Book Review: Gemini

Gemini by Sterling Children's
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When my partner and I first met, she was a long-time believer in the power of one’s zodiac signs to affect one’s life, and had done a bit of research on it, while I staunchly refused to countenance any such ideas. My Pentecostal parents raised me to believe that astrology (no matter which cultural version you prefer), numerology, palmistry, and tarot reading were all actively satanic, and even though, as an adult, I’ve stopped seeing Satan around every corner, I still used to dismiss astrology as ridiculous superstition, embraced only by the desperate or the gullible. There’s nothing like falling in love with someone who holds an opinion you once denounced to get a crash course in your own prejudices!! These days, I describe myself as a healthily skeptical seeker. Many things that were once considered just superstitions have since been proven to have a scientific basis; our ancestors simply observed and attempted to explain phenomena, without having access to the data necessary to puzzle out actual causes vs. effects. So I’m prepared to accept that a similar situation may be at work here, especially since some of the things I’ve read have really helped explain some issues that have arisen in my relationship with my partner over the years.

In some ways, I found these small books the most helpful on astrology I’ve ever tried. Ostensibly written for teens, they are written simply, but without any insulting tone, and though they don’t overwhelm with information, they definitely go deeper into the topic than most popular guidebooks or manuals, even most of those intended for adults. The range of relationship types—friendships, family members, love interests—are addressed, covering how each zodiacal sign is likely to interact with those who are the subjects of the individual books (in this case, Geminis). I really felt that I learned some useful information, I greatly enjoyed the illustrations, and I appreciated the fact that the writers acknowledged the fact that the stars are simply guides, and every human is an individual, that not everything they wrote may fit neatly into the readers’ lives!

The only thing I found genuinely unhelpful here was the fact that the date charts they provided—which should have been a very useful inclusion!—only covered a small cross-section of the population, those born from 1995-2006. The addition of just 3-4 additional pages could have covered a MUCH wider range, and even if these books WERE only being read by teens, those additional dates could have allowed them to understand more about their older and younger siblings, as well as their parents and grandparents. The writers did give a one-line aside, suggesting how to use the chart if the necessary dates weren’t listed, but it wasn’t very clear at all, and it took me ages to figure out what it meant; I have to imagine it would baffle many younger readers.

Still, I really like this series, and would recommend it to anyone who wants a more in-depth beginner’s introduction, for themselves or their children, to their signs and how they might have shaped their personalities. Unless you can find the books on a sale, as I did, they’re a bit expensive, so you probably wouldn’t want to pick up a complete set of them to learn more about the signs of others; a more comprehensive, all-in-one introductory volume would probably be more appropriate for that. But for the reader who just want to read up on one or two signs, they’re ideal, as they’re delightfully personal, and further personalizable, with some lined pages included on which to record the birthdates/signs of all one’s friends and family, allowing the owner to put greater effort into understanding and building better relationships with others. Those are skills that are important at any age, but really vital for teens who are attempting to grow out of the complete self-focus of childhood and into more outward-looking young adulthood. For that reason, if no other, I don’t think you have to fully believe in astrology to reap benefits from this book; the relationship advice it provides is just generally wise.


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Back to Books With a Sigh of Relief

SO...

...let's talk about books and reading and similar, enjoyable topics, shall we? We've had enough of sobering topics for one week, God knows.

Tonight, while meandering about the blogosphere, reading other people's posts and commenting here and there, I found a book list that fascinated me. Thanks to a post by Kristen M of The Estella Society, I discovered "Top 100 Chapter Books," composed through a survey by Elizabeth Bird from the School Library Journal. When I saw that the book that dominated my childhood, Charlotte's Web, tops this list, I knew I had to write about it. There are several lists for other categories of children's and YA books available on the SLJ site, as well, so you can pick your favorite type to design a reading challenge for yourself if you'd like.

I'm sure I don't have to tell my regular readers that I'm in no position to take on this list as a reading challenge right now--though I hope to do both it and the Nobel Prize-winners for literature when I regain some normalcy--so I will content myself for now with noting how many of the top 100 I have already finished. Those I've read are listed in red type. I will try to come back periodically and update it if I manage to complete any more of them.

