My Reading Frenzy

YA at its Finest

I recently read three really excellent YA titles:  A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff (which is admittedly a bit closer to middle grade than YA.), Enchanted by Alethea Kontis and Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zach Stentz.  I really enjoyed them all for different reasons.

A Tangle of Knots involves people coming together because of old and new attachments.  The story is really beautifully done as we meet individuals who turn out to have connections to others in the story.  They all cross each others paths and either become permanent parts of each others lives or help to foster other long term relationships after a chance encounter.  It is really well done, lining everyone up and untangling by the end.  It illustrates how closely related we all really are in this big family of humanity. 

Enchanted has some similar tangles in it.  Sunday is the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter making her particularly interesting in a family of unique people.  This story is a brilliant mash-up of many fairy tales including "Sleeping Beauty," "Cinderella," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and others.  A tiny piece of each figures into the bigger story of Sunday and her immediate and extended family.  It is beautifully written  and ends with the possibility for a sequel that I personally would love to read. 

The main character in Colin Fischer loves a good mystery.  He likes the ordered thinking required to figure something out.  He takes notes on what he observes around him in a notebook.  He often ends a note with the word "Investigate."  Much of what Colin does is influenced by his Aspberger's Syndrome.  Unfortunately, this also causes problems for him as he begins high school on his own.  The story moves quickly and really only captures the first few weeks of Colin's time in high school but seems to accurately portray someone with Asperger's.  I would be interested to hear from a student like Colin to see how well done his characterization is.  

Clockwork Princess

I LOVED Cassandra Clare's latest in The Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Princess.  I do not remember liking the other two, Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince as much.  I really loved her other series Mortal Instruments  until I got to the 4th in the trilogy (Yep, that's what I meant, 4th in the trilogy.) City of Fallen Angels which I did not like at all.  As much as I loved this latest installment, I hope it will not be continued in a 4th book.  I'd like to see Clare write the story of the characters in between the generations presented in the two series. 

The reason I have loved these books is because Clare has done a wonderful job of world building.  In the shadows of the world, live the Nephilim or Shadowhunters, placed here on Earth to protect us all from Darkworlders.  Living in this different world separates the Shadowhunters from mortals (generally), but brings them in contact with warlocks, werewolves, vampires, and demons.  This is a completely original world that did not remind me of anything else.  I give high praise to a book that does that. 

I just read on Clare's website that there will be a 3rd series, but it will take place in the world of today rather than bridging the gap between the first two series....oh well, maybe someday. 

In Clockwork Princess I really could not pick a favorite character.  I like Will for his chilly exterior that covers deep and passionate feelings of love, friendship, and duty.  I love Tessa because she is a bold woman who has suffered greatly making her compassionate and strong.  Sophie, while a servant at the Institute, is humorous, and kind, and fiesty.  Then there is Jem, the heart of the story and the Institute.  I just really like them all.

Clare has a great way with the love stories, making each different, but there is still little mystery how they will all turn out.  The family tree on the inside of the dust jacket was a give-away, but I really appreciated knowing how all the names I know from the Mortal Instruments series link to the people in the Victorian series.   You see how intricately she has woven her stories.  Brilliant!  Despite the age of the characters, these just do not feel like YA novels.  They are simply tales of adventure, heroism in the face of evil, and love for any reader. 

Eleanor and Park

I really, really liked this love story.  Though I admit that at first I was not sure it was really a YA novel.  First of all it takes place in 1986 (which practically makes it historical fiction) and is filled with references, musically mainly, that no young adult is going to understand.  After finishing, I accept that those references do not really inhibit understanding.  What really matters is the relationship between Eleanor and Park.  Eleanor has lived a difficult life.  Her mother is married to a dirtbag.  They live in a hovel.  She shares a tiny bedroom with three brothers and a sister.  There is no door on the bathroom.  All of this has given Eleanor what one might call a crusty demeanor.  Her first day on the school bus after having recently returned to live with her family, she meets Park who saves her by offering her a seat on the bus.  Their romances moves slooooowly after this.  So slowly as to be frustrating to a reader, but completely realistically given the circumstances. 

Park's home situation is heaven compared to Eleanor's.  Park's biggest issue is in being bi-racial; half Korean, half caucasian.  In Omaha in 1986 this is more difficult for him that it would be today.  He feels detached from both cultures and not sure where he belongs.  He also has an ex-military father who wishes his son were more of a "man." Though when it is important, such as the time Park needs to defend Eleanor from unkindess, he steps up in a way no one would label as "unmanly."

The story is told alternately by Eleanor and Park which is a sometimes annoying storytelling method as it has become somewhat too prevelent for my tastes.  It is also makes the reader want to scream at the two as we know that at moments Eleanor and Park are feeling and thinking similarly but because they hesitate to share misunderstandings ensue.  However, when so many adults are not adept at communicating with each other these teens actually do pretty well. 

Despite some of my misgivings at the beginning I would not hesitate to recommend this to teen readers.  I also think readers of my age group who were teens in 1986 would enjoy the story and find the references nostalgic.

Same premise, different story

I recently read/listened to two books with a similar premise: the royal family has been killed and treasonous interlopers have taken over the kingdom, only --------- can save the kingdom.  The first of these novels is The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen.  The second is Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta.  The first I enjoyed enough to continue to the second book, The Runaway King, the second I did not.  

The False Prince stars Sage, an orphan/street kid who is taken away by a man who needs to find a boy of the right age to impersonate Jaron, the missing prince in order to save the kingdom from chaos at the hands of power hungry regents.  Sage, Roden, and Tobias will spend time training to become Jaron.  Whoever best does so will return to Carthya to become king.  The other two will in all likelihood be killed.  

Ten years ago, the kingdom of Lumatere was attacked from within and the royal family wiped out.  A sorceress's curse has prevented the restoration of Lumatere.  The story begins as Finnikin, the son of the former captain of the guard, along with Sir Topher, the former king's first man, and Evanjalin, a religious novice seek to break the curse by finding Balthazar the heir to the throne.

For me, The False Prince was a much more exciting story with a fast pace.  Because of this I was interested to read the second book (and probably the 3rd) to find out how the kingdom fares with its new king.  I will not be reading Froi of the Exiles to find out about Lumatere.  Marchetta has a very heavy hand with the "power of the mysterious goddess" blabbity blab.  I call this the Red Tent effect.  I read The Red Tent when it was all the rage.  I hated it.  Let me be clear, I am all for the acceptance/belief/realization of the blow to women's power that came in with the rise of patriarchal Christianity.  However, I do not need nor want a novel to shove female mysticism and strength down my throat.  I feel Finnikin of the Rock did this in excess; it simply felt preachy.  I have asked one of my male students to read it because my adult perspective is often put off by elements of a book that kids either do not see or see differently.  

