August 2016

Click: One Novel Ten Authors

by Park, Almond, Colfer, Ellis, Hornby, Doyle, Wynne-Jones, Ozeki, Lanagan, Maguire

 I picked up Click: One Novel Ten Authors at our local library book sale.  It looked like an intriguing idea.  This young adult novel was actually written by ten award winning Young Adult authors.  They weave the story of Maggie and Jason’s inheritance from their grandfather, a world-renowned photojournalist.  Each story was unique.  Some worked better than others.  It seemed more like an anthology of short stories with a common theme than a novel. I found it to be a good read… but I’d be interested in what young readers think of it. 

Who Knew?

By David Hoffman

Who Knew? Is one of those quick read books that you can pick up at Barnes and Noble.  I purchased it as a gift for someone and read it before sending.  There were actually a few quirky facts that I really didn’t know.  None were terribly significant, as I can’t remember any at the moment.  However, it’s cute and a good gift.  I’d definitely recommend it, especially if you can get it on sale.

Ulysses

By James Joyce

Audio Book

I can’t think of too many reasons to read Ulysses by James Joyce.  It was a long, boring day with Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged man, and his friends in Dublin.  I read it in an attempt to relate to a sister who insists that she is actually reading the book, which I find very hard to believe.  One reviewer recommended reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man before reading Ulysses.  I’m probably missing something, but I don’t think that was necessary or even helpful.  Neither of them was great, however Ulysses is far less depressing than A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man.  It was just boring.  James Joyce is definitely not my cup of tea!

I purchased the illustrated and annotated Kindle version of this book.  If you have to read Ulysses, the LibriVox audio version is the way to go:

https://librivox.org/ulysses-by-james-joyce/. 

Different narrators read the audio version, which makes it possible to understand the incomprehensible written text.