Total read (as of 2/15/2014)=34

100. Love That Dog--Sharon Creech
99. The Boxcar Children--Gertrude Chandler Warner (My 2nd-grade teacher read this one to the class.)
98. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--J.K. Rowling
97. The Diamond in the Window--Jane Langton
96. The Horse and His Boy--C.S. Lewis
95. The Little Prince--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
94. Ramona and Her Father--Beverly Cleary
93. Journey to the River Sea--Eva Ibbotson
92. Flipped--Wendelin Van Draanen
91. Pippi Longstocking--Astrid Lindgren
90. The Children of Green Knowe--L.M. Boston
89. The Mouse and the Motorcycle--Beverly Cleary (My mom read it to my brother and I.)
88. The BFG--Roald Dahl
87. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda--Tom Angleberger
86. Peter Pan--J.M. Barrie
85. Ella Enchanted--Gail Carson Levine
84. The Long Winter--Laura Ingalls Wilder
83. Ozma of Oz--L. Frank Baum
82. The Cricket in Times Square--George Selden
81. The Witches--Roald Dahl
80. The Four-Story Mistake--Elizabeth Enright
79. The Egypt Game--Zilpha Keatley Snyder
78. Ballet Shoes--Noel Streatfield
77. My Side of the Mountain--Jean Craighead George
76. Diary of a Wimpy Kid--Jeff Kinney
75. The Saturdays--Elizabeth Enright
74. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret--Judy Blume
73. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever--Barbara Robinson
72. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon--Grace Lin
71. Each Little Bird That Sings--Deborah Wiles
70. Walk Two Moons--Sharon Creech
69. The Ruins of Gorlan--John Flanagan
68. The High King--Lloyd Alexander
67. A Long Way From Chicago--Richard Peck
66. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate--Jacqueline Kelly
65. Wonder--R.J. Palacio
64. The Twenty-One Balloons--William Pene du Bois
63. The Great Gilly Hopkins--Katherine Paterson
62. Clementine--Sara Pennypacker
61. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--Roald Dahl
60. Bud, Not Buddy--Christopher Paul Curtis
59. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane--Kate DiCamillo
58. Swallows and Amazons--Arthur Ransome
57. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase--Joan Aiken
56. A Little Princess--Frances Hodgson Burnett
55. All-of-a-Kind Family--Sydney Taylor
54. Half Magic--Edward Eager
53. The Graveyard Book--Neil Gaiman
52. Betsy-Tacy--Maud Hart Lovelace
51. The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread--Kate DiCamillo
50. Number the Stars--Lois Lowry
49. My Father's Dragon--Ruth Stiles Gannett
48. The Bad Beginning--Lemony Snicket
47. Little Women--Louisa May Alcott
46. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle--Avi
45. Island of the Blue Dolphins--Scott O'Dell
44. Okay for Now--Gary D. Schmidt
43. Jacob Have I Loved--Katherine Paterson
42. Gone-Away Lake--Elizabeth Enright
41. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz--L. Frank Baum
40. Maniac Magee--Jerry Spinelli
39. The Invention of Hugo Cabret--Brian Selznick
38. Frindle--Andrew Clements
37. The Wednesday Wars--Gary D. Schmidt
36. The Witch of Blackbird Pond--Elizabeth George Speare
35. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing--Judy Blume
34. Where the Red Fern Grows--Wilson Rawls
33. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH--Robert C. O'Brien
32. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry-- Mildred Taylor
31. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--Lewis Carroll
30. Matilda--Roald Dahl
29. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy--Jeanne Birdsall
28. The Golden Compass--Philip Pullman
27. Little House on the Prairie--Laura Ingalls Wilder
26. Winnie-the-Pooh--A.A. Milne
25. The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963--Christopher Paul Curtis
24. Ramona the Pest--Beverly Cleary
23. Hatchet--Gary Paulsen
22. The Dark is Rising--Susan Cooper
21. The Phantom Tollbooth--Norton Juster
20. Because of Winn-Dixie--Kate DiCamillo
19. Little House in the Big Woods--Laura Ingalls Wilder
18. The Book of Three--Lloyd Alexander
17. Harriet the Spy--Louise Fitzhugh
16. Tuck Everlasting--Natalie Babbitt
15. The Secret Garden--Frances Hodgson Burnett
14. The Hobbit--J.R.R. Tolkien
13. The Thief--Megan Whalen Turner
12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban--J.K. Rowling
11. When You Reach Me--Rebecca Stead
10. Bridge to Teribithia--Katherine Paterson
9. The Westing Game--Ellen Raskin
8. Anne of Green Gables--L.M. Montgomery
7. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler--E.L. Konigsburg
6. Holes--Louis Sachar
5. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe--C.S. Lewis
4. The Giver--Lois Lowry
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--J.K. Rowling
2. A Wrinkle in Time--Madeleine L'Engle
1. Charlotte's Web--E.B. White

