Lots of catching up to do

I'm still here! Gawwd I don't even know where to start! I've been reading great books lately and I can't wait to share my thoughts about them, but first I'll try to do a very speedy weedy catching up cause I can't bare to not say something about some of my favourite reads of the year. I wont' even pretend to post proper reviews, just residual impressions on stuff I've read up to 3 months ago...

I'll start with The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
It's just every bit as good as everyone is saying. I started reading it on the plane to Sicily, and those two and a half hours passed completely unnoticed! This rarely happens. I'm nervous at every shake, and can't wait to get down. This time though, it went so smooth, I kinda wanted it to last a bit more so I could keep reading! It wasn't just about the story. The writing was just as captivating. So clever. And so heartbreaking. The movie didn't completely do justice to it, but it could have been much worse!




Next is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Another book that, if you haven't read, you probably are tired of hearing about. Gripping it was. Exciting, fast and moving, too. The only thing it wasn't was being unpredictable. You can pretty much guess the ending, although this won't stop you from frantically keep turning those pages. Catching Fire was just as exciting. I probably enjoyed it a bit more because I knew the characters and cared for them. And I honestly didn't know where it was going. I'm definitely looking forward to the third one, because the ending left it veeeery open to anything!





Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I'm so not ready to talk about this book now. All I can say is that it was beautifully written and I didn't expect that. Also I don't think I understood it completely, especially the final part. It was bleak, melancholic, suffocating, but lyrical too. I think I should read it again one day, when I'm ready to take everything in.






This summer I've started reading a (kind of ) new author to me, Sandra Scoppettone. I read a couple of her young adult books when I was younger, but nothing more. She's more well known for her series centred around the lesbian detective Lauren Laurano and that's what I've been reading. Unfortunately the Italian publisher hasn't released them in the proper chronological order, so I didn't follow the time line, but even then, I completely enjoyed them. There's something about the summer+beach+crime fiction combination that I can't explain, but that just works so well for me. These books were especially easy to enjoy in the sun, although they deal with tough subject such as rape, aids and violence against women. They are always socially conscious, but also ironic and funny. The writing style wasn't very polished, but it didn't matter much. I loved reading about Lauren and her love of her life Kit. In the first book I read, Everything You Have Is Mine, they had been together for 11 years and still rocking it. It's not usual to find such attraction and intimacy in a long-term relationship, not even in fiction. I loved their relationship so much that the mystery didn't even matter that much in the end. In the second book I read, Let's face the music and die, the mystery was an utter disappointment because I guessed it from the start. But Lauren's personal story made it worth reading. There was so much tension, what with her dealing with the man who raped her years before, and at the same time dealing with her growing attraction toward a much younger woman, while Kip is away. I think Sandra Scoppettone put so much into these story-lines that forgot to put some mystery into the mystery itself!

In the first story, I loved seeing Lauren trying to come to terms with computers and technology. The book has been written during the early days of internet, and I have to say the word "bulletin board" didn't mean anything to me, but it has a central role in the story so I had to look it up. Seriously prehistoric internet stuff! She becomes an internet junkie later on, and with that I can relate:P

I recommend these books as a light read with some edge and some good gay romance. Unfortunately they're not easy to find in the shops, but maybe libraries still stock them?

OK, I'll finish here, cause I'm tired. I hope I'll manage to finish the catching up part soon, so that I can talk extensively about the latest amazing reads!

Nerds Heart YA - First Round: My Most Excellent Year VS The Opposite of Invisible

Welcome to the first round of the Nerds Heart YA Book Tournament!
Here I'm going to review, analyze and discuss two YA books:

• My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
• The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher
  

I'll start with My Most Excellent Year as I read it first.
The Summary:
This is the story of three kids: TC Keller, Augie Hwong and Alejandra Perez. When they're assigned to write about their most excellent year, they all agreed it was ninth grade. That was the year TC fell head over heels for Alè. The year Augie slowly realised he was also falling in love, but with a boy. The year Alé moved to a public school for the first time in her life and felt terrified. The year she decided to detest TC wholeheartedly.
Their story is told in alternating perspectives, mainly through diary's entries directed toward their chosen confidants. For TC it's his mother, for Augie is the Diva of the Week, and for Alé is Jacqueline Kennedy. But the book is also filled with instant messaging, e-mails and letters written to each other, or even by their parents and friends.
So what is it about really? A lot of things. Love, first of all. Family, in the broadest sense. Friendship, the kind that last forever. Baseball, especially the Red Sox. Musicals and divas thanks to Augie. Politics thanks to Alé. And Magic, in the form of a little deaf kid who believes in Mary Poppins, and who nobody dares to convince otherwise.

What I liked: The characterisation, first of all, was top class. TC, Augie, Alè, but also Hucky the deaf kid, were all unforgettable. I love the concept of extended family that TC and Augie establish with each other. They both decided when they were 8 that they were brothers, and that was it. Slowly the parents realised it was a serious matter and they just accepted it. So now Augie's parents are Mom and Dad, while TC's father is Pop, for both of them!
The writing was great, too. I giggled all my way through the end.
The romance, oh the romance...Of course I'm talking about Augie and Angie. Maybe I don't read much YA gay romance between boys, but I thought this was the sweetest, most romantic, most adorable, most everything boy-on-boy literary love. The way their family and friends reacted was even cooler. They knew all along Augie was gay and they were wondering how long it would take him to figure it out.
I probably felt closer to him than to any of the other characters because he's so into divas and musical. At his age, I was too. Maybe not that obsessively, but close enough. I used to write my diary to Audrey Hepburn, you know...
But I really did love all the others too. Alé is the main female character and she kicks ass. At first she probably sounds too stuck up and posh, but she redeems herself. She's smart, feminist and stubborn, so you have to love her. TC is just too irresistible. His relationship with the little kid, Hucky, is what won me over indefinitely. He would literally go to the moon and back, just to make Hucky happy. He tries harder than anyone else, and in the end, it pays off.
Finally, I thought the format worked really well. The letters, e-mails and texts made the story sparkle. It wasn't confusing or irritating at all. It actually made the book flow easily and it made me feel even closer to the characters.
It was a positive, happy, funny, romantic, original book that I'd love to reread one day.

