tiny pink books

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Scholastic Press, 2009

My base reaction to Shiver, yet another teen supernatural romance novel, was one of reluctance (and perhaps an actual groan or two).  I ignored recommendation after recommendation because, quite frankly, I was tired of reading books “like Twilight.”  After finally getting around to picking this up, however, I have to say that I had nothing to fear.  Shiver is not a Twilight clone, but is instead a fresh and original take on the supernatural romance genre.

Narrated in alternating points of view, Shiver is the story of Grace, quiet and competent high school good girl, and Sam, high school aged werewolf, as they fall in love, facing all kinds of odds.  I won’t go into too many details, but Stiefvater adds a lot of original ideas to keep things interesting.  My favorite thing about this book was the ending.  I won’t tell you how it ends though :)  I also really enjoyed Stiefvater’s characters–from the intelligent and competent Grace to the sensitive and thoughtful best friend, all of the characters have a depth and emotive quality that makes them so much more realistic than I was expecting.

This summer will bring us Linger, the next title in the series.  I am interested to see where it will go and whether the quality will remain the same.

Vinyl Princess

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz
HarperTeen, 2010

Obsessive record collector and self proclaimed “Vinyl Princess,” Allie is seventeen and already living her dream-working at an ultra-cool record store in Berkeley, CA.  Working full time, Allie’s summer is peppered with often hilarious and sometimes dangerous adventures in retail.  She also begins a blog and zine called The Vinyl Princess, finding her voice in her most favorite of topics-music!  Her personal life also competes for drama in the story with a great best friend with a dud boyfriend, a recently divorced mother testing the waters of online dating, and her own obsession with M, the handsome mystery shopper who appears from time to time.   A great, detailed to the bone Berkeley setting, a charismatic set of characters and enough drama to keep the pages turning combine to make The Vinyl Princess a fun read that is sure to appeal to a wide audience of teens and twenty-somethings alike.  Written by one of the co founders of Amoeba Records, The Vinyl Princess has a connection for music fanatics as well.

I liked this book.  There were a few quibbles I had, mostly with some localisms that could easily be chalked up to my own San Francisco elitism.  Also, a more valid complaint, I did feel like the book dragged on for a bit.  The main characters were also a bit too tongue in cheek perfect in their fabulous quirky ways.  It was appealing at first, but their flawlessness was a little too hard to swallow in parts. More sophisticated readers will probably pick up on these issues of pacing and the character.

Overall though, I’ve got to recommend it!  With an appealing cover, a local setting, and a really cool set of characters to spend some page time with, I predict this to fly off the shelves.  Recommended for girls, girls who like music, and twenty-somethings who like music (or Berkeley..or both).

Farewell to Arms

Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
1929
First off, let me just say that I have absolutely loved all the Hemingway that I have encountered thus far.  He makes me want to go camping and hunt with my bare hands or fight a bull or something.  This was no exception, even though the ending left me furious and frustrated (and sad, sad, sad, sad, sad!).

A Farewell to Arms is a love and war story with some of the most interesting characters I’ve ever met on the page.  Lieutenant Henry, the main character, is serving in World War I in the Italian army, despite the fact that he is an American.  Complicated, yet oh so macho much?  Check.  He falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse who is stationed in Italy.  Catherine starts off crazy and soon becomes, well, interesting.  I’ve read some comments that describe Catherine as a sexist portrayal of a woman, but I found to be much more intriguing and complicated than that.  She and Lieutenant Henry embark on an intense, war hospital-based courtship that is all fairytale and no reality.  There’s love, there’s sexy banter, there’s some tough guy war stuffs (it is Hemingway, after all), a bit of adventure and them, of course, some tragedy.  It’s all very good and I think this is one of those classics for everyone.

Also, I should add that I listened to this in audio format.  How did this come to be?  I desperately needed a new audiobook for my commute home and my holds for the latest teen werewolf love story hadn’t come through yet, so I found myself browsing until I picked this one up.  I usually avoid the classics or anything really that could be defined as “literature” when it comes to audio format, but I figured that Hemingway is so short and blunt and downright uncomplicated that I could follow in audio format…and I was right!

Dirty Girls Social Club

The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez
Saint Martin’s Griffin, 2003

This is your standard professional women in the city (the city being Boston) book with a a twist (the twist being that all of the women are Latina).  It works.  It’s fun, a little bit trashy and I enjoyed listening to it as an audiobook on my commute.  Sums it up right there!

How To Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Sandiford
Scholastic Press, 2009

Beatrice Szabo has just moved to Baltimore with her family.  Her father, a professor, moves the family often for his job.  With all the moving around, Beatrice has grown into an increasingly detached “Robot Girl,” emotionally distant from both her formerly close, but now crazy, mother and her would be friends at school.  At her new school, Beatrice is surprised when she is drawn into the world of Jonah Tate, the weird, friendless kid.  Their friendship develops and Robot Girl finds herself unable to stay detached from the intense emotions that surround their relationship.  Really, this is a love story…just not a romantic kind of love.

