Maniac Magee Review

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(More customer reviews)I picked Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli for my school book report because the cover looked interesting. It showed a picture of feet running. Inside the book jacket was a poem that read:
"Ma-niac, Ma-niac
He's so cool
Ma-niac, Ma-niac
Don't go to school
Runs all night
Runs all right
Ma-niac, Ma-niac
Kissed a bull."
It looked very interesting and funny. I really liked the book because the main character, Maniac Magee, was funny and smart and cared about and helped people. You really want him to be happy.
Maniac Magee (whose really name was Jeffrey) became a homeless kid who lost his parents in a trolley accident. He wants a real home with a family and that is what he looks for in the story. He's really unusual. He is famous for running everywhere. He's so fast no one can beat him. He's really good at sports. He even hit a "frog" ball and turned it into an inside the park homerun. He can untie very complicated knots. Little kids bring him all their troubles and he helps solve them. He wins a lifetime supply of pizza but he's allergic to pizza! Everyone loves him--well, almost everyone. That's what bothers him and keeps him running all night.
Maniac doesn't see any bad in people. He keeps thinking they're nice. But some are so mean that he finally figures out they don't like him. He blames himself. Maniac meets a girl, Amanda. She has lots of books and he really wants one. She lets him have one to read. When he returns it she invites him to live with her family in the East End. Only black people live there. Maniac doesn't see any difference between the black and white people. When he sees there are some who don't understand each other he tries to get them to like each other. But this doesn't happen very easily.
After Maniac runs away from Amanda's house, he lives with the buffalos at the park zoo. One day he meets Grayson who used to be a Minor league pitcher. Grayson and Maniac become really close like grandson and grandfather. They do everything together. You'll have to read what happens next. It's very emotional.
Maniac spends time with the McNabb family in the West End. This is where the white people live. When he's there he tries to bring the East End and West End kids together. One time it doesn't work. Another time it does work.
Maniac runs away from all of his temporary homes because he wants things to be perfect. He learns that not everything can be perfect. Does he find what he wants in the end? You'll have to read the book to find out.

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Infinite Jest: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)David Foster Wallace is a genius, and he knows it. But unlike other geniuses that you might know, he never tries to make you feel dumb. He just wants you to understand the same things that he does, so occasionally you'll feel out of your depth. But he's also a gifted writer, so odds are that you *will* come out understanding him. And what he's saying is brilliant, so you'll feel like a better person for it.
Wallace has been described as ``postmodern", a word that seems to get smacked onto anything written after World War II. I don't see it. To me, postmodernism involves a few things: 1) irony, in liberal doses (e.g., DeLillo's _White Noise_); 2) a continuous awareness that we're *reading a book* and that there's an author talking to us, and that the characters are under his control (e.g., anything by Kurt Vonnegut); 3) self-reference, sometimes to the point of disorienting involution (e.g., Wallace's story ``Westward The Course Of Empire Makes Its Way" from his book _Girl With Curious Hair_ - and that story is, notably, a spoof of postmodernism). This may be an overly conservative definition of postmodernism, but the word's overapplication justifies some conservatism.
_Infinite Jest_ is not postmodern; it's just a great story with beautifully constructed characters. It is a book about a movie that is so addictive that anyone who starts watching it has no choice but to keep watching it forever - foregoing food, water, and sleep, and suffering as much pain as is necessary to keep watching. The movie itself is, to paraphrase a friend, an uber-McGuffin (I'm never sure whether I've spelled that right) - an object that never gets clearly explained, but around which the plot coheres.
The movie itself is not the main point of the book. _Infinite Jest_ is a novel about American addictions: television, drugs, sex, fame, and indeed the American need to be addicted to something. An addiction to addictions. Wallace summarizes the book's mood well when he says,
``There's something particularly sad about it, something that doesn't have very much to do with physical circumstances, or the economy, or any of the stuff that gets talked about in the news. It's more like a stomach-level sadness. I see it in myself and my friends in different ways. It manifests itself as a kind of lostness. Whether it's unique to our generation I really don't know."
(...)
The main sign of Wallace's genius - and yes, I mean that word with all it entails, content in the knowledge that it is overused but that it fits here - is that he can make us feel this gut-level sadness without even appearing to work at it. Heavy use of irony can make you feel that there's some deeper, unseen, lurking gloominess about the world, and for that reason it's the easy way out. Ditto self-reference, which after a while is dizzying and confusing. Wallace is too brilliant a writer to take any of the easy postmodern routes. He's just written a great story with an unpleasant underlying mood. It's been a long time since I've read a book of such masterful subtlety.
It has all the classic aspects of a great novel: characters whom the reader *understands*, a compelling story that edges inexorably toward an uncertain ending, a gut-level mood, and a habit of dispensing brilliant toss-offs so suddenly that the reader can't help but gasp. For instance, see the attached text file containing Wallace's future-retrospective explanation of why videophones failed.
My first inclination was that this book - weighing in at over a thousand pages, including hundreds of footnotes (some of which have their own footnotes) - needed an editor. And it may, at points. But there's very little chaff amongst the wheat: the book's heft serves at least three purposes:
1) To build characters, slowly and methodically. One of Wallace's flaws is that his characters' dialogue - particularly that of his youthful protagonist and tennis prodigy, Hal Incandenza - doesn't sound genuine. It sounds like Wallace talking through 17-year-olds, not 17-year-olds who've been transcribed. I think Wallace realizes this, which is why most of his character development comes through narration.
2) To dump out the contents of Wallace's swirling brain. He has so much to say, and he seems to want to get it all down on paper in this one book. Less profound thoughts from a less talented author might have left me screaming for an editor, but they didn't do so here.
3) To structure the book as a conversation. Reading this book, one feels as though one is talking directly with Wallace. More often than not, his sentences will contain heavy Latinate words like ``epicanthic" just a short distance from the conversational stammerings ``like" and ``and so but". Again, had a lesser writer written these words, I would have edited the book myself, filling the margins with red pen.
The book's length will discourage all but a few readers, but it handsomely rewards the patient.

