Category: Reviews

Classic Review: I Want to Go Home!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

I just wrote about re-reading books on Friday, so it seems appropriate to highlight again the book I’ve re-read more than any other.  When I wrote this review, I guessed I’d read it fifteen times, but I think that’s a conservative estimate.  Why so many times?  It still makes me laugh!

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I’m a big believer in re-reading books, and I don’t think there’s any book I’ve read more times than I Want To Go Home by Gordon Korman.  My guess is I’ve read it fifteen times–I lost count at twelve.  Most of those times were also before the age of twelve, but I’ve reread it in recent years too, and even after all those times, it still makes me laugh.

I’ve reviewed some of Korman’s other books, about the deep metaphor of a garbage bag and a hilarious series about a boys school.  This one is another of his best.  This is a story about a summer camp for boys, held on Algonkian Island.  The story centers on Rudy Miller, who hates camp.  He’s a loner, perpetually bored, and has no interest in participating in the many sports played at camp.  His only interest is escaping–which, when you’re on an island, requires considerable planning.  Rudy does become friends with Mike Webster, a comparatively normal boy who doesn’t enjoy camp either.  Rudy has a dry wit, and is creative and intelligent–mostly using those skills to think up wild schemes for escape, dragging Mike along with him. Continue reading “Classic Review: I Want to Go Home!” →

Book Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews2 Comments

I recently read and enjoyed Holding Up the Universe.  Within that book, Libby’s favorite book was We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.  There was very little about the story mentioned, but just enough that I became intrigued enough to decide to read that book too.  And now I agree with Jack that neither he nor Libby should really be identifying with the heroine of Jackson’s book!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is about Mary Catherine, called Merricat, who lives in a grand old house with her reclusive older sister Constance and her invalid uncle.  All the rest of their family died six years previously, from poison in the sugar bowl.  Their house and grounds are Merricat’s private kingdom, safe from the hostile stares of the villagers outside.  But Merricat’s defenses are not as secure as she believes, and inevitably things begin to change.

Apart from the murderous history, there’s very little in the plot to show what a terrifyingly creepy book this is.  Although the murderous history isn’t a bad start.  There are strong echoes of Lizzie Borden.  Constance stood trial for the murder but was acquitted.  That doesn’t stop the village children from singing a rhyme about Constance, Merricat and the sugar.  That starts the horror and the strangeness of it all. Continue reading “Book Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle” →

Book Review: I’d Say Yes, God, If I Knew What You Wanted

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews3 Comments

Happy Easter Monday!  I spent a lot of the last few days at my church for Triduum services (that’s Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday), which at my church are very long but also very meaningful and inspiring events.  It seems appropriate to follow with a review of one of the spiritual books I’m reading this year: I’d Say Yes, God, If I Knew What You Wanted by Nancy Reeves.

I found this book in a fairly inspired way, if only through the sheer randomness of it.  I work in marketing for a hospice, so we have a spiritual care department.  Our chaplains were discarding some books from their shelves, and left them on the table in the communal kitchen.  I of course had to glance through a stack of free books…and since I have been known to frequently say, but how do I know what God wants?…I obviously couldn’t pass up on that title.

Sometimes good titles lead to disappointments, but this one proved all I might have hoped.  Everyone (religious) says we should follow God, but Reeves addresses the complicated question of knowing what that actually means in a way that really worked for me.  It’s not so much about moral choices (knowing you shouldn’t commit murder is pretty straight-forward) but rather about life choices.  Do I take the new job?  Do I stay friends with this difficult person?  How do I handle any particular challenge that comes up in life? Continue reading “Book Review: I’d Say Yes, God, If I Knew What You Wanted” →

Classic Review: Smile!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

On Friday I posted about authors I feel like I’ve met–but there is one other author that’s true about too, in a very different way.  Geraldine McCaughrean wrote one of my all-time favorites, The White Darkness, as well as the rare excellent sequel to a class novel, Peter Pan in Scarlet.  She also wrote Smile! a book I reviewed long ago…but I didn’t share the story of how I ended up reading it.

I wrote a letter to McCaughrean telling her about how much I loved The White Darkness, and she wrote a wonderful letter back.  It turns out that’s one of her favorites of her books and she loves when people write her about it.  I mentioned my review of the book and she checked it out, finding also my rather rhapsodic comments on Richard Morant as the voice of Titus.  So along with a letter, McCaughrean sent me a cassette tape of the audiobook of Smile! which was also read by Morant.

McCaughrean has ever since been on my list of coolest authors ever!  I still haven’t met her, but I’d love to, and I almost feel like I have, in a way.

Smile! turned out to be delightful too…as I reviewed some time ago.

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How often do you really think about a photograph?  You’ll look at photos in a whole new way if you read Smile! by Geraldine McCaughrean–or, as I did, listen to the audiobook.

Smile! is about Flash, a photographer whose small plane crashes in a remote area.  He manages to save only one camera–a simple Polaroid, with ten shots.  Flash is taken in by a primitive village, which has rarely had contact with the outside world.  As he speaks to the villagers, he realizes that none of them have ever seen a photograph.  Accepted by the villagers as “the magician who fell from the sky,” Flash must decide what to spend his ten photographs on–what sights will he preserve for the villagers? Continue reading “Classic Review: Smile!” →

Movie Review: Passengers

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews2 Comments

I recently watched Passengers with some friends, and found it utterly fascinating.  It’s gotten a lot of flack for the perception that it gives a questionable message about consent–although on a metaphorical level.  I didn’t see that at all.  In fact, I thought it raised some very interesting, complicated moral questions and invited the viewer to think them through.  Let’s get to the plot, and maybe this will make more sense!

The Avalon is a sleeper ship bound for a colony world, with crew and passengers in hibernation for the 120 year journey.  30 years in, a sleeping pod fails and one of the passengers, Jim (Chris Pratt) wakes up.  He can’t call for help, he can’t leave the ship, he can’t go back into hibernation, leaving him stranded on a luxury cruise ship alone for the next ninety years.  He really tries to cope, but ultimately can’t handle the solitude–and then he sees Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence), another passenger, and starts contemplating waking her up. He won’t be alone, but she’ll be trapped too.  When I tell you she’s played by Jennifer Lawrence you know she won’t sleep the entire movie!  So of course he wakes her up, and the rest of the story is about the fall-out of that decision.

So the apparent consent issue is about him choosing to wake her up.  And it’s true she didn’t get a say in that.  But the movie never acts like that’s okay.  That’s actually what I really liked–the movie doesn’t pass a moral judgement.  It shows the dilemma, it shows Jim’s agony that leads him to the decision…and it shows Aurora’s agony as a result.  It shows the truth of the situation and lets the viewer think about it. Continue reading “Movie Review: Passengers” →