Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, 2008.
Rating : Liked
National Book Award finalist
Printz Honor book
School story (Alabaster prep school)
Romance & Relationships
Humor
Girl Power
Discrimination (sexism)
Frankie returns for her sophomore year 20 pounds heavier in all the right places. The senior boy she has had a crush on, Michael, asks her out and they begin dating. She enjoys this relationship, finding him funny and adorable and generous. She likes hanging out at his senior table, but realizes she isn’t satisfied with just that. She wants him to consider her his equal. When she learns about his membership in the same all-male secret society that her father belonged to (the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds), she wants in. However, she must settle for the only option available to her – to infiltrate it in secret. She sees her chance when the Basset King, Alpha, is off campus for a long weekend. She manages to organize a great prank – bras on all the portraits and even a giant one on the library’s dome – by issuing orders through an email that uses Alpha’s name. Her first prank is so successful, that upon his return, Alpha takes credit and continues to take credit as Frankie has the hounds do one prank after another. Alpha continues the deception until he is catch, accused of being the mastermind, and threatened with expulsion.

Though I found the whole prep-school setting off-putting, Frankie is an interesting and funny character who recognizes her own intelligence and doesn’t want to be daddy’s little “bunny rabbit” any more. It’s a little unbelievable that these students would go to such effort for the pranks, but perhaps that is the culture of the rich and adolescent.



Skin Deep by E.M. Crane, 2008.
Rating : OK
Delacorte Press Prize for first YA novel
Character Development & Growth (coming of age, self-confidence, interpersonal relations)
Overcoming : Death & Dying
Animals : Dogs
Friendship & Best Friends
Andrea is a spectator at school and home. She is an observer and thinks she has things figured out about who’s who, and how she should act, such as why she shouldn’t risk talking to her neighbor who shots hoops on his driveway and always says hi. But during the year when she’s 16 years old, her world changes. Her homeroom teacher kills himself in the teacher’s bathroom, and she accepts a job to help out a reclusive neighbor who is sick, throwing both her school and home life into unpredictable activity. People stop fitting into the neat categories she has for them, and she has to rethink her old assumptions and habits.

I found the premise of this book more interesting than the execution. The writing was too choppy to pull me into the story, though I think Andrea is a very realistic character with all her insecurities and pat explanations for things. I got the gist of the story and its tone without finishing it. I like the idea of the story without wanting to read more.




Mormon Scientist : The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring (289.3) by Henry J. Eyring, 2007.
Rating : Loved
Biography
LDS Church
Science and religion
Eyring was one of the preeminent scientists of his day. He was awarded every top science award except for the Nobel Prize, and his most significant theory, known as ART for Absolute Rate Theory, is still influencing science today. He was also a strong Latter-day Saint, born into a polygamous family in Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, and active in the church throughout his life. This biography is organized into three sections covering his legacy, heritage and paradoxes. He left his mark in the fields of science, his LDS faith, and as a friend. His upbringing instilled in him strong positions about love, ambition, belief, and fear. Finally, he exhibited seemingly paradoxical contradictions in several ways. He was confident yet humble, disciplined yet creative, free yet obedient. He aspired for reasoning, but not reasons. He built upon the fundamentals, but not conventions. He worked with and always esteemed people, but not public opinion.

I read this biography as part of a church book group, and really enjoyed the story. I knew very little about Eyring yet seem to agree with almost every point of faith and doctrine he advocated. It was also fascinating history to me since my grandfather was born in the exact same setting and time period and is Eyring’s first cousin, though when you have 240 of them, that doesn’t denote a particularly close relationship.