Pinned: the ultimate cop-out (spoiler alert!)

I'd seen the book "Pinned"(by Alfred C. Martino) sitting on the library bookshelves for the last few years and I finally decided to check it out for summer break for a handful of reasons: 1. there's a perception, particularly among boys, that reading isn't cool and I felt compelled to find some guy-lit that was solid. 2. I probably relate more closely with boys/ young men and the subject matter in "guy-lit" because of my love for competition and adventure and my extreme distaste for romance novels 3. a family friend (my sister's boyfriend & one of my college friends) recently put together a documentary by the same name as this novel and I was curious if there was any overlap between his movie and the novel (the only overlap is that both stories primarily follow two teenage wrestlers- but the movie deviates is a totally different style & genre than the book). 4. Lastly, I needed a book that would kick my athletic competitiveness into overdrive because I was preparing to run a 5k in my old hometown and I wanted to push myself that extra bit.

Did "Pinned" satisfy all of these desires? Yes. Except, that I'm not sure how strongly I would recommend the book because of the unsatisfying end (at least to me). However, it did push me to be competitive and push my training, it allowed me to see how much it overlapped with my friend's movie and it gave me at least another book to possibly suggest or even simply know as my students look for suggestions and put together projects based on novels they chose.

"Pinned" follows the senior years of two wrestlers: Bobby Zane and Ivan Korske. The chapters bounce back and forth between the two wrestlers and their conflicts.

Bobby Zane is a rich white boy whose parents are constantly arguing. Bobby is in love with a Portuguese-American girl name Carmelina. Bobby is straight laced but hormone-driven. He's almost always a cool customer, except for when he feels that his parents are messing with his and his little brother's lives or when Carmelina misses her period. Bobby trains hard while at practice and he counts his calories and fluid intake to the point of absurdity- which made me wonder about whether or not I'd recommend this novel to teens because the main characters do some dangerous things (starving, going without fluids, extreme sweating, using diuretics) all in the name of working for a state title and without repercussions. All of this is semi-supported by Bobby's hard-pushing, but loving father.

Ivan Korske is a real contrast for Bobby in that Bobby looks like a spoiled brat next to Ivan's self-lessness (at least at times). Ivan lives with his soft-spoken, widower father. Ivan and his father are still raw from the mother's recent death. Ivan sees wrestling as his ticket out of town and through college. However, Ivan's father wants Ivan to stay in the area and Ivan's good female-friend Shelley also wants him to stay- mostly so that the two can pursue a relationship that involves more than studying together.

I really enjoyed the two boys' stories and conflicts. It was refreshing to find very solid conflicts and some resolutions to each of these conflicts. However, I was left disappointed with the ending in that the author didn't seem to have the guts to pick a clear winner in the state title. The open-endedness leaves possibilities (especially now that I think about it for teaching purposes), but it also felt like a cop-out and it made me think that the author had simply tired of the story or he just couldn't pull the trigger. Would I recommend the book for sheer reading pleasure? Not necessarily. Would I use the book as a teaching tool with teens? Yes, but only if the teens had an adult-led discussion because there's some great potential for the reader to interpret some very harmful practices as being acceptable or even positive and these issues DEFINITELY need to be addressed. With the proper guidance, it'd be a good book to encourage critical thinking skills, but left unaddressed it could plant some dangerous ideas.

Selective Reading: The Edible Front Yard

Because I recently moved, I got the pleasure of getting a new library card in my new hometown. I was pretty excited at the prospects, even if it meant I was only temporarily allowed to take out two books until my card showed up in the mail. Once the card showed up, eureka, I could get out 50 at a time. Talk about serious reading time. Before I've gotten myself into too much trouble with getting out 50 at once, I chose "The Edible Front Yard" as one of my two first items to borrow. I'm becoming a little bit of a gardening freak so this book was a perfect fit.

I was particularly excited about the book because I find myself obsessively shopping for small houses online since my husband and I are still in the renting phase of our lives. I hate the idea of maintaining a lawn by mowing (which is a total waste of gas and time). But, I do enjoy growing veggies and fruit trees. I'm all about the practical, so this book seemed like it was just what I needed to feed my obsession. Ivette Soler fed my imagination more than she actually fed my mind with this book. I guess I probably got more out of the concept of the book than the actual content.

Much of the book is set aside for talking about the various types of veggies and herbs to grow and how they function. I was excited by the section on actually designing the front yard, but I was sorely disappointed when I found that there were only 3 plans laid out as examples. Much of the advice given was pretty basic and mostly common sense: check with your local building codes & call before you dig. As well, the discussion of irrigation systems was definitely lacking. Soler basically mentioned irrigation systems as a useful thing but then didn't explain the best methods for putting together these systems- while she does describe lots of other "crafty" types of projects for the front garden.

I did find it helpful to see the best methods for actually destroying the front lawn's grass and the few examples designs were interesting to see and I would have like to see at least 7 more of these (rounding out the examples at an even 10).

