The Radiation Sonnets by Jane Yolen

I literally just closed the back cover of this book and it’s one of those books that I just had to write about right away. Though I suspect that with this book, I could wait a year to write this review and those thoughts would still be there. I just happened upon this book on Paperback Swap the other day and decided to request it. It’s poetry. By Jane Yolen. Can’t be bad, right? Right…not only can it not be bad, but it’s some of the absolute most moving poetry I’ve ever read. I’d put it in the same category as Katrina Vandenberg’s Atlas. Though they have very different topics, the feelings that they induced were the same. This is not “hard to read” poetry…as so much of it is to me. It’s raw…it’s emotional…it’s hard to read in that emotional sense. But it’s easily understood as it comes from the heart and the head.

Jane Yolen wrote this book as her husband was receiving radiation treatments for an inoperable cancerous tumor in his skull. She set out from the beginning to write a poem each night after he received radiation. The choice to publish these poems was made afterwards, to help others going through the same thing.

As you can imagine, these are tough poems to read. But they’re oh so beautiful and I’m so very happy that I stumbled upon this book. There are many poems that bring a tear to the eye, but there are those that cause laughter too. Yolen addresses the idea of death…of losing her partner of 40 years. She chronicles his days, his lack of appetite, loss of hair, his pains, his triumphs, her weaknesses along the way. And she does it all so beautifully.

I think we all know someone who’s been taken by cancer or who has beaten cancer. I have a cousin that died a couple of years ago after a years long battle with breast cancer. I just recently had a scare that my father could have pancreatic cancer…he doesn’t. But in that moment when the doctor said that he could, my world changed. I can’t imagine if a battle with cancer had ensued. I think Yolen does such a remarkable job in capturing this process.

I have no other words to recommend this book aside from you really must read this one…absolutely beautiful. Here’s the first sonnet in the collection:

Day 1: A Promise to Eurydice

Do not go my love – oh, do not leave me so soon
Familiar halls and rooms that know your touch.
I want another April, May and June,
I want – oh still the wanting is so much.
What – forty years gone by? Why need we more
When those before us fill us both with dread?
Oft times I see you staring out the door
As though you’re longing for the path ahead.
We go then, hand in hand, into the deep,
Each day a visit to the blank machines.
Those promises we made we mean to keep,
By these mechanicals or other means.
And if alone you chance that endless track,
I’ll bring you home without once looking back. (P. 1)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

So I’ve finally joined the rest of the world and introduced myself to 11 year old Flavia DeLuce. And what a wonderful introduction it was. I don’t really know why it took me so long to read this book. For some reason I thought that it just wouldn’t be a book for me, despite plenty of bloggers that I trust completely recommending it. But this year when RIP came around, I told myself I would read it. And now I’m dying to get my hands on the next two books that are coming out and the one coming in 2012!!

This was a fantastic mystery. It had everything. We start with an intriguing plot focusing on postage stamps and their rarities, first introduced to us by a dead black bird turning up on the doorstep with a postage stamp attached to it’s beak. And then we have some amazing characters. Like Ms. Flavia DeLuce herself – an 11 year old girl who’s gifted in chemistry and who discovers a body laying in the cucumber patch outside of their house. It’s Flavia who sets out to solve this mystery on her own getting herself into a bit of a rough patch here and there herself.

And then there’s the humor, the wit, the wonderful writing. All add up to a book that just made me so happy to read!!! It’s not exactly a “spooky” book, but it is a perfect read for this time of year with some certainly sinister activity going on and more than enough mystery to go around. Glad I finally read this one and looking forward to the rest of the books in the series!!

A Spooky Bad Bloggers Post

At least some of them are spooky…Because I don’t have ENOUGH books, I went and bought six more today…add that to the five others that I’ve recently brought into the house and it’s time for another post. With RIP here, I have to say that my eye is turning to spooky books!! And the RIP reading pool just keeps on growing….here’s what came in:

1. What the Dickens by Gregory Maguire – After reading Wicked, I really just want everything the man has written! This one’s about a tooth fairy…(Paperback Swap)

2. The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum – This is the second book in the new Oz graphic novel series that Marvel is doing..it really looks good! (Bought it)