How To Say Goodbye in Robot occupies a strange place in young adult fiction.  It’s a quirky book with high quality writing and a strong sense of place, however, the plot is almost entirely internal.  With much of the drama unfolding in subtle emotions rather than direct action, this is not a book for reluctant readers.  It’s slow and meandering, but for readers who want an intense emotional drama, How to Say Goodbye in Robot is worth savoring.  The end left me deep in thought (and a little teary eyed).  The characters, including the smaller characters, are all extremely well developed.  Also, although this is definitely a YA book, I think it it most suitable to the older YA set in addition to the 20-something adult crowd.

King of the Screwups by K.L. Going
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

After getting in trouble yet again, high school senior Liam is kicked out of his home with his retired model mother and CEO father to live in a trailer park with his gay glam rocker uncle, Pete.  Trying to win the acceptance of his constantly disapproving father, Liam attempts to stop screwing up and change into the kind of person his father will value.  Of course, this doesn’t go smoothly, resulting in, you guessed it…more screwups!

This was a fun, light read with a sweetly positive message.  Though the premise and the characters are exaggerated and therefore less than realistic, they are enjoyable and, in their hearts, easy to relate to.  I was in a bit of a reading slump when I picked this up and this was the perfect book to pull me out of it-fluffy at first glance, but with an important, warm fuzzy self esteem message.

Haters by Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez
Little Brown, 2006.

When 16-year-old Paski is whisked away from her beloved hometown in New Mexico, she struggles to fit in and find her place in her new Orange County high school.  Topmost of her problems is ultra popular and ultra mean Jessica Nguyen.  Facing potential romance, a twist of psychic ability, and adult issues than she’s ever faced before, Paski rides mountain bikes, makes friends, and figures out where she wants to stand in the social world of her new school.

I liked the first half of this book.  Paski is a refreshing character–she’s tough, she’s smart, and she’s unique.  I also liked how the author tackled some very “growing up” issues like birth control, awkward (but so necessary) sex talks between Paski and her father and peer pressure.  I also liked the way there’s just a touch of a supernatural story here, with Paski’s psychic ability.  The problems I had with this book had to do with the ending.  For all Valdez-Rodriguez’s realism at capturing the evils of the high school social world, the ending pushed way too far and felt tacked on and hard to swallow.  That said, it was still an enjoyable book…just quite disappointing in its end.

Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee
Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009

Maybelline “Maybe” Chesnut is nothing like her former beauty pageant queen mother, Chessy, who constantly brings in a stream of new husbands.  Hiding in her baggy clothes and rainbow colored hair, Maybe doesn’t really fit in at school or at home.  After Chessy’s latest fiancé attacks Maybe, she sets off, running away to Los Angeles to find her biological father with her two best friends, Ted and Hollywood (aka Daniel).  As her friends find their places in the glitzy world of Hollywood, Maybe struggles to find her own place and discover who she really is.

This was a decent book.  It’s one of those books that was fun to read-the characters, including Maybe, are all larger than life, charming, and lovable.  Although the plot (and, to a degree, the characters) are somewhat unrealistic, the sweet charm and light heartedness of everything here will win over the non-cynical reader.  This was an okay, fluffy read for people who just want something a little bit quirky, a little bit sugary and a lot happy ending.  Reader seeking anything deep or twisty, go elsewhere!

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
Penguin Books Australia, 1992

Josephine Alibrandi is a smart, sassy seventeen year old, living in Sydney during her last year of high school.  She’s got a lot to think about this year, as she struggles with her identity as an Australian-Italian, her first boyfriend, her relationships with her mother and grandmother, and meeting her absentee father for the first time in her life.  There’s a lot of heavy issues in this coming of age novel, but if I had to put my finger on the biggest one to Josephine is the idea of balancing two cultural identities.

While the characters in this book are universally appealing, especially headstrong Josephine, I think it may be more enjoyable to adults than teens at this point.  It’s very much dated in the early 90’s and, perhaps at least here in America, the concept of an Italian struggling to fit in, culturally, seems a ghost of the past.  Still, this was a satisfying read that was hard to put down in the end.  I’m not sure who I’d recommend this one to, other than librarians and readers who liked Marchetta’s other novels.

Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Viking Juvenile, 2009
Along for the Ride is a typical Sarah Dessen coming of age novel.  By typical, I mean that there’s nothing all that new here–realistic characters, the well paced story, and a well crafted emotional landscape of being confused and at that age where you’re deciding who you want to be in life.

Auden, an overachieving, a-type girl with problems (this time it’s her parents’ divorce) is thrown out of her element and winds up meeting a quirky cute boy with problems as well (dead best friend).  She helps him, he helps her, both of them grow.  If you’ve read the fabulous The Truth About Forever, you have practically read this one, but even so, I’d recommend both!  Sarah Dessen does what she does so well that the repetition doesn’t both me.  Recommended for Sarah Dessen fans and/or readers seeking a realistic coming of age story (complete with a few tear jerker moments and that general sweet/warm hearted feeling that you get at the end of every good coming of age story).