Both of these novels reminded me a bit of The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.  Both were inferior.  I would choose the Queen's Thief series by Turner over either of the two above. 

This makes me feel better about Maureen Johnson's latest

In her blog, Maureen Johnson reveals just enough to explain why The Madness Underneath feels so unfinished. 

Holly Black is not...

in on the writing conspiracy with Maureen Johnson, Libba Bray, and Robin Wasserman, if her Curse Workers series is any indication.  I have now listened to the first two books in the series White Cat and Red Glove and am half-way finished with Black Heart.  I am enjoying them a great deal, but they do not align with the particulars of my theory.  One of the things I like best about them is the reader.  The three books are read by Jesse Eisenberg of The Social Network fame.  In fact, he recorded the first book just before the movie was released.  Despite his new-found success he has continued to read the other two books in the series, for which I am grateful.  He has a very nice voice and does an excellent job of emoting without going over the top.  Between the car and the gym I listen to many books and am planning a post about the topic, so keep a look out for it. 

One of the elements I like best about the series is how the fantasy is simply a part of the world as the characters know it.  I feel it takes a skilled writer to give out special powers as if they are an accepted part of our world.  The story is set here and now and some people are just born with abilities.  There are 7 different types of workers: luck, emotion, physical, dream, death, transformation, and memory.  Some types are more rare than others.  The main character comes from a family of workers, but he is not one, much to his embarrassment though working is illegal and association with organized crime.  But make no mistake about it, Cassell is not a worker, but he is certainly a criminal.   Cassell is the youngest of three boys.  His brother Philip is a physical worker, his brother Baron a memory worker, his mother is an emotion worker, and his grandfather is a death worker.  All together they are skilled grifters, often mixed up in some pretty ugly stuff.  Through it all, Cassell is trying to finish high school and forget the girl he loved....and killed three years ago.  I will be sad to reach the end of the third book, but I am anxious to see what happens to the family.  

 

 

Not too long ago, Maureen Johnson tweeted that pre-ordering the second book in her Shades of London series, The Madness Underneath would result in a signed book plate for the book as well as other mysterious prizes.  I went ahead because the "mysterious prizes" intrigued me and because I do like to support independent book shops when possible.  We have a pretty good one in Norfolk, Prince Books, but I am not always able to get there regularly and as much as my heart wants to buy from independents, my wallet does not always agree.  Anyway, I finished the book yesterday, and while I liked it, it suffered seriously from second book in the series-itis.  The story began slowly, which does not bother me much, but does often make things difficult for actual teen readers who can be impatient.  However, I was two-thirds of the way through the book and realized nothing really BIG had happened.  In fact outside of two pretty mundane murders this story is mostly about Rory and how she is settling into her new powers.  Again, this is not really a problem for me, but I read this book expecting a fright level equivalent to that in The Name of the Star, which creeped the bejeepers out of me.  Had I known what to expect I would not have been so disappointed, but I did not even have to turn all the lights on in the house for this one.  Oh well, despite not being what I expected the book was an excellent lead-up to what I hope will be a creep filled third installment. 

On a side note, I really appreciate Johnson's ability to write a mature, high-level text without gratuitous cursing or sex.  It makes her books perfect for my middle school readers who long to be challenge, but who are not emotionally mature enough for the other stuff yet.  Woohoo Maureen Johnson!

YA Romance

I bought Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler almost two years ago, just after I heard it was being banned because it "promotes or sensationalizes sexual promiscuity." I love a good banned book and was hoping for a shockingly frank discussion of teen sexuality.  Those people who tried to ban this book are idiots.  Only someone who only read the title would think this book encourages promiscuous behavior.

The two teen girls in the novel are suffering because Frankie's brother Matt, who was Anna's boyfriend died of an undetected hole between the chambers of his heart.  A year after his death, his parents decide to take Frankie and Anna to the family's long time vacation spot to promote healing.  It is at this point Frankie suggests a game in which the two girls will meet 20 boys.  They do not even get half-way there and one girl remains a virgin and the other sleeps with one boy, just one, not twenty.  A boy who incidentally she feels quite strongly about even after knowing him for a relatively brief time.  At no point does the story glorify sexual escapades.  It is in fact a sweet story about loss, friendship, family, and love.  I am sorry now to have waited so long to read it.   I intend to read Ockler's other recent publications, Fixing Delilah and Bittersweet.   

Now, a book that I would not be surprised to hear about being banned is Sarah Mlynowski's ten things we did (and probably shouldn't have).  I would not agree with such a ban, but this is certainly a book with a fair amount of teen sex.  Mlynowski writes frankly about teen issues, which include decisions about sexual partners.  This book is the story of sixteen-year-old Anna whose father and step-mother move to Cleveland leaving her in Connecticut to finish her junior year.  On one hand this is what Anna wants, but on the other hand she wishes her father (who is a loving and attentive father just trying to make his daughter happy) would just command her to come with him.  She moves in with her best friend Vi who has some actual parent problems with a mom who is away with the touring company of Mary Poppins.  Yes, this means the girls are on their own, perpetuating a big cover-up so that April's father does not discover the truth.  I do not want to ruin it, but one of the 10 things they do is buy a hot tub. 

April is likeable and still reeling from her parents' unpleasant divorce two years earlier.   She has lived with her father while her younger brother moved to Paris with their mother and her new husband.  It is a challenging situation and April feels most comfortable around the friends and boyfriend who got her through that difficult time.   Living on her own with some distance from her family is probably the best thing for April, but book banners of the world will disapprove of the not unusal teen behaviors show in the novel. 

Fantsy, fantasy, bring on the fantasy

I have always liked fantasy and science fiction.  So even now, I look forward to new fantasy by favorite authors.  I am reading my way through Diana Wynn Jones work slowly so I can savor them all.  Recently I read two books I enjoyed a great deal, The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde and The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente. 

I have read almost all of Fforde's Thursday Next series and his Nursery Crimes series, so I would have been able tell this YA book was by him even if his name were not printed on the cover.  He has such a distinctive tone and voice.  The main character Jennifer Strange is a foundling who runs Kazam Mystical Arts Management, an employment agency for magicians, not the birthday party type.  Sadly though over the years, magic has been fading from the world.  Not too far into the story Jennifer finds out that she is in fact the last dragonslayer who now needs to manage the death of the last dragon.  Jennifer's exceptional management skills, and orphan street smarts make this task a bit easier for her.  Fforde manages to make this a clever story about the strength of the individual as well as some rather adult political machinations.  I look forward to more in the series. 

