On the lack of reviews this week (sort of)

I’m having a bit of reading despair after the last book I finished (it’s not reviewed and I’m not going to mention a title because I just can not summon the energy to talk about it – that’s how apathetic I am about it) made me want to agree with this article and this one. And that depresses me so much because I want to find joy in the well publicized, mainstream contemporary novel. I want them to entertain me and surprise me and I don’t want to be dreading what I might find between the covers if I let myself be enticed by a back cover blurb.

I love the books from indie publishers and the underground, underappreciated novels and I wish they got more press, but at the same time I don’t want to have to despair of the books that do get that hype. Yet more and more I find myself not just underwhelmed by the adult books that get massive potions of book press, but flung into a powerful reading funk where one minute I want to picket Waterstones and the next I just want to lie in my bed staring blankly at the wall.

I know I sound harsh, Susan Hill would hate me right now, and this one book can not take all the blame for my alternate rage and apathy. It’s just the most recent in a long line of unimpressive books, pushed to the forefront of the book world because it’s got something to do with the latest reading trend that publisher’s have identified. They all sound genuinely interesting and even though I know better I’m intrigued, I grab them, I try them, I make it to the end but I just don’t care.

The writing is fine, often it’s even competent and good. I can’t explain what causes me to feel this intense lethargy towards these novels because it’s a combination of many things and these things combine in a different way in each novel and each novel might also contain some different successful elements. Yes some of them lack of insight, some do not meet their overly ambitious targets despite being quite long books, some do not do much new with narrative structure (or if they do then it does not come off successfully). It is all of these things that I dislike, but it is also none of these things individually that inspire my uncertainty and my teeth grinding. Some of my favorite books have linear narratives, I fall in love with books that fall short in some ways because they are special in other ways.

My gut feeling is that the kind of hyped up novels that inspire nothing but indifference in me lack that spark. They contain a complex mix of good and bad ingredients just like other books, but in the end they don’t do anything with these ingredients – they present them, they push them about a bit but really they’re just going through the motions of what a novel should be unmotivated by that essential, illusive element that would make them alive. Mostly these books feel unfinished, half formed and I think another good long stint of reworking would probably reshape them into books that live up to the promise of their blurbs.

Opinions, views – want me to get up from my bed and stop being so negative? Leave me inspiring comments to keep me out of that coma-like, wall staring trance.

Weekly Geeks 2009-24: Trivia Time

This week at Weekly Geeks we’re quizzing it up as the Geeks unpack the question cards for a round of quick fire, book trivia contests. My quiz is entirely based around Terry Pratchett and his novels, starting with a super easy question (seriously I’m actually giving you the answer in future questions) and moving on to some that may be a bit more tricky but shouldn’t be a problem for the many Pratchett devotees floating around the book blog world.

It’s fun to give things away occassionally (but this is probably going to be my last giveaway until Christmas so make sure you enter) so I’ll be handing out a prize for the person who gets the most answers correct. You can choose any one of the books I listed as possible holiday reading and you will receive a clean, second hand copy. In the case of a tie break situation I’ll use a random number generator to decide the winner. The quiz is multiple choice, so leave your answers in the comments (example: 20, e) along with the book you’d like to win. The prize option for the quiz runs until midnight GMT Friday. Remember no googling and have fun!

1.) What is the collective name for Terry Pratchett’s longest running series?

a.) Discworld series
b.) Endor Tales series
c.) Squareworld series

2.) Our planet is a round sphere, explain the structure of the Discworld planet.

a.) giraffes riding a stingray
b.) buffalo riding a flat piece of land
c.) elephants riding a turtle

3.) Which other well loved fantasy author has Terry Pratchette written a novel with?

a.) Tom Holt
b.) Neil Gaiman
c.) Brian Slattery

4.) Who created the original artwork for the Discworld UK covers?

a.) Josh Kirby
b.) Geoff Taylor
c.) Paul Kidby

5.) Which pair of Discworld novels were most recently made into a tv program?

a.) ‘The Colour of Magic’ and ‘The Light Fantastic’
b.) ‘Soul Music’ and ‘Hogfather’
c.) ‘Going Postal’ and ‘Money’

6.) Which animal has a foundation with Pratchett on the board.

a.) rat
b.) sloth
c.) orangutan

7.) Complete the title of this stand alone, non-Discworld novel – ‘The _____ People’

a.) Bag
b.) Carpet
c.) Jumping

8.) What otherworldy creatures does Sam Vimes hate the most?

a.) vampires
b.) werewolves
c.) mermaids

9.) What kills Mau’s parents in the non Disworld novel ‘Nation’?

a.) a wave
b.) a wild pig
c.) a boat

10.) What is Death’s horse called in ‘Reaper Man’?

a.) Rainbow
b.) Blacky
c.) Binky

Holiday Reading

My relaxaholiday is only one week away. I’ll be sunning myself for almost seven days in Gran Canaria and this is the holiday where we plan to do not much at all. This is the biggest period of free time I’ll have for the rest of the year so I plan to do plenty of reading in our private sun loungers by the massive shared pool. I think I’ve narrowed my reading choices down to the small groupbelow, then I’ll pick a final three (or possibly four if I have last minute worries about running out of books):

Broke Heart Blues – Joyce Carol Oates
The Other Side of the Bridge – Mary Lawson
Slam – Nick Hornby
The Presidents Daughter – Ellen Emerson White
Empresses of the World – Sarah Ryan
Dedication – Emma Mclaughlin, Nicola Krauss

Look, they’re almost all challenge reads! I need to take a mix of adult and young adult books because while young adult books seem like the perfect books to take on holiday I can read an average size young adult book in a day, if I’m left uninterrupted. I debated borrowing my friends copy of New Moon but then I realised it might get thrown in the pool (and as she’s going on holiday with me I don’t think she’d like to see that).

I’ve learnt my lesson from previous holiday reading selections. This year I will not take books that I think I should be reading for my own good. I will not take books that I have lukewarm feelings about starting, just because I will have a lot of time to finally read them. I will not rely on the other person going on holiday taking books I want to read. I will not take a magazine because I know that despite the shiny, glossiness it will bore me.

I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to a whole week away in the sunshine. I can almost feel myself recharging already.

I’d love to know when your next holiday is and where you’re going – feel free to gloat about far flung destinations in the comments. What books are you taking?

Dudley Zoo Pictures

Some quick pictures from my day being a zoo keeper with my friend Kate:

We cuddled tapirs for about half an hour, lots of Scouts and Brownies were there, watching through the window as the mean older girls made the kids jealous.

They let us fly owls outside in a zoo show in the castle grounds and then again inside the owl house.

Lemurs, so many lemurs. We don't have pictures of the little grey ring tails but they were so cute and sneaky, sneaky thieves. They stole bread when I was just hanging out holding it by my leg. Lemurs fingers are all soft and so delicate feeling.

What else did we do? We held the tinyest chicks in the world, fed fish to the penguins, stroked girafees, got sniffed (through bars) by a lion. Kate showed the orangutan her tattoos, which he is fascinated by. We gave the chimps some squash and we fed a rhea (a sort of mini emu looking thing).

If you ever get a chance to be a keeper for the day take it! The keepers were really friendly and knowledgable, especially the guy who showed us round the bird section. We both had a fun day and we now have official zoo swag to show that we were zoo keepers for the day:

Diversity Roll Call - It's About Pride

I mean to join in with the CORA Diversity roll call every time I see Ali’s posts,but things get away from me and blah, blah, blah. No more! This week’s task is one that’s really easy for me to put a post together on and it’s about a subject I love to read about so a post has been born.

This week the Diversity roll call joins up with the USA’s Gay Pride month. One of the activities suggested in the post at Ali's blog is to make a list of books by GLBT authors or a list of books featuring GLBT issues that you would recommend. Easy; gay and lesbian issues are probably some of my favorite plot strands to read about and I have a decent list of books to recommend (as well as a massive list of books I want to read).

Most recently I read ‘What They Always Tell Us’ by Martin Wilson, which is a quiet story of a teenager finding happiness in his first gay relationship. I’m sure you’re all sick of me recommending this one so why aren’t you making me stop by buying and reviewing it yourselves ;)

‘What They Always Tell Us’ has a lot in common with ‘Saints of Augustine’ by P E Ryan, which I read last month as part of the YA challenge. Both books are excellent, though in quite different ways, despite their surface similarities.

Last year I read Jeanette Winterson’s ‘Oranges are Not the Only Fruit’, widely considered a classic of lesbian literature and literature in general. I didn’t quite find the book’s narrative structure as revolutionary as I’d heard it was, but I think that’s probably because I’m so familiar with other books featuring the linear, yet circular narratives that it spawned. Winterson describes it as an autobiographical, but also not autobiographical, story of growing up with a strict Baptist mother and the conflicts that emerge when you love the Lord but you also love girls.

I love, love, love Pat Barker’s WWI books, the 'Regeneration' trilogy. The books follow some famous gay and bisexual WWI poets through ‘the war to end all wars’, as well as portraying fictional gay soldiers, providing a frank look at hidden sexuality during the war. I read the first book ‘Regeneration’ in college as part of a WWI literature module and fell under the spell of Seigfried Sasson, the celebrated pacifist poet who wrote the well known war poem ‘Dreamers’.

‘As Meat Loves Salt’ is set in the English Civil War and it’s sort of a gay, historical romance, with a massive amount of historical substance. It certainly means you’ll never call the history of the Quakers or the printing press dull again. It shows the violent and obsessive side of relationships.

I never actually finished ‘Maurice’ by E M Forster, because I read it during my teenage, non-finishing period of reading but I want to recommend it because the writing is quick, quiet and sharp just like Forster’s other novels and this novel seems to get less attention than say ‘A Room with a View’. Two college men form a ‘strong friendship’ which develops and is then cut short, when one of them decides he wants to be with women instead. This is the only novel Forster wrote about characters who were obviously gay and he asked that it not be published until after his death.

Another classic novel with gay storylines is ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray, a beautiful boy, makes a wish that a painting of him will absorb all his sins. The painting does so and Gray goes on a rampage of unchecked sin. I felt like the homosexuality fo the main characters was very apparent and deliberately thinly veiled in this book, however I read the afterword about the changes Wilde’s editor made to the original and it seems like the book we have now is actually a toned down version, designed to read much more ambiguously. This was done (as far as I remember) to try to preserve the book and to save Wilde from a stronger prison sentence. Like the story of Forster keeping ‘Maurice’ hidden until he died the way that Wilde was treated after the publication of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ makes me sad and angry. Wilde’s time spent in prison for crimes of supposed immorality irreparably damaged his health and he died a few years later. If you haven’t seen it, get to a video store and rent Stephen Fry’s ‘Wilde’.

Everyone knows about Annie Proulx’s short story ‘Brokeback Mountain’ now and isn’t that great! I read it and the other stories in the ‘Close Range’ collection, which is a mashup of the old west lifestyle clashing with modern times, where elements of gothic gruesomeness and the supernatural creep into some of the stories. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ follows the relationship of two casual workers who can only be together in secret. If you watch one DVD this year it really must be ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (although for the purposes of full disclosure pretty much everyone else I spoke to after it came out called it boring), but make sure you read the story first.

Finally try ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ by Michael Harmon for a story about a teenager struggling with a dad who is gay.

I’m looking forward to:

‘Empresses of the World’ – Sarah Ryan: On my shelf waiting to be part of my holiday reading
‘Tipping the Velvet’ – Sarah Waters: Can’t believe I still haven’t read anything by Sarah Waters, why?
‘My Most Excellent Year’ – Steve Kluger: After reading the NHYA review I think this sounds like my kind of book
Debbie Harry sings in French – Meagan Brothers: For me Debbie Harry will always be linked with the roller derby and Clarissa Explains it all as much as with music. I feel a nostalgia trip coming on, sign me up!

What are your favorite GLBT books and what are you still looking forward to reading? I couldn’t think of any book I’ve read that feature bisexual or transgender characters, can you recommend any?

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood - Ann Brashares

This review of ‘The Second Summer of the Sisterhood’ by Ann Brashares is brought to you by bullet points – because sometimes the weather is just too hot for proper paragraphs. There are a couple of spoilers in the ‘I’m not so crazy about’ section, so please be mindful of that.

