Between Shades of Gray (mini post)

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

"'Nothing could be worse than Stalin," said one of the men at the dining room table. 'He is the epitome of evil.'

'There is no better or worse,' said Papa, his voice low. I leaned farther around the corner to listen.

'But Hitler won't uproot us,' said the man....

'My point is that we're dealing with two devils who both want to rule hell'" p168.

wow.

synchronicities

synchronicities: 1. the quality or fact of being synchronous. 2. the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality —used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung.
--Merriam-Webster Online

This list of similarities and coincidences among the 2010 Cybils YA Fiction nominations is humbly submitted to you by the 2010 Cybils YA Fiction Panel. It is no way to be considered completely exhaustive, as we are certain nominated books and coincidentals will have been missed. This list was originated out of amusement as the seven panelists read their way through the 182 titles. If you know of a nominated title that should be included in one of the synchronicities below, please feel free to submit it in the comments! To get the entire list, you’ll have to visit all seven of the panelist’s blogs:

#1-10 Amanda Snow, A Patchwork of Books [TW]

#11-21 Ami Jones, Three Turtles and Their Pet Librarian [TW]

#22-32 Cherylynne W. Bago, View from Above and Beyond [TW]

#33-42 Jackie Parker, Interactive Reader [TW]

#43-52 Justina Ireland, The YA 5 [TW]

#53-63 Kelly Jensen, Stacked [TW]

#64-72 Melissa Wiley, Here in the Bonny Glen [TW]

**Please, if considering buying any of the nominations, do so through the Cybils, so we can give our deserving winners a tangible token of their merit.

33. Jewish Characters: The Beautiful Between; Hush; Life, After; Queen of Secrets

34. Journals of Dead People: Hold Still; Revolution; The Secret Year

35. Kidnappings: Girl, Stolen; Stolen; The Tension of Opposites; Woods Runner

36. Lunchtime Oak Tree: A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend; Hold Still (ok, treehouse!); A Little Wanting Song; Lifted (under a Pecan tree - it IS Texas!)

37. Meaningless Sex to Forget the Issue at Hand or Deaden the Pain: Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour; The Duff; Forget You; Hold Still; Saving Maddie; Nothing Like You; Not That Kind of Girl

38. Mental Issues of Some Sort or Another: Abe in Arms; A Blue So Dark; The Brothers Story; Compromised; Forget You; Revolution; The River; Tangled; The Unwritten Rule

39. Michigan: Exit Strategy; I Now Pronounce You Someone Else; Sing Me to Sleep

40. Murder: All Unquiet Things; The Dangerous Days of Hamburger Helpin; The Deadly Sister; The Less-Dead; Revolution; The River; The Space Between Trees; The Twin’s Daughter, Wicked Girls; Woods Runner; When I Was Joe?

41. Musicals or Theater: A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend; Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour; Hold Still (Play); Nothing Like You (drama class); Scrawl (Play); Sorta Like a Rock Star (talent something); Will; Will Grayson, Will Grayson;

42. Musicians: A Little Wanting Song; Beat the Band; Dirty Little Secrets; Freefall; Friend is Not a Verb; Harmonic Feedback; The Less-Dead; Indigo Blues; Mindblind; Revolution; Sing Me to Sleep; The Sky is Everywhere; Somebody Everybody Listens To; Stringz; The Summer I Got a Life; Will; Rhythm and Blues

Heebie-Jeebies

October. Bradbury Season. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday; I think it's the idea that there's more than meets the eye. More to whatever shell you're looking at. You're hidden behind makeup and costuming, and yet, maybe revealing a bit more than usual. A different side. A different way of looking at things. And THAT is scary - since there's nothing humans fear more than DIFFERENT.

And the Rumbaughs are definitely different.

Jack Gantos, author of the popular and funny Joey Pigza and Rotten Ralph books, as well as the notable Printz & Sibert Honor biography Hole in My Life, created a bit of a stir upon the publication of The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs last year. I hadn't read it but I'd wanted to, so when Colleen mentioned Bradbury Season for books that feel like October, well, I thought I'd finally see what all the fuss was about. It's WEIRD. Really, really weird.

First, a taste:

"An Introduction: I expect you might think the story I am about to tell you is untrue or perversely gothic in some unhealthy way" p 3.

Um, yeah, but I didn't know it then.

Chapter heading: "Squirrels are my favorite" p 113

Um...

"It is not perfection that captures the heart, but honesty" p 114.

I can get behind that.

"Hide the truth of who you are and you'll live a fiction" p 144.

Yep.

And then there's this whole discussion about free will - the crux of the matter. The creepy, creepy crux. See, the Love Curse of these Rumbaughs is that they love their mothers too much. So much that they take up taxidermy in order to preserve their dead bodies as giant dolls upon their deaths. No, I'm not kidding you. It's all about whether Ivy, the last of the Rumbaughs, has inherited this curse, whether one can choose one's fate or if choice is just an illusion.

We watch Ivy grow and battle with these issues, her possibly unhealthy attachment to her mother, and her extreme fear toward the idea of her mother's death. Control fate? Or let it control you?

The kinda amazing thing? At some point, as a reader, I crossed the line. I stopped being completely revolted and became amused. Interested even. Intrigued. And THAT is what this is all about. Crossing that line from the fear of the unknown, the different, and finding yourself on the other side. Without fear (Comfort is another thing entirely).

For More Bradbury Season, head on over to Colleen's post on Chasing Ray. You'll find a list of the usual suspects.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Cybils YA Committee

I'm BEYOND excited to announce (quick-ishly) on the heels of the Cybils Blog, the panelists for the YA Fiction Category.

Young Adult Fiction Category Organizer:

Jackie Parker (Interactive Reader) ( Hey! That's Me!!)

Nominating Panel:
Stacy DeKeyser (Stacy's Journal)

Trisha (The YaYaYas)

Anne (Librarianne)

Charlotte (Charlotte's Library)

Becky (Becky's Book Reviews)

Eisha (Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast)

Jackie (Interactive Reader) (Me again!!)

Judging Panel:
Liz (A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy)

Jennifer (Not Your Mother's Bookclub)

Sarah (Reading, Writing, Musing)

Maureen (Confessions of a Bibliovore)

Jen (Jen Robinson's Book Page)

Since I'm sure you are interested in ALL of the Cybils announcements and panels, head on over to the CYBILS BLOG for the breaking news!

Emotionally Berating

So, speaking of cancer...

This was the first self-published title I read. I was really, really pulling for the author. I wanted her to overcome that cover. I wanted it to be good because, well, I'm selfish and I would have to say here, in public, what I thought of it. I've put it off for months. Months.

Thirteen-year-old Kay has it good. Her parents are nice, she's got great friends and the cute 16-year-old jock, Jamie, sees something in the shy blond girl. Soon she's got a boyfriend the other girls envy (in a friendly way). She has everything she could possibly want. But then there's a tragic car crash and an ominous diagnosis. The perfect boyfriend and her perfect life is no more.

I'm sorry, Kitt Raser Kelleher. This Time, Last Year wasn't good. Perhaps with a good editor to reign the story and language in...I won't deny that some love a good depressing read, but did Jamie's mom really need to lose her husband (before the book opened), her older son (car crash near the beginning), AND her younger son (cancer, at the end)? Seems like just two of those would be enough. Which isn't to say that no mother out there hasn't gone through something similar, but it was rather over the top here. In addition, point of view was all messed up. Kelleher would have been better off going with 3rd person. As it stands, there's an uncomfortable mesh of 1st limited and 1st omni, which, well, doesn't work.

On a second read, I found that the foreshadowing was well done, until Kelleher took it too far by page 82. Also, Jamie's doctors SUCK. It took them, what, at least two months to diagnose him? And then that was the hospital staff, due to the car wreck.

