Joyce Carol Oates Reading Challenge

Now that both rompers have successfully completed the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge (and a whole month early!), we have selected a very different challenge and it will last for the month of December.

We have each choosen works by Joyce Carol Oates to read during the month of December. While Dani has selected a novella, short stories and one novel, Karen choose two novels. Both rompers will read approximately 1400 pages of Oates' prolific writing.

After the genre challenge that touched on genres, neither of us read very frequently, we decided to work on texts by the same author.

Karen will be reading Blonde and What I Lived For, beginning with Blonde.

We hope to have a discussion posted about similar themes in the texts we read along with reviews.

So, 1400 pages by Joyce Carol Oates read December 1 - December 31, 2009. Join us if you can!

Now Playing: New Moon

On November 20th, thousands of teenage girls flooded into theaters to see the next installment of the Twilight Sage...New Moon. In case some of our readers have been under a rock for the past 2 years, the Twilight saga is a novel series (and now film) that has swept the nation. The saga is about an average girl who moves to Forks, Oregon where she falls in love with a vampire. Originally from Arizona, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) decides to move to Oregon to live with the father that she barely knows in the town that still remembers her as a little girl before her parents divorced. It is there that she meet Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a student at Bella's high school. Edward to arrogant, stand-offish, and has made it a point to not date anyone in Forks...until now. Edward is captivated by Bella and the two fall in love, though they must keep Edward's vampire identity a secret.

In New Moon, Edward dumps Bella and flees to Italy with his vampire family. Bella mourns for months until she rekindles her friendship with Jacob, a Native American boy who lives on the local reservation. Jacob is smitten with Bella and the two seem to have some sexual tension that is only exacerbated by Jacob's confession to Bella that he is a werewolf. Conflict arises when Edward's sister, Alice, returns to Forks to find Bella and bring her back to Italy where Edward has decided to kill himself.

The film is filled with as much angst and poor acting as a Dawson's Creek marathon. The tension between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen pales in comparison to that between Bella and Jacob. However, the irony lays in the fact that Stewart and Pattison are in a relationship with each other in "real life". The film is filled with everything that is bad in a chick-flick such as poor acting, a bad script, and sparkly vampires. Yet, it lacks everything that is good about chick flicks such as corny love scenes, stereotypical confessions of longing, and the upholding of actual vampire folklore. Overall, save your money and time and wait for it to come out on DVD so you can make fun of it in your own home.

-DLP

Now Playing: The Blindside

Last week, The Blindside opened in theaters across the country heralding a superstar cast including Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, and Kathy Bates (among others). The movie was advertised as a feel-good movie about a young homeless boy who finds love and family in a white southern family. However, the movie is much more than that! The story is really about a young African-American boy, Michael Oher, who lived in the Memphis projects with his drug-addicted mother. At a young age, he was taken from his mother and placed in various foster families from which he always escaped. By coincidence, he was enrolled in a preppy, white, christian school where he was considered an outcast by both students and parents. At this time, Oher was homeless and found food by collecting alreayd eaten popcorn leftover after athletic games at the school. One day, Leigh Ann Tuney (Sandra Bullock) finds Michael walking down the street in the cold and welcomes him to sleep on her family's couch. Within months, Michael becomes part of the family and is accepted by Leigh Ann's husband, and two children. Of course there are difficulties that arise, but Michael is soon placed on the football team. With the help of a tutor (Kathy Bates), Michael becomes eligible to attend college.

The aspect that makes this feel-good movie more than just a stereotypical tearjerker is that it is a true story with as much pain as it has happiness. The first 45 minutes of the movie has the audience clutching their guts in hopes that the sorrow experienced by Michael will hopefully subside. Though his circumstances improve a great deal, the film never lets the audience forget Michael's past and therefore keeps it ever looming in the back of the audience's mind. The characters are real, and they should be, because they are based on real people.

Overall, it is the perfect holiday movie! It makes everyone want to jump up from their seats and give back to those less fortunate. I was not a fan of Sandra Bullock before this movie, but I now have to say that she did an excellent job. I often find tearjerker movies to be annoying and shallow, which this movie is neither. The autenticity of the story is further bolstered by the ending of the movie in which actual photographs of Michael Oher and the Tuney family are projected on the screen alongside the credits. There is even footage of Oher being drafted for the Ravens by the NFL in which Oher and the Tuney's are shown together. The sentiments and values that this film embodied touched my heart and I am sure that it did the same to the other viewers in the theater. It may even get me interested in football! (though...probably not)

-DLP

Once Upon a Time Update: We're Done!

The Once Upon a Time challenge was the first reading challenge that I have ever done and I have to say that it truly was a challenge in the best and worst sense of the word. I found myself reading in genres that I had previously been completely uninterested in. I read titles that I would never have thought of touching before this challenge and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. Fantasy is not that scary and (at least in the case of The City of Ember) not that fantastical. I was pleased to discover that contemporary fairy tales no longer reek of sexism. I was excited that modern-day fairy tales have been made into graphic novels and comics, two forms that can truly express the visual and textual elements of fairy tales. I was most impressed by the non-fiction selection that I chose for the folktale reading. Previous to this challenge, I had sworn off Zora Neale Hurston and her writings. However, this challenge actually brought me back to her and I am proud to say that I will be reading more of her works. The only selection that disappointed me was the reading I chose for mythology. Still, it made me read outside of my comfort zone which is rare for me.

Overall, I found the experiece to be a good one. Looking forward, I will not cast aside young adult novels as irrelevant to my life; I will not continue to view fairy tales as inappropriately sexist; I will agreed to read authors that I have previously removed from my library; and I will never again read a Tom Stoppard play!

On to the next challenge!

-DLP

Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge: Happily Ever After?

After finishing Robert Coover's Pinocchio in Venice I felt disappointed. Though the plot frequently nods to the original tale, Coover offers a complicated, meandering and repetitive plot that never serves to further the story of Pinocchio or clarify the lessons he should learn. Coover's references to the original story are often lost or twisted within the complex story as Pinocchio meets old friends and enemies, revisiting the city of his birth. As I read I continually hoped that this book would offer clarity as to why and how Pinocchio became a boy, wondering the secret to unlock the magic of his transformation. However, Coover offers none of this, scattering his text with unlikeable and characters lacking any redeeming qualities. All the characters Pinocchio encounters are selfish, greedy and guileful. Additionally, Coover muddies the timeline of Pinocchio's life, refers to events from centuries ago, making it unclear how long Pinocchio existed as a puppet and a then as a boy. Coover created a dark world where Gepetto was an abusive alcoholic, depressed by his life and uncaring for Pinocchio. The Blue Fairy emerges as female figure who desperately wanted to fit into the human world by any means necessary and mothering Pinocchio became on of her strategies. Coover's work is twisted and depressing and became a chore to read.

The Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge introduced me to some new texts and left me curious to read more. Though reading some traditionally told fairy tales may make me feel nostalgic about my youth, works that re-envision the fairy tale interest me more. I am curious how to reconcile progressive feminist views about women with the females represented in fairy tales. Every little girl loves the idea of a princess, but how do we empower them with these stories? I know I loved the princesses in fairy tales because they are pretty and wear beautiful dresses, therefore I wanted to be like them in some way. That is not a message I want to perpetuate, yet fairy tales are a part of our culture. I want to share the fun of fairy tales as many texts build on these tropes and weave images into new stories, but I want to show young children that the girl can rescue the guy, or that one can take charge of her own life instead of blithely complying with the masses. Yet, I know some concepts I'd like to reinvent are beyond the comprehension of a young child (like explaining why some gals think "someday my princess will come" instead of prince). The role of fairy tales in modern storytelling will certainly evolve and I'd like to find a way to maintain the fun of traditional fairy tales while presenting more realistic world views. Though the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge has come to an end for the rompers, I've got a few more books on my wish list to check out.

- KER

Book Review: Isis

For the months of October and November, I try to read as many gothic novels, novellas, and short stories as possible. It is for this reason that I put Isis by Douglas Clegg on my list for this year. The story is of a young girl, Iris, and her two brothers who live in a house with their cloistered mother and mentally ill grandfather. Iris finds solace in her friendship with her brother, Horace, and the gothic tales that the gardner tells her. Tragedy strikes when Harvey dies in a horrific accident that causes her to create a bargin with Death that will allow Harvey to come back to her. Of course, the deal is not what she expected and Iris must choose between her brother's happiness and her own.

Perhaps the most interesting and likeable aspect of the book, are illustrations that are interspered throughout the novella. They beautiful black and white sketches that correspond with the current action, however, they add even more to the novel than the text does. Though there are gotthic aspects in the novella, I felt that the pictures are what gave the novel its eerie tone and creepy atmosphere.

Overall, I was disappointed by this selection. After doing some background reading on the novella, I found that this is in fact the prequel to one of Clegg's series. Yet, having read this book first, it is doubful that I will pick up another one of his works. Perhaps it would have been better if Clegg merely worked the background of these characters into the rest of his series and not created an entire novella dedicated to this story because it does not seem to be able to stand alone as a novella.

-DLP

DystopYA Challenge: Armageddon Summer

For my final young adult novel in the DystopYA challenge with Books on the Nightstand, I read Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville. The plot follows two teenagers, Jed and Marina, as their parents drag them into a millennium cult known as The Believers as they prepare for the world to end on July 27th. The Believers, led by a reverand from Boston, decide to camp on a mountaintop in western Massachusetts where they believe they will be saved from the end of the world. The story is told in alternating voices between Jed and Marina who meet on the mountain and consequently fall in love. Neither teenager believes in the mission of The Believers but they both follow their parents in order to protect them and their siblings.

Many may not view this work as a distopian novel because it is set in present day and does not have any fantasy or science fiction elements. However, it is perhaps scarier than the "traditional" distopian works because it is set in the present day and concerns a social issue that could easily arise within our lifetime. What makes this book a distopian novel are The Believers who remove themselves from conventional society in order to build their own distopian civilization at the top of the mountain. As is with all distopian societies, The Believers come to a tragic and brutal end. Though the reader can see something horrific apporaching on the horizon, the ending is still a surprise.

Many adult readers may disregard this book because it is marketed to young adults. However, I found the novel to be an excellent read for all ages. There is, of course, a young romance between the two main characters that can be annoying at times but the majority of the book focuses on The Believers' rise and fall as a society which is extremely fascinating. I would recommend this work to any person interested in distopian literature regardless of age.

-DLP