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Love-Set-Match (Two of a Kind #29) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ok, it is not the best book, it does not have the best climax, but it's well written and very entertaning, even if we are talking about Mary-Kate's and Ashleys book. it's about MK and A going to a camp called camp Evergreen. Every year, there are competitions of all sort betweem Camp Evergreen and Camp...? I forgot it's name! but it started with an R. I'ts a two part serie, I only read the first. But besides the competition, Ashley has a crush on a boy called Andrew, who's his dad (and him) are really good tennis players, but his dad doest let Andrew date because "he needs to stick to tennis", says his dad. Now they also (MK and A and their other camp mates) want to steal the portrait of the two sister that started the two camps, which by the way camp R has it...how do they steal it? and MK, by making a deal with A on trying something new: "the big/little sisters club". Thats were you get a little girl to be your little sister for the whole camp month. But Jessie isnt any ordinary girl, likes playing with truks and dinosoaurs, and has no barbie dolls...and has no friends exept MK! The problem is, Jessie doesnt stop following MK, and gets her, A, and the rest of the gang into big time trouble!

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Dear Diary,

I decided to join the big tennis tournament at camp. My doubles partner, Andrew, is really cute! The coach says we can't date, but Andrew says we should break the rules. Hmmm. I guess we'll just have to make sure we don't get caught!

-- Ashley

Dear Diary,

Well, it's official. I can tie three kinds of knots and climb a tree in under three minutes. How is this useful, you ask? It's all apart of a contest our camp is having with the rival camp down the road, and I want to win! But someone is standing in the way of our victory. My very own sister!

-- Mary-Kate

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Sports and Entertainment Marketing Review

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(More customer reviews)I was in Ken Kaser's marketing class for two years and i can honestly say with utmost certainty that Mr. Kaser's sports marketing book is the greatest, most compelling story of human drama and intrigue that i have ever read. It is a poignant and touching journey into the human psyche and inded the very nature of man. Through his stunning portrayal of the book's main character (a Jewish man named Trey), Kaser delves into the relms of intelectual enlightenment and human sexuality. While many subjects are explored through the main character's search for the meaning of life, he ultimately confronts the eternal questions of existence such as "Why am i here?", and "Why is Tenney such a bastard?". This book is a life changing epic full of all the things that make great literature great. Ken Kaser has given the world a gift it will appreciate forever and he will go down in history as the greatest writer in the English language. I give it 5 stars.

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SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING 3E continues to use sports and entertainment topics as the foundation for teaching marketing concepts. Each marketing function is incorporated throughout the text and is highlighted with an icon to indicate how it is used in the marketing process.

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Tears of a Tiger Review

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(More customer reviews)As a junior high school English teacher, I am always on the lookout for a good YA novel to teach to my students or to recommend that they read individually. When I heard of Tears of a Tiger, I had high hopes that it would be everything that I look for in a YA novel. First of all, I liked the fact that the main characters were African-American. I teach a large portion of African-American students, and I have a lot of trouble finding a YA novel in which African-Americans are the central characters (are you listening, YA authors?). Second, I absolutely loved the differing points of view style that the book is written in. The way that the characters are developed through conversation, letters, poems, essays, and so on is one of the best that I have read. This is a great teaching tool alone, not to mention a super way of telling the story. Third, the event that is the catalyst for the plot, the underage drinking and driving, is realistic and teaches a great lesson to teenagers. Given my glowing praise, you may wonder, why not five stars? The simple fact is that Andy's suicide destroyed the book for me. The whole plot of the book seemed to be leading to Andy's coming to grips with the death of his friend. I was thinking: what a great way to show kids that there are other alternatives than killing oneself to work through problems. Then, the suicide note and he is dead. This is not a good message to send to youth. While a mature young adult can read and understand this book the way that the author probably meant it to be read, this is not a YA book for the masses. In good conscience, I cannot teach a book to kids who have enough disturbing messages thrown at them from all sources on a daily basis as it is. They do not need to read a book in which the main character, a young man much like many of them, cannot cope with his mistakes and kills himself. Would I still teach Antigone and Macbeth, you may wonder? Yes, I would; the characters who commit suicide in many classic works of literature bear little or no resemblance to the teenagers of today. Andy, on the other hand, is too much like many of the teenagers that I run into on a daily basis. Our children need to be taught the real truth--that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

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The Story of Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball (Famous Lives) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Story of Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball is about the struggles of one black man who made a big difference. Jackie Robinson was a great athlete in college but was not let into the Major Leagues because his skin was black. Robinson played on the Brooklyn Dodgers in the "Noble Experiment" which was meant Jackie being the first black on a white team. His team looked down on him because of the color of his skin. When the fans yelled slurs at him and other teams yelled at him it overwhelmed the Dodgers. They finally stood up for Robinson. I recommend this wonderful book, Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball because it has a lot of action and emotion.

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Examines the life of the talented black athlete who broke the color barrier in major league baseball by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

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The World According to Garp (Modern Library) Review

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(More customer reviews)I first read THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP in 1982, the year the movie adaptation came out. I was a great fan of Robin Williams (MORK & MINDY still being on television at the time), and because I was far too young to view the film, I decided to read its source novel. Actually, I did an oral report on it, much to the chagrin of my 6th grade teacher. It's hard to do an oral report when the rest of the class is awestruck at the use of the word 'bastard'. I did very well, but the teacher did recommend that I stick to less challenging works, considering my age. Thankfully, I did not listen.
In the many times I have reread GARP since, I have never failed to be struck dumb by the sheer elegance and beauty, not to mention brutality, of John Irving's novel. While Irving's writing have too often been described as 'Dickensian', it is truly an accurate summation. Irving presents a family saga rife with bizarre yet realistic characters, all swirling around what very well may the finest character put to paper in the 20th century, T.S. Garp.
Garp is the bastard son (there's that word again) of Jenny Fields, a sometimes nurse and headmistress, who doesn't believe in anyone but herself, and her son. As Garp matures, finding success as an author, Jenny inadvertently eclipses his fame with her own autobiography, which catapults her to the forefront of the feminist movement.
I won't say more about the plot, because nothing else would suffice. To try and describe it any further might inadvertently gloss over the innumerable circumstances that make up Garp's life. Already, many single scenes come flooding back to memory: Garp, as a child, stranded precariously on the roof of a dormitory, trying to find a pigeon; Garp as a teen, experiencing his first sexual encounter, as well as a more fierce encounter with a large black dog named Bonkers; Garp (in arguably the most haunting moment) turning off his car's engine and quietly gliding up his driveway in the dark, as his son whispers, "It's like a dream!"
Irving's other characters run the gamut, from odorific professors to brain-dead war heroes. There's Roberta Muldoon, a former linebacker-turned-transexual; Ellen James, the tragic and unwanting figurehead of a truly weird cult; and Poo, the sister of one of Garp's first girlfriends. Irving weaves his characters and situations together in a breathtaking dance. And despite the dance's immense complexity, he never once loses his step.
Irving has also become famous (justifiably so) for a story Garp pens within the novel, THE PENSION GRILLPARZER. While this story is terrific, it has overshadowed the rest of Garp's work found within the pages of the novel. Irving performs a neat trick, in that Garp's style of writing, while similar to Irving's, is not exactly the same. Irving writes from Garp's viewpoint, ensuring that Garp has a voice of his own. While GRILLPARZER is famous, an excerpt from one of Garp's later novels is equally memorable. In the story, a young housewife is raped, while a police officer tracks the rapist down. While it feels like an Irving novel, it also doesn't; it is far nastier and more grotesque than anything else Irving has written. It is not Irving's story, it is Garp's, providing a telling glimpse into Garp's anguished soul.
GARP is a tragedy, with funny parts. It is a comedy, with heart-wrenching moments. It is riotously funny, and crushingly moving. It is a story of writers, and insanity, and adultry, and terminal cases. Like the best novels, it displays the entire life of an individual the reader would not otherwise get to know. It presents you with places you want to see, and people you wouldn't mind sharing a beer with. It is Irving's best work, and a landmark in American literature.

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Gladiator Girl: An Alternate Reality Action-sports Love Story Review

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(More customer reviews)The world R.H. Watson set his story in is futuristic, with cars that drive on their own, person-to-person communication that put today's cell phones to shame, and medical practices beyond anything imaginable in our current world. Yet, when reading "Gladiator Girl," the foreignness of this world fell away as I focused on the characters, especially the protagonist Lucy.
Despite Lucy's almost superhuman skills when playing her sport, it is her human frailties and the fight to overcome them that make her likeable. Lucy's past makes her leery of meaningful relationships. Her temper often threatens to get the best of her. It is these very human struggles that make Lucy's story so good, and "Gladiator Girl" a worthwhile read.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog.**

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Lucy Star is a hot, up and coming rookie guardian in the sport of Blood Battle. A sport built around the new genetic procedure that allows girls, and only girls, to survive extraordinary injuries up until the age of 25, when they stop growing.Her budding fame catches the eye of Jayzen, favored son of the wealthiest family in the city, entangling her in his and his sister Francine's fortunes. She struggles with career and relationships, and doesn't recognize the spark of love growing right under her nose.But she has a dark past: a family history and childhood she had escaped from when she was 14. With the help of her best friend Charlotte-the only person who ever knew her secret-she had successfully put that life behind her. It was all but forgotten.Then one day, her younger brother, who she hadn't seen since he was 10 years old, walked back into her life, harboring a dark secret of his own, one that threatens to suck her back into the past she thought she had escaped, and destroy her and everyone she loves.Parental Discretion Is Advised.

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Soccerland (The International Sports Academy) Review

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(More customer reviews)Soccerland is a great read for any young athlete -- girl or boy. Beth Choat makes you feel like you're at the training camp with Flora as she tries to prove she belongs on the national team.
There are bullies and boys, tests on the field -- and text messages off it. With the Women's World Cup next year, the timing couldn't be better.
For any sports-minded kid who has to write a book report on a subject he or she loves, this is the perfect choice!

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Dead Ball Review

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(More customer reviews)Where else can you find murder, mystery, elite sports, guns, greed, special ops, mafia, and glamour? Dead Ball has it all! The story takes place on the rarefied grounds of AllSport - state-of-the-art facilities that house & train top athletes in numerous sports to compete at the highest levels. It's no surprise then, that combining the world's most highly skilled and competitive athletes, with the best training facility in the world, and all of the rivers of money that follow and flow, makes for a combustible mix. Cutthroat tactics abound throughout the book, the players are many, and the high-stakes world of amateur & professional sports makes for a thrilling read. A brazen murder is committed and the list of suspects with plenty of motive and opportunity is long. Then the body count grows. The sports world is one where all kinds of people come to play, not just the athletes, and rules of the game are sometimes subject to dangerous interpretation. Is murder just another form of competition? Is it no more than a price to be paid as a means to an end? Or is it revenge? Dead Ball is full-throttle action from the very first page!
Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands

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Michael Balkind, author of the critically acclaimed thriller Sudden Death, scores a home run in his newest book titled Dead Ball.Murder, mystery, elite sports, guns, greed, special ops, mafia, and glamour? Dead Ball has it all! The story takes place on the hallowed grounds of AllSport, a sports facility that houses & trains inner city athletes who have shown professional potential in various sports. Before AllSport, many of these athletes lived in poverty. Many were members of street gangs. Combining these kids, the country's top professional athletes, the finest training facility in the world, and big money, makes for a combustible mix. Cutthroat tactics abound and the high-stakes world of professional sports makes for a thrilling read. A brazen murder is committed and the list of suspects with plenty of motive is long. Then the body count grows. The sports world is one where all kinds of people come to play, not just the athletes, and the rules of the game are sometimes subject to dangerous interpretation. Is murder just another form of competition? Dead Ball is full-throttle action from the very first page!

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Spike It: Can Jamie Learn to live with Her New Stepsister? (Matt Christopher Sports Classics) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a long time reader of Matt Christopher books, Spike It ranks right up there with the best I have read. Every 6th to 8th grade student should have an opportunity to read this book, as it gives a valuable lesson in dealing with the sometimes tough situations teenagers face in life beyond the volleyball court. I recommend this book highly.

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Unhappy at having to share space and family with her new stepsister Michaela when her father remarries, thirteen-year-old Jamie is further dismayed when Michaela joins her volleyball team and becomes a star player.

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Live Albom: The Best of Detroit Free Press Sports Columnist Mitch Albom Review

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(More customer reviews)Being that I'm not much of a sports fan unless it's hockey, I wondered if I would be bored by this book. Quite the contrary! Mitch has the uncanny knack of drawing his readers in and making them feel as if they are part of the story. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion and wanted to cry after reading some selections. I found myself deeply interested in columns about sports I detest. Mitch is truly the most talented sports writer in the country, and possibly the best overall writer as well.

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