Young Adult

Carter Finally Gets It

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I didn’t expect to love Carter Finally Gets It… a book about a dumb male freshman? Please. Boys. Are. ANNOYING. In. HIGH SCHOOL. And Carter was annoying, as were his dumb friends. But Carter was also endearingly annoying in that he has no idea what he’s doing sort of way. It was cute. And funny. Also, it was a nice change from the books about dumb female freshman. Because Girls. ARE. Annoying. In. HIGH SCHOOL.

Loved the book. I wish I could convince all three of the younger kids to read it. Maybe I should get it on audio and force them to listen to it in the car…

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North of Beautiful

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Women, Young Adult /

Another Cybils YA short lister and another that I kept pushing back on my list because… another beauty/body image book? Really? Do I have to? Because I’ve read an awful lot of them this year. North of Beautiful is better than I expected. It’s more than I expected. I yelled at Terra’s dirtbag father all the way through the book. I cheered at the end. It’s a lot more than a beauty/body image story. It really is. Read it, you’ll see.

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Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me

1 Comment / Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me is another book that I picked up while walking through a strange library. The title called to me but I was worried about whether I’d like it or not – no worries, I loved it. It was almost midnight and I had about 70 pages to go – I wanted to keep reading and see what happened to the wolves – and the boys – and the town. Great characters – kids who seem real and not too perfect or too flawed either.

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Before I Fall

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

My friend, coworker, and fellow YA aficionado, Diane from Teen Book Fanatics has been trying to get me to read Lauren Oliver’s books for a long time. Just about every time I talk to her she asks if I’ve read one – or if I’ve read the new one – or just in some way mentions Lauren Oliver. So – finally I reserved one at the library way back in August but I kept putting off reading it because it’s long and it looked like it might be a little depressing (you may remember I was reading a lot of depressing YA there for awhile…)

Our library book supply has dwindled down to less than 10 books and there’s not much left to choose from so I started Before I Fall on Tuesday night. I read about ¼ of it because… it was indeed feeling depressing. It also has a “Groundhog Day” type of theme and while I’m a fan of the movie and I liked that other YA book I read with that theme – I wasn’t feeling this one. So I put it down for the night, picked it up again last night after Survivor… and I couldn’t put it down.

I’m still tired of the Groundhog Day type of theme and it doesn’t really have the happiest of happy endings, though it is the right ending – I liked it. I see now why Diane is such a fan. And, I’ll be reserving another Lauren Oliver title this weekend.

Thanks for the recommendation, Diane!

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The Bride’s Farewell

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I have such a love/hate thing for Meg Rosoff that I didn’t think I was going to read The Bride’s Farewell. In fact, after hearing from Sassymonkey that she didn’t like it I was sure I wouldn’t bother with it. But a funny thing happens when your library is closed for more than a month – you get punchy and panic over the idea of not having enough to read. And when that happens and you see a Meg Rosoff on the shelf… it jumps into your library bag. Even so, you wait almost a full month before you decide to read it… when your choices are getting slim and it’s Nancy Drew or some book about how to find a job using social media or a really long Lauren Oliver book that you’re pretty sure is going to be depressing. That’s how I came to read The Bride’s Farewell.

And it’s also how I realized I loved The Bride’s Farewell. Rosoff still writes like Rosoff but this book is nothing like How I Live Now or What I Was. It’s not even like Justin Case. It’s another kind of book entirely. And I really enjoyed it. Bucking the patriarchy is my thing, after all. So is saving children. And poaching off of wealthy landowners. Oh. Wait. Go back to the patriarchy thing. Also, I like gypsies.

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Girl Parts

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I picked up Girl Parts when we visited the Northbrook library early in September. I couldn’t resist the cover. Or the title. I probably should have resisted. The main characters are boys, which is fine – or would be if the boys were better characters. Also would have been nice to step away from the stereotyping just a wee bit, dude. Guys who spend too much time on the internet are “disassociated’ (aka dissociative disorder – the book uses “disassociated” throughout) and need a female companion to help them re-associate with the world. Guys who are having problems within their family and are depressed are disassociated and therefore need a female companion to re-associate. Guys in general appear to be disassociated for any number of reasons and they all need female companions – robotic female companions who don’t have control over their own wants and needs.

Girls who are depressed – no companion for them. Girls who spend too much time on the internet – oops outta luck.  Boys are the only ones who want (or need) a robo-companion to make out with (oh, sorry – bond with.) Queer girls are equally out of luck if you’re wondering. The female companion bots won’t hook up with girls – it’s bad.

It’s like Manga but worse – I actually like Manga.

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The Stolen One

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

I decided I needed something a little bit light so I picked up The Stolen One, a YA book that we probably plucked off of the shelf at the last minute, right before our library closed for a month. I wasn’t expecting a lot so I was very pleasantly surprised. I liked it a lot. What DID happen to Katherine Parr’s daughter, Mary Seymour? Did she die at the age of two? Or was she stolen away?

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The Prince of Mist

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

If you’re expecting The Prince of Mist to be anything like Shadow of the Wind or Angel’s Game, change your expectations before you start reading. This is not a book in this series and the writing is completely different from the series. It’s a YA novel – a scary YA novel with a clown. A very evil clown. It’s not the best scary YA novel I’ve ever read nor is it the worst YA novel I’ve read (scary or otherwise). It was good. I enjoyed it. I read it straight through last night and was glad. The use of the home videos was brilliant. The scary doggone clown pretty brilliant, too. I’d read another YA novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. He’s not out of his element, though his forward explaining that this book is YA was trying a little too hard. I kept picturing Neil Gaiman adding some sort of explanation to the front of his YA/kids books. It’s just not necessary and if I was a teen, I’d probably wonder what the heck the guy’s problem was….

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Blue Plate Special

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

I was really pleasantly surprised by Blue Plate Special. I reserved it purely because it was a Cybils shortlist book and I knew nothing about it. The first few pages, I wasn’t sure what I was getting to – three different characters, set in slightly different time periods, in slightly different places. All of  the girls were about the same age 16-18. All of them were in difficult situations, related to their relationships with their mothers – and with guys.

There were two big surprises for me, both of which really made me love the book. First, it has a Gainesville story line and I had no idea! Gainesville, Cedar Key, Ocala all mentioned in part of the story and I’m a sucker for books that talk about places I’ve lived (and loved.) Second surprise… I won’t tell you. You need to read the book to see how all of these girls’ stories come together. Brilliant work.

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Wintergirls

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Women, Young Adult /

I did not want to read Wintergirls and for a long time I thought I was going to get away with not reading it – or just put down my foot and say “No. I’m not reading any more books like Wintergirls.”

Hah. No. That’s not what happened.

It kept calling to me and I don’t think it’s just because I’m a stickler for reading all of the Cybils short list books. Then again, I don’t really understand the call so it could have been something as simple as that in which case I should never vow to read the Cybils again because…

Damn it, I’m tired of this story. I’m tired of it because it is real. Because there’s a little bit of wintergirl in every woman or girl I’ve ever met. Because I have four daughters all of whom have experienced some tiny (or not so tiny) bit of this story.

Laurie Halse Anderson is a brilliant writer and storyteller but I’d really like it if she didn’t have to tell these particular stories anymore.

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