3. Speaker For the Dead by Aaron Johnston – I got so excited when I saw this!! Speaker for the Dead is one of my all time favorite books and Aaron Johnston has adapted it into a graphic novel! Can’t wait to read this one!! (Bought it)

4. The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson – Other Chris is to blame for this one. I’ve heard a LOT about this one recently and know there’s a readalong of it going on during RIP…I likely won’t participate in the readalong as I’m trying to drop all commitments, but I DO want to read this one. Sounds deliciously gothicly creepy! Point to Other Chris! (Bought it)

5. Sweetly by Jackson Pearce – This is the first of the spree at Barnes and Noble tonight…the rest of these books were all bought tonight. I was intrigued by the cover of this one and then read the jacket flap and it sounds really good 🙂 (Bought it)

6. Bedbugs by Ben Winters – Now this sounds like it will literally scare the shit out of me. A novel about a woman attacked by bed bugs while the rest of her family remains unscathed. I’m not a bug fan….(Bought it)

7. Wildwood by Colin Meloy – \o/ I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when this came in the mail!!!! For some reason I thought this was a picture book, but with it being over 500 pages, I can assure you it is NOT! Yes, this is written by THE Colin Meloy…the singer for The Decemberists. And it’s beautifully illustrated throughout. I preordered this ages ago because Ana told me about it, so POINT TO ANA! (Bought it)

8. We the Animals by Justin Torres – I’m SO excited that I found this little novella tonight!! I heard an interview with Justin Torres on the Diane Rehm show the other day and he read from this book that truly sounds amazing and seems to be somewhat autobiographical…point to Diane Rehm! (Bought it)

9. Boyhoods: Rethinking Masculinities by Ken Corbett – I’m really really really hoping that this one is good. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been looking for a good book on this topic. Gender, yes, but specifically male stereotypes and challenging them. If I weren’t so lazy, I’d write a book on the subject myself as it’s something I’m very passionate about. I HATE the stereotypes that boys have to be jocks and handymen, etc. etc. That’s FINE if you are…but boys are allowed to enjoy crafting and dolls and the color pink too. (Bought it)

10. The Darker Side by Cody McFadyen – Well Debi has me dying to read Shadow Man by McFadyen. It’s on my TBR list for the RIP challenge. This one caught my eye tonight in the bargain bin and I just had to have it!!! It sounds excellent! And seeing as I would’ve never bought this had Debi not told me about McFadyen, Point to Debi!! (Bought it)

11. The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia – Found this tonight and I had not heard of it! But it sounds incredible!!! I loved The Secret History of Moscow. It was one of those books that I was lukewarm about after reading it but it has grown on me a LOT. Which reminds me I still have The Alchemy of Stone to read too! (Bought it)

And then I found this AWESOME canvas bag at Barnes and Noble and I couldn’t pass it up. You should totally pick one up for yourself! It’s made really well and it’s really thick and sturdy and I just absolutely love it!!

A Tale Dark And Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

There’s a tropical storm starting to come through New Orleans and it’s stormy and windy. And I just finished my first RIP read, A Tale Dark and Grimm. Seriously…could the first book of RIP HAVE a better title? I think not. And it was perfectly creepy…the kind of book that brought me back to those eerie childhood October days that I loved so very much. When I made tissue ghosts with my sister and decorated our house in black and orange crepe paper.

No, this is not specifically a Halloween story, but it has that wonderful feel to it. And how could it fail? It took the stories of the Brothers Grimm and manipulated them into one fantastic tale. Specifically it tells the story of Hansel and Gretel. But it tells it like you’ve never heard it before. Yes, there’s the story of the old witch and the oven, but Gidwitz continues Hansel and Gretel’s tale by placing them in other Grimm tales making it one complete story.

What I loved about this, is that it’s obviously a book written for children, but he doesn’t disrespect children and pain the “new versions” of the Grimm tales. Instead, he tells them as they were originally written with all of the horrible things that happen…because sometimes horrible things happen in life. And he guides you along the way by stepping out of the story occasionally and offering his own commentary and his own thoughts on what’s to come.

While it is indeed a spooky read, it’s also fun. He throws in lots of adventure and horror and quite a bit of humor along the way too. And I must say that Gidwitz told a story that just made me all warm and fuzzy inside (what does that say about me? :p) with the excitement of fall upon us.