Also, Soler does mention that plants native to the planting area should be used and avoids getting very specific on this topic- even for her native state of California. Am I disappointed that I took the time to flip through the book and read selectively? No. But, I'm glad I didn't buy the book since I felt like I'd read the whole 200 page book within an hour. The more I think about it, this book is probably best used as a coffee table book because it has an abundance of lovely pictures and just enough info. to tease the reader a bit, but not allow the reader to get too cozy. It makes me want to write a book or two since it seems like any noob can do it but it does make me a bit interested in her blog to see what all she covers.

Just another zombie story? The Walking Dead Volume 1 (Spoiler Alert)

After a serious dose of reality from Trump & Kiyosaki's "We Want You to be Rich", I was ready for something short and trashy. I found it with the 1st volume of the graphic novel "The Walking Dead" by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. My husband, who is my zombie enabler, bought me the 1st volume when he was popping in to our local comic book store.

I flew through the novel in just under two hours, but then again there wasn't an abundance of text for me to consume. Instead the focal point was the graphic quality. The novel is totally in gray scale and I'd heard from my husband that his "dealer" had told him that this had to do with the explicit content of zombies eating flesh and it all being shown. The graphic novel was roughly 100 pages or so, but I'm not really sure because the pages weren't numbered. All I know is that the $10 cost for merely 2 hours of entertainment seemed a bit steep. I'm not even at a stage in my life where 2 hours of Harry Potter could be justified as costing $10. What concerned me about the price was not the fact that I couldn't afford $10, but the fact that this booklet was the first in a series-- which made me feel that the story was being milked for all it was worth-- which indicated a more serious committment if I chose to continue the series.

The story itself was simple: Rick wakes up from a coma. He's a police officer who's been shot and forgotten in a hospital while zombies have taken over. Rick stumbles back to reality, gets enough information that he packs up his police gear and heads south in attempt to find his family. He gets rescued by a looter and the looter named Glenn takes him to the makeshift camp with a rag tag group of travellers. At the camp Rick is reunited with his wife and child and one of his buddies from the force and meets several new faces.

Rick and his buddy, Shane, are at odds because the brawny buddy has already fallen for Rick's wife and apparently the wife and Shane hooked up during a trying time. Mind you, Rick was only in a coma for a month and a few days passed between waking up and finding his family. Rick suggests that the camp begin to prepare for winter by moving to a more secure area away from the city and that all of the camp members need to learn how to shoot. Shane doesn't want to leave the camp's spot but he goes along with teaching all the members of the camp how to shoot- including Rick's young child named Carl.

The camp gets attacked by a small mob of zombies and two of the camp members are sacrificed, but Carl proves himself as valuable by saving his mother's life. Shortly hereafter tensions culminate to the point that Rick and Shane have a shouting match and it comes out the Shane is in love with Rick's wife, Lori. Shane aims his shotgun at Rick, while shouting about how Rick has ruined his life and Carl, Rick's young son, shoots and kills Shane.

While I'm looking for another zombie addiction, I don't think the Walking Dead series will be my new addiction. While I enjoyed the images and the brief amount of story, I just can't justify the bang for the buck. I feel a bit cheated. That being said, I've found myself reading a bit of non-fiction again so that I don't feel so used.

Needed Inspiration: Why We Want You To Be Rich

I found a copy of "Why We Want You to be Rich" at Kroger in the bargain bin. I'm not usually about reading get rich schemes but I was curious because the book was written by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. I didn't know who Robert Kiyosaki was until a started to read the book and then I realized that I had heard of "Rich Dad Poor Dad". Nonetheless, I was intriqued by the book because I wanted to learn a bit more about Donald Trump since he's so controversial. And I like a good controversy.

I was amazed at the rate in which the book sucked me in because Trump and Kiyosaki took turns telling about their backgrounds as well as how they made their fortunes. Overall I found the book extremely inspirational and not just inspirational in the money making sense, but they did get my brain thinking even more about business ventures and investing. While I'd found I had a bit of curiousity about investing and especially realestate, T & K were good resources for giving lots of other books and authors to seek out. Of course they pluggeed their own products quite a bit, but I guess I expected some degree of that because obviously they know how to market and sell.

The pieces I took away were unique in that T& K suggested to stop taking the advice of "professional investors" because of the lack of training most investors actually have. Instead they suggested people do their own reasearch on investing and that basically simply diversifying in mutual funds was to "protect" investors from ignorance- whether it be their own or their investor's. They pointed to their investments in real estate, oil, gold & silver as having been the most productive- because these were long term investments and basically, the more politicians don't work together, the more the price of gold goes up (which just happened this last week with the debt talks & gold hitting an all-time high), even though this book was published four years ago.