As much as I deride Lurlene McDaniel, well... if you happen to have this lying around and someone doesn't much care about grammar or language in general and who wants to be attached to the tissue box for the duration, well, there ya go. This will work until the next sob-fest gets published. In all fairness, This Time, Last Year does highlight that life does go on after loss. No matter how acutely you feel the death of a loved one, the love you felt for them will still live, but you must move on. In time.

Also, if you need a kissing primer - this'll do it. See p 57.

And, as for self published titles, I've actually read worse since this one. It was a picture book depicting scenes from the Bible where all the people are, inexplicably, frogs. This includes the Crucifixion scene. And just so we're clear: Crucified frogs. You knew they were dead because of the x-ed out eyes and the protruding tongues. It was disturbing and grotesque. (and shamefully, just a little bit hilarious in an entirely appalling way.)

Well, sure twist it like that and I'll pay attention.

I don't quite know why, but I really thought this was going to be about pioneers. I was really ready for pioneers. Homesteading, etc. Plenty Porter is still historical fiction, as it's set in the 1950's, and while the Porter family does farm, it isn't quite the book I expected. Especially the ending. I Did Not See That Coming.

Plenty Porter received her name because, as the 11 and youngest child in her family, when she was born, her father said that 11 was Plenty. Sure enough. Things just work out for Plenty. She finds a watch belonging to her neighbor which ends up making her friends and giving her an education, which in turn, gives her access to what she really wants: books. Lots of books. All the while, her family is struggling to make ends meet and to cope with the fact that her sister Marcie is very ill, and no one knows why.

Brandon Noonan, in striving to create an original voice in Plenty used more clauses than I've seen in anything that I wasn't forced to read by one of my many musty literature classes. I've flat out never seen the word 'which' used so much. It was a round about way of language and a little difficult to become accustomed to. I considered bailing a few times, and I might have, were I not unsure of the rules for the Challenge regarding abandoning novels. I'm actually rather glad that I didn't, as it was interesting to see how everything fit together in the end.

Reading this, and not having read summaries or reviews (which I really do try to avoid with books I think I'll actually read), I was a little surprised to see that this was a teen book as it was reading much younger. It makes sense in the end, but what Noonan was doing was introducing all of the elements of the larger mystery and playing them off in a 'moments-in-a-young-girl's-life' manner. I wasn't at all prepared for what was actually going on.

Reading: 222 pages in 2 hrs 48 minutes
Posting: 35 minutes

Speaking of India...

Forget mysticism, fable and religion. Sold is a reality widely unseen in teen lit since Homeless Bird. And if you found India disturbing in Whelan's novel, McCormick isn't going to make you feel better.

Lakshmi's step-father drinks and gambles away whatever money the family has. The young Nepalese girl hates to leave, but when her step-father finds a position for her in Calcutta as a maid, Lakshmi decides that the sacrifice is worth it - her mother looks longingly at the tin roofs her neighbors have replaced thatch with - maybe she can help her mom get her roof. Only her step-father hasn't gotten her a job as a maid. He's sold her into prostitution.

Prose poetry is an interesting format. It can be more emotional, more visceral. But McCormick uses it differently here - she creates some distance between Lakshmi and the reader. It facilitates the fade out, the gaps in the action that we really don't want to experience any more that Lakshmi does. This may be a good thing, experiencing such horror at arm's length rather than from within the heart. The situation and reality is horrific enough for anyone. You still ache with despair for these girls, any more would be too much.

I've heard mutterings of irritation about a little detail in how the story ends; and they have a point, however, I'm not in a place where I can evaluate if that can truly be considered conveniently ethnocentric or not. You decide. Feel free to let me know what you think.

You don't need me to tell you whether this one is good. It was a National Book Award Finalist.

