The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

((Summer has officially begun! That means I can actually read and not feel like I'm dying in school the next day because there is a significant difference between the amount I sleep when I find a good book compared to when I just sleep without reading.))

((I heard that this book had won very prestigious awards, so I naturally wanted to check it out. Plus a lot of my friends read it in school this year and told me it was interesting, so I did read it!))

The cover-

((My thought is that there is no accurate way for me to summarize this because I wrote at least three different summary paragraphs and deleted all of them because they sucked. Please just look up the summary somewhere online because I was more pumped to write the commentary than a summary....))

My thoughts-

Though it's not a very long book, I just could not put it down. I read all of it in about two nights! This book was written so well that I am not very surprised that it got so many awards.

It goes to show you how much poverty Native Americans in today's world live in, even after all this time. Arnold makes too many painful points about alcoholism in his community because he sees it all the time. His father himself is an alcoholic and sometimes Arnold and his mother have to walk miles to every pub they know of to drag their father back home. He also explains the root cause of his people turning to alcohol to solve their problems. They don't have hope for the future because of their situation. Because they are poor, there are few opportunities for jobs or even an education. This makes people feel unfulfilled in their lives, which makes them turn to alcohol as a way to cope with their frustration.
One particular example of the lack of hope that he and his community has that struck me the most was when basketball coach was praising him for his great shooting skills, saying that within a few years he could be playing in college basketball teams. The only point that Arnold is hung on is the word "college". He says that he's never heard the words "Indian" and "College" in the same sentence before. That is the nature of his situation.

Though what struck me more than Arnold's way of powering through the culture that he is surrounded with was his struggle to be both European and Native American at the same time. He says it as when he's on the reservation, he's "half white" and when he's in school, he's "half Indian". Like he's kind of a traitor on both sides.
I for one, know that feeling, to a lesser extent than Arnold, but I too have had to cope with it. I'm Indian (like the real India Indian) by heritage, but American by circumstance (I was born and brought up here). When I go to India, I feel a little "off", because from my walk and from my talk, anyone can tell that I'm not from anywhere near there. To them, I'm just "that kid from America". And here, when something happens that reminds me that I really don't know much about this country and its culture, I suddenly feel like I'm just "that Indian kid" and don't really belong here too. I guess I too am a traitor on both sides. But if I don't belong on either side, then where do I belong? That's the question that Arnold has to face throughout the book after he made the decision. Whether it is worth leaving his Native American roots for American culture or doing the opposite? Or is there even the possibility of a happy medium where he can be both at the same time? But with the silent animosity between both groups of people, he doesn't know what he should do.
Arnold's decision to go to Reardan High School has made the other teenagers on the reservation more wary of him, like he's a spy for the white people. They give him funny looks and generally stay away from him more than they did before. What really does it for him is the basketball game at the end of the book where the Reardan team has a rematch against the team from his old high school. Above everything, Arnold is most nervous for the game because he has to go up against Rowdy. The thought of having to beat the boy he spent years reading comic books with reminds him that even beyond this game, he is a Native American and the fact that he goes to a school off the reservation doesn't change that. Despite everything he has gone through, this thought helps him power through the game.

I would like to take some time to look at the ending of the book because I found that very interesting as well. (Those who haven't read it, turn away now... Don't blame me for spoilers...) Mostly that the book did not end with just the basketball game. I was very sure that the ultimate showdown would be the end of the book, but the ending was very mellow and less intense than everything else.
The book ended with the reconnecting of Arnold and Rowdy. It was a rather fitting ending. Arnold said sometime in the book that he could handle the others looking weirdly at him when he started going to Reardan, but what hurt him the most was when Rowdy wouldn't even look at him. Though he could not outwardly admit it, Arnold really did treasure Rowdy as his best friend, even if they were so different. I feel that it brought back the feeling of belonging and being back with one's people that Arnold had lost and regained throughout the book. It brought a calm closure to a whole storyline full of conflicting emotions.



Age Rating (14-16+)

It's not so much difficulty of the context or the language, but the content. There are very mature themes underlying the plot at all times. Once or twice the book touches upon topics that may be slightly uncomfortable for some people, but they do not take away from the plot. There is frequent use of curse words and is very explicit, but that simply adds to the raw feeling that is prevalent throughout.

On this topic I would like to say that this book has got a bad reputation because of the themes it possesses. In fact, the author has defended it multiple times saying that his intention was to describe every little thing that was usually going through a teenager's mind. Even if it was deemed too inappropriate for a book, it was true.
In fact this book made its home at the number one spot for the most challenged books of 2014 because of all this. I fully loved the story and the message beyond it, but I'm just saying this to remind anyone who wants to read it that this book is not for younger kids. Much more so than probably any other book that I've reviewed so far.

