GUYS WRITE FOR GUYS READ -- Jon Scieszka, editor

Viking -- hc
New York -- ©2005 -- 272pp
ISBN: 0-670-06007-0

Brief autobiographies about being a guy.

Forward -- Jon Scieszka
"The Truth About the World" -- lloyd Alexander
"My Maturity, in Flames" --M.T. Anderson
Daniel Adel
"Stone = Throw" -- Marc Aronson
"Superpatriot" -- Avi
"The Crossing" -- T.A. Barron
"Reading Can Be Dangerous" -- Tedd Arnold
"My Entire Football Career" -- David Bauer
"Only a Game" -- Edward Bloor
"Gondwanaland" -- Tony DiTerlizzi
"E, A Minor, B7" -- Bruce Brooks
"My Brilliant Invention" -- William G. Brozo
"A Real Guy" -- Michael Cart
"My Life of Crime" -- Peter Cherches
"Triplets" -- Timothy Basil Ering
"The Legend of Tripod" -- Eoin Colfer
"'O' Foods" -- Chris Crutcher
"What I'm Telling You Is the Truth" -- Terry Davis
"The Rules" -- Esquire
"Any Questions, Class?" -- Matt Groening
"Guide for Guys" -- Douglas Florian
"Why Books Are Dangerous" -- Neil Gaiman
Brett Helquist
"The Follower" -- Jack Gantos
"The Red Fire Engine" -- David Macaulay
"There Must Be a Mistake" -- Morris Gleitzman
"Thwacked" -- David Granger
"My Superpowers" -- Dan Greenburg
"My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" -- Andy Griffiths
Adam McCauley
"Let's Go to the Videotape" -- Dan Gutman
"Boys, Beer, Barf, and Bonding" -- Bruce Hale
"Shooting the Breeze" -- Dave and Liam McKean
"Principals and Principles" -- Daniel Handler
"A Great, Big, Beautiful World" -- Will Hobbs
"My French Teacher Tried to Kill Me" -- Anthony Horowitz
"Learning How to Be a Boy" -- James Howe
"Lightning Man" -- Jarrett J. Krosoczka
"A Casualty of War" -- Brian Jacques
"Wrestling with Reading" -- Patrick Jones
Dav Pilkey
from On Writing -- Stephen King
"Pop" -- David Klass
"Guy Things" -- Gordon Korman
"Role-Playing and Discovery" -- Jerry Pinkney
"Busted" -- Erik P. Kraft
"Copies" -- David Lubar
"When All Bicycles Were Black" -- Vladimir Radunsky
"The Pellet in the Paint Can" -- Chris Lynch
"Unfinished Business" -- Joh Marsden
Sergio Ruzzier
"Daydreams" -- Walter Dean Myers
"Lucky Dave" -- Garth Nix
"Anything Can Happen" -- Kenneth Oppel
"No, David!" -- David Shannon
"Dead Body" -- Jerry Pallotta
"It All Began with Books" -- Christopher Paolini
from How Angel Peterson Got His Name -- Gary Paulsen
"The 1928 Packard" -- Richard Peck
"Lone * Ranger" -- Daniel Pinkwater
David Sheldon
"A Day at the Zoo" -- Jack Prelutsky
"Boys Are Big Experts" -- Jack Prelutsky
"Funny You Should Ask" from The Life of Reilly -- Rick Reilly
Peter Sis
"The Death of a Writer" -- David Rice
"Sweet Dreams" -- Steve Rushin
"Maybe Yeah, Maybe Nah" -- Rene Saldana, Jr.
"Bufos" -- Graham Salisbury
Lane Smith
"Brothers" -- Jon Scieszka
"ManGUYifesto -- Who We Are!" -- Darren Shan
"The Day I Threw the Trivia Bowl" -- Robert Siegel
"Bringing Up 'Saur Subjects" -- Rick Spears
"Roy G. Biv" -- Seymour Simon
"The Hammer and the Bullet" -- Arthur Slade
"The Masque of the Red Death" -- William Sleator
"Reading and Relating" -- Michael W. Smith
"The Dragon in the Big Glommy Castle" -- Mark Teague
"Bombs, Girls" -- Jerry Spinelli
"Conduct" -- Rick Telander
"The Fire Escape" -- Ned Vizzini
"My First Step to the White House" -- Chris Van Allsburg
"Give a Guy a Newspaper" -- Bill Vlasic
"Eat Dirt" -- Rich Wallace
"Training the Bear" -- Will Weaver
"Pals Forever: Me, Bobby Fisher, and the Hardy Boys" -- Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
"Aw, Nuts!" -- Mo Williams
"Puzzle Pieces" from The Lost Garden -- Laurence yep
"Heartbeat" -- David Yoo
"I Was Young in the Old Days" -- Paul O. Zelinsky



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This was a fun collection. There definitely is something in here for any/every boy. Some pieces seemed way too advanced for the average young boy (particularly Will Weaver's piece), and some were darned funny (in particular, Bruce Hale's).



There were a fair number of authors with which I was not familiar, and at least one glaring omission (in my mind) -- Bruce Coville.



Too many to address here individually, but over-all a book worth reading through, especially for every boy wondering what guys go through as they grow up.



Recommended.

THE A.I. GANG: OPERATION SHERLOCK -- Bruce Coville

A Minstrel Book -- tpb
New York -- ©1986,1995 --210pp
ISBN: 0-671-89249-5
autographed by the author

A group of brilliant youngsters are thrown together on a remote island while their parents work on a super, secret computer. The kids become aware of threats to the security of the program and take matters into their own hands when the adults don't believe them.

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I really enjoy Bruce Coville novels. This man knows how to write for youngsters. He doesn't write down to them, he challenges them, but manages to keep it within their own reading ability.

I just finished reading this aloud to my boys at bedtime. As one might expect, they love the action and adventure, giggle still at the humor, and totally wish they were part of the gang of kids. Everything you want in a book for young boys.

The book reminds me of the classic Tom Swift, or Tom Corbett, or Hardy Boys types of books, with modern theme and plot and characters.

My one complaint would be that there isn't a true conclusion to the book. There is an obvious need for at least a second book (it's billed as a trilogy) since only one of the criminals involved was apprehended. I suppose, like those other classics series' that I just mentioned, in which the villian often got away to be the heroes' foil another time, this book is simply following suit. However, I do dislike what is to me a ploy to sell more books.

Even so, like nearly any Bruce Coville book I read, this is highly recommended.

THEIR FATHERS' GOD -- O.E. Rölvaag

University of Nebraska Press -- tpb
Lincoln and London -- ©1931, 1955, 1983 -- 338pp
ISBN: 0-8032-8911-1
translated by Trygve M. Ager

A Nowegian Lutheran man marries an Irish Catholic girl in 1890's South Dakota. Their marriage is tested by drought, depression, and family.

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This is a remarkable book.

Certainly this appeals to me on many levels. As a person of Scandinavian descent, I'm enjoying reading books which appeal to my heritage. As a Scandinavian Lutheran who has married an Irish Catholic, I was able to view the relationship, particularly the religious discussions, with understanding and empathy. Certainly the times are different now, and more such 'mixed' marriages have taken place, but it was not particularly common among the immigrants of the 19th century.

What struck me most was the incredible passion that Susie and Peder had for each other. They did, indeed love one another deeply, but it was their respective faiths that kept interfering in their lives.

I got indignant when the priest interfered and created one of the larger rifts in the marriage. I was angry with Peder's stubbornness and his audacity to teach all things religion. Their problem was obvious to the casual, modern reader ... their lack of talking. Rather than discuss religion, they avoided the subject or Peder took a know-it-all tone. The instances when they were able to talk about religion congenially, and when Peder told Susie that she should take the carriage in to go to her church, showed glimpses of promise between them.