What I didn't like:
Very little. I'm not the hugest baseball fun, so most of the references were lost on me. I have to thank all the baseball movies I watched when I was little, because I wasn't completely lost. If I managed to survive it, I think anybody can.
It was also very American. But it's not a flaw, it's just that I am not.
It was a happy book, mainly, but you could say that the way homosexuality was handled in High School was a bit too accepting, to be completely true. I wish it was that easy. Not that I didn't like it, I was delighted. Hopefully, the kids who will read it will take notice and take it as an example.
Last minor thingy: the writing style was amazingly good, but it was a bit too homogeneous. There wasn't much difference in how the kids talked and their parents. I liked it, but again, not too realistic.

Now for The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher.

The Summary:
Alice is a teenager girl, who feels like she is nobody at school. She's not in the popular crowd, and not even in the weird/outcast one. She's just a normal girl. But instead of keeping a journal, she talks to her poster, Le Visage de la Paix by Picasso. She tells her poster that she would like a normal date for the upcoming Halloween dance. She would like someone to hold hands with, kiss, dance, like everyone else.
But she feels too invisible to attract the attention of the boy she really would like to date: Simon.
Her best friend Jewel is the closest person she has. They talk about everything, but she knows she can't tell him about her crush. Because Simon is a football player, he's with the popular crowd, and Jewel despises them.
You know the saying "beware of what you wish for..."? That would apply to Alice exactly. Simon, the boy of her dreams, starts showing her he's interested in knowing her more. And at the same time Jewel starts acting weird around her, hugging her and looking at her differently. Suddenly she is not that invisible anymore, but is this was she really wanted?
This delicately told story, is not just about finding love. It's about understanding where we fit in, what we can do in life. About the satisfying and liberating act of creativity. It's also about the fine line between friendship and something else. And about the meaningless labels that people are given and that never truly describe what the person is really like.

What I liked: The realistic dialogues and situations. They were sometimes awkward and monosyllabic, but real. I liked the role of art, the way Alice finds a piece of world where to express herself, and just be her. The sense of calm and of dreaminess that sometimes the writing evoked.

What I didn't like: The premises and the development of the story. They were real, they belong to the teenage world and I appreciate that. But it didn't give me anything new. I wasn't amazed by it, I'm afraid. The writing was quiet, maybe too much. I wasn't drawn to the story that much, and although it was quite a slim book, it took me few days to finish it.
It just wasn't the style I was in the mood for.


How the two compared to each other: I was hoping for a very touch decision to make, but unfortunately it didn't happen. My Most Excellent Year was full of wonderful characters, a story that grabbed me and swept me off my feet. It was extremely funny and original. Heartwarming and magical. The Opposite of Invisible was sort of underwhelming compared to it. Very quiet, calm like the dove girl poster. Sort of low-key. It didn't have the "wow factor" like Kluger's novel. Maybe it's not fair to compare a first novel with the one of an experience writer. But that's how things were, so I'm declaring, officially...My Most Excellent Year as the winner of this round.
If you're curious and interested about the book you should totally have a look at its website. It's really really cool and it has lots of extracts from the book, so you can judge yourself.
It's called The Augie Hwong's Homepage.
And you should visit Liz Gallagher's page too. There's some pictures of the places mentioned in the book, which is set in Seattle. It definitely helped to visualize the story, so recommended!

This was great fun, I can't wait to read all the other judges' decisions!


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The Poison Throne - Celine Kiernan

Set in a fantastical medieval Europe, The Poison Throne tells the story of Wynter, a 15-year-old qualified apprentice who, at the beginning of the book, has just returned with her sick father, the Lord Protector Lorcan, to the court of King Jonathon, after years spent in the Northlands training. She remembers the court as a joyful place, where she grew up playing with the king's two sons, Alberon and Razi,whom she considers her brothers. But now everything has changed. The once civilised, illuminated realm is oppressed by the King's brutal inquisition. Cats, once revered and cared for, are being persecuted, accused of spreading malicious rumors throughout the court and no one speaks to them anymore. Ghosts have been declared officially non-existing.
And gibbets have been reintroduced.
The happy times Wynter hoped to come back to have been replaced by fear and conspiracies, suspicions and tortures. But why? What has led king Jonathon to change his ways so dramatically?
Wynter is desperate to find answers. Especially because the lives of her beloved brothers might be in danger. Alberon, the legitimate son, is missing, while Razi, the bastard son, is being forced to take his place as the heir to the throne.

This story is not your usual fantasy adventure for teenagers. And maybe that's why it took me a little longer to get into it. It's a story about intrigue at court, yes, but at its core it's a story about relationships, about the strong bond that can exist between friends, family or lovers. It's real, and it's intense, but in a world ruled by protocol and politics, personal affections can become obstacles, or even powerful tools, depending who is using them.
In this first chapter of the Moorhawke trilogy, nothing is revealed easily. The reality of what is happening is uncovered little by little, and it gets increasingly engrossing by the page.

At first I wasn't particularly drawn to the main character, Wynter. I didn't like how she judged Razi's friend Christopher, so quickly and superficially, as soon as she met him. But as the story unravels, and we get to know her more, she gains more credit for being a strong, confident young woman, who's mature for her age, skilled in the art of etiquette and court's discipline, and filled with deep love for her father and her friends.
Christopher is another very interesting character, whom I'd love to read more about. He has a mysterious past, which we can only guess is not the happiest, and is incredibly loyal to his friend Razi.
There's not much more I can say about the characters and the story without ruining it. But I can talk about the writing, which was rich, elegant and detailed, despite the use of some strong language and some mild swearing. It was very honest and physical too, creating some very intimate moments, which I didn't expect. It was also visually violent, sometimes, so beware younger readers.
As I said, it was the first chapter of a trilogy, so there is no real conclusions. It has only started.
Which is why I'm so thrilled to have the ARC of the second chapter, The Crowded Shadows already in my possession!
I'm looking forward to seeing what is expecting our heroes, as the scene moves from the claustrophobic walls of the castle to the dangers of the outside world. Exciting!

other views:
Book Focus

Loser - Jerry Spinelli

After three books read and three hits, I officially declare Jerry Spinelli just my kind of writer. At the last read-a-thon I literally never put this one down till I finished it. I wanted to squeeze Donal Zucker, the "loser" of the title, at about every page. He could have been Stargirl's little brother.
He's so enthusiastic about life. He laughs uncontrollably at silly words and shouts "Yahoo!" anytime he's super happy, he gives everything he has and doesn't hold anything back. He's extremely generous and sympathetic to anybody around him. He's kind, innocent and hyperactive. He thinks sleep is the Curse of the Human Race and claims to never indulge in it.