My Re-Education Reading Challenge

Faithful few readers, I'd like to tell you a little story, and ask you how you all think it should end.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was raised as the daughter of a fundamentalist Southern Indiana Pentecostal preacher, who spent at least as much time in scary little fundamentalist schools as she did in public school--actually, a fair bit more, come to add it up.  She was assigned lots of readings describing an Earth that is only 6,000 years old, "proving" that dinosaurs and human beings once co-existed, and discussing how Noah's Ark is still stranded on a mountain in Turkey, but the mean Turkish government won't let a bunch of Americans climb around all over their mountain and prove it.  Curiously absent from the girl's reading were books written for children throughout the history of the English-speaking world, as well as classics not written for children that are usually assigned in school to teach students to stretch their minds and their critical thinking skills.  Not a single Shakespearean play, narry a mention of modern authors like Kafka or Virginia Woolf, none of the childhood favorites by Frances Hodgson Burnett managed to slip through the net of censorship cast around the girl's plastic young mind.

Some of these gaps were filled in when the young woman finally decided to attend a state-sponsored, liberal arts university.  By the time she finished her BA and three MAs, she'd read more Poe, more "Norton Anthologies," more about Yellow Wallpaper than she ever wanted to, really.  Nevertheless, the now 35-year-old book blogger is still finding books all the time about which her peers say, "Oh, yeah, I read that in high school!"  And in this season when a book blogger's fancy turns to thoughts of next year's reading challenges, this particular blogger is hoping to form a cooperative challenge with the help of her loyal readers.  Are you willing to help me in a "Re-Education Challenge"?

You guys are basically the bosses on this challenge, but I think we should set out a few basic ground rules, just to keep things running well and make sure I live up to the spirit of the thing.  So, here we go:

1.  You don't have to have a blog to challenge me; you just need to visit this blog and leave comments relating to my "Re-Education."

2.  Since this is supposed to be about exposing me to ideas that I should have encountered a long time ago, let's please restrict this to books that any well-educated American should have read before graduating high school.  In other words, if you cannot imagine HOW I've survived this long without reading 50 Shades of Grey, I'm sorry, but you still can't recommend it.  Any teacher who required his or her students to read a book about S&M would get quickly fired, and we all know it.  Still, I think this leaves you with a lot of leeway, anything from standard YA to Dickensian favorites.

3.  If by some miracle I already managed to read the book you suggest somewhere along the way, I won't be adding it to the challenge, because that would basically be me cheating, now wouldn't it?

4.  Limit 5 suggestions per contributor, please.  I'm setting the cut-off at 100 books, as I know I could never get through more than that in 2013.

5.  I reserve the right to reject anything that would simply give me too many nightmares, like Stephen King's It, which I have always known myself too well to ever try to read.  (Surely that wouldn't really fit the qualifications, anyway.)

So, come help out a poor, deprived, recovering fundamentalist and add your suggestions.  The suggestion box is open through December 31, 2012, after which I will gather the titles, weed through duplicates and ones I've already read, and announce the master list in a post.  You're welcome to read along, if you like, and leave us links to your own posts!  Meanwhile, I will update the list periodically, with reviews, as I plow my way through.

Review of "Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas"

Another of my seriously back-dated reviews, this one for the "Just Contemporary" YA challenge that I've undertaken this year (because my Twitter friend, Basically Amazing Books, is hosting it, and she's several colors of awesome). Hope you enjoy it!

March 8, 2012

Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas

by Louise Rennison

Another of my complete fluff YA books.  (Not all YA books are complete fluff by ANY means, let me point out; THIS series, however, certainly is.)  Thankfully, Rennison went back to what this series does best on this one, cutting WAY back on the "things that have never happened to an average person in the history of the world" scale, so I enjoyed book #3 much more than I did its predecessor.

There were some truly, wonderfully funny moments in this one.  As always, Georgia Nicholson's toddler sister Libby stole the show, leaving me laughing so hard at one point that I was afraid I would either wake up MY sleeping toddler or pass out from trying to keep quiet!

In books like these, I'm not accustomed to the author TRYING to make you dislike the boyfriend that the girl has spent three books trying to land, leaving you HOPING that the girl will break up with him and go for the other guy, instead, but that seems to be where we're headed here.  Georgia's "Sex God" (Robbie) is an indecisive, wishy-washy, annoying "wet weed" (as Georgia's calls his ex, Lindsey), and she really needs to dump him and go out with Dave the Laugh, in my opinion.  The Sex God is too old for her, anyway, so she really doesn't have any fun hanging out with him and his college-aged Bohemian friends. 

Ah, the trials of being 14--much more fun to read about than they were to endure.

Review of "On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God"

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

by Louise Rennison

This entire series of books is absolute nonsense, and the only reason to read them is because they're hilarious and fun.  They're full of a whole bunch of total nothing, just the everyday sorts of things that can happen to poor, unsuspecting teenage girls as they go about their everyday lives, with the added joy of British English mixed in to complete my happiness.  Georgia, the main character, is obnoxious to her parents to a level that I could never stand even when I WAS a teenager, let alone now that I've become a parent, but I've known real kids who were even worse, so at least it's authentic.

HOWEVER, I didn't like this second installment nearly as well as I did the first, for the very reason that the strong points of the series faltered and the flaws got seriously magnified.  Quite improbable and unrealistic things started happening, and Georgia's bad attitude achieved new levels of annoyance.  Her parents set her such a bad example of behavior that I couldn't totally blame her, though, and before it was over I was pretty much tired of everybody but the cat and Georgia's baby sister, Libby, who is by far my favorite character in the entire series.

So, this one was kind of a dud.  But, I had to read it, anyway, so that I'd know what was going on in the next one, and because it was part of one of my reading challenges.  That somewhat disagreeable task over with, we can now move on to other things.

Review of "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging"

HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I LOVE ALL THINGS BRITISH?!?!

Yeah, I know, I've only mentioned this a couple of thousand times, and those of you who have known me personally for any length of time have no doubt heard a couple of MILLION times.  So all the Britishisms in this book only made me love it all the more.  Indeed, I would never have picked up this YA novel in the first place if it hadn't been for the title.  For those who may not know, "snogging" is the British equivalent of "making out".  Now, armed with that information, you must admit that this is a pretty hilarious title.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

by Louise Rennison

To be perfectly honest, this book is mostly made up of absolutely mindless, rubbishy fluff.  If you're in pursuit of high art in literature, keep looking.  BUT, if you're searching for an irreverent, hilarious read, you could do much worse.

This whole series strongly resembles The Princess Diaries, but without the completely improbably element of royalty.  However, there is a hidden undercurrent that reveals quite a bit about how the teenage psyche works, or at least how an adult author remembers it working for her.  I feel sure it was this aspect of the book that got it nominated for a YA literary award.  To be perfectly honest, the reader in me laughed my ass off at this book, while my inner mother of a SuperToddler kept thinking, "Oh, dear Lord, how will I EVER deal with raising a teenager?!"

Georgia Nicolson is enrolled in a middle-class British public girls' school (that means a private school, if you're American), trying to survive her teachers, her own confusion about hormones and sex, and the possibility that her whole family might have to emigrate to New Zealand so her father can find work.  Meanwhile, she's wondering if the guy of her dreams really likes her, and how to keep her friends from driving her slowly insane.

In short, this book is utter foolishness, but it's an awful lot of fun.

Review of "13 Little Blue Envelopes"

All right, self!  It's time for us to "man up," as it were, and catch up on this ridiculously mounting backlog of reviews!  No more slacking--I'm a book blogger, for goodness sake!

Anyway, I must confess that the book I'm going to review today helped cause this backlog to begin with, because I was somewhat dreading reviewing it.  So many YA afficionados have adored this book, gushed and raved about it, that having to say that I expected much more from it didn't sound like much fun.  In other words, avoiding this review for over a month is far long enough, so on with the truth-telling.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

by Maureen Johnson

Virginia Blackstone's Bohemian, free-spirited, artist aunt dies young of cancer, leaving an incredibly convoluted and cooky sort of will for her niece that "Ginny" must follow, in the form of 13 envelopes that must be opened in a specific order and under very specific conditions.  Can anyone think of some cliches we've left out? Let us know, and we'll try to work them into the next edition of the book.

The concept of the envelopes themselves was fairly innovative, and I was really hoping for greatness from this book.  Instead, the envelopes' contents led Ginny on a series of disastrous Europen experiences that I mostly found annoying.  If I'd gone through chaos like this girl endured, I'd probably refuse to ever set foot outside my own apartment again!

Don't get me wrong; I'm certainly not saying that this book was awful.  I've read much, MUCH worse books in a wide variety of genres, and it did manage (barely) to keep me interested enough that I finished it.  Still, it was highly improbable, at times quite predictable, and frankly mediocre.  The most interesting characters and events were never developed, and it just didn't seem to coalesce into a single, unified book.  Sorry, gang; this one just wasn't for me.

Review of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

by Ransom Riggs

I must say, peculiar is certainly the word.  This book is weird, but in a kind of freaky, hair-raising, delicious way.

Jacob grew up hearing tales from his grandfather that seemed full of miracles and magic.  As a small child, the boy loved the stories, but as he grew older, he began to realize that the details could not possibly be true.  Despite his grandfather's bizarre and fascinating photographs, no one could do the things Grandfather Abraham described his childhood friends doing.  When Abraham unexpectedly died under suspicious circumstances, Jacob had to set off on a journey to find out what, if anything, lay behind his grandfather's seemingly ridiculous but innocuous accounts.

Certain aspects of this book's plot were weak, or not sufficiently fleshed out, and I found the ending quite unsatisfying, but not that surprising.  Based on the ending's structure, I'll be very surprised if this doesn't become a series of books, which hopefully will resolve any such dissatisfaction.  The simple fact is, this strange and fascinating little book kept me so intrigued that I finished it very quickly.  It may not be perfect, but it's an awfully good read.  Be forewarned--it's a little creepy.  A dark and stormy night may not be the best time to start this one.  But if you like creepy, you're goint to love it.

Review of "Odd and the Frost Giants"

Odd and the Frost Giants

by Neil Gaiman

This was my first Neil Gaiman book, and having now finally read one, I begin to see what all the fuss has been about.  I'll have to read more from him before I decide that he's one of my new favorite authors or anything, but I liked this book pretty well.

Odd is a young boy living in a Viking village of some long-ago, undisclosed year.  His life has gone from reasonably good to depressingly bad in a very brief span of time, and he has just gotten fed up with the whole thing when the REAL adventures begin.  Odd finds himself entangled with Norse gods, talking animals, and a Frost Giant, all in one small, 130-page book.

My only real complaint was the way that characters periodically burst out into totally anachronistic language.  I think it was Gaiman's way of lightening the mood, but he seems to have taken his research for this book rather seriously, and it was a shame to ruin that by then creating 21st-century dialog to go along with the longships and great halls he verbally constructed.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book, and I hope that he will, indeed, write more Odd stories [ :) ], as he threatened to in the author bio blurb.

Review of "Oops!"

I received this book free from Tyndale, in return for which I must now give them the following honest review.  They're probably wishing they'd charged me for the book right about now.

(Yes, I swear, the book is called "Oops!"  I know--should've been a tip-off right there, yeah?)

Honestly, it is painful to me to write this review--though not nearly as painful as it was to read the book--because I really wanted to like the latest installment of Bill Myers' "TJ and the Time Stumblers" series.  Unfortunately, that proved impossible.  First, a bit of back story.  I have not read the previous two books in the series, but I have always enjoyed reading good YA Fiction, so when I started with Tyndale's free-books=review-for-us program, this seemed like a fun, quick read for my first assignment.  Besides, I'm always watching for good books that my daughter might enjoy when she's older.  I'll keep looking.

TJ, our permanently embarrassed 7th-grader heroine, has experienced total upheaval in her life recently.  Her mother died, her family moved to Malibu, and two time-traveling teenaged boys from the 23rd century are plaguing her every waking moment.  In the course of this book, she learns a moral lesson and violates several laws of physics, nature and self-preservation.

The reason I so desparately wanted to like this book was its genuinely funny tone.  The author has a great sense of humor.  But the mounting number of ironic missteps on his part eventually became so distracting that I could not enjoy anything about the work.  Despite a very barbed dig aimed at Harry Potter and fantasy fiction generally (page 47), the two annoying time-travelers are constantly creating accidental messes of epic proportions by waving unexplained devices that make strange noises and then alter the laws of reality.  The fact that these items are supposedly technological instead of magical--and despite the author's clever use of the Swiss Army knife, which it seems, really can do everything--there's not a great deal of difference between shouting a fake Latin phrase to make a book fly across the room and going "ting-tang-walla-walla bing Bang!" to make the contents of a DVD spring to life in the middle of a girl's bedroom (page 46).

Equally ironic was the message, preached in an overwhelmingly pedantic tone, to always think and speak well of others, while the author not only reinforced tired stereotypes, but also took them to an extent that was just mean.  Personally, I don't think my daughter would learn to keep unkind thoughts and statements to herself, while also being told that all girls who live in Malibu "have a thing about perfect skin, perfect tans, and perfect anything else their rich mommies and daddies can afford" (page 10).  Nor was I enamored with being told that one student looked down on another because of "his parents' used car--remember, this is Malibu" (page 70).  The cheap laughs continued when, during a scene in which everyone's thoughts suddenly became audible, the entire jocks' table in the cafeteria simply went silent.  "TJ frowned, trying to hear what was going on in their heads...until she realized it was the jocks' table, which meant nothing was going on" (page 64).  Myers made sure he got all the fodder out of this old chestnut that he possibly could, pointing out several pages later that the jocks "still did not have a thought but knew an excuse for a good fight when they saw one" (pages 70-71).  And I was simply offended by Myers' description of geeks.  "Granted, it wasn't very funny (computer geeks aren't famous for their sense of humor), but it was a lot better than last month's practical joke--the one where they programmed a guided missile to hit the...gymnasium.  (Besides having a lousy sense of humor, geeks aren't fond of PE)" (page 98).  I assure you, I have an excellent sense of humor, and this kind of brutal stereotyping isn't funny.  Nor is joking about students bombing any part of their school.

When Charles Dickens named the world's most dysfunctional school M'choakumchild, it was clever.  The litany of harsh and absurd names in this book is not clever.

Hesper Breakahart
Elizabeth Mindlessfan
Trent Tauntalot
Bruce Bruiseabone
Naomi Simpletwirp
Miss Grumpaton
Coach Steroidson

The morality tale wrapped up within this book was told with every bit as much subtility as Myers used to name his characters, the result being that he hammered home his point in a book for 13-year-olds with as much nuance and finesse as my toddler's cartoons use to teach her to share.  Thinly veiled recycled material from The Princess Diaries and several other successful pop culture ventures were the final nail in this book's coffin.  I love good YA Fiction, and I don't demand that it be great literature, though I've read some that was.  This is not.