Odds and Ends -- The Unreviewed States Books

I managed to complete the 2012 Where Am I Reading Challenge, but I was better about finding the books than reviewing them. For completeness sake, I'm listing short responses to all the neglected books:

Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman. A discussion of the impact glam rock and heavy metal had on society, specifically Klosterman's society in his tiny North Dakota hamlet and his later drunken career through college. My knowledge of heavy metal is minuscule, so much that I haven't even heard of most of the bands he discusses even though we aren't that far apart in age. (I did buy a KISS album once.) Also, I find people who use drugs as a form of recreation really boring, so a lot of the book kept making me fall asleep.

Chihuahua of the Baskervilles, Esri Allbritton. An amusing cosy mystery that took its characters seriously enough to hold my attention. Both the investigating characters and the murder suspects were quirky without being caricatures, and the humor avoided getting too grisly even as the body count climbed. I remember the tone fondly even as I've forgotten all the clues and possibly even the solution.

Jane, April Lindner. I enjoyed this retelling of Jane Eyre even though the story followed the plot closely enough that I never worried about what happened next. The writing held my interest without dealing the power of the original, but on the other hand I also had the enjoyment of seeing how L managed to get the next twist to make sense in the modern world.

Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware, M.T. Anderson. It felt good to make my final state book be emphatically about the state it was set in, although I suspect that it might be hard for many Delawarians to recognize their state in this book. The silly story kept rollicking along, tossing in a few reality based details every few pages to ground the dinosaurs and arboreal squids.

King of the Mild Frontier, Chris Crutcher. The memoir shows where Crutcher gets many of the themes, characters, and settings for his books about kids with anger management issues, and he writes it in an amusing tone that doesn't disguise how annoying he must have been as a kid.

Home For a Spell, Madelyn Alt. Stumbling into the middle of this Midwestern cosy mystery series wasn't completely successful; it wasn't hard figuring out the recurring characters and their relationships but I didn't have quite enough empathy with them as the author counted on.

Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool. I can see how this won the Newbery -- weaving stories from two world wars, a girl's coming of age, and a mystery involving stories-within-stories are all elements aimed right at a librarian's heart. Some kids will also love it, but I don't think it will endure as a highly popular choice, though.

Oracle's Moon, Thea Harrison. This showed up from Felicia Day's book club, and charmed me immediately by working for my 50 states challenge. I also enjoyed it enough that I'll put other books in the series in my TBR list as a fun paranormal with the romance letting the action story take precedence.

Deadlocked, Charlaine Harris. I'm still enjoying the Sookie Stackhouse stories, but there is no question that the large overhead of complex histories and relationships are becoming a major drag.

Written in Bone, Sally Walker: I enjoyed the details of anthropological forensics covering several bodies uncovered in Maryland, although I was surprised at the end to discover it was meant as a YA nonfiction book. I just thought it was popular science. Also, my NOOK didn't handle the pictures well, so I missed all the illustrations.

Alvin Ho, Lenore Look: These early chapter books about a timid grade school boy and his accepting family are fun reads although I'd prefer a bit less tall tell elements; my favorite parts are the chapters that seem perfectly real and loving.

School of Fear, Gitty, Daneshvari: There is sort of a mini-genre of macabre kidlit, and the Fear School books fall into it. I enjoy them but I don't rush about pushing them into kids' hands.

Fair Game, Patricia Briggs. Brigg's books are becoming comfort reads for me; I enjoy their empowering characterization and also the actiony bits, although I tend to forget the plots rather quickly. I think I read this one twice this year, and I'm looking forward to her next urban fantasy release.

North Winds Blow Free, Elizabeth Howard. Solid historical fiction describing the lives of some workers on the Underground Railroad, with interesting ideas about what people owe to each other, even to strangers, and no modern sensibilities about women's rights or parental empathy.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, Tom Franklin. I don't think I was supposed to be so distracted with sorrow over the wasted life in this book; the action thriller concentrated on the new murders happening around town and how those ripples affect the people, but I never got over the changes forced by the back story killings.

The Ghost Belonged to Me, Richard Peck. Rereading this book was interesting as I could compare my reactions to my memories. I remembered my response much better than any of the plot, so it's fun to see what events pulled that bittersweet emotion from my teen aged self.

Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead. I found the angst a bit annoying in this story about superpowered vampire kids at a boarding school, with royalty and blood drinking and forbidden love and all that. The wold building was interesting but the kids themselves not as much.

Super Human, Michael Carroll. My son raved about this book, so I planned to dislike it (I don't like being oversold) but the ending made me a believer, enough that I bought him the next book. And its location in Nebraska charmed me as well.

How to Rig an Election, Allen Raymond. A confessional by a Republic election manager describing the completely cynical and ethics-free approach to handling a candidate, including the shenanigans that got him sent to prison for a few months. Depressing look at modern politics indeed.

Wild, Wild Death, Casey Daniels. A paranormal mystery that never really engaged me, perhaps because I don't share the main character's passion for clothes. Or her really selfish worldview, for that matter. Maybe I'm just old.

Ten Miles Past Normal, Frances Dowell. The stresses of being a high school student on a goat farm give a good lens to this book about life in high school, with the problems of finding your own place, navigating the dating game, and figuring out how mature you really are. Fun even before I figured out it was set in North Carolina.

Geometry of Sisters, Luanne Rice: I was expecting a fluffy romance from the cover, but instead got a real book about a family dealing with grief from many directions. I kept tripping over how selfish all the characters were, claiming their love for each other even as they needlessly inflicted incredible pain on their family. I hope my family has a better sense that love is an action as much as an emotion.

Hot Water, Erin Brockovich. The intrepid environmental activist wanders down to South Carolina, leaving her EVIL father-in-law behind to work shenanigans on her son.

The Hum and the Shiver, Alex Bledsoe. Although some might find it slow-moving, I enjoyed the leisurely pace of this coming-home novel, where we slowly learn about both the characters and the magical powers permeating their valley home.

The Same Stuff as Stars, Katherine Paterson. I'm at exactly the wrong age to be reading books about neglected children -- too old to appreciate their agency (as a kid, I never troubled myself about loser parents, because who needs 'em anyway?) and too young not to scream abuse at the parents. So I'm not a good judge of this book.

The Azalea Assault, Alyce Carlson. A cosy mystery around a Virginia public relations committee, which was pleasant reading but not very memorable. I think I found the bestie's tendencies towards violence tedious.

Rock Bottom, Erin Brockovich. Two star-crossed lovers separated by a misunderstanding, although at least an entire town has collaborated together to create the problem and to prevent the couple from talking to each other. It was important not to look too closely to the plot of this environmental thriller.

Close Range, Annie Proulx. Wyoming appears to be a desperately unhappy place to live, where the only flickers of happiness tend to be generated by drug abuse. Let's just say that the last story, "Brokeback Mountain" brought a little extra cheer to the book.

Drama City, George Pelecanos. A cop story stalking the gritty streets of D.C., with few glimpses of hope.

Fanfiction: Jane

April Lindner's Jane is a legal fanfiction AU (alternate universe) of Bronte's Jane Eyre, with Jane as a freshman in college left penniless while Rochester is a wild rock star planning his comeback tour. Although Lindner's Jane doesn't have quite the fire of Bronte's, the story still works for me as a thoughtful homage placing many of the same themes in our modern world.

Lindner skips most of Jane's childhood, choosing rather to start as Jane leaves college to find work as a nanny. Her cultural blinders help her -- Rathburn has specifically requested someone who is not a fan. From here on the parallels to the original keep right on track -- the kindly housekeeper, the sweet child with French interests, the strange drunken woman on the forbidden third floor, even the Bianca woman making a play for Rathburn.  A few differences appear -- there is no question that the child is Rathburn's, Jane's uncaring relatives are her siblings, not her cousins, and the saintly St. Johns are not distant relatives.  These were fun to read as I wondered how Lindner would echo the plot; the celebrity rock star status works well as a social divide, and there's a subtle difference in the ploys of a successful photographer (modern Bianca) versus a marriageable heiress (real Bianca).

