MIss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

why: Ms. Maytum (my student teacher) suggested this one

when: 12/2/13-12/4/13

how: I read the hard copy that Ms. Maytum let me borrow.

thoughts: I just discovered this will be a 2015 film directed by Tim Burton. Fun! One review I saw said that this was the next Harry Potter type adventure. I don't agree so much. This book can stand all by itself in its own class. What was cool is that it seemed everything was normal in the world of this book until it just wasn't normal anymore. Surprising. Mind bending in some ways. There is a sequel in the works but I'm not sure I'll read it. And I was somewhat surprised that yet again another book comes to me carrying with it WWII and the holocaust AND carnies. These topics keep coming up in books I pick up. Not sure what that's all about.

Click on the book image to learn more about the book.

review haiku:
peculiar children:
see the levitating girl
she's real I kid you not

Joyland by Stephen King

why: This one is just for fun. I haven't read King in ages and a colleague posted a link about it in Facebook so I thought I would check it out. 

when: start 7/6, end 7/8

how: I had to read this one in paperback. For some reason, King is not permitting ebook copies of this. This confuses me because King has been a huge proponent of ebooks and ereaders. Whereas I loved seeing the book sitting around the house, I remembered how much I prefer reading on my ipad just for the simple physicality of holding a book vs. having the ipad propped up somewhere and reading on it. 

thoughts: This was a fun read. It certainly doesn't achieve the psychological depth of some of King's work (like The Shining, for instance), but I'm pretty sure it's not about that anyhow. This is a fun summer read set in a fun and campy amusement park in the summer. There is a mystery in the middle of this book and a ghost too, but what takes center stage really is the world that this book throws you into--a world inhabited by carnies. Loved it. 

Click on the book image to read a review of the book from the NYTimes.

review haiku:

a murder mystery?

kind of. Moreso a trip to

carny world. Enjoy!

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

why: because I've always thought I needed to read a novel called Geek Love

when: start 5/31, end 6/28

how: as an ebook on my ipad

thoughts: I assumed this novel was about love between geeks, you know, something like this:

or something like this:

But nope. That's not what this refers to. I did not know about one definition of "geek" (see #3 below): 

geek [geek]
noun Slang.

1. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used byoutsiders.)
2. a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who isperceived to be overly intellectual.
3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, like biting off the head of a live chicken.

This is turning out to be the summer of the carnies for me, since I'm also planning to read this once it comes out on June 4 (it's been a while since I've read any Stephen King).

This book was trippy for sure--and I kind of loved it. I kept pondering the whole time what love meant ultimately in the context of this family. People went to great lengths in this family to protect the oddities that really made them who they were and they work that they did in their lives because of those oddities.

But I do wish the book didn't end before the reader got to see how Miranda responded to learning the truth about her heritage and learning why she has a tail...

Click on the book image to get to the wikipedia entry for Geek Love.

review haiku:
geeks are not just nerds
think old-timey carnivals
where geeks love fiercely