The next fantasy I read, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, also took place in a rich and detailed world.  Before read the story, I read commentary that said this sequel was darker than the first book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.  This was said as a negative , but I believe this is exactly as it should be.  September is a year older and longing to return to Fairyland for another adventure.  When this finally happens, she returns to a very different place than the one she left.  This time September's story is about accepting the consequences of ones actions and doing something to make it right.  This is certainly dark, this is the darkness of adulthood.  September has turned 13, which in our world is rarely considered adulthood, but Jewish tradition marks the passing into adulthood for boys and girls at 13 and 12, respectively.  September's life in her world certainly is fraught with  as it seems they are immersed in the deprivations of World War II with rationing and the absence of her soldier father.  I do not think the story has made an inappropriate leap.  Valente's world building is once again strong as September goes beneath Fairyland.  She must awaken the rightful prince to take his place and recapture her own shadow who has become a queen.  Because the Hollow Queen is September herself the novel is also about the darkness within us all and our acceptance and control of that darkness.  I am hoping there will be a third book in this series. 

David Levithan's Every Day

is how I know I will never be a writer.  I mean how does he come up with these things.  I enjoyed Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares that Levithan wrote with Rachel Cohn.  (I did not really like Naomi and ELy's No Kiss List.)  I also loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson by Levithan and John Green.  All of these books are mind bogglingly clever with an interesting approach without being weird or unrealistic.  How does he do it?!?!?

Every Day is the story of A., a spirit, boy, girl, person, something, who wakes up in a different body every day.  His/her life has always been this way.  As a child he/she thought this was the way everyone lived, then he/she discovered his/her uniqueness.  It is not until A. falls in love with Rhiannon that the trouble begins.  Before this, A. has always striven not to have much of an impact on the life of the daily host.  After the day he spends as Rhiannon's boyfriend Justin, A. makes an effort to see her as whomever he is that day.  The story is clearly fantasy and actually reminded me a bit of the Things Not Seen series by Andrew Clements.  As A. grows more and more frustrated with his/her lot in life we come back to the ever present "search for identity" motif in teen literature.  Levithan has turned this on its head by making it impossible, or so it seems for A. to have an identity, or is it his very lack of a permanent physical manifestation that makes his identitiy all that he does have. 

Lots of interesting questions and issues at work here. 

Libba Bray,

Maureen Johnson, and maybe Holly Black and Robin Wasserman are in cahoots.  I have recently read The Name of the Star by Johnson and The Diviners by Bray.  The former is about a creey killer from the past, the latter is about a creepy killer from the past.  I have not yet read The Book of Blood and Shadow by Wasserman, but the dust jacket blurb leads me to believe it might....be....about a CREEPY KILLER FROM THE PAST. (This one needs to go closer to the top of my TBR pile.)

This type of writing is a bit of a departure for Johnson whose previous novels include the Suite Scarlet series as well as 13 Little Blue Envelopes and its sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, none of which contain anything more creepy than a guy the heroine does not like at first. Now all of a sudden there is a sequel with equally creepy goings-on?

Bray is not new to stories of the supernatural as evidenced by her fabulous A Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy, but horror was not really a part of those books. 

Holly Black has more experience with the weird as in Black Heart, White Cat, and Red Glove, but these seem to be more fantasy than horror.  (Full discloser: I have not read any of them.)  

Robin Wasserman has some experience with sci-fi dystopia, but seems to have only delved into horror recently. 

So, my question is, were the four of them sitting around one night with a couple of bottles of wine brainstorming ways to challenge themselves and write something different?  I picture them writing down a bunch of ideas and putting them all  in a hat.  What came out was, "write a novel with..... A CREEPY KILLER FROM THE PAST." 

Since this blog has a limited audience I doubt if any of these writers will ever see my theory to confirm or deny, but I am convinced that something is going on here!

So to wrap it up, I really liked In the Name of the Star, though it did creep me out.  I fully intend to read its sequel The Madness Underneath despite what it may do to my ability to read at night with just a reading lamp.  The Diviners was really good as well.  Its setting in Jazz Age, Prohibition Era New York City is well researched and wonderful.  I am looking forward to the next in this series as well.  Luckily I have the Waserman and the Holly Black books to tide me over while I am waiting. 

Holiday Reading

WARNING:  This post about holiday reading is about the books I have read over the holidays, not books with holiday themes or topics.  I started with The Selection by Kiera Cass, moved to Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead and then The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth.  I really liked all of them. 

First, The Selection takes place in a dystopic world, a genre I will continue to enjoy as long as authors keep finding a way to make it fresh.  Cass's take is fresh.  It is one part The Hunger Games in that young women from each of Illea's 35 districts is chosen to compete to marry Prince Maxon, making this one part The Bachelor as well.  What could have been written as a shallow story instead asks questions about choosing a spouse, ruling a nation, staying true to oneself, and class systems.  The main character, America Singer, a 5 (a relatively low caste) is automatically made a 3 when she is chosen to compete, thus helping her entire family to a better life.  They are all artists and musicians who make their living performing for 2s.  America's selection ensures they will have food and work steadily.  She will also have the opportunity to marry well if she is not chosen by the prince.  As always there is a wrench, she is in love with someone else, her childhood sweetheart, a 6 who does not have much hope for upward mobility.  This is the first in the series of what will undoubtedly be a trilogy.  The second book is due out in April.  I have high hopes, but am warily optimistic given my general observations about second books. 

Rebecca Stead is quietly brilliant.  I loved When You Reach Me, which I even reread recently, which I rarely do.  Liar & Spy is almost as good.  It too has some revelations that do not come until the end, but are hinted at throughout.  Some of these revelations I was able to figure out early on.  Others were a surprise.  The main character Georges (Yes, Georges, named after the painter Georges Seurat.)  and his parents have just moved away from their house in Brooklyn to an apartment because his father has lost his job.  In the new building, Georges meets Safer, a boy his age and his younger sister Candy and older brother Pigeon along with their eccentric parents.  It really is a great story addressing some standard middle school issues along with Georges' personal struggles.

