Rhett Butler's People

Rhett Butler's People by McCraig.

I read Gone with the Wind (GWTW) during my Freshmen year of high school. I read it at home. I read it on the bus. I read it placed discreetly under my desk during Biology. I eagerly awaited the arrival of the prequel Scarlett. On Christmas Eve, my Aunt Camille gave me a copy. My mother had to hold it hostage until we went home - all to ensure that I did not hole up in a wall and read through the family dinner.

GWTW? Politically incorrect? Lacking true reflection on slavery and the South? Guilty. Fantastically mind-boggling great read? Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Ripley's Scarlett? Scarlett is where a yarn becomes too far-fetched and unbelievable. But I still ate it up. That book was done in a day.

Rhett Butler's People? IDK. Is it that I am an older, more discerning reader than when I read Scarlett? Perhaps.

This book takes on too much. Too much time (two decades) and way too many characters. Although this book focuses on Rhett's perspective and fills in the details of his childhood and youth, it doesn't do much for the character. The stars of the show, in fact, are poorly done in general. Scarlett, Rhett, and Melanie: I was displeased by the characterization of all three. Scarlett came off as being less a determined fire-brand. Rhett was described in detail, and yet the reader still never gains a greater understanding of why he loves Scarlett so much. Or why he considers them uniquely similar. And Melanie? Perhaps the mysterious, saintly aura of Melanie is better than a tepid attempt to tell her side of the story.

Where McCraig does shine is when he isn't focusing on GWTW. A large part of the book focuses on Rosemary Butler, Rhett's younger sister, and her struggles with survival and love. I also really enjoyed reading from Belle's perspective. Quite frankly, these two characters could have separately sustained their own novels.

The beginning of this book dragged on like few do for me. For the first 250 pages, I graded this as an F. The subsequent 150 or so pages picked up quite a bit. The excitement that grew as the pages turned, however, was shattered at the very end. The Klan wants to exact revenge on Rhett, so they vandalize and terrorize Tara. Death and fire ensue. It was just a bit too much. But still, by the end, I was so sad to see Scarlett and Rhett and the remaining GWTW gang go.

Grade: C+/B-

My Sister's Keeper

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I finished this book over a week ago. But I am so overwhelmed by it that I have been hesitant to write anything about it. I'm still ruminating over it. The storyline. The ethics. The narration style.

In short, this is a story about a family that must make a decision that can never possibly lead to a happy ending. Anna, a young girl, was genetically conceived to be a match to her older sister, Kate, who has leukemia. As time has progressed, more has been asked medically of Anna. Now, she is being asked to give her kidney.

Anna is coming to terms with where her life ends and her sister's life begins. Without Anna, Kate cannot be. And Anna has decided that she needs control of her own life and body.

Where does familial obligation end and personal autonomy begin? What right does a person have to deny their sister life? And what if your life was created with the singular purpose of providing a solution to death?

My Sister's Keeper is told from a multitude of perspectives. From the mother who struggles with a sick daughter and the turmoil of asking her other daughter to endure pain. From the father who decides to side with Anna. There are chapters from the brother's perspective and also from the lawyer's and child advocate's perspectives. All of the multiple view points give the reader a more comprehensive view of just how difficult these decisions are ethically and morally.

I've included this link, which does a much better job reviewing this book.

Side Note: I am adding this book to my subgenre of books about genetic transplants, which include The House of Scorpions and Never Let Me Go.

Grade: A+

The Last Straw - Finally!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (YA) by Jeff Kinney.


The Last Straw ... but, thankfully, not Greg Heffley's last book. This is another charming, humorous addition to the Wimpy Kid series.

As an adult, I really enjoy this series because I think it portrays preteens very well. While Greg suffers from being genuinely misunderstood by adults, he also digs himself deeper into trouble with his own typical adolescent egoism (and laziness).

All in all, a great read. I love the layout, the font, and the drawings. More than a graphic novel, but it definitely reads just as fast as any Garfield comic book.

Grade: A

Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian - A solid A. I don't know if the story is developed better in this book, or if at this point in time I'm just thoroughly entrenched in the lives of Narnians and the Pevensies. This book so far is my favorite.

Grade: A

Now Reading: My Sister's Keeper

Can't Wait: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

Okay, in all honesty, I can wait for the third Wimpy Kid book. I mean, I know that I will enjoy it, but what I'm most excited about how much the kids love these books. One, I like it when they like books. Two, I feel like the belle of the ball because I have the book that they all want. Isn't that totally childish?

Finally Gave Up On: Rumors (the sequel to The Luxe). Don't judge this book by it's cover. Cover: A++ Storyline: Frustrating.

Want to give up on, but I can't because I have to print progress reports tomorrow: My Accelerated Class's Writing Papers

Mel Loves New England

We're due for another storm tonight. Some snow, a lot of ice. It will be real mess of a morning.

But I love New England.

I love that it snows so often. It's rarely a damp cold, which I hate. I love the low 30s and below. And when it's so cold out, you feel like your breath was sucked out of you. Truthfully, we don't see those days very often in Connecticut, but in Maine we did.

Also I love the word wicked. I don't use it myself very often, but it's a totally awesome word.

Just today I asked the kids to differentiate using a comma versus a colon in a letter greeting. One of my students replied, "You use the colon for wicked formal letters."

We wrote the rule down just like that.

