The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage by Justin Cronin. It's, like, the 'it' novel for the summer. Or at least the sci-fi-vampire 'it' novel. So I ran out and got it. And it is looooooooooong. Here's what Ron Charles of the Washington Post has to say:

"Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding
Stephen King's "The Stand" and "Salem's Lot"
in that lab at Jurassic Park"

That's exactly my thought!! Except I might have added a bit of Dean Koontz. (Okay, I've only read Door to December, but still... The Passage feels a bit Koontz.) And I might have added King's Charlie McGee (the little firestarter from Firestarter).

But this is the thing: I love vampires. And I LOVE MICHAEL CRICHTON. And I have a deep respect and enjoyment of Stephen King. So this is, like, perfect, right?

Well, it is and it isn't. I love that vampirism is turned into a coldly scientific and unromantic virus. I love the background story. I mean, who doesn't love an origin story? as my husband would say.

The first two hundred pages are the origin story with all its juicy science-y stuff. Introduced are a hard-nosed FBI guy and an abandoned, precocious little kid. The precocious little kid is purposefully infected with the virus, thanks to US Military's scientific need for research. Loved it.

The rest of the 600 or so pages cover what the world in like 100 years into the post-virus future. A small community has survived called "The Colony." They live in a large compound that is powered by wind turbines, which help the lights stay on. Because the lights have to stay on. There are vampires about, remember?!? Except they call them virals. I agree with Ron Charles's astute criticism: this is where it got a little slow for me. There is so much detail about everyone in this community and their history; it gets tiresome. The story picks up momentum as a group from the colony leave their community, searching for an answer, other humans, something...

I liked this book. Crisp and fun at the start, a bit soggy in the middle, but a delectable end.
Anyway, I'm posting Ron Charles's review here.

BTW, although this has been purchased for its movie rights, I do not think a feature film is the way to go. I know it's risky, but I really believe this story would do better as a mini-series (like The Stand, V, etc.) The Passage is interesting because it takes the time to weave so many stories, and a movie wouldn't be able to do that. (I know! I just complained that the book was too detailed and too long, but I didn't sit down for just an hour or two every Monday night to read it.) The Da Vinci Code worked out well, because in the end, it was about the code - not about the people. But The Passage is about the people not the, necessarily the virals. It's about how they cope with their situation. How they put together the small clues to their future and past. It would really lend itself to a mini-series. Ohwell.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This is an adult book. A book for women. A great book club book. It's a good book.

This book was passed around my school, amongst the ladies, for several months until it made its way to me.

It's the story of a very racially divided South (Mississippi) just before the Civil Rights movement really kicks into place. Skeeter, a young white woman from a wealthy family, has graduated from college. Awkward, tall, and progressive-minded, she doesn't quite fit in with her old set of friends: young, married ladies with babies, husbands, and mindless leagues and charities to fill their time. Skeeter wants love and marriage, but she wants a career and a purpose, too. However, there's little room for that in Jackson, Mississippi. The best she can get is writing the responses to the cleaning questions in the newspaper - kinda like the Helene/Helouise column, I guess. The irony of it is that Skeeter has never cleaned anything; there's always been a maid to do that for her. In order to do her job, Skeeter must get help from a maid. She asks if she can question Aibeleen, her friend's maid, for answers. That's right: She asks permission from the white lady first.

This is an eye-opening view of a racially divided world. Something hard for me to fathom: A time when good white women always had a separate bathroom for their black maids, lest any transfer of disease occurs. I mean, really? Also, these white women have maids. But they don't work. They do have children. But this is hard for me to comprehend: The women don't do much. They're well-to-do, so they don't work. (And by "don't," that also implies "not allowed," because it probably wouldn't look "right" if they did.) Their maids take care of the house, the cooking, and a lot of the child care. Goodness! I am a ship without an anchor on the days I don't have school! I mean, okay, right now I wouldn't mind having a maid. My place is messy. But it was hard for me to comprehend these women who had nothing to do but attend their women's league meetings: where they plan charity balls, raise money to send to the poor in Africa, and also fight the good fight against desegregated toilet bowls.

