The Wikkeling by Steven Arnston

The Wikkeling is a creepy, well-written children's book by a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop named Steven Arnston. The main character is Henrietta Gad-Fly, unliked by her fellow classmates and parents, terrible in school, and quite unattractive with a "blockish figure," she makes a great heroine. The world is made of plastic and old things are regarded with disgust. There is a strange creature stalking the main characters, giving them headaches. The entire story was set up with such care that it was a pretty big disappointment when Arntson completely drops the ball and doesn't explain anything in the end. I figured the Wikkeling would be some awesome metaphor for the way people were living but it turns out it's not really anything except maybe a computer program? And it was created to fight something that never gets explained. Pretty disappointing. Anyway, I'd still recommend this book. Just don't expect it to end as well as it began.

4.5/5

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

Kind of a pump-up for the entrepreneur. A call-to-arms if you will to gather your tribe, provide them with a place to communicate, and do your "duty." Pretty good while you're reading it, silly when you're not.

4/5

The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

Reading now

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Killer Unicorns!

Need I say more?

The focus was a little too boy-obsessed for my liking. Then again, I'm not a teenager anymore. Peterfreund pulled it off well. It's too bad more attention (and by attention I mean money) wasn't paid to this book. It could have been edited a little better. Some sentences were a little less than coherent. Also, there REALLY should have been at least 4 illustrations. Those four illustrations should have been of the 4 unicorn species in the world.

Not to worry, I'm illustrating them for you.

4/5

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje is a series of poems, prose, and occasional photograph meant to depict a fictional account of Billy the Kid's life. It's fast-paced, descriptive, and beautifully written. I really liked this book.

5/5