Crazy is a story about a guy who is scared to death that he'll end up insane like his dad.
His dad doesn't work, but can be found pulling his own teeth, attempting to listen to the radio while fully clothed in the bathtub, or running around with an ancient roman helmet on his head and tinfoil on his ears to keep out the Furie's voices.
The Furies, by the way, are Medusa and her two sisters. All three have snakes for hair and can turn a man to stone with a glance.
Every time the boy, whose name is Jason (for Jason and the Argonauts) comes home, he gets asked "Apollo! Any news from the front?" His middle name, by the way, is Apollo.
Did I mention the dad is Greek?
When he was six, his dad buried him alive so the Furies wouldn't get him. He was saved by his mother, but he still gets nightmares, especially since his mother had a stroke and passed away. She was a wedding and nature photographer, and the one who brought most of the money into the house. His father's few books on Greece didn't make much money.
Nowadays, he and his father live in an old house that's always cold because the heating is too expensive. There is almost no furniture, because Jason had to sell it all in order to buy food, which there is very little of at this point. He is a growing teenager and the only real food he gets is from the school lunch program.
He's trying his hardest to take care of his father and keep him out of the mental hospital, while at the same time battling his own mental issues. He has no friends, and trusts no one due to an incident in the fifth grade. Instead of friends, he has an audience and laugh track in his head. Yes, you read that right, an audience and a laugh track. Oh, and you're in there too. The audience is more or less his conscience, his confidence, his insanity, and his common sense, but he named them.
Rather than blend in like he wants to, he keeps acting up in school, getting the teacher's attention. Not in any mean way, he just does stupid stuff, like mess up the dates on all his papers and call Captain Ahab "Cap'n Ahab" when he was writing about Moby Dick.
He got warning after warning and finally his grades dropped and he started flunking everything, and now he's being sent to the school psychologist because the dates he's picking are the same dates as those when his mother got the stroke and died.
Things are not looking up in Jason's point of view. All he wants is to be left alone with his audience and take care of his dad, but now he's expected to share secrets with a group of other kids with family problems.
Overall, it's a good coming of age story, but if I give away any more, you'll have no reason to read it!
Crazy doesn't belong to me, I'm not Han Nolan, nor am I crazy myself.
-Kj
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Crossing the Tracks by Barbara Stuber
Crossing the Tracks is a story about a girl named Iris whose father doesn't seem to care about her anymore. He owns a shoe shop, so he cares a great deal about footwear and having the right pair of shoes for every occasion, and he's dating a woman Iris can't stand, but he doesn't seem to notice Iris other than her getting in the way.
One day, she finds out that he's sending her off to live with a doctor and his mother, neither of whom she had met before, and be a caretaker for the doctor's mother. She boards the train with the perfect shoes for the occasion, stiff as they may be, and exits the train barefoot.
Over the summer, she learns a great deal about herself and the people around her. She helps a girl she can't stand, and gains a new interest in an old friend.
It's a good story, and as it is focused around a doctor's household, there are some of the most hilarious remedies for ailments I've ever heard of.
The story is sad at times, but not a downer. There is love, but it is not strictly a romance. Happiness, but not clownish. Overall, it's a great mix, with good storytelling and fantastic characters. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.
-Kj
One day, she finds out that he's sending her off to live with a doctor and his mother, neither of whom she had met before, and be a caretaker for the doctor's mother. She boards the train with the perfect shoes for the occasion, stiff as they may be, and exits the train barefoot.
Over the summer, she learns a great deal about herself and the people around her. She helps a girl she can't stand, and gains a new interest in an old friend.
It's a good story, and as it is focused around a doctor's household, there are some of the most hilarious remedies for ailments I've ever heard of.
The story is sad at times, but not a downer. There is love, but it is not strictly a romance. Happiness, but not clownish. Overall, it's a great mix, with good storytelling and fantastic characters. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.
I'm not Barbara Stuber, nor did I write the book for her.
-Kj
"Trust in Me" Selena Gomez
Hey, have you ever seen Disney's movie The Jungle Book?
Well, long story short, it's about a kid named Mowgli who is literally raised by wolves in a jungle in India. There are tons of predators everywhere; Shere Kahn the tiger, King Louis of the orangutans and monkeys, various creepy crawlies and Shere Kahn's right hand man, Kaa the snake.
