tuesday 10: books i read before blogging

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is top ten books I read before I started blogging, and here's my list.

1. Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

2. The Truth About Forever

Sarah Dessen

3. Bloomability

Sharon Creech

4. Bridge to Terabithia

Katherine Paterson

5. To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee

6. Feeling Sorry for Celia

Jaclyn Moriarty

7. Stop Pretending

Sonya Sones

8. I Was A Non-Blonde Cheerleader

Kieran Scott

9. Lost It

Kristen Tracy

10. Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

review: eleanor & park

ELEANOR & PARK
Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin's Griffin

I'd heard wonderful things about Eleanor & Park. Heard that it was great and beautiful and painfully good, really. But I tend to regard these books that get rave reviews with a certain amount of suspicion; still, reliable fellow bloggers loved this book so I thought -- hoped -- that I would, too.

It didn't quite turn out that way. Eleanor & Park is well-written, no doubt about it. It's an angsty, awkward story of first love set in the 80s. And it is beautiful, at least in parts. The slow-then-quick falling of Eleanor and Park into love adds to the general feeling of desperate, inevitable angst. But Eleanor & Park is not only a love story; it's also the story of Eleanor's horrible home life. The stepfather who kicked her out once (for a whole year) and who now rules and abuses her family -- her mom, as well as  her four younger siblings. There's a constant sense of fear and danger surrounding Eleanor's life, one that gives the rest of the book an uncomfortable edge. This isn't just, as the front cover claims, a love between misfits; it's also the story of a desperate teenage relationship at odds with emotional and physical abuse.

Though I enjoyed the story between Park and Eleanor, and the dynamic of Park's family (especially when it came to Eleanor), neither of the characters really made that big of an impact on me. I liked them fine, but it was the details of their story that I really enjoyed: the comic books and music they shared, their phone conversations, and how incredibly nice Park was to Eleanor, especially in the beginning when he didn't have to be.

That said, there were some things in this book that didn't sit well with me. The headlong, hasty rush into True Love felt... well, not-quite-true. It felt immature. Like teen love, sure, but not the sort of teen love that would last. Aside from that there was also quite a bit more vulgarity in this book than I was expecting. I was taken aback by the very liberal use of cuss words, especially when neither of the main characters spoke like that themselves. And though I used to think that cussing in books wasn't something that especially bothered me, this book proved me wrong; the too-often-used vulgarity put me off a book that I otherwise would have enjoyed quite a bit more, though I may be in the minority here.

There was a lot to love about this book, not least of all it's solid writing and the natural way the story was allowed to progress. But there was also quite a bit I could have done without, such as the cussing, the immaturity that was supposed to pass for maturity even in the eyes of the adults in the novel, and the fact that I didn't care enough about either of the main characters.

review: take me there

TAKE ME THERE Carolee Dean
Simon Pulse

I started Take Me There with high hopes. Despite the fact that the cover and back-page summary made it seem like an opposites-attract romance, it quickly became clear that this was really the story of a teenage boy determined to turn his life around -- and I liked that theme. Dylan Dawson Jr. is 17 and has already been in juvie, already been involved in a chop shop and associated with a gang. But now he's out of juvie, along with his best friend Wade, and he's determined to go straight. To not wander down the same path his dad -- who's on death row for killing a cop -- went down. But when the gang finds him again they make it difficult for him to stay on the straight and narrow and one night, through no fault of his own, he ends up on the run. From the gang member that's after him and the cops that are probably looking for him. He heads for Texas, where in less than a week his dad will be executed. Dylan has to know if the badness inside of him is something he was born with, something impossible to outrun, or if it's something that can be changed. He has to know the truth of why his dad is facing execution.

(Oh yeah, and also he can barely read. That's important too. Although he loves poetry and has memorized many of them (and even creates his own), actually reading is incredibly difficult for him.)