For more information on Human Trafficking:

U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services Campaign to Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking
Human Rights Watch
Humantrafficking.org
Frontline Investigation
AFESIP

It's sparkly

It's not something I do. I don't read series books in any order other than chronological. I don't. It upsets my world. If I'm going to invest anything of myself (and I do, with every single book I read), it will be as the author intended; I will will be with the characters as they learn and grow, as the plot evolves. I don't want to miss anything. Which, come to think of it, may be why I don't sleep enough...

And then there were the Cybils. There were a lot of books and we all had to read our fair share (which, for us meant at a minimum about 33 books each. Everyone read far more than that.) Thus, my need for proper order had to be overlooked. I lived.

Jumping into More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet without having read True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, it was obvious that I was definitely doing exactly what I hate - landing unaware right in the middle of the plot. However, not knowing wasn't really that big of a deal. The concept is...common, and I'm familiar with the formula, so really, I didn't feel like I missed much. It's absolutely nothing that anyone hasn't read before, several times. That doesn't, however, get in the way of enjoying Lola Douglas's sequel for what it is: cute with a touch of substance.

Morgan's cover in Indiana has been blown. Everyone knows who she is. Her mother wants her to return to L.A. and kick-start her career, but Morgan isn't ready to face that life again. The problem is that she's not really sure she wants to deal with the fallout in Indiana, either. She just wants everything to go away - she wants to live the lie. However, her past and her future are about to collide with her present, things long repressed will rise, and boys hoped for just might have some trust issues. (Can you blame him?)

There seems to be a bit of a tie in the poll right now, so please, make my decision for me and vote! --->

Not that it was much of a contest.

Well, there wasn't much question about who won that poll, was there? Opine with the new one, if you will.

There is something in my head that forces a relationship between Garret Freymann-Weyr's Stay With Me and Aidan Chamber's This is All. Stay With Me wins. It isn't just the teen girl having a relationship with an older man plot thing, it's something about the scope of the novel; that I feel Freymann-Weyr accomplished, in 500 fewer pages, much of what Chamber was aiming for. Stay With Me was poetic and moving. It really is a beautiful novel that deserves greater attention.

Leila (Lee-la, not Lay-la, because she is "not a rock song.") is feeling loose-ended after her older half-sister Rebecca dies. Her father is devistated and just wants to escape to Europe and drown himself in work. Her mother accompanies him, and Leila is left in the custody of Clare, Rebecca's much colder sister. She battles her dyslexia and tries to piece together Rebecca's last days to make sense of the loss. In looking for explaination for her sister's choices, she figures out what it means to live.

Um, Garret is a girl's name. Maybe that is part of why this book works better than This is All - Freymann-Weyr doesn't have anything to prove by writing intimately from the female perspective...and didn't need X number of pages to convince you... and can get on with the story. Just a theory. Another theory would be that Chamber's was more interested in a character study than in story (you might want to bank on that one). Either way, both books have left lasting impressions on my psyche.

Obviously for mature readers, this can easily be paired, among many others, with Cures for Heartbreak, The Geography of Girlhood, All Rivers Flow to the Sea, Sarah Dessen, and of course, This Is All. Yet more teen lit I can easily give to adults. Love that.

Well, you wouldn't want me to rush in, right?

While this was possibly my favorite book of 2006, I've been hesitating about talking about it for... well, let's not talk time frames, if that's all right with you. I'm not sure if I can do this one justice, or fully communicate how much I love this title, so I've just sat on it. For a really long time. I've sat on other titles, too, but for other reasons (like: "it was ok, but there isn't much to say about it, so until I've got something to relate, it'll keep getting shoved aside" OR "Dear Lord, that was an awful book. How do I say 'ick' nicely, in what essentially amounts to a public space?" Ah, the curse I gave myself by reviewing everything I finish.).

