April Jacket Flap-a-Thon

Another month, another roundup. There were a lot of good books this month, it was hard to choose just three.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon (Bantam): "In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestelling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world…no matter how out of place they feel. Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. For instance, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? Why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life. Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes. Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth and in the hope of bringing back the love she fears she’s lost forever. In Julia, Emily may have found a link to her mother’s past. But why is everyone trying to discourage Emily’s growing relationship with the handsome and mysterious son of Mullaby’s most prominent family? Emily came to Mullaby to get answers, but all she’s found so far are more questions. Is there really a ghost dancing in her backyard? Can a cake really bring back a lost love? In this town of lovable misfits, maybe the right answer is the one that just feels…different."
It's a bit long, but it's one of those jacket flaps that make you just want to read the book. Enough information to tease and interest, but not enough to give away the book's secrets.

A Conspiracy of Kings (Greenwillow Books): "Sophos, under the guidance of yet another tutor, practices his swordplay and strategizes escape scenarios should his father's villa come under attack. How would he save his mother? His sisters? Himself? Could he reach the horses in time? Where would he go? But nothing prepares him for the day armed men, silent as thieves, swarm the villa courtyard ready to kill, to capture, to kidnap. Sophos, the heir to the throne of Sounis, disappears without a trace. In Attolia, Eugenides, the new and unlikely king, has never stopped wondering what happened to Sophos. Nor has the Queen of Eddis. They send spies. They pay informants. They appeal to the gods. But as time goes by, it becomes less and less certain that they will ever see their friend alive again. Across the small peninsula battles are fought, bribes are offered, and conspiracies are set in motion. Darkening the horizon, the Mede Empire threatens, always, from across the sea. And Sophos, anonymous and alone, bides his time. Sophos, drawing on his memories of Gen, Pol, the magus—and Eddis—sets out on an adventure that will change all of their lives forever."
Great book. Really. Read the series; I promise you won't regret it. But. Don't read the jacket flaps. Because, really!, this is not what happens. Kind of made me mad, in the end.

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance (Dutton): "It's lonely being a Mormon in New York City. So once again, Elna Baker attends the New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance-a virgin in a room full of virgins doing the Macarena. Her Queen Bee costume, which involves a black funnel stuck to her butt for a stinger, isn't attracting the attention she'd anticipated. So once again, Elna is alone at the punch bowl, stocking up on generic Oreos, exactly where you'd expect to find a single Mormon who's also a Big Girl. But loneliness is nothing compared to what happens when she loses eighty pounds. . . . and falls in love with an atheist. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance is the memoir about a girl who's as paradoxical as the city she's coming-of-age in: A girl who distresses her family when she chooses NYU over BYU; a girl who's cultivating an oxymoronic identity as a bold, educated, modern, funny, proper, abstinent, religious stand-up comic -- equal parts wholesome and hot. As Elna test-drives her identity, she finds herself in the strangest scenarios: including selling creepy, overpriced dolls to petulant children at FAO Schwarz; making out with the rich and famous; nearly getting married in Utah; and arriving at the New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance in an obscene costume. It all boils down to a young woman wondering where love comes from and what will make her feel the least alone in a city full of strangers. Brazenly honest, this is Elna's hilarious and heartfelt chronicle of her attempt to steer clear of temptation and find out if she can just get by on God."
I thought this was clever; it made the book sound so interesting. Unfortunately, it hits all the highlights. There's not much else to the book except what's in the jacket flap.

Other books read this month:
As You Wish
How to Say Goodbye in Robot
Kaleidoscope Eyes
Demon Princess: Reign or Shine
The Dark is Rising
I am Morgan le Fey
Neverwhere
The Storm in the Barn
The War of the Worlds
Amulet: The Stonekeeper
Amulet: The Stonekeeper's Curse
Hachiko Waits
Return to Sender (DNF)
Hamlet (DNF)
Breathless (DNF)

Running Total: 57
Adult fiction: 11
YA: 20
MG: 12
Non-fiction: 6
Graphic Novel: 8
Didn't Finish: 5

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

by Elna Baker
ages: adult
First sentence: "I am at the New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This book was: Sometimes funny. Often self-indulgent. Also, quite pretentious. But then, what memoir written by a 27-year-old isn't?

I found Elna to be: overly obsessed with her body. And overly obsessed with finding a boyfriend. The first, I find worrisome, which probably says more about me and my reaction to our culture than it does about her. She loses 80 pounds, starting at 250, and is obsessed with controlling her weight. She doesn't dwell on her obsession with her body, but it comes out; and when she does, she has justifications for it. From the "pretty points" to her eventual decision to get plastic surgery; I'm trying not to judge (it's not my life, after all), yet finding myself concerned that a person would do that to their body. On the other hand, the second -- the boyfriend (though not marriage) -- made the feminist in me growl. I'm a hypocrite, though: when I was single, I rarely went without a boyfriend. And I did the "right" thing and got married at age 20 -- almost 21! -- to another member. Still. Her quest to find the "perfect", "right", "best" man drove me bonkers. I wanted to shake her and say that there is no perfect, right, best (I almost cheered when her mom told her that), and that perfect, right, best is what you make of it not what you find.

In addition, I have no idea who would read this book. It's not written for Mormons, specifically; she goes through pains to describe our beliefs, not in excruciating detail and not everything, but enough to get her points across. That, and I'm sure there are many members of our church who would judge her much more harshly for some of the decisions and choices she makes. And yet, I'm not sure what the appeal of the book would be to a person not of her faith. Yes, it's a general coming-of-age discovery story, but it's one seeped in Mormonism -- faith, practices, customs. Yes, it's kind of a wink-wink look: like she's saying "look at us Mormons! Aren't we so silly?", but at its heart it's a thoroughly Mormon book. Perhaps others are interested in it -- for curiosity's sake -- but I wonder if they'll connect with the book or if they'll just find it an oddity.

