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Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Berenstain Bears Accept No Substitutes by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Better Than Running at Night by Hillary Frank
Bleach 5 by Tite Kubo
Bleach 6 by Tite Kubo
Bleach 7 by Tite Kubo
The Bone Man by Frederic S. Durbin
Buy Jupiter by Isaac Asimov
Castro Valley by Devon Weston, Robert Phelps, Lucille Lorge
Cats Are Not Peas by Laura Gould
Chain Letter 2: The Ancient Evil by Christopher Pike
Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Don't Ask by M. Rickert
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
Finisterra by David Moles
Fragrant Goddess by Paul Park
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
How Big is Your God? by Paul Coutinho
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Jingo by Terry Pratchett
Letters from Iceland by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice
Miss Bianca in the Orient by Margery Sharp
N is for Noose by Sue Grafton
O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Osama Phone Home by David Marusek
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Return of the Indian by Lynn Reid Banks
Sleep No More by Greg Iles
Stray by Benjamin Rosenbaum and David Ackert
Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr
The Turret by Margery Sharp
The Twilight Year by Sean McMullen
Two Weeks After by M. Ramsey Chapman
Unpossible by Daryl Gregory
Urdumheim by Michael Swanwick
Who Brought Tulips to the Moon? by S.L. Gilbow

Miscellaneous:
Betrayed by Elmo
BTC Database Complete
The Last Few Days
Neighbor Cats

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Franny and Zooey: 12/20/07

Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey made the perfect follow up to Better Than Running at Night. Both books center around young women struggling through a personal crises in the freshman year at college. Franny struggles more than Ellie in melding her personal convictions with her experiences in college.

In "Franny" (published in the New Yorker in 1955), Franny, a member of the Glass family (a family I will revisit when I read and review Nine Stories next year), is introduced as a cheerful and enthusiastic character through a letter that her boyfriend, Lane, carries in his pocket. It has been a while since they last saw each other and the woman who steps of the train is nothing like her letter. She is withdrawn and nervous, a very changed person.

Over the course of a disastrous dinner date, Franny pours out her heart to Lane. She has become enamored with a book of eastern philosophy that she believes has the answers to all her problems. Franny's half of the story ends though before she can elaborate.

It isn't until the much longer Zooey chapter (or story, as originally published in The New Yorker in 1957) that greater details of Franny's problems are revealed. The bulk of her story comes out in a very funny but touching conversation between Zooey and his mother, Bessie Glass.

While the story is still about Franny's depression, Bessie ends up stealing the show. She is so perfectly written in all her quirks to be a fully realized person in these eight or so pages.

I'm very glad I read this book for the Jewish Literature Challenge.

Comments (1)


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Comment #1: Sunday, December, 23, 2007 at 20:04:31

dew

The Glass family was so memorable for me.

Happy holidays! :)"



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