At the beginning of the story he's starting school, and can't wait. When he runs off to his first class with his giraffe hat, you know life is not gonna be kind to him.

I pictured him wearing the hat all proud and eager to learn, and my mind raced immediately to my first day in school. I didn't have a giraffe hat, but I brought my favourite toys with me, in my lovely pink toy bag, and I just kept them with me on the desk. When the teacher objected to that because I wouldn't have any space for books and pens, I shoveled them in the space under the desk and left them there for days. At the first desk inspection I came last for having the messiest desk, and discovered two things: 1) Teachers don't like toys, and 2) Everyone else was a lot tidier than me no matter how I tried. But I still loved school. And so does Zinkoff.

So, he is the sweetest little kid, and all you want to do is give him a big hug for being adorable, but he's also clumsy and awkward, can't get an A to save his life, nor can he sing, or play an instrument, or run. And the cool thing is that he doesn't care, because he doesn't know he's not the best. He just loves doing stuff, doesn't want to be the best, doesn't want to win.
How can someone like that survive the school jungle?

I loved almost everything about this story. Loved Zinkoff's family, how supportive and understanding and caring they are. How they love him for exactly who he is and not for what he should be. I loved the minor characters, like Mr Yalowitz, one of his teachers, who puts Zinkoff in the first row because "the Z shall be first!"and who can say things like "Master Z, whenever you put pencil to paper, unspeakable things happen...Thank God for keyboards!".
I adored the "Take Donald Zinkoff to Work Day". As I said, I just loved about everything of this book (except probably the kid who collects his earwax in a bottle, I could have done without that image in my head.) so I'll just shut up and tell you to go and read it yourself.

After reading this, I reconsidered the whole competitiveness issue, and rationally decided it's a load of bullpoopy. Rationally. It still stings like hell when I realise I'm not the best at something, but then I go back and think about Zinkoff and feel a lot better :D

One last thing. When I read it, I chose my starry bookmark (made by Nymeth) for it
without thinking, and then, when I read the following passage, realised it was the perfect bookmark:

At this time in his life Zinkoff sees no difference between the stars in the sky and the stars in his mother's plastic Baggie. He believes that stars fall from the sky sometimes, and that his mother goes around collecting them like acorns. He believes she has to use heavy gloves and dark sunglasses because the fallen stars are so hot and shiny. She puts them in the freezer for forty-five minutes, and when they come out they are flat and silver and sticky on the back and ready for his shirts.
This makes him feel close to the unfallen stars left in the sky. He thinks of them as his nightlights. As he grows drowsy in bed, he wonders which is greater: the number of stars in the sky or the number of school left in his life? It's a wonderful question.

other opinions:
I just fiinished reading...
Dog year diary
You read it too? Let me know!


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Three shades of disappointment

I've been avoiding talking about some books that have disappointed me in different ways and degrees. So instead of dedicating a full review to each of them I'll just briefly share why I wasn't so impressed like I had expected (damn those expectations!).

I'll start with the biggest disappointment which is The Owl Service by Alan Garner. In theory, it hit all the right notes:
- Carnegie Medal winner
- Use of Welsh mythology
- Reputation for being a haunting, but lyrical story.
Instead it failed to grip me completely. I kept reading, waiting to be charmed at some point, but it never happened. I feel like I must have missed something, and it bugs me. What I remember instead is a storytelling that was disjointed and confusing. For example the main characters' behaviour was puzzling. Many strange things happen, but instead of them trying to talk about it and understand what is happening straight away, they don't seem immediately concerned.
For this, and for many other reasons, most of what happened was lost on me, until I did some research on line to find answers to my questions.
There was never a moment when I felt really close to the characters, and that was a big factor. And the ending left more questions than answers.
So, in conclusion, it was a frustrating read. I so wished I understood it more, because I feel like I missed out on something special.
For a proper reviews on in and a complete different opinion, read Nymeth's. She obviously saw something in it that I didn't.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was a different kind of disappointment. I didn't dislike it. I thought it was alright. Just alright, that's the problem. After all the magnificent reviews and feedbacks and sales etc...I thought I was in for an unforgettable read. I was sucked into it pretty quickly. I really liked the first third of the book, maybe half. Then it started to decline. I wasn't gripped or fascinated anymore. At times, I was even a bit annoyed at how blatantly dramatic it was.
I have to admit that it gave me a greater understanding of life in Afghanistan before and after the Talibans had taken power and I feel more emotionally connected with the Afghan people's oppression now. I loved being wrapped up in this country's scents, flavours and sounds. But I failed to connect with the narrator, probably because I never forgave him for what he did as a child. I know it's a story about redemption, about how hard it is for the narrator to even begin to forgive himself. But I guess he could have become a saint after and I still wouldn't have forgiven him...so, maybe it's my fault again.
For full reviews and different views see here:
Maw Books Blog

1MoreChapter

Blue Archipelago

Dog Ear Diary
Melody
The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness
Dewey
Alessandra
Michelle

The third and final disappointment is of a different kind altogether. It's a stylistic disappointment toward what announced itself to be an astoundingly beautiful piece of writing: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. Shortisted for the Booker Prize. Recent winner of the Costa Book of the Year. It has being received amazingly well by the press and the public. So how come I didn't like it?
Because I thought the writing was pompous, overly metaphorical, and, after a while, tedious, in every sense of the word. There were some very beautiful parts, but the overall feeling was of heaviness, and (I don't like being so harsh but it has to be said) boredom. I read it all, because I was told there was some sort of twist, of big surprise. But again I was disappointed. I had consider the possibility of that twist already, which is never good.
I'm not saying this is utter rubbish. I know plenty of people who are completely enthralled by this kind of writing. I'm just not one of them.
Other opinions:
1morechapter
raidergirl3




Please, feel free to agree or disagree with me and give me the link to your review. I'm happy to show different sides of the story!