But... there was something in her story, in her journey that I found fascinating. Not just because I'm Mormon, though that's part of it, partially because I can empathize with her inner spiritual life, her doubts and questions. And, yes, partly because Elna's is an interesting, if pretentious and self-absorbed, journey. She's lived a fascinating, unusual (privileged, yes) life, and she can be a funny and observant writer. Even if, in the end, the book was only just okay.

Library Loot 2010-16

I did better with the loot today, though I'm still in a reading slump (I'm reading, I'm just not loving anything I'm reading. It's all kind of just meh.). I did stop by the Friends of the Library bookstore and picked up Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, both of which I can use for the 2010 challenge. But what I'm really excited about is this: ChocolateChocolate. Yes, it's a chocolate cookbook. *swoon* Here's hoping there's some yummy recipes.

One question, though, to help me out of my slump: what's the best book you've read recently??

As for the library loot:

Picture Books:
It's Picture Day Today! , by Megan McDonald and Katherine Tillotson
Zarafa: The Giraffe Who Walked to the King, by Judith St. George/Illus. by Britt Spencer
Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed, by J.C. Phillipps
Ron's Big Mission, by Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden/Illus. by Don Tate
Shwatsit!, by Christin Ditchfield/Illus. by Rosalind Beardshaw
It's a Secret, by John Burningham
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, by Mo Willems
The Old Woman and Her Pig: An Appalachian Folktale, retold by Margaret Read MacDonald/Illus. by John Kanzler

Middle Grade Fiction:
The Birthday Ball, by Lois Lowry

YA Fiction:
Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Runaway (Airhead), by Meg Cabot
Being Nikki (Airhead)
The Will Of The Empress, by Tamora Pierce
The Sorceress, by Michael Scott

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

Breathless

by Jessica Warman
ages: 15+
First sentence: "There's a man feeding the koi in our fishpond because my parents don't want to do it themselves."
Review copy sent to me by the publisher.

I thought the premise of this one was intriguing, and by all accounts, should have really liked it. Katie Kitrell has an incredibly messed up family: her father, a psychiatrist, is so absent that his children call him "the Ghost". Her mother is an alcoholic; her older brother, Will, a schizophrenic who is becoming increasingly violent. So, when she's shipped off to boarding school her sophomore year, she finds herself trying to reinvent who she is.

I thought it would be a fascinating story; a bit of a coming of age a bit of a mystery (the back says "And when Will commits an unthinkable act"; what is that, exactly). And for a while, it was. I'm not sure how much I connected with the characters, but Warman's writing is quite elegant, feeling almost effortless. She does broken very well, and knowing that this story is semi-autobiographical makes it that much more powerful. But then, about halfway through, I became bored with it. I think part of it was that the book covers three years of time, and I just wasn't interested in following Katie all through the rest of high school (with an epilogue that takes place ten years later). I think if the story had been more condensed over time, it would have worked better. For me, at least.

I also had a difficult time connecting with any of the characters. Most of them were either off-putting, spoiled, grating, or just plain irritating. I understand that it was the nature of the story, and I can accept that. Perhaps it would have been easier to stomach the characters if the time frame for the plot were shorter.

So, I abandoned it halfway through. I read the ending to see how it would all turn out (shame on me?), and then decided I didn't care that much to go back and read about how the characters all got there. Time's too precious to waste on books I'm not really connecting with. Right?

A Conspiracy of Kings

by Megan Whalen Turner
ages: 12+
First sentence: "The king of Attolia was passing through his city, on his way to the port to greet ambassadors newly arrived from distant parts of the world."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

First off, if you haven't read the other three books in the series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia) go do that first. Secondly, when I discovered that Melissa at One Librarian's Book Reviews was also reading this, I knew we had to do a buddy read. Thankfully, she agreed. Here are my answers to her questions; you can pop over to her blog to read her answers to mine.

This book follows the story of Sophos, one of the characters from The Thief, and what happened to him after he and Gen parted ways in Eddis. There's a lot of action, a lot of political intrigue, and a very nice twist at the end. It's amazing to watch the growth of Sophos as a character; you know from the beginning that he has been made king of Sounis, but his journey to that point and afterward is fascinating. It's a complex, involved story, one that works the backstory in brilliantly without compromising the current story being told. It's suspenseful, and is resolved in ways that you won't expect. A worthy addition to a great series.

How does this book rank for you as compared to the other three in the series?
I'm not sure I can really answer that question; it's been nearly two years since I read the other three. (I meant to do a reread, but never really got around to it.) However, when I finished this, the one book I wanted to go back and reread was The Thief. I'm not sure Conspiracy was as good as that one, but I think I liked it better than the other two Attolia books, even if Gen wasn't in this one very much.

Did you remember characters and events from the previous books well, or did you have to go back and refresh your memory on some?
I had to go back, dig up The Thief, and remind myself who the heck Sophos was. I had no clue. And then I had to find a plot summary of that book to remind me of the relationship between Gen and Sophos and the mage. I really should have been patient and reread the others first!!

Having read her other books, were you watching for the twists and surprises? Did this help you to see any of them coming?
I wasn't really watching for twists and turns, but because I'd read her other books, by the time I got to the final section, I had this feeling that something was missing, that something was going to happen. I had no idea what, but I got to a point where I couldn't put it down because I had to know how it was all going to end. Which it did most satisfyingly (and spectacularly).

Why do you think Turner used the different narrative styles in this book (the 1st, 3rd, 1st structure)?
I think to give us a sense of immediacy when there's action, and to make the boring political part go more smoothly? I think if it had all been in first person, the middle section would have really dragged. As it was, while we were still tied to Sophos's perspective, we got more of a feel of the other characters than we would have had we stayed in Sophos's head. Or I may just be blathering here.

