The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley

Bibliography
Hutchinson, Shaun David. The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. New York: Simon Pulse, 2015. Print.
image from: www.amazon.com



My Thoughts
from the inside jacket:
"Andrew Brawley was supposed to die that night. His parents did, and so did his sister, but he survived. Now he lives in the hospital. He serves food in the cafeteria, he hangs out with the nurses, and he sleeps in a forgotten supply closet. Drew blends in to near invisibility, hiding from his past, his guilt, and those who are trying to find him."


This story sounded very interesting to me. What happened to his family? How does a kid live in a hospital undetected? How does he work in the cafeteria? Who is trying to find him?


The first line of the book is "The boy is on fire" (Hutchinson 1). A patient comes in with severe burns, and Drew sees him from where he's hiding. Drew also hears the "animal howls" and has "nowhere in this hospital that I could hide to escape his screams" (Hutchinson 2). Some kids doused the boy with alcohol and lit him on fire (Hutchinson 16). Drew visits him in the ICU by sneaking in and finds out the patient's name is Rusty McHale (Hutchinson 18). Drew borrows books from his boss in the cafeteria and reads to Rusty. Drew even confesses what happened to his own family (This happens over multiple secret visits.) and makes the promise that Death will not find Rusty. Drew will protect him. After Rusty begins to recover some from his burn injuries and is awake, Drew and Rusty become friends and eventually kiss (a few times).


Drew also visits "Grandma" Brawley. I really like this character, even though it appears she's in a coma.  "I tell Grandma Brawley everything. She's a vault. Best secret keeper ever" (Hutchinson 41). All of the nurses believe that Andrew is her grandson and gush how he visits her when no one else does. Drew has even created a fiction of her life story, complete with a tragic lost love element.


Lexi & Trevor who are in the Peds floor, both with cancer. These two become good friends with Drew. Their story weaves nicely with Drew's, and I appreciate their honestly among friends. I was surprised at how the book ended for them. (no spoiler alerts here)


I like that Death (notice the capital letter) "follows" Andrew. Drew's description of Death is clever. "The thing about Death is that's she's predictable. She eats every morning at seven thirty....Death never leaves. Death lives her. She's married to her job" (Hutchinson 65). "Death" is actually a social worker named Michelle (Hutchinson 70). However, the reader can see that Drew has studied and observed her and even fears her, as in his mind, this women personifies death and the loss of his family.


Father Mike plays a pivotal role in the story, although when first introduced, he seemed to be a minor character.  "Father Mike's got these blue eyes like I've never seen before. They're flashlights, shining their holy light into corners of my soul that I don't necessarily want illuminated" (Hutchinson 102). Father Mike symbolizes the moral compass that Drew seeks. Father Mike also gives sound advice. "In order for a hero to be a true hero, he's got to have something worth living for. He's got to love something" (Hutchinson 121). Is Father Mike talking about Drew or the comic book character, Patient F?


By the way, there is a comic book story that Drew creates inserted into his own story. The main character, Patient F, is a hero (or not). His story changes and the last "installment" of the book becomes the epilogue (at least as Drew wishes it to be the journey of his life).


After finishing the book, I'm not sure I understand the "stages" of Andrew. I see some transitions, but I guess I missed what is considered a "stage." I understand that Drew felt he should be punished and must stay at the hospital. I get that Rusty gave him a reason to live (just as Drew gave and took away Rusty's reason). I just don't know if I can classify the "stages" as the title indicates there are.

I liked that the characters, actions, explanations and events were not all as they seemed. Several times in the book I was surprised by what happened or what truths were exposed. I kept thinking about Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask."


As this book is being touted for LGBT audiences, I thought I should read it before putting it out on the shelves. There are a few labels used (queer, gay dude, pervert, cock gobbler). There is mention of relationships between boys (kissing, boyfriend). I like that Hutchinson discusses bullying in this story, but then I am saddened because I know that his commentary is pretty accurate. "While his parents and the doctors and the principal all tell him that he's going back, that he's going to be safe, even thought they all laugh behind their hands with the knowledge that the bullies will get him, beat him, before the end of day one" (Hutchinson 257). Bullies are hard to stop.