Last year I decided I’d try a few modern ‘classic’ YA novels (oh how little I knew), so I picked up ‘The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’ and ‘Nick and Norah’s Ultimate Playlist’. These two books are responsible me actually reading the YA novels you’ve seen reviewed here. Book blogs supplied the recommendations but if the first two YA books I read had been horrible I probably wouldn’t have tried out the books they talked about.

I thought ‘Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’ was a bit too much of an issues book and oh my, was there some brand placement shorthand, but I loved the girls and their relationships with parents, boys, friends and each other. I also enjoyed the little snippets of handwritten letters and messenger chat, which could have seemed gimmicky but when used in short bursts actually livened up the text.

So I put the sequel ‘The Second Summer of the Sisterhood’ on my Bookmooch wishlist, hooked a copy but needed to wait a few months before it could be sent on. It arrived two weeks ago and while I swore I’d wait until I’d finished a few more challenge reads it somehow snuck its way into my work page and got devoured in my lunch break. In this installment Lena and Carmen are staying close to home over the summer, while Bridget travels to meet the grandmother her dad hates and Tibby spends her summer at some sort of college induction (I’m still not quite sure what that was). Carmen’s mom has a new boyfriend, Lena has a job at a beige shop and can’t stop thinking about her summer love, Kostas and all the girls are sure to learn something this summer. The magical pants (get your mind out of the gutter Brits, we’re in America now) are swapped back and forth between them, until they all meet again.

Here’s what I liked:

I still can’t pinpoint a favorite character from the four main girls. I started out thinking I wasn’t as bothered about Bridget and Tibby’s storylines as I was in the last book, but half way through I changed my mind and decided Lena was the weak link. By the end of the book I was interested in all of them and reasonably excited about the third book.

The girls still aren’t saints. We see Carmen and Tibby’s bratty sides and Lena isolates herself from her mother. Strange as it sounds I enjoyed Carmen’s brattiness. In the first book her anger at her father was largely justified, this time she’s scared and she lashes out in a mean way. It’s nice to see a contrast, sometimes people are bad to their parents for no reason and then sometimes they have good reasons.

This felt like less of an issues book. The girls were each dealing with a specific issue (grief, feelings of abandonment etc) but they were integrated into the book better than they were in the first book. It didn’t feel (as it did in the last book) like each girl was created to showcase a particular big issue (abandonment, cancer and sex, oh my).

The girl’s intensity of feeling is cool – everything matters, everything is make or break and they need to fully experience everything that happens to them. Lena and Bridget have to make big, scary leaps to be able to do this. Some readers might find this aspect a bit over the top, personally I love the intensity sometimes.

The Septembers! How could I not want to know more about the four women who raised the Sisterhood?

Things I’m not so crazy about:

There was a lot less brand placement this time but it was still there, most noticeably Tibby doesn’t get a computer, she gets an iBook. In the first book using brands was a form of convenient shorthand for some character’s personalities or appearances, which I didn’t like but I could understand. This time it felt like brands didn’t even add to the author’s descriptions of characters, they were just pointless insertions.

I’m still ambivalent about Ann Brashares treatment of teenage sex. In the first book Bridget sleeps with an older man and breaks down because she’s not ready to deal with the emotions that come with sex. I can understand the inclusion of this idea, because while sex isn’t always about emotional connection it’s important to explain to teenage girls that sex can come with confusing, upsetting emotions. I was looking for a balancing, positive portrayal of sex in the sequel and for a while it seemed as if Kostas and Lena would provide this. Then when Lena’s almost ready to have sex we find out that Kostas got a girl pregnant after sleeping with her once and will marry her. Great dramatic moment, strong message about sex having consequences but where’s the balancing view – can anyone tell me if it’s coming in later books?

The potential romance between Paul and Lena. I like it better than when I thought we were headed for a not really but a bit incestuous relationship between him and Carmen, but I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy Lena and Paul getting together.

Ok so the big question – if you’ve seen the film of the first book do you recommend it? It has Rory in it, could it really be bad?

In Vindication of Love - The Smart Set

Before you read anything else today go read this ‘Smart Set’ column by Jessa Crispin, creator of Bookslut, then read all her back entries including the ones about cookbooks. I love most of her columns, but this one struck an especially personal note. Thank goodness for feminism on the internet (and for my feminist friend Kate who can happily spend hours dissecting men, society, politics and relationships but has never given up on finding loves, as well as equality, in a relationship).

Bitter Sweets - Roopa Farooki

This post is the first of my Weekly Geeks/Reading Dewey's Books June mini challenge Weekly Geeks/Reading Dewey’s Books June mini challenge interview posts. I’ll be answering questions readers asked about the books I haven’t reviewed yet. Most of these reviews will be going up next week in time for the mini challenge deadline, but another cookie crumbles wanted to know a bit about ‘Bitter Sweets’ which I said I’d use as last weeks Weekly Geeks entry.

another cookie crumbles asked:

‘Bitter Sweets - I haven't heard of it. What's it about? Would you recommend it? What other books are you reading as part of the 'Diversity Rocks' challenge, if you have them shortlisted already?’

‘Bitter Sweets’ is essentially a novel about an Indian family (part Bengali, part Pakistani by marriage) who practice deceit and self-deception. Promising Oxford graduate Ricky Farim is tricked into marriage by Henna and her scheming father. Thinking that Henna is a literate, sporty seventeen year old beauty Ricky is enchanted with the young girl but on his wedding night, before the consummation, he discovers she is in fact a thirteen year old illiterate, who is only interested in Hollywood stars. The pair embark on a long relationship of bitterness and regret.

Years later Ricky gets a job that means he can live in England, which he thinks of as his spiritual home. He meets a woman he can truly love and marries her, having a child and a double life with her in London. Meanwhile his wife carries on with his brother and his daughter Shona develops an infatuation with a young Pakistani neighbour.

Shona marries her sweetheart and they elope to London. For twenty years they are ‘the couple that is in love’. They raise two sons and expand their small restaurant business while Shona works as a teacher. Then their relationship turns sour as they fall out of love and annoy each other, but Shona does not have the courage to leave. She begins an affair, extending the deceit she feels she has inherited from her parents into her marriage. Her boys grow and it is only when Shona uncovers the way they good naturedly hide parts of their lives from her that she decides the lies must end.

