Wake; The Baby-Sitters Club: the Summer Before

"Wake" by Lisa McMann was a rather thin YA novel about a girl who gets sucked into other people's dreams. There wasn't a whole lot of explanation going on as to how this actually happened or why, but I found myself not really caring all that much. It's a good concept, I think, just not written well.
And I have a guilty confession to make: I grew up reading the "Baby-Sitters Club" books. And "Sweet Valley High". At any rate, I gave away all my BSC books a decade ago (donated them to my local library! Yay me!), and I felt nostalgic for them after reading this new prequel by Ann M. Martin. She tells the story of the summer before Kristy came up with her great idea. Sometimes when you reread books you loved as a kid you wonder why in the hell you read that crap and liked it, but not the BSC. It was still a good story with good characters. I think I'm really just longing for simpler times in my life right now, before I became an adult and everything got all complicated :)

The Lexicographer's Dilemma; Superfreakonomics; 703

Whole bunch of good nonfiction lately--I've really enjoyed all of them. First up is Jack Lynch's study of the English language and how it came to be the language we know today, "The Lexicographer's Dilemma". It was interesting to see how "proper" English evolved over the years and how our dictionaries were compiled.
"Superfreakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is their follow up to their wildly popular (and amazingly good) "Freakonomics". It challenges the way we think about things, like why it's actually safer to drive drunk than to walk drunk, and how safety studies show that regular old seatbelts are safer and better at protecting children than car seats. Great reads, both of them.
And "703" by Nancy Makin. At her heaviest, Nancy weighed 703 pounds. How she got that way, and how she lost over 500 pounds, is a great story in her words. I really liked her--she seems like a great person, and I'm so happy she's gotten her life back after being so miserable for so many years. As someone who has battled with my weight my entire life (thank god never to the extremes as poor Nancy) I can certainly empathize. I think she's dead on by saying that people who struggle with weight issues are failing to fix what's really the problem: on the inside, their own lingering doubts regarding their self-worth. Obese people are severely damaged inside, and that needs to be corrected before we can expect any diet and exercise regime to work. Listen to her! She knows what she's talking about.

Hellraisers

The life and times of four fine actors: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed, by Robert Sellers. Great fun, these guys really enjoyed life and lived it to the fullest. Some of the stories were so incredibly outrageous, but good fun. Richard Harris found a picture of himself with a Rolls Royce, and having no recollection of ever owning such a car, called his two ex-wives, neither of which could remember him owning such a vehicle, either. He called his accountant, who confirmed he'd purchased the car 20 years previously and had been storing it in a garage to the tune of some $92,000. Can you even imagine? They went on legendary benders, lasting days. I'm ridiculously jealous.

This Book is Overdue

Marilyn Johnson is a journalist who loves libraries and librarians, and she wrote a wonderful book in praise of the great men and women who make up my profession called "This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All". It would be a perfect introduction to the lay reader as to what exactly it is that librarians do all day (and no, we don't read, we're not volunteers, and yes, I have a master's degree). I would have thoroughly enjoyed it even if it wasn't all about other people just like me :)

Undead Much?

Stacy Jay's very disappointing YA zombie novel was an absolute mess. It seemed like she really didn't have a clear idea of the plot, she was just making it up as she went along. Her characters were unconvincing and silly, even for a light hearted YA read. And the thing that absolutely *killed* it for me--when she describes a character as throwing something into the backseat of his Corvette. Oh my god. CORVETTES DO NOT HAVE BACKSEATS. Seriously, who doesn't know this? Even if Jay didn't, shouldn't her editor have fact checked this?