience, and information from research studies, Targ presents a case for ESP where, even if you can’t wholly believe in it, you really can’t NOT believe in it! Of all the topics, I think the one I found most intriguing was the story of Pat Price, the psychic policeman. Pat had the uncanny ability to “see” crimes as they were happening, so he was a very effective policeman. He could accurately visualize places and things he had never seen before – anywhere in the world. He was instrumental in the solving of the Patty Hearst kidnapping as he visualized the getaway car and where it was at the moment (they located it) and even named one of the kidnappers and selected him from mug shots. Truly, he had some remarkable abilities.

I challenge readers to remain skeptical after reading this book!

Here’s some info from the publicist on the book and Mr. Targ:

The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities
Nobel laureate physicist Brian Josephson says, “This book should make those who deny the existence of [psychic] phenomena think again.” In The Reality of ESP, Targ presents evidence from the $20 million research program he co-founded at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the 1970s. The amazing feats of psychic ability he details include: While remote viewing for the CIA, SRI psychics found a downed Russian bomber in Africa, reported on the health of American hostages in Iran, and described Soviet weapons factories in Siberia. When San Francisco heiress Patricia Hearst was abducted from her home in Berkeley, a psychic with the SRI team identified the kidnapper and then accurately described and located the kidnapppers’ car. After leaving SRI, Targ’s group made $120,000 by psychically forecasting for nine weeks in a row the direction and amount of changes in the silver commodity futures market – without error! Targ also describes a plan for developing your own psychic abilities.

About Russell Targ 

Russell Targ Author and Physicist (2)

Physicist Russell Targ was the co-founder of a 20 year $25 million research program  investigating psychic abilities for the CIA, Army Intelligence and many other agencies at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). This previously SECRET research and applications program is now declassified. Targ has written a comprehensive book describing the remarkable accomplishments of this program.

To learn more about Russell Targ’s work as the co-founder of a 20 year $25 million research program investigating psychic abilities for the CIA, Army Intelligence and many other agencies at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), get your own copy at http://www.amazon.com/Reality-ESP-Physicists-Psychic-Abilities/dp/0835608840.

You can find more information from the virtual book tour for The Reality of ESP at http://bookpromotionservices.com/2013/09/03/reality-esp-tour/

Russell Targ’s Website – http://www.espresearch.com/

One thing I found really fun in this book was mention of a free iPhone app – ESP Trainer – which I downloaded. I am currently developing my own powers of perception!

Thanks, Nikki, for my copy and having me be part of the tour!

Giveaway!! (Oct. 1-4) A TASTE FOR INTENSITY by Dominique Perregaux

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I’m excited today to be hosting another giveaway!!

Jennifer at Smith Publicity has offered a copy of A TASTE FOR INTENSITY to one lucky reader of my blog! Here’s some info on the book (thanks, Jennifer!):

A Taste for Intensity
by Dominique Perregaux
 
DISCOVERING RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY
–International art dealer explores life, love, and the depth of our inner strength in provocative new novel based on real events
 
         Life, it’s been said, is somewhat like a blank canvas waiting to be painted with the brushstrokes of experience, emotion, heartbreak, and love. In the end, each life is a piece of art that tells a unique story, and each has the potential to be a masterpiece. How we fill our blank canvas is entirely up to us and the choices we make.
         Sometimes it takes something extraordinary to get us painting.
         Such was the case with stockbroker turned international art dealer and gallery owner, Dominique Perregaux. After years of international study and travel, as well as a life-changing career switch, it took looking extreme adversity straight in the eye for Perregaux to discover one of the keys to life: resilience. In his captivating new novel based on real-life events, A Taste for Intensity, he explores this theme as he pulls us into one man’s transformational journey.
            When Swiss art dealer, Hector, meets American Midwestern Elizabeth Bennett in Hong Kong, he senses there is a unique emotional bond between them. The beginning of their relationship is intense and “Romanesque.” Yet, unbeknown to each other, behind the infatuation and anticipations, they are both holding secrets. The weight of these secrets and their high expectations are the grounds for a formidable adventure to the depth of the human soul. 
Readers follow Hector on a reminiscent and nostalgic trip through Europe. During this journey he opens up about his adolescence, about his passion for art, about his early professional achievements as a successful stockbroker and about opening the first international contemporary art gallery in Hong Kong. We then glimpse at Hector back in Hong Kong, three years after settling down in the city, as he shares the excitement and doubts he feels about building a relationship with Elizabeth while, at the same time, fighting the battle of his life. When havoc eventually strikes, Hector uncompromisingly immerses us into his inner-self and shares his battle for life and love.
         “Telling this story,” says Perregaux, “was my ‘real life’ solution for resilience and the best way to overcome an incredibly difficult and transformational time in my life. It is brutally honest and beautifully emotional, but at it’s core, it’s a story of optimism.” 
         In his riveting work of autobiographical fiction, Perregaux explores such themes as:
·  Resilience: when, why, and how it is discovered and its life-altering power
·  How optimism can help us through life’s toughest challenges
·  The difficulty and beauty of building a genuine and lasting relationship (and exploring the emotional differences between men and women)
·  What it means to be “Romanesque” and how one can provoke exciting experiences in their life
·  The insights and revelations that surviving near-death situations can bring
         In a universal story of loss, love, and life, Perregaux takes us on a global
adventure, uncovering deep secrets and exploring the intricacies of the human soul.    
 
Dominique Perregaux began his career as a stockbroker and was consistently ranked “best stockbroker” in the Asian Markets in Switzerland. After leaving finance, Perregaux relocated to Hong Kong and opened the first contemporary art gallery there, representing well-known international artists. Six years later, he opened another gallery branch in Tokyo.
 
Perregaux was inspired to write his first novel (which is largely based on events from his own life), A Taste for Intensity, after overcoming a difficult situation and having his eyes opened to some of the most important aspects of life. Studied and lived abroad for over ten years, Perregaux is currently based in Hong Kong.
 
 

Sounds interesting, yes?? While I haven’t read it, I am intrigued by the idea of autobiographical fiction.

Here are the rules:

1) You MUST be a follower of my blog to enter. You can follow my blog itself, or follow me on Twitter (@BethsBookBlog), or be one of my personal friends/family members who connect through Facebook.

2) Leave a comment and say “hey!” and tell me how you follow me (honor system here, folks!).

3) ONE entry per person.

4) Open to US and INT’L!!

5) I will use random.org to generate the winning entry number. I will post who the winner is by Sunday, October 6. You can contact me with your mailing info, which I will send in to the publicist for your copy.