Not a Drop to Drink
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publication Date: 9/24/13
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Paper ARC, from Epic Reads
[Goodreads | Amazon | B & N]

Blurb (GR):
Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

Review:

In Not A Drop To Drink, Mindy McGinnis has envisioned a futuristic United States in which access to water is strictly controlled. The population has been decimated by diseases including (but not limited to) cholera due to overcrowding in cities, the aforementioned water situation, and the strain on resources. In terms of YA dystopian “explanations,” I found McGinnis’ world to be very real and very possible, especially the lack of antibiotics once people were forced to move into organized cities and the demand for medication relentlessly skyrocketed. Access to water and medications in this future is controlled and everything is expensive, so a majority of people cannot afford very much of either. I was actually reminded of the Japanese tsunami a few years back, when news outlets were speculating that radiation could affect people on the west coast of the US and they advised people to take potassium iodine tablets. After (no joke) a day, you couldn’t find them anywhere in the whole Seattle area and Amazon suppliers had shipping estimates of months. The plausibility of the water shortage was scarily real to me, and that is one aspect that lends to the overall success of this novel--it doesn't depend on the fantastical to wow the reader, and it doesn't need to.

From the very first few pages, I was completely interested in this story. Lynn, a teenage girl, and her mother live alone in a  house by a pond, from which they gather water to purify daily. Both Lynn and her mother are hard workers and absolutely capable of living in isolation, and when the occasional person shows up to steal water from their pond, they have no hesitation in shooting them down to protect their claim. They don't mess around, and neither does McGinnis with her sparse, frank text, which feels very intentional and totally works for the story. The scope of the setting is small but the containment made the narrative more exciting because it honestly feels like you are sitting on that roof with Lynn or hauling that water bucket up the hill with her. It was refreshing to read about a girl surviving instead of a girl who needs to bring down a widespread government conspiracy, a girl who must save the entire human race, or a girl with two (or more) different love interests. While reading, I tried to think of other experiences that give me the same feeling as reading this book, or ways to describe it to potential readers. Here are a few:


1. You might like this book if you like The Walking Dead and think you'd enjoy reading about living on Season Two's farm setting.

2. You read and enjoyed Susan Beth Pfeffer's Last Survivors series, but wished one or more of the characters were more useful and logical.

3. When you started reading Blood Red Road by Moira Young, you were excited about Saba and what might happen before she ever left home.

4. You love reading books that involve surviving in the wild and don't mind reading more about the day-to-day rather than tons of movement and epic action sequences.

About two-thirds of the way through the novel, I found myself wondering where the plot was going. It kind of meanders around, not that I minded, but I was worried the author would try to throw it all at the reader at once: a romance develops, a few additional (and intriguing) characters show up, and there is a lot of back-loaded action. Though the pacing was a bit off,  when all was said and done, I was satisfied with the ending point and the amount of resolution and I think most readers will feel the same way. There were a few surprises that I (perhaps embarrassingly) didn't see coming and a somewhat cheesy epilogue but overall there was very little about this novel that I didn't enjoy. If I could make one wish, it would be that the city in the novel would've been left as a current and real American city. "Entargo" makes the entire book less serious to me as it reminds me of all the dystopian YA with fictional names for everything, and I really did not understand the point of doing this since nearly everything else in the book is so recognizable. I wish Not a Drop to Drink could just own its realism and call Cincinnati or Cleveland or Pittsburgh or wherever by its name. Regardless, it is really exciting to me to read such a successful debut work. I hope McGinnis will come through with more adventures in years to come.

4/5 stars

Other opinions:
The Book Geek: "I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes survival stories, strong female characters, and realism."
Jenna Does Books: "At the end of the day, NOT A DROP TO DRINK is one of the most realistic and believable speculative future stories I have ever read. "
Chick Loves Lit: "This is a MUST. BUY. for dystopian fans, fans of true gritty worlds, fans of fast page turners."

The Lucy Variations
Author: Sara Zarr
Publication Date: 5/7/2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb: Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future seemed certain.

That was all before she turned fourteen.

Now, at sixteen, it's over. A death, and a betrayal, led her to walk away. That leaves her talented ten-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the full weight of the Beck-Moreau family expectations. Then Gus gets a new piano teacher who is young, kind, and interested in helping Lucy rekindle her love of piano -- on her own terms. But when you're used to performing for sold-out audiences and world-famous critics, can you ever learn to play just for yourself?

National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr takes readers inside the exclusive world of privileged San Francisco families, top junior music competitions, and intense mentorships. The Lucy Variations is a story of one girl's struggle to reclaim her love of music and herself. It's about finding joy again, even when things don't go according to plan. Because life isn't a performance, and everyone deserves the chance to make a few mistakes along the way.

Reviews:

I love Sara Zarr's writing and I always will.  At my very first book club meeting with the fabulous ladies of Fairfax Forever YA, I listed her as one of my favorite YA authors (this after being told that I would be judged based on my answers).  I even got my club to go rogue one month and read Sara Zarr's How To Save A Life instead of the Forever YA selection.  I love that Sara Zarr’s novels will always find a way to reach right under my rib cage and rip out my heart, no matter how little I initially relate to any of her characters.  Her characters always, always find a way to get under my skin.  Sigh.  So why didn’t that happen with The Lucy Variations?  When I wanted to feel connected, I felt unconcerned.  When I wanted to feel the massive gut punch of Sara Zarr, I felt a fluttery twinge.  When I wanted to swoon, I cringed.  Unfortunately, I think a lot of the reason for my lackluster feelings lies in her use of the third person point of view, something that’s new for her.  Some authors are able to use third person to great effect, in a way that still feels very personal (Stacia Kane, I am looking at you).  The third person narration in The Lucy Variations feels distanced and impersonal.  Worse, it sometimes feels overly summarized in that way that says there isn’t enough action and dialogue.

Then they went over here.

Then she talked about this.

Then he left.

Know what I mean?  I want to know how they’re getting from place to place.  I want to see the movement.  I want to hear the conversation.  I need more description, dialogue, and action and less simple narration of events.

However, does this mean I will be abandoning Sara Zarr and striking her from my judgment-worthy list of favorite YA authors?  Hell no.  I can only speculate, but maybe this is Sara Zarr’s attempt at a new creative direction, something that I can only support.  Maybe this is the equivalent of her going up on stage and playing Philip Glass when we all expected to hear Bach.  It wasn’t a perfect, error-free rendition, but I appreciate her effort.  And I will keep reading and supporting whatever she decides to put out there.

3/5 stars

The Lucy Variations was, for me, a parade of unlikable characters. I do not necessarily need likable characters in a novel but I do need something to keep me going if I am not enjoying the characters, and that is usually a compelling story. What could have been a literary Searching for Bobby Fischer-esque rise and (at least quasi-) fall of a child prodigy ended up falling flat for me. Without Zarr's typical first-person narration, I missed hearing the main character's perspective throughout and from the outsider's view, I never truly understood how Lucy could not see her own situation for what it was. Instead, she was pretty insufferable to her friends and family and refused to problem solve so I was unable to sympathize with her character. Several families in Zarr's prior works have similar communication problems to the Beck-Moreaus of The Lucy Variations, but as I get farther and farther away from this book, the characters who resonated most for me were Lucy's younger brother and Lucy's best friend--the only two straight shooters in the novel. The rest of the characters had me turning page after page waiting, waiting, waiting for people to tell others what they were thinking or how they had hurt each other. 