Most recently is The Miseducation of Cameron Post.   This one addresses a pretty difficult topic I think needs to feature in more fiction.  The story begins with the death of Cameron's parents in a car accident, but this does not happen before Cam and her best friend kiss, for real. Cameron's born again aunt Ruth and her grandmother move in to the family home.  By this point Cameron is pretty sure she is a lesbian, but is not entirely comfortable with this realization.  She finds herself in love with Coley Taylor who "turns her in" at which point the next segement of the book takes Cameron away to Promise, a school for sinners, where they embrace God to overcome their sin of same sex attraction.  I think that more fiction addressing homosexuality for middle school and high school age students needs to exist.  These days, some children begin to wonder about themselves in elementary school and may not have anyone to speak with.  Fiction can provide some initial guidance that may help them to open up to a trusted adult.  My only quibble with the book is that is it set in 1991-93.  I think the author may misguidedly feel that what happens to Cameron would not be possible in 2012, but I fear she is mistaken.  Small societies, small towns, and small minds have not disappeared.  

I am not sure what I am going to pick up next as I have a stack I had intended for break reading, but I always seem to have the urge to read something outside the stack.  We shall see...we shall see.

Happy New Year!

A Satisfying Ending

This holiday weekend I had time to read Reached by Ally Condie, the final book in the Matched trilogy.  I was worried I would not remember enough of Crossed to jump into the story, but I was ok.  I enjoyed the trilogy and look forward to whatever Condie will do next. 

As for Reached, I liked it.  There were no shocks, but I did not feel it was predictable either.  You may have noticed, I mention the "predictable" problem a lot.  I read a lot and value a unique story and/or concept.  I can live with repeated themes because I believe the number of these is finite.  The ways a writer gets there are infinite.  I appreciate a clever/unique/special approach.   I do also understand this is difficult to do and that is why I admire an author with a new idea. 

Condie wraps up the story of Cassia, Ky, and Xander in a satisfying way.  As with many YA novels each is searching for his/her place in the world and each comes a bit closer by the end of the novel.  It would be unrealistic for them to just find a niche and be content, but I believe we are meant to realize there is hope for all three.  Not all the characters fare as well, but this too is realistic.  I like a healthy dose of realistic mixed in with my dystopian fiction. 

Overall, this was an excellent trilogy, I would place it 3rd in line of series I have read recently and are complete; cannot judge until all the books are out:

1.  The Hunger Games

2.  The Maze Runner

3.  Matched

The exception to the rule

I made up the other day about the second book in a trilogy, is Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor.  This book was fabulous.  I rarely take my time with a book in order to savor it, I am more of a "devour it quickly" kind of reader, but this one made me want to slow down in part to keep it from being over, because now....I have to wait for the next one.  This folks makes me sad...and frustrated...and depressed.  I was lucky enough to be able to listen to Daughter of Smoke and Bone just before reading this installment.  It helped to refresh me.  This is a problem when books are released a year or more apart.  [This is gonig to be an issue when I begin reading Reached by Ally Condie next as it has been a year since I read Crossed and a year before that when I read Matched.  Details from Divergent's sequel (by Veronica Roth) Insurgent keep popping up whenever I try to remember Crossed.] As I have no reading impulse control I cannot wait until all the books are released to read them, I just have to rely on my faulty memory and the generosity of the author to do a bit of review (though philosophically I hate the idea).

So, if you have not figured it out yet, I loved the book.  It still had a bit of an unfinished feel, but I truly felt like the characters grew and progressed.  Karou and Akiva both had many moral decisions to make about their world and ours.  I am not sure if Taylor intended the story to be a commentary on current world events such as the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, but it can be read that way as the chimera and angels persist in killing each other, with each side viewing the other as monstrous, with good reason.  Taylor keeps the reader moving back and forth unable to decide which side is "right" and which is "wrong."  Both Karou and Akiva feel a strong pull to make a change to prevent the extinction of both their peoples.  It may come back to the cliché, "Love conquers all," but in this case I would be ok with that as the story is so well written it really defies cliché. 

Additionally, I am a big fan of the world Taylor has created.  The characters spend some time in the human world, especially in the first book, but the second takes place almost entirely in Eretz a world of creatures and magic, but again without predictable elements.  Sadly, as I have read so many books both YA and otherwise I find too many commonalities, but this series is unique and surprising, which I love. 

I would certainly recommend starting with the first book but if you are easily frustrated by waiting, I would consider holding off until the third book is released, hopefully around this time next year.  I am sure I will read many wonderful books between now and when the next one comes out, but if Taylor sustains the level of emotion and tension in the final book this will be one of my favorites of all time. 

Maggie Stiefvater and I...

...should be best friends.  And here's why:

1.  She lives in Virginia, I live in Virginia.

2.  She writes brilliant books, I like to read brilliant books. 

3.  She is quirky as evidenced by her author's note at the end of the audiobook of The Scorpio Races; I am quirky as evidenced by my everyday behavior. 

Despite my desire to be best buds with a writer whom I admire, Maggie might be out of my reach despite the Virginia connection.  But at least I have her writing to keep me happy.  I just finished The Raven Boys, at the traffic lights on my way to work this morning, a practice I neither condone nor engage in except in very rare desperate situations.  I actually did not finish, but instead had to wait until I got to work where everyone in the world came in to see me first thing this morning....but finally I finished.  

WHAT A BOOK!  I loved it.  It reminded me a bit of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which not surprisingly is on Steifvater's Goodreads list of loved books.  (The Secret History is a book that disturbed me, which in turn confused me into not know whether I really liked it or not.) Oh, of course I am talking about The Raven Boys, the first in The Raven Cycle, which I hope means more than a trilogy.  The worst part is I have read this great book and will have to wait agonizingly for the next.  Stiefvater should not be out on a book tour, she should be home....writing.

Anyway the story has all the elements I love: some fantasy connected to a "once and future king" (not THE once and future king, but one nonetheless), magical ley lines and psychic abilities, a ghost, a love story with some teen angst, but not too much for the adult reader, a Greek chorus of aunts and friends, beautiful atmospheric writing, and a fabulous cast of main characters all of whom I like and want to know more about.  I was sad when she switched away from one character to visit another who I was happy to see again.  It was non-stop intriguing and fantastical, and I cannot wait to find out more. 

I should have trusted John Green...

...not to give me more than I could handle.  I put off reading The Fault in Our Stars because I knew it would be sad.  I even bought it right when it came out in order to get a signed copy, plus I have become a book snob and prefer hardbacks.  While not giving in to the e-book craze I have gone excessively in the other direction to make sure the books I buy are hefty and solid.  None of those flimsy paperbacks for me...unless I get them used and the price is fabulous. 

So anyway, The Fault in Our Stars did make me cry.  Not quite as much as A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, but close.  Just like many of John Green's other works it is mainly a love story about two really funny teens who happen to have cancer and are obsessed with this book and its author who lives in Amsterdam and have friends with cancer.  The fun in the book is the two main characters know the young cancer patient stereotypes and try to thwart them, but in some way become them anyway because it is difficult to be dying young of cancer and not evoke that pity and sadness in others. 

