belzhar. meg wolitzer. (241)

i came across meg wolitzer's belzhar in a huffington post post about fall books. i wasn't the biggest fan of the interestings but decided to check out belzhar because i loved the cover.  if it was an instagram post, i would have definitely like it, i have a thing for itemized photos like that.  and a joy division shirt and the bell jar are featured on the cover,  it had to be a good book.  and it was.

it was a good book, but not great. it is a young adult novel so i did not judge it too harshly.  not saying that ya novels can be poorly written but just that where i thought things were predictable and cleaned up too nicely, i could see it be shocking and satisfying to a younger reader.  i have to admit that the fantastical element and pretty much the most important part of the novel, the journals were disappointing.  i thought i was going to read about a girl working through her issues in real life not with the aid of a magical journal.  once they entered the plot, i started to lose interested.  it would have been nice to see jam healed through her own will power and therapy versus magic.

belzhar is the story of a teenage girl named jam. her real name was jamaica named after where she was conceived, no offense but wolitzer must have been stoned.  i mean i get the need for the jar of jam in the story but couldn't she have come up with a better way for her nickname to be jam?  that is some laziness.

jam was enrolled at a special school, wooden barn, because she was suffering depression after her boyfriend, a foreign exchange student, reeves, died.  initially, we do not get any details on how he died, just stories about how they met and the time they spent together. prior to her enrollment, jam stopped living, she couldn't focus in school or get out of bed.  jam's parents enrolled her to help her continue with schooling but also help her heal.

at wooden barn, jam was selected as one of five students to be enrolled in special topics in english.  it is an exclusive course taught by mrs. quenell.  from her roommate, dj, jam learns that past students say that it changed their life completely.  this special topics turned out to be an extra special course because it would be the last one taught.  in special topics, they read one author's work, and this time it was sylvia plath.  an odd choice considering the setting.  (i have to add that once plath was introduced, i decided to reread the bell jar because i didn't remember anything about it.). they would also write in journals during the course, not to be read and returned to mrs. quenell at the end of the course.

the students then discovered that their journals are magical.  when they wrote in their journals, they went into a trans and were sent to a special place they name belzhar, a play on bell jar.  belzhar was different for each student based on the trauma they had experienced in life, thought the setting was on the day of their traumatizing event.  for sienna, she was on a bus with her little brother on the day he disappeared.  for casey, a girl that was paralyzed in a car accident, she was fully able-bodied (is that the pc term?).  for marc, who discovered his father was having an affair, his family is whole.  for griffin, he was in his family's barn with all the goats.  and for jam, she was with reeves.  initally, belzhar brings them all comfort.  however, it was predictable that the students would move forth from their trauma because they would realize how holding onto it caused their life to be stifled.  as demonstrated with jam, belzhar's reeve never cared about her present life and she became bored by having to relive their past.

the students also discovered that they write in their journals for 5 pages each time they go to belzhar and started to stress about what will happen in the end.  in the meantime, they started to heal.  jam became interested in griffin and spent thanksgiving with his family after she got snowed in at wooden barn.  she also helped deliver a baby goat which though amazing but really some girl from jersey would do all of that?  but she starts to fall for griffin but feels guilty for betraying revees.

then, the end came.  casey and marc decided to finish their journals and discovered that they must live through everything that happen to them but this time they are conscious of everything.  of course this gave them the closure they needed to move on. griffin does too and makes peace with his family.  sierra decided to stay in belzhar and went into a coma.  jam was left to decide if she should stay in belzhar with revees or pick griffin.  sad to see it always come down to a boy.

however, here came the plot twist that i was definitely not expecting and actually have to give kudos to wolitzer on this one, but reeves never died.  in fact, jam and reeves never dated!! everything was a lie she told herself because she was obsessed with reeves.  they interacted as school but not on the level she had told us.  jam's true issue was that she had lied to herself that her boyfriend was dead to deal with rejection.  i hate to be mean but she really was crazy.  and well played by wolitzer, because jam also his the truth from her classmates and as a result the reader as well.

i have to say that i wish there was some guilt on jam's end.  i think she mentioned once about feeling bad about lying to her classmates but there was never an explanation from her.  and considering how honest they were with her, she should have come clean.  i mean they were the type to accept anything and just be happy that she found closure, but wolitzer needed to make that conversation happen.

jam got of clean because the reader and her classmates were distracted by the news that sierra's little brother was found but sadly she was now in a coma.  however, jam saved the day by having the brother shout at sierra to get out of belzhar and everyone lived happily ever after.

oh and it turns out mrs. quenell was in a mental hospital the same time as slyvia plath.  way to go wolitzer on having everything come full circle.  oh and mrs. q made some speech about the power of writing, which would have been way deeper if it truly was writing that helped them instead of a magical journal.

a good read for young adults, but if you are an adult, you might want to find something else to read.

i am malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the taliban. malala yousafzai. christina lamb. (239)

i am a horrible person and never really keep up with anything outside the realm of my little world.  i am  horrible about knowing what is going on in the world, current events and politics are sadly not concerns of mine.  i get most of my news scrolling through facebook, but never take the time to read an actual article, must headlines, nor do i take the time to research anything.

and to be perfectly honest, i knew of malala only because madonna had her name written on her back at the concert i went to at the staples center.  madonna, of course, also spoke about what happened to malala. but again to be horrible and honest, i don't remember much, i mean i was in the golden triangle for a madonna, my mind was freaking out over that fact.

i had seen post about i am malala, but when malala was awarded the nobel peace prize and became the youngest recipient of the award, i decided to put in my request for it at the library.

before i go on, i must share one critique, since this work was written with christina lamb, i couldn't help but be skeptical about what i was reading.  i know it doesn't really matter because at the end of the day, it's the message that is important versus how authentically this was malala.  but i couldn't help but wonder how much of what i read was framed by lamb.

in addition to this, i know that malala's cause is important, but the book did become redundant with malala really driving to home her point about education.  it was like okay, i get it.  at some points.  the book also seemed to be very aware of its audience and played it safe for the most point, it painted malala as this very pious and studious girl.  i mean i complained about anne frank being too #teenageproblems but it would have been nice to see malala the girl versus malala the advocate.  i hope when she is an older she will write another book on her own and be completely honest.

other than that this is amazing book because malala's story is truly amazing.

i am confused by the middle east, i don't whose side to be on or who to trust.  i don't know who should be allowed to rule over what area and who has actual claims to what lands.  this work demonstrated just how chaotic it really is.  everyone is confused.  malala lived in the swat valley of the pakistan.  the book discussed the history of swat valley. it went through and explained the confusing past of the militant leaders that plagued the area.  some of things mentioned reminded me of salman rushdie's midnight's children.  i can not give you a clear time line or explanation of leaders.  however, the real trouble of the area started with a radio personality, maulana fazlullah, leader of the taliban.  he began to call minor adherence to islamic law ie. destroying CDs and DVDs but soon it snowballed into bigger things like the restriction of women rights and girls' rights to education. it is scary to think how easy it is for someone like fazlullah to come into power and how willing people are to follow his lead though it destroys lives.

i was appalled and frighten by all that had occurred in swat, even more so because i had no idea how bad it truly was.  when i read about horrible things in history, ie the holocaust, i was always think to myself, how did the world allow this to happen?  why didn't anyone stop it?  pre-internet, the excuse that no one knew what was going on was acceptable.  but what about now?  i mean malala had a blog on the bbc website that explained how her daily life was in swat and yet i had no idea about it. furthermore, how did pakinstan not intervene with all of this?  or the us?  i mean we were all for stopping al-qaeda yet didn't help out against the taliban.  i have to add that i admired how malala did critique the us government.  our relationship with the middle east is always messy and at times we truly are the enemy, and this was demonstrated here.  the taliban is truly frightening.  i can not imagine living with all of that violence and having to see dead bodies everywhere.  its sad to think how destructive humans can be, have we not learned from the past?  but then again, i am part of the problem not knowing what is going on in the world.

majority of this work was the history of the swat valley and malala's background.   i had always assumed she was just a random girl that was shot but it turns out that there was more to it.  kinda like learning that rosa parks and the bus incident was staged.  her father was an owner of a school and spoke out against the taliban and another political leaders.  as malala grew older, she began to speak out as well ie the bbc blog (though it was anonymous).  there was discussion about how her father putting her up to everything, which she addressed.  malala did it for herself and i believer her.  but obviously if she did not have her father as her father, i doubt any of this would have happen.

the last handful of chapters are devoted to the actual shooting.  again, i had no idea what was going so was very confused when she mentioned that she was shot in the eye in the foreword.  i even looked at pictures to see if she had a glass eye (i told you i'm horrible).  she was on a bus and man came up on the bus and asked who is malala?  no one answered but the other girls looked to her and she was shot at three times.  she was taken to the hospital and started to be treated.  two visiting doctors from england were in pakistan and asked to check on her.  one of the doctors remarked that the hospital was unfit to care for her and sadly none of her suggestions were taken into account.  they then decided to take malala abroad to have her treated.  and here is what shocked me, how political issues were the main priority in her recovery versus where would malala be treated the best.  there was an offer from john hopkins in the states, but due to the recent killing of osama bin laden (which the us did without notifying the pakistani government) the pakistani government did not want to send malala here.  i am not saying that america is the best place to be treated (though it probably is, see recent ebola outbreak) but politics should not have been a factor in helping malala recover.  i was appalled by what i had read.  malala ended up going to england, where she was taken excellent care of. sadly, she went on her own with a doctor as her legal guardian.  there was an issue with her parents passports, having to do with the pakistani government  being worried that her family would seek asylum in the uk or something.  again, really? that poor child woke up in a foreign country, after being shot in the head and her parents have been stopped by their own government from being with her.

as we know, malala did recover.  i was shocked to read about how they removed part of her skull and put in her stomach! her brain was swelling and part had to be removed to allow it do so.  her skull become infected so they couldn't use it so they gave her a platinum skull piece.  she also had an issue with one of her nerves and couldn't smile.  this was big thing for her parents apparently, but i felt like it was played up a bit.  i mean if my kid got shot in the head, i would be happy s/he were alive and alert and not the least bit concerned with a smile.  but to each their own.

malala also mentioned the hollywood celebs that tweeted about her etc.  and madge was actually trumped by angelina jolie in her book, i mean jolie did make a donation to her organization.

but this was an excellent read and i highly recommend it.  especially to every girl and woman!  as i said before, malala's story is truly amazing, and this book is a must read.  i mean the girl is the youngest nobel prize winner and the un has given her her own day.  and everyone, especially girls should have the right to learn!

  

a wild sheep chase. haruki murakami. (238)

i have read a handful of murakami books but have fallen behind on his latest works.  i bought a beautiful paperback edition of 1Q84, but have yet to read it.  i am not opening my paperback, but plan on getting the ebook to read from the library.  also i have not read his most recent novel, though i see it everywhere.  however, i decided one day that i really needed to start from the beginning and so i checked out a wild sheep chase.

i was recently asked if murakami was a favorite author of mine, and i couldn't say yes or no.  i enjoy his books but am often confused by them or shocked to the point of uncomfortableness that is hard to call them favorites though i find his work very intriguing.  but after finishing, a wild sheep chase, i can call him one of my favorites.

a wild sheep chase is exactly that, a wild sheep chase.  our narrator, we never learn his name, recently divorced and just turned thirty received letters from a old friend called the rat.  the rat sent him a photo of a mountain scene with sheep, and asked him to share it.  the narrator then placed it in a life insurance company's pr bulletin, not due to the rat's instructions but because it was in his desk.  this appearance of the photo was the catalyst for the wild sheep chase.

the narrator had a meeting with a man, in this meeting it is revealed that there is a boss that quietly and secretly ruled all of japan.  the man was the secretary to the boss.  the boss had taken ill and was on his death bed.  he had a cyst in his brain which the man believed was link to his power and was also connected to a sheep that was in the photo.  the sheep had a star on its back.  the secretary wanted the narrator to find that sheep and if he didn't he would destroy his life.

the narrator initially decided not to do it, he figured it was pointless, but at the urging of his girlfriend he decided too.  his girlfriend had magical ears (seriously, murakami is brillant at times) that helped lead the narrator in the right direction, ie helping them discover the dolphin hotel.  in the dolphin hotel, they discovered the sheep professor and from him learn the most outrageous but true story.

it turns out that the sheep professor was invaded by the sheep with the star on its back.  it was a powerful creature and used the professor to come to japan.  from there the sheep must have invaded the boss' body which explained how he came into power.  with this new knowledge, the narrator goes to the sheep professors old ranch where he used to breed sheep for the government.  

while waiting for the rat to returned, the narrator encountered the sheep man, which was a man dressed up as a sheep and seemed to be two souls, a sheep and a man,  within one oddly dressed body.  

then as if another twist could not happen, it turns out that the rat possessed the sheep man and that the rat was in fact dead.  his ghost or whatever, he kept the lights off so we do know what form the rat was in, came to visit the narrator and explained what happen.  it turned out that the rat grew up on the professors old ranch.  he was at the dolphin hotel and saw the photo of the ranch and decided to come to the ranch.  he then became possessed by the star sheep and committed suicide to kill of the sheep.  (wow! i know, insane but amazing.)

the boss' secretary, it turned out knew all of this and met the narrator as he returned down the hill, he needed the narrator as bait to pull out the rat.  however, the rat was brilliant and bombed the ranch and the secretary and hopefully destroying everything.

but yes, a crazy, bizarre but extremely interesting tale.  i mean i had no idea how it was going to end but i loved every twist and turn and random character that showed up.  murakami is truly brillant, i mean so weird but so great.  i look forward to read dance, dance, dance which is supposed to be a follow up to this.  i also look forward to reading the rest of murakami's work and will hopefully get caught up with everything.