Friday Five: Reading, Writing, and Book Trailers on Hulu

1. This has not been a good reading week. First I read a book that was thoroughly depressing (not YA), and now I'm reading a too-gory and very confusing book for literature class. I have just a couple of days to finish it and I really, really don't want to. But, um. Have to.
2. I'm currently in the fourth season of LOST and the second season of Psych. They're both fantastic shows and Psych has surpassed Castle as my favorite crime show, because THAT'S HOW GOOD IT IS. (Also this season of Castle is actually not so great thus far, sadly.)
3. I'M WORKING ON A NEW NOVEL. I haven't actually done much work yet - mostly just the first playlist, character names, and a rough idea of what's going on. This means that the spy book is on hold for now and for who knows how long. I'm super excited about the new novel (which is actually an old idea) but I have a lot to do before I even get to start writing it. Character bios are difficult.
4. Hulu is playing trailers for books. The Fallen Angels series, by J.R. Ward. Has anyone heard of this series? Why are they playing trailers for it? I've never seen a book trailer on tv (or Hulu) before, except one James Patterson novel. So just wondering what that's about.
5. I finally got Sara Bareilles' new CD, Kaleidoscope Heart, and it's every bit as amazing as I was hoping it would be. Incredible.

Readalong?

So I committed to doing the THE PRINCESS BRIDE read along, hosted by Chrisbookarama. And then, of course, a couple of days after deciding to do it I realized I might not be able to.

For the first time in years (literal YEARS) I'm reading four books and once, and four books is just too many. I like to stick to one at a time, generally. And THE PRINCESS BRIDE is one that I could actually decide to not read since it's not for school.

SO WE'LL SEE. I still really want to do the read along with everyone else who is doing it, so hopefully I won't give up. It's not as if it's a difficult or even particularly long book... it's just kind of being the straw that broke the camel's back right now.

ANYWAY.

More interesting post soon, really.

Tween Tuesday: My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours

MY FAKE BOYFRIEND IS BETTER THAN YOURS
Kristina Springer

This book is friggin' cute. When Tori's (newly rich) best friend, Sienna, comes back from her fabulous summer vacation with highlights, low lights, french-tipped nails, and a too-good-to-be-true long-distance boyfriend named Antonio, Tori misses the old Sea. The girl who was seriously shy and unabashedly dorky. Tori knows the boyfriend is a lie and, unsure of how to deal with her "new" old friend, she makes up a fake boyfriend of her own. Sebastian Colander, who's everything Antonio is and even more. As awesome as this premise is, the book is even awesomer. More awesome. Whatever. Tori, Sienna, and their new, popular friends are fully-fleshed out characters. For once the popular girls aren't mean or snobby -- just well-liked. And though Sienna's transformation is sudden and extensive, she doesn't turn into a snotty brat who forgets all about her best friend just because her family has some money now. Tori's (divorced) parents are also well-developed and the adorable relationship she shares with her father is definitely one of the best I've seen in a YA or MG book. He's actively involved in her life despite her not living with him. I get so used to (and sometimes bothered by) YA books where the protagonist is like so totally annoyed and embarrassed by her parents that it was refreshing to read a book where that wasn't the case. Tori's younger than the average YA protagonist and this is a middle grade novel, but even so, not all teenagers hate their parents.

The setting here, aside from one memorable scene, is fairly forgettable and non-important. And as much as I would have loved an incredibly vivid setting, it really didn't impact the book very much. More important is the plot, which turns in unexpected and wonderful ways as Tori's "boyfriend" becomes more and more impressive and Tori herself becomes more and more confused and lost next to her dazzling and transformed best friend. There's a great subplot here with two of the popular girls who suddenly befriend Tori and this is honestly one of the best parts of the book -- watching Tori's friendships apart from Sienna. My only real complaint here is that I wished the ending had a bit more to it and that everything wasn't tied up so neatly because I was left feeling like there should have been more.

All in all though, this is a great YA/MG book. (I believe they're "officially" calling it YA, but it's much more in the MG age range to me, so that's what I'm going with.) It's awesome and adorable without being cliche, fun and quirky without falling into predictable territory. A fast, fun, all-out awesome read.

Top 10: Fictional Characters

I attempted to put this list in order like I've done with previous lists, but it's so difficult! You can think of it as being in order if you want, or you can just assume that after the first one (or two) it doesn't really matter because they're all amazing.

1. Agent 99

Get Smart

Greatest character ever. And, well, I tried to write something about how and why she's so absolutely incredible, but nothing happened I think I just sat here at the keyboard typing best ever best ever best ever like ten times. BEST EVER. OH BUT ALSO UM UM I HATED THE ANNE HATHAWAY VERSION BECAUSE WAY TO COMPLETELY CHANGE THE BEST CHARACTER EVER SERIOUSLY NOW, PEOPLE WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

2. Maxwell Smart

Get Smart

OH GOODNESS. The shoe phone, his insistence on using the Cone of Silence, the obliviousness that is trademark, how he's clumsy and bumbling and a brilliant spy at the same time? Maxwell Smart is just the best. I mean, HE HAS AN INVISIBLE WALL IN HIS APARTMENT AND HE SLEEPS IN A SUIT AND AND AND... there are no ands. His best friend is a ROBOT. He's a well-known secret agent, how is that not an amazing contradiction in terms? Also, the Craw. Also, Harry Hoo. Also also also, people routinely throw grenades into his apartment and people always show up and then die because they've been poisoned and he just goes about his routine like la-di-da, just another day in the life! Because that's the kind of character he is.

3. Captain Kirk

Star Trek

Do I really need an explanation for this one? I mean, what's cooler than flying through space and fighting aliens? (The only acceptable answer here is either: "fighting KAOS, obviously," or "nothing, der.") You guys, there is LITERALLY a motivation poster of Captain Kirk with the caption, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am. So yeah. I'm pretty sure "Kirk" is one of the synonyms of "awesome." That seems legit, right?

4. Frankie Landau-Banks

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Um, can I be as amazing as Frankie, please? She's the ultimate I-want-to-be-her YA girl. And not because she has such great adventures, or because there are guys fighting over her, but because she is just so incredible. The pranks, the Wodehouse, the secret society stuff, and thinking about feminism without going to the extreme on any one side. She's just awesome. Can we all agree that Frankie grows up and becomes a spy? Because, OMG YOU GUYS, Frankie is just like a younger Agent 99!! This is SOLID GOLD FACT. Frankie = 99. YES.

5. Spencer Martin

the Scarlett series

Honestly it's sad if I even have to explain this one to YA fans. Spencer Martin is everything that's right with humerous, contemporary YA. The awesomeness of his character starts on the very first page of SUITE SCARLETT and then never lets up. He's a loving brother, a struggling-but-determined actor, and he makes fun of people named Chip because seriously who names their kid that? But more importantly? HE'S HILARIOUS AND GREAT and [number one] it's nice to have a lovely and funny brother-sister relationship at the forefront of a story and, [number two] a book of just ALL SPENCER ALL THE TIME would be great, actually. There doesn't eve need to be a plot or anything. (And just wondering, but does he remind anyone else of the Spencer from iCarly?) 

6. Peeta Mellark

The Hunger Games trilogy

Peeta Mellark is, without a doubt, the best part of The Hunger Games trilogy. Even when he's thrown into a ruthless pit of death (the arena), he's still loyal and loving and protective and MY GOODNESS, YOU GUYS, HE'S JUST SO SELFLESS. He is a symbol of hope and love. LITERALLY THAT IS WHAT HIS CHARACTER IS and how can you not love that? Peeta is steady and reliable and incredible throughout all three books and this, when everything else is messed-up and disturbing, is the best thing ever. 

7. Topher Brink

Dollhouse

Topher Brink is like Spencer Martin if Spencer Martin were a genius scientist working for an evil corporation instead of a recently-famous actor. In other, more succinct words: Topher Brink is amazing. He's the brains behind the mind-wipe and personality-implanting technology in that creepyweird show, Dollhouse. He's smart and hilarious and creates havoc and cracks jokes and seems to have no morals until suddenly he does and then it just gets better and better and better until he goes completely nutter because that's what happens when you bring about the end of civilization, apparently. BUT OH GOODNESS HE IS JUST SO GREAT I JUST LOVE HIM SO MUCH AND I WON'T SPOIL THE ENDING FOR YOU BUT OMG OMG OMG OMG.

8. Diana Holland

Luxe series

Excuse me for saying this, but Diana Holland is boss. And I don't even use the word boss like that, but she so is. I love her so much that I'm willing to overlook the tremendous mistake she made at the end of SPLENDOR and allow her to have her rightful place on this list. She's a society girl who doesn't like the rules, who breaks them at every turn, who has her own inner fire and spunk and remains true to it. She's incredible and it was worth reading the Luxe series just for her journey... (though I still can't get over the ending, and I never will.)

9. Serafina

serafina67

While a lot of the other female characters on this list are ones I want to be more like, Serafina is the one I actually am like. It's a testament to something, I'm sure, that both friends I've given the book to commented on how much the spastic writing reminds them of me. But it's more than that. Serafina's a little insecure, more than a bit on the crazy side, and is emotional in the same way that I am. Her insane blogging is the kind of stuff that goes on inside my head (and on my Twitter) every. single. day., and for this I love her.

10. Charlie Pace

Lost

Uhhh, last night I finished season three of LOST. It was epic sad and I don't know why my favorite characters are always killed off, but Charlie is... well, bloody brilliant. From heroin-addict/rockstar, to one of the first people kidnapped by the Others, to baby-snatcher, to hero, he's pretty much consistently been the best part of the show. He has a lot of heart and as much as I love this show I'm not quite sure how the rest of the seasons are going to be without him on the island. 

Part Three: Girls in Pants (The Third Summer of the Traveling Pants)

As always, spoilers for the first three books.

• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Part One
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Part Two
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Part Three
• The Second Summer of the Sisterhood - Part One
• The Second Summer of the Sisterhood - Part Two
• The Second Summer of the Sisterhood - Part Three
• Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood - Part One
• Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood - Part Two

Book: Girls in Pants (The Third Summer of the Sisterhood)

Pages: 234-338

Topics: Decision of Favorite, Family Portraits, Looks, At the Center, MOAR QUOTES

Decision of Favorite:

I guess I'm just going to talk. This time around, finally reading the last third of the book, I remembered why I considered it my favorite for so long. The ending is brilliant. Not just brilliant, but also something that I find myself relating to. The entire book (the entire series) ambles along at a leisurely pace, but it's in the last hundred pages here that we get all those big revelations that the sisterhood is all about. All those passages that make me love the book so much. Right now, I don't think I have a favorite. There are parts of each book that I absolutely love, and it's too difficult to choose.

Family Portraits:

As a child, you were taught to see the world in geometric shapes and primary colors... Then you had to spend the rest of your life unlearning them. That was life, as near as Lena could tell. Making everything simple for the first ten years, which in turn made everything way more complicated for the subsequent seventy. (pg. 252)

While the scenes with Lena doing the portraits of her family can be tedious at times, I love all the realizations she comes to, all the ways she comes to view the members of her family and the ways she knows she's misjudged them in the past. The scenes with Valia and her father are the most tremendous to me, and Brashares always has such a simple way of stating the epiphanies and realizations of her characters.

Looks:

Lena had a funny relationship with her face. She wanted it to be beautiful, and she didn't. She looked at it with the desire to find some overriding flaw that would kick her from one category (beautiful) into another (not). And she also looked at it with the fear that she'd succeed. Either way, she didn't usually find it. (pg. 291)

I love how these books tackle the whole concept of self-image as it pertains to looks. I love that instead of focusing on Tibby's or Carmen's insecurities, the focus is always on the complicated relationship Lena has with her own beautiful looks. It's such an interesting and unique perspective that it constantly surprises me.

At the Center:

They were growing up. It was inevitable.