Back to the storyline: Skeeter wants to push herself beyond her cleaning column. She wants to tell the story of the help: the black women who clean for white women. The first to agree is Aibileen. Then Aibileen's friend Minny signs up, too. Slowly, but surely, other women agree to sign up to tell their stories. But it all must be done secretly: if anyone were to find out, violence would ensue against the black community. And the stories? Some are horrific. Some are bittersweet. Some are funny. The author does a great job of showing different facets of the characters. You develop sympathy for the black women and sympathy for some of the white women, too.

The author does a great job describing life: Skeeter's, the black maids', the white women's. That minutae and detail is interesting. A door into an older world. An unknown world. I have no idea what a rich Southern woman's life was like in the 60s. I have even less of an idea what a black maid's life was like at the times. But I am grateful I do not live there or then. But I am left to wonder, if I read this story with shock at societal attitudes of the 60s, what will people think in the 2050s, reading back on the 2000s?

My one complaint is that at times this book seemed too long. Now, I generally read a lot of YA, so that's often my complaint with adult fiction. I max out at 400 pages. But as much as I loved the detail put into describing everyday life, perhaps it was too much. Not in the level of detail provided to the major characters, but that that level of detail was provided to minor ones as well. In addition, a lot of time was lavished on Minny's employer: a poor white lady suddenly rich. It was interesting, but didn't feel pertinent. Minny's home life, however, was important. Highlighting the abuse put up with by women from their husbands.

In the end, this is Aibileen's story, and Minny's, too. Skeeter is an interesting character, and it feels good to watch her grow up: confident and ready to leave the racially divided society that she grew up in.

I recommend this book. I also think it will transfer well into the big screen, and I'm already know I'll want to go to the theater to see it.

Side Note: A book was just published similar to Skeeter's book about maids, but about nannies. The Perfect Stranger: The Truth About Mothers and Nannies is a book recording the narratives of real nannies and the narratives of the real women who employ them. The Times did an article on nanny books recently. I really like The Nanny Diaries, so it was an interesting article, and I might read any one of the books mentioned.

Three Cups of Tea - Young Adult Version

Three Cups of Tea

The recounting of an American's work to start schools for children in Pakistan.

I read the Young Adult version, and I have no idea how one would get through the adult version. The content, the ideas and the actions, are awesome. It's inspiring... But boring. I read this because our incoming 6th grade students have to read it for Summer Reading. The YA version of Three Cups of Tea for an adult? I would give it a B. For an 11 year old? I would give it a C-. I just don't think most sixth graders have the reading level to handle so many foreign names, nor do I think they have the ability to sustain their interest through the less exciting parts.

Having read this, I can say that I hope for the following for my school:

• We start some type of collection to help Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute. Otherwise, what is the point of reading a book about how we can change the world with just a few pennies?
• They show some type of documentary/video version of this book to the sixth graders. I think it will fill out their understanding of the book. Also, everyone likes videos.

Grade: C

My husband is reading The Hunger Games.

Awesome!

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Who decides on life?

In the faraway future of Unwind, society and policy know the answers to such questions. Through the development of new transplant technology, the debates and differences between pro-life proponents and pro-choice proponents have been solved. The Bill of Life states that while all pregnancies are protected, unwanted children can be "terminated retroactively" between the ages of 13 to 18. And how, exactly, does that conform to the standards of pro-life beliefs? Each child who is "retroactively terminated" is divided up so that all parts are used again; hence, you are not killed but simply redistributed. Unwound.

• Connor is a teen boy with behavior problems whose parents have signed his "Unwind" papers.
• Risa is an orphan who is going to be rewound because she is not talented enough to keep in the already crowded orphanage system.
• Lev is a thirteen year old tithe. His parents had him for the express purpose of donating him for the greater good. Lev believes whole-heartedly in the philosophy of unwinding, and he is proud to be a tithe.

All three are on the their way to be unwound at a "harvest camp" when Connor decides to rebel and fight back. His actions help free both Risa, who wants freedom, and Lev, who does not. While on the lam, the legend of the Akron unwind who fought back against the police grows. If each can survive on the run until the age of 18, they'll be free again.

