Three Books, Two Weddings, One Post

Gah, I've been neglectful again, but in my defense, classes started, I've been to like, two weddings, one of which I was in, and read three books, which, not in my defense, is way below average, but I'm a busy lady.

I finished another one on the YALSA list, Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, which I liked a lot a lot.  It is a steampunk novel that is a re-telling of World War I through the eyes of the fictitious son of the Archduke Ferdinand and a girl soldier who disguises herself as a boy.  England's technology has developed so that they genetically modify animals to be hybrids, so their airship is a giant whale that runs off of hydrogen gas that is a byproduct of the other animals living inside of it.  Then the rest of Europe uses gears and machinery, and the worlds collide, and it is totally cool.  It wasn't until about 20 pages from the end, though, that I realized that this was probably going to be the first in a series, because I didn't quite think Westerfield would have the time to get through the next eight years in like, 20 pages, but I'm excited to read the next one. 
That was the first book I read by Scott Westerfield, but since then I've had a few different people tell me I have to read the Uglies series, so on to the list it goes.

I also read The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson, and I DO NOT understand why this book is not getting more press, because it is really good.  The title pretty much sums up the most major of plot points, but what I liked most about this book was that it was almost like magical realism.  The story was moving along moving along moving along, and it seemed like a normal teen book, you know, with the misfit teen boy and he makes a friend and gets a girlfriend and they have sex and stuff, but then there's this one thing that is just out of place, and all of a sudden you're reading science fiction.  I want to keep an eye out for this author's name, because I would love to read more by him, and I'm only slightly bitter that he's just a year older than me. 

Steig Larsson vs. the rest of the adult fiction world

Working in the circulation department at the library, it is an understatement to say that I see a lot of adult fiction go through, and I would have to say that probably 95% of it looks mediocre at best.  You have your stereotypical crime dramas, court room dramas, family dramas, romances, and chick lit, most of which seems to be cranked out weekly by a monkey on a mimeograph.  I mean the new James Patterson book has 246 requests on it right now.  246!  This is also the third book that has been published this year with his name on it, and I realize he has people who write this stuff for him, but it's May.  May!  How good could these books POSSIBLY be?

That being said, I just finished reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson, and I am having trouble finding the words to adequately express how impressed and awed I am right now.  Lisbeth Salander is the most bad ass female character ever.  The Millennium Trilogy was excellent from its start to its untimely finish, and, I will only say this once, I wish there were more books.  And it isn't even that I just want another story just because apparently Larsson was planning on writing more before he died in 2004, but I really feel like there is more to Salander's character, and I'm slightly bitter that I don't get to know her any better than these three books allow.  Steig Larsson is really truly a marvel.  He keeps the essential tension and the suspense going throughout all of his story arcs, and there are a lot of them.  All necessary.  All playing into one another.  He develops even his most minor characters, but his main characters, good lord, have heaps upon heaps of layers and flaws and... man.  I feel like with these three novels he elevated the genre of crime drama to a high art.  These books are so good, and they will be some of my favorites, and recommended to library patrons for a long long time.

I am about to confess something:

I have a total author-crush on John Green.  I've read all four of his books and subscribe to his vlog Brotherhood 2.0 and frequent his website and have seriously considered joining twitter just so I could @ him, and I may have a giant panda crush on him/his books/his writing.

That being said, I finished WGWG at about 11:15, which is good, because I didn't finish it at, like, 3:15, but bad because it is over.  I really started out not liking David Levithan's Will Grayson, but then I really liked him, and I think I ended up liking John Green's Will Grayson a lot less than DL's because JG's Will Grayson was kind of a bitch, who, yeah, came of age and stuff, but he whined about it a lot.  Par exemple, there was one point when he was crying around page 220, and I wasn't sure really why he was so upset and I felt like saying, "buck up, JG's Will Grayson, because you can't go through life crying like a little bitch," but I guess that's what you were supposed to think, because if nothing else both David Levithan and John Green construct some exceptionally believable characters, even if they are sometimes just a little too wise.

One thing that I was really impressed with in WGWG though was how distinct the two author's voices were.  I don't know why I even thought about it in the first place, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to tell who wrote which part, but it was obvious after the first couple of words who each author's Will Grayson was.  Then, after I got over that, I sort of marveled through the rest of the book how difficult it must be and how much patience you have to have to write a book with someone else.  I think that I would have too many opinions about how I wanted the other writer's character to think and act, and there is this one character, Tiny Cooper, who spans both stories, and, jeez!, what if the other author did something that you didn't like with the character.  Or, even worse, what if the author did something with the character that you liked more?  I just really think it would take a lot of trust to write a book with another person.  DL and JG totally pull it off, though, and I will recommend Will Grayson Will Grayson to lots and lots of people at the library tomorrow.  I loved it!