Two Jenny Valentine's Books: Ten Stations and Broken Soup

This post is all in praise of Jenny Valentine. So be prepared. There' s not gonna be any criticism or any shades of disliking here. I just love this author so much, I'm gonna share it with you once again.
After reading Finding Violet Park because of the amazing cover art, I discovered her addictive writing. Now, after reading more of her work, I can happily say I'm a fan.

When the World Book Day books came out this year I was pleased for two main reasons:
1) The format of the books. No more thin, impossible-to-pile-in-neat-stacks books, but bookseller-friendly double volumes, which don't slide off every two second. They also occupy less space and cost the same as one book, thus giving the chance to kids (and me) to discover more than one author.
2) Jenny Valentine's Ten Stations.




I had no clue what it was about, just that it was a special short story written for the occasion.
Imagine my delight when I found out, reading it, that it's a follow up to Finding Violet Park! I got to meet Lucas again, together with his little brother Jed (now 7) and his granddad Norman and I got to know Mercy a bit better, although at times I wish I hadn't.
The story tells of how one day Lucas and his older sister Mercy decides to give their mum a break and bring Jed and Norman to the Science Museum.

"How hard can it be?"

Very, is the right answer.

I found this short story funny in a tragicomic sort of way. The characterisation is again the best part of the story. The adventure in the London Tube is another chance for Jenny Valentine to develop her wonderful characters. While putting them in a puzzling situation which could have turned into a nightmare, she shows us more about their lives, their weaknesses and their relationship with each other. The stars here are of course Jed and Norman. The funniest parts are all about them and their interaction with the surrounding.
With Jed and Norman getting on escalators, for example, can be a tricky experience:

You'd think Norman's brain went to sleep before they were invented.
"Moving stairs?" he said. "I can't be doing that."
...
"You just close your eyes and jump" Jed told him, and they did it, and Norman toppled a bit and then levelled out and smiled at his feet. It occurred to me that Jed knew best how to teach someone about escalators because it wasn't so long ago he'd learned himself.

But also walking through a crowd, waiting for a train, getting on a train, and make sure you're all still together when you get off, are no easy feats.

If you haven't had the pleasure to meet Lucas and his family yet, this is the quickest way to do it. I doubt you would regret it.
If you have read Violet Park and liked it, then this is obligatory reading!

The second book in line is also the second book Jenny Valentine's has published. It's called Broken soup and it boast another wonderful cover art. It's both different and similar to Violet Park.
Broken Soup is narrated by a girl, Rowan. She's a teenager, who, after her older brother Jack dies, is practically left in charge of her 6 year-old sister Stroma. Her mother has let herself slip into a dark abyss of sorrow, and her father has moved out. So Rowan experiences what it means to be a single parent at the age of 15, while still going to school and having to do homeworks every day. It's exhausting, but she can't bring herself to tell her dad the truth about her mother's depression.
One day, while queueing in a grocery shop, Rowan is approached by a good lucking guy with an American accent, who claims she had dropped something. Too embarrassed to say no, she accepts the object she hasn't actually drop and puts it in her pocket.
The object is a negative of a photograph.
Because of this simple act, her life changes. Slowly and gradually, but it definitely does. She meets Bee. Wonderful and friendly Bee, she is a breath of fresh air for Rowan's bereaved and lonely life. She starts hanging out in Bee's house and meet her unconventional family. But more importantly, she decides, thanks to Bee, to go forward and find out who the mysterious guy is and what the mysterious negative holds.

The charm of Jenny Valentine's style relies in the characters, I've already said that. But of course is not just that. It's in the way she describes emotions, which belies an attentive observation of human nature. It's in the metaphoric language, exemplified in the title, which can say so much with very little words. It's in the palpable love for all her characters. And in the fact that I feel I should reread this book right now to be able to explain why it was so good, because there's so much to highlight and to appreciate.
Oh, and there's a bit of a surprise ending, which combined with everything else that happens before, is a wonderful heart-warmer.

There. I found another comfort author to read when everything else around seems awful and unbearable. I almost feel reluctant to read her new book, The Ant Colony too soon, because I should save it for when I really need some comfort reading.
Till then, I hope to have converted as many booklovers as I can :)


ps:
Jenny Valentine doesn't seem to have a website, but she's on bebo! Check it out!

other blog reviews:
Broken Soup:
All my little words
Wondrous Reads
About Books
Chicklish
In the tower
Lorxiebookreviews

Ten Stations:
Bookwitch
Chicklish
Wondrous Reads

Have you also reviewed Ten Stations or
Broken Soup? Please, let me know!

Looking for Alaska - John Green

If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.

What can I say? Bloggers rule. Thank you guys for making me, almost forcing me, to pick this book up and read it. I don't think I would have got around it so soon, if it hadn't been for the gazillions of reviews I've seen around the blogworld raving about it. They all made it sound like it was a book you wouldn't want to miss, like a really special book. And I have to say it definitely was.

It's the story of Miles, aka Pudge, who decides to leave his old school to enroll at Culver Creek boarding school in search of a "Great Perhaps". He's the kind of guy who'd rather stay in and read a book. He has no real friends, nothing to hold him back, so he embarks happily in this new adventure, which he hopes will change his life completely. And it will.

This book made me wish I had attended boarding school. Before, I had a kind of dated idea of what a boarding school is like: a fearsome institution where children were sent to as a punishment. A lonely, sad, harsh place from which you'd want to run away as quickly as possible.
Culver Creek is quite the opposite. It actually sounds like a rather fun place to study and live in. Surrounded by woods, graced by a lake guarded by a psychotic swan, the campus becomes the stage of carefully-planned pranks and secret binge drinking sessions. But more importantly, it becomes a place where its students learn a lot about life, and not just on books.

The crowd Miles starts hanging out with is not your average teenage gang. Chip, aka The Colonel is something close to a genius, who is paying the school fees with his scholarship. Miles himself has a passion for famous people's biographies and last words. Takumi is a rhyme wizard, who nonchalantly mentions Arthur Miller and Emily Dickinson in his rapping.
And Alaska...Alaska is the most peculiar of all. Full of energy, passion, courage, but also angst and deep deep sadness. She's funny and cool, sexy and unpredictable. She is a master of pranks, and a tireless defender of women's dignity. She has a room piled with books she has collected all her life (The Life's Library), which she keeps for when she's old and boring. But it doesn't mean she doesn't read, despite what she says. She loves Auden and Kurt Vonnegut and Jane Eyre, but her favourite obsession is with Marquez's The General in his labyrinth, because she has her own labyrinth to escape from.
Obviously Miles takes less than a second to fall madly in love with her. And of course she is unreachable, very much in love with her boyfriend and very determined to be loyal to him.

Theirs is a story about friendship, first love, bufriedos and videogames. About the pains of desire and the much deeper pains of loss. It's hard to talk about it without giving away an important part of the story, but it's enough to say that everything that's dealt with, it's done with a profound perception of human emotions and reactions.
John Green's writing is so skillful. He manages to express longing, regret, confusion, anger and jealousy with the most accessible and yet touching language.

I could have written down pages and pages to quote from, but after a while I was too deepened into the story and too moved, between laughters and tears, that I didn't stop to note great passages. What I'd like to share, though, are two of my favourite funny quotes which recruited me instantly into the "John-Green-is-awesome" fan club.
Because although I've mentioned that there's sorrow and pain, there's just as much of fun and laughters:

(Right at the beginning, when Miles has just moved in his new room, shared with The Colonel)

Chip did not believe in having a sock drawer or a t-shirt drawer. He believed that all drawers were created equal and filled each with whatever fit.

(Alaska's response to Miles' complains after being woken up at 6.30 am on a Saturday by her playing a particularly loud video game)

"Pudge", she said, faux-condescending, "The sound is an integral part of the artistic experience of this video game. Muting Decapitation would be like reading only every other word of Jane Eyre..."

There's isn't much more I'd like to say about it. Just that the characterisations where brilliant, the pranks hilarious, especially the very last one, the ending beautiful, and that I loved loved loved it.

ps: I wish I could have a bufriedo right now!

other blog reviews:
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Eva at Curledup.com
Becky’s Book Reviews
Tiny Little Reading Room
Not Enough Bookshelves
Stuff as Dreams are Made On
Bart's Bookshelf
The Bluestocking Society
Out of the Blue
Em's Bookshelf
Books.Lists.Life
Sassymonkey Reads
Books & Other Thoughts
Nothing of Importance
Book Addiction
Care's Online Bookclub
where troubles melt like lemon drops
Nymeth
Stephanie's confessions of a book-a-holic


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The Dust of 100 Dogs - A.S. King

Do you know when you read a book and then you can't wait to review it? This is one of those books!
I was hooked since page one and remained hooked the whole way through. And obviously I loved it!

It's about Ireland and Barbados, pirates and dogs, treasures and battles, embroidering and jewels and especially about love - love 'till the end of the world.
So the story goes that once upon a time, in a beautiful Irish valley in 1600s lived Emer Morrisey, a bright and lively kid, and her peaceful family. Then Oliver Cromwell came and changed everything. Emer's parents are killed fighting and Emer is packed off to live with her cousins and violent uncle. There, in Connacht, she also meets Seanie O'Carroll, her one and only love, but her uncle has other plans and packs her off again to Paris to be married to some fat man.
I don't want to say too much about what happens because half of the fun is to follow Emer through her picaresque travels and wonder what will happen next to her.
The other half is about Saffron Adams, Emer's reincarnation. Yes, because Emer, on her last seconds of her life, is cursed to live a 100 lives as a dog and then to reincarnate in a human again, with her memories intact. So now Saffron is a child prodigy, knowing too much about history and too little about how to be a proper teenager. The one thing she knows is where her treasure is, and she's determined to go and dig it out, as soon as she turns 18.
Even though Emer's story is more exciting and I longed to follow her ever since she appears on the page, I didn't think Saffron's was in the way. It was fun to see how a 300 year-old soul would deal with a teenage body and duties. And I was dying to see what was gonna happen once she arrived in Jamaica.
There's a third layer to the story, and it's about an obnoxious fellow who is violent toward everything around him, including a dog (argh! poor dog). At first you might wander what such a guy is doing in the story, but it all comes together, at the end. Actually I urge you now NOT to read the interview at the end (like I did) before reading the story. There's a BIG spoiler, I would have rather not know...So you're warned.

I found this story completely fascinating. Lots of battles, adventures, escaping, big villains and lots of swearing.
I loved how the "dog facts" where placed carefully in the middle of the story, telling bits of Emer's lives as a dog and at the same time connecting to what is happening in the stories.
And I loved that Saffron isn't exactly Emer, but her own person who makes different decisions, based on what she has learned in her previous lives.
If you like strong women characters, pirates and great storytelling, you have to read this book.
For all the others, read it anyway. I think this is going to be the must-read book of the year :)

One last warning: It was rather graphic when it comes to violence scenes, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 15 years-old.

For a chance to win a copy visit A.S. King's blog regularly. She has many creative giveaways almost every day! There's one now which ends February 8th.

Finally, the book trailer. This is what made me want to read this in the first place. Thanks to Renay!



other blog reviews:
Carrie's YA Bookshelf
Presenting Lenore + interview
Liv's Book Reviews: Dust of 100 Dogs...Get Excited
The Magic of Ink
Becky's book reviews
Reviewer x
Jen Robinson
Bookshelves of doom
Zoe


have I missed yours?


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Young adult challenge 2009

I think I've read more the 12 YA books this year, but they weren't those that I chose originally. I didn't like changing the list completely, because it felt like cheating. So as I said, this year no choosing before hand. The rule is to read 12 YA books, one for each month. Is it really a challenge? nahhh...
To join go to J. Kaye's!

Holes - Louis Sachar

This was such a great read that I feel I could recommend it to anybody. Children, teenagers, adults, men or women. It’s a very quick read, but unlike some other short novels I read, it left quite a big impression on me. It’s probably because it can’t be categorised into anything I’ve read before and because it was so beautifully crafted. Its theme is unusual and it would be hard to convince someone to read it by simply telling them what it is about:

A clumsy and unlucky boy gets sent to a detention camp by mistake, where everyday, together with other “troubled” boys, he is made to dig a hole in the hard ground. Five feet deep, five feet across. Apparently this exercise is supposed to build their character and make them better boys, but there's something their warden is not telling them…

The truth is this is not just Stanley’s story at Camp Green Lake. It’s about Stanley’s ancestors, and about Stanley’s camp-mates. It’s about the weird connections that life lays ahead of us and how they affect our destiny one way or the other. It’s about lethal lizards and about onions. There’s also a hearth-breaking love story and a gypsy curse. And there’s friendship. Powerful and selfless friendship. That’s all I can say about it. More would spoil the plot, which is far more interesting than it sounds.