Random Updates
Reading Right Now: Prince Caspian
On Deck: My Sister's Keeper
Personal White Whales:
1. Adding narration to a slide show
2. Is there a download for NetExtender for Mac users with an older operating system? Ugh! Can no one answer this question?

A Post for My Husband

Several weeks ago, I managed to get my husband to go see the movie Twilight with me. Although he will disagree now, he was reluctant to go. But we got there eventually. I liked the movie, but was constantly distracted by the severity of Robert Patinson's eyebrows and his dramatic lip color. Also, I would like to mention that if you watched the movie, you would believe that Bella's high school consists mostly of a cafeteria - and the best, bluest, most spacious cafeteria any small time high school could ever hope to build.

Anyway, I actually left the movie believing that my husband must have hated the movie. This was due to the fact that he was gone for about 15 minutes, getting a pretzel. I had figured that he had tired of the movie and was just putzing around outside. However, I came to learn that the pretzel did indeed take 15 minutes, and he really did enjoy the movie.

Which inspired him to read the series. All four.

I waited and waited and waited. I couldn't wait for him to begin the fourth book, which I found to have too sweet and easy of an ending.

But guess what? He liked the fourth book a lot!

So there, Mister, I wrote a post about you being a Twihard.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

I really do hate saying that I enjoyed the movie better than the book, but in this case, I must.

This is not to say that the story isn't good. It is. I love the narration, which really lends itself (in my opinion) to being read aloud. Or at least, the omniscient narrator feels akin to a person reading the story - an old grandpa like the grandpa in The Princess Bride.

I felt that the character development of the four Pevensies was rather shallow in the book. Edmund gets a bit more character development in the book than in the movie, but is perhaps less likable in the text. I feel that Lucy is well-written, but Peter and Susan are not given much description or action to shape them into well-rounded characters. However, in the movie I grew truly attached to them.

And Mr. and Mrs. Beaver? Equally great in the book and in the movie! I wouldn't mind a book dedicated just to them.

I do believe there is an interesting difference between the two versions: the stance on women in battle. In the book, Father Christmas gives Susan her bow and arrow, but he tells her that "You must use the bow only in great need... for I do not mean for you to fight in battle." In the movie, there is no mention of Susan refraining from fighting. When Lucy receives her gift of the small knife, Father Christmas tells her, "the dagger is to defend yourself in great need. For you are also not meant to be in battle... Battles are ugly when women fight." Of course, Father Christmas makes no mention of females in combat in the movie.

I can't recall if Susan ever does fight in the Narnia movie. I know that she does in the Prince Caspian, but I can't recall for the first.

Grade: A

The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

After finishing Silas Marner, I was lost in regards to reading. Generally, I easily alight on a new book without much difficulty. I may not read quickly all of the time or rabidly, but I usually do have something that I enjoy reading nearby. Not so for the last few weeks. Metaphorically speaking, my search for a read has been akin to a night full of tossing and turning - looking for the best, coolest spot on the pillow.

I finished most of a Brave New World (a re-read), carried around the sequel to Wicked Lovely, and began a YA novel of unknown title that my sister said was good. But nothing really settled. I finally sat down, determined. I would begin reading the Chronicles of Narnia series. I had watched the two movies again - HD Blu-Ray, and I thought that I should really learn more.

I've started with the first: The Magician's Nephew. This book was written after The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and tells the reader of the creation of Narnia.

Digory and Polly are two London children who find themselves thrown into another world due to the work of Digory's magician uncle (hence, the title). While hopping through worlds, they accidentally awaken the evil queen Jadis (who later becomes the White Witch) and bring her back to London. There she wreaks havoc on all sorts of things, and the children successfully maneuvered her out of our world and into an unborn world - the future world of Narnia. While floating in this unformed world, the group (for the children bring more people than intended), the birth song of the world - sung by Aslan - is heard. Aslan's song brings the world and its creations into being. Aslan gives chosen animals thought and speech.

The shame of this beautiful new world is that the son of Adam -Digory- brought evil into the Narnia, that being Jadis. Digory is sent on a mission by Aslan: to find and return with a powerful silver apple, but not to be tempted to eat it. Digory resists the temptation and returns with the apple. However, Jadis finds the tree and eats from it. When Digory returns to Aslan, they plant the apple, which Aslan tells the creatures it will provide them with protection against the White Witch. As a reward, Aslan provides Digory with another silver apple to help save his dying mother back in Earth. When the children return, Digory revives his mother with the apple and then buries the apple core and all other magical paraphernalia in the ground. A tree grows. This is the wood from which the wardrobe was created.

My Thoughts:
This is a dry read, one definitely more fit for illustrations because the text isn't exactly absorbing. The action sequences are low-key, and the story line is not movie-made. However, it does provide nice background info for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I kind of like to the think that the Bartle book by Rowling probably has a similar feel.

Regardless, this was a fun and quick read. I enjoyed the background info and I really like the fact that I know why there was a lamp post in the middle of the woods in the movie.

Grade: B-/C+

Side Note: At one point the newly born creatures of Narnia mistake the uncle for a talking lettuce. This made me think of a story about cabbage that could talk and feel. It was written by Bergerac in a book called The Other World. Anyway, I googled it and found that C.S. Lewis has a book of compiled essays and stories called Of Other Worlds. Connection? IDK.