UPON finishing Dana Reinhardt's A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life I talked Sarah (youth librarian extraordinaire and beloved bff, who sadly lives about as far away as possible from me. Quirk of fate. Gives me a good reason to visit Florida in the dead of winter, though.) into reading it. We don't, generally, like the same stuff (this fact created some serious music dilemmas on the hour-long trips to Library School, btw.). None of this is either here nor there, however, we were able to dish on how fantastic the book is. Sarah gave it to co-worker Allie (also fabulous) who wanted to book-talk it to her teens. That's where I come in again. It's not such an easy book-talk. This is what I gave them:

Simone knew exactly what she believed. Her parents raised her a liberal, atheist activist. Her world was firm. Well it was - but then her birth mother came back into the picture. Now Simone needs to marry her upbringing with her actual heredity as an Orthodox Jew. She needs to figure out what SHE believes, who SHE is, not just what people EXPECT her to be. Oh, and if she can get that cute cafe guy to like her? Definite bonus.

Apparently, that went over well. But it only really scratches the surface of WHY I think this title is important. How hard is it to question EVERYTHING you grew up NOT questioning? Things you took for granted. Questioning things that you were perfectly happy not thinking about. Think about how much courage it takes to disrupt the acceptable world order. Simone was happy. She liked her life, and she knew what she wanted. Even with her birth mother coming back into the picture, Simone didn't have to change anything. She could have gone all ostrich and maintained status quo - it would have been perfectly acceptable behavior. And to do this as a 16-year-old? And to make me believe her struggle and her growth? Yeah. That's pretty awesome.

We watch Simone go from denial and bitterness. We see her interact with her peers, with her adopted family, and with her birth mother - all revealing the different aspects of the same character - the different sides that we all have. Add to that a very clear and distinctive voice and a girl trying to figure out her first love and everyday life on top of such earth-shattering soul-searching? I was a total goner. With the love for this book. And no, I still don't think I've done this one justice. Too bad the cover sucks. The new paperback cover bites as well. God, I so hate it when great books have less-than-great covers. Not something to blame on the author, though.

And yes, I have read Harmless. I'll probably blog it on Thursday. Tomorrow is Book Group, so you'll get one of those adult titles I force myself to read. ;) It's only once a month, people. We can get through it together.

You know it's bad when they crawl out your eyes.

I am incapable of thinking of this book without comparing it to Christopher Golden's Body of Evidence series. Which I love (and have actually read all 10 books of). Alane Ferguson's The Christopher Killer may not be as good (to me) as Golden's, but it's a pretty darn good mystery in the gross-out CSI formula. In fact, it's been nominated for an Edgar Award.

Catch that gross-out comment? Yeah, I meant that. Really meant it. Cameryn knows what she wants to do when she grows up. Much to her grandmother's chagrin she is determined to become a forensic pathologist. As in the land of only-in-books, Cammie is fortunate enough that her father is the medical examiner of their small town and trusts his self-educated 17-year-old daughter to start assisting him on cases. Implausibility aside, Cammie hops onto the case when the small town is shocked by a rash of (convenient) murders. The connecting element is the St. Christopher Medal left with each victim. It won't be easy for her to crack the case; she faces the revulsion of a deeply decomposing body, the skepticism of officials (well, duh), a beau her father doesn't trust for unknown reasons, a long-lost mother, and a killer that might be coming after her next...

It might be a lot to cover in one short genre book, but since it's intended as a series, it's a good set-up and introduction to the characters. The nicely detailed crime scenes don't seem to hold anything back (yeah, got nothing backing that one up...I've only seen nicely embalmed bodies); the first one, a 'floater', (oh, jeeze, I'm grossed out just recalling this, and I read it months ago) includes odor, flies, sloughing skin, and everyone's favorite, maggots. I especially enjoyed this description: "Her peppermint oil, her finger, nothing could stem the sickly sweet scent of rotting flesh that filled her nose, her mouth, her very insides. She was breathing in particles of Larry Robertson" p37 (of my ARC, thanks Sleuth/Viking!).

Need a girl say more?

The sequel, Angel of Death is already out, and the third, Circle of Blood will be following shortly.

Also blogged:
Sara
Reading Junky
Reading Fool

Sing, chickadee.