Frantic Reading

So my classes for the semester are over, which means that until June, when my 12 credit summer from hell (hereafter known as the SFH) commences, I have a super rigorous novel reading schedule.  Currently I'm about half way through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson, which is completely awesome and engrossing, and I'll write about it later, but I've had to put it down for the week because Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan came in for me at the library.  I was leery of putting down a book in favor of another one, but I just started WGWG at lunch today, and I'm about half way through it now because it is kind of the most perfect book ever.  It's about two boys who live in different suburbs of Chicago and meet accidentally in a porn shop one night.

Honestly, I started out not liking it, I thought it was dragging, and I didn't like one of the Will Graysons, and I was wondering when the two characters would meet and I wished they'd just get around to it already, but let me tell you, the two characters just met, and I was so excited about it that I had to put the book down to come and blog.  And I can guarantee this will be a short post, because I have to get back to reading.  I'll probably stay up entirely too late tonight and finish it, which is good, because I have to start and finish The Red Tent by Anita Diamant by Saturday morning at 10:00.  Also, I don't understand why this isn't on YALSA's nominations, because it is so way awesomer than two of the three I've read so far.

So, I told you my reading schedule was rigorous.  I just wish I could get as amped up about my library science text books as I do about teen books and books about computer hackers with Asperger's.

A Boring Beginning... sigh

Hmm... well, I finished Beautiful Creatures, and I have to say, I wasn't too impressed.  Over all, I'd have to say it was boring, and I am disappointed that my YALSA reading project started off so full of suck.  I just wasn't drawn in to the characters or their world.  I didn't think the relationship between Ethan and Lena came across very strong.  They have this psychic connection, so, you know, they can talk to each other from across town and stuff, but I just didn't feel it.  It takes more than just saying "these two people have a strong connection and are in love" to make it feel believable.  

There were also points in the narrative that I had to stop and re-read because the authors would mention a detail that I was supposed to have gotten before but missed, or the action was choppy and I'd be reading along and then suddenly the scene would change, and it was a complete non sequitur and I would be mightily confused, but I just kept reading and brushed it off because I wanted the book to be over.  

I also didn't understand the title.  Who or what are the beautiful creatures?  Are they supposed to be Lena and Ethan being beautiful together?  I just didn't get it.  I like when titles mean something in the context of the book.  I think that if someone would have asked ME (which no one did, and I can't imagine why) I would have titled it Sixteen Moons.  This would have made more sense.  I'm also worried that they are going to attempt a series out of this, because the main characters are in tenth grade, so they could do at least a trilogy while they're still in high school.  Ugh, I hope not. (UPDATE: They are.  Beautiful Darkness comes out in October.)

On the plus side, the librarian in the book was portrayed as eccentric but cool, which I appreciate, but that's just about this book's only redeeming factor.

So even though the first book was suck-y, I'm still excited about reading most of the other books on the list.  Right now though, I'm starting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson, which I am super pumped to be reading (a month before it comes out in the US, whoops).

Okay, I haven't posted in over a year, sorry about that, blah blah, you know.

Anyway, I'm trying something new. YALSA which, for those of you who aren't members of the ALA, is the Young Adult Library Services Association, just released their nominations for the 2010 Teens' Top Ten, and I am going to attempt to read ALL OF THEM. These are just the nominations at this point, so there's 26 of them total.

I've already read two of them, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, which is the sequel to The Hunger Games, and was amazing. I check my library catalog for signs of the third book in the trilogy, Mockingjay, just about daily. And hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, which was so awful I don't even think I wrote it down in my Books I've Read notebook (hereafter known as the BIRN). Seriously, it was terrible-- loose plot, awful characterization, totally boring, and I have a pretty high tolerance for YA books.

I'm also about half way through another on the list, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, which is, so far, mildly better than hush, hush. It's about a boy and a girl (because what teen book isn't?) who meet and fall in love, but she is a Caster, and he isn't, and I think they're reliving a romance that their respective ancestors had during the Civil War, though I'm not too sure about this, because there's been a lot of hinting around and vague plot points so far. I think that one of the main reasons I'm disliking the book so much so far is because it is told from the boy's perspective and in first person, and the two adult, female authors don't afford Ethan a very realistic 16 year old boy voice.

All I know is that I'm going to finish this book so that I can check it off and zip through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest before returning to the task at hand.

Peeker

I always peek at the end of books. This has nothing to do with a When Harry Met Sally-like cynicism, but just an uncontrollable desire to just know. Maybe I have to verify that the book actually does end and the characters don't exist. I don't know, but I always peek. I'm a peeker-- I used to sneak down stairs every Christmas Eve just to verify that the presents were, in fact, there. I had to know! What if they weren't? As if my peek-age would affect the outcome of Christmas morning, or the end of a book.
Example 1: I peeked at the end of New Moon when I was about 100 pages in. There was no doubt in my mind that Edward was coming back, but I had to verify, mostly to find out when the ridiculous vapidity of that novel would be over.
Example 2: I'm finishing the last book in a series by Megan McCafferty, which is enjoyable mostly because the main character, Jessica Darling, is the #1 literary character who is most like me- the moodiness, the caustic criticism that is kept mostly within the confines of my head, the rapt attention to popular culture. But anyway, I'm half way through the last book, and I don't really want to know if the two main characters get married, but some nagging pull at the back of my brain, rationalized by just checking to see how many more pages I have, forces me to look at the end of the book. I didn't really see anything, and I don't really know the end, but I still feel like I cheated myself out of something.
I swear... the next book I read I will not look at the end, even to see how many pages it is.

