Book Chatter

Our libraries were county-run and were recently taken over by the city. During this process, they were closed for about three months. The new, city run facilities opened last week and I can’t tell you how happy I am!

They created “teen” centers in each one, added a slew of new computers and they are in the process of adding additional titles. This is all great, but what we missed before, what was sorely needed, was staff who cared about the patrons. We have that now. I’ve been to two libraries out of the three and so far, everyone has been extremely helpful and seems to really enjoy reading. Seems like such a simple thing but being a reader makes a huge difference.

What did I pick up?

Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver
Caribou Island, by David Vann
Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu
The Upright Piano Player, by David Abbott

I don’t know how I will get through these in addition to everything I have been sent, and everything I’ve chosen to read this summer but it’s the kind of stress that I’m willing to live with.

As for the rest of the day…

I just finished my errands. Can you believe that the Halloween stuff is being loaded into stores right now? Are they crazy? It’s bad enough with the back-to-school stuff but Halloween??

For dinner, I’ve got gluten-free chili cooking in the crock-pot and I am about to enjoy a cold glass of something and sit down with Duma Key. I am 400 pages in and loving every minute of it. What are you up to today?

The Absolute Value of Mike
By Kathryn Erskine
(Philomel, Hardcover, 9780399255052, June 2011, 256pp.)

The Short of It:

Laugh-out-loud funny.

The Rest of It:

When his father takes a teaching job in Romania for the summer, fourteen-year-old Mike is sent to a town he affectionately calls, “Do Over” so he can stay with his grand-aunt and uncle known only as Moo and Poppy.

Moo and Poppy have their own issues. They’ve recently lost their grown son Doug, and Poppy spends his days sitting in his chair, staring at the TV and eating nothing but Scrapple. Sitting in a chair all day wouldn’t be too bad, but there’s a project that the entire town is relying on Poppy for, and he’s in no shape to complete it. Having no other choice, Mike steps in to save the day.

There are some very serious issues contained within its pages, but The Absolute Value of Mike addresses them with humor. The small town feel and the relationship between the town’s inhabitants is at times laugh-out-loud funny, but also very sweet.

I had just begun to read this when The Boy took it out of my hands. He is not a reader, but after reading the opening paragraph, he declared that he would read it after me. Wha?? The Boy said he wants to read it? Wha?? It took a moment for that to settle in.

Isn’t that saying something though? This is clean tween reading. No vamps or zombies here. Just Porch Pals, a car named Tyrone and a Romanian orphan looking for a home. Although it’s geared towards tweens, I enjoyed it too.

Erskine’s name might sound familiar to you and that would be because she also wrote Mockingbird, which I reviewed here.

The Absolute Value of Mike is an Amazon Best Book of the Month and has been chosen by Indie booksellers for the Summer 2011 Kids’ Next List.

Source: Sent to me by the author.