The Long Weekend

Ugh, I jacked my back AGAIN. Luckily, it wasn't too terrible this time and it coincided with the long weekend so I missed minimal amounts of work and got out of having to help Dan tear down the front fence and build a brick wall. (Which he did all by himself and it looks AWESOME. I would have just messed it up.)

Anyway, here are two books that I had to read for work and really didn't want to because I wasn't a huge fan of other books by the same authors. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised in both cases!

Kendra Coe Booth

Ok, I really didn't like Tyrell. I wasn't going to read Kendra, but I had to for work. I'm glad I did. I like Booth's online presence and felt bad that I didn't like her book, because I really like her as a person. Now I don't have to feel bad!

Kendra lives with her grandmother in the Bronx, in the projects, but she's a good girl and trying to stay that way. Her mom was 14 when Kendra was born, but Renee just got her PhD. Kendra can't wait to go live her, too bad it looks like Renee is still not ready to face up to her responsibilities as a mother.

Kendra's not going to end up pregnant at 14 like her mom. She's too much of a dork, she's too good. Plus, Nana won't let her out of house and watches her like a hawk.

Kendra has her head screwed on straight. Until her hormones take over.

Sometimes I just wanted to shake her. Kendra was believable and acted like a real teen and she drove me crazy. I am also not happy about the ending, which you can read about in a spoiler-filled rant here.

The story wasn't really my cup of tea, but I liked it a lot more than Tyrell. I'll probably read Booth's next offering, whatever it turns out to be.

The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Sonia wants to be the first in her family to graduate from high school and go to college. Her father works two jobs to support her family while her brothers sit around and watch TV. She's expected to run the house and do all the work, all while under her drunkle's perverted gaze. Then, if things couldn't get worse, her mother decides Sonia doesn't have enough respect and ships her off to Mexico for the summer. While in Mexico, Sonia sees the truth about her culture and her family, and comes home more determined than ever to reach her goals, only her life is more determined than ever to stop her.

I didn't want to read this because I did not like Sitomer's other work. My main complaint (Sitomer is just too angry about what he sees working with kids in urban poverty so his omniscient narrator is just too angry) held true for about the first half of this book. Sonia was really angry about her situation and her culture to the point where it wasn't believable any more. I feel this changed after Sonia's trip to Mexico. There her anger stops being at her culture and starts being directed towards members of her family for particular reasons. After that, I really got into the story and ended up liking it, but I would have put it down after 50 pages if I hadn't been required to read it.

Eep! and Ghetto-Living

Kirsten Miller (aka the author of the most awesome Kiki Strike commented yesterday, but left no way to get in touch... so Kirsten, if you're reading this, I'm an adult medium. I'm also going to see if I can email you via Bloomsbury.

I'm trying to catch up on reviews. I'm seriously about 85 books behind. One of my new year's resolutions last year was "Be a Better Blogger". I think I was but this next year, it's going to be "Review at least 5 books a week or stay current with reading". So y'all have that to look forward to. Marie's been complaining about my lack of reviews and therefore her lack of new books to look for.

So... here are two tales of ghetto life, one of which is awesome, and one of which is not so much.

I read Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrowby Faiza Guene based on this post at Lotus Reads. In this deceptively easy read, Doria is a French teenager of Moroccan descent living in Paradise Gardens-- a Parisian suburban ghetto. Sick of school, sick of the stream of social workers coming to the house, sick of her gossip-y neighbors, Doria's main outlook on life is "kif kif tomorrow" which she translates as "same old shit tomorrow". The chapters are short, the style is as if a 15-year-old girl were just talking at you and it works really well. If you don't want to , you won't notice the stark and dismal portrait of life for Arab immigrants to France. But this is still a great book, not only for the protrayal of Parisian ghetto life, but also because it's a remarkable story of Doria's coming-of-age and can be enjoyed on many levels. I highly recommend.

Tyrell, by Coe Booth, doesn't work nearly as well. This is also written in the voice of a teenager living in the projects of the Bronx. Except that his mom gets evicted and they (along with his younger brother) need to navigate the city's homeless system. Tyrell's dream is to get back into the projects. Booth grew up and lives in the Bronx and was a social worker there for a long time. I don't doubt the book's voice, or the authenticity of the story. What rankles me is the over reliance on stereotypes, the flatness of many of the characters, and a distrubingly misogynistic tone. There was not 1 decent woman in the whole book. Not 1!

Tomorrow, I leave for Christmas down Texas way. I'm already thinking about what books to bring. I plan on catching up on lots of reading. Lots of books!