Who's your favorite character from the book or the series?
I still love Gen, even though he was hardly in this book. When he was, though, he stole the show. I also found myself intrigued by the Queen of Eddis.

Where do you think Turner will go with the next book (if there is one) or what would you like her to write about?
I'd like to know Eddis's story. How she became queen, some of the decisions she had to make, and what's going to happen with her and Sophos. I think it's about time we had another book about one of the female characters, anyway.

Amulet

by Kazu Kibuishi
Vol 1: The Stonekeeper
First Sentence: "We were supposed to pick up Navin at eight o'clock. We're late"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Vol 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse
First sentence: "Let go of me. I don't want to see him."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

First off, I read this one backwards, and got Volume 2 first. While it works okay as a stand-alone, I highly recommend getting Volume 1 first and reading them in order. It makes much more sense that way.

After the car accident that kills their father, Emily, her brother Navin move with their mother out to the woods, into the country house owned by their mother's Grandfather Silas. It doesn't seem like anything exciting, until on their first night they are lured into the basement by a strange noise. Which turns out to belong to a strange beast that kidnaps their mother. Emily and Navin follow twists and turns, aided by a strange necklace that Emily found in the house, discovering the strange new world below.

In the second book, the story continues: Emily's mother has been poisoned, and it turns out that the evil Elf King is out to get Emily. In search of an antidote for her mother, Emily takes on the elves as well as fighting the overpowering influence of the stone. She meets a guide, and learns that there is an underground resistance, which Navin happily joins, to overthrow the king. What her part in all of this, and whether or not she can save her mother, remains to be seen.

Yeah, it's all a bit Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (C, who also read them even noticed the similarities), but it's gorgeously drawn, and a rollicking adventure. The world is creative, combining both fantasy elements -- like the powers of the stone -- with technology -- Emily and Navin are accompanied in their endeavors by a collection of robots, ranging from the crotchety to the overly-sensitive. Emily's personal bodyguard is a pink bunny robot named Miskit, which I found to be highly amusing. It's well-paced; there's always something to keep the pages turning. All of which makes me curious for the next installment.

A great addition to middle grade graphic novels.

Library Loot 2010-15

I'm feeling slightly embarrassed about the piddly loot today, since the only reason I have for such a small haul is that I'm feeling uninspired in both my reading and my choosing. All M seems to want to do is reread comfort books, and C just finished Savvy, by Ingrid Law. How does one find a book to follow one that wonderful??

Here's what we did get:

Picture Books:
Two of a Kind, by Jacqui Robbins and Matt Phelan
Jeremy Draws a Monster, by Peter McCarty
The Yellow Tutu, by Kirsten Bramsen/Illus. by Carin Bramsen
A Mighty Fine Time Machine, by Suzanne Bloom
Chicken Cheeks, by Michael Ian Black and Kevin Hawkes

Non-Fiction:
One Well: The Story of Water on Earth, by Rochelle Strauss/Illus by Rosemary Woods

Middle Grade Fiction:
The Stonekeeper (Amulet, Book 1), by Kazu Kibuishi

YA Fiction:
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Leviathan
God Went to Beauty School, by Cynthia Rylant

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

Three for the Circular File

I haven't done something like this in a while, but none of these three books deserved their own post, so here I am lumping two did not finishes and one blah book in a post. Feel free to skip if you feel so inclined.

Hachiko Waits
by Leslea Newman/Illus. by Nachiyo Kodaira
ages: 7/8-10
First sentence: "When Professor Eizaburo Ueno woke up, he liked to play a game with his golden-brown puppy, Hachi."

My fundamental problem with this one wasn't so much that I often felt the author was talking down to me -- sure it's for lower Middle Grade readers, but in the best ones, I never feel that way -- it's that this simplistic little book was the one chosen for our 4th/5th grade mother-daughter book group. I kept wondering why we couldn't have picked a story that wasn't so maudlin (sweet, yes, but so maudlin).

It's the story of a dog, a dog so faithful and so unwavering, that he became beloved by the Japanese people in the early 1930s. Hachi was the dog, an Akita-ken, and every day he waited for his master, Professor Ueno, at the train station. One day, Professor Ueno had an unexpected heart-attack at work and didn't come home. Hachi was confused, and the next day came back to wait. He kept coming back, day after day, for ten years, until he finally passed away... waiting.

Yeah.

As I said, it wasn't so much the story, or even the author talking down to me as a reader, as it was that I can't believe there's going to be much to discuss. Next month, I swear, I'm going to push something more complex. (Appropriate, though.)

Hamlet
by John Marsden
ages: 15+
First sentence: "'Do you believe in ghosts?' Horatio asked him."

I picked this one up in my ever-continuing attempt to make sense out of htis play. It's not a constant search, just every once in a while, I do like to try and see if a different person -- especially someone with more imagination -- can make more sense out of Hamlet than I can.

I abandoned it because it just wasn't jiving with me. It's a very sexualized version of Hamlet, and a very modern take as well. Hamlet was a bit of a weird jerk -- there was this scene involving animals and I wasn't quite sure if it was bestiality or just ritualized killings -- and the narrative kept flitting between characters. Each one of these things, individually, could have worked for me. But the combination of them just killed the story. Admittedly, I didn't get very far -- my time is precious, of course -- and perhaps it got better further along in the book. Then again, maybe it wouldn't have and I've spared myself the agony of time lost, never to be returned.

But we'll never know, will we?

Return to Sender
by Julia Alvarez
ages: 11+
First sentence: "Tyler looks out the window of his bedroom and can't believe what he is seeing."

I wanted to like this one. Really, I did. But, it had one strike against it from the start: I really don't like books written in present tense. (Yeah, I know: I just complained a couple days ago about a book written in past tense. I'm being picky this week.) But it seemed like a nice story about a farmer, and about the use of illegal immigrants, and separation and loss. And I felt like I needed a Hispanic story.

