The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Title: The Emerald City of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Pages: 295

Finished: June 28, 2017

First Sentence: The Nome King was in an angry mood, and at such times he was very disagreeable.

Summary: The Nome King vows to exact revenge on Ozma and Dorothy. With the help of the horrible Whimsies, Phantasms, and Grollywogs, he marches to Oz through a tunnel under the desert in order to raze the land and enslave the people. At the same time, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are having financial issues. Dorothy asks Ozma if they can come live in Oz, and upon their arrival, the trio along with some other friends travel through Oz to see the merry people who live there.

Thoughts: I like learning about Oz. Sure it's fantastical, but I enjoy it. I far prefer his places to his characters. However, I do wish we could get more in depth. Perhaps that's the issue with it being a children's story. I did think Dorothy was out of line in Bunberry. I feel like there was a continuity error that I had flagged, but I never wrote it down. Overall, I enjoyed this one in the series. It's worth noting, Baum wrote this with the intention of it being his last one. Obviously that's not what ended up happening. Read for the Wizard of Oz readalong.

All Rise For the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor

Title: All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook

Author: Leslie Connor

Pages: 378

Finished: June 22, 2017

First Sentence: Big Ed is about to tell it again.

Summary: Eleven-year-old Perry T. Cook lives in the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility. He's committed no crime; he's merely the son of one of the inmates. Everyone in town turns a blind eye to it with the exception of one new DA, Mr. VanLeer. Mr. VanLeer is not only convinced that Perry is living a horrible life, but that his mother's parole plea is now void because of the circumstances. So suddenly, Perry finds himself on the outside, unsure of when he and his mother will be together again.

Thoughts: Very inspiring. Perry has a lot of love in his heart and appreciates all people. He's learned some very mature lessons from living in the prison. I appreciated seeing the residents get released and move on with their lives. VanLeer was a bit hard to stomach. He's clearly one of those people who wants to make the world right, but still looks at it through his very strong prejudices and his very strong privilege. I wonder how Zoey's mom ever fell for him because they don't seem to agree on a whole lot. Read for the Rebecca Caudill Challenge

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

Title: The Wild Robot

Author: Peter Brown

Pages: 269

Finished: June 19, 2017

First Sentence: Our story begins on the ocean, with wind and rain and thunder and lightning and waves.

Summary: When a storm sweeps a number of boxes off a cargo ship, one lands safely on an island. This crate contains a Rozzum unit. Curious otters accidentally turn the robot on, and we get to meet Roz. Roz finds herself alone on an island full of mistrusting animals. It takes a while, but she eventually wins them over as she adopts an orphan gosling and keeps as many animals alive as possible.

Thoughts: I liked this more than I expected. A great work of speculative fiction for middle grades set in an undetermined future when the oceans have risen and humans use robots for many tasks. Roz is a lovely character who seems to learn quite a bit over time. Overall I loved the story. I wasn't a fan of the stylistic choice to make the chapters so short. Otherwise, I would recommend this to just about any middle grade kid. Read for the Bluestem challenge.

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

Title: Fathers and Sons

Author: Ivan Turgenev

Pages: 215

Finished: June 15, 2017

First Sentence: "Well, Petr, no sight of him yet?" asked a gentleman about forty years old wearing a short, dusty coat and checkered trousers, standing hatless on the low steps of an inn on the *** road.

Summary: Would you rather a summary of plot points or themes? It's a whole lot of Arkadii and Bazarov traveling around an area of Russia, pissing off the older generation, and disagreeing with each other as they try to deal with their own views of the world.

Thoughts: This was my first ever foray into Russian literature. The first 50 or so pages of the book were fascinating to me as the arguments between Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich echoed arguments I've heard between Millennials and Baby Boomers (or really, our arguments echo theirs). Even though I don't agree with nihilism, I found the constant lamentation of the younger generation and the frustration with the older generation very interesting.

When the book turned to Arkadii straying from the path of nihilism and Bazarov trying to control his feelings in order to keep on the path of nihilism, I started getting bored.

In general, I hated the way Bazarov treated both his hosts and his parents. I understand rebelling from your parents, but I hate it when people treat their families with so little respect. (I have the same issue with Rose Tyler in Doctor Who.) I had a difficult time connecting with any of the characters, though I found myself feeling bad for the anyone who had to deal with Bazarov. He was too obnoxious.

As an introduction to Russian Literature, this was not exactly great.

Read for Back to the Classics Challenge 2017

Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova

Title: Awkward

Author: Svetlana Chmakova

Pages: 210

Finished: June 12, 2017

First Sentence: Okay, so when you've just moved to a new town adn are still a total outsider... this... is not the best way to start life at our new school.

Summary: Penelope, or Peppi for short, finds herself haunted from an incident that happened on her first day at school where she tripped, and then pushed the kid who tried to help her in order to avoid bullies. Peppi has also joined the art club which just so happens to be in a not so friendly competition with the science club. When Peppi's science teacher assigns her a tutor for her science homework, she reconnects with the boy from her first day, and learns that science and art can work together.