Hazel and Augustus though are at their most important two teens in love for the first time.  I'd put the level of sweetness in their falling in love up there with Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.  These stories are important reminders that teen love is just as real as that felt between adults.  Just because adults diminish it because their young relationships did not become "forever" ones does not mean that what they or others felt is not REAL love. 

I love a good love story and the sad part was not more than I could handle because the happy part was so euphoric.  I should have trusted you John Green. 

 

Reading Multiple Personalities

You would think based on my reading choices that I might have a multiple personality disorder; I rarely stick to one particular genre for a sustained period of time.  For this reason you may find my most recent reads to be all over the place genre-cally. 

In my last post I mentioned reading The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields, which is primarily about the extra-marital love life of Edith Wharton, one of my most favorite writers of all time.  While I enjoyed the novel, I was disappointed in Wharton.  While I understand this is a fictionalized account, the author used excerpts of Wharton's letters to Morton Fullerton.  I cannot possibly understand what Wharton's marriage to Teddy Wharton was like, but she allowed for what seems like a great deal of mistreatment from Fulleron in exchange for only small bits of happiness. 

Following that read, I began Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead.  The novel takes place during three days of the wedding weekend of Daphne Van Meter and Greyson Duff on Waskeke Island.  The wedding itself takes up only a few pages, but the two days before are rife with all sorts of turmoil.  Winn, Daphne's father finds himself inappropriately attracted to one of his daughter's bridesmaids.  Daphne's sister Livia is recovering from heartbreak using all sorts of wedding weekend techniques.  And all the other members of the wedding party, including the families, sometimes spectate and sometimes participate in all sorts of other shenanigans.  This novel is not a comedy, or maybe it is a black comedy, but it is the story of a family the reader likes but feels sorry for, roots for, and wants to slap all in turn.  I do recommend this book and enjoyed it quite a lot. 

SHIFT

(to a new genre)

Next I decided to go with Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.   This is a middle grades/YA fantasy novel that takes place in a society in which dragons and humans have forged an uneasy alliance.  The main character, Seraphina, is a brilliant musician who also happens to be half dragon, which as you can imagine is not an accepted species in either society.  When a rogue former General begins to attack humans the fragile peace is in significant danger.  This is clearly the beginning of a series or trilogy and I am eager to read more.  I have also ordered this for my school as I think my kids are ready for a new dragon series. 

 

 

SHIFT

(again)

 

Next I picked up The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean.  I have been wanting to read this ever since I began following the author's blog, which is about the dresses she makes, generally from vintage patterns.  By profession, McKean is a lexicographer, but from what I can see she could go into dressmaking or writing at any time.  The book is a really sweet story about Dora who must come home from college when her grandmother, who raised her, has a stroke.  Mimi runs a vintage clothing shop in which Dora has grown up and she takes over the shop when she is not at the hospital.  Sadly for me I just read Jennifer Weiner's, The Next Best Thing whose main character is also a woman raised by a grandmother because her parents are deceased, but McKean wrote hers first so this is just an unfortunate coincidence on my part.  Foolishly, I thought at the beginning that the story would be somewhat predictable and certainly elements of it were, but there were also some twists I did not see coming.  I was drawn right into the story and was fascinated by all the descriptions of the vintage clothes Dora finds in a closet her grandmother has been cultivating for her for years as well as those in the shop.

 

I have just started The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith, the next in his series of 44 Scotland Street stories.  I would recommend anything by Smith, but I like his Isabel Dalhousie series best but his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books are wonderful as well. 

Some End of Summer (Sob) Reading

So, I have been reading furiously these past two weeks to get in all the books I wanted to read this summer.  I have managed to get through all but two of the middle school Virginia Readers Choice books so I can book talk them with the 6th graders during library orientation.  Besides those I have read Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones, The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner, The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, The Kill Zone by James Dashner and am partway through The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields.  I read all of these for myself even though some of them are middle grade or YA novels.

Castle in the Air is actually the second book in the Howl's Moving Castle series by Diana Wynne Jones, but I got mixed up and read them out of order.  It turns out not to have mattered much because Howl and Sophie are not the main characters and do not put in an appearance until the last quarter of the book.  Their son Morgan is just born in this one and was a toddler in the 3rd book, House of Many Ways but that was the only significant confusion, though it wasn't, in reading them out of order.  Jones is a wonderful story-teller.  I have quite a few more of hers in my TBR pile.  They will be great for winter time in front of the crackling fireplace that does not work.  

 

The day James Dashners' The Kill Order came out I went out to get it.  Because it was also a rainy day, I read it the whole book.  I was excited to read more about the world Dashner created in The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, and The Death Cure.  The story takes place just after the world has been changed by the sun flares.  Both the prologue and epilogue take place just before Thomas is dropped into the maze.  The book was exciting with many new characters and a close up look at the way the world deteriorated and much of humanity was overtaken by the Flare.  However, there really was not much in this book that we do not already know.  While I am glad to be "shown" what happened, rather than "told," about this time period, there is nothing really revealingly new, so it was a bit of a disappointment for me.  I am wondering if this is the last prequel book, or if we will get a closer look at Teresa and Thomas as they do whatever it is they do to help WICKED plan the maze and what they hope it will accomplish. 

Next, I read The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner.  I enjoy Weiner's books: they are always entertaining, generally realistic, and usually have a happy ending.  (There is nothing wrong with a solidly happy ending.)  I also like that they usually take place in the Philadelphia area.  This one did not.  I am going to give Weiner a pass on the location....this time.  The novel is the story of Ruth Saunders who lost both her parents and was seriously injured in a car accident when she was very young.  Since then she has lived with her grandmother, who raised her and then moved with her to California when Ruth wanted to try writing for TV.  The heart of this story is Ruth's chance to produce a show she has written.  If Weiner's details are correct, which I suspect they are, getting a TV show made is about 80% - right place, right time and 20% - talent, good writing, and quality show.  The novel is about family, love, and that ever important search-for-self.  While I could feel the happy ending coming a long way from the end, I really did not know how it would all work out and was carried along by my desire to see Ruth triumph. 

 

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, is historical fiction about the 1920s silent film actress Louise Brooks, but Louise is not the main character, instead, Cora Carlisle, the chaperone is.  Using Cora in the setting of New York City, with a forward thinking and somewhat shocking future star, Moriarty illustrates the turbulence of the time.  Just after women have won the right to vote, before the end of Prohibition, and in the heart of a time when conservative, Victorian mores are getting dusty Cora must deal with this flamboyant and decidedly un-traditional teen.  Aside from caring for Louise, Cora has agreed to this trip in order to find out more about her own life which began in NYC before she was put on an orphan train and taken to Kansas.  While the story of Cora in NYC and after she returns to Wichita is plenty full of interest, the historical details are what drew me in.  I love a well-research snapshot of a time period. 

Finally, I began reading The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields yesterday.  It is historical fiction about the life of Edith Wharton, who is one of my all-time favorite authors.  It mainly covers the time in her life in 1907-1911 when her marriage was falling apart and she began an affair with Morton Fullerton.  I am not quite half-way through, but so far I appreciate the inclusion of actual letters between the two and between Wharton and others.  Though I know how it all turns out, I am drawn in by the author's imaginings of scenes between the two and the details about Paris, Wharton's writing, and her home, The Mount in Lenox, MA. 

Sarah Dessen Thoughts

I have now read 5 novels by Sarah Dessen. 

1.  Just Listen

2.  What Happened to Good-Bye

3.  Along for the Ride

4.  Lock and Key

5.  The Truth About Forever

I read the first because the girls at my school were clamoring for me to buy some Dessen books.  I knew nothing about them to help make any sort of decision so I decided to read one.  The next I read because of a committee I serve on.  After that I just kind of got hooked.  I will not probably go any further back in publication dates that I have with 2004.  I will probably keep up with new books though. 

Reasons I like the books:

A.  Realistic female protagonists

B.  Something different for the kids who are not into the futuristic, dystopia, fantasy novels that are so prevalent now

C. No violence

D.  No sex

E.  Real, but not hugely heavy problems.  By this I mean these are characters and issues many "normal" kids can relate to: divorce, high parental expectations, shallow peers, death in the family, step- families.  There is no doubt in my mind there is a place for YA literature that addresses the heavy issues.  Laurie Halse Anderson does this supremely well.  (ie Speak, Wintergirls)  But I also think kids who are not facing these types of issues need books with characters who deal with what they understand. Dessen's books fill this niche. 

 

Issues I have with the books:

1.  All the high school age teenagers in the books seem to drink and there are never any repercussions or ever even any comments made about this.  While I am not naive enough to think this does not go on, I do wish she would occasionally throw in a character who speaks out against underage drinking.  This is one problem that makes it difficult for me to put these books in my middle school library. (This is not a flaw in the books per se, they are not meant for a middle school audience, but the desire to hear someone comment negatively on the drinking is still valid.)

2.  The story lines are somewhat predictable.  This does not seem to be a problem with teens.  In fact I know from my own youthful reading of many, many Nancy Drew mysteries, that young readers either do not notice, do not mind, or find comfort in predictable, repetitive plot elements.  As a more savvy adult reader this does bug me some.  This will probably not stop me from reading future publications.  

3.  Despite different names and issues, the heroines begin to blend together.  They just do not stick out as being unique. 

 

 Overall:

I think the pros outweigh the cons as far as overall quality of the books.  The story lines are engaging, the characters are believeable, and teen readers (primarily females) can see a lot of themselves and their friends in the characters. 

YA Fabulous

I've been on a reading frenzy again without benefit of blogging, but now thanks to the wonder that is summer break I am back and ready to talk. 

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi  The main character here is Tool, the half-man who made a significant appearance in Ship Breaker.  I listened to Ship Breaker quite a long time ago, but I did not blog about it....though I am not sure why.  Ship Breaker is the 2011 winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, and well deserved it.  This book takes a close look at the groups fighting for eminence in this post apocalyptic world.  Nailer,"Lucky Girl," and Pima in Ship Breaker are parallel to Mahlia and Mouse in The Drowned Cities.  All these teens should be dating, studying in school, and going to proms, but instead they are fighting for their lives and livelihoods in a world that uses their peers as cannon fodder in a war that has no right or wrong side.  Tool, who features in both stories is a genetically engineered being part human, part animal.  Which side of him is predominant at any given time is what drives the story.  I have not figured out if this is supposed to have taken place before or after Ship Breaker, but I suspect, after.  Maybe?  (I recently purchased The Windup Girl as I am intrigued by Bacigalupi after two such fantastic YA titles.  I want to see what he does with adult fiction.)

Insurgent by Veronica Roth:  After I read Divergent I thought I would go crazy before I could read Insurgent.  Luckily I retained my sanity, and the book was well worth the wait.  The only problem was my inability to remember some important details from Divergent.  I will not make that mistake again and will most likely read the first two again before the third.  In this one Tris is back and the conflict between the factions is more intense.  While I like the dystopia concept I do wish there were more time in the world when it was still working before diving into the downfall of the society.  This series is ripe for a pre-quel. 

Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride:  I really loved this humorous, horror novel.  Yes, you read that right funny and scary.  Sam discovers pretty early on that he is a necromancer, one who has power over the dead.  His family has kept this from him to protect him...this is really the only cliche and somewhat predictable part of the novel.  Because necromancers can steal each other's power by killing, Sam must watch out for Douglas the most powerful necromancer in the area and head of a council of other supernatural folks including fey and wolves.  This type of book series has exploded since "the book that shall not be named" made vampires cool, but this one is different.  It is well written, funny, with full characters about whom I am looking forward to finding out more in Necromancing the Stone due out in September.  

Timepiece by Myra McEntire:  I had held out a long time before I finally read Hourglass, but I found I could not resist the time travel premise.  I really liked Hourglass and its cover.  In fact, the cover is what I liked best about Timepiece though I have no idea what the covers have to do with story, especially as in this case, the book is narrated by Kaleb, so the idea that it is Emerson on the cover just does not work.  Even the title has little meaning this time, while "Hourglass" had a strong link to the characters.  I know there is a third book in the works, and I will need to read it to finish up the trilogy, but after this one I am not sure how interested I am.  There was so little true tension created and while I was rooting for Kaleb, as I should because he narrated, I did not feel any connection to the others who drew me in in the first book.  A bit disappointing overall.   

 

In my next post I will discuss The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge, my most recent adult fiction reads as well as That Woman by Anne Sebba about the life of Wallis Simpson. 

Spring Break Books

So, my totally valid and not weak at all excuse for not blogging in so long is that I was away for spring break.  Ok, I admit it, this is a lame excuse since I was only away for a week...a week ago.  So really, I have been slacking a bit.  This is mainly only a detriment to myself as the reason I blog in the first place is to better remember what I read and have someplace to look to remind myself what I have read and how I felt about it. 

The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell, author of The Vespertine.  This book is not a direct sequel of The Vespertine, but instead involves the cousin of Amelia, who has her own supernatural power...she has a way with water.  This power comes in handy when Zora is sent by her mother to live in the Oklahoma Territory.  Zora's love has died (as detailed in The Vespertine) and she longs to escape Baltimore and the memories.  She compromises herself by publicly smooching a stranger and quicker than you can sing O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A she is off.  I enjoyed The Vespertine and this book did not disappoint.  It ends clearly pointing to a story that will bring the two girls together. 

 

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani  I made a concerted effort to take along some of the non-YA fiction I have been wanting to read.  I love YA, but I do sometimes feel the themes can be repetitive, I also find adult fiction to be sometimes more challenging and thought provoking.  With that goal in mind, I purchased The Shoemaker's Wife the day it was released so I would have it for the trip.  While Trigiani's novels also repeat elements, I find them engaging and informative.  This one began in the mountains of Italy and ended in Minnesota.  Trigiani often focuses on Italian families, which is always interesting for me as we are not Italian.  I also like the tales of the immigrant experience as researched by Trigiani.  I cannot rave about this book being unique, or different, but it is another tale from this author who can be counted on to tell a good story. 

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter  This is essentially a retelling of The Secret Garden.  It could have been done poorly with trite modern additions, but Potter really kept the good bones of the story and made each character new and separate from those of Frances Hodgson Burnett.  I enjoyed revisiting a childhood favorite in this way.  I would not use this book as a substitute in the reading life of a child I love, but instead encourage reading both.

 

 

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles  This is the book I most enjoyed.  It takes place in New York City mainly in 1938; it begins on New Year's Eve.  Katey Kontent is the main character.  But her friend Eve and the young man, Tinker Grey, whom they meet on the book's opening night figure prominently in the next year of Katey's life.  In general I like historical fiction, but while this one addressed World War II and other world events tengentially, it is much more a story about day to day life for Katey, who has a job, lives in a small apartment and is just trying to make a life for herself with hopes for finding love and fulfillment.  I would not have known the author was male, if I did not know the author was male.  He smoothly tells the story from the perspective of a woman, reminding me a bit of Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar.  I was originally attracted to this book by the cover, and it really lived up to my expectations. 

The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch  I did not actually read this book while on break, but I bought it in Charleston, SC (our first stop) at a little indie bookstore called Blue Bicycle Books right on King St.  They are a mix of new and used, with a great local authors section, where I found this book.  And that had that little extra something that makes an indie store great: a sweet, fluffy cat.  Alexandria Lee begins her time in Savannah by smoking a great deal of pot.  (For this reason I will not be able to take this to my middle school library.)  She is there because her mother has died and she is not yet old enough to be on her own.  Life is significantly different in upper-class Savannah than it was on the commune in California.  First of all, Alexandria finds she is legacy in the Magnolia League of which her grandmother is the grand pubah and her mother was a member.  What takes a bit longer is to discover why exactly the league members are so special, and why they cannot ever leave Savannah.  I am looking forward to the second installment in July, though I have made a pact to read through my TBR pile of adult fiction, including John Irving, Ann Patchett and others, this summer!  Sigh...so many books, so little time.  

Two about Time

It seems that lately I like to blog after I have read two books rather than after each one.  In this way I can connect two books that may or may not have anything in common.  It is a nice challenge.  Most recently I have read The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley and Hourglass by Myra McEntire. 

The Orchid House was both engaging and disappointing at the same time.  The story was a good old "family secrets," historical fiction, England, modern tragedy book.  I like these types of stories when Kate Morton writes them.  This story reminded me of her work.  Julia is a concert pianist who has lost both her husband and son in a terrible car accident.  When she visits the estate on which her grandparents worked when she was a child, she discovers it is to be sold.  Visiting her grandmother she begins to unravel a mystery in which her family and the owners of Wharton Park, the Crawfords, are caught up.  This storyline is mingled with that told to Julia by her grandmother Elsie about the days at the estate both immediately before and after World War II.  The story has some surprises which keep it from being too formulaic however I say this having read the entire novel, the writing was appallingly bad.  Stilted conversations, too much telling rather than showing, and just a lack of engaging detail.  I stuck with it because the author was successful in making want to know what would happen.  There is another detail I feel like I need to mention but this is GOING TO BE A SPOILER, so stop here  and move to the next paragraph about the next book.  Julia finds out eventually that her mother was not the daughter of Elsie and Bill (two very British, white people) at all, but instead the daughter of Harry Crawford and the Thai woman with whom he fell in love after the war.  It is emphasized numerous times that Jasmine (who died many years before, when Julia was 11) looked strikingly like her mother, a Thai woman, yet at no point during or after her life has anyone questioned her parentage.  This quite frankly is ridiculous.  Even if she were described as having particularly Anglo features like her British father, which she was not, she is clearly NOT the child of Elsie and Bill.  This is really the one plot contrivance that was just too far-fetched to be believed.  Despite my forbearance because I enjoyed the plot, I will not be passing this book along to friends, or anyone else.  

Next, I am glad to say I read the wonderfully written time-travel book, Hourglass.  This is a YA novel combining romance, fantasy, adventure, and a pinch of teen angst.  Emerson sees people from the past, and has had extensive psychological and psychiatric intervention to discover why.  When Michael, who works for Hourglass, comes along he tells her these visions are simply ripples in time she is able to see because she can travel into the past.  He sees similar ripples from the future. This means they are a matched pair able to travel together anywhere in time so long as someone provides a portal.  Because Michael is devastatingly handsome and only a few years older than 17 year old Emerson angst and romance ensue.  (This book reminded me a tiny bit of Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red, but not enough to feel like a copy cat.)  Because there is to be a sequel, the novel ends rather abruptly with all sorts of unfinished business, this is of course an evil tactic on the part of authors and publishers to get me to run out to buy the next book, Timepiece, as soon as it is released on June 12th, but I am not eager, no not me.  

Peculiar Books

Yes, not a very clever title if I am writing about Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs but to mix it up I also have something to say about Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (winner of this year's Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature).  Because I read these two books in quick succession they seem to me to have similarities. 

1.  Both deal with mysterious events in the lives of the teenage, male main characters.

2.  Both ultimately come back to the teenager's search for his place in this world. 

3.  Both young men have some psychological issues that require the advice of a professional. 

I guess that is about it!