Caridad Ferrer's Adios to My Old Life is a finalist for two RITA Awards. These awards are definitely not my area of supposed expertise, but I'm happy to see that fun teen lit is finding a home among adults as well.

It's funny. I wouldn't have even thought of this as a romance. Not really. Yeah, there's a love interest, but that wasn't the point of the book. Not at all. The boy didn't have to be there, and Ali would have been just fine in the end (not that we don't like the boy - we totally do).

Ali Montero lives to perform. She's only truly herself when playing her beloved guitar and singing. So when the Spanish version of American Idol comes to town looking for contestants, Ali sneaks behind her father's back to audition. There's no way she going to make it in, right, so no harm and she gets some experience. Of course, under the life-long tutelage of her music professor father, Ali is far better than she knows. She gets on to the reality show and is plunged into a surreal world of tv, stylists, fame, jealousy, competition and backstabbing.

This, like The Pursuit of Happiness, isn't just a book about becoming famous, or reality tv (or with Pursuit, death). It's about family, and working hard, and growing up. It's about staying true to yourself when you have every reason not to. It's about finding out exactly who the 'you' is to stay true to.

Ok, I'm never going to roll my eyes at MTV Books again. It's really Simon & Schuster, anyway. That's two great books, and TadMack says that there's a third.

Having been so embraced by the romance world there are a plethora of other reviews out there. Here are just a few:
I don't know who Darla is, but I love her as much as she loved Adios.
Amy Garvey has a fantastic interview with Ferrer that includes the author's reaction to the RITA news.
Dee & dee have an incredibly in-depth two part review.
Not to overlook reviews by Cybil-sisters Mindy and TadMack.

Also find Ferrer on MySpace.

The declaration of whatnow?

So here I am, expectations lowered to non-existent because before me is a MTV Books title. MTV? And it's called The Pursuit of Happiness? Who's Tara Altebrando?

Betsy's working at one of those re-enactment villages weighed down in the heat of summer by too many layers of period clothing. She's stuck working with a goth freak from school, and if that doesn't sound bad enough, her mother dies of breast cancer. Then her boyfriend gets flaky and her friends don't quite know how to talk to her anymore. Turns out the goth freak and that cute Princeton bound carpenter may be the only friends she has in a time she needs them most, now that the itchy costumes of the past become a refuge from her present.

I was shocked. Shocked, I tell you, about how good this was. Now, I admitted to having zero expectations from it, but even then it exceeded what would have been normal expectations. Every thread was tied up nicely so nicely in the end. It was refreshing. I didn't put together one little revealing element until the last page out of shear obliviousness, but it turned out to be a lovely varnishing theme to the novel.

Ok, now that I've convinced you that I really did enjoy this, I'm going to be frank about one element. Carpenter Boy (er...James) has got a girlfriend who is severely depressed. I've been around depressed people, and I understand aspects of Carpenter Boy's situation. I'm by no means an expert, but I had some issues with some of the things surrounding that plot line. Especially Betsy's interaction near the end.

Sara mentions that she'd give this title to fans of Sarah Dessen, and I think that she's right on with that one. It will work for fans of A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life and Cures for Heartbreak as well.

(Yes, Sarah B, this means you ought to read it.)

You can do the MySpace thing with Altebrando, too.

Like, maybe an hour?

It's only appropriate that the first book I do in April is a novel with verse passages, right?

All of the following is terribly spoileriffic, so you may just want to skip on over to LW's far safer review.

BJ and Alex have been best friends since fifth grade. They share almost everything with each other, but both are finding out that sometimes we need more than just our best friend's acceptance. BJ, long ridiculed for the port-wine stain on her face, has discovered new friends in a couple popular girls and Alex is struggling with his sexuality, and has found a comrade in that.

Told in both voices, BJ's in prose and Alex's in poetry, it's an extremely quick read. The only thing that bothered me was that all through we only hear Alex's voice through the poetry of his journal. The last section is supposedly in his mind, but there is no change of format, and I find it hard to believe that he would think in poetry, especially at the end. But whatever. It was still a good read.