This was a great book. If you liked the ethical issues and sci-fi feel of House of Scorpions, this is a great book for you. In some ways I wish Shusterman had been more explicit in the discussion of the life/abortion issues. I think that some kids could read this without really connecting to the issue as it stands today, in 2010. However, I appreciate the focus it does give to "newspeak" and the power of redesigning language. You're not murdered but rather "retroactively terminated"? As a Crichton fan, I loved it for the sci-fi future details. As a Stephen King fan, I loved the "unwind" scene - scary - but not too scary for a sixth grader. It also has a lot of fast-paced action to keep your attention.

I'm adding this to my list of books that I like that deal with the ethics of organ transplanting/donation:

• House of Scorpions
• Next
• My Sister's Keeper
• Never Let Me Go (This book and Unwind are the most similar. Very similar but Never Let Me Go has no action.)

Grade: B+

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is the final companion to Life As We Knew It and The Dead & the Gone. Miranda Evans and her family have survived over a year after the catastrophic meteor hit the moon, creating an inhospitable earth. Life is a monotonous game of survival: eat now or perish? eat now or relish later? While life seems better, the government is able to send out some food. Their hope is guarded.

Hmm...honestly, I read this book awhile ago and have been putting off reviewing it for some time. It's not fresh in my mind, and I'm still deliberating how much I liked it.

Here's my quick synopsis: Miranda Evans and her family are still struggling to survive in rural Pennsylvania. Miranda dreams of something -anything- different, and longs to know if her father, step-mother, and baby sibling have survived. Her brothers go off on a fishing expedition, and her older brother, Matt, returns with a wife. She's odd, beautiful, and damaged, and she definitely makes Matt happy - but she is one more mouth to feed.

Later, Miranda's father and step-mother return. Having had no luck traveling west, they have been slowly making their way back to Pennsylvania, so that Miranda's father can be near all his children. On their trip home, Miranda's father and family have adopted others: Charlie, a happy middle-aged soul and the Morales siblings: Alex and Julie. These are the same Morales who were in The Dead & The Gone. That book ended with Alex obtaining tickets to a safe community - a town where the government provides protection and food for a select few.

This was a good book, but not great. However, this book develops a level of maturity greater than the others. It is in this book where the real gravity of their situation forces the main character to make very adult decisions that few will ever have to make in their lives. I wouldn't recommend this to a sixth grader because the decision at the end are so ... heavy. I'm not sure an 11 year old would get that. This book definitely feels more high school (lower high school) than middle-school.

Grade: B

Is Three the Magic Number?

Ah... Trilogies. We shake our heads pretentiously, and yet we still eat them up. And sometimes they're not bad.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - The Ewoks! I mean, they rocked! The romance of Leia and Hans? Irresistible. My 6 year old heart adored this movie - and still does.

His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass - Ehh... As the final closer to The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, this book took a flight into the too fantastical and philosophical. If talking cabbage heads had shown up, I wouldn't have been shocked. However, there were some sentient trees, if I recall correctly. While I loved this book, it was partially due to how hard I loved the first two.

Lois Lowry's The Messenger. This was just a silly mess, in my opinion. The Giver is like a good punch to the head. It's probably in my top 5 YA books. The Gatherer was also awesome - and part of its awesomeness was in how absolutely different the book felt from the first. But The Messenger just felt superficial. A way to fulfill a demand - either by the readers or the publishers, I don't know. I'm not faulting Lowry - The Messenger is still a great book, but it doesn't reach the caliber of The Gatherer. And as a relative of The Giver? I still ruminate over The Giver years later, but The Messenger means nothing to me.

As an aside, I hope Lois Lowry NEVER EVER gives movie rights to The Giver. Am I ecstatic to see The Hunger Games, whenever it comes out? Definitely! But The Giver is too holy and too fantastic to recreate. How would we recreate a black and white world? How would a movie show the control exerted over individuals in The Giver? (In regards to the black and white vision, Pleasantville did a lovely job of this actually...)

All this is because I've been meaning to review Pfeffer's This World We Live In, which completes her series about life after a meteor hits the moon and creates havoc, end of humanity type of havoc, on our climate system.

The photo "Thick Encyclopedias with Colorful Hardcovers" is copyright 2010 by Harla Varlan and made available under Creative Commons-licensed content requiring attribution. Edited by M. Morrill.