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Stumbling on Happiness (2006), Daniel Gilbert

I read this book because I wanted to join a book club, and this was the next book on the list.  Stumbling on Happiness was billed as a Freakonomics-type book that would enlighten me to how the brain works.  Wrong.  Though Daniel Gilbert has a great sense of humor, and is able to synthesize complex psychological studies into laymen's terms, I just couldn't get into this book.  There were a few interesting segments about perception of happiness and how humans are the only species that think about the future - but for the most part, I found that Gilbert rambled on and on and gave way to many examples for each topic.  Skip this one.

I did get a new favorite quote though: "If we adhere to the standards of perfection in all of our endeavors, we are left with nothing but mathematics and the White Album."  Daniel Gilbert - how did you know that I love both math and the Beatles?!

Daniel Gilbert is a professor at Harvard - with his humor, I bet his classes are a blast!

Messenger (2004), Lois Lowry

[Fall, 2010]
I really enjoyed this book.  It took a few chapters to get into the plot and get a feel for the characters, but as soon as that happened - I was hooked!  The main character, Matty, lives in a utopian society called Village.  He lives with an old blind man who goes by the name Seer.  Most of the adults go by the names of their jobs - the teacher is called "Mentor" and the mayor is called "Leader."  You get the sense that something is going amiss in Village - people are starting to become angry with one another, and the community seems to be falling apart.

Outside, Village is surrounded by a forest, which is called Forest.  Forest does not like to have people enter; it often leaves people with "warnings" like a scrape or a thorn prick.  These warnings become more intense and hurtful as you get deeper into the book.  However, Forest does not mind when Matty enters, so Matty is often the person who is sent to other villages on the other side of Forest.

Seer's daughter, Kira, lives in a village on the other side of Forest.  Leader asks Matty to go on a mission to bring Kira back through Forest, but Forest does not want this to happen.  Kira and Matty have special powers that help them to overcome obstacles that they face in Forest - but will they make it to the other side back to Village?  What will happen to the other villagers?  Will the negative energy that is overcoming the citizens be overcome, or will it just get worse?  Those are questions you will have to find out for yourself!

This is a very good read - just make sure to stick through the first few slow chapters!

A Year Down Yonder (2000), Richard Peck

[January, 2011]
I loved A Long Way from Chicago so much, I just had to read the sequel A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck!

It's now 1937 - the Great Depression is over, but there is now a recession that has rocked the Dowdel family.  Once again, Mary Alice's parents send her to stay with Grandma Dowdel.  This time, instead of just staying for the summer, Mary Alice stays for the entire year and has to go to school in a one-room school house.  Quite a change from her Chicago lifestyle!  Her brother Joe is now older and on his own, working for the Civilian Conservation Corps planting trees in the western part of the country.

There are eight short stories of tales of life in a small Illinois town.  Halloween tricks and treats, Christmas traditions and surprises, Valentine's Day cherry tarts, and young love.  All are told by Mary Alice, who we didn't get to know very well in A Long Way from Chicago, but we see bloom in these stories.

I can't get enough of Grandma Dowdel!  I want to read the final book in this series, A Season of Gifts, but I'm worried that I'll miss the characters too much when that book is finished!

Hoot (2002), Carl Hiaasen

[January, 2011]
Roy just moved to Florida, and he hates it.  On the way to his first day of school, he get's beat up by a meat-head bully.  Urgh.  Nothing's going his way.  He did notice an unusual sight though - a boy, about his age, running by the bus stop...in bare feet!  Who was that boy?  And why was he barefoot?

Roy eventually realizes that the building site of the new "Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House" is actually on top of the home of state-protected burrowing owls.  Roy, Beatrice, and that mystery boy set out to save the owls from the bulldozers.  

I really enjoyed Hoot - I think you'll get a hoot out of it!  (Ah!  What a terrible joke!)

Stargirl (2000), Jerry Spinelli

[Fall 2010]
Stargirl is a individual.  She sings "Happy Birthday" to strangers, and brings a vase of flowers with her into class to place on her desk.  She's the new kid at Mica High, and takes the school by storm.  It takes a bit of time for the students to appreciate her for who she is, but she eventually wins everyone over...well mostly everyone.

Leo, our storyteller, falls for Stargirl and they begin dating.   But when the Mica High students fall out of love with Stargirl's individuality, Leo has a hard time being unpopular.  He tries to convince Stargirl to "act normal."  Will she do it?

Though I enjoyed Spinelli's Maniac Magee much more, Stargirl is a good book with a better message: stay true to who you are.  There is a sequel Love, Stargirl, but I have many other books to read before I take a stab at the next chapter in Stargirl's life.  

A Long Way from Chicago (1998), Richard Peck

[Fall 2010]

Joey and his sister, Mary Alice, live in Chicago.  In 1929, the Great Depression hit their family hard, and their parents had to send Joey and Mary Alice to live with their Grandmother in a small town in Illinois for the summer.

Grandma Dowdel is a force to be reckoned with!  She is plump, stubborn, and tougher than nails.  People in town know not to mess with Grandma Dowdel.

She lives a very old-fashioned lifestyle where she hunts most of her food, makes soap from scratch, and has an out house instead of an indoor bathroom.  Grandma Dowdel is not one to show affection, but she does love her grandchildren very much.

A Long Way from Chicago is a collection of stories - one from each summer over eight years.  The characters are vividly written, and after a few stories, I fell in love with Grandma Dowdel and couldn't get enough of her hijinks!

There is a sequel (A Year Down Yonder) and a prequel (A Season of Gifts) to this book and I'm excited to read them!