It's obvious from the first page of this book that Dylan is essentially a good guy. He wants to turn his life around and is doing everything he can to make sure that happens. His romance with the beautiful, rich Jess was alternately incredibly sweet and incredibly unrealistic. But despite what the summary would lead you to believe, his love for Jess is only part of Dylan's story -- more important is the road trip he takes with Wade to see his father again and get answers to his questions. The answers (and even the questions themselves) quickly become more complicated as Dylan realizes that the reason for his father's incarceration isn't nearly as cut-and-dry as he always thought. It's clear, too, that Dylan's dad is a good guy. He is repentant and trying in so many ways to right his wrongs. There are huge themes of repentance, forgiveness, mercy, and justice running through this novel.

Which is why the ending was such a colossal dissapointment. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that up until the novel's conclusion I was for the most part enjoying this novel despite the few issues I had. (Most of my issues up until this point had to do with 1. the quick escalation of Dylan and Jess' relationship in a certain chapter, as well as how unrealistic much of their relationship felt on Jess' side, and 2. how heavy-handed the link between illiteracy and criminal activity often felt.) However, I felt that the book's ending was at odds with the story that came before it, taking the important themes that the book had explored so well and tossing them aside for a possibly-realistic, but definitely discouraging ending.

the minimalist approach to books.

My family is in the midst of moving, so yesterday me and my mom were discussing minimalism. You know, get rid of all your belongings, one fork one plate one bowl sort of thing. And we were talking about what we could get rid of if we needed to -- could you get rid of your knickknacks? Your piles of notebooks? Old toys? Books? Gadgets? Basically: how much do we love this stuff? Because we shouldn't love any of it so much that we couldn't get rid of it if we needed to.

And I have a lot of books. They're all books I love, or at least really really like, and I'm glad I'm not in a position where I have to get rid of all of them, but I know that if I had to I'd be okay. My books are not the most important thing in my life.

But. Something else I think about sometimes: not getting rid of all my books, but the hypothetical situation of what if I could only keep a few? Five? Or ten? What if I had to fit my life into a suitcase or a couple of boxes? Which books would make the cut? Obviously there'd be my Bible, and a notebook. But I'm talking novels, memoirs, etc. You know.

So as of now, here's my list:

1. Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta - because it's such, such a personal story for me.
2. Sweethearts, by Sara Zarr - again, so personal, and one i tend to reread fairly often.
3. Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins - this one has plenty of my own notes in it and it's a sweet book that would obviously make whatever situation i'm in where i can only have ten books more bearable.
4. serafina67, by Susie Day - favorite ever ya novel. i need my fictional personality doppleganger with me.
5. The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss - just so incredibly beautiful.
6. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell - my favorite book.
7. Bloomability, by Sharon Creech - another personal pick, and one that brings me back to my childhood.
8. Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech - another brilliant book.
9. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee - i just love this one.

Alright, excellent counters will notice that there are only ten books on that list. My last spot is open. And honestly, making that list was harder than I thought. Not because I wanted to keep all of them, but because there were very few where I felt like oh, I need this book. And even though I've often been known to refer to my books as "my friends," and I do love having shelves full of my favorite books, I think it's a good thing I didn't have too hard of a time imagining getting rid of most of them.

But now I ask you -- ten books only: which ones would you keep? And would you be able to do it?

tuesday ten: fiction crushes

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is "top ten fictional characters i'd have a crush on if i were also fictional." Alright, first of all this topic supposes that all fictional characters somehow live in the same universe. Which, okay, I guess I can go with that. FictionLand! Where all your favorite characters live and breathe.

Also, I'm keeping this limited to guys from books. And there's only eight. And yes, I know this post is late in going up.

1. Peeta Mellark

Hunger Games (series)

Suzanne Collins

2. Adam Kent

Shatter Me

Tahereh Mafi

3. Kurt Brodsky

Leverage

Joshua C. Cohen

4. Chris

Love and Other Perishable Items

Laura Buzo

5. Cole Archer

Mothership

Isla Neal & Martin Leicht

6. Xander Carrow

Matched (series)

Ally Condie

7. Alpha

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

E. Lockhart

8. Spencer Martin

Suite Scarlett (series)

Maureen Johnson

whose story is this, anyway?

In my long, unplanned hiatus from blogging, I started getting a ton of spam comments, so I've turned on comment moderation because this is out of control.