Kaa is a constrictor, so he doesn't use venom or anything like that, he simply squeezes the life out of his lunch. Mowgli looks like a good sized lunch. He hypnotizes Mowgli by singing "Trust in Me" and the kid is about to become his lunch.
How does it end? Well, it's a Disney movie, so that should give you a pretty good hint, but you can go ahead and watch it if you're curious. But that's not why I'm posting this.
Selena Gomez does a fantastically creepy cover of "Trust in Me" and if you're interested in hearing one of Hollywood's cute little sweethearts singing something not so cute or sweetheartish, you should check it out.
It's on Grooveshark, so you can look it up for free. I haven't searched for it on Youtube though, so there might be a video, in which case it could either hype up the creepy or tame it out a bit.
-Kj
Well, long story short, it's about a kid named Mowgli who is literally raised by wolves in a jungle in India. There are tons of predators everywhere; Shere Kahn the tiger, King Louis of the orangutans and monkeys, various creepy crawlies and Shere Kahn's right hand man, Kaa the snake.
Kaa is a constrictor, so he doesn't use venom or anything like that, he simply squeezes the life out of his lunch. Mowgli looks like a good sized lunch. He hypnotizes Mowgli by singing "Trust in Me" and the kid is about to become his lunch.
How does it end? Well, it's a Disney movie, so that should give you a pretty good hint, but you can go ahead and watch it if you're curious. But that's not why I'm posting this.
Selena Gomez does a fantastically creepy cover of "Trust in Me" and if you're interested in hearing one of Hollywood's cute little sweethearts singing something not so cute or sweetheartish, you should check it out.
It's on Grooveshark, so you can look it up for free. I haven't searched for it on Youtube though, so there might be a video, in which case it could either hype up the creepy or tame it out a bit.
Anywho, I'm not Selena Gomez, and Disney owns the song!
-Kj
Legacy by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Hey guys, I've been up to my neck in summer reading and I have some highlights for you.
The first book in my pile is called Legacy and it's by a guy named Thomas E. Sniegoski. This is a story about a regular guy named Lucas, just living his life as a mechanic at this tiny little shop in the middle of nowhere. He's eighteen, dropped out of high school, lives with his mom, and doesn't really have much of a future outside the auto shop.
One day, he gets paid a visit by some guys from his old school. The leader is mad because Lucas made a comment about his girlfriend, so they get in a fight. Lucas is winning when he gets stabbed in the gut by the angry leader. The other guys run away while Lucas sinks to the floor. He pulls out the knife and he's pretty sure he's going to die when his boss comes in and sees the giant blood stain on his shirt. The boss gets kinda freaked out, but Lucas is feeling better. He lifted his shirt and... nothing. No gaping hole where his guts should have been, no ache, not even a scratch. But suddenly he's famished, so he heads across the street to the diner where his mom works and gets lunch.
A day or two later, an old man with a brand new Mustang pulls into the auto shop. There's nothing wrong with the car, the man just wanted to talk with Lucas. He has news. The man is really the Raptor, the superhero in charge of protecting Seraph City, and Lucas is his son.
Check it out, it's a good, fast read, but not totally mind candy. I had fun with it.
-Kj
The first book in my pile is called Legacy and it's by a guy named Thomas E. Sniegoski. This is a story about a regular guy named Lucas, just living his life as a mechanic at this tiny little shop in the middle of nowhere. He's eighteen, dropped out of high school, lives with his mom, and doesn't really have much of a future outside the auto shop.
One day, he gets paid a visit by some guys from his old school. The leader is mad because Lucas made a comment about his girlfriend, so they get in a fight. Lucas is winning when he gets stabbed in the gut by the angry leader. The other guys run away while Lucas sinks to the floor. He pulls out the knife and he's pretty sure he's going to die when his boss comes in and sees the giant blood stain on his shirt. The boss gets kinda freaked out, but Lucas is feeling better. He lifted his shirt and... nothing. No gaping hole where his guts should have been, no ache, not even a scratch. But suddenly he's famished, so he heads across the street to the diner where his mom works and gets lunch.
A day or two later, an old man with a brand new Mustang pulls into the auto shop. There's nothing wrong with the car, the man just wanted to talk with Lucas. He has news. The man is really the Raptor, the superhero in charge of protecting Seraph City, and Lucas is his son.
Check it out, it's a good, fast read, but not totally mind candy. I had fun with it.
By the way... My name isn't Sniegoski, this is not my book, I'm just the reviewer.
-Kj
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