The Lightning Thief: Review Haiku

Screw-up kid really
demigod: what preteen boy
could resist this book?

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Miramax, 2005, 377 pages.

The London Eye Mystery: Review Haiku

London siblings solve
a curious incident
by looking closer.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. Random House, 2008, 322 pages.

Keeping Score: Review Haiku

Trying to make sense
of the senselessness of war
through sabermetrics.

Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park. Clarion, 2008, 202 pages.

The Learners: Review Haiku

Brilliantly damaged:
graphic design with a
psychological edge.

The Learners by Chip Kidd. Scribner, 2008, 258 pages.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat: Review Haiku

Charmingly absurd

and old-fashioned; owes a great
debt to Roald Dahl, no?

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell. Holt, 2007, 346 pages.

This is deeply true and slightly depressing

Your Score: Rabbit

You scored 19 Ego, 18 Anxiety, and 16 Agency!

IT was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him. It was just the day for Organizing Something, or for Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and saying, "Very well, then, I'll tell Piglet," and then going to Piglet, and saying, "Pooh thinks--but perhaps I'd better see Owl first." It was a Captainish sort of day, when everybody said, "Yes, Rabbit " and "No, Rabbit," and waited until he had told them.

You scored as Rabbit!

ABOUT RABBIT: Rabbit is generally considered Clever by his many friends and relations. He is actually a much better reader and writer than Owl, but he doesn't consider it worth mentioning. Instead, Rabbit's real talent lies in Organizing Plans. He organizes rescue parties, makes schemes to reduce Tigger's bounciness, and goes on missions to find out what Christopher Robin does when he's not at the Hundred Acre Woods. Sometimes, however, his Plans do not always go as Planned.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are smart, practical and you plan ahead. People sometimes think that you don't stress or worry, but this is not the case. You are the kind of person who worries in a practical way. You think a) What are my anxieties about and b)what can be done about them? No useless fretting for you. You don't see the point in sitting around and waiting for things to work out, when you could actually work them out today and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Your friends tend to rely on you, because they know that they can trust you help them work things out.

You sometimes tend to be impatient with people who are less practical in their ways. You don't have much patience for idiots who moan about things but never actually DO anything about them. You have high expectations of everyone, including yourself. When you don't succeed at something, or when something goes wrong despite your best efforts to prevent it, you can get quite hard on yourself. You need to cut yourself some slack and accept that everyone has their faults, even you, and THAT IS OKAY. Let yourself be faulty, every now and then, for the sake of your own sanity.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

The Willoughbys: Review Haiku

As if I needed
more reasons to heart Lois
Lowry. Wicked, droll.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. HMCo, 2008, 176 pages.

Here If You Need Me: Review Haiku

The Plucky Widow
will make you laugh, cry, praise God,

without sentiment.

Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup. Little Brown, 2007, 207 pages.

This year's One Book, One Bedford selection.

What I Was: Review Haiku

Bleak and strange with a
weak frame story; still, she's a
hell of a writer.

What I Was by Meg Rosoff. Viking, 2008, 209 pages.

The Opposite of Invisible: Review Haiku

Art, love, and high school:
never were three standard tropes
more deftly explored.

The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher. Wendy Lamb/Random, 2008, 153 pages.

Oh. Ma. God.

David Sedaris delivers a pizza.



Thanks to Roger for the link.

I'm getting comment spam!

In Chinese!

Back from Whispering Pines, a lovely conference made even lovelier by the fact that my children, including Captain Ear Infection, were not there. Then jury duty this morning, then back in the office this afternoon to not catch up on work.

I did get some reading done this weekend, so I'll try to post a new review or two in the next few days.

P.S. I have turned on "comment moderation" for now, so it will take a little while for your comments to appear. I may decide I hate this and will risk additional spam later.