Novel Review: Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

Genre: Adult Historical Contemporary/Literature

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: HarperCollins (Avon)

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Book Depository. Barnes and Noble. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The hilarious and heart-warming story about a down-and-out kid who finds inspiration in his favourite baseball hero. In Brooklyn, 1940, a wisecracking, baseball loving twelve-year-old boy, Joey Margolis, is in desperate need of a hero. His rich father has recently divorced his mother, leaving her all but penniless, and she is forced to move herself and her son to an Italian dominated part of Brooklyn, where he's the only Jew in the area. Constant abuse from other boys in the neighbourhood prompts Joey to send letters to Charlie Banks, an up-and-coming star with the New York Giants, asking for a home run so he can tell everyone that it was for him. Joey uses every trick in the book to get what he wants and the friendship that comes out of their simple correspondence will change them both forever.

This improbable friendship is woven together through letters, postcards, notes, telegrams, newspaper clippings, report cards and ticket stubs, and includes a colourful cast of supporting characters.

o The joys and sorrows growing up will always have an audience and this novel sheds light on all the complexity of those difficult times, with humour and joy.

Something Special:

That I love:

• Everything. I tried finding a specific quote, a specific something to say about this book, but I just loved everything. It was all just so good and I can't choose a specific thing. I just loved it all.

 

Review:

First of all, I love Steve Kluger. He only has, I believe, four novels out, and I’ve only read one other, but I love that one (even more than this one), and that’s enough for me. It took me forever to get to this book, but it was fantastic. I have another book of his, and I don’t doubt that it will also be very good.

I don’t think I want to spoil anything from this book, and my main message is: “Go read this. Right now. It’s amazing.” But I do want to talk about it a little, so…

This is set in the 1940’s, in America, during WWII, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was President. It’s told in letters and recorded dialogue and grades and all other formats of not straight-up narrative voice (aside from the prologue and epilogue). Kluger does this with all of his novels, I believe, and he does it amazingly well. He knows his characters, and so it’s easy to get a good sense of who they are.

This book is sweet and funny (very funny) and witty and sad. Joey, a kid growing up in Brooklyn, has a big mouth, never stops talking, can come up with stories at the drop of a hat (usually fake, but not always); he sends letters and gets responses from the President and his assistant, and then starts harassing Charlie Banks, a famous baseball player, via letters. Charlie, at first, tries to get the annoying kid to leave him alone, but quickly ends up being a stand-in father to him. They’re the main characters, but there’s also Charlie’s girlfriend Hazel, who is awesome, and Joey’s Japanese best friend Craig. Then there’s Joey’s mother and aunt and absentee father. Those are the main characters, but there’s also mention of Joey’s teachers, and Charlie’s friends. And they all have very distinct personalities and voices and you can’t help but love them all.

This book is simply amazing. The writing, the characters, the rapid and witty dialogue… Just go read this book, okay?

Review: Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

 

Amazon Synopsis:

Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the fridge. On top of everything else, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope," a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else.

But Elizabeth is on the verge of some major changes. She may lose her best friend, find a wonderful new friend, kiss the sexiest guy alive, and run in a marathon.
So much can happen in the time it takes to write a letter...

Review:

 

This was a pretty good book. I read this after reading the third book, The Year of Secret Assignments, which I really enjoyed. I read the third book, after reading a review of it, knowing that it wasn't the first in the series, because I couldn't find any of the others. I prefer reading things in order, and so it bothered me for a while, and I've since continued to read them correctly.

This one wasn't as good as the third one (which I won't talk too much about, since I'm probably going to review it later). The series is written in letters and in notes and those types of things instead of in third person or something, more like the person is talking to someone. (Including letters addressed to her from weird societies that are quite awesome.) It makes them very easy and fun to read. And this one wasn't any different.

This one's mostly about Elizabeth, with some things that are written to her. Her friend keeps running away, and she's making a new friend from a pen pal project. Plus there's a little bit of stuff with this guy from her school, and with her dad.