It's a fun experiment for fans of Jane Eyre, although clearly there isn't much suspense since we know how the story will go. Apparently Lindner is now writing an homage to Wuthering Heights, which isn't quite as tempting since I didn't really like the original. On the other, she did interesting things with Jane Eyre...

I wonder if this counts as literary fiction? It takes place in Connecticut, which I need for my Where Are You Reading challenge.

Mormon Women: Heaven Is Here and The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

I recently read two memoirs about Mormon women in their early twenties who live radically different lives bound only by the strong religious beliefs. Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson chronicles the life of a Mormon housewife whose idyllic life with her four children and temple-wed husband takes a painful detour when she and her husband suffer severe burns and require months of therapy before leaving the hospital.  Thousands of miles away, Elna Baker's memoir The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance describes her life trying to start a career as an actress in New York but wondering whether being a Mormon actually precludes marriage or possibly would make any marriage she undertook intolerable.


I'm someone who doesn't stay close to my childhood religion; my children aren't baptised as Roman Catholics, I don't attend church regularly, and I think the Pope is frequently wrong. But I know many people who draw great strength and kindness from their devotion, so I don't think religious people are foolish, let alone alien, bigoted and cloistered. But I'm interested in how people can put their trust in powerful religious structures such as the Mormon Church, and especially how women find peace with the expectations laid out for them. These two books show women facing radically different challenges but still staying within the strictures of their church, although Nielson feels much more comfortable there than Baker does.

Nielson marries the man her prayers tell her is for her, and skips college to start raising their family together.  The accident sidelines them for a while, as they have to relearn how to survive before they can care for their children again. Their families rally around them and prayer helps cement them to each other and to their chosen life, which they slowly reclaim.  Her memoir consistently refers to the comfort and strength Mormonism gives her, and how powerful she finds the prophecies and blessings made for her.  In contrast, Baker finds her prayers rejected -- even the man she feels God has chosen for her gets away (and she's actually a bit relieved), and the man she thinks she loves has the fatal flaw of not being Mormon. Her life has many more temptations -- she lives in New York, trying to date and still stay pure, but more often finding that what she thought was true doesn't match up to what she sees and does, and that the promises of her blessings don't pan out. Yet the warmth and love of her family pull her back to the Mormon church. It's clear that to both these women the building block of their religion is a traditional family, and without that, Baker finds the foundations less stable, yet her sense of self pulls her away from Mormonism.

Neither story is complete yet, although Baker is on a path of greater changes and conflicts. Both were written with a strong sense of the author's personality, strengths and flaws. I received Heaven is Here as an ARC from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, while somehow Baker's book appeared on my TBR list in 2010. I really need to start giving myself notes about why I'm putting books there...

Official Fan Fiction: Mary Ingalls On Her Own

Elizabeth Kimmel (Willard) extends the story of Laura Ingall's family with her story of Mary's life at the college for the blind in Iowa, Mary Ingalls On Her Own. Although Kimmel's vision of Mary differs a bit from my own -- I wouldn't have given her the same insecurities, or the same wish to be more like Laura, she gives a good sense of what life might have been like at the school, with the restrictions on students and the expected course of study and so on.

As an adult, the simple pulse of problem -- solution -- lesson learned is very predictable, but I bet I wouldn't have complained at all as a child; this would have been a swiftly gobbled up book that didn't require much investment. I did feel sympathy for the villain of the book, a girl still very bitter about her blindness who attacks Mary's more philosophical approach with the warning that she'll never be independent or have her own life.  The biographical information reveals that this was actually true -- Mary lived with her younger sisters all her life and never had a family of her own.

Although as a kid I rooted for Laura and felt Mary's goody-two-shoes approach was priggish and annoying, it was a bit disappointing to see Mary back off from that in this book. I vaguely remember a conversation between the girls in their teens when Mary explains that she was indeed a prig and regrets her sense of moral superiority, but in this book Mary bemoans her lack of spunk in a way that doesn't fit my mental picture at all, but then I haven't reread the originals in a while and I bet Kimmel's story is more true to the facts. I was happy to have picked this book for my Reading My Library quest.

Also -- Iowa! Score another state!

