Fiction

Dancing with Elvis

3 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

We bought Dancing with Elvis ages ago, maybe years ago, at the Gainesville FOLS. (sniff, I miss the Gainesville FOLS. It’s coming again. Soon. In October. sniff. ) TW read it ages ago, maybe years ago, and I never did.

Turns out, it’s a YA book and if I had known that, I might have read it earlier. I thought it was just some fluffy southern chick lit and I am pretty anti-Elvis. (don’t hate me, oh go ahead, hate me – I don’t care.)

It’s a great YA book, only a wee bit of Elvis and an awful lot of good stuff about race and family relationships and, well, just go read it.

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The House of the Scorpion

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

I didn’t think I was going to enjoy The House of the Scorpion very much. We listened to it on audio and that first chapter was a little dry and the voice of the reader wasn’t very compelling. But, I got hooked and really enjoyed it.

What’s also interesting is Liz started listening to it on disk 8, in the car on the way to Lakewood on Friday and when we got in the car this morning to come home she asked if we could turn it back on. I’m sorry she missed the first 7 disks, but maybe she’ll listen to them in her room this week and catch the beginning of the story of Matt, the clone of the drug lord… it really was an interesting story.

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The Art of French Kissing

2008, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Women /

I decided to read one more light and easy book before diving back into the more serious stuff – The Art of French Kissing was very light and very easy. Also pretty amusing in that chick lit sort of way.

Why women have to be so damn stupid in chick lit like this is beyond me, though. I understand, your life is a mess but good grief, you should have realized that SOMETHING was going on between those two men and you should have found out what it was – not just from a potential relationship standpoint but because it was your JOB to figure out what the hell was going on and prepare for the fall out. Stupid. But I guess that wouldn’t have made for such an “aweeee” kind of ending, right?

Silly chick lit and good except for the stupid woman thing.

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Crush

2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Queer, Women, Young Adult /

Crush is a tiny little YA book with very large font and it took me about a half hour to read. I have no idea what the reading level is but it’s got to be low – so maybe a low-literacy YA book? Good enough, I like that. It’s important that books like that exist.

My problems with the book are this.

Do we really want to tell teens that you can have one date with someone and bam, that’s it – you’re in love? Do we really want to tell queer questioning teens that you can figure out you’re gay THAT easily? I don’t know. It seemed pretty “fairy tale” like to me. There must be some way to meet in the middle between the fairy tale and the heavy handed teen “problem” book.

Other than that? I liked it.

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Postcards From No Man’s Land

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Queer, Young Adult /

I see why Postcards From No Man’s Land won the Printz. It started a little slow or was a little confusing, I’m not sure which, but it settled down and it was interesting. It also didn’t read like a YA book. Lots of tough topics to think about – war, infidelity, “love”, “marriage”, euthanasia, even a wee bit of polyamory tossed in. And, another look at Anne Frank. Interesting book.

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