Review: The Wells Bequest

The Wells Bequest
The Grimm Legacy, Book 2

Author: Polly Shulman
Pages: 272
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Read: June 13-15, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Leo never imagined that time travel might really be possible, or that the objects in H. G. Wells’ science fiction novels might actually exist. And when a miniature time machine appears in Leo’s bedroom, he has no idea who the tiny, beautiful girl is riding it. But in the few moments before it vanishes, returning to wherever—and whenever—it came from, he recognizes the other tiny rider: himself!

His search for the time machine, the girl, and his fate leads him to the New-York Circulating Material Repository, a magical library that lends out objects instead of books. Hidden away in the Repository basement is the Wells Bequest, a secret collection of powerful objects straight out of classic science fiction novels: robots, rockets, submarines, a shrink ray—and one very famous time machine. And when Leo’s adventure of a lifetime suddenly turns deadly, he must attempt a journey to 1895 to warn real-life scientist Nikola Tesla about a dangerous invention. A race for time is on!

In this grand time-travel adventure full of paradoxes and humor, Polly Shulman gives readers a taste of how fascinating science can be, deftly blending classic science fiction elements with the contemporary fantasy world readers fell in love with in The Grimm Legacy.

Previous Book in Series:
1: The Grimm Legacy

First Sentence: "The Wednesday when the whole time-travel adventure began, I was fiddling with my game controller, trying to make the shoot button more sensitive."

Review:

When a surprise package with The Wells Bequest showed up on my doorstep, I was actually super excited. For once, a sequel to a book I'd actually read and enjoyed; the gods were obviously smiling on me. The Wells Bequest turned out to be just as much fun as The Grimm Legacy, full of nerdy references and jokes, surprise historical figures, and adventure.

Let me explain this series a little bit for those who are unfamiliar. The Wells Bequest is more of a companion novel than a direct sequel. Jaya, Leo's love interest, had a role in the first book, but otherwise they're fairly unconnected. The series centers on a library: The New-York Circulating Material Repository. This repository loans items, rather than books, ranging from an ordinary toaster to automatons built centuries ago. Even more special, the repository contains items from fiction, made real through some sort of complex paradox. Believe me, you don't want to get the librarians started on whether fiction is fictional. Obviously, I love this premise. Where The Grimm Legacy focused on objects from the Grimm fairytales, The Wells Bequest deals primarily with items from H.G. Wells' science fiction stories.

Everything kicks off when Leo, sitting and playing video games in his room, gets some surprise visitors: himself and a very pretty girl. Also, they're six inches tall and riding on a little box. They inform him that they're from the future, and Leo's future self commands him to read The Time Machine. He does so, which interests him in the idea of time travel. Since he has a science project to do for school, he considers doing it on time travel, but decides to do robots instead and his teacher sends him to the repository to research.

Leo had some self-esteem issues at the beginning of the book. The son of genius parents with genius siblings, he didn't get admitted to the good school he'd applied to. He doesn't test well, and feels inferior to his family. Leo himself is a genius too in his own way, brilliant at building and fixing mechanical gadgets. His adventure and his work at the repository helps him to appreciate his own skills.

Some of the time travel stuff gets a bit convoluted, but overall this was just such a fun read. I love all of the references to various classic stories, which are not limited to H. G. Wells. If you're a fan of nerdy references of the literary or historical variety, then you'll want to check this out. For example, both Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla make appearances in The Wells Bequest. Another big perk of the series is how diverse it is, with characters from various countries and ethnic backgrounds.

The main weakness I found in the book was that some of the dialogue did feel a bit forced. Leo and Jaya know so much and are incredibly well-read. However, occasionally one of them would ask an incredibly simple question. It just felt like sometimes the characters were given an unlikely knowledge gap, so that they needed something explained to them, thus imparting the audience with that information. There are better ways to get that done.

Polly Shulman's The Wells Bequest is a fantastic sequel to The Grimm Legacy. This series will have a lot of appeal to middle graders, since it's full of humor, adventure and a bit of magic. Parents will love the amount of educational information snuck into the book. The series reads a bit like a middle grade version of the Thursday Next series.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'Would you really want to live in a world where only the possible is possible?'"

Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Fairyland, Book 1

Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Pages: 247
Publisher: Square Fish
Source: Gifted by Kayla of Bibliophilia, Please

Description from Goodreads:
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

First Sentence: "Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents' house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog."

Review:

Though Catherynne M. Valente's novels have been on my radar for a while now, I've honestly been a bit terrified to read them. They're so lauded by readers I respect highly and I really feared that I would be the black sheep of dissidence. I'd heard they were strange and that doesn't always jive so well with my tastes, but, oh, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is just the right kind of strange.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland recalls many classic tales: Alice in Wonderland, the myth of Persephone, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to name a few. I make these comparisons not to suggest that Valente's tale lacks in originality in any way, but that she cleverly weaves a story full of allusions to those classic tales. Though I don't usually do this, I'm going to structure much of my review around these comparisons, since The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland has been reviewed by many people already, and I feel free to do my own weird thing with it.

The tone and the sheer madcap adventure-filled feel of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is one hundred percent Alice in Wonderland. Though there was little that specifically seemed directly out of Carroll's classic absurdist tale, his influence is visible on every page. The girl stumbles into a magical land and bounces from quest to quest, with the ultimate goal of unseating an evil female ruler, who destroyed the benevolent queen. Valente fully embraces the absurd, but, where Carroll's story lacks for me—characterization, Valente shines, but I'll talk about that more later.

The Persephone myth works as a frame story to September's adventures. There are clever references throughout, but the main purpose is to explain why September will eventually return. I love the way that Valente set up the very end. It's simply perfection, bringing the rest of the plotting full circle. Sometimes it feels like the weird novels are so spontaneous and surprising because the author didn't know what was going on either, but it's very apparent that Valente knew exactly what she was doing.

I have two points to make with reference to the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The most overt similarity is that one of the characters traveled to Fairyland by means of wardrobe, an obvious omage to Lewis' tale. However, there's another comparison to be made, a bit subtler. Like Lewis' classic, September travels to a magical world during wartime. Her father is off fighting in WWII and her mother works as an engineer. She feels lonely and doesn't understand what's going on very well. Valente turns September's adventures in Fairyland into a neat platform by which to make observations on the nature of war.

As I said, there's so much more to Valente's tale than those structural similarities, all of which I love a lot. Her characters are a delight, though I must admit this is one of those times where the supporting cast is much more dear to me than the MC. September is a delightful girl, it's true. She has a lot more strength and graciousness than the average heroine, and is much more empowered in her story than any of the ones in the three classic tales I mentioned previously, which is utterly fantastic. She just can't compete with her sidekicks, though.

Those who know me well will probably not be surprised to learn that my favorite character is A-Through-L, affectionately known as Ell, the wyverary. He's a wyvern, sort of like a dragon, but also the son of a library. He knows absolutely everything about anything found between the letters A through L, which is immensely helpful on a journey, and he's the most delightful companion a girl could want through Fairyland. I also love Gleam, a lantern over a century old and desperate for adventure, and Saturday, a creature similar to a genie who I'm really looking forward to getting to know better in the next installment.