In terms of the story, I was disappointed in the lack of resolution. The ending felt hurried and there were several loose ends--not "oh, I guess it could go either way and it's left up to interpretation" types of loose ends, more "why was this subplot even introduced if it was going nowhere?" types of loose ends. For example, the relationship between Lucy and her prior teacher felt like a speed bump in the story and I was not sure why it was included. And arguably the largest conflict in the book, that between Lucy and her grandfather, goes out with a fizzle. When it comes down to it, as a reader I felt that this novel was missing its emotional core, something Zarr is typically fantastic at cultivating, so I never really connected to the story, the characters, or the style. I'll still be first in line to read Zarr's next book, and in all likelihood, her next ten. 

**SPOILER**
How great would it have been if Lucy had sat down at the concert and played the song from her grandfather's record collection that reminded him of his late wife? That would've been a kick in the pants for him.
**END SPOILER**


3/5 stars

It appears the three of us are pretty much on the same page as to why this new Sara Zarr novel didn't work for us. Pardon me for repeating what has already been said.

Generally, it's a good thing when authors try to experiment and explore new points of view and styles of writing. But sometimes when they try something new, it just doesn't work as well as the old. This is the case with The Lucy Variations I think. The thing I disliked the most about this novel is its POV, specifically its 3rd person POV instead of Zarr's signature 1st. It was a challenge for the author herself (she talked about this in her blog post), and the challenge, in my opinion, not well met in this case. I am still scratching my head in an effort to understand why Zarr chose to write this new novel this way. 3rd person POV added nothing to the narrative (it is a very close 3rd person, with only Lucy's perspective used, we never get insight into any other character's mind) and added unnecessary feeling of detachment to the story.

As for everything else, while the book was still enjoyable to a degree, the plot felt a bit  stale. I never finished Virtuosity, but these two novels sound fairly similar - artistic girls in creative and personal crisis and all that . Whatever new and interesting Zarr had in her version - mainly Lucy's inappropriate relationships with older men - never materialized into anything tangible and punchy. Lucy's friends were a waste and underutilized in the plot, and so were many other plot lines which started out promising but ended wit.

All in all, The Lucy Variations is just an average read and by far Zarr's weakest. Fingers crossed, her next effort is better.

3/5 stars

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publication Date: 3/1/12
Publisher: Abrams
[Goodreads | Amazon]

Blurb (GR): Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

Review:

Okay, if I would've known that this book was set in Pittsburgh, I would've read it on release day. As it turns out, while this author was in high school, presumably being hilarious, I was just down the street, playing badminton in my Catholic school uniform during free period. I had to investigate a bit further, so I checked my facebook and found that my friend Jake (who now has a luscious ponytail and who I once learned to waltz with) is facebook friends with Jesse Andrews. (like that even means anything in this day and age. I think I'm facebook friends with some people I'd be more than happy never to see again in my lifetime) Here's what went down:

It's too bad you can't see the ponytail in question but if there really was a section of the bar exam on ponytail maintenance, I'm sure Jake would ace it. I digress. This book was recommended to me by Maggie from Young Adult Anonymous as part of our She Made Me Do It feature, and I am so grateful it was because it made me ridiculously happy. There's been a lot of talk in recent weeks/months about why adults read YA literature and I've always been a detractor to the "going back to high school and high school problems" argument, but I will readily admit that my favorite part of this book was that Andrews just put Pittsburgh on the page and I felt like I was in MY high school again. The people, the neighborhoods, even the slang was spot on, though I think if anyone actually tried to legitimately incorporate Pittsburghese into a book readers would wonder if there mightn't be a colony of aliens living among us. ("Yinz all gawn dahntawn ta watch the Stillers n'at?") 

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is about Greg Gaines, a self-depracting, chubby teenage "surprise Jew" (because his name doesn't give it away) who is fringe friends with everybody but true friends with nobody, except for maybe Earl, with whom he makes movies that only the two of them watch. Told in first person, Greg's story begins when his mother informs him that Rachel, a girl he's known for years and once "dated" has been diagnosed with leukemia and he must go over to hang out with her. What follows is awkwardness, funny jokes, and eventually actual friendship.  The characters of Greg and Earl kept me entertained the entire time, and if the sense of humor in the book clicks with yours, you'll plow through it in two hours and love the experience. I'd love to see this book adapted as a film but the one thing holding it back a bit for me is Greg's self-deprecation. In the latter portion of the book, I started to get sick of Greg's constant whining about how lame and unfunny he is and his tryhard overcompensating drama got old as well, but I was ecstatic to see Earl and Rachel there to temper him out. In movie form, it might be too much for me to watch Greg try to saturate everything with humor.

The ending made my heart break a bit, especially just the realistic nature of friendships and growing up. It is so easy to form friendships in high school when most of us don't have a lot to worry about and we are forced to spend a large amount of time together. Especially when you go to high school in a city, surrounded by tons of other schools but also all sorts of things to do. When I saw Sherman Alexie at a book event the other day, he spoke about the sequel he is writing to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The "sequel" is actually going to be roughly the same time period, as told from the perspective of Junior's friend Rowdy, whom Alexie gets asked about all the time. The point of bringing this up is that Alexie said that the first line of the book is something like, "Everyone always talks about the ones who leave. No one ever talks about the ones who get left behind." I basically read Me and Earl right after I went to the event and I couldn't/can't stop thinking about how much I'd love to hear from Earl's point of view.  Greg mentions Earl's intelligence and there are several points during the novel where I saw glimpses of just how astute and clever Earl truly is, and it was a bit soul crushing to me to see how he was living his life, however realistic it is. (I think this is especially so considering I know of people like him and and could absolutely visualize all the settings, houses, personalities that Andrews describes so well) So Jesse Andrews, start working on Me and Someone and the Something Else from Earl's POV, mmmkay? 

Random notes: This cover kicks ass; I want to go to Pittsburgh right now.

Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Publication Date: 8/28/12
Publisher: Listening Library
[Goodreads | Amazon | Audible]


Blurb (GR):
In his New York Times bestselling novel, David Levithan introduces readers to what Entertainment Weekly calls a "wise, wildly unique" love story about A, a teen who wakes up every morning in a different body, living a different life.

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. 

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

With his new novel, David Levithan, bestselling co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

Review:

Once upon a time, a high school-aged girl attempted to make lasagna for her three siblings and their parents. As both the youngest child and as someone with quite the reputation as a calamity machine of Amelia Bedelia proportions, she had a lot to prove. When her family came home and sat down to dinner, everyone remarked that the lasagna tasted...okay, but off. They asked her how she made it and she recounted the correct steps and then remarked that it took her a really long time to chop all that garlic. She used three cloves of garlic, right? Yes...well, what is a "clove" anyway? *blank stares* As it turns out, our poor lasagna-maker used three heads of garlic instead of three cloves. We ate that lasagna, and it tasted grosser with each bite, but we consumed it anyway. To me, Every Day is like eating a lasagna made with three heads of garlic, only the lasagna is a book and the garlic is agenda. 

The first thing you should know before deciding whether to read this book is that it is wangsty contemporary romance masquerading as paranormal and/or science fiction. (it isn't science fiction at all.) You cannot go into the book expecting an explanation of any of the paranormal elements in the book because you won't find any. A (that's the character's name) wakes up in a new body every day. The bodies are always the same age as A and always within the mid-Atlantic region of the US. Why the temporal and geographical bounds? No one knows. Many readers seem wowed by the existential discussions A goes through about living in a new body every day: What is it like to be genderless? What is it like to have no family? What is like to have no idea where you came from and to not have a body of your own? All of these questions are fascinating but minimally explored. Instead, A spends a day in the body of a disaffected teenage boy, falls for the boy's girlfriend in that one day, and then spends every subsequent day screwing with the lives of the bodies A inhabits by trying to get back to Rhiannon. Additionally, A is upset that Rhiannon can't see the "person" behind the ever-changing body. I mean, shouldn't everybody be attracted to a person's soul rather than their outward appearance? 