Though Susie seemed to slide into a depression that become a mental illness, at the heart of their problems was religion. The change in farming, the political ring, the illness and death in family ... it was all solveable. The religion brought back deeper, long-term harm that would not be overcome.

A fascinating read. Highly recommended. Reminds me of Cather's O Pioneers (for the immigrant problems) and Flaubert's Madame Bovary (for the lack of communication in a marriage) with dogma.

AMERICAN VENUS -- Diane Rozas and Anita Bourne Gottehrer

AMERICAN VENUS: The Extraordinary Life of Audrey Munson Model and Muse
Balcony Press -- hc
Los Angeles -- ©1999 -- 144pp
ISBN: 1-890449-04-0



A brief biography of one of the most celebrated models of her time, Audrey Munson.


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As someone with some interest in art, I have, on occassion, looked at a sculpture and wondered who would have posed for such piece. This book brings brings into focus the life of one such model. And not any model, but one who, by all accounts, was the most in-demand, most-requested, and most sculpted model of her time. Sculptures of this woman, Audrey Munson, still stand atop buildings in cities all over the world.

In some senses, this book is disappointing. There is really so very little of Audrey and her life in here. We know that she posed nude at age 16, was possibly the first person to take her clothes off on film, was highly sought by some of the top artists in the world, seemed to have a mental breakdown and was instituionalized in her mid-thirties, and lived to be 105. But we don't know if she every had any love-affairs. Did any of the artists take advantage of her (or at least try) -- considered to be one of the most beautiful women of her day, posing nude ... seems like a recipe for artistic affairs.

What we do learn, though is quite fascinating. That she was indeed considered to be not only beautiful, but an incredibly talented model ... someone who could find the right pose and bring to it, not only the physical features, but the attitude as well. Her four, silent movies were essentially about her ... a model for artists. A model who disrobes.

Certainly I can't help but look at sculpture differently now. I'll wonder who might have posed and what might they have been thinking. And if it's a scultpure of Munson's era, could it have been she?

A very interesting book and a recommended read. At only 144 pages, and packed full of photos, it only takes a long afternoon to get through this book.

IRON MAN: ARMOR WARS -- David Michelinie and Bob Layton

Marvel Publishing, Inc. -- tpb
New York -- ©2007 -- 208pp
ISBN: 0-7851-2506-X
Graphic Novel reprinting Iron Man comic issues #225-232 from 1987 and 1988
art by: Mark D. Bright, Bob Layton, Barry Winsor-Smith

Tony Stark discovers that his secret technology has been stolen and sold to various sources. Upset that the technology he created could be used to injure or kill innocent people he goes on a quest as his alter ego, Iron Man, to destroy anything using that technology.

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I have very much enjoyed the Iron Man comics as I was growing up, but I can't remember the last time I actually read a book or two, so this was a nice return to the old days for me. And 'old days' is appropriate as the comics in this graphic novel were first published in 1987/88. Compared to the comics of today, everything about these seemed ... simple.

I actually really liked the simplicity of the artwork. Today's comic artwork seems to be so heavy and full of shading and darkness. Each panel looks like a miniature, complex work of art, which is nice, in some ways, but it can make looking through the book quite onerous. I appreciated being able to look at a page/panel and being able to take in what was going on at a glance.

The story for this particular graphic novel was strained. That Tony Stark took it so personally that his technology was being used in such a way that innocents lives might be harmed, seemed far-fetched. I understand the premise and that there is evidence that people have suffered this kind of reaction when something they've made is used for violent purposes, but this didn't work for me. Stark was reacting to technology ... an idea ... not an actual, physical item.

I also didn't care for the fact that each "issue" of the graphic novel had him commenting on this crusade of his. Again, I understand that each issue needs to recreate some of a character's mission, but when combined in book form, this just got much too repetitive.

Over-all, though, this was a fun, enjoyable few hours away from the real world.