It's just a word of caution, not a red "X". I fully loved Arnold's sense of sarcasm that he weaves through the events in his life. The cartoons were beautiful and added lots of depth. This book was wonderful and probably made it on my list of favorites!

The Way We Fall

I don't even need to make excuses for why I disappeared this time. I'm back and that's as good as it gets. This book very heavily reminds me of a similar science fiction book I read a few years ago called No Safety in Numbers. Honestly this book is very light in comparison to that but the concept is similar.

The cover-

Kaelyn has enough things to occupy her mind. After their big fight, her best friend Leo moved to New York City and refuses to reply to any of her emails. High School hasn't been nearly as fun without him but Kaelyn manages to sleepwalk through. At home the tension isn't any higher. Her family hasn't been nearly as together as they used to be for a whole assortment of reasons.

A mysterious disease has been killing off people living on their small island off the coast of Canada and neither Canadian government nor American government is willing to help them. Left to their own devices, Kaelyn finds it hard to protect her young cousin from the sickness as her family is slowly being poisoned and left to die.
Being alone for so long makes her think, wondering about why it had to be her stuck in this situation watching many of the people she loves die suddenly because of a sickness they can't even cure.

My thoughts-

This book really was interesting. I particularly liked the format of it. Even though it was told from the first person point of view of Kaelyn, there were some parts of it that were told like a diary entry or a letter to a friend. In fact, that is what the whole book is. It is partway recounting the history of the epidemic and part way a letter to Leo, expressing Kaelyn's thankfulness that he moved just in time that he wouldn't have to suffer what the inhabitants of the island were. But the narration also holds the bittersweet memories of losing a friend. From time to time she remembers times when they were still friends and didn't have a care in the world. Before all of this started.
I think that Kaelyn's character is very dynamic for a main character in one of these almost clichéd apocalypse novels. She has a lot of insight into her situation and a curiosity that sometimes makes her throw away normal barriers to get what she wants. I was very happy with this kind of character that doesn't seem to either know everything or know nothing about her situation. It definitely made the book a lot more enjoyable to read.
I was especially interested in Quentin and the whole deal with the gang of boys that were hogging up supplies to sustain themselves instead of distributing them like everyone else or donating to the hospital. I feel that even though Quentin was insane, he knew something about what was going to happen. I think he acted the way he did because he was scared that they would all die eventually. It would just be very slow and painful.
On the subject of the gang, Garret's sudden change from "evil" to "good" was a slightly needed relief in the seriousness of the whole book. When he started teaching Kaelyn how to protect herself, I knew right away this would end up in love. From where he showed up, all throughout the middle of the book was the well-needed less dark and serious portion. There are so many things you can make a reader feel in a tense situation, but after a while it does get boring.

This book has a lot of character development which is essential for a book with very few main characters. It's not too much where it becomes overwhelming, but just enough to make it seem like Kaelyn has gained something throughout her experiences and hasn't stayed exactly the same as she was in the beginning of the book. And going through the things that she has, Kaelyn surely ended the book a lot stronger, but a lot more confused than she started.

Age Rating 14+

There are some probably mildly offensive references made, but they are sparingly used. There are graphic details of death and suffering related to the illness. Overall, this is a pretty safe book, not too heavy on the details about the sickness and not too heavy on the details of the teenage lifestyle. Just enough that it accents the book but doesn't define it.

((There are two more books in this series.))

Star Wars- The Phantom of Menace

School has officially begun for me (a while ago actually) so that means more reading and less frequent reviews. With my schedule, it's not often that I get two whole hours break to write something. I'd better use this opportunity to my advantage! Even still, I have some things planned for this review and the next, so stay tuned to my Facebook page or keep checking back within the next few weeks.

If you're looking at the title of the post and telling me, "Astana, it's supposed to be The Phantom Menace!" then could you please shut up and let me finish? This book that I'm reviewing isn't exactly the actual book but more like a parody. Some parodies are funny and some are just plain annoying but this one actually helps you see the storyline from a completely different angle. It's Star Wars written in Shakespearean English.
My point is that having the classic story written like this makes you examine the plot differently. It helps you understand the way things would be different if this was adapted into a stage play instead of a movie. And not just any stage play, one from many centuries ago which seems like ancient history to those of today's age.

The cover-

My Thoughts-
(I'm going to skip right ahead because I'm sure all of you know or are familiar with the story of the first movie)

Through the small amount of Shakespeare I've read in school I can probably say that the language isn't too difficult to understand. I was able to make sense of what the characters are saying, but not so much of the implied meanings hidden in the text. What makes reading this easier is that I am much more familiar with Star Wars than I am with Elizabethan culture. However, usually I had to go read a few lines before in order to fully understand some of the things you'd be expected to know. There were a few changes in the storyline too that I thought would be helpful to know.
I don't remember if the movie explains this or not but the character of Jar Jar Binks is kind of evolved from him just being a simple idiot to him being a little bit more thoughtful. He makes it known early on in the story that he was banished for his stupidity, but he has thoughts about his society and the rest of the Republic that he keeps to himself.  At least once or twice in the book he has these short thought monologues where he thinks to himself it'd be better if he didn't express his opinions on the subjects of politics because he might end up angering the Queen. I didn't think that the clumsy Gungan whom we all know actually had more thought than how tasty the bug next to him looks.

Since in my English class we had been discussing the differences between reading a play script and watching a movie, I realized that the same holds true in this case. When you watch the movie, you do not just get a sense of what the characters are thinking and saying, but also of the atmosphere of the setting (especially if it's set up on another planet). In a play script you just have the characters with very vague descriptions of what else is going on. For a specific example, at the end of the book where Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul fight, there is barely any indication that they're parrying and thrusting laser swords at each other while spitting out complicated lines that would take a lot more breath than regular sentences.
Keeping the same example I noticed that there are just small stage notes telling what the characters are doing. Literally all that it says during the big battle at the end of the something along the lines of "Darth Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn fight." That's good enough description for a play director to know what is supposed to happen once those particular lines are delivered. Knowing the basic storyline I did have an idea of when the "play" was moving on to the next major plot point, but I think it would be difficult to understand just from the dialogue and small stage notes what was going on if you had no background knowledge of the Star Wars Saga. There's so much of the feeling of the story that you lose when you're just reading what the characters say. You kind of have to go back and imagine what kind of emotions the characters would be speaking with if they were to say that particular thing.

After reading this book I realized that the one thing that makes reading Shakespeare so hard for people of this age is that there are so many hidden references that are completely lost on us because we aren't from that time period and the things that were considered pop culture at that time are not relevant to us now. The English isn't that hard to understand, but it does require a significantly higher amount of thought than the common talk that we do with our friends and colleagues. Through a storyline that I'm familiar with I was able to enjoy the "play" the way people from Shakespeare's time were able to enjoy his plays and develop a way to get the most out of Shakespeare plays that I read in the future.

((Thanks for sticking around! I've got another two reviews on the way, one from a book I read a while ago and one I finished just recently. All of my updates are also posted on my newly inducted Facebook Page, "Books from the Dragon's Mouth" if it's too troublesome to keep coming back. Happy Reading!))

Fangirl

I don't even need to explain myself for where I've been for the last almost three months. Let's just say that my interest in reading dropped substantially for a while and I'm working my way back into it. It's going to be slow and I don't even know how long it'll be until my next review, so let's just be happy with what we've got here.

This book is kind of an insight into the fangirl/boy subculture that is seen as a horrible thing in the media. It's actually more common than you think. Look around you and I promise that you'll find them everywhere... (Slowly steps backwards into the darkness.) Though I can tell you from experience that most of them are nice! Usually shy and introverted, but once you get them talking, they won't stop! I mean it, they don't stop.

The cover-

Cath thought college would be easy. She thought that her twin sister would be beside her the whole time and everything would go as planned. Well, she was in for a surprise. Wren decided to stay in another dorm to leave Cath with an opinionated, headstrong junior named Reagan.

Cath believes that their friendship could actually work until she gets to know Reagan's funny and always smiling boyfriend Levi. Cath finds that she actually hangs out more with Levi than she does with Reagan as Levi's smiles and cheeriness charms its way into her heart and eventually becomes romance.

Cath struggles to keep the balance between her fanfictions and her schoolwork, slowly feeling saddened that Wren has decided to leave her completely in favor of a wilder and more exciting life. Cath finally understands that no matter what happens, in the end she just has to Carry On.

My thoughts-

When I read this book, I felt like there was finally a book written by an understanding adult who completely gets it. They get that fangirls exist and that they aren't all following the crowd. Some of them actually love what they do and do it because they love it, not because it's trendy. No, it's not because they're part of a cult or something. It's not a cult, but a way to make new friends who have the same interests as you.

Can I just say that when I read this, I was still a lot depressed from the ending of Tamar, so I didn't really enjoy the book as much in the beginning. I actually just held back my tears, put the book aside and picked up this one. Even though it's a funny slice of life romantic comedy I wasn't feeling better. So I put the book aside for several days and came back to it when I had gotten over my grief period. 

Otherwise, this book is a really funny romantic comedy that combines coming of age and the morality of growing out of things. It's a really good read for adults and teens alike!