And yet, what I hoped this story could do got lost in what I thought was an overly preachy tone. I'm sure Alvarez meant to be sympathetic to the plight of illegal immigrants, especially the children of the immigrants. But she kept hammering this point in over and over and over and over, that I finally abandoned the book due to preachiness.

Sigh. You can't win them all.

The War of the Worlds

by H.G. Wells
ages: adult
First sentence: "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This review comes to you in two parts.

Part one:

Yawn.

I could not, could NOT, make myself get interested in this book. Sure, it's supposed to be gripping and scary, and the introduction by Orson Scott Card made it sound like a contemporary commentary, which I suppose most end-of-the-world novels are. But this book lost my interest for two reasons: first -- and this surprised me -- it's written in the first person, past tense. We know from the start that our narrator, whatever his name is (strike two), will survive because he's writing this as though it's happened, done and gone. No sense of immediacy, no suspense, no thrill, at least for me. The second reason is evidenced in the first sentence. Blame it on Twitter, blame it on my reading YA books, but whatever the reason, I found wading through these sentences to be incredibly... boring. Which didn't do anything to help the already dismal situation.

Then... part two:

After the Martians attacked, killed most everyone off, and settled in to "rule" the earth, I found myself fascinated in the book. Nothing changed, yet everything changed. I found myself fascinated by our narrator's will to survive and the various stages of madness around him. I found myself thinking about The Stand, and how the second half of that book was more interesting to me as well. Perhaps I'm not so much a lover of end-of-the-world fiction, as I am interested in how society all plays out after the end of the world. Which, I suppose, feeds into my interest in dystopian fiction. Who cares how the world ends, really? The fascinating stuff is the rebuilding, the surviving, the changes that society goes through after the fall.

So, this book was kind of a wash for me in the end.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

by Sarah Addison Allen
ages: adult
First sentence: "It took a moment for Emily to realize the car had come to a stop."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I don't know why I picked up this Sarah Addison Allen book next, and not Sugar Queen. Perhaps because it was making the rounds on various blogs, and for some reason it looked appealing. Perhaps it was because of the cover; it's a bit busy, but there's something alluring about it, making me curious as to what's inside.

And, from my limited experience with Allen, it's pretty much exactly what to expect from her: a love story about broken people trying to heal, mixed with Southern charm, and just a dash of magical realism to add some spice to the story.

Don't get me wrong, though: I enjoyed the book. In fact, I came away again wanting to make and eat food, in this case cake and pulled-pork sandwiches (though I'm a Memphis, not North Carolina, barbecue girl). I enjoyed the Southerness of the book as well; the summer humidity, the slowness of the days, the friendliness-bordering-on-nosiness of the townspeople. But, it also felt like it was more of the same in a different wrapper: the character coming home to find a mystery and dysfunction that she has to overcome. The heartbreak, the consequences and the trying to heal from said heartbreak. The magical home-grown elements; this time a mood-changing wallpaper, a sweet sense that allows characters to see/feel when cake is being made; and the biggest mystery of all... which I won't spill because it is interesting to see how it all plays out.

That said, it was still an enjoyable read. Allen does have a way of drawing you into her world, of making you care about her characters, of entrancing you with her storytelling. It's still the only magical realism that I can stomach without cringing -- still can't explain why, though -- and I found that the book called to me whenever I put it down, until I finally gave in and let the family run wild while I finished.

Which means, in the end, I can't complain.

Sunday Salon: My Top Ten Lists

I thought, since Betsy at Fuse #8's Top 100 Children's Fiction book poll was over, and since Persnickety Snark's putting together a Top 100 YA book poll, that I'd share with you the top 10 lists I submitted for each of those.

My top 10 Children's Fiction books (I'm not going to include the little quotes I sent about these since most of them made the final list.)

1. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Patterson

2.HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling

3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl

4. Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

5. The Wastons Go to Birmingham, 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis

6. Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

7. Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary

8. Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis

9. Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Patterson

10. Saffy's Angel, by Hilary McKay

And my top 10 YA books (with little explanations this time):

1. Beauty, by Robin McKinley: I'm not sure it's the "best" by any means, but it's my personal best for sentimental reasons. I loved McKinley's world building, but mostly this book showed me that the quality of writing in YA books is phenomenal. I couldn't believe I missed this book as a teen.

2. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson: Powerful. Simply and utterly powerful. Completely blew me away.

3. My Most Excellent Year: A novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger: This book made me utterly and completely happy. It's one I can see rereading as a comfort read over and over again, and never growing tired of the characters or the story. Even though it's relatively new, it has all the hallmarks of a classic.

4. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher: Very seldom do I read a book that makes me reflect on my life, makes me want to change the way I interact with people. This book did that. I give it to as many people as I can.

5. The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale: Fairy-tale retelling at its finest. Hale is a master-storyteller, and this is one of her best.

6. Paper Towns, John Green: It made me laugh, it made me think, it made me want to read Walt Whitman. And it's stuck with me.

7. Uglies, Scott Westerfield: If science fiction is more about the present than the future, then this book is spot on. An excellent commentary on beauty and society. A rocking good story, too.

8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie: Not for everyone, yet is one of those books that everyone should read. Funny, painful, fascinating, enjoyable, tough. Classic.

9. Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voight: Contrary to what the publisher will tell you, this is not an action adventure book. It's much more thoughtful and introspective, full of vivid characters making tough decisions.

10. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green: It took me too long to get around to this book, but it has absolutely stayed with me.

So, this begs the question: what are your top ten? (Either one or both.)

Book to Movie Friday: Masterpiece Theater's Emma

I do have a confession before I begin: Jeremy Northam is really, truly the only Mr. Knightly in my mind. It is hard for me to imagine Mr. Knightly any other way, no matter how good the actor is.

Given that, I was more than willing to try out the new Emma -- love of all things Austen trumped love of Mr. Knightly -- and see how they treated one of Austen's funniest books.

And...

Sigh.

I really wanted to like this. Yes, even given my above confession, the 1996 movie version with Gwyneth Paltrow drives me a bit bonkers. I'd love a new movie version of Emma I could love and adore and laugh at. However, this wasn't it. I did like Romola Garai as Emma; I felt she managed to capture a bit of Emma's silliness and immaturity without being utterly annoying. Mr. Knightly, well, wasn't Jeremy Northam, which really is no fault of his own. But, beyond that, he was much too earnest for my taste. In fact, I think that's my biggest complaint with the whole movie: aside from adding things in which really didn't need to be there (four hours? Really? There's not that much in the book!) -- back stories and extra scenes that I know weren't in the book! -- it just took itself way too seriously.

I know: I adore the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice, which also takes itself more seriously than the book warrants. But, Emma is a comedy, more so than any of Austen's other books. We're supposed to laugh at Emma's folly. We're supposed to laugh at the silliness, the vanity, the insecurity, the puffed up characters. We're supposed to dislike Mrs. Elton because she's annoying and vain, not because she's mean. We're supposed to laugh at Miss Bates because she's a ditz not roll our eyes at her because her mannerisms grate on us. Something is wrong when the funniest character is one -- John Knightly -- that's barely in the book at all.

We're not really supposed to swoon. It's not a swooning book. It's not a swooning story. Sure, Emma and Mr. Knightly end up together, but it's a love born of many, many years, of a deep and lasting friendship. Which is really not swoon material. (Don't get me wrong: I'd rather a marriage like that than a swooning one, but that's not the point.) It's a frivolity, a romp, a mirror for us to hold up to ourselves and say, yes, we're Emma. Thank heavens there's Knightly out there to love us anyway.

Verdict: The book's best. But even though Gwyneth's highly annoying, I think that version is a better adaption.

Book to Movie Friday: Howards End

I first saw this movie soon after it came out in 1992. I'm not sure what I thought about it then, but I do remember being put off by the ending; it all seemed a bit abrupt and not a little melodramatic.

But, since I didn't really remember it that well, I picked it up soon after finishing reading Howards End this time, just to see if it holds up as a movie, and as a book adaptation.

And, while the acting is brilliant -- it is Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, after all -- and the costuming and the scenery is gorgeous -- it is Merchant-Ivory, after all -- I'm not quite sure
how I liked it as a movie.

My first impression was that if I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't have been quite able to follow the plot. It seemed to fall into the trap that many books from movies do: it was wonderfully acted, beautiful scenes lifted straight from the book. There was no real coherent plot arc; questions arose --like: who was that woman with Lenny? Why was he going to the Schlegels? Why don't the Wilcoxes like Margaret? -- that were answered in the book, but had no real answers in the movie. It held together by sheer force of will and personality. And the ending really is quite melodramatic, much more so than the book.

To be fair, Hubby came in about halfway through, watched the rest of it with me, and said it held up fine. Then again, he has a better memory than I do, and is better at catching subtleties in movies than I am. But, for me, it was a bit of a failure. A beautiful, well-acted failure, but a failure nonetheless.

The Dark is Rising

by Susan Cooper
ages: 10+
First sentence: "'Too many!' James shouted, and slammed the door behind him."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

When Kelly at The Written World suggested doing another read buddy read and I found that she had stopped reading The Dark is Rising sequence after the first book (understandable), I suggested reading this one. I'm always up for an opportunity to spread the joy of my favorite mid-winter read. Thankfully, she was willing to go along with me on that. Head over to her blog for the first half of our conversation.

Melissa: I can see that. Perhaps, like you said, it's a case of not having read the book before, when you were a kid. I do think her use of the mid-winter holidays as the strongest time for the Dark was interesting, if not unique. I thought the arc of the book from mid-winter through Twelfth Night was interesting, as well. As for character, I liked the Stanton family. Will was okay -- he was obviously an archetype -- but I really liked the whole family dynamic. The craziness, the loudness, the sheer familial presence that they had. And the way that Will interacted with the individual siblings, especially Paul and James. Speaking of the brothers, one of my favorite scenes in the book was on Christmas day when the Dark attacked the church. I thought the use of light and Will's tender concern for his brother was nice. Merriman was interesting, even though, in retrospect, I'm not sure how much he actually *did*. I thought that it was unclear in this book that he was Merlin, however. I do wish that had been made more clear. There were aspects of the Will-Merriman relationship that reminded me of the Merlin-Arthur one in Once and Future King, which, for me, fed into the whole mythical feeling of the book. Was there anything that stood out to you at all?

Kelly: I liked the idea of the Dark being the strongest during mid-winter. I know that when that time of the year hits it feels pretty Dark out. It makes sense that the terrible things would happen during then; especially considering people get depressed during the holidays. As for the characters, I was not a huge fan of Will. I imagine he would have worked if I had read the book as a child, but I couldn't relate to him. I did like his family, though, and the family dynamic. It was done pretty well. You got the sense of the large family and making everything work the best that you could, so I liked that. I have to agree on the Arthur connection. I was told it existed, but if I didn't know it was there I am not sure if I would have made the connection. I guess I was hoping there was more to it, but really there was just a guy with a similar name taking on a child and teaching him skills. It could have been any story. Merriman was a mage, so I suppose there is that connection, but otherwise I didn't really see it. I was reading your response and saw the word 'nice' and it got me thinking of the book as a whole. This is a 'nice' book. There is lots of effort to be 'nice' to other people and being 'nice' about the story. I think that is why I feel it didn't work well for me. Maybe if I was child, but as an adult it was just too 'nice'. Does that make sense?

