Book Review

Raise the roof, WOO, WOO! This is my first blog book review. Before you fall asleep or scoff at my old school cheering, if you're looking for something to read I can help. Plus, Desi actually asked me to write a book review, and since that is my first request EVER I am happy to oblige. As a side note, I am a bookie, not the kind that takes bets, but the kind that gets excited about books. But I am not knowledgeable of the classics, I wasn't an English major (in fact I think sometimes the English majors looked down on the journalism majors), and so I probably don't "know" what makes a book good. If I am entertained, moved, inspired, or intrigued I put the book in my "good" column.

Another indicator of a good book is the speed at which it is read. Based on this formula alone, A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel is GOOD. For me it was a "pick it up and basically don't put it down until it's done" kind of read. It's a memoir, but it isn't written in a timeline of the author's life. Instead, Zippy's stories are grouped together by subject, such as animal memories (including a story of a horrible neighbor boy who tortured pets), religious memories (like how she would always try to lose her shoes or her pink New Testament to avoid going to church), and basically just a lot of funny stuff. When I say funny, I mean FUNNY. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Zippy's mom is teaching her how to play a card game, but Zippy will only take certain cards based on whether she thinks the cards are "boys" or "girls." Ones, Two, Threes, and Aces are girls. Eights, Tens, Jacks, and Kings are boys and she won't have them in her hand. She put the Tens, Jacks, and Kings in a pile together and said they looked like a bunch of soldiers. Queens are obviously girls, but she doesn't trust them. I literally laughed out loud. Evan and Miles were curious about what was making me laugh so suddenly, so Evan wandered over, looked at the pages of my book, (covered with nothing but words) and looked at me like I was crazy.

Zippy was a precocious, funny character of a child; a real-life Ramona Quimby set in small town Indiana. The appeal for me is in the realness of it. Memoirs are like blogs: a peek into the mind of the every-day life. To me this is fascinating; to others it may be boring. There are several things I thought of as I read the book. Zippy sees her Dad (a non-religious, chain-smoking, short tempered man who was also hopelessly devoted to his daughter) with seemingly more compassion than her mother (who spent most of her time on the couch reading science fiction novels). The book doesn't paint anyone as a hero or a villain (with the exception of the mean animal torturing neighbor boy!). Haven Kimmel doesn't seem to be preaching a message for or against religion though there is a focus in the book on the author's disinterest in her mother's religion. What the story essentially is, is a collection of characters. It makes me look at the characters in my life, those whose influence was big or small, and realize that all of it shapes who we are. Each person, no matter how small their life seems, has been influenced by and influences countless people.