Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Going Bovine is the story of  Cameron,  a teen who is dying of Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease (also known as mad cow disease) which is turning his brain into spongecake. After diagnosis, Cameron is confined to his hospital bed as he becomes more and more ill and delirious.  After Cam “sees” a beautiful pink haired angel, who “tells” him to find Dr. X who will save Cameron AND also save the world, Cam “takes off” (or maybe he doesn’t) with his hospital roommate, Gonzo, a  dwarf teen hypochondriac. Traveling through New Orleans and meeting a famous (dead) musician, staying with an “everybody is happy” religious cult, rescuing a lawn gnome/Viking god from frat boys and other ne’er-do-wells, and spring break partying in Daytona are all detours on their journey. It’s a Don Quixote trip through Wonderland.

funny, sad, touching, and a bit confusing. Bray blurs the lines between reality and fantasy–was Gonzo ever truly real? or just a figment of Cam’s hallucinations?  Bray captures the teenage boy’s mind and language–his desperate wish survive, to be brave, and  to be loved. Even if at first you see him as just a typical teen slacker, you’ll enjoy his hero’s journey into manhood.

Thumbs Up.

2010 Printz honor book.

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp

Punkzilla, by Adam Rapp, is a cross country roadtrip told in unmailed letters. Punkzilla (or Jamie), a runaway 14 year street kid who’s been squatting in Portland Oregon and surviving my stealing I-Pods, tries to make his way across the country to see his dying older brother. Riding Greyhound buses until he’s beaten up in a bathroom and left behind, Punkz relies on the kindness or weirdness of strangers as he struggles to get to Memphis.

Not an upbeat novel, Punkzilla portrays the realities of street life for teens who have no way to survive short of theft or prostitution.  Road life means risking  even more with no friends to fall back on. Despite his forays into mugging and theft, Punkz is a compelling character, who is trying to manage as best as he can.

It took me a while to read this book. I put it down shortly after I began it because I was thinking that I didn’t want to read yet another dark, edgy YA book about drugs, crime, and homelessness.  I’m glad that I picked it back up again. I grew to really like Punkz.

probably too much sex, drugs and violence for MS readers.  Punkzilla is a 2010 Printz Honor Book.

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

Oh my I do loves me some Neil Gaiman. Way back when, I enjoyed listening to his Newbury Award winning juvenile novel, The Graveyard Book, and now I’ve also loved listening to him read his book for adults, Stardust.

In Stardust, Tristran Thorn falls in love with the prettiest girl in his town of Wall and promises to bring her a falling star if she then will marry him. Unbeknown to Tristran, he is able to journey into Faerie because his is part fairy himself.   A classic hero’s journey thus begins.

A great fairy tale, and suitable as a read aloud for kids of all ages. Gaiman does a great job narrating too.

THUMBS UP.

Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

I listened to Unwind by Neal Shusterman, while doing my usual walking, driving and messing around house and garden–and I loved the book (although I do wonder how it would read–not all great “listens” are great reading, of course).

In the Unwind world, troublesome teens between the ages of 13 and 18 can be sent to be “unwound,” (or retroactively aborted) if and only if all of their parts will be harvested for transplanting. Connor is about to be unwound because he is a difficult teen, Risa faces unwinding because she is not talented enough to be taken care of in a state orphanage anymore, and Lev is a “tithe”–a child told from birth by his religious parents that his life mission is to sacrifice his life for others.  The three kids are thrown together by chance and struggle to find a place to survive their teen years.

Where did Shusterman come up with this plot idea?  Amazing. The plot moves along with enough twists and turns to keep you engaged.

TWO THUMBS UP.  Highly recommended.

Tales of a Madman Underground by John Barnes

Tales of a Madman Underground (An Historical Romance 1973) is a wonderful novel.

Protagonist, Karl Shoemaker, just wants his senior year in high school to be normal. He especially wants out of in-school therapy  (the Madman Underground) and into the mainstream. He wants his drunk mother to sober up and stop stealing his money. He wants the many cats living in his house to stop pooping on his bed. He wants to get laid and to join the army and to get as far away as possible from his small Ohio town. Not much to ask for a kid who works at least 5 jobs a week and manages to survive honors classes as well.