Anyway. I've begun editing one of my novels, the one told from two different first-person POVs, and this, along with reading the summary of Marie Lu's Prodigy, has me thinking about the nature of dual perspective novels. Specifically YA. Specifically the fact that many times books told from two different viewpoints are, really, just one character's story. Not that both characters don't have their own journeys, don't play different roles and offer different perspectives on events, but oftentimes after I've read the book and set it down, I feel like really it was Character A's story all along.

Across the Universe (series), by Beth Revis - Okay, this was obviously Amy's story all along. Maybe it's just because she's from earth so it's easier for the reader to identify with what she goes through, but as much as I liked Elder's chapters, his story and feelings were so completely wrapped around Amy and what she was going through that his story felt more like an extension of hers than something that belonged only to him. Whereas there were parts of Amy's story that had nothing to do with Elder.

Legend (series), by Marie Lu - Again, this is the girl's story, and I'm not quite sure why that is. Maybe it's because I naturally identify more with the girl in stories, so it seems like the story belongs to her instead of Day? Or maybe because June's worldview and scope is bigger than Day's in some ways -- she has more information about a lot of things, and it's her brother's death that is the catalyst for the series.

Love and Other Perishable Items, by Laura Buzo - This is Amelia's story. Partly because (if I remember correctly) her chapters are so much longer than Chris', and partly because it's her who sets up their relationship from the get-go: she's the relatable everygirl and he's the unattainable older guy (although of course both characters are much more complex than this, but in the beginning...)

Unwind, by Neal Shusterman - This is Connor's story and again, I think it comes down to the fact that while Risa and Lev are both a bit wild in their own ways and have very interesting backstories, Connor is the more relatable one. He's the one with the viewpoint and situation that it's easier (at least for me) to identify with.

I could go on.

But interestingly, there are a few books on my GR shelves that are truly split-POV, where the characters share the story equally. There are a few series (Peaches, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Luxe) of course, but there are also some great stand-alones where the two (or three, or four) characters share page time and story weight pretty equally.

Rival, by Sara Bennett Wealer - It's just about impossible to choose one character over another here, and part of the reason why is because Brooke and Kathryn's stories and backstories are so, so woven together. The story would fall apart if it was told solely from one perspective -- or at the very least it be a very different, much weaker tale.

Geek Charming, by Robin Palmer - This one I love because Dylan and Josh are such different characters. And I think that's part of what makes their dynamic and the book as a whole work so well. I was surprised when I started reading this, to discover it was told from both POVs, but it works really well. (And as an aside, the Disney Channel movie is so great, honestly. It's on Netflix, so you should give it a go.)

The Summer of Firsts and Lasts, by Terra Elan McVoy - Another one where telling the story from just one perspective would change it dramatically. These three sisters, though their stories don't overlap too terribly much, work so great as split-POV narrators; it really gives a fuller scope of the story, the characters, and the setting.

How to Save A Life, by Sara Zarr - I hesitate to say that this is split-POV done perfectly, but it's pretty darn near close.

So what are your favorite split-POV books, and does the story belong to all characters equally or is it really just one character's story?

some quotes.

I don't remember what I used to blog about, or I do but I can't think of anything new today even though I want to post something (I miss blogging), so here are other people's words from some novels.

Nothing goes away, Esteban says, after a long time passes. Not the things you remember, and not the things you still want.
-Small Damages, by Beth Kephart

I have already been torn to pieces
by you,
and pasted myself together again.
-Reunited, by Hillary Graham (Summer's journal)

What more could you ask of a person, Peter thought, than to risk all that they were for all they believed they could be?
-You Are Here, by Jennifer E. Smith

This particular story -- the Civil War, the best and worst of a whole country -- gave him a firm sense of hope that anything and everything could be repaired. Even the worst struggles could end in reunion.
-You Are Here, by Jennifer E. Smith

I do the right thing. I don't give up. I do it all with a smile on my face. I've always believed that I'm a good person.
What if I'm not.
-Reached, by Ally Condie (Xander)

We hold the choices of our fathers and mother in our hands and when we cling on or let them slip between our fingers, those choices become our own.
-Reached, by Ally Condie (Cassia)

Everyone can be fixed; it has to be that way, it's the only thing that makes sense.
-Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver