Rash by Pete Hautman

I really should read more Science Fiction because I seem to enjoy it so much. This book helps confirms this notion. Set in the U.S.S.A (not a typo) around 2075, Americans have given up freedom for safety. Children are not allowed to do anything that could possibly injure them without wearing protective gear such as helmets and padding. Things like bee-stings are worthy of a ride in an ambulance and saying mean things to another person could land you in detention center whose working environment could be called slavery. Football has been outlawed for 30 years because of it's potential for harm. Yet Bo, the hero of this story, finds himself playing an illegal game of football without any rules or referees.

I found this tale to have an intriguing and inventive storyline. Just the mention of this book to one of our school's football players generated interest and a "I want to read that book next" from him. Since I am always on the hunt for books that would interest teen boys, I am glad that I read this one so I have more material for recommendations. I also will explore other titles by Hautman.

I met Pete Hautman last year at the Washington Library Media Association's conference in October and I apologize to him (if he ever reads my blog) that it took me a whole year to finally read one of his books. I visited Hautman's webpage to see what he had to say about Rash and I was really intrigued by this quote: "Coming up with book titles can be difficult, but this one was easy—I knew what I wanted to call it from the outset. But then, as soon as I saw the first copy of the book, I wished I had titled it '2084.'" The whole senior class at my school was required to read 1984 this summer and now I find another connection to that book.

YA Fiction; 4 out of 5 stars.

Summer 2009 Top Fifteen Books for Teen Readers

At the beginning of each school year I create a display with the favorite books that I read over the summer. I rank the books 1-15 and try to generate interest in them through my descriptions and their prominent placement in the library. Here is a ranked list of my top 15 YA picks (or adult books that I think teens will like):

1. Tamar: a Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal by Mal Peet

2. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

3. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

4. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

6. Rebel Angel by Libba Bray

7. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

8. Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

9. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

10. Before I Die by Jenny Downham

11. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan

12. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthey

13. The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin

14. Impossible by Nancy Werlin

15. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

*The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery was my favorite read of the summer but it didn’t make this list because the vocabulary would be too challenging for the average teen reader. Another book that should have made the list was Shakespeare: World as Stage by Bill Bryson. I left it off because I do not have a copy of it in my library.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

I feel very emotional about this book. Not in a sad-weeping-despondent emotional way but more in a I-am-so-enraptured-that-I-can-scarcely-catch-my-breath sort of way. It is hard to compare this book to anything that I've ever read before. Reading it elevated my thinking to an aesthetic level seldom experienced by me, at least by literature. Perhaps I touched this level more often while listening to some classical piece of music exquisitely executed like Dido and Aeneas by Purcell (mentioned on page 275 by Renee), Suite No. 3 in D Major by Bach, or when my daughter and the Tacoma Youth Symphony play Jupiter by Holst. I was swept up in in the language. I was enraptured. This is a beautiful piece of work: literate, funny, and tragic by turn.

Here are a few quotes that I like a lot:
"Someone is playing a classical piece on the piano. Ah sweet impromptu moment, lifting the veil of melancholy- In a split second of eternity, everything is changed, transfigured." p.106

"Every time, it's a miracle. Here are all these people, full of heartache or hatred or desire, and we all have our troubles...- it all disappears, just like that, when the choir begins to sing. Everyday life vanishes into song, you are suddenly overcome with a feeling of brotherhood, of deep solidarity, even love..." p.185

"What does Art do for us? It gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible and, in so doing, places a seal of eternity upon them..." p. 203

"Melancholy overwhelms me, at supersonic speed." p. 279

Though I have gushed about this book, I must caution that I recognize that this is not the book for everyone. It is full of "big words", many that I even had to look up in a dictionary. Also, the plot of the story is as much about language, literature, Art (capitalized), music, intelligence, and insight as it is about two females that live in the same building that are struggling with how to get along in the world.

I will definitely re-read this book some day.

Adult fiction, translated from French. 5 out of 5 stars.

My Reading Lists and Challenges

My 2020 Reading Projects and challenges. 

Updated:08/19/20

I.

Read the current Pulitzer Prize winner for literature. Read previous books that interest me.