In trying to be normal, Karl risks losing his friendships with the other Madman Underground members–his only real friends.

Heartbreaking, hilarious, a joy to read. A 2010 Printz Honor Book. TWO THUMBS WAY UP.

Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met by Hao Jiang Tian with Lois B. Morris

Fascinating biography of a world class opera singer. Raised in Communist China by parents who were both military officers and musicians, and coming of age during the Cultural Revolution, he didn’t discover his singing talent until he was in his twenties. After struggling  for survival in China and determined to work harder than anyone else to realize his musical dreams, Tian is an inspiration.

First person narratives about life under Mao are fascinating–what a nightmare for a people to live through.

I did wish that Tian had found a different co-writer. I didn’t think that Ms Morris’s style did justice to the narrative.

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

My first read of Baker and her first book in “the Company” series. In the Garden of Iden introduces us to Mendoza, a child rescued from the Inquisitors by time traveling immortals from the future. Wow, what a plot line. Anyway, after being surgically transformed into a cyborg and highly trained as a botanist, Mendoza is sent  on her first mission to Renaissance England to save one plant  (with powerful medicinal qualities) from extinction. Well, she is young and soon falls in love with a mortal….. and thus  the plot thickens.

Great story (I’m glad that I don’t have to live in pre-Elizabethan England, btw)–although I found it easy to put down, I did keep picking it up again, and by the time I had finished it, I had ordered the next two books in the series.

A Fine and Bitter Snow by Dana Stabenow

According to Publishers Weekly (via Amazon), this is the 12th book of Stabenow’s set in the outback of Alaska. I’ve listened to the first three chapters, and to tell the truth, I feel like Stabenow is treading water (or perhaps making snow angels, rather than moving the plot forward). Perhaps I need to read the books in order, for I’m finding the protagonist, Kate, to be unaccountably bitchy, and so far the rest of the characters are stagnant.

I feel like I’ve wasted time putting the disks on my ipod, and I’m sure that I won’t be listening anymore. Stabenow’s mystery (whenever it begins) has not passed my 30 page rule–if I’m not into it within 30 pages, I will send it back to the libe unfinished.

Marker by Robin Cook

Another in a long series of listen-while-you-walk CDs, Marker is a 2006 medical thriller (apparently his 25th in a series) by Robin Cook. Medical examiner Laurie Montgomery has a hunch that a serial killer is at work in one of Manhattan’s hospitals, but neither the hospital nor her supervisors in the ME office are willing to listen to her.  Add to the thriller plot a failing romance with a fellow ME who resists making commitments, and a new love interest–a not totally forthcoming administrative doc at the above mentioned hospital.  Laurie’s discovery that she is carrying the BRCA1 gene–a  mutation that increases a her chance of developing breast  cancer–adds an emotional charge to the narrative (tho, I think it is diversionary rather than necessary to moving the plot forward).

Speaking of the BRCA1 gene, I just read that a NY court is being asked to decide if this particular human gene can be patented. (http://jonathanturley.org/2010/02/05/new-york-court-to-decide-whether-human-genes-can-be-patented/#more-20096). So wait, patent a human gene? So if I have this marker, do I have to pay????? sheesh.

Anyway, I don’t think I’d spend my time reading Cook’s books, but they make great accompaniment for driving, walking and vacuuming (and gardening, if it weren’t raining so much).

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Ahh, I’m not sure that I want to read any more dystopian fiction. Atwoods’s novel pictures a lost world in which genetic engineering, a society totally divided between haves and have-nots, and climate change have changed the face of the world and its inhabitants. Snowman (formerly called Jimmy), seemingly the last surviving natural human being, retells his story of the end of the world as we know it–how his brilliant, magnetic friend, Crake creates a new type of quasi human designed to survive the coming cataclysm.

Depressing? yes. Disturbing? yes. A great read? yes. Recommended? I gotta think about it. Definitely not for everyone.

ONE THUMB UP