Twenty Boy Summer

Bibliography
Ockler, Sarah. Twenty Boy Summer.  New York, Little, Brown and Co., 2009. Print.
image from: www.goodreads.com

My Thoughts
I picked this book off The Hive (our school district's ebook collection) because I see it come across the counter in my library A LOT! I thought the cover was pieces of torn paper, but now I understand it is sea glass.
This is a typical high school girl love story kind of story. It was a bit predictable and sometimes far-fetched, but the overarching story was pleasant. It is 33 chapters long, 482 pages.
There are three friends: Matt, his sister Frankie, and their neighbor Anna.These three are so close, but one night, Matt & Anna kiss and begin a secret relationship that is more than just friends. Matt & Anna will keep this a secret until Matt can tell his sister on their annual family vacation to the beach. Tragically, Matt dies soon after this romance begins and before he can tell his sister.
After a year of grieving, the family decides to take the annual trip to the beach, and they take the best friend Anna. There, Frankie and Anna declare a contest to have the Absolute Best Summer Ever (ABSE). "We're in California for twenty-three days, right?...that leaves us...twenty days [for] twenty boys" (Ockler 76). You can predict that their plans fall short.
The girls do meet some boys on the beach. They sneak out. They lie to Frankie's parents. They create untrue identities. One girl thinks, "Then I get mad at myself for letting some boy that I just met dictate what I do with my own face" (Ockler 233).  (I was glad to see a glimmer of this message in the book).  The girls attend a party where one of the girls has sex on the beach (not the drink). Frankie learns of her brothers "secret" romance by reading Anna's journal. Tensions build. Truths surface.
The parents in this story are secondary.  The mother is almost a shadow of a person. They are grieving, but I was glad when Frankie explained, "'I wish she'd get just---I don't know, get mad. Yell. Call me out on my lies. Be disappointed. She doesn't even care'" (Ockler 309). The mother does care, but she is letting her grief overshadow her parenting of her surviving child.
This is a book I will recommend to my teenage girl readers (if there are any left at my school who haven't read this already). There are some thoughtful truths that surface in the story. I will also order some of the author's other books. Teen girls especially love a good love story.

Gone Girl

Bibliography

Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012. Print.

image from:  www.amazon.com

My Thoughts

I finally did it and read a "red star" book**. This is not my genre, but I really enjoyed this story. There was more mystery in it than blood and guts (even though one of the main characters is murdered). Additionally, there was a large amount of sex and language that I should put a warning here.

**"red star books" in my library are murder/mystery/drama/blood & guts, scary stuff

Part One: Boy Loses Girl

The story starts simply enough with Nick Dunne as the narrator setting the scene.This married couple has faced hardships and relocation. Now, they are living in his Missouri hometown. The next chapter is Amy Elliott's (Nick's now wife) diary entry. In the diary,we see her side of their marriage. The chapters' narrator is listed at the top so the reader knows from which side of the story we are reading. This is not confusing (and once the characters settle in for the reader, the "named" chapters are almost unnecessary).

It is the couple's fifth wedding anniversary when Amy goes missing.
Amy's expectations of marriage are not met (Flynn 40). Nick lies to the police (admitted to the reader) at least five times in the first encounter (Flynn 37). The mystery begins.

The police detectives who come to investigate Amy's disappearance are named Jim Gilpin and Rhonda Boney. Nick explains that his brain was having "mental gas I couldn't control. Like, I'd started internally singing the lyrics to 'Bony Moronie' whenever I saw my cop friend...my brain would bebop as Detective Rhonda Boney" talked (Flynn 78). I laughed. Not because of the insensitivity of Nick,but it reminded me of my dad teaching this song to my daughter. I didn't know it was a real song.

Another thing that I laughed about was the distinction Amy makes about bulk shoppers. "Republicans go to Sam's Club, Democrats go to Costco" (Flynn 119). HA!

There are many things I read in this first part of the book that I believed to be clues to the story. There is a mistress. Nick says he's a "big fan of the lie of omission" (Flynn 133). He "sees" Amy in a dream crawling on the kitchen floor. It turns out Amy is pregnant. Nick realizes that he got better, smarter, more alive because of Amy. "That was both our making and our undoing...I had pretended to be one kind of many and revealed myself to be quite another" (Flynn 214).  Then...

Part Two: Boy Meets Girl
I AM SHOCKED! I cannot believe what I'm reading! This is quite a twist that I absolutely was not expecting. In fact, I thought I had the story figured out and would have to endure the remainder of the book. I was wrong about what I "knew" from Part One. I don't want to write here what happens because I want future readers to feel the suspense and shock as I did. Part Two kept me reading to get to Part Three. Good job, Gillian Flynn!

Part Three: Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa)
These last 46 pages are the resolution to Nick and Amy's story. I am surprised by the ending, but after thinking about the "clues" that were given in the rest of the book, the story could only end in the way it does.

I will chance reading more "red star" books, and especially more of Gillian Flynn.


On a side note, my husband and I watched the movie after I read the book. I liked that the movie stayed pretty close to the book, with some omissions, of course.

Orphan Train

Bibliography
Kline, Christina Baker. Orphan Train: A Novel. New York: William Morrow, 2013. Print.
image from:http://christinabakerkline.com/novels/orphan-train/

My Thoughts
There seems to be a trend in my reading pattern this year. This is the second book I've read that the characters' stories alternate and then come together. Unlike All the Light We Cannot See where the characters' stories run in a parallel time, the main characters in this book mirror each other's stories because there is a wide gap in age between the two main characters.
Another trend I'm seeing this year is what I will call Book Within a Book. In this title, the characters have Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables.
Both Molly and Vivian are orphans. Molly was caught stealing a book, so she must do community service hours as punishment. Vivian's attic becomes the community service project. Molly is to help the aging Vivian clean out and organize the contents. When Molly pulls something out of a box, Vivian's memories take over the story and the reader learns why these mementoes are being kept.
The bulk of this book is Vivian's memories of the life she lived. The reader doesn't see as much of Molly's life because it's still to be lived.
"My entire life has felt like chance. Random moments of loss and connection" (Kline 235).
Even though this story is fiction, the actual orphan trains did run. It was interesting to think about how many lives, how many stories, how many different paths those trains changed.
I took notes as I read. I enjoyed the revelations of Vivian's story. I felt the helplessness she felt in her various situations. I was thankful that Miss Larsen was in Vivian's life!
This will be a book I read again. It's my book club's read this month.
Title reference on page 29.

The Truth About Alice

Bibliography
Mathieu, Jennifer. The Truth About Alice. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2014. Print.
image from:www.amazon.com
My Thoughts
Something told me to read this book before I put it on the shelf. I thought I needed to know the content (remember reading Go Ask Alice?). I shouldn't have worried.

What happens when the rumor mill starts?

Early in the book, I felt that Mathieu must have visited Stephenville. She describes the fictional town of Healy in ways that I thought she was writing about Stephenville. "Football is enormous in Healy, but Healy itself is not. It's basically...just far enough away from the city that it can't really be considered a suburb, but it's not big enough to be considered much more than just a small town" (Mathieu 5). There is much pride in the town's football program and players. This is important because the star quarterback is involved with Alice's rumors. "The biggest store is a Walmart and we have to drive an hour and ten minutes to go to a real mall" (Mathieu 5). Yep, she's been here.

This is Alice's story, even though she only has one chapter--the last. The story is told from 4 different classmates who all "know" what happened one night at a party.

Elaine is popular and a bully. She has fooled many parents, teachers and community members. Kelsie is the "new girl" who got to reinvent herself when she moved to Healy. She tries to hang on to this new status no matter the cost. Josh is Brandon's best friend. Josh was with Brandon on the night he died. And then there's Kurt. Kurt is the math genius with a crush on Alice. He is also Brandon's neighbor. Mathieu's characters are believable.

As I read this book, I kept thinking about my daughter and how I hope she will avoid the mill. I also thought about students and how they deal with the rumors that circulate. Thinking of both angles made me apprehensive and sad. I remember rumors in high school; how I was part of them and how I probably perpetuated them as well. However, with the use of social media, kids today have an entirely different experience with rumors.

Right after I finished reading this book, I learned that Jennifer Mathieu will be at my library conference this year. I'm going to seek her out and thank her for this book. I think there are many good lessons in here, especially the value of having hope.

Fictitious Dishes

Bibliography
Fried, Dinah. Fictitious Dishes. New York, Harper Design, 2014. Print.
image from: www.fictitiousdishes.com

My Thoughts
Dinah Fried writes, "Reading and eating are natural companions, and they've got a lot in common. Reading is consumption. Eating is consumption. Both are comforting, nourishing, restorative, relaxing, and mostly enjoyable. They can energize you or put you to sleep. Heavy books and heavy meals both require a period of intense digestion....as a voracious reader, I devour my favorite books" (11). Reading this, I knew I'd enjoy this book.


The introduction explains how this project began and then grew. Fried takes a certain passage from a book that includes something about the food. Then, she creates a visual for the passage. No detail is too small. She says that preparing for the "shoot was a delightful and obsessive treasure hunt" (Fried 12).  It is delicious (pun intended)! I enjoyed seeing the extra attention to detail in many of the photographs.


I enjoyed reading this book one Saturday afternoon. It is not too text laden, but one thing that is included with the book passage are tidbits of trivia. Sometimes the information is about the writer, the book or about the specific food. Very interesting. For example, "a single banana is often referred to as a 'finger' and a bunch of bananas is called a 'hand'" (Fried 100). Another example of something I learned is about the moustache cup. "Invented in the 1860s and popular during the late Victorian era, the moustache cup has a semicircular ledge that extends across part of the cup's opening and keeps the user's moustache from getting wet while he drinks" (Fried 116). Now reading this is fine, but SEEING it is better! Fried has one in the photograph.