I had a conversation with one of my oldest friends last summer. We were talking about gay rights (you know, what they used to call civil rights), and how he would never choose to be gay. He even wishes that he weren't, simply because, even though he's very much in love with his boyfriend, it can be a hard, stigmatized life. But he is who he is, and he isn't going to hide to make other people feel better. So, pages 175-6 meant something to me.

I Don't Want to Be

David and I
meet
in my garage.

For a long time,
we just sit quietly.

And the I say,
"Everyone knows now.
My life is over."

David says,
"You're wrong.
You're life is just starting.
Now you can be you,
and you don't have to
pretend anymore."

"But I don't want to be gay," I say.

"No one wants to be gay.
It's just the way some of us were made.
We have to learn.
To deal with it the best we can."

He puts his arm around my shoulder
and hugs me, like a real friend would.
He sits with me, silent and lest me cry
about something he understands.

I stay in his arms,
and let the walls
I built around me
fall.

Take a gander at:

Liz's interview with the author.
Jen's review.
LW's review.

"Is it possible to peak at thirteen?"

"There is no way I'm dancing with Howard Goldstein."

So starts Rachel Lowenstein's quest to sin more and break some Teen Commandments in search for a more interesting existence. First up? Dating Luke Christiansen, the blond, blue-eyed basketball star who attends Catholic school. Definitely not Jewish and definitely not family-approved.

Goy Crazy by Melissa Schorr is everything a romantic comedy fan could ask for. It's sweet and sincere and better than any rom-coms in the theater recently (have there even been any decent ones of late?). Rachel searches for herself amid all the normal teen pressures of popularity, drinking, dating and morality. She sneaks around, hiding Luke from her family, but as always, what you expect from life doesn't always pan out, and your family is always there for you. Sometimes, they can even surprise you. So can the boy next door.

You can also find Melissa Schorr at MySpace.

Other fab blog reviews:

Sara's Holds Shelf
Little Willow
Cynsations Interview of Schorr

The plans, they go astray.

Fisher works hard. He studies for the grades he gets. The problem is that he's only doing it to make his father feel less guilty over his mother's leaving. He doesn't have a life outside of school, and he's beginning to fracture over the stress of having perfect grades and getting into college. So he does something drastic.

When his father goes out of town, Fish decides to blow off studying and go on a road trip with the neighbor's shady brother. He wants to see a bit of the world before he's totally committed to the rest of his life. Besides, he'll be home before his father ever finds out... These things, they never go according to plan...

This is an entirely personal opinion, based on nothing but my own issues: Fish! What are you thinking? You are a very smart kid! How could you possibly think that leaving with Lonny is a good idea? So, this is to say that I had a bit of a problem believing that Fish would get himself into such a predicament, AND THEN HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME GETTING OUT OF IT. But, this is me putting myself in his place. I'm not much for the rebelling. Maybe I just haven't been pushed far enough...

For other thoughts on Adrian Fogelin's The Real Question:

Mindy @ Proper Noun
TadMack @ Readers' Rants

It's a map.

If you've worked hard your whole life to attain one thing, what happens once you get it? What do you do when the aftermath doesn't just fall into place? What if what you were striving for all that time really wasn't everything you thought it would be?

Craig Gilner wasn't ready for what happened after he got into the school he wanted. He wasn't good at it. In fact, he was really kinda bad. Which makes him question his life. It makes him question whether he wants to go on living. Freaking out, he calls the suicide hotline and ends up in the Adult Psychiatric Ward. At 15.

It's Kind of a Funny Story, well, is. It's far funnier than your standard novel about suicide and depression. It's another one of those books that I can see definite appeal with 20-somethings.