Pumpkin Wars: Me and the Pumpkin Queen

Last year I read about Rhode Island hobbyists and their quest for the biggest pumpkin, so when I saw this gourd centered book on the shelf during my Reading My Library selections I grabbed it up.  (And this one takes place in Ohio, so another state knocked of Where Am I Reading this year).  Marlane Kennedy's Me and the Pumpkin Queen follows the pumpkin season with eleven year old Mildred, who started growing pumpkins the year her mother died.

I felt smugly knowledgeable as Mildred explains many of the details of growing giant pumpkins, some of which are actually easier for a kid (less packing down of the dirt walking around if you only weigh sixty pounds anyway). She fertilizes, prunes, protects, and selects while hanging with her chess playing friend, fending off her well-meaning aunt who thinks pumpkin growing isn't all that feminine, and playing with the dogs her vet father keeps bringing home.

The ending is predictable (she wins the prize!) but disappointing in that she stops growing competitive pumpkins. It turns out that growing pumpkins was just a stage in her grief over losing her mom, not a real interest in an intelligent kid, which I found profoundly sad.

Working Vacation: Unfamiliar Fishes

I stumbled across Sarah Vowell through Nick Hornby's reading journal, as he complained about her stylish prose and witty writing. And so far I've been enjoying her books, especially as she writes nonfiction in a energetic, opinionated and interesting manner that amuses me even as it deepens my knowledge about some event.

In Unfamiliar Fishes, she combines chances to visit the lovely Hawaiian islands with the excuse of researching its modern history. She tells about the people she spoke with and the places she went as she learned about the people and events in Hawaii from its unification through its annexation as an American territory. I knew the general outlines of this story (probably mostly from Michiner's Hawaii, which I read a few decades ago), but Vowell's account shows the good and bad intentions of the players in memorable detail. She's willing to accept the self-professed motives of people from Hawaiian kings to ambitious plantation owners, but she also skewers their greed and duplicity.

I found the meandering path of the narrative a bit confusing, as she skips back and forth among several generations of Hawaiian royalty, following various stories as they interest her rather than chronologically, and I admit that I didn't need quite so much of her nephew Owen's opinions, but overall it was a worthwhile few hours. I've been to Hawaii once, and her descriptions remind me that I'd really like to go back again.

Swords and Magic: Magic Slays

The Kate Daniels series of urban fantasy by Ilona Andrews features a ferociously competent woman with her special werewolf boyfriend, but it's a fun and deft version of that rather overworked genre. OK, he's a were-lion, and he's king of all the Beasts. She's extra-special in her own way, and she spends most books defending the weak and trouncing the wicked, sometimes solving a mystery along the way.

Magic Slays, the fifth book, delivers the usual action with some bonus character growth. Kate has always relaxed into her back story, and this time the authors shine more light into that and stir things up. It's a book about the secrets and truths that bind family together. Behind the story it's about strengthening an existing marriage, as Kate and Curran figure out what it means that they are together.  She faces the truth instead of her myths about her mother and foster father's relationship, confronts fears about her ability to protect and parent her ward, and lets a little subplot about an attempted rebellion inside the were-camp lead her to truths about her agency in her past with Curran. All with lots of sword play and nifty magic and a big bomb and an over-confident youth, so fun and games with a tasty thematic filling.  I give it a perfect Spring Break score, especially as I read it on my NOOK.

Athletic Heros: Go Big or Go Home

Actually, when I grabbed this book for my Reading My Library quest, I thought it was a jock book and was proud of myself for expanding my horizons.  As it turns out, it was a science fiction book with jocks in it, so I had even more fun.  And for added goodness, it takes place in South Dakota, so it counts towards my geographic challenge as well. Will Hobbs, thanks for writing Go Big or Go Home.

I know I've been complaining about first person narratives in my recent YA reads, but apparently it's just angsty teens that bug me. Hobb's characters are confident and definitely not self-absorbed, reporting the events and problems but not lingering over their uncertainties or insecurities. Instead Brady gives an impression of an active, interesting boy who is honest about his faults without being proud of them. It was fun reading about his basketball and biking skills because they far surpass my couch-potato levels of athleticism.

The science in the science fiction doesn't hold up to close scrutiny (well, I think the factoids are true, but what happens is unlikely), but the story moves along rapidly enough with just enough emotional grounding to keep things steady, so I didn't mind. I bet my seventh grader would like this, and maybe it would inspire him to take a few long bike rides even if he isn't infected by a super-charging asteroid named FRED.

Family of Refugees: The Porcupine Year

Although I still haven't finished The Birchbark House (I'm reading it now), I found the third book in Louise Erdrich's series abut the Ojibwe family during the mid 1800's while grabbing books for my Reading My Library quest.  So I scooped up The Porcupine Year as a guaranteed good book, and was not disappointed.

Omakayas is a little bit older now, more responsible for her youngest brother and more aware of her male cousin, but still secure in the care of her parents and extended family, especially her grandmother Old Tallow, whose fierce nature and strong dogs provide protection for the tiny clan. At first things go easily because of their knowledge of the land and skills, with only childish (but dangerous) adventures, but the betrayal of their white uncle abruptly leaves them facing winter with no supplies or equipment.  Suddenly the family faces starvation, and the true effects of their expulsion from their birchbark house looms over them.

I liked the sense of realism -- there are real consequences and dangers, and the family expects that but doesn't let it devour them. Louise Erdrich has a good touch in these children's books just as she does in her adult works.

Sad Girl: Breadcrumbs

The latest Cybils Novel (Middle grade Fantasy & Science Fiction) finalist almost broke my heart.  My fifth grader is also unhappy in school, and I suspect that much of our "help" and advice sounds like the fake plastic words that try to smother Hazel in Anne Ursu's Breadcrumbs.  Their troubles and problems are completely different, but their misery and bafflement at what people do to try to help sound crushingly familiar.

Ursu's words and images bring the interior life of a fifth grader vividly to life, and when Hazel pushes out of the real world and into the forest of fables and stories to rescue her friend the metaphors work unerringly -- the woodcutter, the garden of flowers, the match girl. Hazel never gets extra powers, but she almost despite herself clings to an inner core of strength -- she wants to rescue her friend because he was her friend, no matter what happens in the future.

I may request this book from the library again, because I'm curious as to how my kids would like it; unfortunately everyone else in my county wants to read this too, so my copy has to go back.

Ew?: Y The Last Man Safeword

My seventh grade son read the latest installment of Brian Vaughan's Y The Last Man before I did, and when I finally got around to reading #4 Safeword I found myself very uncomfortable. It starts with an extended scene about a very odd suicide intervention technique involving rape, bondage, unpleasant homo-eroticism, whips, and asphyxiation.  At the last minute the purpose of helping Yorick reclaim his desire for life pops out, so they don't actually have nonconsensual sex, but wow, did it make me turn the pages gingerly from then on. I've read dubious things with him before, but usually he's not the one out in front.

At least it made a lot of graphic violence seem almost safer, by contrast. Maybe? I have to admit that I'm losing my taste for this series, but X remains enthusiastic so I'll probably read the ones he brings home. Except he's getting them quickly and my TBR Dare prevents me from reading them.  Just as well, although as a parent I'm now a bit curious what's in them.  Geez, I guess the author started feeling funny about having a series about the last man on earth without any sex in it.  So suddenly there's all this very odd almost-sex.  Which my kid is reading without bothering to ask about it, which either means that he found it boring or that he's now old enough to find this stuff strange to talk about with his mom.

Heh, actually, I'm guessing it's the former, although the latter is probably also true.

Cowboys Against the Man: Ghetto Cowboy

After a rocky start, I managed to fall completely into the story G. Neri spins in Ghetto Cowboy, a Middle Grade Fiction Cybils finalist.  Cole, a part-time seventh grader, falls into the world of Philadelphia urban horse fanatics when his mother dumps him on his absentee father at a moment's notice. This gives Neri the chance to explore this culture from the bottom up, since Cole is initially as disbelieving and cynical as the most curmudgeonly reader.