Year	Title	Author	Read
2020	The Dutch House (finalist)	Patchett, Ann	Nov. '19
2020	Nickel Boys	Whitehead, Colson	Sep. '19
2019	The Overstory	Powers, Richard	Aug. ‘19
2019	There There (finalist)	Orange, Tommy	Feb. ‘19
2019	The Great Believers (finalist)	Makkai, Rebecca	Apr. ‘19
2018	Less	Greer, Andrew	Mar ‘18
2017	The Underground Railroad	Whitehead, Colson	Jul ‘17
2016	The Sympathizer	Nyugen, Viet	Sep. ‘16
2015	All the Light We Cannot See	Doerr, Anthony	Aug '15
2014	The Goldfinch	Tartt, Donna	Dec '14
2013	Orphan Master's Son	Johnson, Adam
2013	The Snow Child (Finalist)	Ivey, Eowyn	May ‘12
2011	A Visit from the Goon Squad	Egan, Jennifer
2010	Tinkers	Harding, Paul	Aug '20
2009	Olive Kitteridge	Strout, Elizabeth	Mar '10
2008	A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao	Diaz, Junot	Jan ‘16
2007	The Road	McCarthy, Cormac
2006	March	Brooks, Geraldine	Apr '08
2005	Gilead	Robinson, Marianne	Apr ‘19
2004	The Known World	Jones, Edward
2004	Evidence of Things Unseen (Finalist)	Wiggins, Marianne	Mar ‘11
2003	Middlesex	Eugenides, Jeffrey	Oct '06
2002	Empire Falls	Russo, Richard	Apr '05
2001	The Amazing Kavalier and Clay	Charbon, Micahel
2000	Interpreter of Maladies	Lahiri, Jhumpa
2000	Close Range: Wyoming Stories (Finalist)	Proulx, E. Annie	2015
1999	The Hours	Cunningham, Michael
1999	The Poisonwood Bible (Finalist)	Kingsolver, Barbara	1999
1995	Stone Diaries	Shields, Carol	1995
1994	Shipping News	Proulx, Annie	1997
1992	A Thousand Acres	Smiley, Jane	1993
1991	The Things They Carried (Finalist)	O’Brien, Tim	2009
1989	Breathing Lessons	Tyler, Anne
1988	Beloved	Morrison, Toni	2010
1986	Lonesome Dove	McMurty, Larry	Apr 2020
1983	The Color Purple	Walker, Alice	2009
1981	A Confederacy of Dunces	Toole, John Kennedy	2013
1977	Roots (Special Pulitzer)	Haley, Alex	1977
1973	The Optimist’s Daughter	Welty, Eudora
1972	Angle of Repose	Stegner, Wallace	1995
1961	To Kill a Mockingbird	Lee, Harper	2008
1953	The Old Man and the Sea	Hemingway, Ernest	1972
1948	Tales of the South Pacific	Michener, James	May ‘17
1940	The Grapes of Wrath	Steinbeck, John
1939	The Yearling	Rawles, Marjorie K.	Jan ‘16
1937	Gone with the Wind	Mitchell, Margaret	1974
1932	The Good Earth	Buck, Pearl S.	1973
1928	The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Wilder, Thorton
1925	So Big	Ferber, Edna	May '20
1921	Age of Innocence	Wharton, Edith	Apr ‘16

II.

My National Book Award Challenge (click hyperlink)

My goal is to read two books for each award year

2019 completed

III.
Read the Printz Award and honor books each year
Highlighted titles=READ
2020 Awards go to: 

  Michael L. Printz Award (Best YA literature of the year) 2020

• Dig by A.S. King- Award
• The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi- Honor
• Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki- Honor
• Ordinary Hazards: a Memoir by Nikki Grimes-Honor
• Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean- Honor

IV.
2020 Audiobook Challenge

My goal is to listen to more books than last year, which was 42.

1. Blowout by Rachel Maddow, read by the author

2. Normal People by Sally Rooney, read by Aoife McMahan

3. Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor, read by Steve West

4. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham, read by Geoffrey Cantor

5. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart, read by Christina Moore

6. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater, read by Will Patton

7. East of Eden by John Steinbeck, read by Richard Poe

8. Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart, read by Christina Moore

9. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, read by Michael Sheen

10. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley, read by Jayne Entwistle

11. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, read by Derek Jacobi, Mae Whitman, Tantoo Cardinal, and Bryce Dallas Howard

12. Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, read by Allyson Ryan

13.  Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais, read by Katherine Lee McEwan and Bahni Turpin
14. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister
15. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, read by Peter Coyote
16. The Restaurant at the End of the World by Douglas Adams, read by Martin Freeman
17. Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart, read by Christina Moore
18. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coats, read by Joe Morton
19. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister
20. Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard, read by Nadia May
21. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult, read by Rebecca Lowman and Abigail Levasch
22. Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, read by Brittany Pressley
23. Weather by Jenny Offill, read by Cassandra Campbell
24. Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore, read by Cassandra Campbell
25. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King, read by Will Patton