What I’m Reading – The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau

The Prophet of Yonwood is actually a prequel to The City of Ember and The People of Sparks. City of Ember was a great book that follows a couple of citizens of Ember. Ember is an underground town that completely relies on electricity and reusing all of their goods. DuPrau created a great adventure as things start to go wrong in the city. It is a wonderful book, however, the two follow-ups are not nearly as good. In the People of Sparks the author sucks all of the fun out of the series and prattles on about her politics as the residents of Ember meet another community.

This brings us to The Prophet of Yonwood, which is not a bad book in and of itself. DuPrau is writing in the modern world this time, as war is possibly reaching to the U.S. 11-year old Nickie and her aunt travel to North Carolina to take care of a huge house they inherited and intend to sell. However, the city of Yonwood has a “prophet” who is guiding the town through a series of weird decisions in order to avoid the coming destruction in the prophet’s vision. Some of the town’s leaders are overly hyper in following the prophet’s messages and bans the citizens from things like singing.

Its not terrible and the author creates some neat characters and some incredible worlds, but a few things wreck it. DuPrau is too transparent and the plot reveals its secrets much too soon. Also, this is really a standalone title. It technically connects to the other two, but it’s a loose relationship. I wholeheartedly recommend The City of Ember, but despite the positive reviews by SLJ and others, the other books in the series are not of the same quality. Readers interested in the themes of DuPrau’s work should read Meg Rosoff’s solid How I Live Now and Mark Dunn’s great Ella Minnow Pea.

Music Review – Where the Humans Eat by Willy Mason

This is the 2004 release by Willy Mason, which I’m reviewing by request (thanks Jackie). I’m actually a bit embarrassed that I did not know of Mason. 18 when he recorded this, Mason’s voice sounds like that of a seasoned singer who has played in too many smoky bars. Mason is a great writer and I think this is a rare album that would satisfy both fans of traditional folk and new folk. Most of the tunes are cool, but I love the gospel-tinged, hymn-like Fear no Pain where Mason sings, “I ain't gonna fear no pain anymore/Ain't nothin' worth that strain/I'm gonna walk in the hands of the Lord.” This is a mostly acoustic album and heavily influenced by the blues and Johnny Cash. With bands like Bright Eyes getting the deserved attention they get, I’m surprised Mason is not better known. Fans of Bright Eyes and Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis will dig this CD.

2.85 out of 4.00 on the Vin Swanson Scale.

What I’m Reading – Last Wave and Theft

Last Wave by Paul Hayden is actually from 2003, but I just recently heard about it. Hayden is yet another Australian author writing books tuned towards young adults, though in our cooperative this is actually considered Adult Fiction. This is about 17-year old Matt, who is graduating and ready to spend his last summer partying with his surfer friends until they split up to do whatever is next. Matt, however, becomes mixed up between a couple of girls and could see his surfing days end, while his best friend is dealing with a potentially unwanted pregnancy. Later, more tragedy takes place, leaving Matt depressed and unsure as how to act around his friends and his family. This is quite good and Hayden pours on the Australian dialect, which is fun to read. This is a good read for teens and adults alike, though the book is fairly raw. At one point, I thought I was seeing some inconsistencies with the plotting, but as it went on I think that Hayden just knows how to write about the fluidity of life and people’s emotions. The fact that life gets weirdly inconsistent is partly the point of Last Wave.


Peter Carey has written quite a few novels, though Theft: A Love Story is the first I have read. I tried to get through this book, but could only get about halfway. I’m not saying it is a bad book, it is just more challenging than I was willing to put up with at the moment. Theft is basically about a painting that gets stolen. The story is told from the standpoint of three characters: “Butcher” a pretentious painter, his emotional brother and a mysterious woman who is the daughter of the artist who painted the missing work of art. It is a great plot, but the characters’ ramblings are hard to follow and Carey forces his readers to take in every little detail in order to follow the story. It is good, just not for me at the moment.

Music Review – Nooma Soundtrack Volume 001

The Nooma Soundtrack features music found on the short videos of the same name. Brie Stoner and David Vandervelde contribute all of the CD’s thirteen tunes. As a whole the album creates a laid back ambient mood like Dusty Trails, Yo La Tengo or Starflyer 59.

David Vandervelde’s tracks range from retro rockers to moody instrumentals. The mellower songs are actually much better and create a great soundscape with some electronic elements. He can rock a bit, though. I think Indiana is one of my new favorite songs because it is just so incredibly hooky. All My Prayers is great too, though he unfortunately ends the CD with two poor tunes. Heaven Weeps and Flowers are overproduced retro rock that sounds like bad Dandy Warhol’s songs.

Brie Stoner is someone who has played venues around G.R. for a while. Her contributions to this soundtrack are great. All of the songs are fairly moving with Can You Love Me as a standout. Brie is solid singer-songwriter, though on most of these tunes she brings a more atmospheric modern rock sound (see: Ivy). Her sound is mature and her voice clearly supports the messages of hope and longing in her writing.

Overall, this is a wonderful collection of bittersweet and hopeful songs.

Find out more about them at www.myspace.com/davidvandervelde and www.briestoner.com

3.25 out of 4.00 on the Vin Swanson Scale

Listening to this makes you feel like those times when you know its all going to work out, but you just wished you knew how.

What I’m Reading – The Draft: A Year Inside the NFL’s Search for Talent by Pete Williams.

This book by Pete Williams is a good look at the NFL Draft and especially the events surrounding it. Williams follows some teams (mostly Atlanta and Tampa Bay) and several players through their quest to find players for their team or get drafted as a player. The history of the draft and how it got to be the huge event it is today is fascinating.

Williams unfortunately writes in that dry “I’ve written for newspapers for too long” style which gets tiring. The content is good, though, especially when he covers things a sports fan just can’t read in the sports section like behind the scenes at the NFL Combine and agent negotiations among other things. I would recommend another book that covers the draft to a certain extent, which is John Feinstein’s brilliant Next Man Up.

Music Review -- Tales From Turnpike House by Saint Etienne

I grabbed this because I’m a sucker for good packaging and graphic design and so far Tales From Turnpike House and People in Planes’ As Far as the Eye Can See are the coolest looking CDs I’ve seen this year. Saint Etienne has created a concept album, in which all of its songs take place in a housing project. This, for the most part, is dance-pop heavy on the synthesizers. While most of the songs are light dance-pop, further into the album they branch out into some more guitar heavy pop-rock and dance club type songs. This is not great, though the vocals and programming are quite good. This is a good play in the background kind of CD.

2.25 out of 4.00 on the Vin Swanson Scale.

What I’m Reading – Graphic Novels

Astronauts of the Future

I read this after reading French Graphic Novelist Manu Larcent’s brilliant Ordinary Victories. This is a hard plot to describe without ruining the whole story, but its basically about two kids who believe that most if not all of the humans in the world are actually robots or aliens. This is incredibly cool.


New Avengers

After Brian Michael Bendis did Avengers Disassembled, he wrote the New Avengers. Bendis follows Captain America and what led him to form a new team with Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and others. This was a very interesting read and features my favorite super villain of all time, Electro. The art is inconsistent, but the story is solid and entertaining.