Even the evil Marquess is a marvelously well-drawn character. Often villains take a back seat to the good guys, lacking complexities in books with otherwise sophisticated characterization. Valente, however, made her villain one of the most complex characters in the piece. She gives the Marquess a reason for the way she is, and makes her at least a little bit sympathetic.

On top of all of that, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. Her writing is a veritable feast of deliciously underused words. Though I do think this might be a tough read for children, it would be a perfect choice for parents to read aloud to their kids, though they may end up explaining quite a few terms. This is a story that will delight children, I think, but adults even more so, in a rather different way perhaps.

Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is absolutely marvelous, and I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone who delights in verbiage, characterization, fairy tales, or any of those stories I mentioned above. With this one book, Valente goes on my auto-read list.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote: "All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.)"

Review: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Authors: Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
Pages: 260
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
“I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

First Sentence: "Imagine this: You're in your favorite bookstore, scanning the shelves."

Review:

Do you ever really enjoy a book, but also feel like you don't have a ton of complimentary things to say about it at the same time? This happens to me every so often, and Dash & Lily's Book of Dares is most definitely one such book for me. While I turned pages excitedly and squeed over the concept, a lot of the execution left me seriously cold and rolling my eyes.

Starting with the good stuff, Dash & Lily's hooked me immediately. Cohn & Levithan pretty much guarantee that no bookish person will be able to stop reading within the first couple of sentences. While perusing shelves in the Strand, Dash discovers a red Moleskine notebook tucked in among editions of one of his favorite books, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Inside this notebook, he finds a little scavenger hunt of sorts, which takes him around the bookstore from awkward book to awkwarder book, in an effort to see if he just might be the right guy for the notebook's author Lily.

Turns out, though, that Lily was sort of put up to this little endeavor, largely out of the boredom of a holiday spent without her family (all off on romantic endeavors on their own). Dash, also left to his own devices for the Christmas holiday, instead of leaving a way to contact him as instructed, leaves Lily instructions for some dares of his own. For several days, they travel to some of the most famous of New York's sites, while falling in like with the person on the other side of the notebook. This whole concept was just completely adorable, and what bookish person hasn't wanted to find someone via the medium of bonding over a shared favorite book? This book also makes you feel like you're traveling around NYC yourself, which I always really love.

While the writing is quite well done and full of brilliant observations, I just felt like Cohn and Levithan were trying to hard. Dash and Lily both failed to really coalesce into actual people for me, as though the characters took a backseat to highlighting just how clever the authors are. Since I've read books by both of them and I know they don't always write this way, I'm not sure what happened here, but it just didn't have a natural cadence.

Dash made more sense as a character, and seemed much more consistent as a whole than Lily. However, he's also incredibly obnoxious. Basically, the whole time I was hoping they would meet and hate each other (which would have been really believable). I would even prefer Lily hooking up with Edgar, the smarmy guy who was an accessory to the tragic show-and-tell murder of her gerbil in elementary school, than with Dash. I just found him incredibly obnoxious and superior, the stereotypical annoying hipster. Also, everyone Lily asks describes Dash solely as 'snarly,' but when she meets him, she doesn't mention that at all, which struck me as hugely inconsistent. All of a sudden it's all about how he rocks a fedora and how incredibly gorgeous his blue eyes are. Changing his character entirely to sell the big ending doesn't work for me.

Lily, on the other hand, feels completely thrown together. She has so many unique component parts that do not seem to glue together into a person. For all that she has all the idiosyncrasies that should combine into a personality, she always bored me. Other than the filling out of the journal, she comes across as extremely young, constantly throwing temper tantrums (Shrilly), has no friends, which she seems hardly to notice, and doesn't make smart choices (like wearing one shoe and one boot around so her snarly prince can find her). Worse still, the journal, which would seem to evince what a clever person she is, was not even her idea in the first place. Her own challenges were much more poorly conceived than the original created by someone else. Dash annoyed me and Lily bored me.

The best character by far in this piece is Lily's incredibly sassy aunt, who she calls Mrs. Basil E., for the sassy older woman in Konigsburg's classic. Mrs. Basil will say absolutely anything, such as when she interrogates Dash about his intentions (frankly, they have more chemistry than he and Lily do). Lily's aunt will happily assist in any sort of fiendish plot and says things like "I never married because I was too easily bored" (154). Now, this is my kind of woman. If only she had had a larger part in the book.

Dash & Lily's is fun, no question, but I feel like it could easily have been so much better. In the end, it's just hard to sell a romance novel where I don't see the couple lasting for longer than a week, because Dash will find the bloom is off the Lily within a matter of hours, I suspect.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "'If you tell me, I will leave you alone,' I said. 'And if you don't tell me, I am going to grab the nearest ghostwritten James Patterson romance novel and I am going to follow you through this store reading it out loud until you relent. Would you prefer me to read from Daphne's Three Tender Months with Harold or Cindy and John's House of Everlasting Love? I guarantee, your sanity and your indie street cred won't last a chapter. And they are very, very short chapters.'"

Review: Meant to Be

Meant to Be

Author: Lauren Morrill
Pages: 290
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

First Sentence: "There are certain things in life that just suck."

Review:

OMG, you guys, pardon me while I flail freaking everywhere over how incredibly hilarious and wonderful and perfect for me this book is! Ahhhhh! There are certain authors who are just like made of magic for me, you know? Their every written word speaks to me. They're funny and clever, and say express the things that I think and feel all of the time, and, were I the kind of person to mark up my books, their books would be a mess of notes. Well, Lauren Morrill has just joined that esteemed crew with her debut novel Meant to Be.

I could tell straight off that this novel would be a fantabulous read for me. The book opens with, "There are certain things in life that just suck. Pouring a big bowl of Lucky Charms before realizing the milk is expired, the word 'moist,' falling face-first into the salad bar in front of the entire lacrosse team . . ." It you can make me laugh with the first two sentences, things are looking up. I proceeded to highlight a bunch of quotes that spoke to me and made me laugh. If you go on GR, right now and look up quotes by Lauren Morrill, I added all of them, because I'm a nutter and obsessed.

My very favorite aspect of Meant to Be is how well-drawn Julia is. She totally rocks, but which I mean she's kind of awkward and judgmental and anal-retentive. Julia might have more in common with me than any heroine I've ever encountered, with our main differences being her skill as a swimmer and her dedication to homework. Julia, like me, is not a rule-breaker, pretty much as a rule, and, when she does break them, it's this sort of painful mix of fun and fear. She loves reading more than just about anything else and has only one close friend, Phoebe. On top of that, she's introverted and has curly, frizzy hair she cannot figure out what to do with. My advice to her on that last one is confidence; if you pretend it looks awesome, a lot of people will be fooled.