The idea behind this book is almost overwhelmingly exciting to me. I get giddy imagining the possibilities when every day is completely different and there are no repercussions for the main character. (it's quite another story for the bodies A is inhabiting) This premise has been done to some degree by Replay and Groundhog Day but the idea was tweaked a bit here. The thing is, in both of those cases, the characters experimented with doing fun and interesting things, learning skills, trying new things and A doesn't really do any of that. It is interesting that Levithan created a character who seems to have body swapped with a conscience for 16 years before it all went down the drain for a sudden infatuation. I truly cared about A's existential crisis. I could've read an entire book of just contemplation and reflection on each of the lives A encountered. Instead, the plot basically goes as follows:

A wakes up in a body. 
We learn a few things about that person.
A figures out how close Rhiannon is.
A checks email to see if Rhiannon has written.*
A figures a way the two of them can meet up.
Conversation ensues to try to get Rhiannon's on board with dating A.
Repeat.

*The asterisk is necessary to me because there is subplot about religious fanatics coming after A for possessing teenagers. I was not a fan of this storyline overall--it felt forced in that for a large portion of the novel, the only mention of this plotline was random emails from one of the bodies A inhabited that felt contrary to what we knew of the character. Then the ending, which is helped along by this plotline, went off the rails. To me, and don't forget that I am just one reader (and also representing the minority opinion), the book's pacing was solid for about three-quarters and then it drank a few too many Red Bulls. 

I'm all for diversity in YA (and all) fiction but there is a huge difference between subtly spreading your beliefs and preaching. I honestly don't know if I could be in love with someone if I had no clue what gender they would be the next day. I'd like to hope I could be accepting of that but I definitely wouldn't judge someone who couldn't. Not everyone is attracted to both genders and at times, it felt like A was treating Rhiannon as dense for not hopping right on that train. This idea definitely led to some interesting discussions with real-life friends of mine about hypothetical situations and how we would deal with x, y, and z. There was a lack of balance in the discussions in the book. 

If you want to read review after glowing review of this book, go here. There are tons to choose from. When it comes down to it, this book just didn't work for me. I love the idea of it, and Levithan's writing style wasn't the problem. My issues were with the plot and the characters. I swapped back and forth between the audiobook and the ebook and I definitely prefer the ebook. The narrator does a good ambiguously-gendered voice for A but a lot of the other voices sounded too similar and Rhiannon's voice was a bit too Valley Girl-ish for me to take seriously as a drop-everything-and-obsess love interest. 

If Levithan wrote a book entitled Sketches from a Body Jumper's Album in the style of Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album, I'm fairly positive it would be one of my favorite books. I would love to read day after day of body/life experiences. But as it is, I can't give Every Day more than 2.5/5 stars. 

A few weeks ago, we compiled a long list of YA books under 220 pages. At the time, I was on schedule to finish my allotted 100 book goal for 2012, but I wanted to get ahead so I could be ready for the onslaught of Cybils nominees I am currently wading through until December. When I put those walls together, I try to put two descriptors/tags with each one so people can have even an inkling about what the book entails. However, when I was putting that specific wall of books together, I was so surprised to see how many "issue books" are also short YA books. I was chatting to Tatiana and Catie the other day about how I'd recently read short books about a disfigured war hero on a revenge mission, an intelligent teen stuck inside his body who might be murdered by his father, a girl kidnapped by a pedophile and made a sex slave, a kid with cerebral palsy and his new party-hard friend making a movie, and I can't say the last one because it would be a spoiler. 

You could read probably two of these books each day, and I suggest you do, as each of them has something unique to offer. Alright, maybe two a day is reaching but a few a week is definitely doable, even for slower readers. 
   

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

I saw this book all the time, on Goodreads, on favorite lists, mentioned by authors, in a conversation about disturbing books, but I only picked it up after I put it on the wall and even then, I hadn't actually paid attention to what the book was about. This was probably a mistake. I basically read this book with bug eyes and slack-jawed astonishment, flying through the pages in a frenzy as I found out about how Alice was abducted and sexually abused for five years. She was starved to keep her body childlike, and she has received no education since her abduction. Some reviewers label this book as horror, and it honestly reads like a horror book, or a thriller, because it is off-putting and I was not sure where the story was going to end. I was compelled to keep reading. But one cannot call this story unrealistic. Pedophilia, child sex trafficking, and their like are very much still happening. I am uncomfortable recommending alternative reads to this one as most of the ones that come to mind do not actually cover the same topics: kidnapping is not always sexual, abuse is not always sexual abuse, captive/captor are not always deranged adult and young child, etc. If you want to read about what it might be like for the victims of a murderous pedophile or are looking for a shock, read this. It is uncomfortable and it is unforgettable.  4/5 stars

Heroes by Robert Cormier

Robert Cormier wrote I Am the Cheese, which will forever be burned in my brain as it was a question at pub trivia that I got incorrect a few months back. As such, I made it a personal goal to read several of his books in the next year or two because 1. I hate getting questions wrong in pub trivia; 2. His books are supposed to be twisty and well-written (some are required in many high school curricula); and 3. Most importantly to me, they are very short.  I immediately put Heroes on hold at the library when I read its blurb: 

Francis Joseph Cassavant is eighteen. He has just returned home from the Second World War, and he has no face. He does have a gun and a mission: to murder his childhood hero.

Imagine you are sitting in a room with me right now. Now go ahead and look into my eyes and tell me that if you read a blurb about a soldier with no face coming back to his hometown to murder someone, you wouldn't be interested in picking the book up. You're a liar, that's jacket copy at its best. I am very confused about what this soldier looks like from the cover. Does the background image look like a woman to anyone else? Maybe it's the bangs? There is somehow a ton and yet nothing going on in this story. I don't want to ruin the motive behind his revenge plot but I will say that this book just feels bleak. I felt horrible that a naive kid joined the army, was seriously injured, and then returns to a town that's forgotten him, filled with other physically and mentally injured vets, and devoid of hope.  Francis covers his entire face for the entirety so I never got a full idea of what he might look like but Cormier didn't play it down at all, instead (perhaps overly) mentioning the oozing crevices of Francis' face where his features used to be and the soaked-through bandages that filled with blood and pus. Heroes reads like a short story. It is a quick sketch of what one soldier's reasons were for joining the forces and how failing to act can haunt a person forever. In my opinion, the only reason to read this is the story. Those looking to get quotable quotes or flowery prose should just move along. 3/5 stars

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Dear Sara Zarr,

How could you narrate the audiobooks of Story of a Girl, Once Was Lost, and Sweethearts and then NOT narrate How to Save a Life? Don't you have any respect for the "people" who get addicted to hearing you read your own books? I think you should consider the very real possibility that you are evil.

Sincerely,
Flannery

People is in quotation marks because I'm assuming from the level of my outrage that there must be other people out there. For now, though, it's just me. Story of a Girl is about a teenager whose family and social life were upturned when her father caught her having sex with her brother's best friend in a car. In typical Zarr fashion, the story is very contained, both temporally and in terms of side plots, but it is still contemplative. In one summer, Deanna does a lot of growing up, and the people around her aren't exempt from a bit of growth themselves. At times, it was painful to experience life in Deanna's home because I know what it is like to have something unsaid and undealt with hanging over a group of people until every interaction just feels awkwardly awful. I could feel how frustrating Deanna's life was and Zarr's unaffected tone of voice was perfect for Deanna's teenage skepticism. 4/5 stars

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman

This book is one of the creepiest I've ever read, no question.  Stuck in Neutral is about an intelligent child who is a prisoner in his own body. While Shawn's mind is fully functional, he has no control over any other part of his body and the entire world, including his family, believes him to be intellectually disabled. Every so often, he is struck by a seizure. Shawn has come to love these times because he feels like he can break free of his body and partake in the world. His father, however, sees his child in pain. Shawn's dad left the family home when Shawn was a child because he couldn't deal with his son's cerebral palsy. He also wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem about Shawn's birth and early years and still gets lauded for doing so. (I am not usually into "fake award-winning writing within novels" and I wasn't into this poem) The creepy factor came into play when the narrator, Shawn, informs the reader that he believes his father is going to murder him.  This short book explores what it might be like for a child inside an immovable body, what it might be like as a father who is always wondering what is going on in the mind of his son who can never tell him. I won't tell you the ending but I will tell you one more thing: Terry Trueman is the father of a son with cerebral palsy. I cannot imagine what life would be like to be constantly wondering what, if anything, your child is thinking or to know if they are in pain. Stuck in Neutral is absolutely a worthwhile read with a unique narrator. I can't guarantee this book won't make you feel awkward but it will certainly widen your perspective a bit. 3.5/5 stars

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

I found Daddy-Long-Legs courtesy of the lovely ladies over at Young Adult Anonymous and then devoured it in one sitting. (it is free for Kindle, though devoid of illustrations) Published in 1912, it is a series of letters from the fictional Jerusha (Judy) Abbott to the mysterious benefactor who plucks her from an orphanage and pays for her college. The conditions of receiving the monetary support  are that he will remain anonymous (as such, Judy calls him many things but most often Daddy-Long-Legs because she's only seen him once in shadow against a wall and he looked tall and thin) and that she write him monthly letters. Fans of epistolary fiction will love this, as well as Anne-girl fans, because Judy is spunky, hilarious, and outspoken in an Anne of Green Gables way. After a while I wanted the story to get to the point, though I never really tired of Judy's voice. Once the endgame of the author becomes clear, it is funny to see the actions of Judy and her benefactor change. I also think this book would appeal to fans of movies like Meet Me In St. Louis and the older versions of Cheaper by the Dozen. The descriptions of the homes, families, clothes, and such really made me picture those movies I've seen time and time again. (I feel kind of like a badass that I placed both those movies in the same time period as Daddy-Long Legs before looking the dates up.) 4/5 stars

Now you know I wasn't kidding about how weird some of the short book plots are that I've recently read. However, I think we can go even weirder, don't you. Thus, here are some suggestions I am making up right as I type this: 

1. Ken, a teenager with terminal brain cancer, decides to go out with a bang by going on a murder spree.
2. Christmas dinner at The Smiths is a bit awkward when Bree's long-lost half-sister, her biological brother who has secretly transitioned to female, and her aunt and uncle who are in love but have to keep it a secret all show up for some rotisserie chicken.
3. Everybody's  a twin. (Liz Lemon shoutout!)
4. For years, Holly's grandmother has been sending her $50 gift cards every month. Only they haven't been going to Holly's current address, they've been going next door. A boy from school has been spending them every month and sending her grandmother regular thank you cards. Obviously arguments and then true love occurs.
5. The most popular girl in school throws a Halloween masquerade ball where everyone has to keep their face covered at all times. Who Was It? checks in with all the attendees the next day, but you'll never believe who did what with who.
6. A Juggalo who loves Insane Clown Posse so much that he wears his makeup every day to school explores his life-long dream of being a taxidermist. 

What are your ideas? Let's hear them. 

Something Like Normal
Author: Trish Doller
Publication Date: 6/19/12
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Blurb (GR): When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.



Review:

In this male-narrated upper YA/new adult book, Travis has just come home after a deployment with the Marines. In many ways, he is returning to exactly what he purposely left behind--his overbearing and disapproving father, his pushover mother, and his resentful brother, but he himself is coming back to that situation a somewhat changed young man. Doller treats her characters realistically; no one suddenly sees the light or does a complete 180 in this book. Travis was emotionally traumatized by the death of his best friend in action and at the end of the book, he still is, but just to a lesser extent. He begins a romance with Harper and she helps him deal with a few situations and issues in his life but at the end of the novel, I wasn't particularly rooting for them to succeed. Was I supposed to be? Probably, but I just wanted Travis to be able to deal with his PTSD and patch up familial relationships.  I was reluctant to go into the book as a romance and to those readers who have similar feelings, I say go for it. Something Like Normal reads like an episode or story arc from one of those juicy teen drama shows that so many of us enjoyed in high school, college, and ashamedly sometimes still enjoy as adults.  Travis is that tortured soul with so much to say and no capacity to express it. Harper is that girl from back home who's understanding, forgiving, and you wish you'd gotten to know her through your shared high school years. There's moments where you'd gasp or shake your fist at the screen if you were watching them, times to roll your eyes, and the entire last quarter of the book is for the sad puppy dog eyes. I didn't cry, but I bet you might. 

Sometimes I get angry at a books because of choices characters make. It was very interesting to compare and contrast parts of Something Like Normal with another I was simultaneously reading (well, listening to), Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr. In both books, a young man has done something that tarnishes a girl's reputation for several years. How does she deal? Should she forgive and forget? In Story, Deanna stumbles around her life, trying to figure out why she made the choices she did and what she can do in her current situation. It's angsty, it's heavy, and it takes 192 pages for Zarr to tell the story. While I certainly do not believe that all people take the same amount of time to process and forgive wrongs, I am still surprised when something I consider to be serious seems flippantly tossed aside to move the story along. You were called names for years because of a lie someone told? Here's a thought: Don't date him a few years later. I was borderline ecstatic when Harper treated Travis like dirt when they first met back up -- the elusive YA character, a girl with a backbone. Tell him how his actions adversely affected your life, Harper! What? What's that? Yes, he is rather attractive, I guess. He's changed? You're going to what now? Er, well, this is awkward. Perhaps I am just envious of people who are so able to believe others have changed, to forgive those people. But Doller does not try to write likable characters, and that's what I really enjoyed about the book. I hated that Harper started dating Travis, I hated that she seemed to forgive him*, I hated that Travis' ex-girlfriend took up with his brother when he deployed, I hated the brother for "stealing" his girlfriend and car, I hated the dad for being an awful person, I hated the mom for not sticking up for her children, I even hated some characters because I didn't think they grieved enough. But I didn't hate this book at all.  Not every person is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Also, lots of people do stupid things.  

As one of my Short YA list books, I read Something Like Normal in one sitting. This is Doller's debut work and though this wasn't one of my recent favorites, there's an authenticity of voice that rings through her writing and makes me want to read more from her. The dialogue is anchored in reality and for the most part, the writing is devoid of that poetic nature that many readers crave. I, for one, am not always looking for that, and thus I found this book to be an easy and enjoyable look into one soldier's life.


3.5/5 stars

*Just as an aside, am I the only one who wishes that this book had been dual narration? STOP THE PRESSES! This might be the first time I've ever said this before. I wanted to know Harper's side to everything. 

A Straight Line to My Heart
Author: Bill Condon
Publication Date: 8/1/11
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
[Goodreads | Amazon]


Blurb: 
A funny, poignant, realistic story of Tiffany's first love and first job, and the inevitability of change in the first summer out of school.

