{"id":7343,"date":"2011-07-26T21:09:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T02:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=7343"},"modified":"2011-07-26T21:09:19","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T02:09:19","slug":"nightstand-july-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2011\/20110726-7343.htm","title":{"rendered":"Nightstand (July 2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to an airplane jump and a visit from state surveyors to another of my buildings (not the one they visited last month in time for the Nightstand!), I don’t have pictures or my last week worth of reading. I have only what I’d already written prior to the excitement of this past week. Nevertheless, I do have a bit<\/i> of reading I can share.<\/p>\n

Read and reviewed in brief:<\/b><\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis: Writer, Dreamer, and Mentor<\/i> by Lionel Adey<\/b>
\nC.S. Lewis is, like, one of my favorite authors (the Valley girl accent is absolutely appropriate, since I’m often a bit of a fan-girl where he’s concerned.) And I’m participating in Carrie’s Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge<\/a>. So I really wanted to get through this book. I forced myself to read way past when my sister told me I should give up–and finally skipped through to the chapter about Narnia. This book was shelved with the biographies, but that’s not what it is. It’s…something else. It’s a literary critic reviewing what all sorts of other literary critics have said in criticism of C.S. Lewis as a literary critic and as literature-creator. Dull as dust.<\/p>\n

I Was a Teenage Fairy<\/i> by Francesca Lia Block<\/b>
\nIf I were to try to describe Block’s writing, I’d have to stay that she’s a stereotypical YA author–except that she does it extremely well. Her books are full of edgy and inappropriate material; they’re almost devoid of adult-adults; and they try to be artistic. Except that Block succeeds where other authors fail. This particular book is about a girl-model who had been molested as a child, and about her fairy, who convinced her to keep living (or something like that.) I wish I could recommend Block’s writing, because it really is something to behold–but the sex, drugs, homosexuality, pseudo-bestiality, etc. make me loathe to recommend anything she’s written.<\/p>\n

The Next-Door Dogs<\/i> by Colby Rodowsky<\/b>
\nSara Barker is terrified<\/i> of dogs. She has been since she was very little and had a bad experience with her aunt’s dog. She’s mostly kept her fear a secret from her friends, but when a nice next-door neighbor moves in–along with two dogs–Sara is forced to confront her fear (or have her friends confront her for her fear.)<\/p>\n

Reviewed elsewhere on bekahcubed:<\/b><\/p>\n