Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein

Do you remember Shel Silverstein? He was best known as an author/drawer of children’s books titled Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up. He passed away nearly a decade ago, but his family put out one final book featuring some of his best unpublished poems and drawings a few weeks ago. I’m not going to hold back: I loved the book. The poems are smart and witty, entertaining and funny. It made me feel young (even though I’m not that old).

I've never reviewed poetry before, so I’ve decided to share a few of my favorite poems (if this is copyright, I apologize and will remove the poems…but from my research on the web, this appears to be okay).

Years From Now

Although I cannot see your face

As you flip these poems awhile,

Somewhere from some far-off place

I hear you laughing – and smile.

Happy Ending?

There are no happy endings.

Endings are the saddest part,

So just give me a happy middle

And a very happy start.

The Clock Man

“How much will you pay for an extra day?”

The clock man asked the child.

“Not one penny,” the answer came,

“For my days are as many as smiles.”

“How much will you pay for an extra day?”

He asked when the child was grown.

“Maybe a dollar or maybe less,

For I’ve plenty of days on my own.”

“How much will you pay for an extra day?”

He asked when the time came to die.

“All of the pearls in all of the seas,

And all of the stars in the sky.”

When I Am Gone

When I am gone what will you do?

Who will write and draw for you?

Someone smarter – someone new?

Someone better – maybe YOU!

There were a bunch of other poems I really liked: The Lovetobutcants, Growing Down, Call the Please, Jake says..., Investigating, The Kid-Eating Land Shark, the list goes on and on. I really hope others read this book. It’s for all ages, not just children. I would love to know which others’ favorites were. You can pick it up and read a few poems at a time to brighten your day.

My rating for Every Thing On It: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Do you know any other popular poets of our time? I would love to read more of it, but no one sticks out in my mind.

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

I have so much to say. I pre-ordered this book weeks ago from Amazon, but it wasn’t expected to arrive at my house until ten days after the release. Unacceptable. I canceled my order and drove to the nearest Barnes and Noble so I could start reading right away. (In case you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Nichoals Sparks.)

The story is about Amanda and Dawson, two high-school lovers from drastically different backgrounds. Amanda’s good-to-do southern family disapproves  of Dawson’s family, full of villains and troublemakers. Dawson tries to separate himself from his family’s associations by taking up refuge at an old man’s house. Tuck provides a safe haven (you like that pun?) for Dawson, and him and Amanda spend a ton of time together at Tuck’s. The relationship ends when Amanda goes off to Duke and Dawson ends up in jail.

Fast forward twenty years. Amanda’s married and successful. Dawson is lonely and works on an oil rig. Tuck’s death brings them back together as Tuck’s will asked each of them to carry out a ceremony for him. The fire is re-kindled but things happen. (This post will be spoiler free.) I will say the ending has a lot of twists, although as it develops the ending becomes predictable.

The backgrounds for each character are overly dramatic, even for a Nicholas Sparks book. Dawson’s family is feared and has the run of the town, but it doesn't seem like real life to me. The depth of character development is captivating. As always, the reader understands the characters’ feelings and easily falls in love with the story.

My rating for The Best of Me: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. If you remember, I had a huge surprise for this week…well, guess who I met!!!

That’s right! Mr. Nicholas Sparks himself. A good friend alerted me of a book signing at The Coop in Harvard Square. I went there right after my half-marathon in Newport (by the way, I half-marathoned in 1 hour, 45 minutes). As soon as I got off the train I hopped in line. Before I knew it, I standing next to Nicholas Sparks. The meeting went something like this…

“How are you doing?” – Nicholas Sparks

“Good, good. I am one of your biggest guy fans. I'm guessing you're used to girls but as a guy I really like your books.” – me

“Don’t see too many guys. There are a lot of women here today. It’s usually them at these book signings.” – Nicholas Sparks

“That’s not a bad thing. It was great to meet you. Can we get a picture?” – me

"Sure." - Nicholas Sparks

In my copy of The Best of Me, he wrote: 

Nick - 

All the best. 

Nicholas Sparks

Laugh at me for being so giddy but this is one of the first “celebrities” I’ve ever met. It was awesome. The perfect ending to a perfect weekend. 

You are an Ironman by Jacques Steinberg

You may or may not know that I am planning to run a half-marathon next Sunday in Newport, RI. I’ve been training since May and am fairly confident I will be able to finish in good time. (Although yesterday my foot started hurting a lot after running 5 miles…I’ll have to take it easy until race day.) Anyways, as some last minute motivation, I thought I would read a book about marathons. I ended up selecting You are an Ironman by Jacques Steinberg.

The story chronicles six people through their journey training and partaking in the actual Ironman competition. For those who don’t know what an Ironman is, it’s a 2.4 mile swim in open water, a 112 mile bike ride, and then a 26.2 mile run. All of it must be done in 17 hours. (Oh and as a bonus, the Ironman World Championship was held yesterday in Hawaii.) The people in the story are average Americans. They come from difficult financial situations, they were never a jock, nor are they professional athletes. The author spells out in the first few pages that this is not a training manual. He does not offer any tips and really does not go into too much detail as to what the participants are doing on a day to day basis (he does offer resources if you are interested in that sorta thing). Instead he talks about everyday struggles leading up to the Ironman.

Even though there were six main characters, I found I was constantly confused as to whose history was whose, who was training where. Each chapter will give updates on a few of the competitors. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention enough. Still, I appreciated what each person went through. And I thought the ending was one of the most suspenseful that I’ve read in a while. The final pages discuss how each person faired in the Ironman event. This book is exactly what I was looking for just before my half-marathon. Wish me luck!

My rating for You are an Ironman: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Huge (absolutely huge) surprise for next week. It will be awesome!!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

There has been little time to read lately, hence the hiatus last week. I have an interesting book to blog about for this week’s review. Erin Morgenstern’s first novel called The Night Circus is marketed towards the Harry Potter audience and comes with a ton of hype. It debuted a few weeks ago. The story revolves around a challenge between two competitors, yet they don’t know what the challenge is. The venue for their challenge is a circus, which shows up unannounced in cities all over the world. The circus becomes a huge draw and attracts devoted followers.

The two competitors start out as young kids. Celia learns from experience, Marco learns from books. Their paths don’t cross until the circus forms when they are about 20 years old. Celia is the main star at the circus; Marco manipulates the circus from afar, as the owner’s assistant. Somehow they fall in love with each other and it turns into a romantic novel. The very end of the book links it all together and makes you wonder.

My thoughts: The beginning is captivating. The world created by the author is really cool. However, as the story progresses, we are introduced to more and more illusions which become less and less believable. The best example of this is the father becoming ghost-like (more ghost-like magic occurs later on) or the worlds created inside some of the tents. For me, the story became too fake. I’m unsure how Harry Potter fans would feel…maybe they would be enthralled, maybe not (although I’m sure nothing compares to Harry).

I was also put off by the love part of the book even though I knew it was coming. This book wasn’t for me but I thought I would give it a shot and change up my usual reading habits. I’m sure others would enjoy it. I’d be interesting to hear others’ perspectives. If you want to give it a read, shoot me an e-mail/text/tweet/facebook message and I’ll send the book to you.

My rating for The Night Circus: 2 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. I’m excited for the next few weeks. Got some great books coming up!