School is over, not just for the year, but forever. Tiff and Kayla are free, which is what they've always wanted, but now summer is nearly at an end and that means life decisions. Tiff is hoping her job at the local paper will lead to something more, but "The Shark" soon puts her straight on what it takes to become a hard-nosed reporter like him. At home, Reggie—the only grandad she's ever known—has quit smoking and diagnosed himself as a cactus, and then Kayla hits her with some big news. And into all this stumbles Davey, who plays rugby but quotes Truman Capote, and is the first boy who has ever really wanted to know her. Tiff is smart with words and rarely does tears, but in one short week she discovers that words don't always get you there; they don't let you say all the stuff from deep in your heart. 

Review:
I want to write a review of this book, truly I do, but all I keep doing is singing "Groovy Kind of Love" by Phil Collins and thinking about Aussie contemporary YA lit. "When I'm feeling blue, all I have to do, is take a look aaaaat you, then I'm not sooo blue." That's where I stop singing, lest this turn into some sort of awkwardly sexual booklove situation.  It is true that Aussie YA books and I have a groovy kind of love, though. Raw Blue, Piper's Son, A Little Wanting Song, Six Impossible Things, Holier Than Thou; these books all just knocked it out of the park for me, and my favorite thing about them is that they aren't really about anything but living. While slice-of-life stories are common for every age group, young adult books can very quickly become angst-ridden "no one can understand me, my pain is so singular" types of stories, which really alienates me as a reader. Somehow many Australian authors seem to be successful at conveying the depressing bits of life, all the while with the undertones of the familial and friendship connections as an anchor that keep the narrative from getting to negative. 

In A Straight Line to My Heart, Tiff(any) is trying to enjoy her summer after finishing high school. She has an internship lined up at her local newspaper and a new crush on a footballer from a nearby town, but the story doesn't dwell on one plotline throughout. Instead, it basically just follows Tiff through about a week of her summer. The cast of characters is fairly controlled and there are not a lot of random mentions, which allowed me to really get the feel of several of the central players--Tiff, her family (who are actually more a surrogate brother/uncle, Bull, and grandfather, Reggie), Bull's girlfriend Zoe, her supervisor at the newspaper, and Tiff's new love interest, Davey. In addition, the setting is contained to only around three or four locations. While I do appreciate lots of action and plot twists in most genres, contemporary fiction is the place where I'll give up basically everything for the characters and a connection. I loved Tiff's voice from the initial library scene opening where she is annoyed to be rudely interrupted while she is lost on the moors with Heathcliff, and I couldn't help but laugh at the note that Davey gave her later in the book:

I like you but you mightn't feel the same way about me, and I wouldn't blame you. To save us both from any awkward moments I've figured out an easy way to do this. Nod if you're even slightly interested in getting to know me. Write a ten page explanation if you're not. 

"Write a ten page explanation if you're not?" That is so classic, and I really hope I remember to use it on someone in the future. Because I loved Tiff so much, it was lovely to see everyone else through her eyes. She thought about people's motivations for their actions--what did Bull's girlfriend want to hang out with her for? Why was Reggie trying to avoid going to the doctor? I wish I could contemplate and remind myself that there are usually reasons for everyone's bad attitudes or, alternatively, for their acts of kindness. Quite surprisingly, this book did not make me cry, but I believe that Tiff is so lucky to have the family relationship she has (and likewise, her family is lucky to have her), and I think she makes a few more valuable connections with people during her summer. Tiff would be a very hard person to dislike, but I could totally see her just fading into the background. I'm so happy that Condon picked her out of the crowd and decided to tell her story.

The list of people who might love this book is pretty long. I'd recommend it for fans of the books I mentioned earlier, though I think the style most resembled a mixture of Cath Crowley and Fiona Wood. Bill Condon did a fabulous job of making me totally forget that he was a male writer with a female narrator, so I'd add anyone who is looking for a successful example of writing a main character, in first person, of the opposite sex. Also, this book is for anyone who is a fan of slice-of-life stories full of heart and a bit of humor. 

Thanks to Arlene from WinterHaven Books for lending me her copy. You're a star.


4.5/5 stars 

After thoroughly enjoying my week filled with Beverly Cleary books a few months ago, I decided to follow that up with a week of books by E.L. Konigsburg, the author who wrote one of my childhood favorites, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  I checked out every book of hers that my local library system had, which was almost all of them. To the left, you can see my little (well, rather large) pile for Konigsburg Weeks 2012. Because I've been very fickle and moody about what I feel like reading lately, I've been slowly making my way through them all but I have read seven so far and to prevent this from being the longest blog post in history, I'll just recap and review what I've read thus far and finish the rest in a few weeks when I complete the other half of the pile. 

Konigsburg has won two Newbery Awards, one for Mixed-Up Files and then 29 years later for The View from Saturday, which are coincidentally (or not) the only two books of hers I'd read prior to beginning this quest, I set the expectations bar pretty high. The results were honestly all over the spectrum from ones I expect never to revisit to those I intend to purchase and/or recommend to other readers. 

I started out with Silent to the Bone, which was published in 2000, over thirty years after her first book was published in 1967. Its companion piece, a book which I began reading over five years ago but only realized while reading Silent that I never finished, is The Outcasts of  19 Schuyler Place. Silent to the Bone has a rather bizarre storyline which seems to have been somewhat inspired by the 1997 Louise Woodward shaken baby case from Massachusetts. In the book, a boy stops speaking after dialing 911. His baby sister has been injured and is in a comatose state but no one knows exactly what happened. He is put into a juvenile delinquent center and refuses to speak to anyone. What follows is his best friend's attempt to figure out what happened on the day of the 911 call and to help his best friend overcome whatever it is that is preventing him from sharing his story. 

The friendship shared by the two boys is lovely, and Konigsburg makes it a point to include details about little parts of their bond that reminded me of games I used to play with my childhood friends. Connor and Branwell (the friend and the 911 caller, respectively) play a game called "Summarize In A Sentence" or SIAS. They give each other points for doing a good job describing, using big words, avoiding (or sometimes including) cliches, and using fewer articles. Also, I was excited to learn what "Blue Peter" meant as well as what a havelock is. The former is a blue flag with a white square in the center which indicates in sailing that the boat is ready to depart and the best friends would use it to signal that they were ready to begin something. A havelock is, and I know this will probably blow your mind if you never knew it, that hat that has a large piece of cloth hanging down the back to cover your neck. If you already knew that, you're probably smarter than I am, or at least have a more extensive vocabulary.

Silent to the Bone also contained a heartfelt conversation between Connor and his  adult half-sister about love. Here it is:  

I loved the comparison of a relationship to an ivory carving, and it absolutely reminded me that I have a lot of friendships slowly breaking apart in a drawer that I need to take care of. Some of the most moving aspects of books for me are the relationships that were and no longer are--deceased parents, former friends, lost loves, etc. 