I did find what I would deem two "errors" in the book. In The Catcher in the Rye description, Swiss cheese is mentioned, but the photograph looks like cheddar cheese. In The Road photograph, I would have liked to see the fruit in the cans instead of the plastic cups.


There is a wide range of books included in this project. Many of the books I have not read, but it was not needed to understand what Fried is doing.


After her photos, Fried includes brief summaries of each book included as well as a bibliography where she gathered the ancillary information.

The Mockingbird Next Door

Bibliography
Mills, Marja. The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee. New York: Penguin Press, 2014. Print.
image from: www.washingtonpost.com

My Thoughts
In 2001, journalist Marja Mills was on an assignment. The city of Chicago was participating in a One City, One Book initiative and To Kill a Mockingbird was the book chosen.  "The idea was to get Chicagoans in very corner of the city reading and discussing the same book" (Mills 4). Mills was to travel to Monroeville, Alabama and gather information about Harper Lee. What happened while there is the amazing story Mills reports in this book. Alice and Harper invite Marja into their inner circle. They share meals, books, and stories with each other. They build a friendship. How wonderful that Lee trusts Mills with her story! Eventually, Mills even rents the house right next door to the Lee sisters.
While reading this, I felt like I was Mills and allowed into the inner circle. At times, I was even jealous that it was Mills and not me!
If you haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird (Well, you should!), you get a sense of the book through Mills' insertion of quotes and summary. She also references the movie.
A funny thing that I learned was that Lee said she liked Flannery O'Connor less (than other Southern writers) because "O'Connor had once said that To Kill a Mockingbird was a good book--for children" (Mills 79). HA! Flannery O'Connor is one of my favorite Southern gothic writers. Nelle tried to make sure that Marja read other Southern writers to understand the area. "Nelle referred to Faulkner as much as, probably more than, any other Southern writer" [another of my favorites!] and once "lamented the rise of what might politely be called redneck culture in the South... 'They're the Snopes,' Nelle said" (qtd. in Mills 232). FUNNY! Mills writes that Harper "tossed out literary references as easily as some might recite their own phone numbers" (Mills 232).
Another thing I learned from this book is the origin of Harper's name. After Louise was born, "she failed to thrive" and Francis was so distraught she had a "nervous disorder" (Mills 180). Dr. Harper, a specialist, helped. "So deep was A.C. and Frances's gratitude to Dr. Harper that when [the next baby was delivered], the parents gave her the middle name of Harper" (Mills 182). Harper used this name on the novel so that it would not be mispronounced or misspelled (Mills 224). 
I appreciated learning about Lee's personality through Mills' book. One example is when Lee says, "'I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it'" (qtd. in Mills 80). I agree. Lee was not concerned with wealth and fame. "The fortune she earned from the book did afford her the opportunity to live her life...and that was something she cared about, deeply: the ability to live her life on her own terms" (Mills 121). I also liked seeing that the Lee sisters were always learning. They were smart and "language, as always, was play" (Mills 173). There are numerous examples of this in the stories Alice and Harper share with Mills.
There is a "Truman Capote" chapter, as the two writers were friends. However, that friendship that began in childhood became strained. An interesting anecdote from this chapter, though, is when Truman and a girl named Martha decided to run away (Truman was 12 and Martha 16), they were sent back home. Years later, it turns out that Martha was a murderer. "Known as the Lonely Hearts Killers, their crimes were sensationalized in the popular detective magazines of the day" (Mills 166).
Again, I felt like I was sitting in the car with the ladies. I could hear their scratchy voices and see their practical clothing. I could appreciate their routines and how Marja understood that any time spent with these ladies was precious. I'm so glad that she has the Lee's blessing in writing this book, and that Harper's fans get a better sense of who she really is. I can tell that Mills is a fan as well. "It was another book I pictured on the shelf of those she could have written. The imaginary row of books that made me wistful when I thought about it. Wistful for what Nelle might have accomplished and taken pride in doing with her talent, with her insight. Wistful for all of us who would have loved to read them. But that decision was hers to make and she'd made it, however gradually over the years, for her host or reasons, starting with the difficulty of living up to the impossible expectations raised by To Kill a Mockingbird" (Mills 210).
I was saddened to learn that in 2007 Nelle suffered a serious stroke. If I knew that, I'd forgotten. Reading this made me do some research, but what I found was something about this book. I found an article that Lee did not authorize this book and that she did not spend time with Marja. WOW! It seems that either Nelle is mistaken or Mills is quite a fiction writer because it seems too real to be false.
Either way, this book was a delight to read (and I hope it is true). Another news story broke while I was reading this book that after 55 years, Harper Lee is publishing a second book. It is coming out this summer. Of course, I will read it.

Book Within a Book-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee