Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Completion Date: June 4, 2011

Reason for Reading: Group read with Heather, Ana, Chris, and Debi.

Set initially in a future shanty town in America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dissembled for parts by a rag tag group of workers, we meet Nailer, a teenage boy working the light crew, searching for copper wiring to make quota and live another day. The harsh realities of this life, from his abusive father, to his hand to mouth existence, echo the worst poverty in the present day third world. When an accident leads Nailer to discover an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, and the lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl, Nailer finds himself at a crossroads. Should he strip the ship and live a life of relative wealth, or rescue the girl, Nita, at great risk to himself and hope she'll lead him to a better life. This is a novel that illuminates a world where oil has been replaced by necessity, and where the gap between the haves and have-nots is now an abyss. Yet amidst the shadows of degradation, hope lies ahead.

A couple months ago a group of us decided to start reading books at the same time and then, hopefully, post about it and share thoughts. The first book we read was A Discovery of Witches, but it didn't go over well. Ship Breaker is our second read together and while I wanted to love it - I can't admit to an overwhelming impression about it. In the end, only Ana and I are answering the questions that the group of us came up with. Ana enjoyed the book a lot more than I did, so her post is likely more informative. I have a hard time saying a lot about a book I am only so-so about.

Ana answered the same questions as I did here. Heather also did a brief post on the book here.

Heather: Since I already know some things about this book bothered Chris, I want to know all about it. What bothered you about this novel?

I am not sure what it was about this novel, but it didn't leave a lasting impression with me. I had no problem reading it at the time, but at the end of the day it is a book a few months from now I will be able to hardly remember. This question ties in with the next one, so I will leave it brief.

Debi: It’s weird. I spent forever trying to figure out why I didn’t like this book more than I did. (And I’m not saying I didn’t like it—I just expected to like it more than I actually did.) Then Ana wrote a post about not connecting emotionally with books, and it hit me that that was really what was at the root of my disappointment with this book—I didn’t really connect on an emotional level. Did you all?

This was my biggest problem with the book. I didn't connect with it. I found that I wan't particularly affected by the events of the book. I read them with a sense of detachment that I am not fond of in my reading. It's not that hated the book, but I found myself wanting to love it a lot more than I did in the end. I am thinking that part of this is that I couldn't seem to connect with the main character. I am not sure if that is a flaw on my part, or because of how he was written. I don't even have strong enough emotions to say whether I love it or hate it.

Me: What did you think of the characters? Do you think they were written believably? Were there any that you loved? Hated?

I wanted to love the characters. I really did. There were some interesting story-lines and they tie into the characters well, but for some reason I wasn't particularly caught up with the characters. That is my overall impression to this book. I didn't hate any of the characters, but I didn't love any of them either. There are none that stand out as fantastic, but then there are none that I strongly disliked.

Chris: Comments on race and gender issues in the book? What did you like? What didn’t you like?

This aspect of the book I did really enjoy. I think this is why I wanted to love the book more than I did. I appreciate a book that shows diversity. There were characters from all races represented. There was also a strong a showing from both genders. It was a strong quality of this book and worth reading more from Bacigalupi for this.

Ana: One of the things that interested me the most about the book was the tension between, on the one hand, the idea of taking your life into your hands and making your own destiny, and, on the other hand, dealing with a very difficult reality full of inequalities and different opportunities for people born in different circumstances. Thoughts and comments on this?

This was another aspect of the book that I really enjoyed. I connected with the overall idea of the book more than I did with the specific ideas. The main characters in this book have been raised under a strict regiment of survival. If you are strong, you will succeed, but show weakness of any kind and people will take advantage of you. In the beginning there was nothing really to compare it with, but when they discover the ship wreck with the young girl still alive you get a strong sense of how the other side lives.

I am not sure what it was about this book really that I didn't love. If I read it at a different time, I may have loved it. For right now, it was just okay, but I will probably still read more from him.

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Matt is a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, he has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn't like them. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patrón's empire consider him a "beast" and an "eejit." When El Patrón dies at the age of 146, fourteen-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard who wants to right his own wrongs. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.

I am not even entirely sure which review lead me to want to read this book, but it has been on my RADAR for a while and I finally got a chance to read it! I think part of it was that I had to inter-library loan it and I was late picking it up, so I had to read it quickly. I am glad for it, though, because it got me reading again. Before it, it had probably been two weeks since I finished a book. I don't know what is wrong with me this year. I haven't read a lot and my blogging is spotty. I think part of the reading is that there have not been a lot of amazing reads. When I read a really good book, it gets me all fired up. When I read a lot of books that are just so-so, though, I find that I have a hard time picking the next read.

I was so refreshed by this book. I am getting tired of young adult books lately because I find they all follow certain formulas. The stories might be different, but certain things stay the same. It's those books that are a bit different in many ways that I enjoy, but I haven't been finding them lately. I actually said the other day that I was going to stop reading young adult for a while entirely and go back to just adult books, but we all know that won't really happen. This book, for example, came in for me at the library and I found myself reading it no matter what I had previously said. I am glad I did, though. It was exactly what I needed in so many ways. I was captivated enough by the story that I read it in about a day. After taking about 2 weeks to read a book, that was a huge relief. I also really enjoyed the two books I read after it, so be sure and check in for those reviews!

This is a book about cloning, which I seem to like as a story element. I think because it is not a science-fiction as it used to be after successful cloning of sheep. For this particular book, Farmer has it so that rich people clone themselves so they can harvest body parts that will keep them alive for longer and longer. Normally when a clone is made, though, they are changed in their head to make them mindless. Matt, though, was allowed to retain his intelligence and grow-up essentially like a real kid. Well, intellectually, not exactly socially. In society clones were looked down upon, so Matt had to deal with a lot of prejudice. It means that he has to decide who he is going to be and deal with whether he wants to grow-up to be like his clone. He does have some great people around him to help him on his way.

Overall, this was a strong novel that I am not sure if my review is doing justice to. I think I am a bit rusty! Actually, the best way to put it is that I think this is probably the best young adult book I have read this year. There was just something about it that really appealed to me and worked for me during a bit of a reading slump. It seems to be a book that a lot of people love, so if you haven't had a chance to read it you should do so!

This also won the Printz award, so that is one more I can cross off my list!

On another note: Don't forget to sign-up for the Advent Calendar Tour! And, I got bored and started a Tumblr account... Feel free to follow me so I can find out that you have one, too!

Week In Review

Random Thoughts

I am posting today after all! I was cleaning up my sidebars to get ready for next year and decided to wrap-up a couple of challenges. So, this post was born!

It snowed last night. Our first significant snowfall of the year, actually. Well, actually, it snowed in January, February, and March; but you know what I mean. I am both happy about the snow and not. At least it wasn't enough to shovel, but soon shoveling will start and I was so sick of shoveling last year! It was never-ending! I am not anymore excited about it this year. They are saying there is not going to be a lot of snow, but you really never know. I hope it doesn't snow on New Years this year. We had a snowstorm last year and I want to do something this year.

Challenge Wrap-Up

I am getting my sidebar ready for 2010, but first I wasn't sure if I have wrapped up all the challenges that end up on December 31. Many I finished a long time ago and stopped keeping track of, but I still have the 2009 Pub Challenge and Herding Cats on my sidebar. I have also finished The Arthurian Reading Challenge. I might keep it on the sidebar, though, because it doesn't wrap-up until March and I might read a few more books that count for it.

2009 Pub Challenge - The object was to read 9 books published in 2009. Young adult were not allowed because it is a Pub. My list:
1. Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong 01/27/09
2. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs02/03/09
3. Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin 02/17/09
4. Storm Glass by Maria Snyder 05/01/09
5. The City and The City by China Mieville 5/26/09
6. I Met the Walrus by Jerry Levitan 05/04/09
7. The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine 07/07/09
8. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman 06/02/09
9. Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear 02/17/09

I enjoyed all the books I read for this challenge. The Armstrong, Briggs, Franklin, Snyder, and Winspear were books in series that I really enjoy. The only two authors that were new to me were Jerry Levitan and James A. Levine. The rest I have read other books by. I don't know if I can pick a favourite because several of those books will probably make my best of list for the year.

Herding Cats Challenge - This challenge ran from April 1st to December 31st. The challenge asked for 5 books, but I read 9 that would count.
1. One Piece: Romance Dawn by Eiichiro Oda
2. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
3. Nation by Terry Pratchett
4. Skellig by David Almond
5. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
6. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
7. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
8. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
9. Marcelo In the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Another list of books that I really enjoyed! They all had something about them that I enjoyed, so I am glad that I read them. I didn't not like any of them, which is always good. As opposed to the list above, there were more new-to-me authors than ones I had read before. The only authors I had read before were Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones.

Printz Project

The Printz Project is an on-going project. So far for it I have read 17 books. I hope to read a lot more next year. I had more out from the library, but ended up returning them unread. For those interested in what I have read so far my list is as follows:

Jellicoe Road by Melinda Marchetta - 2009 winner
Nation by Terry Pratchett - 2009 nominee
Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins - 2008 nominee
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill - 2008 nominee
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yung - 2007 winner
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson - 2007 nominee
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green - 2007 nominee
Looking for Alaska by John Green - 2006 winner
how i live now by Meg Rosoff - 2005 winner
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson - 2004 winner
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly - 2004 nominee
A Step From Heaven by An Na - 2002 winner
Kit's Wilderness by David Almond - 2001 winner
Monster by Walter Dean Myers - 2000 winner
Skellig by David Almond - 2000 nominee
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - 2000 nominee
Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger - 2000 nominee

Advent Calendar

Don't forget about the Virtual Advent! It started December 1st, but it is not too late to join up for days that haven't happened yet. Be sure and follow along even if you are not planning to post anything.

Weekly Reads

I missed last week. In the last two weeks I have only managed to read the following:

Obasan by Joy Kogawa - For the Japanese and Canadian Reading Challenge. It is about the Japanese treatment in Canada during World War II. I both liked it and didn't... I was interested in the subject matter, but I wasn't crazy about Kogawa's writing method.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - Loved this book!

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt - I am so happy that I read this book. It took me FOREVER! I just can't read chunksters from the library. It was my first Byatt and I both loved it and didn't.

Nova Scotia Book of Musts: The 101 Places Every Nova Scotian MUST See by Allan Lynch - I have been to a lot of the places mentioned, but I still have places to see! It was a very interesting book. I think I might buy my own copy.

Bone - Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm by Jeff Smith - The third book in the Bone series. I really enjoy this series! I think it is going to be next year before I read book 4. There is only one copy of that one and the list is rather long.

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay - Okay, didn't like this book, but I have read Guy Gavriel Kay now! I discovered I was reading it but I was not retaining anything. I doubt I will read the sequels, but I do plan to try something else by him in 2010.

Truckers by Terry Pratchett - My first read for the Terry Pratchett 2010 Reading Challenge. I liked other books by him better, but I do plan to read the rest of the trilogy.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron - I was actually looking for a graphic novel by her, but this won the Newbery and I had been meaning to read it for a while. It was pretty good, actually!

My reading has slowed down! It's rather depressing...

Library Loot

Where I skipped a week this is a bit messed up. I will organize and post one next week, though! I think I might post a list of all the books I have out from the library.

Sunday Book Coveting

Next week I plan to start brain-storming what I am going to buy with Christmas gift cards. I get the same amount every year, so that means I can start choosing now!

Kit's Wilderness by David Almond

This is my first buddy review/read with Darren from Bart's Bookshelf. Hopefully there will be more in the future. Below you will find my answers to his questions, while on his blog you can see his answers to my questions.

The Watson family moves to Stoneygate, an old coal-mining town, to care for Kit’s recently widowed grandfather. When Kit meets John Askew, another boy whose family has both worked and died in the mines, Askew invites Kit to join him in playing a game called Death. As Kit’s grandfather tells him stories of the mine’s past and the history of the Watson family, Askew takes Kit into the mines, where the boys look to find the childhood ghosts of their long-gone ancestors. Written in haunting, lyrical prose, Kit’s Wilderness examines the bonds of family from one generation to the next, and explores how meaning and beauty can be revealed from the depths of darkness.

So, to start with, what did you think of Kit himself, did you like him?
I wasn't sure about Kit in the beginning. By the time that the book got over with, though, I didn't mind him. He was an interesting character, actually. He grew on me. I liked him by the end of the book. He didn't really know who he was, but he knew that he had a very detailed history that he has to live up to. As you start to learn about the history of his town and how it relates to him it makes him more of a character to learn about. I didn't love Kit, though. I found him hard to relate to and I didn't really care about him. I guess it is possible to find a person interesting without really caring enough about them to say you like them or hate them.

My dad's family come from an area not very many miles from where the book is set, so I think this could be one of the reasons I may have enjoyed the book better than you did, as it was instantly recognisable to me, what did you think of the world in which it was set?
Well, I have not been there, but it was easy to recognize the geography. I think it worked really well for the story, though. I wouldn't mind visiting there and seeing all the history that I was represented by the geography and the careers that were created as a result. It is land that leads to the lifestyle of the inhabitants and the story would not have worked without it. I liked the world.

Okay, lets look at the positives, tell me about something you did particually like about the book?
The history of the town. I really liked it. It all related to Kit's grandfather and the men that he worked with. It's really why I read it. His grandfathers' story was interesting. The mining life was the lifestyle of the town and involved with the progression of the story. It was really good how what happened in the past relates to what is happening to Kit in the future. His grandfathers' story is his story, too. Almond weaves the story together really well. He is a good writer, this novel just didn't work for me as well as others.

Well, I've got to admit what you liked, so it's only fair to let you explain what you think caused it to drag so much for you?
I think I have related a few of my problems by answering the other questions. I couldn't really relate to Kit. He just didn't interest me all that much. I found the weaving of his grandfathers' history and his present interesting, but I didn't really feel anything for Kit through the course of the book. If the history of the mines and his grandfather were not included, I probably wouldn't have read the entire book. I just couldn't get engrossed enough in the story to appreciate it, I guess. I had a hard time getting into it and staying interested.