Age Rating- 14+

The characters often express their ideas in very explicit ways, swearing frequently and hinting at things that might be inappropriate for younger readers. That was my only turn off as far as the characters go. Cath doesn't swear at all, but really only Wren and Reagan are the danger zones. Specifically Reagan. 

The other main issue is the fact that when the book gets more serious, (about halfway through) characters start to very directly discuss their intimate experiences. Once Cath actually starts to consider that she has feelings for Levi, she confronts Reagan about it who tells her how close they once were before they realized that they were better off as friends than partners. The romance content is pretty tame for a book with characters of this age. 

((Please check out this book! It's one of the better romantic comedies out there that I actually enjoyed. And with the pace I'm going at, the next review should be out in about a week. I'm actually not going to procrastinate this time! I promise!))

Tamar

I apologize greatly for not being active on writing more reviews, but I went to New York City for a few days (and where I live, it's about 3 hours away so I got a ton of reading done.) and our computer unexpectedly broke and I hate typing on my phone. So I was waiting (and reading) until our computer would be fixed. So I have a backlist and a lot of reviews to type.
You NEED to read this one. It's a Carnegie Medal winner! I'm kind of out of touch with which ones win every year, but I do know from experience that they are always the best. I hope that one day I write a book that gets the Carnegie Medal. It'd be my dream come true.


The cover-

 

Tamar is a spy for the British army sent to the Netherlands on a top secret mission. All throughout the Netherlands, there have been small cells of rebels sabotaging Nazi camps, known today as the Dutch Resistance. They are scattered and "lack the one thing that makes them a considerable threat... unity." (I didn't quote from the book, I quoted from a television series that is also about rebellion, but in a fictional world. Star Wars Rebels if you must know.)

Tamar and his friend Dart have the mission to unite as many of the cells together as they can before the Germans suspect something is wrong. Their base is at the home of the beautiful Marijke who is Tamar's lover. She sheltered him on a previous mission to the Netherlands, so she could be trusted. Tamar naturally stays with her, but Dart is sent to an asylum where he has to pose as the apprentice of a doctor.

Everyone is tense with the war going on and the fact that both men are on secret missions doesn't make them feel any better. Tamar is having no luck with unifying the resistance cells and winter is slowly creeping up on the small farmhouse and its inhabitants. Paranoia is settling and both Tamar and Dart are going insane. The Nazis are onto them after a skirmish that ended up killing two German soldiers. 

A former ally has suddenly become an enemy when Dart decides to shelter him in the asylum to keep him out of the eye of the Nazis and even Tamar. Dart is faced with a difficult decision and he doesn't know whether to protect Tamar and the rest of his new friends in Holland or watch them all die at the salvation of his own life. Everything seems to be in a haze as no one knows who to trust and who is going to be by their side for the final battle.

Tamar is also the name of a girl living fifty years later in Great Britain. One night her grandfather suddenly commits suicide and leaves her a box filled with various diaries and passports and identity papers. She takes it upon herself to find out the meaning of all this and finally understand her namesake. With her cousin Johannes (Yoyo) she decides to take a roadtrip and understand what her grandfather was never able to tell her.

My thoughts-

It's an intense book that makes you feel all sorts of emotions! There's mystery in the beginning, a little bit of festivity and slight happiness in the middle and utter depression and anguish at the end. I love the way the two stories are paired together. They seem to wind around each other, making sense and then suddenly pulling away in opposite directions. The clues had been hidden around both main characters but they couldn't make sense of them until the end of the book.

Just now while writing this review I put my earbuds in my ears to listen to some music. The first song that came up was Hero by Skillet and as I was thinking about the lyrics, I realized that it describes the meaning of this book very well. I advise you all to listen to it partially because it's a good song anyways and also after you have read the book because it all just seems to come together. It describes the utter helplessness of being caught in a war and just fulfilling your service so you don't need to see any more of the pain.

Currently my mother is reading this and her first comment to me was "Do you seriously like intense war books? That does not seem like you." I can understand her surprise because I am a person who prefers light books and some darker ones, but none that come close to the intensity of this one. Yes, I enjoyed it. After our study of World War I, World War II and even also the Korean and Vietnam wars at school, I've found a new liking for wartime literature. I know I will never go through the same things these people went through in their struggles to make the world a better place, but I like to hear it from another person's voice.

The only thing I will tell about the ending of this book is that it makes you feel like lead. I got a headache and put the book aside as soon as I finished it. It's kind of like a feeling where you know the world is going to end but you can't do anything about it. You just sit there and let death come to you. I have never felt like this towards any book. Usually I'm apathetic and move on to the next book but I wasn't able to read for several days after this. I was secretly mourning for the loss of the main characters who had died and I had come to love.