What I loved about it was the rewarding feeling that it gave me when all the threads came together in the end. All the different layers and the details in the story became one neat pattern of a jigsaw, which felt so satisfying. I love when the authors know exactly where they’re going and how they’re going to get there, even though it’s intimidating from an aspiring writer’s perspective.
I’m sure I will re-read it one day, which is saying a lot, since I don’t usually reread books.
Besides being a great piece of storytelling, it triggered many emotions. It was humorous, tragic and even heroic at some point. It was pure comfort reading. A book to keep for those reading slump sometimes people fall into. I can guarantee a speedy recovery!

Other blog reviews:
The Hidden side of a leaf
Courtney Rebecca
All Curled Up
In the Tower
Josette
Did u write a review of this book too? Let me know and I'll add your link.

The Wish House - Celia Rees

This is one of those books, I'm sorry to say, that didn't touch me at all. It left me almost completely indifferent. I know I'll forget about it very quickly, so I'm happy I jotted down some notes right after I finished it!

England, summer 1960s. For Richard this summer is a sort of initiation to adulthood. First love, first sex, first death.
It's also an introduction to the exotic, the unusual and outrageous, through the unconventional Dalton Family. Cleo attracts Richard's attention immediately, with her penetrating violet eyes and black shiny hair. She's 15, like Richard, but seems to have much more experience than him. At first their relationship goes though a time of bliss and playfulness. Having sex in the fields and woods, inventing games inspired by The Lord of the Rings or Swallow and Amazons. But soon Richards realises he can't have Cleo all for himself. He has to spend time with her millions of relatives, and more importantly, he has to pose for her father Jay, who seems to have found in him a new inspiration for his paintings.

There are hints of secrets that Cleo's family are hiding. There's an air of mysticism around Jay, but there's something else, some untold truth that might destroy their summery idyll for ever.

I read this till the end,eager to find out the big secrets, but honestly, there wasn't much to it. The ending felt very anti-climatic, and the story itself never had much appeal to me. I did like some things, though. The idea of the Daltons was intriguing and the writing itself was great. But other than that, a rather forgetful read.

Celia Rees is the author of Witch Child. I'd recommend to try that one, if you want to read something by her. It was different, in themes and settings, but definitely a much better book.

The Book Thief - Mark Zusak

This is definitely the best book I’ve read this year. It took me a while to sit down and write about it because I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it justice with my words. My copy is a big chunky hardback, 580 pages long, but it didn’t bother me to carry it around anywhere I went, while I was reading it. Instead I walked proudly with my big book under my arm, eagerly waiting for the next opportunity to continue the story.

A warning: the first few pages feel strange. The narrator takes his time to introduce us to the main story, playing with us, giving glimpses of what’s to come. We soon find out that it’s Death who’s speaking, and it’s his (oh, by the way, is Death male or female? Who knows…) peculiar point of view that will escort the reader throughout the book.
As soon as Liesel Meminger was introduced, I was scooped into the story and I wasn’t let go till the end.

At the start Liesel is 9, it’s 1939 and it’s Germany. She’s travelling with her mother and brother to a small town called Molching to meet her future foster-family, the Hubermanns. Her parents are communist, which is almost as bad as being a Jew, therefore her mother is forced to abandon her children and flee. During the journey Liesel’s brother suddenly dies, leaving her to face her new life alone. She has only one thing to remind her of the last day she saw her mother and brother. It’s a book that she picked up on the graveyard, “The Gravedigger’s handbook”. The first book stolen by the Book Thief.
Things don’t look very bright for Liesel. Her new Mama is a wardrobe-shaped woman who yells constantly and call her names. Her new house is bleak and cold, in school she’s forced to attend classes with smaller children due to her lack of education, and her nights are filled with nightmares of her dead brother. But not only Liesel is a tough little girl who knows how to defend herself, she also finds out that her new life is not as bad as it looks. Mama sounds fierce and abusive, but she’s also caring, in a very rough way. And Papa…he is the one that shows her unconditional love since the beginning. With his silvery eyes, his gentle heart and kind manners. Every night, when Liesel wakes up screaming, he is there, with his comfortable presence and his soothing accordion. Night after night he brings safety and trust back into her life, just by being there. Until one day they decide to use their sleepless nights to teach Liesel how to read. They use “The gravedigger’s handbook”, the book she stole. And letter by letter Hans Hubermann introduces Liesel to the art of reading.
During the day Liesel spends most of her time outside, on the street, playing football with her lemon-haired friend Rudy, who adores Jesse Owens and would do anything for one of her kisses. When the war begins, though, food becomes scarce and their main occupation is to find a way of filling their bellies.
One day they find a pfennig on the street and the first thing they do is to go to the shop and buy mixed lollies, please. But with one pfennig they can only afford one lolly and so they have to trade sucks, ten each.

Hurry up Saumensch, that’s ten already.
It’s not, it’s only eight – I’ve got two to go.
Well hurry up then. I told you we should have got a knife and saw it in half…
Come on that’s two.
All right. Here. And don’t swallow it.
Do I look like an idiot?
A short pause.
This is great, isn’t it?
It sure is, Saumensch.

I love this scene. It’s funny and sweet and it describes perfectly life during the war for two kids. When a pfenning found on the street and a shared lolly can make your day, leaving a happy grin on your red mouth.

Liesel’s life is due to change once more, though, the day Max Vandeburg, a Jew looking for a hiding place, arrives in her house. The basement, where she used to have her reading classes, becomes Max’s room, and soon enough the two of them establish an unlikely but enduring friendship.