What was most familiar to me about Julia was her perspective. Julia's mental dialog is pretty much exactly what it's like to live in my head, especially my less self-aware high school brain. Despite being incredibly intelligent and witty, Julia, when in a social situation, generally fails to prove herself verbose and lacks witty retorts. Yet, in her head, she has this constant judgmental, snarky commentary running at all times, which, of course, deserts her at times of need. She also has a temper and doesn't realize how harsh or superior she comes off to other people. To me, Julia is one hundred percent realistic, believable and hilarious.

I will say that the only other strongly-developed character is Jason, and even he takes a definite back seat. This is no surprise given how caught up Julia is in her own world and impressions of things and people. Since it's just like my mind, I can tell you right now that she's not the most reliable narrator. Meant to Be is definitely driven by Julia, so I suspect that if you don't like her the book won't be much fun for you.

The romance does not go anywhere surprising, but it's totally one of my favorite formulas. I've always been so weak to the boy and girl who don't like each other at first plotline, because of my love of Pride and Prejudice, which Morrill is obviously a total fangirl about too, based on the numerous references. Shakespeare comes up a lot too, of course, but, if this is actually a retelling of anything (I thought it was a Shakespeare retelling, though I suspect I made that up), it's of P&P.

In Meant to Be, Julia has to deal with a lot of personal issues surrounding her own expectations. She has love built up into this epic construct in her mind, and it's totally messing her up. Again, I relate to this to an insane degree. Her realizations are important ones and I think this sends a great message to teens compared to all of the obnoxious teen love lasts forever stuff. While Jason and Julia do, I think, have amazing chemistry, I also don't know what I see them making a great couple for all time, and I like that.

The last thing I must mention is the setting. Meant to Be takes place during a class trip to London. Julia has signed up with out her best friend and is stuck with a whole bunch of other teens she mostly doesn't like while trying to enjoy herself in a foreign country. Girl, I have been there and it is unfortunate, especially since I didn't have a Jason. Meant to Be is one of those books that makes you feel like you're traveling. I already wanted to go to London so, so much, and now I want to just pack up and go right now, though I'm far too plan-oriented for that, as Julia would understand.

Though I had a couple of small issues with Meant to Be (mostly to do with the cell phones the school provided for them during the trip, which I so do not see happening), I completely adored the whole book and will be devouring everything else Morrill writes as soon as I possibly can.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote: "There's a difference between preferring books to parties and preferring sixteen cats to seeing the light of day."

Review: The Woman Who Died a Lot

The Woman Who Died a Lot
Thursday Next, Book 7

Author: Jasper Fforde
Pages: 363
Publisher: Viking Adult
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
The newest tour de force starring Thursday Next in the New York Times bestselling series

The Bookworld’s leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been forced into a semiretirement following an assassination attempt, returning home to Swindon and her family to recuperate.

But Thursday’s children have problems that demand she become a mother of invention: Friday’s career struggles in the Chronoguard, where he is relegated to a might-have-been; Tuesday’s trouble perfecting the Anti-Smote shield, needed in time to thwart an angry Deity’s promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth; and the issue of Thursday’s third child, Jenny, who doesn’t exist except as a confusing and disturbing memory.

With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, and a call from the Bookworld to hunt down Pagerunners who have jumped into the Realworld, Thursday’s convalescence is going to be anything but restful as the week ahead promises to be one of the Next family’s oddest.

Series Up to This Book:
1: The Eyre Affair (Goodreads)
2: Lost in a Good Book (Goodreads)
3: The Well of Lost Plots (Goodreads)
4: Something Rotten (Goodreads)
5: First Among Sequels (Goodreads|Review)
6: One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Goodreads|Review)

First Sentence: "Everything comes to an end."

Review:
Thursday Next and I have been on quite the journey in the last week or so. As I've mentioned, I have generally either not much liked or nigh loved all of the prior Thursday Next books. The Woman Who Died a Lot finally proves that I can actually like two Thursday Next books in a row, so huzzah for that. While this one did not entertain me quite so much as 1, 4, and 6, I found it a solid read without any slow spots.

This Thursday Next book starkly stands out from the rest. The entirety of this book takes place in the real world. Of course, it's Fforde's version of the real world, which reaches high levels of ridiculousness on a slow day. Seriously, there is no BookWorld in this novel, by which I mean the reader doesn't get to go to the BookWorld which does still exist. Since the BookWorld has generally been my favorite part of the series, I was really bummed when I figured that out, but, surprisingly, it worked out.

The saving grace here was that The Woman Who Died a Lot successfully weaves together a few overarching plots, something that failed to happen in First Among Sequels. Rather than feeling like a bunch of jokes welded together artificially, this felt like a story. I will say, though, that there seemed to be a bit less humor in this one overall, as well as less of the literary references, so, if that's what you loved, you will perhaps be disappointed.

Thursday Next is not her usual, gun-slinging, hardcore self. At the end of the prior book, she was discovered injured and her wounds have not yet healed. To walk, she must lean upon a cane and she's developed a Dr. House level addiction to painkillers. Our girl does not have all pistons firing. Because of her physical torments, she doesn't have the strength to read herself into the BookWorld. On the plus side, Spec Ops is reforming, so there will be plenty of work to do. Unfortunately, the job she gets offered is not head of the literary detectives but head librarian.

My favorite bits had to do with the library. Fforde certainly nails some aspects of library service, but I think the librarians of our world would love to live in his. In Swindon, librarians receive huge salaries (and get chauferred to work where a chef cooks the meals) and the libraries get huge budgets. On top of that, librarians have huge political sway and are among the most respected and intimidating people in the community. Librarians, what say you? Shall we decamp to Ffordelandia posthaste?

Another delightful plotline deals with the imminent smiting of Swindon by God, pissed off by Joffy's insistence upon a meeting. A good smiting always proves who's the boss. To prevent this, Tuesday races to complete her Anti-Smite shield, while Goliath Corporation offers a backup that is, of course, nefarious. One fun litte nugget of info to come out of this is that this is an alternate universe from our own likely, since Joffy references that in some alternate realities people are stupid enough to think homosexuality is a sin. Never have I been prouder of my home universe. (Hint: heavy sarcasm)

The final arc involves Friday, who, along with the rest of the people who would have been in ChronoGaurd, receives a letter informing him what his life would have been and what it will be. He discovers that in a few days he will murder one of his classmates, go to prison, and get out just in time to be murdered with a baseball bat. Even with ChronoGuard shut down, it still manages to mess with lives and event lines in rippingly confusing ways.

The Woman Who Died a Lot is perhaps the most mainstream and accessible of Fforde's books, though, of course, trying to pick up the series here and understand anything would be like trying to understand LOST without watching every single episode. The ending makes it clear that at least one more Thursday Next book is in the works, and I suspect there will be lots of BookWorld action. Holla!

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"'My only companion from the outside world during nineteen years of isolation has been my personal hatred of Thursday Next. It's kind of like the old me suddenly taking over, and I promised myself that this was how I would act if I ever saw you.'
   'I have the same thing, but with Tom Stoppard,' I said.
   'You'd kill Tom Stoppard?'
   'Not at all. I promised myself many years ago that I would throw myself at his feet and scream "I'm not worhty!" if I ever met him, so now if we're ever at the same party or something, I have to be at pains to avoid him. It would be undignified, you see—for him and for me.'"

Giveaway:
For my US readers, I have a hardback copy of The Woman Who Died a Lot to give away, thanks to the generosity of Penguin! Just fill out THIS FORM by October 25th at 11:59 PM.

Review: One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
Thursday Next, Book 6

Author: Jasper Fforde
Pages: 362
Publisher: Viking
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
The newest tour de force from The New York Times bestselling author of Thursday Next and Shades of Grey.

Jasper Fforde's exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next. But with the real Thursday apparently retired to the Realworld, the Council of Genres turns to the written Thursday.

The Council wants her to pretend to be the real Thursday and travel as a peacekeeping emissary to the warring factions. A trip up the mighty Metaphoric River beckons-a trip that will reveal a fiendish plot that threatens the very fabric of the BookWorld itself.

Once again New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde has a field day gleefully blending satire, romance, and thriller with literary allusions galore in a fantastic adventure through the landscape of a frisky and fertile imagination. Fans will rejoice that their favorite character in the Fforde universe is back.

Series Up to This Book:
1: The Eyre Affair (Goodreads)
2: Lost in a Good Book (Goodreads)
3: The Well of Lost Plots (Goodreads)
4: Something Rotten (Goodreads)
5: First Among Sequels (Goodreads|Review)

First Sentence: "Everyone can remember where they were when the BookWorld was remade."

Review:
Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series has been for me a very uneven read. Certain installments rank among my favorite books, while others I had to force myself to get through. In fact, I almost gave up on the series after book three, until my parents, who I started on the series, insisted that book four, Something Rotten, was amazing and that I just had to read it. Thus was I sucked back in. Last week, I read book five, which I found quite slow, but with One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, Fforde has once again made me glad I did not give up on the series.

What I will always love this series for, even the books that I would never try to reread, is its utter originality. Of course, that's a term that gets thrown around a lot in the book-reviewing world, but, if asked to name a book or series I thought truly original, I would probably have to go with this one. I simply have never encountered anything else like Fforde's work. It's utterly irreverent, absurd, self-referential, off-the-wall, confusing, pop culture-tastic, humorous, silly, and, occasionally, quite deep.

In One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, we have a new heroine. In place of Thursday Next, we have Thursday Next. Confused yet? Welcome to Jasper Fforde. THIS Thursday Next is the written Thursday, rather than the Outlander Thursday. Told in the first person, the reader follows Thursday Next (from this point the Outlander Thursday shall be called just that for clarity), the tree-hugging one from the Thursday Next novels.

As established in the last book, Thursday Next has been trying to change the series a bit to fit better with Outlander Thursday's actual image and personality, the original written Thursday Next in books 1-4 having been more like a paranormal romance heroine. Her changes to the series have not gone over particularly well, the whole series now dangerously close to being unread, which displeases her costars greatly.

When she gets an offer to go investigate a mysterious book-crash in Conspiracy, she jumps on the chance, a bit bored with the irascibility of her fellow characters. On the way, a Man in Plaid (think men in black, only...you know...plaid) tells her that a Thursday is missing and disappears. These two elements combine into one big mystery that Thursday Next feels a compulsion to solve. What happened to Outlander Thursday? Will she be back in time to negotiate peace between Racy Novel and the rest of the BookWorld? Why did that book crash?

I thought the first person perspective and change to the basic formula of the previous books brought new life into the book that was missing from the last. I really like Thursday Next, even if she's not quite as bright or capable as Outlander Thursday. She is perhaps a bit more approachable. Also, her narration allowed for a clever 'will the real Thursday Next please stand up' kind of confusion.

Also, there was some really hilarious commentary on published vs. self-published books in here, done in the standard ridiculous Jasper Fforde way. A fact I'd forgotten until I read this is that self-published books used to be known as vanity titles. This still amuses me. In light of all of the recent changes in publishing, I found these themes and his attitudes very interesting, particularly that on fan fiction, though I do wonder if that would be different now that so much fan fiction is getting published.

I apologize to those of you who are probably rubbing your heads in mystified confusion. Jasper Fforde's books are rather complex, particularly since there are so many of the same (though very different in personality) character running around. However, if you have the patience to disentangle his books, they are a book nerd's delight, full of puns and jokes poking fun at literary tropes.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "'Don't anyone move. . . I think we've driven into a mimefield.'"

Review: First Among Sequels

First Among Sequels
Thursday Next, Book 5

Author: Jasper Fforde
Pages: 362
Publisher: Viking
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
Literary sleuth Thursday Next is out to save literature in the fifth installment of Jasper Fforde's wildly popular series.

Beloved for his prodigious imagination, his satirical gifts, his literate humor, and sheer silliness, Jasper Fforde has delighted book lovers since Thursday Next first appeared in The Eyre Affair, a genre send-up hailed as an instant classic. Since the no-nonsense literary detective from Swindon made her debut, literature has never been quite the same. Neither have nursery rhymes, for that matter. With two successful books of the Nursery Crime series under his belt, Fforde takes up once again the brilliant adventures of his signature creation in the highly anticipated fifth installment of the Thursday Next series. And it's better than ever.

It's been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday's got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the Reichenbach Falls and his series is stopped in its tracks. And before this can be corrected, Miss Marple dies suddenly in a car accident, bringing her series to a close as well. When Thursday receives a death threat clearly intended for her written self, she realizes what's going on: there is a serial killer on the loose in the Bookworld. And that's not all--The Goliath Corporation is trying to deregulate book travel. Naturally, Thursday must travel to the outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to triumph against increasing odds.

Packed with word play, bizarre and entertaining subplots, and old-fashioned suspense, Thursday's return is sure to be celebrated by Jasper's fanatical fans and the critics who have loved him since the beginning.

First Sentence: "The dangerously high level of the stupidity surplus was once again the lead story in The Owl that morning."

Review:
I freaking love the idea of the Thursday Next books. Conceptually, they are perhaps my favorite books out there. They are highly unique, humorous and endlessly tongue-in-cheek. The individual books vary a lot in quality, though, some of which I loved and some of which I've really not liked. First Among Sequels falls somewhere in the middle for me, amusing but still kind of meh in the end.

I love Thursday Next as a character. How often do you have a bookish heroine in her 50s who's still totally a sexy badass? Not that often. I love that. You don't want to mess with Thursday. Despite that, though, she's also loving and silly, a devoted mother and wife. She refuses to call her son, Friday, much to his chagrin, anything but Sweetpea. Thursday is just a complex and illogical as most humans, and I think she shows that you can make an older heroine work. Though Thursday's slowing down a bit, she's still not going to be stopping with her adventures any time soon.

My favorite of the Thursday Next books are The Eyre Affair and Something Rotten. What these two have that the others do not is a tie to a specific piece of literature. Of course, throughout the series, literary references abound. However, both of those focus on one work in particular: Jane Eyre and Hamlet respectively. None of the other books have done so, and I've found them much weaker as a result.