‘Bitter Sweets’ is one of those books that is enjoyable while you’re reading it, but is not really memorable after. I struggled to remember any of the characters names when I came to write this post. Despite the fact that the plot is created from a large bundle of lies, which really damage the family this is a very light novel. All the characters are likeable, apart from Henna and even she seems to mellow towards the end of the book. I don’t really have a strong opinion about this book (that’s sometimes the reason I don’t review books). I wouldn’t actively push it on people, but I also wouldn’t caution you to stay away from it. If you’re looking for a book to rock your world this isn’t it but if you’re looking for a pleasant form of entertainment, this will fit that kind hole. If you’ve got a long trip, or are on your way to the beach this is probably a good book to consider taking.

My goal for ‘Diversity Rocks’ is to read all the books by authors of a different race than mine that are currently in our house. You can see my full list for 'Diversity Rocks' here.

But I’d also like to add that I’m reading ‘The Pirate’s Daughter’ by Margaret Cezair-Thompson as part of this challenge. I don’t know why I didn’t twig she would fit the challenge what with the French influenced name on an author writing about Jamaica, but there was no author picture.

I just quickly want to say hi to my two new followers and whoever my new Bloglines subscriber is. I love when new people start reading the blog regularly.

Nerds Heart YA - Winners

I’m a little behind on blog stuff so please forgive the lateness of this post announcing who has won the various goodies from my NerdsHeartYA competition. I used a random number generator to pick all the winners, congratulations to anyone who was lucky enough to score a prize!

The winner of the first pair of books is Aik. She’ll get my own personal, clean copies of ‘What They Always Tell Us’ and ‘The Last Exit to Normal’.

The winner of the second pair of books is classicvasilly who will get like new copies of the two books.

Finally, the winner of the shiny, shiny Powell’s gift certificate is Liyana. I bet she has a big long list of books she wants to get with it!

If any of you see this before I contact you then email me your preferred shipping address (you can find my email in the sidebar).

Remember to watch over at A High and Hidden Place to whether Heather sends ‘My Most Excellent Year’ or ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ through to the semi-finals.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shafer and Anne Barrows

The main heroine of ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’, Juliet, was a humor columnist during WWII. Her column was turned into a book called ‘Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War’, earning her a reputation as a successful author. Juliet is determined that her next book will be a bit more serious, but is stuck for new subject matter. She receives a letter from a man named Dawsey from Guernsey who has found a book Juliet used to own and writes to ask for more information about the author, Charles Lamb. The two begin a correspondence, as Juliet asks to hear more about the Occupation of Guernsey during WWII and the origins of the infamous ‘Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ that brought Dawsey to Charles Lamb’s essays. Dawsey introduces Juliet to other members of the society who also write to her with stories about books, the Occupation and the society’s founder Elizabeth, who was taken to a prison camp and has not yet returned home.

Almost the entire novel is written in letters and telegrams between Juliet and the people in her life. In real life letters seem like a slow form of communication, but this collection of letters has the immediacy of speech or thought, creating a quick, conversational tone. Juliet often pre-empts the comments she thinks the recipient will make about parts of her letters and responds to counter these imagined comments, which makes the letters sound more like an active conversation. Juliet writes in a quick, engaging style full of enthusiasm for life and I think more of her true personality is revealed through letters than would have been possible if the novel had been written in the first person. The letters give you access to Juliet’s private thoughts, as well as her interactions with the other characters and the distanced form of communication that letters provide allow her be more frank than face to face conversation would let her be. This gives the readers a much more fully developed narrative.

Letters in books can contain more depth than a period of face to face conversation as they are a one sided form of communication, that can’t be interrupted, but they generally don’t suffer from the artificiality of an extended monologue. One of the reasons that letters are the perfect form for this book is that letters allow those living on Guernsey to inform the readers about the period of Occupation, which is part of WWII that readers may not be familiar with. Most Londoners knew little about what had happened on Guernsey as lines of communication between the island and the mainland were cut by the Germans. This lack of knowledge allows the inhabitants of Guernsey to fill in the blanks for modern day readers, without the novel seeming overburdened with details characters from the times, like Juliet, would already know.

The descriptions of occupied life are one of the book’s biggest strengths, providing a unique perspective of the British wartime spirit, where people were urged to be cheery and self-sufficient. It is interesting to see the minor rebellions and comforts that enable the islanders to keep from crumbling, one of which leads to the creation of the society of the book’s title. Although everyone knows the extent of the German’s cruelty during WWII the hardships the islanders suffer are more extreme than might be expected. I certainly always imagined that the Occupation was quite a civilized affair compared with the horrors visited on other countries but the islander’s letters showed that the German’s brutality extended to Guernsey as well. Polish workers were brought to the island, treated little better than slaves who were hunted to death if they tried to escape. The food on the island was taken by the Germans and the islanders survived on little more than scraps. The pie of the title illustrates what they had to work with (although it is also an example of the strange quirks of some of the island’s citizens). Most poignant are the descriptions of the day the island’s children were sent away to England and the day the Germans landed, which are retold by a number of Juliet’s correspondents. Each account adds some new detail that shows the true terror of that day.

While several of the people Juliet writes to are male ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ is mostly a book about women. Juliet is the main heroine, we hear her voice more than any other and the story follows her life, but there are so many other courageous women in this book. The absent Elizabeth is mentioned in so many letters that she feels like a present character and Juliet feels as if she knows her. Isolde, the island eccentric, lives alone but content, without bitterness, which is a remarkable achievement for a woman living in a time when nabbing a husband were thought to be the pinnacle of achievement. Amelia holds the society together in Elizabeth’s absence. Remy, survivor of the concentration camps, seems frail yet must contain immeasurable strength to have survived, stayed sane and told her story. Elizabeth’s small, fierce daughter Kit is the only child to remain on the island during the Occupation and she is the epitome of fighting spirit and recovery. The women’s buoyancy, their ability to survive and still stay cheerful animates the book and injects it with hope.

So go, believe the hype, this book is lovely. I’d say it’s a nostalgic read and a comfort read in the same way ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was a feel good film. Bad things are discussed but you know everything will work out alright in the end.

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Nerds Heart YA - Round One Decision

Originally I was going to talk about the differences between the books that led to me picking the winner, but then I decided it would sound too much like I was ragging on the book I didn’t pick and I so, so want more people to pick that book up. So instead I’m going to talk about some of the similarities between the two books.