More than anything, Trump & Kiyosaki suggested further educating oneself and simply being willing to make a commitment to educating oneself about finances through reading & college classes (suggested areas: business law & accounting). Another main theme was simply finding what you love to do first and then consistently working at this. However T & K don't recommend that everyone go it alone and become entrepreneurs because some people would simply rather have a steady income rather than have the freedom of working for oneself & simply enough, some people just aren't cut out for it. T& K pushed determination & perserverence with kindness, but without naivette. They were realistic in that people would try to take advantage of anyone willing to simply handover money (whether for investments or other business deals) and this is where their desire to show the reader the amount of hard work it takes comes in.

I also found it interesting that they didn't push scrimping and saving, but instead they pushed finding what makes one happy, pursuing it whole heartedly and investing in educating oneself, and then enjoying the money as it came in and reinvesting it in order to expand one's means.

T & K's appproach won't work for everyone, but it will work for the few willing to put in the time and those willing to be bold in going after their dreams. This book would be good for anyone looking for motivation to go out and do something great- business or non-business related.

Worth the hype: Water for Elephants

We all know that I'm a bit of a grouch when it comes to finding good reading. Either that, or I just know what I like. I'm not sure which just yet, but I do know that I absolutely loved Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I was just so flabbergasted to have found a read that I thoroughly enjoyed that I was speechless for a whole 24 hrs as to what to write about it.

First off, the cover of the book is misleading; there is NOT a "mute heroine" unless you consider an elephant a heroine-- which, I guess, is possible. Secondly, the story didn't take any unexpected twists of turns, except the very end, which was a bit refreshing because the story wasn't so convoluted that the reader couldn't keep up (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo did this a little).

Instead, the protagonist is the young (and old) Jacob Jankowski and it is told simultaneously from his 20 year old self and his 93 year old self. This works in that the author uses the 93 year old's happenings as a springboard to reflect on the 20 year old's time in the circus.

What I particularly enjoyed about the book was the grittiness and the absolute filth. The author described the sights and smells in such a way that I could picture each animal in the menagerie and the worker to accompany it. She also mentioned such things as public fornication and masturbation in such a way that she showed she was willing to go the distance to show the honesty of the protagonist. As well, she showed the many sides of any one character-- which made the characters round and interesting-- rather than simply casting "good guy" and "bad guy".

I have not yet seen the movie based on the book, but because of my sheer enjoyment for the book and the richness of the characters, I can't help but be intrigued at how the director may have interpreted this characters and depicted them on the screen.

Walter Dean Myers is "Bad Boy"

I must admit that I've recently been sucked into the tv series Dexter and I feel that right now many stories will simply pale in comparison to the storyline of this show. My husband and I have been compulsively watching it over the past three weeks and was thrilled to see it based on a book: Darkly Dreaming Dexter. This may need to make it onto my list once I make it through my summer stack. With this said, I have been reading when I haven't been recovering from my daily distance running...

I picked up this biography by Walter Dean Myers because he's written a few books I absolutely loved: Fallen Angels and Monster. Both won numerous awards for YA lit. Myers' biography is a mere 205 pages. Above all it's packed full of his love for reading and writing.

Myers recounts his shaky school history and his history of fighting and sports addiction. While I appreciated his attempts to connect with troubled youth and aspiring writers, I felt that his book was speaking to two disconnected audiences. His first audience is the troubled youth, who gets into fights, skips schools but still manages to have parents who care. His second audience is for those who love reading. While he attempts to combine these audiences, it seems that he perceives them as disconnected. The conflict of the book is just this: his struggle with being a troubled but bright youth who enjoys reading. It's funny, but I feel like he should have written "the First part Last" because of his self descriptions.

While there are numerous authors from backgrounds different than my own that I've been able to connect with, I had a hard time connecting with "Bad Boy." I'm an avid reader and I have definitely found myself less than pleased with school, and at times I found myself doing reckless things just because I could. And yet, I felt disconnected. It seemed that he was telling the story from some perspective outside of himself which relied on dates and facts more than emotions and memories.

Like most people, I too, have struggled with identity. And I feel that most of us have. Have I struggled with racial issues during the time of civil rights? No, but I've read other authors who have similarly toiled and been able to continue to relate to the reader. Audre Lorde, James Baldwin and Sherman Alexie all come to mind.

There were many points in the book when I felt like Myers was recounting many of the books he read and too much about the books he read. It made the story feel cataloged. While I, too, have enjoyed reading, I can't say that I could remember the exact book I was reading at a particular time for more than 5 times in my life, yet Myers does this about 20 times. It gets a bit cumbersome because the books aren't meaningful to his overall struggle- which is reconciling being a bright, but trouble black youth, who is emerging as a writer, when writing was not an option as a career.

I'd give Myers a "C" for his work because I felt that it fell flat as far as passion and humor, particularly based on the work I've previously read by him. I'm not judging his life, but I just felt that something about the book did not compel me to continue to read. For being such a short book, it took me nearly a week to push myself to sit down and just read it.