....and before I forget

Carbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd

This was an ARC I got at TLA last year.  It's been on my TBR list forever so I added to my 2010 TBR Challenge. 
I really wanted to read this one because it was told in a diary/journaling format and I'm interested in all things journaling.  I teach teens and preteens journaling so bonus points to this one for being geared towards YA.

This takes place in 2015 and global climate change has created an emergency which prompts the UK government to start carbon rationing.

The global climate has declined so precipitously that the country has made the unilateral decision to cut its carbon emissions by 60 percent. Everyone is issued a card that tracks their allowable use of carbon for the year. This limits utility usage, travel, and purchase of anything that has been transported over a distance, including food. Laura has to cope with limits to hygiene, cell phone use, and practice time with her band and listen to lectures on reducing energy consumption. Her father's job as Head of Travel and Tourism at a local college is eliminated. Freezing weather is followed by hot drought and flooding to finish off the year. Her family initially reacts badly to the strains—her parents fight, her dad starts drinking but then tries his hand at home agriculture, her mom joins the Women Moving Forward club, and her sister, Kim, disappears for days at a time and almost dies when a cholera epidemic hits the city.

I try very hard not to get into politics so I won't argue the political merits of this book but it definitely has a message.
It's a scary message aimed at the very group that will have to deal with all this pollution and carbon addiction we and our parents created.
So, all eco-political messages aside, I enjoyed this book.
Seeing all of this from the point of view of a 16 yr old, bass playing girl in a punk rock band whose family started coming undone soon after the rationing laws go into effect is very real.
As much as she tried to stay strong as the world she knew slowly collapsed around her, sometimes she would say, "But I'm just a kid!!".
I remember feeling that way as a teenager.  It use to shock me how much people expected from a young teen.  Hell, I feel that way now!  Sometimes at work I want to say, "But I'm just a kid!!".

Good book, quick read.  Not sure if I want to read the sequel that comes out this month.  It's all very depressing and makes me anxious about the future and Lord knows, I don't need anymore anxiety! 
Pass, the Xanax please!!

 

Valentine's Day

Oh you all are so jaded and cynical.
"I hate Valentine's Day. It's all so commercial."

Yes, I guess you're right. And if I weren't so fucking lazy, I'd go search through my blog and find all those entries that said the same thing. I usually said that crap when I was single.

I'm still sort of single but the older I get, the more I realize that sometimes, as women, we want just ONE DAY to feel loved and special. Ok, we want two days...our birthday AND Valentine's Day.
Is that so wrong?
Besides...if you treat us right on February 14, maybe we'll treat you right on March 14.

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino

Besides being busy and sick, this book was a CHORE to get through.

From Amazon:

Two women in their late 30s have been killed in similar fashion within a year of each other: Yuriko, a prostitute, and Kazue, a successful professional who was turning tricks on the side. They are linked by a nameless woman, older sister of the former and classmate of the latter, who lays out their histories and her own in a chillingly dispassionate, curiously defensive narrative.

This book is written in the point of view of four different people.  First the bitter older sister, then the beautiful younger sister, then the whacked out friend....just when you think you can't take anymore, you're hit with an entry from the sociopath murderer himself.
All four of these people are so severely damaged that I feel depressed after reading this book.  After the nameless woman reads the journals of both the murdered girls and the confession of the murderer, when most authors would make this into a positive turning point in the bitter hag's life, Kirino doesn't.

I have very little patience for irrational people.  So many times I wanted to say "So what you don't seem to fit into society?  Is that a reason to go selling yourself to homeless men in parking lots?".
Not one of these characters had an ounce of self realization and I suppose that was their downfall.
The main, nameless character was a dark, hateful creature.  She felt like her beautiful sister was the grotesque one because her beauty was so supernatural but SHE was the true monster and even worse because she justified her actions by blaming it on the weakness of others.

Natsuo Kirino seems to be a balls out writer.  If you think something is too graphic or unpleasant to mention in a novel, think again because she's going to mention it....often.

Although I was deeply annoyed by these pathetic characters, the author had this amazing ability to transform me into their dark, ugly world and I felt a little dirty when it was over.  That's high praise, indeed!

Sick Time Out

I've been sick with the same thing the whole world seems to be sick with.
Today I'm not running fever but still feel pretty lousy.

When I'm feeling bad like this, the last thing I want to do is read.  If I even try, I end up falling asleep or reading the same paragraph over and over.
Needless to say, Grotesque, has been neglected for a while now.


Maybe when I can breathe through BOTH nostrils, I'll feel like reading again.

We've Got Books

I knew they were there; lurking over there in the corner, mocking me.
For nearly a year now, I've ignored them because I have my own battles going but yesterday, I had to deal with them.
Of what do I speak, you ask?  Advance Reader Copies.  A huge stack of them.
Mostly, they are YA and Juvenile fiction but at one time I had all intentions of reading them.
One of them is The Underneath which ended up winning a Newbery and was a National Book Award finalist.
I need to fit that into my reading schedule for sure.
For some reason I have two copies of The Walls of Cartagena by Julie Durango.  These copies don't even have working cover art yet.  I will put the top list (pic above) on my reading list and give the rest away to my journal club kids.  They will really enjoy them!

Testing this out

I was recently lamenting the lack of iPhone apps for Blogger. Then I discovered this one.
So far so good!



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