Renay had her good reasons for pairing the books as she did y’know. I think my pairing was kind of inspired because the books have quite a few similarities, yet at the same time they are oh so different, which is what made my decision so hard. So before we get started on those similarities I’d just like to say thanks to Renay for taking so much time on getting the pairings right and organising the whole NerdsHeartYA tourney.

So similarities:

Both ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ and ‘What They Always Tell Us’ feature subplots involving boys younger than the main characters and mysteries.

Both books concentrate on the experiences of teenage boys. I have to say I’m inclined to seek out more books told from the male point of view after reading these excellent novels (might Nick Hornby’s ‘Slam’ be moving up my TBR list?)

Both books focus on homosexuality, although they look at the subject from very different perspectives. It’s one of my favourite topics in teen literature and in adult literature so once again thanks Renay.

I found it interesting how although both books were very modern and were quite liberal (I mean both books include teenagers drinking, smoking pot etc) both books included old fashioned solutions that helped the teenage characters improve their lives. Part of what helps Alex to feel happier is exercise, which is very established part of the coping mechanism for depression and is always touted as the route to a better life. Ben finds discipline and self-respect through old fashioned hard work, which leads to him becoming self-sufficient.

Personally I feel that both books had weak teenage female characters, which was partly due to the readers information about the girls being filtered through the male characters perceptions. Kimberley is an ideal, too good to be true, but Ben’s a guy in love and that’s how he’s going to portray her. Claire is a young, sensible wise woman character, who seems to have some kind of special knowledge that stems form her being a woman. Alice is an interesting character but she’s very similar to Alex and so her storyline never quite gets as much development as his, because he’s the main character.

Also both books had moments where the guys talked about how certain characters looked/would look better without their makeup and that’s a personal bugbear of mine for several reasons (not because I am the girl with lots of makeup, I have no understanding of how to use blusher).

Both have covers that don’t immediately grab your eye. They’re not bad covers but I found that they didn’t make an immediate impact on me.

Both were really well written. They are written in completely different styles (‘What They Always Tell Us’ is third person, alternating chapters and a bit more formal, while ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ is first person, one main viewpoint and conversational) and this reinforces my view that a good YA novel can come in a variety of forms.

Now time to cut to the decision. The book that will be going through to compete against ‘My Most Excellent Year’ is (where’s that damn fanfare) ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ by Michael Harmon.

Congratulations to both writers for creating such fantastic stories. I’m eager to read Michael Harmon’s ‘Skate’ and will be watching Martin Wilson’s blog for announcements about forthcoming books. I really hope this contest brings them many new readers.

Next:

See my reviews of the books I judged as part of NerdsHeartYA ( ‘What They Always Tell Us’ and ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ ).

Watch Heather’s blog to see whether ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ makes it through to the semis.

Keep up to date with all NerdsHeratYA announcements at the official Twitter account.

You have one day left to enter my competitions to win the books I reviewed for NerdsHeartYA.

Second First Round Review - Nerds Heart YA: The Last Exit to Normal - Nichael Harmon

When Ben Campbell’s dad tell his wife he’s gay and always has been she slaps him hard and walks out of his life, but Ben can’t leave him so easily. Deserted by his mom he’s forced to live with his dad and his new partner Edward. Deciding he’s done being daddy’s boy Ben goes on a massive spree of rebellion, that ends with him inadvertently driving a getaway car. Ben’s dad decides he needs to move them away from the harmful influences in Ben’s life so the three of them pack up and move in with Edward’s mean, old mother in Rough Butte, Montana. Ben, a punk loving skater, finds himself in cowboy country where gay couples don’t always go down so well with the locals. Ben’s not exactly enamored with Rough Butte, until he falls in love at first sight with a local farm girl, Kimberley. There’s a love story in this book, as well as elements of adventure but the real focus is on the struggling relationship between Ben and his dad.

I can not understand ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ doesn’t have heaps of gushing Amazon reviews from teenage and adult readers alike. Finally here is a book that actually supports teenagers who are having real issues with their parents. Usually in YA books teens feel upset, have arguments with their parents, but by the end of the book have learnt the error of their ways, while the parent makes no concessions, or just minimal changes. I’ve felt for a while that books written for a teenage audience should really support their teenage characters a little more in these situations. Parents aren’t wrong all the time and kids aren’t blameless all the time, but sometimes parents are just as wrong as their kids. Too many YA novels end with the teens capitulating to the lessons their parents feel they need to learn and the parents ‘generously’ forgiving them, ignoring any problems they may have caused. I think the only time I’ve seen a parent really forced to take account of the hurt they’ve caused is during Carmen’s phone call to her dad at the end of ‘The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’.

In ‘Last Exit to Normal’ Ben is unable to ignore just how much his dad’s actions have trashed his life. His dad’s refusal to really understand how his coming out has been for Ben and his dad’s blatant transference of responsibility for solving their problems increase Ben’s frustrations, especially as his dad can’t seem to acknowledge that Ben’s feelings are valid. Ben feels as if his birth was just another part of his father’s disguise and that his dad did not make him because he wanted a kid. Ben also thinks his dad assumed his mother would take him, leaving his dad free to live the life he always wanted. Things are tense and while Ben does his best to smooth out their problems after their many arguments, he feels as if his apologies are one sided and like groveling. Michael Harmon pretty much supports his character, keeping from a forced reconciliation, where Ben must make all the concessions. He also involves Ben in situations that show him in a good light, which emphasizes that kids that disagree with their parents aren’t all brats or good for nothing.

Ben is not always a likeable character. He can be whiny, lazy and he harbors some unkind prejudices about people. At the beginning of the book he catalogues thin things that made his father take them to Rough Butte, which sounds like he is bragging (in fact it reminded me of Danny Bonaduce talking to his therapist in his reality tv series where he says he understands how bad his drinking and jealousy is but never really seems to take in how bad it is in). He’s not the model accepting son some of us might wish for gay men coming out of the closet, instead he’s seriously uncomfortable with his dad being gay, although he likes Edward. However it’s easy to quickly warm to this smart, sarcastic rebel and to recognize the reality of his feelings. I was a little in love with Ben by the end of the book as he transforms into a hardworking, caring guy who retains his basic spark.