Thoughts: Easy read, though I don't understand how the various clubs had so much freedom to do what they pleased in the school? Perhaps I wasn't in the right clubs. Band was always supervised. Anyway, a very typical middle school book about standing up for yourself and finding yourself. Standing up for others. Feeling like an outcast. Etc. Etc.

Read for the Caudill Challenge.

Soar by Joan Bauer

Title: Soar

Author: Joan Bauer

Pages: 320

Finished: 6/6/17

First Sentence: I'm almost twelve years old; that's what the doctors think.

Summary: (from goodreads) Jeremiah is the world’s biggest baseball fan. He really loves baseball and he knows just about everything there is to know about his favorite sport. So when he’s told he can’t play baseball following an operation on his heart, Jeremiah decides he’ll do the next best thing and become a coach.

Hillcrest, where Jeremiah and his father Walt have just moved, is a town known for its championship baseball team. But Jeremiah finds the town caught up in a scandal and about ready to give up on baseball. It’s up to Jeremiah and his can-do spirit to get the town – and the team – back in the game.

Thoughts: It's your standard feel good story about a kid being saved by the sport he loves. Which yay? But as a music kid who spent her entire music career watching the athletes get all the glory even when they lost while no one in the arts got any recognition, I found myself annoyed and bored. 

Read for the Bluestem Challenge

Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum

Title: The Road to Oz

Author: L Frank Baum

Pages: 261ish

Finished: 6/2/17

First Sentence: "Please, miss," said the Shaggy Man, "Can you tell me the road to Butterfield?"

Summary: When the Shaggy Man asks Dorothy how to get to Butterfield, they end up on a fantastical journey through various fairy countries until they reach the world of Oz. On the way they meet such people as Button Bright who doesn't live up to his name, Polychrome who's a daughter of the rainbow, and all sorts of other creatures. Once they arrive, they discover it's Ozma's birthday and they have a lovely celebration.

Thoughts: I'm finding my biggest issue is I care more about the lands that Dorothy visits and want to know more about them. But we got so little time in each visit. Baum seems more interested in his characters, yet the characters are all rather one dimensional. I did some further reading and found that many of the characters introduced in this novel are from some of his other fantasy books that weren't selling as well. He was hoping that by putting them in Oz, they'd get more attention. It seems the world only wants Oz. 

No real continuity issues here that I remember.

Read for the Wizard of Oz Read-a-long.

June Reads

Before we move onto what I'm reading for June, I have to say, the month of May was tough. I read Gone With the Wind and it took me the entire month to read. Hopefully this upcoming month goes a bit better. My classic for the month is a bit shorter (though I have to get through two to stay on track).

Picture coming soon

1. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev - Back to the Classics

2. The Road to Oz by L Frank Baum - Wizard of Oz

3. The Emerald City of Oz by L Frank Baum - Wizard of Oz

4. Bluestem book TBD - Bluestem Challenge

5. Bluestem book TBD - Bluestem Challenge

6. Caudill book TBD - Caudill Challenge

7. Caudill book TBD - Caudill Challenge

8. Classic novel TBD - Back to the Classics.

Fathers and Sons is shorter, so hopefully I'll get through it within a week. I'm hoping to average two days each for the Oz books as well as the Bluestem and Caudills. Typically I save them for the weekends. For my second classic, I'm thinking about reading The Odyssey. My parents and I are discussing the classics I'm reading, but I know they're not very interested in the Odyssey, so this might be how we get around that. 

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Title: Gone With the Wind

Author: Margaret Mitchell

Pages: 1037

Finished: 5/30/17

First Sentence: Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.

Summary: Gone With the Wind follows the life of Scarlett O'Hara as she goes from being the belle of the county in Georgia when times were carefree, to a widow during the Civil War, to a hard business women during Reconstruction. It's also a love story about her and Rhett Butler, though it takes 1000 pages for Scarlett to realize it. Also, I'm terrible at writing summaries. Google will give you much better ones.

Thoughts:  Woof! That was a read. It took me over a month. I think Mitchell took a gamble when she made Scarlett her main character. Now to be fair, I actually didn't mind Scarlett that much through most of the book. Sure she was selfish and a bit of an idiot, but she did her best to survive when times were tough. And once she got to the point where she was surviving, she had a hard time giving it up. I don't like how she treated her kids, but I felt like she was a woman in the wrong time. When she married Rhett though, I lost all respect for her.

I don't understand why Scarlett and Rhett spent their entire relationship barbing each other. Or, I get it on Rhett's side. He knew if he ever admitted his love to Scarlett she'd have complete power over him. But I don't understand Scarlett. She clearly had no idea how to read people. The fact that she was wrong so much of the time was incredible.

I found it interesting reading the book with 21st century ideals and a Northerner's perspective. It felt like the antebellum south was a definite history with rosy glasses/romanticized version of what The South as perhaps really like. Still, as a piece of historical fiction, it was very fascinating. And while I remember learning of the Reconstruction in school, I don't remember them talking about just how difficult it was for the former Confederates.

This book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and counts for my Award Winning Book in the Back to the Classics Challenge