But please, God, [Tibby] couldn't do it if it was a trade-in. She couldn't strike the bargain if growing up meant drowning out the friendship that stood at the very center of her life, the thing that gave her strength and balance. (pg. 331)

It's pretty much impossible to explain how much or why I love this quote, so I won't even try. But I do love it.

MOAR QUOTES!!

"Whatever happens," Bridget said, "we will find each other. We always will." (pg. 332)

How perfect.

How could she explain? Eric wasn't her boyfriend. He wasn't her anything. Why did she feel like she needed him so desperately? (pg. 289)

Bee + Eric > Lena + Kostos. That is all.

[Carmen's] mother once told her that when you feel someone else's pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, the you knew you really loved them. (pg. 267)

I've talked about the relationship between Carmen and her mother before, but I feel like it bears repeating. I think Carmen and her mother have the closest ties and the deepest relationship of any of the relationships outside of the Septembers and I love that the books don't ever shy away from the exploration of this relationship in favor of other things.

Blog Hop: Oct. 1 - 3 (Blog)

This week's Blog Hop question is:

How do you spread the word about your blog?

I honestly don't remember what I did when I first started... I already knew a few book bloggers when I started blogging and they helped spread the word about my blog. I also use Twitter like a crazy Twitter-fiend, so that's probably the main way I spread the word about my blog now. I do a few different memes (this being one of them) and have done others in the past. I also try to always comment on blog posts that I find especially great or interesting.

Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY
Jenny Han

Historically, ever since reading THE LIGHTKEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Iain Lawrence, when I was a child, novels set at the beach have given me a feeling I can only descirbe as: weird and uncomfortable. Similar to waking up from a disturbing dream, except in real life. THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY is only the second I've read that didn't leave me with that feeling, which is a feat in itself. The premise -- a girl (Belly) who has spent every summer at the beach with her mother, brother, her mother's best friend and two sons -- is one that I love. Especially since Belly has been in love with the older son, Conrad, since she was ten years old while she's always thought of Jeremiah as more of a best friend or brother to her. The premise is an exceptionally strong one, but the characterizations often fall flat. This book picks up and drops the reader in the middle of what really are the biggest and most important relationships in the narrator's life. Belly knows these people -- Conrad, Jeremiah, their mother Susannah -- so well, but the reader doesn't know them at all. And as much as the characters are described there was still a foggy disconnect that remained throughout the book. The narration spends a lot of time telling us who these characters are and not enough letting us actually get to know them. I loved the Belly/Jeremiah dynamic, but kept wishing for more scenes between her and Conrad. The few we had really only gave short snapshots of who these characters were and the relationship they had. In the case of this book this gave me the very distinct feeling that everything I was reading about was monumentally huge to Belly but somehow it wasn't coming through as clear as i wanted it to.

Usually this disconnect of characterization would turn me off to a book, but this was the exception. The story here, about Belly's "summer family" as she calls them, about this boy she's always loved, about her mother's best friend who's in remission after surviving breast cancer, is so brilliant. So beautiful and important to Belly that I could understand the disconnect. Because it wasn't just the reader who was disconnected in this summer book, but everybody. The summer and its story are covered in a thin haze and though this won't work for every reader, it worked for me. The setting here is vivid, as beach settings usually are. Belly comes off as a bit of a whiner, constantly complaining and feeling left out, but though it was annoying at times, it was also very honest and easy to understand why. Because for most of her life, Belly has been left out of the boys' fun, and she's sick of it. Immature? Sure, but believably so.

What comes through more than anything in this summer novel is the sometimes-complex and sometimes-simple emotions. From her feelings about Conrad to the way she thinks of her "summer family" and her mother's best friend Susannah in particular, the emotions here are crisp even if everything else has a hazy edge. This story takes us out of the normal cycle of life, out of friends that are attached to school or church or work, and drops us into the emotions and relationships that survive even after long absences, that our everyday life sometimes seems to be orbiting around, or waiting for. It is a story of, as the book puts it, "forever friends," and for that I love it.