Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Twice a year I go to the Scholastic Warehouse sale to buy books using the water sale money.  My son uses the chance to buy his own books as well with his saved allowance funds.  One of the books he bought the last time was this one.  I also bought one for the WHHS LMC.  Unfortunately, my son's copy fell behind his "to read" pile on his nightstand.  It lay forgotten until I cleaned back there last weekend.

One thing about West Haven is that everyone knows everyone else.  Many of us are third, fourth, even fifth generation Westies.  If we ourselves don't know you, one of our people probably knows one of your people.  We have a rich history in our little city.  The same is true for Norvelt.

Jack is a tween in the early 1960s.  He's obsessed with World War II and prone to nosebleeds.  His wacky neighbor (I kept picturing her as Mrs. Figg from HP) hires him over the summer to help write obituaries.  Although billed as hilarious, I myself only smiled a lot with only one really pee your pants level laugh.

I don't like to genderfy (is that a word?) books, but this is a boy book.  I see why my son liked it so much, and I can see many sophomore boys reading this alongside their WWII and early 1960s history work.  I can also see parents of tween boys liking this, and those who were Jack's age at the same time reading this through a very different lens.

What's nifty is this is already on our shelf.  Bailey also has one, and I think the boy will be donating this one to Carrigan!

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All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

Origin by Dan Brown

I pre-ordered this as soon as I could on Amazon and eagerly awaited arrival.  I am a big Dan Brown fan and love his prior Langdon novels.  I've also read his works outside of this series.  Unfortunately, my review on this one is mixed.

Based on the beginning of the story, I was expecting much more of a blockbuster revelation about the, well, origin of humanity.  Instead, the premise is really about where we are going as a species.  We are continuing to evolve and there are theories we will merge with our ever-expanding technology to become an ever more advanced life-form.

While the other Langdon books continually keep the reader guessing, the "whodunit" is blatantly obvious rather early in the story.  I think what irked me the most is that there is very little of the classic Langdon symbology interpretation that's part of the magic in the older books.  The previous novels made me want to research and learn about the symbols and cultures Langdon talks about.  This one, not so much. 

Langdon and Brown fans will no doubt want to read this "just because".  It wasn't terrible, but it's definitely not a favorite.

Good luck on your PSATs today!

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS

Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

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