Lastly, have you read any Almond before? Has this one made more or less likely to read him again?
This is actually the third Almond novel I have read this year. While it is not my favourite book by him, I do enjoy his writing overall and I hope to read more from him in the future.

Jellicoe Road by Melinda Marchetta

So, this was supposed to be posted on Saturday. It's late... I will leave it at that! Here is my joint review with Heather from A High and Hidden Place.

"What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.

Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn't a lot of time for introspection. And while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.

In this absorbing story by Melina Marchetta, nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future.

What did you think of Taylor Markham? Did your opinion change as the novel progressed or stay the same?
In the beginning I was not very fond of Taylor. She was a bit whiny and annoying. I know she had a hard life, but it was no fun to read about her. She annoyed me so much in the beginning that I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to read the book. She grew on me, though. Once you get to know her and see where she is coming from she is really not that bad. It took me a good part of the book to like her, though. She is a troubled youth, but it is her attitude towards other people that bothered me the most. She was justified in being angry with her parents, but she was taking it out on the world. My opinion changed as the book went along, so it was worth all the annoyance in the beginning.

What are your thoughts on the cover? Did it make sense for the book at all? Do you like it?
It's not that I don't like the cover, but we all know that as much as we shouldn't we judge a book by the cover. This cover doesn't really convey to me what the book is about. It doesn't tell me what to expect. I read it based on reviews by bloggers, though, so I can't say whether or not I would have picked it up based on the cover alone. I might have. It's an interesting cover that is different than most of the ones that you see on the shelf. I can't say I hate it, but I don't really love it, either.

What did you think of the juxtaposition of Taylor’s first-person narrative and Hannah’s third-person omniscient “novel” in the book?
This was my favourite part of the book. This is why I kept reading. In the beginning, I think I was a bit confused about what exactly was going on, but as the pieces started to fall into place I was captivated. I love stories in stories. I had some of the mysteries and secrets figured out, but I was still very impressed with how Melinda pulled things off. I liked how everything was connected, even if you didn't always know it at the time, and that by the end of the book all the mysteries are solved. In a world of series and trilogies, it was nice to get to the bottom of things in one book. I was left thinking 'wow' at the end, and not trying to figure on what just went on. I like that in a book.

Who was your favorite secondary character?
I loved the characters in the story that Hannah was telling. They were a great group of people. Hannah is a great character, too, but she is not in the book as much as you would expect. You just get to know her through her writing. Frankly, I can't think of a secondary character that I didn't like. They all brought something to the book in their own way and were wonderfully written. I think that Marchetta has great promise as a writer. I plan to read more from her!

I should point out that this book took me a few pages to get in to. It was not one of those books that grabbed me from the very first page. It was worth it, though. While this didn't make my top reads of the first part of the year, it does not mean that it is not one of my favourite books! Heather rated it a 4.5 out of 5, and if I still did ratings I would agree. It is definitely worth the little bit of extra work to get into it. It isn't that the beginning is bad, it is that there are things going on that you don't really understand in the beginning. By the end, though, you will be wiser and more appreciative of the story.

Also, this is a Printz winner, so I finally reviewed one of the Printz books I read. Yay!

Printz Project

Jessica and Suey are hosting The Printz Project. It is a challenge with no time frame, so I think I am going to join in! You can either just read the winners, or you can read the honour books too. Since I have several of the honour books out from the library or on hold, I think I am going to aim to do both! Below is a list with the books I have read crossed out.

Michael L. Printz Winners & Honor Books

2011

The Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Nothing by Janne Teller

2010

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes

2009
Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart (Have out from library)
Nation, by Terry Pratchett
Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan

2008
The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean
Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet, by Elizabeth Knox
One Whole and Perfect Day, by Judith Clarke
Repossessed, by A.M. Jenkins
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, by Stephanie Hemphill

2007
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume I: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson
An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (Own)

2006
Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan
I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak
John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography, by Elizabeth Partridge
A Wreath for Emmett Till, by Marilyn Nelson

2005
how i live now, by Meg Rosoff
Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel
Chanda’s Secrets, by Allan Stratton
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt

2004
The First Part Last, by Angela Johnson
A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly
Keesha’s House, by Helen Frost
Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler

2003
Postcards from No Man’s Land, by Aidan Chambers
The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
My Heartbeat, by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Hole in My Life, by Jack Gantos

2002
A Step From Heaven, by An Na
The Ropemaker, by Peter Dickinson
Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art, by Jan Greenberg
Abrams Freewill, by Chris Lynch
True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

2001
Kit’s Wilderness, by David Almond
Many Stones, by Carolyn Coman
The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci
Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Louise Rennison
Stuck in Neutral, by Terry Trueman

2000
Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
Skellig, by David Almond
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hard Love, by Ellen Wittlinger