Actually, I enjoyed the sense of history the most -- as Neri explains in a final author's note, he based this story on real stables and events in Philadelphia, so the feel of the community's struggles to keep their horses, both because they love them and because they provide one of the few alternatives to drugs and failure for their kids.  The city authorities either ignore or actively undermine their efforts, withholding services capriciously and suddenly remembering long abandoned property rights.  Cole's story itself has a few giant leaps for me -- did his mom really have to plow down someone else's horse on her way out the door?  Was it necessary for Cole to immediately bond with a skittish horse? I suspect child-me wouldn't have blinked at either the melodrama of the love-at-first-sight between the city boy and Boo the wonder horse.  

Anyway, I recommend this book, but I can't help wishing I was reading it in the nonfiction finalist section instead.  I'll pass it on to the boys for their reaction.

Chrysalis Jock: Stupid Fast

I'm having fun reading some of the Cybils finalist on my NOOK; I'm glad to have a library that's hip with all this technology stuff.  The YA books especially lend themselves to this much lighter medium; my NOOK can carry around five or six library books without straining the seams of my book-bag.  I'm glad they had Geoff Herbach's Stupid Fast, a Young Adult Fiction finalist, in ebook form.

Puberty is traditionally a time of great change, but Felton's life embraces the metaphor with frightening intensity.  Just as his body emerges hulk-like from childhood with rapidly emerging muscles and unceasing energy, his family life twists out of recognition. Having always cast himself as the ineffectual member of the family, Felton resists taking any initiative or action, leaving his younger brother to whirl in increasingly desperate circles while their mother barricades herself in her room.  This all sounds depressing, but Felton's essentially sweet voice keeps things light enough to let the humor shine through; there are a lot of laughs in this summer of changes.

In the meantime, Felton finds himself suddenly inside the forbidden circle of jocks, unsure whether his welcome includes anything but his new muscles. His first girlfriend also pushes him to move past the insecurities of childhood, but no one sees all the different stressors pushing on him until he finally stands up and asks for help.

The ending works very well, with the same themes echoing through the football season, the connection with his best friend, and the long distance talks with his girlfriend.  I'm not as sold with the insomnia flashback chapters that lace through the book, but it does give a good metronome for the pacing of the book.

WAIT -- late breaking news.  Stupid Fast has won its category!  Congratulations.  I shall now forget this so I can read the rest of the finalists with an open mind, and then come back to compare our reactions with the judges'.

Let Them Fail: The Blessings of a B Minus

First, I should say that I hope the author didn't mind me reading this book because I'm not Jewish. But I've already read Wendy Mogel's earlier book on letting your children fall down, so when I saw The Blessings of a B Minus on the library's Interesting shelves, I picked it up.  And eventually I read it, because I do have a teenager now.


Mogel's main point is that teenagers are practicing to be adults, and if their parents don't let them fail, then they'll be unprepared when they do go off on their own.  On the other hand, teenagers aren't actually adult yet, so they do need support and balance, so just pretending they know what they are doing doesn't make much sense either.  Instead she covers picking battles, and why some battles aren't worth fighting until after their brains mature. Sometimes avoiding battles means ignoring behavior that you don't approve of (sullenness, arguing), and sometimes it means simply removing yourself from a situation rather than staying around to convince the teen that this is a bad decision.  This can mean handing over laundry duties and then not interfering when the same clothes appear daily.

Mogel thinks it helps to occasionally treat dealing with your teenager as an anthropological field trip -- look at the strange local customs and costumes of these bizarre inhabitants of Teen World.  Sometimes I felt the same way just reading about her examples; her teens grew up as in rich Jewish LA neighborhoods that seem wildly different from anything I or my teen will see.  But reading the book helped keep me grounded as my teenager and I negotiated a rough morning, so I appreciate the advice about keeping your common sense around and not meeting your adolescent in emotional stand-offs at every moment.  Our family rituals might revolve less around the Sabbath and more around Magic card games, but her points still seem sound.

High and Tight: Absolutely American

Once again I have no idea how this book wondered into my TBR list, but I found David Lipsky's Absolutely American engrossing.  Lipsky spent four years embedded into West Point, watching the kids in their classes, training, and career planning.  His last year included the 9/11 attacks, which put everything the cadets did into a vivid reminder of the reason the country has military academies.

