I grabbed Howl’s Moving Castle during one of my first visits to my new local library while I was testing out the depth of their shared catalog. I love Diana Wynne Jones, so checking another book off her extensive backlist felt like a victory.
Sophie Hatter is the oldest of three sisters, and she’s convinced that, as the oldest sister, she’ll never do anything great because — as fairy tales go — the oldest sister is never the hero. Sophie has resigned herself to the fact that she’ll have an ordinary life… until she gets turned into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste. And in a tricky addendum, Sophie cannot tell anyone about the curse. Mean! Sophie sets off to meet the great and terrifying wizard Howl — who, as the title suggest, lives in a moving castle — to see if she can find a way to be changed back.
There’s more to the story then that — other wizards, a fire demon, riddles and mysteries — but that’s the gist. As much as that premise sounds awesome, I didn’t love this book as much as I expected that I would. Sophie was a wonderful narrator, and I loved many of the other characters. However, I just didn’t feel like a lot of what happened near the end of the book felt concluding… I was confused. I may have just been reading too fast and that’s why I missed a lot of stuff, I’m not really sure. I’ll say I liked reading the book, but I didn’t love it more than other books in Wynne Jones’ repertoire.
One fun thing about reading the book was that Boyfriend and I also watched the movie together afterwards because he is a big fan of the director, Hayao Miyazaki. The movie took a really different emphasis than the book, really playing up the romance between Sophie and Howl. It also simplified some of the background characters and their stories, which helped. I also think that the reveal about Sophie and the spell that made her old played better visually than it did in the book, which was cool. I would definitely suggest checking out the movie… if only because Miyazaki has such a beautiful style that the movie is amazingly appealing.
Truman Capote’s 1966 nonfiction novel In Cold Blood is considered controversial for a number of reasons, among them the pretty disturbing descriptions of violence and questions about Capote’s accurateness in writing the book. Although not one of the most widely challenged books, In Cold Blood is one of the top nonfiction books on the ALA’s list of banned or challenged classics — it’s at 53, right behind The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
To help celebrate Banned Books Week, I decided to participate in a virtual read-out, where people around the world can upload short videos with readings from challenged books. I hope the volume for the video is ok; on my computer it’s really, really quiet!
Interestingly enough, In Cold Blood is still a controversial book. Just this week, a school district in California is debating whether they should add the book to the school’s 11th grade AP English reading list. The book hasn’t been banned, but we won’t know until October whether it will be allowed. I’m curious to see how this plays out, and I’m glad the administrators involved are taking the time to read the book before making a decision.
If you haven’t read In Cold Blood, I definitely recommend it as a great, classic example of narrative nonfiction that is entirely creepy enough for an October read. In fact, I’ll be waxing nostalgic about the book as part of an upcoming guest post for Jenn’s (Jenn’s Bookshelves) “Murder, Monsters & Mayhem” celebration next month!
Title:Storming the Tulips Author: Hannie J. Voyles, compiled by Ronald Sanders Genre: Nonfiction/Essays Year: 2011 Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration Rating:
One Sentence Summary: A collection of essays from children who attended the same school as Anne Frank, the 1st Montessori School in Amsterdam.
One Sentence Review: As a stand-alone book, Storming the Tulips feels incomplete; in conjunction with other WWII stories, the essays offer a new perspective.
Off the Stacks is a weekly-ish feature where I highlight a nonfiction book I’m curious about but will probably run out of hours in the day to actually read. I’m hoping that by highlighting titles this way, I can encourage other people to give the book a try, and, if it’s great, consider nominating it later this year for the Indie Lit Awards. Consider these books stamped with the “Sophisticated Dorkiness Seal of Curious Approval.”
What It’s About: Journalist Brooke Hauser relates the stories of several students at International High School in Prospect Heights, a high school designed to teach English and other skills to recently-immigrated high school students and help them integrate into the U.S. Over the course of a year, Hauser follows the students as the face the competing pressures of learning to survive in America, learning to thrive in high school, and balancing the expectations from their families.
Why I Want to Read It: Eva (A Striped Armchair) posted a review of The New Kids this week and made me really curious to read it. I love narrative nonfiction, and I’m always curious about books that address immigration issues either directly or indirectly. This book seems like it combines the topics from two books I read and liked/loved, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman.
Who Else Might Like It: Teachers, social scientists, people interested in immigration issues, narrative nonfiction junkies
One Sentence Summary: The first line of the book pretty much sums it up: “Like one of those accidents that’s not really really an accident, the casting of “good” Audrey in the part of “not-so-good” call girl Holly Golightly rerouted the course of women in the movies, giving voice to what was then a still-unspoken shift in the 1950s gender plan.”
One Sentence Review: Although I liked the part of the book about how the movie impacted culture more than the part about the making of the movie, on the whole Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. is a fun look at the making of an icon and how that icon changed culture.
Why I Read It: I’m not a superfan of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but I love books that explore the connections between culture and pop culture.
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One fun thing about reading the book was that Boyfriend and I also watched the movie together afterwards because he is a big fan of the director, Hayao Miyazaki. The movie took a really different emphasis than the book, really playing up the romance between Sophie and Howl. It also simplified some of the background characters and their stories, which helped. I also think that the reveal about Sophie and the spell that made her old played better visually than it did in the book, which was cool. I would definitely suggest checking out the movie… if only because Miyazaki has such a beautiful style that the movie is amazingly appealing.
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