Ned Vizzini just sucked me into his blog. Which means he's kept me up too late. Weird, because, while I've liked this book and Be More Chill, I get a distinct feeling, after reading way too much of his blog, that if we were to meet each other he would scare me. And that we wouldn't really like each other very much. :( I know that's a really strange thing to say since A) I'm not going to meet Ned Vizzini and, B) what the *%^# am I basing that on? Whatever. I'm obviously going to bed now.

Remember Queen of Cool? (hint: it's the feet)

Catherine Ryan Hyde's Becoming Chloe is many things, but most importantly it is a search for beauty in a life without it. It is deciding that beauty can be found in both the small and the grandiose. It's about changing your perception of your life and the things around you. It's about Jordy who was kicked out of home because he's gay and now gets by on the gritty underside of NYC. It's about Chloe, who's been so abused, she's just a little bit...off. It's about these two lost kids finding each other and a life worth living.

These are definitely themes that Hyde has explored before (ok, that statement is entirely based upon my viewing [years ago] of the movie Pay It Forward, which was based upon the book she wrote of the same title. So, yeah, do with that info what you must.). She emphasizes that communities and people are both good and bad; that there are as many wonderful people who will help you out as there are that will hurt you or push you down. Jordy & Chloe have to choose which face of the world to focus on. There's is a harsh reality which through struggle and perseverance becomes something better.

Good message, tough life.

Older teens, b/c if there is something you are trying to hide the kids from, it's probably in this book. That was sarcasm.

It's still the Restoration. I looked it up.

My mother teases me for my absolute obsession about reading books in chronological order. I put off Katherine Sturtevant's A True and Faithful Narrative because I hadn't read its prequel At the Sign of the Star until my Cybil-Sisters indicated that it needed to be read.

I enjoyed it immensely. I'm sure having the backstory would have added to my enjoyment, but it really wasn't necessary for understanding anything plot or character-wise. It was a fully formed historical novel in its own right.

Meg wants more than anything to become a published author. The only problem is that she lives in Restoration London. Women writers are...not encouraged. Meg must decide if her need to write is great enough to go behind her father's back. While she struggles with that situation she must also contend with two very different suitors.

Meg is the very model of impetuousity; she regularly speaks without thought to poor reception. My, how I can identify with that characteristic. *sigh* When trying to be humorous she ends up insulting. She doesn't want to fit in the mold reserved for her and she chafes at the restrictions. She longs for freedom and a bigger life. Sturtevant presents a strong sense of place through her language. Not just with reference to period events or items (which are copious and fascinating), but with the dialogue and rhythm of the phrasing.

I really want another. But first, I need to go read At the Sign of the Star.

This book made me hungry.

I've been sitting here wondering if it's been too long since I've read this to give it a good post. What immediately leaps to mind when I think back to Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth is how entrenched food was in the story. The families were always making food or sitting down to eat. It was the atmosphere; it gave you the senses. You heard the sizzles, smelled the spices and wished you could eat along with the family. Perhaps I shouldn't be using second person. I heard the sizzles, smelled the spices and I wished I could eat along with the family. What it did, beyond simply setting the story, was ground it. Food is comfort; food is social; food can tell you who you are and where you come from.

Jeeta is the youngest of three daughters in present-day Mumbai, India. As she watches her relatives search for husbands for her sisters, she gets more and more disillusioned about her future marriage - and the traditions that her family holds dear.

Jeeta is a brave, intelligent, sweet girl and I loved spending time with her in this novel. She visibly comes into her own and takes risk when they are necessary. It is a love story in the traditional sense and it is a discovery of familial love as well. She's deciding what she wants out of life, and testing whether it is the same as what her parents want for her. I'll talk more about that concept when I finally review A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, but what a scary thing to look at years of tradition and consider it for what it is - both the benefit and the constrictions - then choose how you fit your past into your future.

Idea for the paperback: Include recipes. You can't go on and on like that about food and then not put recipes in the end! It shouldn't be allowed! By golly, if the silly Little House books have a recipe edition, so should you. I already know how to make biscuits. I'm much more shaky on samosas (mmmm....yum).

Are you hungry now?