This one begins with Need by Carrie Jones, and continues with Captivate, both of which I finished this week. What a great series--unlike so many supernatural romances, this one is smart, and focuses on Norse mythology, which is a welcome twist away from the usual (stereotypical) Celtic Fae.
Oh, it's still a supernatural romance and it's still full of teen angst. But this one, this one I could hand to an adult (a smart, literate adult) and expect that they will enjoy it. Which is a nice change.
And without giving too much away (which I try so hard not to do), I would just like to add how much I appreciate and respect any author who makes it a point to have the main character say something like, "It's not that I can't live without him, it's just that it will really suck." Which might seem small, but really, it's huge, because it suggests to all the teenage girls reading the book that they are absolutely strong and smart enough to live through even the really crappy stuff that life is bound to hand them. (Unlike the female protagonist of another series who shall remain nameless who completely stops functioning if she does not have a boyfriend to help her exist. Ahem.)
Need was so compelling that I finished it in about 18 hours--with a good night's sleep sharing that time. Captivate was less compelling, but still I've finished them both in five days...
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Tormented by Sequels
One of the things I have learned from this blogging experience: it is almost ridiculously difficult to blog about sequels.
The other day, I finished Torment, the sequel to Lauren Kate's Fallen. I am not even sure which characters I should mention, because I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not yet finished (or even started) Fallen! So, a generic reaction: I liked Torment better than Fallen, but it dragged at the end. As with so many YA series, this probably could have been condensed to half the length and still been just as good. I find this very frustrating! But my students' love it, so maybe that's just my life experience coming into play. Who knows?
I'm now reading Need by Carrie Jones. Weird, creepy, and good--so far!
Just for kicks, here are my 2010 reads-to-date:
The other day, I finished Torment, the sequel to Lauren Kate's Fallen. I am not even sure which characters I should mention, because I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not yet finished (or even started) Fallen! So, a generic reaction: I liked Torment better than Fallen, but it dragged at the end. As with so many YA series, this probably could have been condensed to half the length and still been just as good. I find this very frustrating! But my students' love it, so maybe that's just my life experience coming into play. Who knows?
I'm now reading Need by Carrie Jones. Weird, creepy, and good--so far!
Just for kicks, here are my 2010 reads-to-date:
- Notes from the Midnight Driver
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Beautiful Creatures
- Ballad
- Her Fearful Symmetry
- Going Bovine
- The Lightning Theif
- The Girl Who Played with Fire
- Nurtureshock
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
- Marcelo in the Real World
- The Lost Symbol
- Murder Takes the Cake
- Cador
- The Hollow
- The Adoration of JEnna Fox
- Whose Body
- The Great Gatsby
- Unwind
- An Expert in Murder
- Wondrous Strange
- Darklight
- The Chosen One
- Food Rules
- Little Brother
- Stopping Time
- The Hole We're In
- Garden Spells
- Henry's Sisters
- Tales from Outer Suburbia
- The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
- Rubber Houses
- Angelology
- If I Stay
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
- The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
- The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
- Three Witches
- The Solitude of Prime Numbers
- Fallen
- Dead in the Family
- Night
- Tinkers
- The Lace Reader
- Spooky Little Girl
- The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
- What Was Lost
- Little Bee
- Hush, Hush
- Teach Like a Champion
- Heroes
- The Map of True Places
- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
- The Sugar Queen
- Mockingjay
- Holding onto Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones
- Liar
- The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Tenth Grade
- The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eleventh Grade
- Beautiful Lies
- Later, at the Bar...
- Sharp Teeth
- The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Twelfth Grade
- The GRITS Guide to Life
- The World's Shortest Stories
- The Haunted
- The Penelopeiad
- Torment
Monday, October 11, 2010
So Many Books (and Blogs), So Little Time
When I posted my book updates on Facebook at the end of September, I realized that I had missed blogging about a book--and one that I enjoyed, to boot! It was The Penelopeiad by Margaret Atwood. Perhaps because it was my duty to teach The Odyssey for so many years, I was delighted to read the story from Penelope's point of view. My goodness, but it made me mad every time I had to tell students that Odysseus has been hailed as a hero for millenia (and pitied because he just had to sleep with all those beautiful goddesses...then had the nerve to test Penelope's faithfulness!!!).
