Rules of the Road - Joan Bauer - 1998

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer


Published: Speak (Penguin ) - 1998
Age Group: Young Adult
Date Read: June 30, 2012
4 of 5 Stars: Full of humor, fun, and strength

Reason for Reading: I had read one of Bauer's other books, and my mother had actually picked this up from the library, so I read it while visiting my parents.

On GoodReads: Jenna Boller is too tall for a sophomore and she's not much good in school. Her sister Faith got all the looks in the family, but boy, can Jenna sell shoes! She's supremely happy at her after-school job at Gladstone's, where the big white sign over the door says "We're Not Just Selling Shoes, We're Selling Quality." When elderly Mrs. Madeline Gladstone, the crusty president of the company, chooses Jenna as her driver on a business trip to visit other Gladstone's stores, Jenna goes reluctantly--with trepidation at driving the huge Cadillac, and at the prospect of leaving her alcoholic father behind. But on the road, Jenna learns "great road truths" such as "Never eat at a place called Mom's, because it's a safe bet Mom's been dead for years." She also proves to be indispensable (possessing an eagle eye for shoddy quality and sloppy service), and soon learns to admire and love the irascible Mrs. Gladstone as well as her old friend, "World's Best Shoe Salesman" Harry Bender. When Harry dies suddenly, Jenna realizes that she wishes he had been her father. Trouble looms in the form of a company takeover by Mrs. Gladstone's sleazy son, Elden, "Shoe Rodent," but Jenna summons courage from Harry's memory and saves the day for quality shoes. 


My Thoughts: This book was so funny at times, and so touching and heartfelt at others. It was very tame compared to many more recently written YA books, but it worked well. I liked seeing Jenna find her strength and confidence over the Summer she worked for Mrs. Gladstone. Bauer seems to always write good, strong female characters that have some type of work-force talent, which I find really enjoyable. Jenna's struggle with her father's alcoholism is very realistic, though a bit cheesy at times, and her final confrontation with him shows how much she has grown and changed over the course of the book. The side characters were also wonderfully written and unique. Bonus: Road trip.

Recommended To: If you liked Joan Bauer's Hope Was Here, or if you like road trip novels, like Morgan Matson's Amy & Roger's Epic Detour or Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes.

Quote From The Book: "The car was pointed away from the garage door, which meant that to get the car out, I would have to back it up. I was a C-minus backer-upper.
"A Cadillac, Floyd always said, is entirely trustworthy. It has been tested in any and all conditions and will perform to the utmost to protect its driver."
Was this a car or a Seeing Eye dog?" (p. 27)

Books Read This Year: 53 of 100

Currently Reading: The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

Nothing - Janne Teller - 2010

Nothing by Janne Teller translated from Danish by Martin Aitken


Published: 2010 - Atheneum (originally published in 2000)
Age Group: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Date Read: June 28, 2012
3 out of 5 Stars: It was good/baffling/disturbing/too hard to categorize

Reason for Reading: The text on the jacket flap (see below) completely got to me. It sounded so interesting that I had to find out if the children in the book ever proved that there is meaning in life or not.

 On GoodReads: "Pierre Anthon left school the day he found out that it was not worth doing anything as nothing mattered anyhow. The rest of us stayed behind. And even though the teachers carefully cleared up after Pierre Anthon in the class room as well as in our heads, a bit of Pierre Anthon remained within us. Perhaps this is why things later happened the way they did...  
Thus begins the story of Pierre Anthon, a thirteen year old boy, who leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming part of nothing. "Everything begins just in order to end. The moment you were born you began to die, and that goes for everything else as well." Pierre Anthon shouts and continues: "The whole thing is just one immense play which is about pretending and about being best at exactly that."
Scared at the prospects that Pierre Anthon throws at them together with the ripening plums, his seventh grade classmates set out on a desperate quest for the meaning of life. Nothing they do will make him come down, not even pelting him with rocks. So to prove to Pierre Anthon that life has meaning, the children decide to give up things of importance. The pile starts with the superficial—a fishing rod, a new pair of shoes. But as the sacrifices become more extreme, the students grow increasingly desperate to get Pierre Anthon down, to justify their belief in meaning.

My Thoughts: My feelings for this book are so hard to put into words. I really enjoyed the writing, though I could often tell where the translation from Danish to English was a little off, and I liked the idea of meaning and wondering what has meaning in the world and what makes life worth living and things worth doing. As the children in this story begin to demand what each other must give up and put into the "heap of meaning," the demands became more and more disturbing. What started with some books, shoes, and a fishing rod, ends up with a coffin, Jesus on the Cross, and other, even more disturbing, items that involve criminal behavior to retrieve. I am still thinking through this book. It was so baffling and strange, but also really well done.

 Recommended To: Anyone up for a really strange, disturbing read. And someone with a strong stomach.

Quote From The Book: "How come everyone's making like everything that isn't important is very important, all the while they're so busy pretending what's really important isn't important at all?"

 Books Read This Year: 52 of 100

Currently Reading: Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer