Just One Year Audio Book --A quick and dirty review

So, for those of you not in the know, Just One Year by Gayle Forman overlaps with the events of her previous title, Just One Day (which I always struggled with the name of, because while must of the focus is on one day, a lot of the story was about the following year as well).

So, this book was kind of a do-over, title-wise.  And instead of following Lulu, this novel shows Willem's perspective on the events of Just One Day, beginning with the moment that he disappeared from Lulu's life after their momentous day together and then following his year-long search for Lulu and resolutions of his familial conflicts.

*Vague Spoiler*  The plot lacked tension for much of the story because, if the reader had picked up the companion book, then he or she knew that most of Willem's initial search wouldn't turn up Lulu.  The story did pick up speed, but I still found the ending to be dissatisfying because Lulu makes a choice to bring the story to a resolution.  Willem's a bit passive in the final exchange.  And since one of the main tensions of the book is whether or nor he will be more assertive over his choices, this ending left a lot to be desired.  *End vague spoiler*

Daniel May, the reader for the audio book, did an excellent job!  The various accents he had to take on throughout the story were done very well!

So, pick it up if you feel like a light romance that will take you around the world.  But be sure to have read Just One Day first!

REVIEW: Drama

Telgemeier, R.  (2012).  Drama.  New York:  Scholastic.

233 pages.


So, after getting stranded in reading In Darkness for months and after going through getting the chance to act in a production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress at my local community theater, Drama seemed like the perfect graphic novel for me to jump back into reading and blogging with, especially since I enjoyed Telgemeier's debut Smile so much.


Appetizer:  Callie and her friends work back stage in all of her school's drama productions at Eucalyptus Middle School.  As they prepare to put on Moon Over Mississippi, their final production of the year, just as much drama occurs backstage as on stage as crushes, in-likes, dislikes, realizations about sexual orientations, and fights unfold.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel.  The structure of the book mirrored that of a performance with an overture, acts and an intermission.  I also really liked that the focus was on the people who work behind the scenes of a musical instead of on the actors (which is what the audience usually focuses on).

Telgemeier does an excellent job of bringing the experience of middle school to life (I remember being equally impressed with this in Smile).  There's the crushes, new relationships, and heartbreaks of realizing your crush is interested in someone else (so much unrequited love!).  There's the embarrassing family members who you still love dearly.  There's the commitment to a club and the ceaseless effort to get it right.

I liked Callie as a character and her commitment to set design.  I think it could really encourage readers to think about what they're passionate about.

As Callie makes new friends with twins Jesse and Justin, I found that keeping the twins straight was the biggest difficulty of reading this story.  They do have different hair styles, but I found myself wishing that they didn't both have names that began with J's.

I also struggled a little with the character of Bonnie, a mean girl who auditions for one of the main roles in the musical.  There is no redemption for her.  Since so much of the story was about revealing who you are and what you want, I was hoping that at some point there would be more insights or empathy for why Bonnie was the way she was.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!!

Audiobook Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a review of a romantic read in honor of the holiday.

Smith, J.E.  (2012)  The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.  New York:  Poppy.

5 hours and 17 minutes of listening or 256 pages.


Appetizer:  Hadley missed her flight to London by four minutes.  FOUR MINUTES!  Forced to wait several hours for the next flight, she risks being late to her father's wedding to a woman whom Hadley has never met and hates on principle.

As Hadley waits, she meets and befriends a British boy named Oliver--a freshman at Yale--who is scheduled to fly to London on Hadley's new flight.  They are even to sit in the same row.  Their conversations at a cafe near their gate and on the airplane put Hadley at ease.  She is amazed at how comfortable she feels talking to Oliver, even discussing the difficulties she's been having with her father who left her and her mom for the woman he is now marrying.

After just spending several hours with Oliver, Hadley knows that she wants to see him again.  But she doesn't know if the crazy circumstances that first allowed her to meet him will fall into place again; especially after she realizes that his reason for flying home to London may not have been a cheerful one.


I really enjoyed The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.  I loved the title, cover and premise of this book.  As for the actual story, I found it to be a refreshing break from some of the heavier reading I've been doing recently, yet it still had enough depth of themes and character development that it felt real and went beyond "a happy bit of escapism."  (Although, some of Hadley's realizations about her family members did feel a little forced...but also necessary.)

Smith did a good job of capturing the feeling of being on a plane and--to an extent--being in London.  I do have an odd complaint though...since the title is so "math" oriented, I found myself wishing that Hadley were a math genius throughout the story.  There are one or two moments where she thinks in terms of math, but I found myself wanting more.

Generally, I liked the technique of having Hadley reflect upon her experiences or flashback to events before the 24-hour period that the book is set during, but several of the flashbacks felt unnecessary given the way that some of the information had been alluded to previously.



I did find Hadley's character to be a little whiney at the beginning, but that could have been a product of listening to the book instead of reading the pages.



The audiobook is narrated by Casey Holloway. I thought she did a good job of narrating from Hadley's perspective and I found myself wishing the novel were in first-person so I could have been brought even closer into Hadley's experience.  I wasn't too crazy about Holloway's British accent though, especially for Oliver.  (It was easier to hear when she voiced several women later in the novel.)  But still, it was a fun (and short!) book to listen to.

*Spoiler for the kinda-end*  As a side note, while Smith did a good job of making Oliver's refusal to reveal what he was studying and his misleading her about why he was flying home seem like appealing characterizations, in real life those would have been major red flags.  He repeatedly misleads her.  *End Spoiler/Rant*



Dinner Conversation:

"Airports are torture chambers if you're claustrophobic.
It's not just the looming threat of the ride ahead--being stuffed into the seats like sardines and then catapulted through the air in a narrow metal tube--but also the terminals themselves, the press of people, the blur and spin of the place, a dancing, dizzying hum, all motion and noise, all frenzy and clamor, and the whole thing sealed off by glass windows like some kind of monstrous ant farm."  (p. 5)



Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: Mad Love (is tons of mad fun!--but maybe a little too chaotic)

Selfors, S.  (2011).  Mad Love.  New York:  Walker & Company.

323 pages.


Appetizer:  Alice has been telling a lot of lies lately.  She's had to.  The biggest lie is that her mom, a semi-famous romance author, is "overseas," researching her next book.  The reality is far less glamorous, and despite being tired of the lies, Alice does everything she can to maintain her family's secrets.  This becomes almost impossible though, when the family savings are close to gone, her mom's publisher is demanding the next book and Alice speaks on her mother's behalf at a book event and a strange young man in the audience insists Alice tell his story.

The possibly crazy/super attractive/vaguely stalkery guy always wears a black hoodie and claims to be Cupid.  Yes, The Cupid.  But he goes by Errol now.

When Alice refuses to write "Errol's" story, he begins to make her romantic life (or lack there of) complicated.  The skateboarding boy--Tony--who Alice has been admiring from afar is suddenly in her life adding just enough stress that Alice might go crazy (one of her biggest fears).

I know it may seem like it took me over a month to read this book, but don't take that as a judgment on Mad Love.  Blame moving across the country and starting a new job.

I wanted to sit around and read this book.

What a breath of fresh air!

If you may remember, few but dear readers, I complained during my Starcrossed review that I was stuck reading a string of mediocre books that were related to Dudley the Dissertation's topic, the gods and creatures of myth.  Mad Love has cut the string!  It felt sooooo good to dip into a book by someone who can string a bunch of words together in a way that is clever, amusing and tells an engaging story.

This book is well-written and funny.  I liked the exploration of Alice struggling to write a romance novel.  I actually wound up reading a portion aloud to my writing class (When Alice looks at writing guides and lists the rules for writing a romance:  pp. 82-85.)

Although, by mid-novel, I did wish things would speed up plot-wise and that there'd be a little less random craziness and some more clear direction of where the story was going (and that Alice would make more progress on her goals).  That feeling didn't leave as I continued to read.  (Random horrible storm that Alice must go out in to rescue someone at the end?  Whattheheck?!)  In the Author's Note, Suzanne Selfors noted that she had to revise this story extensively.  Frankly, I thought it could have used another revision or two.  It felt like there were a lot of wonderful pieces that just didn't quite fit together.  My  head was left feeling a little crowded by the book's end.  Crowded, but also amused.


Dinner Conversation:

"When you're sixteen, summer is supposed to spread before you like a magic carpet, waiting to carry you to new, exciting places.  Paperback novel in hand, bare feet buried in speckled sand, long kisses with a boy in a kayak--that's what it's supposed to be about.  Summer, with its coconut and pineapple flavors, with its reggae rhythms, with its endless possibilities for adventure and romance.
But if you asked me on that Monday in July, I'd tell you that there was nothing exciting about my summer forecast.  My magic carpet looked more like a plain, beige indoor-outdoor kind of thing and it was nailed solidly to the ground" (p. 3).

"It's easier to tell lies when there are no loving eyes staring back at you.
I told lots of lies.
Deception had become my life.  It wasn't a compulsion.  I didn't do it for some sort of thrill.  I lied constantly because I'd promised my mother that I'd never tell anyone the truth about our situation.  Lie upon lie upon lie, heaped into a great big pile.  Like a dung beetle, I maneuvered that pile everywhere I went.  And I was sick of it" (p. 9).

"The guy stood.  "I have a question for Alice."
I tapped my flip-flops against the floor.  Though his eyes were somewhat shaded by the rim of his hood, his gaze was intense.  "Yes?" I asked.
"I have a love story to tell," he said.  "And I need you to write it for me.  When can you get started?"
A few women chuckled, then a long span of silence followed as the guy continued to stare at me.  Was this a joke?
Tom cleared his throat.  "You mean you want Alice's mother to write it?  Alice is the Queen of Romance's daughter.  Maybe you didn't hear my introduction."
"I know who Alice is," the guy said.  "I want her to write my story."
The word "want hung in the air, adding an eerie note to the atmosphere.  I shifted in my seat.  "Well, that's very nice and everything, but it's your story so you should write it yourself."
"I'm not a writer," he said.  "But I lived the story, so I remember every single detail.  All you have to do is read through my notes, then write it" (p. 15).

"My name is Errol, but I used to be called Eros.  Most know me as Cupid."  He continued to stare out the window.  "I wasn't named after Cupid.  I am Cupid.  The original, one and only Cupid."
Music and customer chatter competed with his statement, so no one turned to gawk or snicker.  But I'd heard him.  A pained smile spread across my face as I pretended to be interested.  My suspicions were proven.  Something was wrong with him and the last thing I needed was to be on his radar.
"There's only on thing I want," he continued.  "And that is to tell my love story to the world.  Not the version you find in mythology books, but the real story.  The true story.  I'm the only person who can tell  it and I want you to write it" (p. 55).

"Why couldn't I write Untitled Work in Progress for my mother?
Being the Queen of Romance's daughter made me the Princess of Romance.  I may not have inherited her Nordic bone structure, her sexy figure, or her naturally plump lips, but surely I'd inherited something.  And maybe that something was the knack for storytelling.  I'd gotten Bs in English.  I'd been raised on the romance genre.  It was such an obvious answer.  And what else was I doing with my summer?
Nothing!
I could devote every minute of every day to the project.  It didn't have to be a Pulitzer Prize winner, just something that Heartstrings Publishers would accept.  This could work.  It would work.  It had to work."  (pp. 81-82)

"Someone was watching me.
Errol.
He stood across the street, looking right at me.  Foreboding rolled over me, dark and sinister.  If ever there was a time to run, it was then.  But I didn't run.  I couldn't.  Like in a nightmare I stood rooted to the spot.
"Alice?" Tony touched my arm.
Errol's hood concealed most of his face, but his mouth was tight with determination.  He held his left arm  straight out.  Then he pulled his right hand to his chest.  Something was going to happen.  Something bad.  I felt as helpless as a small creature caught in headlights.
And then, BAM!
Something collided with my chest.  A jolt shot through my body, electrifying the tips of my fingers and toes" (pp. 87-88).

"In an odd way I suddenly felt better, because of the two of us standing in that bedroom, Errol was clearly the crazier.  He thought he was the Roman god Cupid.  Sure, I might have heard a voice in my head; sure, I might have gone a bit wacko for a few hours, but I had no delusions about my identity.  I wasn't Isis, or Supergirl, or Bella Swan.  I was Alice Amorous, daughter of a semifamous, mentally ill romance writer, who would soon be getting food stamps if her mother didn't turn in another book.  Which I was supposed to be writing." (p. 137)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: The Goddess Test

Carter, A.  (2011).  The Goddess Test.  Don Mills, Ontario:  Harlequin Teen.

293 pages.

Appetizer:  Kate Winters's mother is dying.  They move to Eden, a town in the upper peninsula of Michigan where her mother had lived when she was younger.  While Kate wants nothing more than to spend every possible minute with her deteriorating mother, several of her new classmates insist on drawing her out, including the head cheerleader, named Ava.

When Ava is killed in a trick she attempted to play on her, Kate finds herself making a deal with a mysterious boy named Henry to save Ava's life that is reminiscent of the deal Persephone experienced with the Greek god Hades.

As part of the deal, Kate must spend six months of each year with a seemingly early twenty-something man, named Henry.  She soon learns that she will face tests to see if she is worthy of being Henry's wife and gaining immortality.  Thus, the goddess test.

So, out there in the internetz world, there are a lot of mixed reviews of The Goddess Test.  Some are saying it's a wonderful engrossing spin on bringing Greek mythology into the present world.  Others are outraged, saying Carter completely ignores traditional mythology and attempts to infuse it with Christian values.

The question is really about how much can an author can play with the figures of myth.  Some like to maintain traditional versions (Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson series) others completely ignore a lot of the history (Ross Collins and his Medusa Jones).

I felt like Carter was somewhere in the middle.  *A kind-of spoiler that could lead to a major spoiler for the book (if that makes any sense)* Kate meets a lot of the Greek gods as soon as she arrives in Eden, Michigan, but doesn't realize their true identities.  They all have fake names (which, as someone who is terrible with names, didn't confuse me at all.  Nope.)  I found the list explaining who was who that is at the back of the book before I even began reading.  This meant that as I read about various characters acting in different ways that didn't fit with their true Greek identities.  (Artemis in charge of the dresses?!  Frak, no!)  *End the kind-of spoiler for the end of the book*  I felt like Carter was creating a monomyth, combining Christian themes and beliefs with traditional myth to explain the world.  I think this is becoming more and more popular in YA and children's lit.

When I first started reading the book, Monica had posted a comment to my Goodreads account asking why I wanted to read it.  We had the following phone conversation, re-constructed to the best of my failing memory.

Shel:  So, The Goddess Test?
Monica:  Don't read it!
Shel:  Why not?  I'm enjoying it so far.
Monica:  They make Hades a virgin!  A VIRGIN!!!!!!
Shel:  ...I don't think I've gotten to that part yet.

(In retrospect, Monica may not have freaked out so much about the Greek god of the Underworld being a virgin quite that much.)

Monica and I then had a very intelligent conversation about gender roles in relation to how modern heroes like Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Kate are being presented and how Percy gets to go off and have adventures to save the world and fight a war (funsies!) while Kate is not the toughest of ladies (boo!).  (Seriously, I felt like she was an emotionally strong character, but physically she rivals Bella Swan in terms of being a distressed damsel.  Kate's legs can barely support her more often than a baby hasn't learned to crawl or walk yet.  Get it together, girl.)

Plus, Riordan is more conservative in the way he presents the Greek gods, etc.  We are geniuses (not at all focused on how a several thousand-year-old attractive young man may still be a virgin).

Maybe we should have used this book as a literary feast...that is if I could have convinced Monica to give it a second chance.

I really loved the eerie tone of the story that Carter set up.  I felt it matched Kate's mood perfectly.  And since the book I'd read before this one was poorly written, The Goddess Test felt like a breath of fresh air.  That is, until I hit about page 40ish, when Ava was very randomly killed.  That was a moment where I had to literally exclaim "WTF," while I read in Thompson Library's lovely silent reading room.  I got glared at.  I got glared at reeeeeeeal good.

This would become a cyclical experience as I kept reading.  I'd be enjoying the tensions and internal landscape of Kate's characterization that then something completely random would happen plot-wise that would make me mumble "WTF?"

There were also quite a few moments throughout out the book were I was left feeling like it was a little ridiculous...or just not that clever.  Throughout the story, Kate is supposedly in danger, but she doesn't seem all that concerned.  And when there are threats to her life, they aren't that clever.  Given the way that the story presents the supposed assassin (as someone who has killed countless girls previously, no matter the ways Henry attempts to protect her), I would have expected something more impressive than what is in the story.

Overall, I'm declaring that I enjoyed the book.  Some of the plot developments seemed forced or not foreshadowed or explored enough.  I definitely liked the tensions over death and the fact that the story was set in Michigan.

Michiganders forever!!!!!!

When does the second book Goddess Interrupted come on?  (And is it an intentional play on the title Girl, Interrupted?  Will Kate be committed to an insane asylum where she befriends some of the other patients and comes to terms with the way society has treated her while exploring the nature of reality with a beautiful Greek god running around in the background?  I could probably get into that.  Just saying.)


Dinner Conversation:

"I spent my eighteenth birthday driving from New York City to Eden, Michigan, so my mother could die in the town where she was born.  Nine hundred and fifty-four miles of asphalt, knowing every sign we passed brought me closer to what would undoubtedly be the worst day of my life.
As far as birthdays go, I wouldn't recommend it" (p. 12).

"What would you do to have her back?"
I struggled to understand what he was saying.  "Back?"
"Back in the condition she was in before she jumped in the water.  Alive."
In my panic, I already knew my answer.  What would I do to have Ava back?  What would I do to stop death from tightening its chokehold over the remaining shreds of my life that it hadn't already stolen?  It had marked my mother and was waiting in the wings to take her from me, inching closer every day.  She might've been ready to give up, but I would never stop fighting for her.  And like hell I was going to let it claim another victim right in front of me, especially when it was my fault Ava was here in the first place.  "Anything."  (p. 45)

"Wandering listlessly through the halls, I ran my hand across each surface I passed, staring blankly ahead into the darkness.  Tonight marked the end of the only chapter in my life I'd ever known, and I didn't know how to live in the emptiness ahead" (p. 63).

"Think--you know the myth, do you not?  Who was Persephone?  What was she?"
Fear stabbed at me, cutting me from the inside.  If what he claimed was true, then he'd kidnapped Persephone and forced her to marry him, and no matter what he said, I couldn't help but wonder if he would try to do the same to me.  But the rational part of me couldn't look past the obvious.  "You really think you're a god?  You know that sounds crazy, right?" (p. 101).

"Why the tests?" I said.  "Why are they necessary?"
"Because," he said.  "The prize is not something we give out lightly, and we need to make sure it is something you can handle."
"What's that?"
"Immortality."  (p. 106).


Tasty Rating:  !!!

Literary Feast Discussion: Hush, Hush (Chapters 6-12)

Aaaaand, we're back.  Ready to discuss the next round of Hush, Hush.  And we're only a day late in posting.  That's pretty good for us, right?  Right.

We know that our response to the book isn't the same to all you all other readers out there.  So, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the book.

So, let's get down to the talking part....


Shel: Wait! Elliot has P.E. TWICE a day and his two classes are separated by a couple of hours?! Ick! I can think of no Hell worse!

Monica: But it’s okay! He’s hot and buff! So really, everyone benefits – he gets his gym credits in, and everyone else gets to watch him getting his gym credits in!

Shel: I suppose. I'd just hate to be in his position. But I have to say, I kinda like Elliot. He isn't creepy. I have no doubt he'll turn out to be the son of satan, an evil angel, demon or something of that sort.

Monica: The nice ones always are. It’s as though authors cannot imagine a world in which a guy is both politely flirty, and not a serial killer. “Blaha, behind my kind façade lurks a crazed madman with eyebrows that go in all different directions.” Which is too bad, because I totally agree – he’s kind of darling. I will miss him when he goes all crazy-like.

Shel: Stupid having to look beyond the surface to see if someone is truly good or evil.

Monica: Seriously! ;) Nora, Nora Nora. Please stop hanging out with Patch. When you can admit to yourself that the man "outwardly frighten[s]" you, it's time to back away. And girl, I don't care that his touch is sending Hot Sensations down your legs. Look at your life, look at your choices. I'd drop Elliot too, because of his aforementioned inevitable descent into evil. Grab Vee, and the three of us will go find some nice men who will love you without threatening you. Yes? Yes.

Shel: Yes!

Monica: Stephanie Meyer has ruined me for any sort of Supernatural Creatures Playing Baseball scenes, no lie. ;)

Shel: Ha, I hadn't even made that connection.

Monica: Has Becca Fitzpatrick ever *been* on a roller coaster? For real? Because seriously, I cannot name a single time I have ever gone on a new, revamped coaster and had the very back and the very front be free, but all the boring middle seats be filled. And while Patch might be rigging it with his brain waves, I feel like Nora should have noticed the discrepancy. ALSO. Lap belts are the only safety feature? A roller coaster featuring a 100-foot vertical drop, and they're in cars with doors that open on the sides, and lap belts that buckle?! ... Back me up on this, Shel. I feel like I'm ranting.

Shel: Yeah, it's very hard to believe. It'd be one thing if it was a carnival that skirted the laws or an old coaster that hadn't been brought up to spec. But this was very hard to believe. Unless of course, part of the reality bending involved not allowing Nora to see the safety bars that were keeping her shoulders in place.

Monica: His brain must have powers of epic proportions... one wonders why he bothers with creepy-flirting at all, and doesn't just take over her mind....?

Shel:  P.S. What is up with all of these "dangerous situation X happens, no wait it didn't, did it?" moments?

Monica: Whiplash. Obviously the author hopes that if she throws us around enough, we won't notice the fact that Vee appears to be the only semi-sane character in the entire novel.

Shel: So, after Patch drives her home on her motorcycle...that scene gave me the sceevies. This book is not paranormal romance. It is HORROR. *shudders*

Monica: And he has her *keys*, and he has a *knife*, and he's making her phone wonk out. Honestly, if they make this into a film, I don't know how they're going to convince anyone that it's sexy. It absolutely screams terror, for sure.

Shel: I just read the computer lab scene. Soooo, Elliot turned evil super-quick. Everyone in the book is creepy. Creepy. Creepy. Even the new psychologist. CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPY! Except Vee. Poor Vee. I might grab Vee and pull her out of the novel and leave all the rest to their creepy fates.

Monica: ::: LAUGHS ::: That's what we get for writing comments as we read the chapters; we can still like someone at the beginning of the section, only to have him go all STALKER at the end. ;)


So, are we in for more creepy stalker action in the next section?  You'll have to join us in reading Hush, Hush to find out.  We'll be taking on chapters 13-18 next.  We'll have it done by...let's say...Tuesday-ish.  Make note of the "ish" at the end of that Tuesday.  It means we have some ishy space to be early or late. Place your bets on which one we'll be.

Enjoy your reading!

Literary Feast Invitation: Hush, Hush

Hi friends! We're back, having recovered from the stress of werewolves, sisterly angst, and unrequited longing for scarred subway drum players brought about by Sisters Red. Now, energy restored, we've decided to hit up yet another bastion of angst and unrequited longing -- namely, Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush.

To be fair, I haven't actually read it before. I'm just assuming the angst and longing from the description on the flap:

A Sacred Oath.
A Fallen Angel.
A Forbidden Love.

Apparently Average Student Nora Grey finds herself irresistibly drawn to the obnoxious but mysterious Patch. Terror and mistrust ensues, along with An Ancient Battle and a Way Unsettling Truth. And presumably lots of romance.

Plus, guys, I'm having kind of a crush moment with the front cover. Take this in, in all its glory.
How can you not want that to fall directly into your lap!? Granted, I'm not completely sure what's up with the guy's lumpy-bumpy left shoulder, but we'll ignore that in favor of drooling. Shel, you up for drooling?

So grab yourself a copy of the book -- we'll be reading up to page 80 (or the end of chapter five, for those of you who dislike page numbers) and will report back next Monday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get my forbidden love on.

REVIEW: Sleepless

Balog, C.  (2010).  Sleepless.  New York:  Delacorte Press.

215 pages.


Appetizer:  Julia doesn't dream very often.  Still, the sandman assigned to her, Eron DeMarchelle, a seventeen-year-old who died almost a century ago, must "seduce" her to allow her to fall asleep each night.  He has been a sleep bringer for almost a century.  And now he has a chance at becoming human again.

But first Eron has to train his replacement, Griffin, Julia's prankster boyfriend who died unexpectedly.  As Julia struggles to move on with her life, still sensing that Griffin is somehow near,  she must face unwanted advances from Brett, Griffin's best friend.  While Julia doesn't sense any danger from her only remaining friend, both Eron and Griffin do and they must find a way to work together to protect Julia, or battle one another for her heart, without risking their own futures.

To share the story, the chapters switch back and forth between Eron and Julia's perspectives.  I was impressed by how distinct their voices were, how well written the book was and how well-planned the plotting was.  So much of the book deals with the quiet tensions and desires that drive the characters slowly toward conflict.

Also, the initial scene really drew me in.  Julia wakes to a phone call from a journalist asking for an obituary quote about Griffin.  Julia assumes this is one of Griffin's many pranks, so her comments are far from complimentary.  It's only after a second journalist calls that Julia suspects this isn't a joke.  It was hard to stop reading, even though it was well after midnight.

There were a lot of great details throughout the book.  Since Julia is about to turn sixteen, she has to practice driving with her mom, who "

This reminded me a lot of my own driving practice.  My dad would stomp his foot whenever he thought I should use the break.  My mom, in a tragedy of opposites, would sit in the back seat reading, pretending I was her chauffeur.  Whenever I tried to rouse her from her book with a question like "Mommy!  Help what do I do?  I'm so scared I'm going to kill us both right now?!" she'd grudgingly look up and say, "I don't know," or "Can you stop at the Starbucks so I can get a toffee nut latte?"

No, I would not stop at Starbucks for a toffee nut latte.

If I have to drive, she have to suffer through being caffeine-deprived.

And now I wonder why I still occasionally get feelings of anxiety about driving.

...

And back to our regularly scheduled book review....

I can see why this book is getting positive reviews all around the blog-town.  But as I continued to read, the narration started to raise a lot of red flags that it was sending unhealthy messages.

For example:

"I swallow, trying to remember if I ever told him where I work.  No, I'm pretty sure I didn't. There are four hundred stores in this mall, and yet he manages to get a job at my place of employment?  This is all too creepy.  But my heart begins to flutter.  Those dark eyes.  That stubble-dotted movie-star jawline...This guy could be a serial killer, yet my ticker is still screaming, "Bring it on!" (pp. 133-134).

Tell me, Few But Dear Readers, how do you feel about that little excerpt?

Ever since the Twilight series became popular, it seems that having a stalker has been the cool thing to do in paranormal YA romances.  This makes me more than a little uncomfortable since, some of the time, the stalker is the good romantic lead.  Icky.  Now, I can understand the appeal of a romantic character who wants nothing more than to protect and save the girl.  I can also understand the metaphor of how taking a chance and loving someone can feel like a great risk, like you're putting yourself in danger.  And I know that most of these books are viewed to be fun escapes from reality for the readers.  But I'm still more than a little worried about the messages stalker literature sends to the tweens who devour these books and then wonder where their Stalker-Edward is.  Remember when I showed you this?

Fun times.

So, to help navigate the stalker trend, Monica and I have come up with this...

THE STALKER SCALE!

You'll notice that Sleepless is in the middle of the scale.  That's right kids, this is a well-done and only "pretty creepy" approach to stalker-ism.  Sure, Eron crouches outside Julia's window and watches her sleep, but when he does it, it's not because he's already obsessed with her, it's his job and he knows that it's wrong and he even feels a little bad about it.

...I can't believe I just typed that.

Griffin on the other hand, has a creep element.  Somebody is a little too excited to get into the ladies' bedrooms without their knowledge.


Admittedly, the more I read of the book, the creepier all three potential love interests became.  And Julia's reactions to them didn't help matters.  Here's kind of the boiled down version of the way the guys perceived Julia and her reactions to them:

Eron:  Julia, you are virtuous and fragile.  I must protect you!
Julia:  Eron, you are stalkery and strange.  Kiss my hand again!  *she randomly falls down and starts bleeding*

Griffin:  Julia, you are mine!  I must protect you!!!!!!!!
Julia:  Griffin, you are dead.  I am yours!

Brett:  Julia, you are sexy!  Hold still while I kiss you passionately!
Julia:  Brett, you are scaring me.  But you are Griffin's best friend and are pathetic.  I will hold still while you rape-kiss me multiple times.

Swoooooooooooooooooon!

Few But Dear Readers, it's such a difficult decision!  Which guy to choose?!  And it only kinda-sorta sends tragically awful messages about female agency.

Sigh.




Dinner Conversation:

"Griffin Colburn knew something was wrong the moment he slid into the driver's seat.
It was a twinge.  Nothing more.  He shook his head, blinked.  Pushed it off" (p. 1).

"You can ring my be-e-ell, ring my bell!"
My eyes flicker open.  All I see is a pink satin pillow, which I've clamped over my face to block out the rest of the world.  When I remove it, I recoil in the morning sunlight like the undead and crane my neck to check the clock at my bedside.
9:20 a.m.  Oh, hell no" (p. 4).

"My first and only boyfriend is so dead" (p. 7).

"If Mama, God rest her soul, could see me now, crouching outside the window of a girl's house, in this tree, she would surely rise from her grave and swat the life clean out of me.  And I agree with her; this is no place for a man.  But that is one thing I am not.
At least not yet.
Watching the bedtime ritual of a woman from a clandestine post is perfectly acceptable behavior for us Sleepbringers, known as Sandmen to humans.  In fact, I watch more than one woman every night.  I'm sure Mama would get out the belt if she knew that.  It's not proper human behavior, so it was a struggle even for me to grasp.  After all, I still appear human, and one's human sensibilities are difficult simply to disregard.  Even now I'm not entirely comfortable with stalking women in the dark, though I've been carrying out this seduction for nearly a hundred years.  I'm about as used to it as I'll ever be" (p. 8).



Tasty Rating:  !!

REVIEW: A Match Made in High School

My streak of reading romantic comedies continues!  (Although, I think I may need a break from all the confusion and false love interests soon.)

I had a lot of trouble writing this review.  I had strong emotional responses to this book based on my knowledge of how high school politics and how policy changes work.  That having been said, I liken my engagement with this book to the way I reacted to Twilight:  somehow being completely amused and entertained while at the same time being completely pissed-off at aspects of the story.

More details below.


Walker, K.  (2009).  A Match Made in High School.  New York:  Razorbill.

278 pages.


Appetizer: On the first day of her senior year, Fiona and her best friend Marcie along with the rest of the class are informed that they must participate in a marriage preparedness program or they won't graduate.  To make a bad situation worse, Fiona is randomly paired up with Todd Harding, a guy she hates instead of her crush, Gabe.

Todd seems equally upset by their pairing and the two begin pranking each other and making one another's lives miserable.  As Fiona becomes a little obsessive with hatching pranks and reflecting on her and Todd's hate-filled relationship, her one and only friend, Marcie, gets fed-up with her behavior, causing their first ever major rift.

I have to admit, when I started this book I had A LOT (think a garbage truck full) of trouble suspending disbelief and accepting that a principal, no matter how upset over a divorce or no matter how cooky the district or community, or how conservative the school board, would EVER be able to randomly pair-up seniors for a year-long mandatory marriage preparation course and exercises (that required the students earn money that they don't get to keep themselves) without extensive debates, references to studies and permission slips sent out beforehand.

Come on.

First off, what about gay and lesbian students?  The school eliminated the possibility of any other type of domestic partnership.  And what about students who have no intention of marrying?

At the very least, I wish the book would have made some casual mention of permission slips being sent home to parents.  Then that garbage can of disbelief could have been emptied of a few bags.

Now, a lot of my issues are addressed later in the text:  A casual mention that the school board is conservative, the inclusion of a gay character, etc.  So, eventually, I was able to calm down and just enjoy the funny Pride and Prejudice inspired romantic comedy.

Having said that though, I was right there with Fiona, feeling injustice at her situation.  (And also, having officially ended my rant, it was this unlikely premise that made me want to check the book out.  It was the details of how it was presented that set me off--mainly the overly resentful female principal freaking out due to her personal life and forcing her students to pay the price on such a grand scale.)

The book has a lot of fun humor.  And there are a lot of great foils for Fiona to try to understand the way that marriage works.  Some of the pranks are a little too over the top for my taste (literally, if this weren't a comedy, a character could have been seriously depressed by some of the ways she was tortured early on in the text), but there were a lot of moments and lines that made me chuckle.

I think if I'd read this book as a fifteen or sixteen-year-old, I would have absolutely loved it.  I know I would have imagined what it would be like if I'd been randomly paired with that one popular, hot guy that I'd secretly had a crush on for some program similar to this one.


Dinner Conversation:

"I should have known.
I should have known the minute I went to get my favorite White Stripes peppermint tee and found it not in the drawer, but temporarily forgotten in the back of my closet, curled up in a crusty ball.  Caked with two-week-old, nuked syrup that had shot out of the bottle, bounced off my waffle, and splattered me like a sweet paintball.
I should have known when I came downstairs and found my parents tasting each other's tonsils in front of the kitchen sink, and nearly barfed on my sneakers.
Or when my best friend, Marcie--actually she's my only friend, which is fine; you only need one--called to say she was running late and couldn't pick me up.  So I had to ride my freaking bike to school for my first day as a senior.
I should have known right then that I was pedaling toward disaster" (p. 1).

"Obviously, with these statistics facing us, we, as educators, cannot ignore the pressing need for instruction in the area of marriage.  So as a new prerequisite for graduation, seniors must complete a yearlong course in marriage education."
We unfroze pretty quickly here.  I mean, this was a new low for ECHS.  I thought the cafeteria food that tasted like navel lint was plenty bad.  Or the eye-watering stench of the third-floor girls' bathroom.  Or the gym uniforms that looked like they were leftover from the 1970s porno flick.  Weren't those humiliating enough?  Apparently not.  Our groans rolled through the auditorium like a thundercloud.  But it wasn't until she said the next thing that the lightning hit.
"Each male and female senior will be paired up and 'married' for the duration of the year.
WHAT THE HOLY HELL?" (pp. 7-8).

"Marcie pulled me again and we ducked into the girls' bathroom.  "Did you see that?" I cried.
"I'm sorry, Fee," Marcie said.  "You cannot possibly complain to me."
"Todd Harding?  How am I supposed to spend the year with that no-necked Neanderthal?"  I leaned over the sing, willing it to suck me down the drain.  The fluorescent light buzzed above us.
Marcie said, "He has a neck.  And an ass and abs.  Nice ones.  And even if you haven't noticed them, pretty much every other girl has" (p. 14).




Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: My Invisible Boyfriend

Day, S.  (2009).  My Invisible Boyfriend.  New York:  Scholastic Press.

275 pages.

Okay, so this is another book that got my attention before it was even published and then post-publishing it kept slipping to the far side of the mountain of books in my To Read As Soon As Possible Pile.

But look, here I am, getting to it!


Appetizer: Fifteen-year-old Heidi is in love with Mycroft Christie, the protagonist of her favorite cancelled TV series.  So with the start of a the new school year, she's excited for another year of watching her favorite show and hanging out with her four best friends.  However, when the new year begins, Heidi is in for a shock when all of her friends seem a little more...boy fixated than they were last year.

A small misunderstanding leads to her friends thinking Heidi has a boyfriend too.  A deception she goes with that only leads to more and more misunderstandings and problems comparable to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (which by the way, also happens to be the play Heidi and her friends are working on for the end of the term).

I initially had a little trouble getting into My Invisible Boyfriend.  I found Heidi's voice a little off-putting.  I had to reread a sentence or phrase here and there to make sense of them.  But as the plot started to pick up and Heidi was developing the story behind her imaginary boyfriend, I started to get used to the voice and eased into it.

I did really like a lot of the tensions of the books.  What was Heidi to do?  All of her friends suddenly had boyfriends.  Heidi wasn't ready to be kissed by any random guy.  So, why not re-imagine her favorite TV character has her boyfriend?  She just wanted to belong.

I hadn't anticipated that Day would be using the fan-girl angle to inspire Heidi's characterization for her imaginary boyfriend.  I thought that was a nice touch, especially as a person who is prone to having literary crushes of my own.  (My imaginary boyfriend would also be British...and we'd meet by him apperating right beside me.  Sure it'd be awkward at first, what with him having to explain to me that magic existed, but then we'd have an awesome snarky conversation over a latte (me) and tea (him).  (Sigh.*)

Ahem, Refocusing...Plus, since Heidi contemplates aspects of her favorite show and has imaginary conversations with one of the characters, the story forms a meta-narrative, encouraging the reader to think about the qualities of a book or show in the same way.

It's also worth noting, that despite Heidi's imagined conversations with Mycroft.  She never feels like a character who has lost touch with reality.  She's just adapting to the situations at school using what she knows best.

Also, the way she creates her boyfriend's personality online is very interesting.  It reinforces the small ways that personality is shared and includes the subtle message about online stranger danger.

One of the minor characters was nicknamed "Peroxide Eric" for his dyed hair.  I couldn't help but think of the name Eric and how it seems to attract some type of adjective, description, marker-thing.  For example, I have a friend who has a boyfriend named Eric.  He is regularly called "Eric the Swede" by everyone.  In my head, this guy's name is Eric the Swede.  Although I think I have yet to say that to his face.  Mainly because I don't get to see him that often.  Then there's Eric in the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.  Viking Eric.  Eric the Vampire.

I'm just wondering.  Is it because the name is so short?



Dinner Conversation:

"You know your life is not exactly normal when you're sitting on the steps on the first day of school, sugar-high giddy from knowing they're about to unlock the doors.
But then no one at Finch is normal.  They only send you here when you've been kicked out of every other boarding school on the planet--if your parents can afford it" (p. 2).

"Mycroft Christie, in case you live under some kind of rock, is the most brilliant person in the universe, and totally my boyfriend.  Sort of.  Technically, he's not real.  Technically, he's the debonair twenty-third-century time-traveling hero of the best!  TV show!  ever!  Mycroft Christie Investigates is not actually going to turn up on my doorstep anytime soon to whisk me away to fangirl heaven" (p. 3).

"I realize I'm not dealing with zombie robot doppelgangers.  It's the love potion episode.  Every TV show has it sooner or later.  Magic spell, monster bite, something in the water:  romantic Kryptonite that makes people lick faces with people they shouldn't.  Mycroft Christie ended up snogging a vampire, an evil old lady who trained exploding hamsters to break into banks, and Jori Song (twice) while under the influence of bad mojo.  Hilarious consequences generally ensue.
It's not so entertaining when you're in the middle of it" (p. 15).

"It's like being undercover.  I could be exposed at any moment but only if I miss up and say too much.  It's a total thrill" (p. 46).




Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: Sea and Rambles about Expectations

Kling, H.R.  (2010).  Sea.  New York:  G.P. Putnam's Sons.

323 pages.

So, everybody on twitter (and by that I mean all of the authors and YA peeps) have been going CRAZY about Sea.  So, I naturally had to move it from the third pile to the left of my "to read as soon as humanly possible" mountain of books to the top of the pile closest to my bed.

However it seems with all those random tweets that I kind-of-sort-of only half read, I had very skewed expectations about this book.  For example.  I assumed it was fantasy. I assumed that it involved blue people (???HOW???).  I assumed it would be an immersing, super-amazing read that would parallel my love for The Hunger Games or Harry Potter.

Again, I don't quite know where all these expectations came from.  But I had them.

And it's my experience that when I have freakishly high expectations, I'm doomed to be disappointed.  That was kind of the case here.  Not because this book isn't awesome.  It is.

But because there were no blue people.  There was no fantasy  (but in my defense the opening line of the prologue is "I'm sitting alone on the other side of the world talking to a sea turtle that might be my mom...."  That at least opened up the possibility of magical realism, right?).

Any-hoo, it took be until about page 150 to 100% figure out that my expectations were so skewed.  There would be no blue people.

For any other skewed peeps out there, Sea is realistic fiction.  REALISTIC!!!!!!!!!!

If you want blue people, watch Avatar.

Don't be as confused as I was.

This is your official expectations wake-up call.  Don't hit snooze.


Now, on to the book...


Appetizer: For Sienna's fifteenth birthday, her father gets her a plane ticket to go to Indonesia to help him with tsunami relief for a group of orphans who are suffering from PTSD.

Sienna isn't sure that she'll be able to go though.  Since her mother died in a plane crash into the sea three years previously, she's refused to fly, letting go of her activist dreams.  She even refuses to surf with her best friend's brother, Spider, anymore.

Deciding to face her fears, Sienna goes with her father and his fellow therapists, including a woman, Vera, that Sienna fears may have a romantic interest in her dad.  In Indonesia she'll gain insights into other ways of understanding the world, religions and maybe even come to terms with what happened to her mom.  Of course, she'll also face a possible new romance that will give her insights into who she is and how she feels about the people she left at home.

As I was reading, I was impressed by how true to her age Sienna felt.  She was prone to romantic infatuation, to being afraid  of taking risks, to wanting her family restored, to needing her Dad.

I absolutely LOVE that this book is activist oriented (there really should be more books out there that normalize activism.  Who's with me?).  Sea is a window into Indonesian culture and intentionally avoids judgmental statements.  Sienna sees how privileged she was being raised in her upper middle class white background with regular access to fresh fruit, education and a sturdy home.  And through her eyes, the reader can gain the same insights.

The book opens up discussion about the 2004 tsunami and long-term effects on survivors, most notably Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This book is a wonderful summer read though.  Since part of it involves a journey, romance and the rest takes place on the beach, it's perfect to read on the beach.  

(BTW, why don't I live beside the sea?  All I got is a smelly river that when the wind blows just wrong drifts a sewer-scent in my direction and that I would NEVER EVER swim in for fear the water would turn my skin green.)

Dinner Conversation:

"I'm sitting alone on the other side of the world talking to a sea turtle that might be my mom.  The boy I love is with the girl he loves, and the girl he loves may not be me.  If I was halfway to Crazy before, I'm fully arrived now" (p. 1).

"After Mom disappeared, Dad stopped working abroad completely to stay home with me.  With us.  He joined a private psychiatric practice here in El Angel Miguel, our little beach town south of San Francisco.  I guessed he thought I was fine now...or at least sort of.  I spent a lot of time pretending I was, anyway" (p. 5).

"We're traveling to Java.  We'll be perfectly safe."
Safe?
How could Dad promise we'd be safe?  He said the same thing three years ago.
He came home and Mom didn't.
Safe.
How could he ever make that promise again?" (p. 10)

"And then he was standing in front of me.
He looked about sixteen or seventeen.  When his eyes met mine, they were so intense and dark.  Bottom-of -the-ocean dark, the darkest eyes I'd ever seen.  Up close his eye were even more piercing, like he was trying to peer right into my soul" (p. 73).


Tasty Rating:  !!!!




But I want to go back to this idea of expectation for a moment.


When describing genre, I discuss with my students how genre sets up expectations about the content of a story--Whether or not it'd be acceptable for a unicorn or blue person to go skipping along the beach in a story.  My genre expectations were part of my problem with being able to review this book.


But I also felt pressured to enjoy the book since everyone else in the world seemed to love it.


I wanted to know what some of you-all thought about encouraging the expectation of enjoyment with a book.  I'm much more likely to open a book when someone says, "I think you're going to love this..." but at the same time, when someone says that to me, I'd better love that book.  


Am I alone in this?

Literary Feast Discussion: Eternal (pp.234-307)

Hi everyone! We've reached the final course of our Literary Feast -- Eternal, by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Brace yourselves -- it's a chatty discussion. Ready? Let's go!

Shel: I really like when Joshua says, "I'm bored. What is this, intermission?" (p. 235). Mmmm. Just the right hint of meta for my tastes.

Monica: I feel bad, but I sort of grew weary of the angels by the end of the book. Not Zachary, obviously, but the rest of them seemed all… manipulative and somewhat unhelpful. “Mwaha, we’re not going to tell you what you’re actually supposed to do.” “Blahaha, now you have to kill your girlfriend.” “Hee hee hee, well done, have your powers back.” And so on.

Shel: I was still pretty okay. I mean, how often does anyone get a clear message from god or his angelic minions? I liked that the guardian angels were trying to help through the other humans. I thought that was a nice touch. Not nice touch, though -- A spa? That's where Harrison's been? Really? I mean, I get the joke, but I'd have thought there should be more of an adjustment period to the vampire lifestyle.

Monica: I definitely just *stared* at the book when he said that. Not that I was hoping he was running crazed through the woods, eating small children and hiding from men with pitchforks, but hanging out at a spa just seemed too… tame. Seriously, though, I was under the impression that Miranda had taken a much longer time to Vampire It Up. Maybe Harrison adapted more easily because he had planned on it happening?