I liked Elizabeth, for the most part. And I liked the boy. And Christina, her pen pal, seemed cool. I think, also, though, that I enjoyed Moriarty's style of writing. She makes it all very fun to read, and where you just want to keep reading. And her new friend and the boy are fun. The one thing that bothered me most about the characters was that they all seemed so very immature. It's possible that this was mostly in Celia, and that it rubbed off on Elizabeth, but the rest of them seemed too immature, and not very smart. It made me think that Moriarty sees teenagers like this, which I didn't like, but I don't believe that that's true, because her characters from her other books are very different. So I guess it's only in this book, so that's good. I didn't like Celia much, either way, though.
And I feel like her parents should have been more active in her life, which is more of a personal thing than an problems with the author. And what her dad does is very not-cool. I did enjoy the notes her mother left her, but still.

I did enjoy this book, mostly. It's not as good as the third one, but it was still pretty good.

Review: Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe by Jane Harrington

Rating (Out of 5): 3

Publisher: Darby Creek Publishing

Goodreads Synopsis:

Brady is going to Europe—with her mother! It's a family coming-of-age tradition, so there's no way out of it. To make the trip more interesting, Brady's best gal pal, Delia, has written four things Brady must do while she's in Europe—and Delia used permanent marker so Brady can't chicken out. Brady would never do these things without some encouragement (AKA pressure) from Delia.

Review:

This was alright, but I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. I got it from a used bookstore, cheap, because it sounded like it could be a fun, quick read. And because I had to finish my 100 books for the year, and was looking for something quick like this.

So, it's about Brady, who is going on this cruise with her mother in Europe, and who's best friend decided to write out instructions on her hand for her to follow in Europe.

It's written in letter format, as Brady writes the letters in detail of what has happened to her to her friend Delia. Since it's in letter format, it's a bit like it would be if a person were writing a message online. Not in chat speak, but with all caps for emphasis and lots of exclamation points, and with her talking to Delia. This did bother me a little bit, but that kind of writing bothers me on a normal basis, so it took some getting use to. I tried not letting it bother me, since it is in letters, but it still did some.

The story was alright. Brady is dealing with her mother, who is leading her around to visit everything as they come to different cities, and she's a very shy person but is supposed to follow these rules her friend set. Her friend wants her to wear a bikini in public, which she doesn't want to do, and meet a euro hottie (or, more specifically, a code-red euro-hottie. I don't really know what the code-red is, exactly. Code-yellow, I think, was also mentioned. I don't know what that means, either. I got the gist of it, but it isn't explained [which it shouldn't be, since it's in a letter to Delia, who already knows what it means], so is that something that I just missed the memo on?). But Brady mostly follows the rules. She also makes some friends, who push her to complete the list, and who she also gets close to.

And I do like her friends. There's a southern boy, two girls and another boy from different countries, and another boy who speaks Klingon (this is cool, but I've never seen any Star Trek. I should, though, right?) The two girls she gets pretty close with, and I liked them. The southern boy is pretty cute, and the Klingon guy seems sweet. Although they apparently are going to be seeing each other again, but it just seemed to work out too well, that I didn't believe it.

I didn't particularly feel much for Brady, though, and I didn't get a big idea of who Delia is. I felt like it might have been better if there were letter exchanged back and forth between the two, like if Delia was supposed to do something as well, instead it just being one-way. Although I couldn't really imagine Brady telling Delia to do something... But still.

It also made me interested in finding out more about her family, particularly her sister that's always at the computer, but I'm partial to computer geeks. I didn't get much of an impression of her mother, though. Brady makes it seem like she's crazy, but I didn't really think so.

The story wasn't all that exciting, but it wasn't boring. It didn't have me clutching the book in anticipation for the next bit, but I didn't particularly want to put it down. It was easy to keep reading, but it didn't really leave an outstanding impression.

And the ending was pretty good. It leaves you thinking that things are going to work out alright, maybe even pretty well.

So, it was mostly just alright.