So, Miss Peregrine's... is fantasy.  When Jacob seeks some answers about his grandfather's life after suspicious death, he travels with his father to Cairnholm, an unusual island off the coast of Wales, where his grandfather spent some time during World War II.  What Jacob finds is not just some peculiar children whom his grandfather knew in his youth (mull that one over for a few moment) but also some rather nasty...creatures.  Is feels definitely like many of the icky things chasing Jacob and the children as well as his grandfather so many years ago stand as a metaphor for the icky things that plague human beings throughout time.  One convention of the book that I am not so sure about is the use of antique photos.  The author explains in an afterword that the photos are all real and part of the collections of people who make a hobby of collecting odd, old photos.  What I am not sure about is how Riggs weaves them into the story.  It felt just a bit too contrived and therefore awkward. 

Where Things Come Back is 100% realistic fiction.  I personally love sci fi and fantasy, but a good does of reality is healthy for me from time to time.  Cullen lives in Lily, Arkansas where not much happens until there is a rare woodpecker sighting and Cullen's younger brother Gabriel disappears one day.  While the two events are not related to each other, both cause upheaval in Cullen's life.  

It is the structure of this book that is so intriguing.  Told in alternating chapters we also meet Benton Sage, and through him, Cabot Searcy, whose story intersects with Cullen's in a totally unpredictable and brilliant way. 

I can completely understand why the book received the Printz honor this year.  While it grapples with religious faith, love, sex, friendship, and family it is a brilliantly structured story that really is difficult to put down.  Throughout the reader is asking, why? how? who? what? and is left at the end wondering if...  It really is a fantastic read. 

 

 

Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns

I decided to finally read The Girl of Fire and Thorns (There was no good reason I had not read it already, it just had not made it to the top of any piles yet.) because it was recommended on a blog celebrating The Queen's Thief Week, in celebration of the series by Megan Whalen Turner.  This is a series I also came to late in the game, and LOVED and want to read again!  (In my defense, there are a lot of good books in the world and despite my best efforts, I cannot read them all.  And I do not want to limit myself to one genre in order to be a completist in that area. ) 

Yes, after having read The Girl of Fire and Thorns I can understand why The Thief fans would recommend it.  There is a lot of the same kind of political intrigue and machinations in both books.  The main characters, while female and male respectively are also similar.  The are not however tediously similar.  The Girl is original with lots of unexpected twists and turns.  Elisa is the current bearer, only one is chosen every century, with a Godstone in her naval.  Despite knowing some of the history of other bearers, Elisa does not know what her great work will be.  Once she marries her path becomes more clear. 

Elisa is a fully formed character with flaws, foibles, and strengths.  Despite the fantasy elements of the book, all the characters are believable and engaging.  The story moves quickly and does not feel like the first of a trilogy.  Though I am glad we will have more of Elisa in the next two books, I am satisfied with the completeness of the first. 

Frankenstein, Chimaera, and Wolves Oh My

In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit that I deeply disliked the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I realize it is one of the great works of classic literature, however that does not mean I have to like it.  I needed to read it to teach it to my AP English 12 students in September.  From the beginning, I thought Victor Frankenstein was an annoying whiner.  When he created the monster, then surprise surprise it all went awry all he could manage to do is whine about it.  "Oh, woe is me, I created a horrible, destructive monster, whom I have treated terribly and now all I can think to do about it is....NOTHING!"  All this being said, I really liked Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavor, a prequel to Frankenstein.  It takes us back to Victor and his family when he was only 16 an just beginning to be interested in medicine and dark magic which were somewhat intertwined at the time.  Victor is a much more interesting and likable person as a teen than he will be as a whiny adult.  I look forward to the next installment in the series. 

I also read Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor this weekend which turned out to be fantastic.  I wish that whoever writes book cover blurbs would do a better job....I cannot pinpoint exactly how they could be better, just better.  Actually what I would like is for the blurbs to stop making good books sound like they will be stupid.  I realize they do not want to give away major elements or key twist, but surely the blurb can more accurately capture a book's awsomeness without giving anything away.  The blurb on this book made it sound ridiculous, so why did I read it...because other bloggers I respect and often agree with about books loved it.  I did not love it, it reminded me too much of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices  series, and those I loved.  As much as I liked this one, the struggle here between angels and devils was just a bit less compelling, however, I would still recommend it without reservation. 

A very different experience was reading Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck.  I love his artwork and have bought quite a few books with his illustrations since The Invention of Hugo Cabret came along.  Hugo was so very unique that of course Wonderstruck cannot hope to replicate its groundbreaking-ness, but it is still a wonderful book.  The story is completely unique and the way he weaves the two stories together is masterful.  

As you can tell, I had a wonderful reading weekend.  Next up is Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James.  It has been at least a few weeks since there was any Jane Austen in my life (since I read The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen by Lindsay Ashford, a fictionalized account of the non-fiction possibility that Jane Austen was murdered.)  

Why Must I Be A Teenager in Love..

This weekend I read both What Boys Really Want by Pete Hautman and Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman. Two initial comments:  What Boys Really Want was not as good as The Big Crunch, which I loved!  and Why We Broke Up was blissfully devoid of all Lemony Snicket type snarkiness. 

What Boys Really Want is not so much a love story, though it does have romance.  And it is not really a romance, though it is about what boys really want, and girls too for that matter.  It is not however a guide to boys, though that is what one of the main characters, Adam, spends his time writing, revising (an element that makes happy the heart of this former English teacher) marketing, selling, book partying, and rewriting.  Interwoven through the narrative are snippets of his book, some of which will make even grown women say, "Oooohhhh, so that's why they do that."  Lita is Adam's best friend who is interested in writing herself and is none too pleased that Adam has stolen her thunder.  Along with all this, both Adam and Lita are finding romance with Blair and Brett respectively and figuring out how that will fit into their frienship.  It was a good story, interesting premise, not particularly predictable but lacked the zing of The Big Crunch. 

Why We Broke Up is about breaking up.  And throughout the whole thing I was grateful that my brain does not allow me to remember what it was like to be a teenager in love, or not much anyway.  We'd all be miserable all the time if we had to suffer through those memories.  It is not easy to go through it with Min.  The book is a walk through Min's relationship with Ed, that we know is doomed.  Those of us with years of wisdom can also see what will doom it coming a mile away.  The sad part is that Min does not see it.  The book is her letter to Ed as she returns a box of all the detritus of their relationship, the ticket stubs, matchbooks, and other goofy stuff only a teen in love would keep and then spend weeks weeping over after it is all over.  The thing about this book, it is sad, I like Min and do not like seeing her hurt, but it is clear throughout the novel she is going to be fine.  She learns boys can be jerks, but understands not all are.  So it is sad, but also not sad.