First Among Sequels, like all of Fforde's books, has a lot of humor. I snickered at many things, though I did find the jokes a bit more repetitive in this installment than in others. The stupidity deficit was hilarious at first but was wearing thin by the end. Fforde's humor tends to the absurd, so will not be for everyone, though, to me, it's a big reason to read the books.

I just felt like this book lacked a narrative push. There are a couple of overarching plot lines, but they just didn't seem to propel the story forward or, at least, to compel me to move along at a brisk pace. I spent a fair amount of time a bit bored. Rather than having one large, serious issue, there were a number of little things, which just didn't add up for as satisfactory of an experience, in much the way that the third season of Veronica Mars pales in comparison to the first two.

I will admit, however, that I did get very concerned about the falling ReadRates and the lack of books in bookstores in one of the major plot lines. At one point, Thursday goes to a book store to discover that it now vends movies and coffees (from four different shops), not books. Even though I knew it wasn't real, I was still nervous. Even more upsetting was the possibility of Pride & Prejudice forever being rewritten as a reality show. *cringes*

Also entertaining and typically Fforde-ian was the abundance of Thursdays. In First Among Sequels, there are three different Thursdays, the real Outlander one, the one from books 1-4 in the series and the one from book 5, but not this book 5 - a book 5 that doesn't exist in our world. Basically, if you think about this too hard, it will give you a headache. However, Thursday getting stuck training Thursday1-4 and Thursday5 is rife with comedic possibility. However, there is one chapter where the perspective switches, entirely without warning to Thursday1-4. This was seriously confusing and added nothing to the story. Poorly done, that.

While I am not the sort to skip around within a series, I would recommend for those of you who have that ability that this is a good one to do so in. Or, perhaps, this might be more fun read in small doses, with each chapter as its own island of sorts. Basically, this has charming moments, but I don't think it will stick with me and I was bored sometimes. I do love Pickwick and her plocking, though.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.'"

Review + Giveaway: Judging a Book by Its Lover

Judging a Book by Its Lover: A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers Everywhere

Author: Lauren Leto
Pages: 269
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Want to impress the hot stranger at the bar who asks for your take on Infinite Jest? Dying to shut up the blowhard in front of you who’s pontificating on Cormac McCarthy’s “recurring road narratives”? Having difficulty keeping Francine Prose and Annie Proulx straight?

For all those overwhelmed readers who need to get a firm grip on the relentless onslaught of must-read books to stay on top of the inevitable conversations that swirl around them, Lauren Leto’s Judging a Book by Its Lover is manna from literary heaven! A hilarious send-up of—and inspired homage to—the passionate and peculiar world of book culture, this guide to literary debate leaves no reader or author unscathed, at once adoring and skewering everyone from Jonathan Franzen to Ayn Rand to Dostoyevsky and the people who read them.

First Sentence: "The first book I ever loved was a book about a monster in a child's closet."

Review:
As you might guess, I am a bit of a reader. As such, one of the things I enjoy doing when not reading is discussing literature. In Leto's book, I can sort of read and discuss reading all at once, albeit in a format where the discussion is rather one-sided with me unable to respond to Leto's opinions. Leto's work is for book lovers, or, perhaps even more, for those of us who want to pretend we've read all the most pretentious works but haven't.

Judging a Book by Its Lover, like most books containing short snippets of story or essay, is a bit of mish mash. Some of the sections entertained me and resulted in my wanting to be best buds with Lauren Leto. Other sections made me roll my eyes at Lauren Leto's handing down of her mighty opinion to the masses, much of which I didn't agree with. Leto's observations will primarily be entertaining to those who a) get the references and b) share her opinions. When she snarks at something I hated, I laugh along merrily. However, when the snark turns on beloved books, I could not help but be annoyed, especially since much of the snark came with no context or backing whatsoever.

One of Leto's bits of snark that bothered me in its inaccuracy comes from the lengthy section "Stereotyping People by Favorite Author," in which she asserts that those whose favorite author is Jane Austen - since they are totally the same in their writing style, these four people - are "girls who made out with other girls in college when they were going through a 'phase.'" Really, Lauren Leto? I would have gone more for the "girls who are always disappointed that real men don't measure up to fictional ones and remain single forever." Also mean, but more applicable to the fan base, which includes myself. Besides, for someone claiming to have so much knowledge of reading and its culture, why does she make the rookie mistake of pairing Austen and Brontës as though they're the same?

I guess I just felt that Leto was often overly brutal toward an author or a book in an effort to be edgy and funny, and, more importantly, to show how clever Lauren Leto is. I got the distinct sense that things she enjoys are awesome and to be judged as such, and things she doesn't automatically suck. Well, isn't that nice. For all that her posturing frustrated me, I actually preferred the snippets of her life to the gimmicky bits and lists. I wish it had been a bit more memoir, a bit less book snob.

The long lists, "Stereotyping People by Favorite Author" and "How to Fake It" drag on and on, not especially fun to read back to back. The latter gives key information for those who want to pretend they've read an author they haven't. They both run on too long, taking on a number of figures I've never even heard of, which, given that I spend a lot of time looking at books, makes me wonder about relevance to the average reader. In the stereotypes, it definitely felt as though people liked that so she wrote as many as she could, resulting in the forced feeling to many of them.

Obviously, I had a number of issues with this book. However, there were good things and I did enjoy reading it more than I didn't. When not sniping, Leto can actually be quite funny. She clearly loves books, which is always good, and advocates reading strongly, even if it has to be things she denigrates. In addition, there are a lot of fun facts to be learned, like that Norman Mailer liked to punch people and that I should never touch a Charles Bukowski novel.

If you're a book lover that wants to judge most of the books released in the last ten years and some classics, Judging a Book by Its Lover will help you with that. This one is for snark release, not for too much serious analysis though.

I'm offering up my review copy for giveaway. US readers, just fill out THIS FORM by Thursday October 4 to enter.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "The most important thing about reading is not the level of sophistication of the books on your shelf. There is no prerequisite reading regimen for being a bookworm."

Better Together - Jack Johnson

The Understory

Author: Elizabeth Leiknes
Pages: 249
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Source: Bancroft Press via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
Story Easton knows the first line of every book, but never the last.

She never cries, but she fakes it beautifully.

And at night, she escapes from the failure of her own life by breaking into the homes of others, and feeling, for a short while, like a different, better person.

But one night, as an uninvited guest in someone's empty room, she discovers a story sadder than her own: a boy named Cooper Payne, whose dream of visiting the Amazon rainforest and discovering the moonflower from his favorite book, Once Upon a Moonflower, died alongside his father.

For reasons even she doesn't entirely understand, Story decides that she will help Cooper and his mother. She will make his dream come true.

When the decision is made, the lives of other broken people start to come together: Hans Turner, the door-making magician who can't shut the door on his past; Martin Baxter, the author of Cooper's beloved book, who wrote it with the daughter he misses every day; and Claire Payne, Cooper's mother, struggling to keep her son sheltered from the anger that threatens to consume her.

The Understory is a magical, moving, funny, and poignant story of failure and success; of falling apart and rebuilding; and of coincidences that never really are. Part comedy, part drama, and part fairy tale, Elizabeth Leiknes's second novel is a wonder you won't soon forget.

First Sentence: "There once was a woman named Story Easton who couldn't decide if she should kill herself, or eat a double cheeseburger."

Review:
You guys probably know that I've now instituted strict guidelines for what I'm allowed to request on NetGalley. This book is a perfect example for why this makes me sad. Under my new rules, I would not have requested this book, and I would have missed out big time. This book charmed me immediately, even though I had no expectations for it. I knew nothing about it, and the cover is incredibly lame, but something made me request it and I am so glad I did. This is the bonus of requesting ALL THE THINGS: you find books you might otherwise never have read.

First off, let me talk about the writing in The Understory. Elizabeth Leiknes has a way with words, guys. She is so clever and incredibly hilarious. So many lines in this book made me laugh out loud. Also, she swears, not constantly but to great effect. So if you're offended by swearing, this book will not be for you. If you are amused by it, you'll love it. I also loved that though her writing is quite beautiful, it also feels very natural, in the dialogue as well.

The Understory is, more than anything, about the serendipitous connections between certain people. Told in a fairy tale type manner, characters come together in a way that is either entirely coincidental or fated. Either way, everyone finds the people that they need in their lives. They come together in the perfect way to fix broken hearts, to move on in grief, to realize strength, and to grow up. I loved this. This is what I want life to be like. The subtle magic running through the story, though not actually MAGIC like in a fantasy novel, reminds me strongly of Sarah Addison Allen (who I love). Though there wasn't any legit magic, this book felt hella magical to me.

The characters in this book are amazing. Story Thyme Easton (poor girl) is delightfully and unapologetically bitchy, as well as being really messed up. She lives in the shadow of her incredibly successful mother, burdened by her name, and considers suicide. Her dream is to write honest, sarcastic greeting cards that say things like "Life Sucketh. Sorry." Dudes, I would buy cards like that. Her only comforts in life are greasy hamburgers and breaking into other people's houses to try on their shoes and sleep in their beds (like a modern Goldilocks), because she so desperately wants out of her life. She is obsessed with first lines of novels and quotes them to herself constantly.

The other characters are lovely too. Hans, the carpenter, who totally made me swoon. I don't usually go for the strong silent type but YOWZA. Also, he and Story have insane chemistry. There is some excellent romance in here, for those of you who enjoy that (and why wouldn't you?!?). Story's mother is obnoxious, but in that real mother kind of way. Cooper is one of the most adorable little moppets ever. Plus, I love that he and his mother, Claire, have a parrot that swears constantly. Amusing animal, ftw!

Guys, seriously, this book was super amazing. I loved all of it, except for the book within the book which was kind of lame. Thankfully, those bits were pretty brief. If you like magic, fairy tales, and humor, read this!

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"Deep down, Story Easton knew what would happen if she attempted to off herself—she would fail It was a matter of probability. This was not a new thing, failure. She was, had always been, a failure of fairy-tale proportion. Quitting wasn’t Story’s problem. She had tried, really tried, lots of things during different stages of her life—Girl Scours, the viola, gardening, Tommy Andres from senior year American Lit—but zeero cookie sales, four broken strings, two withered azalea bushes, and one uniquely humiliating breakup later, Story still had not tasted success, and with a shriveled-up writing career as her latest disappointment, she realized no magic slippers or fairy dust was going to rescue her from her Anti-Midas Touch. No Happily Ever After was coming.
    So she had learned to find a certain comfort in failure. In addition to her own screw-ups, others’ mistakes became cozy blankets to cuddle, and she snuggled up to famous failures like most people embrace triumph.
    The Battle of Little Bighorn—a thing of beauty.
    The Bay of Pigs—delicious debacle.
    The Y2K Bug—gorgeously disappointing fuck-up.
    Geraldo’s anti-climactic Al Capone exhumation—oops!
    Jaws III—heaven on film.
    Tattooed eyeliner—eyelids everywhere, revolting. Really revolting.
    Fat-free potato chips—good Lord, makes anyone feel successful."

"Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together"

A Book and No Disasters - Some By Sea

The Borrower

Author: Rebecca Makkai
Pages: 324
Publisher: Viking
Review Copy from: Penguin

Description from Goodreads:
In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road.

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

First Sentence: "I might be the villain of this story."

Review:
The Borrower is an utterly enchanting tale, one that I should have gotten around to reading about a year ago. Instead, it had languished on my shelves until I finally decided to apply strict order to my review piles. I don't know why I didn't read this right away, because I loved it. If only I had opened the book up and read the very first page, I would have made space in my schedule for this novel.

Rebecca Makkai's writing is charismatic and charming. Though her storytelling is largely straight forward, first person, she also plays with other styles in ways that are incredibly clever and entertaining. She mixes in, for example, a couple of charts, like ones illustrating how many of the ten commandments and seven deadly sins Lucy has committed. Even better, Makkai mixed in little snippets where Lucy imagines her predicament as told in the form of a children's book. The only two I recognized the books for were in the style of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie... and Goodnight Moon, but I'm sure an aficionado could identify the rest. These snippets captured Lucy's humor and her knowledge base so perfectly.

Obviously, I'm a bit biased towards any book whose heroine is a librarian. Lucy works as a children's librarian, and I loved identifying aspects of librarianship that I recognize from the stories of others. The library parts are so true to life that I really think any librarian will seriously get a kick out of this story, especially children's librarians.

I think librarians and educators are perhaps especially well-placed to appreciate this tale, since much of it is about the concern for what adults to youth in trying to mold them into a particular type of person. Ian Drake is the ideal child for a librarian; he's that kid that keeps the librarian motivated and interested in her job, because she so loves encouraging his passion for reading. Ian has one of THOSE mothers, the hyper-religious kind that wants to keep her child from reading anything untoward, instead forcing him to read only books he's not interested in.

Fearful that Ian might be gay (though he's only ten, he apparently has some sort of flamboyance that makes them suspect), his parents book him in one of those rage-inducing (to me) anti-Gay programs. Lucy finds out about this and wants to do something, especially as she witnesses the change in Ian, like his reduced interest in reading and the library. Because of this, when Ian runs away, she's disposed to help him, rather than wrangling him back home when she should. Inadvertently, she becomes a kidnapper, and, while I don't condone her behavior, I do see how it happened. In this, Makkai walks a fine line between caring and creepy, between humorous and unsettling, and, to my mind, does so very well.

The main focus of The Borrower is one of identity. Ian struggles to find his true self while his nature, his parents, Pastor Bob, Lucy, and everyone he knows try to make him be one thing or another. Lucy tries to balance her American half and Russian half. She desperately wants to be independent from her wealthy, possibly Russian mob parents, so has thrown herself into librarianship because it was the first career to come her way, but she has no idea if that's actually what she wants to do. Lucy's father, too, seems to wrestle with his identity and his past through his stories, in which he re-ensvisions his time in Russia. I love this quote on the importance of being oneself and must share it:

   "On my mental instant replay, I realized that obliquely comparing his family to the Nazis was maybe not my finest moment.
   He was quiet a second, and then he said, 'Did you know that Hitler anted to be an artist, but since he couldn't get into art school, he turned into a Nazi?'
   'Yes, I remember that.'
   'Just imagine if he got into art school, the whole world would be different.'
   I said, 'It just shows that people should be allowed to be who they are. If they can't, then they turn into nasty, sad people.'
   He started to laugh. 'What if you went to the art gallery, and the guy was like, "Here you see a beautiful Monet, and here on your left is an early Hitler." Wouldn't that be weird?'
   I couldn't think of any subtle way to turn it back around again.
   He said, 'You would go to the gift shop and buy Hitler postcards, and you'd go, "Oh, look at this beautiful Hitler. I'm going to hang it in my room!" And people would wear Hitler t-shirts.'
   'Yes,' I said. 'That would have been better."

Isn't that amazing? I just love the way the book was written. Different though they are in some ways, I think this book would make be an excellent readalike for Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. They share a similar whimsy, with young, adventurous heroes who have a unique view of the world. Both cover dark topics but through a sort of humor.

If you like these quotes I've shared, by all means get yourself a copy of this book to enjoy. This is a definite must for any book lover.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote: "I believed that books might save him because I knew they had so far, and because I knew the people books had saved. They were college professors and actors and scientists and poets. They got to college and sat on dorm floors drinking coffee, amazed they'd finally found their soul mates. They always dressed a little out of season. Their names were enshrined on the pink cards in the pockets of all the forgotten hardbacks in every library basement in America. If the librarians were lazy enough or nostalgic enough or smart enough, those names would stay there forever."

"We were able-minded once
But guilt doesn't open doors
So we toss our fits of charm
And I muscle my way into a desperate situation
Too many times to count

And some day we will gather up
For an hour or two and shake our hands
Until then, I resign my post"

Summer Song - Carbon Leaf

The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls

Author: Julie Schumacher
Pages: 227
ARC Acquired from: Delacorte Books for Young Readers via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
I'm Adrienne Haus, survivor of a mother-daughter book club. Most of us didn't want to join. My mother signed me up because I was stuck at home all summer, with my knee in a brace. CeeCee's parents forced her to join after cancelling her Paris trip because she bashed up their car. The members of "The Unbearable Book Club," CeeCee, Jill, Wallis, and I, were all going into eleventh grade A.P. English. But we weren't friends. We were literary prisoners, sweating, reading classics, and hanging out at the pool. If you want to find out how membership in a book club can end up with a person being dead, you can probably look us up under mother-daughter literary catastrophe. Or open this book and read my essay, which I'll turn in when I go back to school.

First Sentence: "Thesis Statement: Book clubs can kill you."

Review:
The opening chapters of this book really appealed to me, and, though I enjoyed the book as a whole, it definitely flagged as the book progressed. This is probably the least effectual book club ever that actually manages to meet up (my friends and I haven't even managed that yet...wah wah). Even so, every mention of a book club makes me desperately want to discuss literature in person. I loved the sections where they actually discussed the books, but these were unfortunately brief.

The main issue this book had was the plotting. The ending was pretty obvious from the opening. In an attempt to create suspense, and to have a dramatic opening to the story, the ending is spoiled. Well, it might surprise some, but I definitely saw it coming. I just found it hard to care about most of the lead up.

The characters also had some serious issues. The only one who felt full-fleshed was Adrienne, the main character, but I'll discuss her more momentarily. Cee-Cee never really comes off as anything more than a bored popular girl, messing with people for her own amusement. Jill, who I actually like most perhaps, never really gets any focus and is dismissed as boring. Wallis is WEIRD. I kept expecting to learn what her deal was, and, in fact, I'm pretty sure I KNOW what was up with her and her mom, but we're never actually told. In fact, what's so weird about all of this is that none of the characters ever stop being their stereotype. At the end of the summer, they're all still the same people they were, even, perhaps, Adrienne.

The book's saving grace, besides the literary references, was Adrienne's character. Adrienne has her flaws, a boatload of them. However, she did feel real to me, largely because a lot of her thoughts are totally on my wavelength. For example, she often thinks like this:

"Teachers often referred to me as a student with 'a lot of potential.' This meant they expected me to be smart; but in fact my mind was often packing a mental suitcase and wandering off on its own. I sometimes pictured all the things I had learned during the previous week at school jumping into brightly painted railroad cars and disappearing into the distance on a speeding train." (6)

I always personify things, and laughed to see someone else having the same thoughts about the elusiveness of all the knowledge entering the brain. She also struggles with identity. She feels as though she has no discernible personality and that no one would even care if she died. I definitely felt that way too, so I could identify with that. Her responses to this feeling, which mostly involved doing really stupid things for Cee-Cees benefit, I didn't approve of, but did seem rather possible. People will do any number of idiotic things for attention in hopes of being liked.

The other part that I really enjoyed was whenever Adrienne was reading. I wish I could read like this girl, although I certainly would not be able to read anywhere near the volume of books I currently read. She seems to be pushing it to get through two books a month. However, when she reads, she really gets into the story. She dreams the story. She gets so deep down into it that she cannot hear people talking to her. I so wish I had that focus. It was amazing how you could feel her slipping into another world. That part was awesome writing.

All told, this was a really great idea, and I feel like it could have been a fantastic book. I feel like with a bit more work, like more details on Wallis' situation and Adrienne's dad, along with more book talk, this could have been a darker, young adult version of The Jane Austen Book Club. As it is, it's a pleasant enough read, but just does not quite make it.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "Boredom is why God invented books."

"Soak the sun
Cinnamon
What went wrong
Summer Song"

Agnus Dei - Rufus Wainwright

The Book of Blood and Shadow 

Author: Robin Wasserman
Pages: 434
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

First Sentence: "I should probably start with the blood."

Review:
Whoa! Talk about a hook! The Book of Blood and Shadowstarts off with a bang. From that first sentence, I definitely knew something creepy was going on and that I needed to know more about it. Let me tell you right now: the hook was not a trap. Every bit of this book is so good. Two five star reads in a row = I'm getting spoiled!

Robin Wasserman has managed to write an original YA story, by which I mean one that's not remotely like the standard YA book. Nora, for example, is not your standard YA heroine. She's not absurdly clutzy, but she is incredibly intelligent, as in a genius at Latin. Nor is Nora particularly attractive; she's kind of average looking. Her hair is mousy brown, her nose too large for her face and she doesn't wear makeup almost ever. In short, she looks like a lot of girls, rather than some super shiny-haired YA cover girl. This makes her so much easier to relate to.

Then there's her storybook love. Well, he's not your usual guy fare either. The perfect-ish guy is her best friend, Chris, who's dating her other best friend. Her boyfriend is Max, who she thought was creepy for quite a while after first meeting at him. Apparently, he stares a lot, perhaps to a Maureen Johnson-esque degree. Max wears glasses and is totally socially awkward, very much not your usual YA hero.

Actually, this book has a lot more in common with novels like The Rule of Four. Both focus on academic research of an old text about which very little is known. Where Caldwell and Thomason's book is solely historical fiction though, Wasserman has added a paranormal element. In some books, paranormal is overdone and melodramatic. Here it creates the perfect creepy, gothic atmosphere. For most of the book, you don't even know what the paranormal is; you just sense its presence lurking just off screen, creating serious suspense.

As Nora's story progresses, so does her research into the letters of Elizabeth, which could possibly provide insight into The Book her group is researching for Hoff (crotchety professor in search of glory). Although the individual letters are fairly short, I found myself getting just as sucked into Elizabeth's tale as into Nora's. In some historical fiction with this setup, the 'historical documents' are the weak point. Wasserman deftly avoids that trap with the grace of the dancing hippo from Fantasia.

The book is dark, unrelenting, soul-breakingly, fabulously, perfectly dark. Everything in Nora's life has pretty much already fallen apart, leaving her bruised, even before the book has begun. Well, things are just getting started for poor Nora. Her world gets shaken on its foundations. Robin Wasserman definitely goes on the list of awesome YA authors not afraid to do terrible things to their heroines/heroes. I love this, because, well, have you met life?

In undergrad, I was a theology minor, despite having been an agnostic all of my life, leaning much closer to the atheist side of things than the religious. The reason for my study of theology is that, simply put, I find belief fascinating, both on a global and individual scale. Certainly, it's interesting as a historian to look at how the religions themselves developed from a single person or group to a massive organized thing. Even more so, though, I love hearing the stories of individuals, of how they came to subscribe to their particular faith (or lack thereof). The theology in this book is wonderful, and, if you have any interest in that, I highly recommend this. Again, I think Wasserman was very daring to write this, and I applaud her for it. My favorite quote was one that pretty much sums up my opinions on the idea of God.

The story of The Book of Blood and Shadow is also incredibly intricate. I have so much respect for Robin Wasserman for having pulled off a book of this scope.  She did so much research, both into Prague's history, into ancient languages, and into secret codes. To sum up this review into just a few words: Robin Wasserman is BRILLIANT, and so is her book. It's out now, so what the heck are you waiting for? GO GET IT!

This was my first foray into Robin Wasserman's books, although I have checked out Skinned from the library at least three times and then not had time to read it, but it will by no means be my last. In fact, I'm pretty sure Skinned is getting bumped up the TBR list. There might be a review of it in August, as I'm planning dystopian awesome!

Rating: 5/5

Favorite Quote: "'And you know what? If there is a God, and it's that same God who's so eager to have temples built in honor of his greatness, and wars fought over him, and people dropping to their knees telling him what a wonderful, magnificent being he is? If this all-powerful, all-knowing creature for some reason just can't get by without my worship? Then let him give me some proof. Or at least get over himself if I decide to go out and get some.'"

Reading Rainbow Theme Song - Tina Fabrique

The Avalon Chronicles, Volume 1:
Once in a Blue Moon

Authors: Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir
Illustrator: Emma Vieceli
Pages:
ARC Acquired from: Oni Press via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Every night, Aeslin Finn's parents read to her from a story about a magical land called Avalon. They told her tales of the lovely lady Dragon Knight and her love, the prince of the land, and how together they battled against the evil warlord Khrom. After her father died, in rather mysterious circumstances, her mother refused to let her read any more of this series. Then one day while walking home from school, Aeslin and her best friend spot a weird little shop that has never been there before. They enter and Aeslin finds the sequel to the book her parents read her as a child. At home, she opens it, begins to read and disappears into its pages. Avalon is much more real than she ever knew.

Review:
If you've been following along with my blog, you probably already know that I am a huge sucker for books about books, so I loved this right from the beginning. Thank you, authors, for taking Aeslin away from a life of drooling over the vain popular jock and giving her a life of being a badass dragon rider. Well, hopefully, she will be in later volumes, as she's not yet; that, too, is good, though, since it would be weird if she progressed too fast.

The story thus far is very predictable, but I loved it anyway. There's some serious woman power going on in this series, plus magic, dragons, battles and books. For some future drama, I anticipate a possible relationship betwixt Aeslin and a soldier for Khrom. He's so hot that I would support such a terrible idea. Speaking of which, I really liked the illustrations.

One cool feature in here is that you travel from world to world through books. Just as Aeslin read the book about Avalon to travel there, she has to read a book about her life on Earth to travel back to her regular life. I loved this, because it creates a fun duality, wherein both are equally real or one is only a story in a book, only which?

If you enjoy fun, adventure graphic novels, this is definitely a good read. I look forward to reading more of the series. Also, this is my second positive experience with DeFillipis & Weir (I read a couple volumes of Amazing Agent Luna a few years ago), so you may want to keep an eye out for them.

"Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book"

O Mio Babbino Caro - Puccini

Queens of All the Earth

Author: Hannah Sternberg
Pages: 126
ARC Acquired from: Bancroft Press via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
This novella, as I suppose the brief lengths makes it, is a modernist retelling of A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. The tale focuses on two sisters (as opposed to cousins in the original), one older (Miranda) and tightly-wound, one younger (Olivia) and breaking down, afraid at the impending loss of her childhood as she prepares to begin her freshman year of college. In deference to Olivia's mental state, the family decides to have her defer her acceptance to Cornell for a year, during which time she and Miranda take a week-long trip to Spain, where, in their hostel, they meet a cast of characters who greatly impact the girls' lives.

Review:
A Room with a View is my favorite movie of all time (to date at least) and one of my favorite books, so when I saw a book on NetGalley that was all about it, I knew that it had to be. Retellings can be quite a tricky business, because, while the author needs to do something original, they also need to stay true to the nature of the original story. Sternberg has done a good job here, although clearly much has been changed, particularly the time line and the additional focus on Miranda.

Sternberg decided to change all of the names, although some are quite similar. The story, however, can easily be compared to that of A Room with a View. Certain scenes are nearly exactly the same as those in the original, even though, all in all, the story takes a rather different trajectory and the soul searching is needed for entirely different reasons.

There were two huge changes from the original novel. 1) There was no Cecil. Everything gets wrapped up, to the degree that things are 'wrapped up' during the time frame of the trip, whereas in the original Lucy Honeychurch (now Olivia) goes home after her trip and tries to continue living as she used to, despite having been changed by her experiences in Italy (not Spain). 2) The character of Mr. Beebe is re-envisioned as Marc Castillo, a handsome young man preparing to take orders. Marc is in no way the same character as Mr. Beebe, although I cannot say why in deference to spoilers.

Overall, I definitely approve of what Sternberg has done here, even if I do miss some of the elements she cut and find her chapter titles a bit over the top. Ultimately, she keeps much of the spirit of the original, particularly in the characters of the Browns and Miranda (it's nice to see more depth into the Charlotte character). Lenny, too, is spot on for her counterpart, although I never did like her much. This is a brief, romantic story about two young women trying to find themselves in a beautiful, foreign landscape. Lovers of A Room with a View will likely appreciate this adaptation for its heart and obvious love for the original.