There’s so much to tell about this story that I don’t think I can condense it here in few words. You have to read it yourself. All I can say it that it’s full of love. For reading, for people, for life. It’s incredibly full of love, in a time where hatred and violence was taught and encouraged. I guess this was Mark Zusak’s point. He wanted to tell the story of those who, although never rebelled against the regime, didn’t approve of it and just tried to survive it, while helping each other. It’s ironic that he chose Death as the narrator. But as you may have understood Death is not the evil skull-like face that we imagine. He’s just and observer, that happens to be distracted, amused or even moved by the “leftovers”, the survivors. This is a story about one of them.
Also, it’s a story about the power of books. Books are stolen (or saved, if you like), and in exchange they save lives, in many different ways. It’s books that save Liesel from her nightmares. A copy of Mein Kampf helps Max, the Jew, to reach the Hubermann’s basement. Their words have a soothing power, when they are read aloud by Liesel during the raids in the shelter.

It’s an ambitious book. Its structure is original, the language is mature and skilful, the sentences short and striking, the theme not an easy one. And the result is a very powerful book, which will stay with me for a very long time.
A last warning: be prepare to shed more than one tear for the ending.
And one advice: believe the hype!

other blog reviews
Nymeth at things mean a lot
Kristi at Passion for the page
Stephanie's confessions of a book-a-holic
Dewey
rebecca reads
caribousmom

The Year the Gypsies Came - Linzi Glass

I chose to read this because I was attracted by the cover since the first time I saw it. The title as well was very alluring. I took it home one day, and it sat there waiting, till now, or precisely till two weeks ago, when I finally picked it up. I’m very happy I did.

“The Year the Gypsies Came” is the first novel by Linzi Glass, who was born and brought up in South-Africa during the Apartheid. The book owes much to what she experienced during that time, but the book is not a memoir. It’s the very delicate and yet tragic story of a family during the 60’s in Johannesburg, told through the eyes of 12 year-old tomboy Emily.
They live in a great old house surrounded by two acres of wild garden, on the edge of a bluegum wood, so that at night the sounds of the forest and the nearby zoo make them feel like they’re in a savanna.
But Emily’s family, like so many others, is not a perfect one. Her self-absorbed, beauty-queen mother, and her shabby and frustrated father are always on the verge of a crisis. Emily is constantly but silently seeking affection from them, but they never seem to notice it. What she doesn’t receive from her parents, Emily gets it from her beautiful and kind-hearted older sister Sarah.
Sarah, who sees the world brighter than it is.
It’s so refreshing, for once, to read about a relationship between sisters that is not an endless fight, but instead is based on admiration without jealousy from Emily’s part and on care and love from Sarah’s.
Since their parents can’t stand to be together alone and face their problems they discover a way of avoiding tension that seems to work like magic: inviting a guest to stay with them for a while, and make their problems disappear.
That is why, that year, their father brings home not just one guest, but a whole caravan of Australian travellers. They weren’t exactly gypsies. They were nomads. But as Emily says for me they were, and always will be, gypsies. For they came to us that spring in a caravan and cast a spell over us, and changed our lives forever.

What I loved most about this book is the way it’s written. The only word that I can find that describes it it’s gentle. It feels like a petal that softly touches the story and never intrudes too much. You can almost smell the flowers and the trees with exotic names (jacaranda, poplar, bluegum…) while you listen to a story told by Buza, the Zulu watchman who sits on a wooden stool all night at the edge of the garden, holding his stick who has been passed through generations and holds the power of sixty dead Zulu warriors.
These stories and the relationship between the old Buza and Emily, is what makes this book special. I learned a bit about the traditions and myths of the Zulu culture which I knew nothing about, and I also learned to love Buza’s wise way of looking at the world. It’s him that Emily goes to when she has troubles understanding the people around her or when she needs advices. His stories have always something to do with her life as well, and sometimes they help her to cope with it, or to see things in a different way.
I particularly loved the tale of the Great Morara, the wolf warrior of the Blue Mountains of Lesotho, and Bohato, the young she-cub who was sent in the valley to learn an important lesson. That sometimes the people who make the most noise are the ones who hear the least. (…) It is the sounds in here that we must listen to. The inside voices that we cannot hear with our ears but instead feel with our hearts.

Somehow the actual story of the book seems less important to me than what happens around it. Buza with his stories, Emily and her cattery club, Sarah with her marmalade-scented hair and her kindness towards everybody, the bond that Emily establishes with Streak, the older brother of the family, which is sweet and special. And it’s as close to love as it can get at that age.

I don’t think that the tragedy is what the book is about. To me it feels like it was an excuse to tell us about these characters and their relationship between each other, and to make us care more about them when the tragedy strikes. And it worked.
I really enjoyed it and I'm going to recommend it in the store. Also I think I will look for her second book, Ruby Red, one day.

Set in Stone - Linda Newbery

After the lack of plot in Paddy Clarke I really wanted to read something straightforward, a compelling, absorbing story that would keep interested, with a good storyline, fascinating characters and possibly some romance. I ended up picking Set in stone by Linda Newbery, from the pile.
It won last year’s Costa children’s award, the former Whitbread prize. It had raving reviews by readers on Amazon, and a good enough cover, so I was curious about it.
It definitely served my needs of plot and twists, but it left me somewhat puzzled, and, mostly, unsatisfied.

It’s set at the end of the 19th century in England, and it tells the story of the Farrows, a rich and apparently quiet family, who hide some terrible and unspeakable secrets. Their story is told by young painter, Samuel Godwin, who is hired by Mr Farrow to be the art tutor of his two young daughters, Juliana and Marianne. And by their governess and companion Charlotte Agnew.
The stunningly beautiful mansion in the countryside where the Farrows live is named Fourwinds, after the sculptures of the four winds that Mr Farrow commissioned for the house. Only three, though, were actually put in place, leaving the fate of the West Wind to be one of the mysteries of this story.

At first Samuel Godwin thinks his life is sorted. He is living in a wonderful place, surrounded by nature, peace and harmony. His duties as a tutor only take him few hours of his evenings, leaving him the rest of day free to paint and to contemplate his lucky fate. He was hired to tutor mostly the older and quieter Juliana, but his attentions are drawn to the young and wild Marianne. Although he is aware of the age difference (he’s 21 and she only 16), he can’t help being completely fascinated and almost obsessed by her beauty and her untamed nature.
But as the time passes and he becomes more and more part of the family, he starts to realise that maybe things are not as uncomplicated as they look.
Together with Charlotte, the governess, he starts to unveil some truths about Farrow’s past that will change their lives completely.