The book is packed full of action: a dramatic search and rescue mission during a rain storm, a creepy stalker and a cross country drive to help an abused child all provide a counterbalance to the everyday activities of country life. This book can be intense in the best kind of way and there are moments which had me gripping the book pretty hard as the action ramped up. Still, I felt like the ending was a little needlessly dramatic and that the purpose of Ben’s last daring act was really to allow Harmon to give the plotline between Ben and his dad a realistic, but neat ending.

‘The Last Exit to Normal’ would be a great book to give to straight teenage boys to encourage them to really think about their reactions to gay men. It would also be a great starting point for explaining the damage that can be caused by a society that makes some gay men feel they have to stay in the closet. Mostly it should be read by more people because it’s got a straight forward, fun narrator who gets passionately involved when things matter to him.

Next:

My decision - can I get a fanfare?

Other Reviews

Aik

Nerds Heart YA - First Round Review: What They Always Tell Us - Martin Wilson

‘What They Always Tell Us’ begins one of the main characters, Alex, has done something that makes all his friends avoid him. In a moment of severe depression Alex drank a bottle of Pine-sol at a party. He woke up to a world that had branded him a suicidal freak, where all his friends, including his own brother James, had deserted him. Alex wanders through his high school hallways alone, past suicidal attempts but miserable.

His brother James isn’t doing much better. In his senior year and ready to graduate James feels the small town of Tuscaloosa closing in on him. The parties he goes to are always the same, he doesn’t care about the girls he sleeps with and he feels himself drifting away from his best friends who think attending Alabama university will be the best thing in the world. At the beginning of the novel James sleeps later, smoke more pot and pulls away from familiar things. His state of apathy and irritation mirrors the way he remembers Alex in the months before he tried to commit suicide. He can’t even talk to his brother about any of this because he and Alex have been so far apart since Alex tried to take his own life.

This is a YA novel so the grey existence and damaged relationship of the two brothers is set to be transformed. When Alex starts running again he finds a supportive training partner and friend in one of James’ best friends Nathan. Running makes Alex feel more confident and powerful; it also helps him to make friends as he gains a spot on the cross country team. He also discovers that Nathan wants to be more than his friend and they begin a secret relationship, which makes Alex the happiest he’s been in a long time. At the same time James and Alex begin to repair their relationship as they bond over a mystery about Henry, the odd little boy next door. James reignites a friendship with an ex-girlfriend, Claire, who is as focused as he is and begins to feel a reconnection with his brother. Both of these growing friendships help keep him on track during his last year in his hometown.

In ‘What They Always Tell Us’ Martin Wilson has created a novel that answers YA readers fervent demands for novels containing sound politics, but also real heart and soul. Wilson’s story focuses on a white family, but is set in a community that contains racial diversity. The book features a happy, mixed race relationship (Nathan is part Indian, part British, part American) which is also a happy, gay relationship. However it is not a preachy novel, or a novel built on idealism, it is a novel that strives to be both positive and realistic at the same time. By including negative realistic elements like the fact that Alex and Nathan have to hide their relationship because as Nathan says, being gay is ‘not cool’ in such a small, southern town, Wilson makes the positive elements that he includes, like the lack of shame the boys feel about their relationship, seem realistic too. By doing this Wilson creates a version of our world which gay teens can identify with and which shows how an imperfect world can still offer acceptance, happiness and inclusion. Despite this being Alex’s first relationship with a man the novel is refreshingly free of shame and angst, in fact Alex accepts his sexuality right from the beginning. This is not something I’ve personally seen before in a YA novel and it was wonderful to see an alternative reaction from a character experiencing their first homosexual feelings.

The positive social messages of this book are complemented well by the soft, thudding heart Wilson has invested his novel with. Wilson’s primary goal seems to be to make his characters happy, and hope that it entertains his readers. The quiet, slow paced tone of the novel’s sentences seem to reflect how much he cares about his main characters as no one is rushed to a conclusion and no drama is pushed into their lives. Using a slower pace also matches Alex and James’ journeys as they begin the novel raw and tired, then warily begin to recover. Readers who prefer more action may find this novel a little too quiet, but I appreciated reading a YA novel which took it’s time and didn’t have me skipping through because I was being driven towards a dramatic conclusion.

There are some problems with ‘What They Always Tell Us’. James and Alex’s strange, ten year old neighbour Henry is first introduced to give Alex someone to relate to. Henry is engaging, odd, sweet and a fun addition to the novel. Later as the brothers bond over a mystery about Henry and his mom, Henry’s personality seems to matter less and Henry becomes a narrative tool, rather than a character. The mystery is wrapped up with a solution that is sensible, but also obvious, which makes the whole mystery plotline seem a little clumsy and unimportant in its own right.

Several of the secondary characters also suffer from lack of development because their relationships with the brothers and the way they help them heal is given more focus than their own personalities. Female characters, like Claire and Alice, often lose their own personalities as a consequence of being portrayed through the brother’s eyes. However, as the book is told in alternating chapters, looking primarily at the brothers this is understandable. It would probably have been eliminated if the book had been longer and Wilson had had more space for character development.

‘What They Always Tell Us’ would be a great novel to contrast with P E Ryan’s ‘Saints of Augustine’. It has many similarities but is written with entirely different pacing and in a much quieter way. Fluid, positive and heartfelt it’s going to be a hard novel to beat.

Coming up:

My review of ‘Last Exit to Normal’ by Michael Harmon

Find out which book will move into the next round of Nerds Heart YA and face off with Valentina’s choice ‘My Most Excellent Year’.


Other Reviews

Amy Reads
YA Fabulous
Guys Lit Wire

Weekly Geeks - 2009-22

This weeks Weekly Geeks ties in with the June mini-challenge for the Reading Dewey’s Books challenge. The object is to list all books you haven’t reviewed and have people ask you questions about them, then write review posts that answer those questions and link to all the bloggers who asked you questions.

I’m going to reuse my previous post. Drop by my June mini-challenge post and leave any questions you may have about the four books listed there. Those reviews answering your questions by the first week in July, when the mini-challenge ends.

I’ve also just finished ‘Bitter Sweets’ by Roopa Farooki, which was my first read for the Diversity Rocks challenge. If you have questions about that book then please leave them on this post and I’ll create that review by the end of the week, especially for participants of Weekly Geek.

Just a quick plug – don’t forget my Nerds Heart YA contest
Nerds Heart YA contest is still running. Enter before 21st June to be in with the chance of winning my first round bracket books or a Powell’s gift certificate.

I Suck at Challenges - May

I’m a little behind on my regular posts as weekends are full up at the moment and will continue to be until the end of July it seems. Last weekend was my trip to Leeds. This weekend I saw Athlete in concert (really good, the first support was a bit too quiet for me, the second one was a sexy, fun, fast band called 'Gold Teeth' who would rock anywhere with room to dance and Athlete were of course awesome and the new album stuff sounds promising), had a manicure with my mum and went to Cosford air show (fab but also a vision of hell with all the people, great show though and lots of sunshine).

Next weekend is a really exciting one as me and a friend will be zoo keepers for the day on Sunday. I know you’re jealous but look you can see the penguins. I’m also taking a half day on Friday for shopping and a hair cut, then having a meal Saturday night.

So what has this post got to do with books? Well you might not realize it yet but this is my monthly ‘I Suck at Challenges’ review post. This is the one but last post before the challenge ends and is it awful that I’m sad about this one ending? It’s so fun, I like checking out how I’m progressing with challenges regularly and feeling a bit of accomplishment.

It’s probably best that I don’t dwell on the new challenges I’ve added. I don’t think a month of this challenge has gone by without me adding a new reading challenge to the list. Like others I think one of the best things about challenges is sifting through my shelves and making the lists. I think I’ll just power on and tell you what I’ve achieved.

I’ve almost finished Carl’s Once Upon a Time challenge. I’ve completed all five books and now I just have to read ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ before 20th June. That’s four days to read a play in – easy right? Even if I don’t get that read I still think I’ll feel pretty happy with how this challenge went. For this challenge I read:

'Stardust' – Neil Gaiman
'Nation' – Terry Pratchett
'Once Upon a Time in the North' - Philip Pullman
'Into the Wild' – Sarah Beth Durst
'Magyk' – Angie Sage

I finished my second book for the Art History challenge – ‘The Painter of Shanghai’ – Jennifer Cody Epstein

I finished my first book for the Eco Reading challenge – ‘Captivity’ by Debbie Lee Wesselman (I really enjoyed this one).

I read a Chunkster as well. ‘Company of Liars’ by Karen Maitland weighed in at over 500 pages and it’s the first big book completed this year (I fear for this challenge as chunksters can not be taken to work).

There was some YA action for the YA challenge as I completed what I think is my seventh book for this challenge – ‘Saints of Augustine’ by P E Ryan.

I read three of the Once Upon a Time Books this month and I think seven challenge books in one month is not too shabby. Yes, yes I can quite clearly see that there is still much to read – not exactly a bad thing is it?

This month I’ve made a start on a book that features in three challenges, which is ‘Planet Earth’ by Alastair Fothergill. If you haven’t seen the accompanying television series you must! It’s amazing and almost as good as ‘The Life of Mammals’. The book is going a bit slowly as it is a tall and wide book, which can only be read at home.

I’ve also finished my first book for Diversity Rocks which was ‘Bitter Sweets’ by Roopa Farooki (more later). I actually picked up a few books of the list for this challenge but couldn’t settle to them, I might try ‘The White Tiger’ next. Other than that challenge reading has gone by the wayside at the moment as I dip into whatever takes my fancy at the time.

Away, Away, Away From Here

I spent the weekend in Leeds having my annual away weekend with my mum, then got straight on a train to York (and a much inferior hotel room) for a works conference. I had a great time in Leeds (our hotel's cocktail bar was superb and on our last day we spent time in the city's main art gallery). It beat out Manchester, which was where we spent our weekend two years ago but couldn't quite compete with Bristol (three years ago) or Rome (our first foreign blow out away weekend).

I don't want to bring my politics to this blog much, but I have to mention that I was appalled to see the North's 'reactions of people in the street' news bulletins about two BNP MEPs getting elected. One woman actually said it was a protest against Labour's recent appalling behaviour. Free speech and all but sorry that's not a valid opinion. A sad reminder of what a toxic situation propoganda, voter apathy and bad economic circumstances can produce.

I have quite a bit of bookish news to impart sometime soon. I have to finish up my two reviews for NerdsHeartYA. I'm almost certain which book is going to progress, but there's still time for me to change my mind. I also have to write about the fab book my mum bought for me, thereby avoiding the 'no new books' rule. Don't bank on any of that happening before the weekend though, it's back to proper work tomorrow, but it's also only three days before I see Athlete in concert for cheap. Speak to you all soon!

Reading Dewey's Books - June Mini-Challenge

Kaliana has created the June mini-challenge for the Reading Dewey’s Books challenge. The mini-challenge will probably be combined with the last month of the Once Upon a Time Challenge and involves creating some review posts in Dewey’s unique, book interview format. Let’s listen to Kaliana summarize the mini-task:

‘The object is to list books that are:a) Are Dewey books that you have not reviewed yet.b) Are Once Upon a Time books that you have not reviewed yet.c) Any book that you have not had a chance to review.d) If you are very on-top of things, you can list books that you have read recently (even if you have reviewed them already)’

People will then ask you questions about the books you list and you will create reviews that answer those questions, so that the reviews address specific things your readers want to know.

I don’t have any book from these two challenges waiting for reviews (btw I’ve finished al five books for Once Upon a Time, with just the June reading of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to go and I’ve completed three of Dwey’s books) but I do have a few books that never got reviewed. So my list of books I’m open to questions about are:

East of the Sun – Julia Gregson
The Tenderness of Wolves – Stef Penney
A Passage to India – E M Forster
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Philip K Dick

Get your curious hats on (or you could just be curious and wear a normal hat, or no hate at all) and think about what you’d like to know about the books and my experience with them.

Nerds Heart YA - Win, Win, Win

Yannabee tweeted this morning to say she’s holding a contest to celebrate the beginning of Nerds Heart YA . She’s giving away two copies of 'The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine', two copies of 'Leftovers' , which are her bracket picks and one ARC copy of 'Cracked Up to Be. Be sure to check it out, because it’s really easy to enter.

I thought it would be fun if I held a similar contest for my bracket choices. Nerds Heart YA is all about getting these books into people’s minds and hands, so what better way to accomplish that than to hand out some free copies. I’ll be giving away two pairs of books, each containing a copy of the two books I’ve been assigned to judge (that’s 'What They Always Tell Us' and 'Last Exit to Normal').

Look how easy it is to enter:

To be entered to win the first pair just tweet this link to the Nerds Heart YA shortlist: http://alturl.com/3zoo and encourage people to be interested in the contest. Leave a comment on this post telling me you’ve done this.

To be entered to win the second pair click the vote up (the green arrow button) beside the Nerd Heart YA (nerdsheartya) on Twitter story at Book blips. Leave a comment on this post telling me you’ve done this.

Now for the super special bonus round! To be entered to win a Powells gift certificate for £20 (that’s $33) complete both of the two tasks above and then click the vote up (the green arrow button) beside The Year of Readers story on Book blips (it’s the 9th story down). Leave a comment on this post telling me you’ve done this. If you link to that story on Twitter or on your blog you get an extra entry for the gift voucher (again please let me know you’ve done this).

This is an International contest so anyone can enter. All entries will be drawn after 21st of June (when the first round judging decisions are due) using a random number generator.

If anyone has reviewed the two books in my bracket or any of the other books on the shortlist please let me know, our Twitter followers would love to hear your opinions.

Magyk - Angie Sage

Silas Heap is a seventh son and supposedly a fount of wizardly power, but he trades in his Apprenticeship with the Extra-Ordinary wizard for a position as an Ordinary wizard, so he can have a normal family life with Sarah. Returning with herbs for his own newly born seventh son, Septimus, Silas finds a baby girl hidden in the snow. He takes her back to his home in the vast neighbourhood of the Castle, only to find that his son has died while he is away. He and his wife, Sarah raise the girl until her tenth birthday, as if she is their own daughter, Jenna. However spies are lurking, looking for Jenna, as the cruel, ruling forces want to exterminate any trace of her biological family.

'Magyk' is the first book in the 'Septimus Heap' series, which follows the Heap family and their friends as they try to fight off the dark forces that are taking over their world. As the series is named after Silas’s son it’s obvious that Septimus Heap must be alive, but it’s intriguing trying to work out where he is. At the beginning of the book I was sure I knew who Septimus Heap was, but then little things made me doubt myself and then slightly bigger things made me mistrust my doubts. Usually I’d have been frustrated by a book that didn’t reveal such a crucial secret until the end but ‘Magyk’ managed to keep me guessing until quite close to then end.

This book was fun to read. It was inventive, well written, extremely descriptive and funny. The book’s world is fantastical but also dystopian, as she includes a ruling force that has deposed the monarchy and renumbers everything, to exclude any hint of individuality. Every detail of the world is investigated and Angie Sang makes time to take the reader on explorations away from the main plot, enriching the book considerably. At the end of the book is a section that looks at the fates of some of the smaller characters after they left the main plot. Sage cares about her characters and seems to have spent masses of time carving their world out in her mind.

However, this amount of detail can be distracting. I raced through the first two hundred pages, but the tiniest thing would break my concentration when I reached later parts of the book and I put that down to the overwhelming amount of descriptive detail offered. I would drift away into other thoughts as characters and clothes were outlined, even though this was achieved with swift, spot on descriptive strokes. While this is an adventure story a large part of the book is spent with the main characters holed up in a cottage, far away from the villain. This left plenty of time for the children’s characters to be developed, which I enjoyed. But it also left me feeling craving a bit more connection to the main ‘good vs evil’ plotline. After their escape from The Castle, which is dramatic and tense, early in the book the children seem to frustrate the villain’s plans easily. The final battle between the children and Dom Daniel, the dark wizard, felt a little flat and anti-climatic.

On a side issue: my copy of ‘Magyk’ came with one of those new age guidance stickers on the cover, describing it as a book for children aged 8 – 12. I have to be honest and say that this did put me off, I thought the writing in a book that 8 year olds could appreciate might be a bit simplistic. If I’d seen this book bearing that sticker when I was fourteen or so I probably would have passed ‘Magyk’ by. I don’t know whether schools are expanding kids vocabularies faster than they did when I was at school, or if the publishers just put that age range on because the main characters are quite young, but there are plenty of words in this book that I wouldn’t have understood when I was eight. I’m still not sure age guidance stickers were such a good idea. What do you think?

The Year of Readers - Fundraising Drive

We’re entering the sixth month of ‘The Year of Readers’, our year long sponsored read-a-thon that’s designed to raising money for literacy charities around the world. If you haven’t heard about the event before
please read our introductory post, which is full of information about what we’re doing and how we hope to benefit charities by reading in 2009.

Our readers are doing really well flipping pages and raising money offline, but as the sixth month of the year begins I think we could all use a little online fundraising boost. So if you’re passionate about reading please consider donating to one of our readers so they can advance the cause of reading related charities.

There’s a variety of causes for you to pledge your money to:

I’m reading for Room to Read. You can send me a flat rate donation at my Justgiving page

Peta is raising cash for Book Aid International which benefits all kind of literacy organizations. Why not contribute a few pounds to her cause at her fundraising page

Sylvia is reading for a couple of Canadian charities CODE and World Literacy of Canada which work to get children and adults in developing countries literacy training and a supply of useful books. Sylvia’s customized the challenge and you can read all about what she’s doing at her Canda Helps fundraising page

Melanie is reading for a moving charity - The Public Library on Wheels. If you want to fund their travels please donate at her Canada Helps page.

J C is one of our readers collecting money for First Book, which asks you to remember the joy your first book gave to you. Her fundraising page could do with some love.

You can also click through any of the links in the right hand side bar (on 'The Year of Readers' blog) to leave a comment for one of our readers about sponsoring them.

You can help by donating money to one of our readers or by passing on information about ‘The Year of Readers’ to anyone who might be interested in donating. Tweet it, Facebook it or Blog it – however you choose to pass on the message it would be much appreciated.

Finally I’m looking to run a series of silent auctions to increase fundraising. If you have any really cool good quality book related things and would be willing to see them auctioned off for charity please contact me with a comment here. It could be signed copies, ARCs, boxed sets or fancy book paraphernalia. Also if you know anyone who might be interested in donating items please tell them to get in contact here.