Melissa: Perfect sense. Though I wonder if a lot of the niceness is a result of the time it was written in 1974. I know when I go back and reread books from the 70s, I'm struck with how, well, different they are from the books that are written now. It's almost as if we had a completely different sensibility back then. Then again, a story is almost as much a reflection on the time it's written as anything else. There's much about this book that can be pointed to the conflicts in England and the world in the 1970s (not just the language... the one that struck me was calling a girl a "bird"), rather than it being just an overall fantasy story. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it? I don't suppose you're going to bother with the rest of the series then?

Kelly: Yeah, it is the time that it was written in. When I was a kid it didn't bother me, but as an adult I guess I am into more 'risque' writing. It's the same with say Carolyn Keene. When I was a kid I liked Nancy, but when I go back and reread that series now I find it way too 'nice'. My reading has just evolved since I was a kid and I am interested in other things, I guess. You are seeing things that I didn't even think about. I think I went into the book not expecting to like it at all, so I didn't read too far into things! I might read the rest of the series; I own them all, but I am not in any particular hurry to do so. Hopefully I enjoy our next buddy read better!

Melissa: Maybe I'll let you choose it next time. :-D

Library Loot 2010-14

Two reasons this is short. One, story time is over and, for some reason, I always check out less books when I'm not going to story time. Two, I injured my knee this morning working out and hobbling around the library was not high on my lists of things to do. So we went in, picked up a few picture books and our holds and got out. Hopefully, next week will be better. On the upside, I got Bright Star, so I have something to watch while I'm laid up.

This week's loot:

Picture Books:
Fanny & Annabelle, by Holly Hobbie
One True Bear, by Ted Dewan
Little Devils, by Robert J. Blake
Miss Smith and the Haunted Library, by Michael Garland

YA Fiction:
Radiant Darkness, by Emily Whitman

Adult Fiction:
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

Top 100 Children's Novels Memeish Thing

The Top 100 Children's Fiction Books as turned into a meme by Teacherninja, via Abby (the) Librarian and MotherReader. I'm 81/100. Not bad, not bad. There's some books on this list that I've been meaning to get to for ages and ages.

How did you do?

100. The Egypt Game - Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard - Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe - Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches - Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking - Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons - Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn - Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted - Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall - MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father - Cleary (1977)
88. The High King - Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday - Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek - Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse - Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief - Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three - Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book - Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family - Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain - Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember - DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust - Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog - Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers - Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain - George (1959)
72. My Father's Dragon - Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning - Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy - Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons - Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins - Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes - Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago - Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake - Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock - Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl - Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart - Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars - Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins - Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG - Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows - Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)
51. The Saturdays - Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins - O'Dell (1960)
49. Frindle - Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks - Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy - Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass - Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest - Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie - Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me - Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix - Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It's Me, Margaret - Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson's Go to Birmingham - Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach - Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic - Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh - Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising - Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess - Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II - Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet - Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women - Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux - DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief - Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting - Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda - Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee - Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy - Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie - DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit - Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game - Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables - Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden - Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes - Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 - Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte's Web - White (1952)

The Storm in the Barn

by Matt Phelan
ages: 11+
First sentence: "The dust can have it."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I don't quite know what to say about this one. I picked it up because of SLJ's Battle of the Kids Books, but I'm not sure what I expected. First off, it's gorgeously drawn. I do love the mood it evokes: the browns and blues of the Dust Bowl. There are subtle things too, like a raised eyebrow, or a simple tear that make this book just beautiful to look at. Almost like I was looking at timeless photographs.

That and it references Ozma of Oz (well, it is set in Kansas, after all), which is nice. Alluding to the desert that Dorothy has to cross and the hardships she goes through to get back to Oz make a nice parallel to the story of our 11-year-old hero, Jack, as he deals with the trials of the Dust Bowl, and learns to face his fears about what just might be in the neighbor's barn.

But.

I'm not sure I quite got the story. There's a mythical element to it, a larger-than-life aspect that just didn't sit well. There were parts that confused me, and I had to go back and reread (relook?) at them a few times in order to make sense. It's told mostly through pictures; there's very little dialogue, and I'm afraid I missed elements that would have made the story more cohesive. For me. But, this was not really a pouring over book; there weren't little details that made me want to linger over the individual pictures. It wanted to propel itself forward; I always felt a little annoyed when I had to turn back and reread a section.

Neverwhere

by Neil Gaiman
ages: adult
First sentence: "The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Being a Neil Gaiman fan has been sneaking up on me for the past two or so years. I've been slowly working my way through his books and have yet to be really disappointed in one. (Okay, I wasn't terribly thrilled with American Gods, but it did have a good concept.) But, this one put me over the top. Neil Gaiman is a brilliant storyteller, a master juggler, someone who can grab you and hold your attention, entertaining you the whole time.

Richard Mayhew has a boring, normal, everyday London life. He goes to work, he does his job, he goes home. He's got a fiance, someone who's upwardly mobile; someone beautiful, slightly intimidating and predictable. Then, one night, he finds a girl wounded on the sidewalk, and, in the simple act of helping her, his life changes. After she -- the Lady Door -- leaves, he finds that he no longer exists in his life. And he discovers a whole other London, one of class and fiefdoms, of weirdness and magic, and of violence and heroism. He falls in with Door, becomes one of her companions on her quest to find out who murdered her family. And, in the process, finds out what is really real in his life.