Shel: I'm with you! That transformation is not an easy process. And I'm guessing this is a small plot hole that we stumbled into. And how about that angel's blood? I bet Buffy could have used some of that. I still wonder if it would have tasted sweet.

Monica: Dude, that was AWESOME! Who saw that coming? I… should have seen that coming, but totally didn’t. I assume that it was the best tasting blood on the planet, and probably *almost* worth combusting over.

Shel: I like Freddy. He as good timing.

Monica: And he’s fun! And sassy! It’s nice that we’ve sorted out the Good Guy?/Bad Guy? issue, though, because that was confusing me back when he was introduced.

Shel: Plus, since I paused between readings for our postings, I totally forgot who he was for a few moments there. But than he amused me. Which is all I ask.

Monica: No lie, I totally want a werebear for a friend, now. Shel? Back me on how awesome this would be? (It does show that the vamps were getting pretty cocky over who they were eating – given the destruction Mama Bear and Papa Bear caused, you’d think they wouldn’t be the best enemies....)

Shel: If you find a werebear to be friends with, I will so want cuddle privileges! And to repeat werebear, werebear, WEREBEAR over and over again. Oh, and look, more stalker action. "Shower time was one of my favorites" (p. 290). And of course, it's closely followed by an implied "if you love me, you'll kill me." Do you think that'll skew anybody's sense of romance?

Monica: Yeah, you’d think being a Creepy Stalker would be frowned upon by Zachary’s boss, but… apparently not? I seriously do find it a little weird, because it opens up all sorts of moral pseudo-religious questions, like about the fact that except for having wings, Zachary seems pretty much completely human, lust and all. I almost wish he’d been a little more… Angelic. But then I suppose the fun of the book might have been nixed.

Shel: Yeah, I see what you mean. I think I'm going to have to go down as anti-lust for angels. Mostly because I don't want to worry about peeking tom shower angels. I don't have time for that batch of crazy.

Shel: Wait. My comment again. Does this story feel a little rushed to you? Like all the pieces are there, but instead of tensions building gradually I feel like sometimes we're getting dumped on and told key points that I would have preferred to learn myself. Like that Sabine would be willing to rebel against Drac. Does that make sense?

Monica: Yes. 100% perfect sense. The entire last section, including where Miranda is making allies and there’s this undercurrent of War and Takeover... it definitely was racing along breakneck. And then BOOM Drac is dead. And then BANG Miranda is dead. And then WHAM Zachary is… just going to sit and wait until he gets to see her again? (Oh, Miranda. If you thought it was bad being a virgin, and then bad being undead and a virgin, think how desperate you’ll be when you’re formerly-undead now-really-dead and a virgin.)

Shel: *Snort* The poor poor girl. Even her would-be boyfriend an ANGEL OF GOD has gotten WAY more action than her. Hmm. So I know this book wasn't quite what we had expected. But overall, whadidya think?

Monica: I give it three and a half out of five stars. I liked the idea, and the author writes beautifully, *and* there was a DS9 shout-out. Heart. But the ending especially, as we mentioned, seemed sort of OMG CAN’T SLOW DOWN!!!1, and I couldn’t quite recover from thinking this would be a ditzy fun book, only to realize it was actually a blood-stained pseudo-tragedy. That’s not the fault of the book, of course, only of my own original perception, but it still definitely impacted the way I read the thing.

Shel: I'm with you there. And I think your misguided perception may be based on my misguided perception that I shared with you. It just...seemed like goofy fun for those first two pages.... But looking at the jokes that I couldn't bring myself to laugh at due to all the horrendous imagery surrounding them, I do think I may have to give this book a second try. In a few years. Now now. And when does Blessed come out?!

Monica: I might have to read whatever her first one is, before I tackle Blessed. I’m wondering if she talks more about the werecritters in that one, since they seemed weirdly tacked-on in Eternal.

Shel: Yep, as far as I can tell, it will have a lot of werewolves. But alas, my copy of it hasn't arrived in the mail yet.

Whoo! Well, that's all for Eternal, friends! Hope you enjoyed the ride. Give us a moment or two to recover, and we'll have a new book picked out and ready for the next Feast. It'll be a good one. A really good one. A really, really really good one. Because, you know, I'm letting Shel pick it out. ;)

Literary Feast Discussion: Eternal (pp. 74-152)

Hey all! Welcome to the second update in our most recent Literary Feast -- Eternal, by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

As always, reader beware! There are spoilers below! ;)

Shel: Reading about Zachary eating egg rolls made me want some of my own. Why don't any of my local Chinese restaurants deliver? *Weeps*

Monica: See, I’m officially off food after having read that oh-so-delicious description of Miranda dipping pumpkin bread in the wannabe Slayer’s blood, fancy-restaurant style. Yick.

Shel: What's that now? I'd been blocking out that lovely image. But, it's interesting. There's still a lot of humor throughout this book, but because of the initial surprising dark turn (and the following dark spots) I can't seem to bring myself to laugh at any of the funny moments. Are you doing any better?

Monica: Oh, heck no. I mean yes, there are a few funny moments here and there, but you never know when it’s going to suddenly take a horrible, horrible turn for the worse. (“Why do they need tongues anyway,” anyone?) I’m definitely reading the entire book in a state of semi-terror, because I’m just *waiting* for Miranda to go all crazy and bite the face off a baby, or something. Maybe with Zachary in the picture, things will tone down / lighten up?

Shel: We can only hope. I do have a point of trepidation...maybe this will be revealed later, but why would Harrison let Zachary through knowing he'd had a stake. I don't understand!

Monica: THANK YOU FOR ASKING! I was so confused. Harrison’s just all, “Oh, stake. Aha. Not this time.” Maybe he assumes that anyone who doesn’t come armed is an idiot, but that doesn’t mean he’ll allow anyone to bring weapons in past the entryway? Maybe he’s just not all that dedicated to his job and doesn’t have the energy to throw stake-wielding people out of the house? Maybe – gasp! – he *wants* someone to assassinate Miranda? No, that makes no sense…. I’m going with not all that dedicated.

Shel: We shall seeeeeeee! Hmmm, Zachary handled seeing vampified-Miranda much better than I would have expected. I'd been envisioning double-takes, open-mouthed staring and stuttering.

Monica: He might still be hung over. I think a six-month bender takes a while to wear off.

Shel: Hahahaha! I really like that Zachary isn't afraid of her (not that he'd have reason to be). Vamps--excuse me--ETERNALS really do go on massive ego trips, no matter the story. It'd be nice to see more characters that put them back in their places.

Monica: I did have to laugh, though (for pretty much the first time so far) when Joshua materialized and had to almost physically restrain him from keeping the insults going. “No, Zachary. You are supposed to become besties with her. Not alienate her permanently.” Because let’s be honest, it would really stink if he got eaten this early on. I wonder what angel blood tastes like, PS? Or do you think he’s all human in the veins?

Shel: I think there's still a bit of angel in his veins. I bet angel blood would taste annoyingly sweet. It'd probably give a drinker a sugar-high. Mmmm, sugar. Well, I'm off to watch some old episodes of True Blood. Cause I can!

Monica: True Blood pah. Nothing beats Angel. ;)

Shel: Pah, if I want Joss at his best, I'll hit up Buffy.

Well, that's it for today, friends. Be sure to drop by on Saturday, when we'll be discussing the next section (pages 153-233). Can't wait to see what y'all think!

Literary Feast Discussion: Eternal (pp. 1-73)

Hi Cool Cats!  Welcome to our new literary feast.  This time around we're enjoying Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith and it looks like this book is going to dish out some surprises.

Our thoughts on the first 73 pages are below.  If you get a chance to pick up this book, we'd love to read your thoughts.

Also, keep in mind that there are spoilers for the book below.

ETERNAL (1-73)

Shel:  Monica, I was entertained from page one.  I have to admit, I've never given guardian angels much though.  I guess I always thought if they existed, they only show up in emergencies.  But now, I have creepy crawly skin.  Is one watching me while I type this?  *glances around*  While I sleep?

Monica:  Oh my word, DITTO on the terrifying fears of guardian angels watching my every move.  I think it wouldn't have been so bad, if they didn't immediately pull out the whole, "that one blessed weekend" where "she spent a full day in bed buck naked."  Zachary, that is creepy as anything.  Not only is she your guardian angel charge, but you've known her literally since she was born!  You have watched her every moment of her life, from infancy to now!  That not just stalkerish, that's... well, I was about to say incesty, but I think that's too harsh a term.  Definitely stalkerish though.

Shel:  It is icky, Twilight falling-in-love-with-a-baby-let-me-watch-you-sleep-without-permission stalker level.  We need a flashing red stalker warning to go with our posts.

Shel: Let's go in a less creepy direction...how do you feel about the shifting point of views?

Monica:  I like it, although I have to tell you -- my OCD is not having an easy time coping with the fact that sometimes a character's point of view repeats (like, a Miranda chapter and then another Miranda chapter).  I sort of feel like if they were going to do a back-and-forth, it should... stay back and forth.  Know what I mean?

Shel: I completely understand.  As I was reading, I found a trouble point as well.  I wish the story would have hinted about vampires existing sooner.  I would have liked that touch of world building from page one.

Monica:  Oh definitely.  Shifters too -- although I don't know if they'll play a particularly big role in this book.

Shel: Okay, I'm starting to get True Blood/Southern Vampire Mystery series flashes.  Am I alone in this?

Monica:  Why sugarplum, I have no ideah what you're talking about!

Shel: Hmm, this story has taken a dark turn.  I'd expected Miranda to remain human much longer.  Since I was so certain of that expectation, the reality feels a little disappointing.

Monica:  I'm not going to lie -- this book has completely thrown me for a loop.  I was thinking the whole vampire (I mean, eternal) thing would be more... romanticized.  And instead, there she is, snapping waiters' necks against a wall so she can get a better angle on the vein, and waxing eloquent on the visual effects of dropping people into fountains of holy water.  Yick.

Shel:  I guess it's a good contrast to some of the other paranormal romances out there....

Monica:  So, is it just me, or is Father getting increasingly creepified?

Shel:  Way creepified!  Normally I'd want Miranda to stand up and kick vampy-ass right about now.  But as the case may be, I guess I'm going to have to hope the stalker guardian angel starts stalking again.

Well, we'll have to see where Eternal takes us on Wednesday.  Then we'll discuss pages 74-152.  Hope to see you then.

REVIEW: Goddess Boot Camp

*Spoiler Alert*  The Premise of Goddess Boot Camp includes spoilers for Oh.My.Gods...so by reading any of the review below, you'll be forever spoiled with some of the knowledge of how Oh.My.Gods ends.  Kay?  Do you feel warned, cause, you have been.

Childs, T.L.  (2009).  Goddess Boot Camp.  New York:  Dutton Books.

978052542134

264 pages


Appetizer:  Set about nine months after the events of Oh.My.Gods, summer has arrived and Phoebe is still having trouble controlling her new-found goddess powers and it would seem the Greek gods have taken notice.  Phoebe has two weeks to learn how to control her powers before the gods will test her.  To help her, her step-dad has enrolled her in a goddess boot camp, which is tortuous in ways different from most boot camps, since all the other campers are about ten-years-old.  On top of that, Phoebe needs to train for the Pythian Games trials, but her running partner and boyfriend, Griffin, may be lying and keeping secrets involving his ex-girlfriend.

So, it's official.  I declare Tera Lynn Childs to be evil.  Pure evil, in fact.  Granted, I've only read two of the young adult novels she's written so far, but she is amazingly skilled at creating horrifying situations for her characters.  Horrifying and embarrassing (and FUNNY!).  Ms. Childs, please promise to never make me one of your characters.  I shudder to think of what hells you would put me through.  *shudders*

But having said that, I feel like poor Phoebe may actually have too much to deal with in this book.  She's getting mysterious messages from someone who has knowledge of the circumstances of her dad's death, she has a race to prepare for, a lying-boyfriend to deal with, a mean step-sister who's suddenly decided to play nice, a test doled out by the gods to prepare for, a boot camp to attend...wowzers, that's a lot.

But having said that too (I'm in to saying things, it's kinda what I do) most of the various stressors in Phoebe's life are connected.   So, while I was reading, it felt like a lot of balls to juggle, but with so many balls, it was easy to get a small sense of the pressure the character was under.  You follow?

Moving on, I felt that Childs's prose were clear and occasionally humorous.  I really felt that the Greek gods were more of a presence in this book than in the last.  That served to give me the feeling that Phoebe's story really is a "Percy Jackson for teenage girls."

On another note, I'm very excited that they changed the cover of Oh.My.Gods to this....

Not that there's anything specifically wrong with a nude statue of a man and pink lettering.  I thought the original cover was fitting.  That is, until I was reading the book on the bus and I realized other people could see the fitting cover too.

That was a wee bit embarrassing.


Dinner Conversation:

"I.
Am.
A.
Goddess.
An honest-to-goodness goddess.
With superpowers and everything.
Okay, so I'm just a minor, minor, minor goddess.  Technically, I'm supposed to say hematheos, which means godly blood, or part god, but goddess sounds much more impressive (to the like ten people I'm allowed to tell)" (p. 3).

"Since we discovered your heritage, the gods have been closely monitoring your dynamotheos progress."
"My dyno-what?"
"Dynamotheos," he repeats.  "The official term for the powers derived from the gods.  They've been observing you--"
"Observing me?"  My teeth clench.  "Like how?"
I imagine the sneaky gods spying on me in the shower or the locker room or when I'm "studying" with Griffin.
"Circumspectly, I assure you."

"I have already arranged for an alternative training program."
I silently hope that means even more private lessons from Griffin, but I know I'm not that lucky.  and Damian's not that considerate of my love life.
"No, not private lessons," he says, proving again that he can read minds.  "I have enrolled you in Dynamotheos Development Camp.  You begin in the morning" (pp. 12-13).

"But what about the next time?  Or the time after that?  Or the time after that?  If I don't get my powers under control, there's always the chance someone might get hurt."
And I might get smoted for it" (p. 38).

"My first clue that something is very, very wrong is the giggling.  It hits me like a wave of endorphins as I pull open the door to the Academy courtyard.  Girls giggling.  Lots of girls giggling.  Lots of young girls giggling.
When I step into the open, I see them huddled in a little giggling mass around a bench in the far corner.  There are at least a dozen of them.  And they are all, like, ten.
I look desperately around the courtyard for signs of anyone who has successfully survived puberty.  No.  There is only me and the ten-year-olds" (p. 51).


To Go with the Meal:

While probably best as an individual recommendation, young adult readers can contemplate how Oh.My.Gods and Goddess Boot Camp show Phoebe as a powerful and determined young woman who won't backdown in the face of discrimination or embarrassment.

Also, after reading this book, a young adult may be more willing to admit that sometimes, like Phoebe, they may not know everything and sometimes that means having to take classes with little ten year olds who think French kissing is the grossest thing ever.


Tasty Rating:  !!!!