I definitely recommend this one for a solid read about boy/boy friendship, adolescence and puberty, and especially what it means to be ashamed. (4/5 stars)

My next two reads were some of Konigsburg's children's books, which I knew I could knock out in only a few minutes. Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's is about a young girl from Texas visiting her grandmother in New York City. Every day, her grandma tells her the plan for the day and the plan usually includes visiting Bloomies. Of course, every day their plan gets spoiled until it is time to leave and Amy realizes that she had a wonderful trip spending time with her grandmother regardless of whether she got to go to Bloomingdale's. I can't say that my life is better or worse having read this book, not that every children's book has to be shattering the earth to tiny pieces with its awesomeness. There is a message here and it is worth a childhood read. (3/5 stars)

I am very annoyed with myself that I did not take any pictures of the illustrations from these two books as Konigsburg illustrated much of her work. In unrelated news, the cover of Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions is so old-school awesome--the back is a mirror image of the front! (Why have I never seen something like this before?!) First published in 1948, which is pretty remarkable considering Konigsburg was 18 at the time and my mother had yet to be born (just for personal perspective), Samuel Todd is just a quick collection of  drawings and descriptions of little inventions that catch one boy's interest. I can totally see how this book could spawn some great parent-child conversations about inventing and what the child thinks are amazing inventions. I know I am writing this too late in the evening when I am sitting here laughing at the idea of Konigsburg writing an updated 2012 version of the book where she attempts to draw and succinctly write about (SIAS!) newfangled inventions like satellite radio, toaster waffles, and Keurig coffee machines. (3-3.5/5 stars)

Throwing Shadows, written in 1979, was without doubt my favorite book of the first batch. In it, Konigsburg tells five slice-of-life stories from different perspectives.  The  narrators of the short stories (On Shark's Tooth Beach by Ned, The Catchee by Avery, In the Village of the Weavers by Ampara, At the Home by Phillip, and With Bert & Ray by William) run the gamut of races and nationalities but I never felt like Konigsburg was overtly pushing the diversity angle because the stories are, for the most part, mundane. This book's title in conjunction with its jacket copy is probably in my top 10 favorites. The jacket copy reads, 

A middle grade book about "A sense of Self"? Solid gold right there. While some of the overall ideas or parts of the stories feel trite, each story is self-contained and ends in a natural place, lesson learned and all that jazz. What made this selection of stories rather interesting was the fact that it wasn't about children making comical mistakes from which they learned something, but rather about realizing the importance of something--being honest, listening to the stories older people have to tell, recognizing likely outcomes to actions, looking for the intentions behind actions--in an organic way.  (5/5 stars)

My least favorite book thus far was Altogether, One at a Time, which is another collection of shorts. However, they have far less substance than the stories in Throwing Shadows, both in terms of quality and quantity. There are four stories and each is illustrated by a different person, Gail E. Haley, Mercer Mayer, Gary Parker, and Laurel Schindelman. Goodreads tells me that each of these stories is supposed to be about the fact that there is rarely, if ever, something that is purely good or bad and that everything is some mixture of both. I suppose I got that out of it but I found myself kind of annoyed at a majority of the book. In one story, a boy is having a birthday party but doesn't want to invite a kid with dyslexia because he is basically like an alien being. Maybe this is an indicator of the time this book was written but I don't think we should be teaching kids that dyslexic kids are so far from the norm. In another, a young boy goes to see a meteor shower with his grandmother and is basically so obnoxious that she slaps him. However, there is no indication in the text that that is happening, instead it is implied through an illustration. I'm a little skeptical about the ability of kids to pick up on the subtext but maybe I'm not giving them enough credit.  When it came down to it, I wasn't a fan of any of the stories, so I can't give this one more than 2/5 stars.

About the B'Nai Bagels is a unique MG book about a Jewish boy whose mother and brother become the coach and manager of his Little League baseball team for a season. In rather obvious fashion, some of the boys on the team mind more than others, and definitely some of the parents mind more than others. It would be almost comical how much some of the kids and parents cared if I didn't know how diehard people get about children's sports. Another thing about this book: Boy, did it ever make me hungry for stuffed cabbage. Random, yes, but factual. There isn't much action in the plot but it basically follows the team through the season and the main character through his development as a baseball player (mostly by playing with some of his teammates in their street game) and leading up to his bar mitzvah. There is also a bit of commentary on parenting styles, mostly about the privacy (or lack thereof) given to young boys when keeping secrets and exploring their sexuality. I like E.L. Konigsburg because she is sneaky. When I was a kid, I read a ton of books and very few parents can vet (or really should vet, in my opinion) all the books their kids are reading. Someone might buy this book thinking it is just about a season of baseball but in fact, there is a large portion about paying paltry amounts to see nude pictures in Playboy and about subscribing to the magazine and/or hiding it from your parents. It's harmless for the most part, but I think it is pretty hilarious when stuff that mothers (because it is almost always mothers up in arms, it seems) might object to their kids reading. Game, set, match to E.L. Konigsburg. This issue is even more apparent in the last book of the first group I read, Father's Arcane Daughter.  (3/5 stars)

Weird. Just so weird. I went to trivia right after reading this and explained the entire plot to my friends and they just stared at me. The story itself sounds like a typical Lifetime movie: rich kid is spoiled, his sister is spoiled (and treated as mentally and physically handicapped, though it seems she actually is neither), his stepmother is selfish, his father is distant, and his father had a daughter who was kidnapped. Fast forward to right before the kidnapped girl's mother's estate is going to lapse and surprise! A woman shows up on their doorstep claiming to be the long-lost daughter. Is it her? Is she faking it? (note: evidently this story was made into a TV movie called Caroline (the name of the kidnapped daughter), though the details are changed quite a bit). I can't discuss what I found so awkward about this book without spoilers so if you want to read it yourself, just skip the entire next paragraph.

Firstly, I thought it was very weird that the entire family treated the spoiled, bratty sister as having slower mental processes, behavioral issues, and as physically differently-abled.  It isn't entirely clear which of these things are actually happening, or to what extent. By the end of the book, Hillary/Heidi (the younger sister in question) is running a business and seems totally with it. She only excels after "Caroline" comes back and secretly starts taking Heidi to special education. The other part of the book I felt really awkward about was the ending. I already warned you about spoilers, but it turns out that Caroline isn't really Caroline. She is a woman with no family who took care of her "dad"'s mother in hospice care and learned all about the missing girl. She had the blessing of the grandmother for the most part, and the main character (Winston) finds out as an adult that his father knew Caroline wasn't really his daughter but was so deficient in the love area  that Caroline and he thought it better to continue posing as father and daughter to give him an escape from his wife and to give Winston and Heidi the love and guidance they need from an older sister. Okay, that's kind of weird, especially because it is pretty explicitly stated that had Winston and Heidi not been in the picture that Caroline and Winston's father might've, you know, taken things to the next level. You know that thing when a woman shows up pretending to be your long lost sister and then helps your sister overcome her disabilities and is sexually attracted to your dad but lives the rest of her life pretending to be your sister to be a positive role model in your life? I just played SIAS for Father's Arcane Daughter. (3/5 stars)

The thing about this book, and really all of Konigsburg's work is that it is well-written and engaging. She writes compelling mysteries that are meant for young people but which still entertain adults. She inserts realities and negative events to keep it realistic and I love her work for it. The ratings for these first few books are mostly around a 3 or so but I'm so happy that I've finished a large portion of her work and I'm really looking forward to finishing them off. 

Have you read any of her books? What did you think of them? 

Time for the Stars
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Publication Date: 2/1/11 (Audio)
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
[Goodreads | Amazon | Audible]

Blurb (GR):
Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.

Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds. When they are recruited by the Long Range Foundation, the twins find out that they can, indeed, peer into each other’s thoughts. Along with other telepathic duos, they are enlisted to be the human transmitters and receivers that will keep the ships in contact with Earth. But there’s a catch: one of the twins has to stay behind—and that one will grow old—while the other explores the depths of space and returns as a young man still. 

Review:
Slowly but surely, my obsession with young adult space stories will knock every Heinlein juvenile book off my to-read list. A month or two ago, I read Podkayne of Mars and while I did enjoy the audio format and the underlying world-building, the characters grated on me. I'd read and heard from several sources that Heinlein's treatment of his female characters can be a huge turnoff and he's two for two on that note for me thus far. I'm not going to go over why I felt the way I did about Podkayne but in Time for the Stars, though it was far less frustrating, I was still not satisfied with the female presence in the book. But I'm getting ahead of myself, what's the book actually about? It's a futuristic Earth setting where families are allowed only a certain number of children before they get taxed. Identical twins Tom and Pat  are asked to come in for some testing by a huge research organization, one whose mission is to fund the projects that have projected results so far into the future that no one else will fund them. Through the testing, Tom and Pat find out they are telepathically connected. The foundation intends to explore the galaxies to find potential colony planets and uses telepathic pairs to communicate between ships and between ships and Earth when radio transmissions no longer work. I don't want to spoil which twin goes to space and which stays behind because I enjoyed that aspect of the story. I cannot think of another instance of a book where identical twins do not really get along. Heinlein adds in a realistic amount of sibling manipulation that rang true to life. ("Do your chores, Dad will be home soon." "Why? If I don't, I know you'll just do them for me." - Me and my sister)

The science and philosophy are very much present in this novel and some of it went over my head. Faster than light, simultaneity, time,  relativism, the science of aging, and various equations and theories are all present and accounted for but never in a severe infodump kind of way. The book is set up as a diary written by the twin in space. I am not sure if it is broken up as such in the traditional book as I listened to the audiobook but the scientific conversations were usually just that--conversations between the twin and someone else on the ship. However, there is very little action to keep the book going. The interest lies in the world Heinlein has created and the scientific offshoots. I was fascinated by the idea that as one twin was aging "regularly" on Earth, the other was aging at a far slower rate, so much so that the twin in space had to do the telepathic work with several generations down the line. What action there is is backloaded. His books, to me, feel like someone is writing about a fantastic futuristic world and then realizing halfway through that there's supposed to also be character building and plot movement. 

On to the creep factor. There was just an episode of 30 Rock on television wherein Liz Lemon realizes that she is dating her third cousin. They say, "On the count of three, say how many cousins removed we'd have to be to try to make this work." He says fifth and she says never. I really think my answer is also never. There are several pubescent boy relationships in this book as well as adult relationships but there is one that relates to the 30 Rock episode I just spoke of. I won't ruin it for any potential readers but Heinlein basically glossed right over the relation aspect and it felt cut and dried in the most awkward way possible. I actually said, "Whaaaaaaat? Dude." to my car stereo. You're going to marry your relation, no matter how distant? Ew.

Back to Heinlein's treatment of women. Here's the gist: If you want to read any of his books, just think to yourself, "Am I okay reading a book where no female character will ever be completely rational? One where she will never be seen as anything other than a gender stereotype or achieve life goals beyond society's expectations during the forties and fifties when these books were written?" If the answer is yes, then read away. As I've said, Heinlein creates some interesting scientific worlds and stories. However, if you're answer is no then these books will be a nightmare for you. There are entire conversations about the best way to tell a mother that her son/s are joining a space program but also how to manipulate her irrational emotions. A grown woman wants to join a specific mission and another character tells her to check with her husband. (who also tells her later that they will be moving back to Earth to raise their family and she will not be working anymore) The mission finds a planet and fights in a battle but both times women are excluded from the teams--until one planet is deemed "safe enough that even the women could go!" Being a woman in Heinlein's world just seems like it would be so depressing. Who wants to achieve their dreams of being independent and going into space? Not so fast, vaginas! 

I believe this is the first audiobook I've listened to that is narrated by Barrett Whitener, and I enjoyed his narration for the most part. Though they are not coming to me at the moment, there were a few words he pronounced in a weird way (maybe alternate pronunciations?) and several of the characters sounded the same. At one point, I wasn' t sure if the captain had an American, British, or Australian accent.  He is a conversational narrator so his voice was/is well-suited to the diary-entry format of Time for the Stars.

As is the story with Podkayne of Mars, there is enough fun world-building present that I wish Heinlein would set more books in this world, perhaps even incorporate some of the same characters. I have a feeling my wish will come true with the rest of his young adult books. I anticipate each one will be a fun sciencey adventures/feminist's nightmare.

3/5 stars

We're doing something a little bit different for this review today.  And admittedly, it's quite long.  Last week we all read this book at the same time. We planned to collaborate on one review, but then we all ended up having completely different reactions! The discussion threads were long and wordy and even though we had different points of view, we loved discussing this book. So we thought we'd give all of you the opportunity to read three perspectives on this new release from Laura Buzo.  Flannery brought some amazing and creative pictures, Tatiana brought her always-spot-on critical eye, and Catie brought a few tunes.  Let the three-way commence!

Holier Than Thou
Author: Laura Buzo
Publication Date: 5/1/12
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
[Goodreads | Fishpond]

Blurb(GR):   Holly Yarkov has a boyfriend who is a gift from the universe. She has a job that fulfills her even as it wears her down. She has a core group of friends from high school. And she has a layer of steel around her heart that is beginning to tarnish. Just as she is reaching for a future she can't quite see, Holly is borne back into the past by memories of her beloved father, and of the boy-who-might-have-been...

Grief and longing run like veins of quicksilver through this beautiful novel, at once gloriously funny and achingly sad.

Laura's confident, astute and witty voice has already been recognised with the success of Good Oil, with North American English rights sold to Knopf and German language rights sold to Arena. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Her second novel is extraordinary and bittersweet – and shows us exactly what it is like to be a young person today – navigating the complexities of work, love, family and how to pay the rent.

For the record, I'd just like to say that I chuckle every time we talk about doing a three-way...review. Sure, it's immature, but I never said I was mature, did I?  Take this art project, for example:

I spent a huge amount of time in high school and occasionally in college playing The Sims. My younger sister and I have discussions about where are Sims meters are at any given time and it makes total sense to us. In the chart on the left, you can see where I'd like my meters to be at any given time. If you approach me when my meters are at those levels, I will be chipper like no one's business. In Holier Than Thou, Holly's meters are, well, a total crapfest. She's in a draining job where she receives little recognition for the work she does, she and her live-in boyfriend don't talk about anything, and she's lost touch with all of her friends. The only thing Holly looks forward to is spending time with her co-worker Nick, who trains in circus acts during his free time. The two of them develop a smooth friendship where they can toss movie quotes back and forth and she maintains a relationship with him and talks to him about all the things she isn't talking to her boyfriend about. 

I think a lot of my connection to Holly had to do with her relationship with her friends. I love my friends to death, all of them, so when I spent two years doing service work, mostly gutting and rebuilding after Katrina, and then I'd go visit friends and they'd say things like, "Oh, is that stuff still going on down there?" and "I thought everything was better now," it would make my blood absolutely boil. At the same time, everyone is doing their own thing so I'm sure they probably wanted to tell me about their jobs and I'd like to think that I didn't trivialize their experiences. But I'm sure I probably did, so I could totally identify with Holly's holier-than-thou persona. It's hard to take it down a notch to socialize when you have a huge emotional attachment to your job.

This is one of those books that readers will either totally connect to or not so much, as totally evidenced by the reviews on Goodreads (and in this three-way! heh), and it is understandable. There isn't a ton of plot movement, but I thought the book flew by because I was enthralled with the characters, what choices they would make, and whether Holly's Sims meters would get the upturn that I kept hoping they would. Holly compartmentalized grief from the death of her father, she's mourning the loss of several friendships, and she's wondering about her relationship. This book is just about the buildup, buildup, buildup, and release. I love it all the more for the fact that many questions are never answered. That's life. 

5/5 stars

If I am being honest, the most fun I had while reading Holier Than Thou was when I was contemplating if this new emerging genre of "New Adult" fiction would be for me. If you are not familiar with the idea of "New Adult" (as opposed to "Young Adult" or "Adult")  fiction, this term seems to have been coined by the St. Martin's Press' publishing team back in 2009 when they announced a writing contest seeking fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult - a sort of an “older YA” or “new adult” with protagonists 18 or older, but 20s are preferred. Editing assistant at St. Martin's Press S. Jae-Jones clarified that "New Adult is about young adulthood, when you are an adult but have not established your life as one (career, family, what-have-you)." And Sarah LaPolla clarifies it even further, saying that such books would be about "the college experience, figuring out grad school, jobs, not living off your parents, etc."

I don't know if St. Martin's actually found and published any projects following this contest, but "New Adult" term appears to have stuck. There have been a few titles that could be categorized as "New Adult" that I adored - Melina Marchetta's The Piper's Son, Gayle Forman's Where She Went and Buzo's own Good Oil. I can't say I felt the same way about Holier Than Thou, which is positively a "New Adult" title.

23-year old Holly is fresh out of college, with a new job, a new serious boyfriend and a new very own apartment. She is happy and liberated, that is until she isn't anymore. The job is exhausting psychologically, the boyfriend is not as shiny any more and old school friends are distant and busy. Suddenly this adulthood seems too difficult to Holly...

In spite of my high hopes (after all, Good Oil was one of my top favorite books of last year), reading Holier Than Thou wasn't a riveting or even pleasant experience for me.

For one, my general attitude towards "New Adult" set of issues is pretty dismissive. Sarah LaPolla put a great name to what bothers me the most about "New Adult" lit - it is its emphasis on and exploration of "extended adolescence." Funny that watching HBO's new show Girls was what cemented my thoughts on "New Adult" themes - "New Adult" experiences, to me, are more often than not colored by pretentiousness, immaturity, self-entitlement and moochery. I am not quite sure why I am so negative towards these issues, being barely out of "New Adult" years myself. Maybe because my own "New Adult" experience was never as depressing as Holly's seems to be. I finished school, I didn't have neither opportunity nor desire to live off my parents' monetary support any longer, I started my adult life in a different country, with a different set of acquaintances and a new culture, and it was exciting, difficult too, with crappy jobs and financial strain, but it was exciting most of all. It is not interesting or compelling to me to observe people who make big deals out of issues that are not crucial, like Holly. If you don't like your job - get another one, if you are attracted to a man other than the one you are committed to - sit for a minute and examine which relationship you want to pursue, if your former friends are now distant and have new interests - that's just natural, people grow up and grow apart. None of Holly's experiences struck me as life-altering or worthy of the amount of ennui presented in this novel.

But mainly I think I just didn't connect with Holly and her friends on a personal level. With vibrant characters I can get into pretty much any story, but as told in Holly's words, it was pretty dull, colorless, sad and uninteresting to me. Holier Than Thou reminded me of a few pretentious books about college students - Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot or Donna Tartt's The Secret History which center on students obsessed with finding meaning of life, but not finding it most likely because of the life of privilege they've led, and a couple of sad, full of adult angst novels like Anna Quindlen's One True Thing or Jennifer Weiner's In Her Shoes. Essentially, Holier Than Thou turned out to be for me nothing more than another piece of depressing women's fiction, made even more unsatisfying by the completely open, ambiguous ending. Maybe I simply don't have that college years' nostalgia that would have helped me connect with Holly's issues? Or maybe I didn't have the luxury of time to lament, at length, my disappearing careless (did I have it?) youth and the decline of parting and loss of friends? Either way, Holier Than Thou made very little impact on me.

2.5/5 stars

It’s only rarely that I’ve encountered a writer like this, who so skillfully encourages the reader to participate. Laura Buzo’s writing in this book may appear simple and straightforward, but it’s deceptively so. Not only does she seamlessly weave together three different timelines, she achieves the perfect balance between what is stated and what isn’t. She gives us just enough. Instead of spelling out exactly how Holly feels, she leads us directly to our own emotions and memories. As a result, this book will be a very personal experience for a lot of readers. I know that it was for me.  And the most impressive thing is that even as she’s pulling off these rather complicated feats in the background, she’s achieving a heartbreakingly simple and straightforward tone for Holly in the foreground. Holly, who will joke and seem almost bland as she tells us about her father’s slow death, or the boy she loved but never got to have, or how her friends are slowly slipping away, or how she constantly wonders about what might have been. She’s been labeled a survivor, a success, a do-gooder. She has a rigid set of rules that she feels accountable to all the time, but which are completely unrealistic. She’s a woman of steel.  As a card-carrying member of that tribe, I can utterly relate to how hollow that label really is. In fact I related to this book in so many ways; the prospect of discussing them all is overwhelming. This book just fits right inside my skin.
This book made me remember:

Having my own place for the first time: it was tiny and dingy but it was mine. Quoting The Simpsons to anyone and everyone. Listening to hours of Tori Amos. How I used to feel about having kids. All the friends that flowed into and out of my life.  How impossible it was hold on to any of them, no matter how much I might have wanted to. That one person who I’ll never be able to forget, even though I probably should. Working in public service: facing the gruesome side of humanity every day and finding not always appropriate ways to cope with that. Watching my friends work in the private sector. Believing I could make a difference. Realizing that I probably never would. Breaking rules I thought were set in stone. Meeting the one, several times. Never knowing for sure if I made the right decision about anything. Regretting. 

This is one case where I actually feel like I got much much more out of this book because I read it as an older adult.  I can look back at my early twenties now and realize that losing friends happens all the time, to everyone (and really, it never stops sucking). I can see how pointless it was to second guess decisions that could never be re-made.  I can see that I’m a public servant through and through and it was fulfilling to me, even if I didn’t make a difference. I can see that all of those rules that I held so dear were really just holding me back. And I can see that the real steel isn’t earned by holding it together indefinitely. The real steel is earned by falling apart and then putting yourself back together again.

Reading this as an older adult had another effect on me too – it made the ending about one hundred times more devastating, because I could feel everything that was ahead for Holly. I love ambiguous endings - so much so that a few of my friends refer to them as “Catie endings.” This ending is without a doubt a Catie ending. Holy moly but did she give it right to me. With a side of chips. She gives us Holly’s deceptively strong outer walls, her rapidly rising tide of grief and regret, and just as the first cracks are starting to show, just as we get a glimpse of how deep that pool goes; it’s over. This is a beautiful, poignant, devastating snapshot of the early twenties experience and it is one of my favorite reads of the year.

Perfect Musical Pairing
The Jezabels - Easy To Love

(Random aside the first: I want her hair so badly. Random aside the second: their drummer is SO TALENTED.) My friend Reynje made an amazing playlist for this book, which is how I got introduced to The Jezabels. I could have picked so many of their songs (and indeed, their latest albums have become like my soundtrack for this book), but I chose this one because I’m pretty sure it’s just longing distilled. This song all about running into that person you can’t have and trying to do anything not to regret, even though you can’t stop. When the lead singer says “please, just let me be easy to love” and I think about Holly it just about guts me.

4.5/5 Stars

Holier Than Thou is only $12.06 with free shipping from Fishpond. Do it! You know you want to.