This book left me kind of baffled because it’s hard to define. It’s supposed to be juvenile fiction, but the perspectives of the people who tell the stories are definitely adult. There’s two teenagers involved, but although they are two main characters, we don’t get to read their point of view. Which is kind of the main point of young adult books. I’m not sure that having two teenage girls in a book makes it automatically a young adult novel.
The writing was beautiful and completely suited for the times of the story. It almost felt like it was written in the 19th century. An example, to give you a sense of the general tone:

When I awoke in the morning it was from a dream of extraordinary vividness, so that I had to shake my head free of it, and gaze around my room several times to convince myself of where I was, and that the dream was not real but imagined. In it, I had been drawn by the liquid notes of a bird to the water’s edge, pushing my way through branches. I wondered now if the nightingale – for surely it could only be a nightingale? – had been pouring forth its song outside my window while I slept, for I could not have imagined such tunefulness. Of an intensity and sweetness that shivered over my skin, its song struck in me some chord of desperate yearning – for what, I did not know. In my dream I tried to draw closer, not expecting to see the bird itself, for I knew that it was brown and insignificant, and would not show itself in the summer night, but only to drink in more and more of that throbbing, silvery song, ever varying: now a mellifluous fluting, now low, drawn out and melancholy.

Despite the skillful writing, the intriguing premises (the cover speaks about love, art, immortality and desire)and the beautiful setting, this story didn’t do it for me. It evokes Gothic themes, but they always feel only evoked, never really an integral part of the story (Its main inspiration is Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White, which I haven’t read. But I also detected more than one reference to Jane Eyre).
It promises passion but it’s the lack of it that really
strikes me. The ending seems too easy, and the epilogue is slightly depressing, and if you’ll read it you know what I mean. It never has the “young adult” feel that I’m used to. It’s suitable for teenagers because it’s never too graphic or violent, but it doesn’t speak to them. It’s not an adult novel either because it doesn’t explore the implications of the issues it brings up deeply enough. It stands in between, and yet I wouldn’t classify it as a crossover, like for example The Book Thief, which I’m reading and loving. It was disappointing and this is because I always want to be completely in love with the book and its characters.
But it kept me interested till the end, so there was at least one good thing about it.

The Blue Girl - Charles de Lint

What a great book to start the year with! It was such a gripping read that at times I wished I could spend all day reading it, and at the same time I didn’t want to read it too quickly so that I wouldn’t come to the end too soon.
It’s my first encounter with Charles de Lint’s work, but I will definitely look for more books written by him. I can clearly see him becoming one of my favourite writers.
This one had a special meaning to me, even before I had the chance to read it. It was a book that I chose for a project for my MA in publishing. We had to pretend we were publishers and choose what books we were going to launch. Browsing Amazon for good young adult books not yet translated in Italian I was attracted by the beautiful cover art for “The Blue Girl” and immediately picked it. I’ve been wanting to read it ever since! And I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint me one bit. Sometimes it’s good to judge the book by its cover!

So, for those who never heard of Charles de lint, he is the founder of a subgenre called “urban fantasy”, where traditional elements of fantasy fiction and fairy tales like fairies, ghosts and all sorts of magical creatures mix with the urban setting of the modern world. The majority of his books are set in an imaginary provincial town called Newford, where anything is possible (a bit like in Sunnydale, and the references to “Buffy” don’t stop here, stay with me!).

“The Blue Girl” tells the story of 16 year-old Imogene, the new girl in town, who’s determined to leave her trouble-maker past behind her, and live a new life in Newford. Maybe that’s why she chooses to befriend Maxime, a shy, smart and bullied student, and tries not to draw attention to herself. But Imogene’s strong personality, punk look and straightforwardness don’t help to pass unnoticed. However she manages to keep things under control, including the school bullies, until Adrian, the Ghost of a lonely kid who died in the school’s parking lot few years before, falls in love with her and tells her about his fairy friends, the Little People, who live in their school. While Maxine is excited to think that fairies really exist as she always hoped, Imogene thinks it’s nonsense and refuses to believe it. And that’s when the trouble starts.

“The Blue Girl” is not only a well-written, funny and clever fantasy novel. It’s also the story of a typical High School, which can often feels like a horror movie. Where bullies can pick on the weak, the shy and the different, and where friendship become the only means to survival.
This is why this book reminds me so much of “Buffy the vampire slayer”. Imogene and Maxine’s relationships is so much like Buffy and Willow’s at the beginning. The quick, hilarious dialogues have the same feel, and Imogene’s casual attitude to the unusual and the scary is so like Buffy’s, even without superpowers. They also have a librarian called Ms Giles! Even if she’s only mentioned a couple of times. And what about the use of words like “research-mode” and “ghost boy”?
Don’t be put off, though, if you’re not exactly a Buffy fan. The book is far from being a rip off of the show. It’s unique in its values and perspectives. And it’s a must read for anyone who enjoys fantasy, adventures, cool dialogues and the idea of having a bunch of amoral fairies dressed like hippy with dreadlocks, an imaginary friend who’s not imaginary anymore, and some scary soul-sucking shadows all wrapped up in one single book!

other blog reviews
Chris at Stuff as dreams are made on

Young Adult Challenge!

New year, new Challenge...
I've already seen tons and tons of challenges all over the places and I'd love to join them all because they're great fun, but since I'm not that good at reading books that I *have* to read, I've decided to keep the number of challenges for 2008 very low, meaning no more than 2 or 3! This at The Thoughts of Joy seems like the perfect one to start with. I do read a LOT of young adult novels anyway, and hopefully it will help me through the ever-growing pile of TBRs!(yeah, another rule that I will introduce this year is DON'T JOIN CHALLENGES WITH BOOKS THAT I DON'T HAVE ALREADY!, given the enormous amount of unread books that I keep accumulating).

So, for this challenge you have to choose 12 YA books to read during 2008, so it's 1 a month. I do read more than one a month usually, but I plan to read "adult" books too:P
They also can overlap with other challenges which is nice.

Here's the list:
(If by any chance I'll read any of these before 2008 I'll replace them with some others)

1) A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd

2) Epic by Conor Kostick

3) Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce

4) Raven's gate by Anthony Horowitz

5) Secret of the Fearless by Elizabeth Laird

6) Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

7) Holes by Louis Sachar

8) The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

9) The Wish House by Celia Rees

10) The Year the Gypsies Came by Linzie Glass

11) Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

12) Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper



done!