I loved this one. It had me from the first sentence, and I couldn't put it down. (Yes, it was one of those "let my kids watch too much TV because I have to finish this book" books.) The thing that really stood out to me, though, was how masterfully Gaiman juggled plots and characters. It's like he had all these balls in the air, and he would, oh-so-calmly pick up another one and throw it in the mix without even blinking an eye. New characters, plot twists, descriptions of the underworld: it all came at exactly the right moment and made perfect sense. He would flit back and forth between plot lines and it never felt jarring or awkward. He gave details of the characters, helped us understand not only their inner workings, but also sympathize with and enjoy their interactions with each other. (Okay, one tiny quibble: he kept describing Hunter as "caramel colored" and after a while it did bother me. I felt like saying, "Yes. I know she is. Give it up already.") It was funny, it was touching, it had the absolutely perfect ending. He led me on a storytelling journey and kept me positively breathless the whole time.

Masterful. Absolutely masterful.

I Am Morgan le Fay

A Tale from Camelot
by Nancy Springer
ages: 12+
First sentence: "Seated at the high table, with the emerald necklace her husband had given her resting on her half-naked bosom, the emerald tiara nestled in her dark hair, Lady Igraine tried not to answer the leer of the king."

As many of you know, I love my King Arthur books. I love the different aspects of the myth that each individual author brings to the collective whole. I love the familiarity of the story; I know which elements are essential, which elements are trivial, and I delight in knowing how it's all going to play out.

But, I'm wondering if I'm getting a bit burned out - even though I really don't read more than one or two a year -- because I was highly bored with this one.

Sure, it takes the myth from Morgan's point of view; telling her story, about how she became Morgan le Fey. Aspects of the tale were woven in and through the story -- Merlin, Uther and Igraine were there -- but it was Morgan's tale of how she longed for love, and yet was unwilling to accept it as its own thing when it finally came in her life. It was a choppy story, bouncing through time and place, never really settling down into something one could sink their teeth into. I'm generally not one for wordiness, but this one felt too much the other way: too pared down, not enough meat for the story to hang on. Everything felt like a caricature; as if Springer expected us to know who all these people were, and that we would fill in the blanks for her.

Perhaps this is a corollary to it being pared down, but it also felt rushed. I wanted more of Morgan's life. We got her childhood through her time at Avalon -- which really wasn't the Avalon of my mind. Not that that's a bad thing. -- and her coming into power. But, I wanted it to go beyond, to see how it all would play out in Springer's imagination.

Disappointing.

On the upside, though, it made me want to reread Mists of Avalon.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot

by Natalie Standiford
ages: 14+
First sentence: "Goebbels materialized on the back patio, right before we moved to Baltimore, and started chewing through the wicker love seat."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

The jacket-flap of this book says it's for those who have experienced "the wonderful, treacherous, consuming, meaningful world of true friendship". So, I think I expected something profound, something deep, something... less angsty. But then, it is a teen novel, and angst is the name of the game.

Bea Szabo has moved to Baltimore for her senior year. She's moved a lot -- her dad is a serial one-year college appointment professor -- and so has some expectations about her new school. Then the alphabet conspires -- they have to sit in alphabetical order for Assembly -- to put her next to Jonah Tate, aka Ghost Boy, who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. See, his mother and twin brother died in a car wreck, and he's basically shut down. Until he meets Bea. Together these two loners find some kind of solace together in their not-quite-boyfriend/girlfriend-but-somehow-more-than-just-friends. There's ups -- the late-night call-in show that they both listen to, or the trip to Ocean City instead of going to prom. And there's downs -- if you're not really boyfriend/girlfriend, is it okay to go out with other people? Not to mention the fights and disagreements.

Standiford takes us on an interesting, if angst-filled, journey with these two. There are humorous moments, and the overall story arc, especially involving Jonah's family, was intriguing. Unfortunately, it was one of those books where I, personally, couldn't divorce myself from my age and experience: I kept shaking my head because the two of them acted like the kids they are. Sure, I empathized: who hasn't had an up-and-down relationship with someone, wondering if they'll talk to you, wanting to help but being powerless. I understand feeling deeply, wanting more, and I even understand heartbreak. I just thought this all was a bit overmuch.

I have nothing wrong with angst. But then, too much of a good thing is always bad.

Library Loot 2010-13

Call me weird, but I feel an inexplicable sadness whenever it's the last story time of the season. I still go to the library, but there's not as much to look forward to. And, since the summer reading program is next, there won't be a story time until September. What am I going to do when K finally starts Kindergarten, and I won't have a reason to go to story time at all??

This week's loot:

Picture Books:
Mr. and Mrs. Portly and Their Little Dog, Snack, by Sandra Jordan/Illus. by Christine Davenier
Brand-New Baby Blues, by Kathi Appelt/Illus. by Kelly Murphy
Starlight Sailor , by James Mayhew and Jackie Morris
Groundhog Weather School, by Joan Holub/Illus. by Kristin Sorra
Here Comes Gosling!, by Sandy Asher/Illus. by Keith Graves
Stanza, by Jill Esbaum and Jack E. Davis

Middle Grade Fiction:
Boys without Names, by Kashmira Sheth

YA Fiction:
Academy 7, by Anne Osterlund
A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner

Adult Fiction:
The Girl Who Chased the Moon, by Sarah Addison Allen

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

Demon Princess: Reign or Shine

by Michelle Rowen
ages: 12+
First sentence: "'That guy is staring at you.'"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent to me by the publisher.

To tell the truth, I was hoping this book would be really bad. It would be so easy to make fun of: Nikki just turned 16, and has discovered that her father -- who left her mother soon after Nikki was born -- is the demon king of the Shadowlands, the border lands between the human world and the Underworld. There's a budding forbidden romance with one of the Shadow people as well. It's the kind of hip, supernatural stuff that's all the rage right now, no thanks to Stephenie Meyer, and I was primed to mock it.

Yet, it didn't suck.

Sure, that's not the same as saying it was really good, but still. The whole thing kept me entertained while I was on the elliptical for several days running. Granted, once I was done, I didn't really think about it until I got back on again. But it did make the workouts fly by.

I think much of my problem with it -- if you can call it a problem -- was that it took itself too seriously. I think I would have liked it better if there more tongue-in-cheek humor, something to say that this is fun, this is not to be taken seriously. Which is kind of what the cover suggests. Except there's issues, problems -- like domestic abuse and almost date rape -- as well as political overtones, and evil family members. I wanted it to be a romp, a laugh, and while it was entertaining, it wasn't that.

Sigh.

At least it didn't end in a cliffhanger.

As You Wish

by Jackson Pearce
ages: 12+
First sentence: "All I've learned in today's Shakespeare class is: Sometimes you have to fall in love with the wrong person just so you can find the right person."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Viola has a problem: seven months ago her boyfriend of two years (and best friend since they were little) broke up with her after admitting to himself that he was gay. Even though they're still friends, Viola's crushed. The fact that she doesn't feel like she fits in at school anymore just adds to her depression. All she really wants is to belong.

She inadvertently wishes for this so strongly that she summons a jinn. Who then grants her three wishes. Which is all fine and good -- the jinn just wants to grant the wishes and get back to his home in Caliban, after all -- except that Viola can't decide what to wish for. In the process of deciding, and making those wishes, she discovers that the one thing she really needs to make herself more complete is the one thing she can't have.

I've been eagerly waiting for a chance to this book, ever since Abby raved about it ages and eons ago. And, as she pointed out, it does not disappoint. Pearce has written a captivating first novel, one full of humor, angst, friendship, magic, and romance. I just ate it up. (Seriously: it's been forever since I sat down to read a book and didn't get up until I was done.) For me, there wasn't a single misstep: it wasn't just about the plot, which was basically a clever twist on a generic romantic comedy. It was more about the characters. They were so vividly drawn that I couldn't help but care what happened next.

I understood Viola's insecurity and appreciated that Pearce had her -- eventually -- find that wholeness comes from within and not from without. I loved her best friend/ex-boyfriend Lawrence; you really couldn't hate him, he was just so earnest, and he did love Viola, just not in that way. And Jinn... let's just say that he provides everything needed for the epic romance Viola was pining about at the beginning of the book.

I'm sure there are flaws in the book -- no book is absolutely perfect -- but let's just say that I hit this at the perfect time. Sigh and swoon, indeed.

Book to Movie Friday: Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

When I reviewed Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, Bobbie at 'Til We Read Again commented that her girls liked the movie. Wait... there's a movie?

Well, friends, yes there is. A little British production, probably never saw screen time here in the US, but there it is. The hilarious diaries of Georgia Nicholson out there for everyone to see.

Except... they weren't so hilarious on screen.

While many of the choice plot elements were there -- the pimento olive costume or shaving of the eyebrows or the kissing lesson, for example -- the movie ditched the tongue-in-cheek observations of Georgia's diary for a more sweet teen-romance. Not that I minded the whole romance bit; they made Robbie and Tom a bit younger than in the book (which was good; an 18 year old dating a 14 year old was a bit much for me) and I have to admit that Aaron Johnson is a cutie. But, it wasn't funny. The book was celebrating the awkwardness of being 14 and not exactly knowing quite how to deal with boys. And without the funny it just becomes well, just awkward and embarrassing.

It also didn't help that I found Georgia and her friends to be completely and utterly annoying. Perhaps this was less of the fault of the actresses and more of the "it's just not funny" line. Whatever the reason, I found myself cringing when they talked and giggled, and not at all sympathetic to their troubles and problems. I rolled my eyes more often than I did in the book, where Georgia was annoying, but somewhat sympathetic by the end.

Speaking of the end, they completely changed the book. I'm not sure I minded much that there was a big, huge birthday party in a club and that Lindsey totally got her comeuppance (though yanking her false boobs out of her dress was a bit harsh). But still, in this case I will complain that it wasn't the book.

Verdict: Just read the book. (Though if you saw the movie first, the book is SO much better.)

Kaleidoscope Eyes

by Jen Bryant
ages: 10+
First sentence: "I wake up every morning to Janis Joplin."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It's the summer of 1968, and 13-year-old Lyza Bradley has had enough of death and abandonment. It's been two years since her mother disappeared, and with the Vietnam War raging, boys in her small South Jersey are coming home in coffins more than she'd like. So, when her Grandpa dies, it's almost more than she can bear.

Except... Grandpa left something just for Lyza: three maps and a mystery to solve. With her two best friends -- Malcom and Carolann -- Lyza unravels the mystery of the maps to discover that famed "reluctant pirate" Captain William Kidd possibly buried treasure right in their town. The question is: can they find it?

I have no idea what I expected when I pulled this off the shelf. I was intrigued by the title: what would a book that quotes a phrase from a Beatles song be about? Turns out that it's much like a kaleidoscope: a lot of little bits and pieces of a lot of things working together to make a patchwork story. There isn't an issue of the late-1960s that doesn't make a passing reference: racism -- Lyza's best friend Malcom is African American, and has to deal with racism; the Vietnam War and all that entails from the fighting to the protests to the draft and all that entails; hippies -- Lyza's older sister Denise and her boyfriend Harry certainly qualify; and drugs -- at one point, Lyza's father thinks she's doing drugs, even though what she's really doing is digging up buried treasure.

It's not heavy-handed, though, which, at the beginning I was afraid of. Once the maps come into play, however, the issues fade to the background. They were a part of life in 1968; it would have felt odd not to have mentions of Dr. King's or Robert Kennedy's death. But the primary focus of the story was the adventure and discovery of the kids. And because of that, it became also a homage to freer times, when three 13-year-olds could go all over a town (and to other towns) without adults knowing more than just the bare minimum.

The format also helped: it's a novel in verse, and the way some of the poems reflected the mood of the characters, or the events was clever, but not distracting. And, again, they had a kaliedoscopic effect: a lot of little pieces that came together to make a nice story. Which is really rather neat.