Then I read The Haunted by Jessica Verday, the sequel to The Hollow. And like The Hollow, I felt like this book could have packed all the action into half the text. Still, I enjoyed it. I love how Verday has taken the Sleepy Hollow legend (and locale!) and made it such a part of her "new" story. I do wish the whole story had been told in one volume rather than a(n unnecessary, IMHO) trilogy.
Finally, today I finished Troy High by Shana Norris. What a great re-telling of The Iliad! Very accessible, and very clever. My only real concern--if concern is even the word--is that it would be so much better after reading The Iliad, yet most students who can handle The Iliad are so far beyond this (very) young adult novel. Still, it's a stepping stone--and a well-written stepping stone at that. What would you do if Helen of Troy (a/k/a Elena Argos) went to your high school?! I promised my students I would hurry to finish this so they can begin borrowing it...I can't wait to hear their reviews!
Then I read The Haunted by Jessica Verday, the sequel to The Hollow. And like The Hollow, I felt like this book could have packed all the action into half the text. Still, I enjoyed it. I love how Verday has taken the Sleepy Hollow legend (and locale!) and made it such a part of her "new" story. I do wish the whole story had been told in one volume rather than a(n unnecessary, IMHO) trilogy.
Finally, today I finished Troy High by Shana Norris. What a great re-telling of The Iliad! Very accessible, and very clever. My only real concern--if concern is even the word--is that it would be so much better after reading The Iliad, yet most students who can handle The Iliad are so far beyond this (very) young adult novel. Still, it's a stepping stone--and a well-written stepping stone at that. What would you do if Helen of Troy (a/k/a Elena Argos) went to your high school?! I promised my students I would hurry to finish this so they can begin borrowing it...I can't wait to hear their reviews!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The End of a Series...or Is It?
The final book in The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod was released, and of course I read it immediately. It was not disappointing. And since this is a series so many of my students read, I won't even tell you that obviously it is going to continue as he goes off to college, because even that might be giving too much away. My lips are sealed!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Knowing someone isn't coming back
doesn't mean you ever stop waiting. (210)
I have to admit
I loved this book
but I also have to admit that
I was very relieved
as I read
to know that my dogs
were not
at the foot of my bed.
It has beautiful words
like
At night he lies down on the benches and contemplates
the deception of starlight, long dead suns making small lights
almost bright enough to guide the way. (220)
And it has profound observations
like
In the car, the rap song has every other word beeped out
as if the small words themselves were a dangerous thing, and not
the ideas of violence and waste and ridiculous luxury
that the songs clutch in their rough embrace.
Everyone is always looking in the wrong direction,
we worry about our lovers while losing our jobs
we stress out about cancer while our children run away
we ponder the stars while burning the earth.
Lark used to say the bullet we're running from
is almost never the one that hits us. (92)
But mostly it is full of
dogs and men and
one woman per pack
and a really good story that almost makes you
forget you are reading an epic poem.
(Hide it from the children
and possibly the dogs so
they don't realize we know too much.)
doesn't mean you ever stop waiting. (210)
I have to admit
I loved this book
but I also have to admit that
I was very relieved
as I read
to know that my dogs
were not
at the foot of my bed.
It has beautiful words
like
At night he lies down on the benches and contemplates
the deception of starlight, long dead suns making small lights
almost bright enough to guide the way. (220)
And it has profound observations
like
In the car, the rap song has every other word beeped out
as if the small words themselves were a dangerous thing, and not
the ideas of violence and waste and ridiculous luxury
that the songs clutch in their rough embrace.
Everyone is always looking in the wrong direction,
we worry about our lovers while losing our jobs
we stress out about cancer while our children run away
we ponder the stars while burning the earth.
Lark used to say the bullet we're running from
is almost never the one that hits us. (92)
But mostly it is full of
dogs and men and
one woman per pack
and a really good story that almost makes you
forget you are reading an epic poem.
(Hide it from the children
and possibly the dogs so
they don't realize we know too much.)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
A Double Shot of Books for Grown-ups
It is so unusual for me to have time to read two books that I won't ever recommend to my students--let alone two in a row. And yet, that is what I've just done!
Friday morning, I finished Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger. If it hadn't been the first week of school, I would have been done sooner--but I kept falling asleep as I tried to read! (This had nothing to do with the book, by the way, and everything to do with my level of sheer exhaustion as I readjusted away from my summer schedule.) It was such a compelling book--quite well-written, and it raised as many questions as it answered. Ridley Jones saves a young boy's life, and the fall-out of this heroic act is not what anyone could have predicted. A few weeks later, she receives an envelope that contains an old photo of a young family with the terrible question, "Are you my daughter?" Her adventure--at times harrowing, at times heart-breaking--begins. I am not often one for the crime/thriller genre, but this was a wonderful departure
The hardest thing to do upon finishing a really, really good book is to find another book that doesn't disappoint. But last night I picked up Rebecca Barry's brilliant Later, at the Bar and didn't put it down--well, except to sleep--until I was done. This "novel in stories" allowed me to enjoy years with old friends while here in the comfort of my living room. Set in upstate New York (an hour or so from here, I'd guess), this collection of short stories allows the reader to see the world through the eyes of various patrons of Lucy's Tavern. We laugh, we love, and we live with them in the pages of this book, which was perhaps the best book I have read this year. It was, quite simply, real. There is no judgment in its pages, just the true story of a group of regulars. When I reread this book (which I will), I will be sure to have a glass of whisky, neat, in my other hand.
Friday morning, I finished Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger. If it hadn't been the first week of school, I would have been done sooner--but I kept falling asleep as I tried to read! (This had nothing to do with the book, by the way, and everything to do with my level of sheer exhaustion as I readjusted away from my summer schedule.) It was such a compelling book--quite well-written, and it raised as many questions as it answered. Ridley Jones saves a young boy's life, and the fall-out of this heroic act is not what anyone could have predicted. A few weeks later, she receives an envelope that contains an old photo of a young family with the terrible question, "Are you my daughter?" Her adventure--at times harrowing, at times heart-breaking--begins. I am not often one for the crime/thriller genre, but this was a wonderful departure
The hardest thing to do upon finishing a really, really good book is to find another book that doesn't disappoint. But last night I picked up Rebecca Barry's brilliant Later, at the Bar and didn't put it down--well, except to sleep--until I was done. This "novel in stories" allowed me to enjoy years with old friends while here in the comfort of my living room. Set in upstate New York (an hour or so from here, I'd guess), this collection of short stories allows the reader to see the world through the eyes of various patrons of Lucy's Tavern. We laugh, we love, and we live with them in the pages of this book, which was perhaps the best book I have read this year. It was, quite simply, real. There is no judgment in its pages, just the true story of a group of regulars. When I reread this book (which I will), I will be sure to have a glass of whisky, neat, in my other hand.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Two for the Road
One August finish, and one for September: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Tenth Grade Bleeds and Eleventh Grade Burns.
Since this is a series, I won't try to summarize: it is too easy to give too much away from the earlier books. If you haven't read this series, start now! It is just a good, easy read. One of my favorite things about is that is not predictable--at least not if you're following Joseph Campbell's hero's journey archetype. This is refreshing, because too often I can predict what will happen in all sequels after reading just the first book in a series.
Now, if I can just wait until September 21 when the final book is released...
Since this is a series, I won't try to summarize: it is too easy to give too much away from the earlier books. If you haven't read this series, start now! It is just a good, easy read. One of my favorite things about is that is not predictable--at least not if you're following Joseph Campbell's hero's journey archetype. This is refreshing, because too often I can predict what will happen in all sequels after reading just the first book in a series.
Now, if I can just wait until September 21 when the final book is released...
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