This is a pledge I will probably not keep.

Today I had the exciting opportunity to pluck the first gray hair from my head. I had no idea that it was such a delight to lean over the sink in the bathroom only to look up and notice a glaring gray strand in your hair screaming, "You may think you're only 22, but you're getting older by the second, and you're going to die alone!!!" The hair actually specified that there were three exclamation points after that sentence. There was nothing to do but call my friend who (bless him) has been graying since tenth grade, though his gray hairs look peppered and distinguished, like Anderson Cooper. Mine look like I'm growing a wart on the end of my nose and my skin is turning green.
Also, due to the fact that my life is so action-packed, I read an entire book this evening, which I suppose was slightly more thought provoking than watching another episode of House Hunters, a show which is reminiscent of a five-paragraph essay-- intro, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The book was Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner, and it was hilarious in all of the truths that it tendered. It has the distinct honor of being the only book written in my "Books I Have Read" notebook that I put three stars next to. I'm not sure what those three stars mean, but it is something good, I assure you.

The Bro Book

I have been in a reading rut since Twilight. I did, however, recently finish Guyland by Michael Kimmel, which was AMAZING. Early last year I went on a feminist literature bender. I blame it, in part, on my Women Artists in Literature class that I took in my last semester at Mansfield, which was such an awesome class. We read Song of the Lark by Willa Cather and it totally changed my life, but then that semester Jessica Valenti, who founded feministing.com, came to speak, and I bought her book and read it (loved it!). Then I traded it with my BFF for Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy (also loved it!), and Guyland kind of reminded me of Female Chauvinist Pigs in reverse. Early in the book, Kimmel defines the guys he's writing about mostly as white, middle class dudes from 16 to 26, so basically every dude I know, and he writes about their coming of age.
In a lot of ways Guyland was kind of scary for a single lady of 22 to read. It is a lot to think about, and Kimmel's descriptions and stories are never too graphic, but sometimes they were just scary. His research is expansive, though. He did such a good job. The book made me angry and frightened sometimes, but it was so interesting. He makes so many excellent points, but the things I found most intriguing were his ideas about boys becoming men. He says that in a lot of cases girls know they are women because they decide it themselves, or it just doesn't mean that much anymore, that for a lot of girls being a woman is whatever she wants it to mean, but that for guys, being a man is still really important. And more and more, it is not fathers passing down manly traits and assisiting their sons in becoming men-- it's a guys' peers who usher him into manhood and teach him what it means to be a man. I had never really thought about it in so many words, but that is so true. I have never really thought of myself as a "woman." I mean, I guess I am, but it has just never occured to me to think of myself as a woman-- it's never been that important to me. I always figured that when I was an adult, then I'd be an adult, but never a woman. It sounds weird to me.
His discussion and thoughts on the anger and entitlement that these boys feel is another really fascinating aspect of the book that runs throughout it. Kimmel talks about it in just about every aspect of "Guyland." It is prevelant everywhere-- in music and video games and porn. I have to say, it is really scary to read about. I think that this is a really important time to be a feminist. There is so much left to do, and though Kimmel never calls it that, I think his writing is feminist. I liked that the book ended positively, and I like his suggestion that we just start dialogue about this stuff! No one seems to talk about it, or any talk about it just gets brushed off as too academic or girly or something. Whatever. This book is totally worth reading for everyone, and I think more people should read it so that I can talk about it with them.

New Book!

I know that I said that I couldn't take any more fantasy right now, but the third book in the Inheritance series finally came in for me at the library, so I had to take it, lest I lose it to the person behind me and have to go to the bottom of the long long list. I read Eragon and Eldest over the summer on a whim, and, while they're not my favorite, far be it from me to ever leave a series unfinished. You're reading the blog of the girl who read all 11 of the Gossip Girl novels. I have a high tolerance for these sorts of things... not that Eragon and Eldest even approached the coma inducing powers of Gossip Girl, I'm just saying.

I'm looking forward to seeing how some loose ends tie up in Brisingr (yeah... that's the title), though I read somewhere that while this was supposed to be the last book in the series, Christopher Paolini thinks he's going to need another book to adequetly finish his story. I'm a bit suspicious of this. Personally, I would sacrifice some nit-picky details for a concise story, and it makes me a little sad to think of authors writing more books just for the money (who am I kidding, if I got a book deal I would quit everything and write all day). I guess that I'm okay with it, because it means I still have something literary to look forward to now that Harry Potter is over.