Lipsky focuses both on superior and lagging examples of West Point virtues.  The worst one spends four years dancing on the edge of dismissal, coming within seconds of failing various physical tests and never moving much past probation in academics.  The only lesson he seems to absorb into his bones is the creed that a cadet never gives up, although the various officers who practically beg him to resign don't see the benefit of that.  Meanwhile other cadets also wrestle with the meaning of duty, of what it means to commit to the army, of whether they are trading a free education for five years of duty or whether they intend a lifetime of service.

I wouldn't have made it a week at West Point, so it's an alien world that I'll only see through a writer's eyes, and Lipsky's descriptions made it seem vivid and clear.  He also seemed to keep himself out of the way more; he reported on kids who never doubted that their lives belonged in the military and on people clearly there for the career opportunities and cheap education with equal respect.  This contrasted with Army 101, where the author never seemed to get past his bemusement that anyone could choose the military for any reason other than to escape a gun-torn ghetto.

2012 Where Am I Reading Challenge

After all the fun I had last year storming BookJourney's Where Are You Reading? challenge, I'm going to try to do it again at a more sedate pace.  At the end of each month I'll check my numbers, and if I haven't garnished at least 5 new states I'll deliberately toss in enough to round up the numbers.  I think I'll also try to keep a running count; last year I mostly ignored books if I already had that location.

This year I'm also hoping to read a lot more outside the US, and I think I'll stick all unknown locations in Antarctica.  There will be many fictional characters inhabiting that snowy plain, I'm guessing.

After carefully studying the instructions and finally recognizing Google's paperclip as the "link" icon, I made and linked  a new 2012 map for this year's books:
View 2012 Where I Am Reading in a larger map

I'll list my favorite book, and then keep a count.  Of course, this will be harder once I've read more than one book.

Alabama: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
Alaska: Ancient, Strange, and Lovely
Arizona: Y The Last Man #4: Safeword, 2
Arkansas: Where Things Come Back
California: Operation Redwood, 5
Colorado: Chihuahua of the Baskervilles
Connecticut: Jane
Delaware: Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware
Florida: As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother Is Running For President
Georgia: Magic Slays, 3
Hawaii: Unfamiliar Fishes
Idaho: King of the Mild Frontier
Illinois: White Night, 2
Indiana: Home For a Spell
Iowa: Mary Ingalls On Her Own
Kansas: Moon Over Manifest
Kentucky: Oracle's Moon
Louisiana: Deadlocked
Maine: The Romeo and Juliet Code
Maryland: Written In Bone
Massachusetts : Alvin Ho, School of Fear, Fair Game
Michigan: North Winds Blow Free
Minnesota: Breadcrumbs
Mississippi: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Missouri: The Ghost Belonged to Me
Montana: Vampire Academy
Nebraska: Super Human
Nevada: Northward to the Moon
New Hampshire: How to Rig an Election
New Jersey: The Reading Promise
New Mexico: Wild, Wild Death
New York: Absolutely American, 5
North Carolina: Ten Miles Past Normal
North Dakota: Fargo Rock City
Ohio: Me And the Pumpkin Queen
Oklahoma: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Vol 1 & 2
Oregon: Scarlet
Pennsylvania: Ghetto Cowboy
Rhode Island: Geometry of Sisters
South Carolina: Hot Water
South Dakota: Go Big or Go Home
Tennessee: The Hum and the Shiver
Texas: Which Big Giver Stole the Chopped Liver
Utah: Heaven Is Here
Vermont: The Same Stuff as Stars
Virginia: The Azalea Assault (Garden Society Mystery 1)
Washington: Twilight and Philosophy
West Virginia: Rock Bottom
Wisconsin: Stupid Fast
Wyoming: Close Range

Washington, D.C.: Drama City
*******

Afghanistan: The Man Who Would Be King
Canada: Half World, 3
Nigeria: Akata Witch
UK: Bindi Babes, 7
France: Anna and the French Kiss
Oceanea: Amelia Lost, 3

I'm putting states I'm currently reading but haven't reviewed yet in italics, which will matter during the end game when I'm frantically searching for the last few.

50/50

P.S.  World 66 has a nifty map that tracks where you've been.  I'm tracking where my books have been:

create your own personalized map of the USA or write about it on the open travel guide