The Truth about Forever

Sarah Dessen is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Yes, the main characters suffer from what Lauren finds to be quite annoying - the inability and/or unwillingness to TALK to the people closest to them, but Dessen writes this out in a much more realistic way. This isn't a teenage girl who doesn't want to talk to her father about her teenage vampire boyfriend or the blood-thirsty monsters that are currently tracking her down - this is a girl who watched her father die and subsequently shut down emotionally and focused on anything that didn't remind her of her dad. Of course you would have trouble talking out those things. So it's not nearly as frustrating - it's "tragical" (which just happens to be one of my new favorite words thanks to this book). You can relate to the main character, Macy, because everyone has lost someone or something in their life and almost everyone has gone through a period of not talking about how that made them feel. It's hard and it's terrible and dealing with it is almost as bad as actually experiencing it.

Dessen let's Macy work through all of her grief in a very normal and realistic way - nothing unbelievable or extraordinary happens. It's summer, Macy's boyfriend leaves and she is stuck at a boring job with people she hates. She happens to find another job with nicer people who don't know about her situation and loves being anonymous and untroubled by what happened. Then they find out and end up being amazing people, supportive and loving.

My favorite of all is Wes (of course this is the guy she falls in love with because there is always a guy to fall in love with in books). He's quiet and sweet and artistic...I'm a sucker for those artistic types. He is the first one to really just let Macy say what she needs to say and the first one Macy will say those things to. He's one of the most perfect male characters I have read...flawed but better for it, attractive but unaware, kind and caring but protective and not overbearing.

I was surprised at how much I liked "Just Listen" and happy to find that I liked "The Truth about Forever" even more. I will definitely be reading the rest of her books in the near future.

Updates!

1. I was at Borders tonight, and I gave in and bought Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I'm so excited!

2. I figured out what that Indian book was! There's nothing about butterflies on it, so I'm not sure where that came from, but I can't believe I actually found it just by walking around and looking at the shelves hoping to see something familiar. It's called The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

I restrained myself and only bought one, but I'm going to have to buy the second one soon. Probably after I finish reading this one. So there you go.

Books, books and more books!

That's what I got this Christmas, thanks to my lovely friends and sister. Well, to be specific, I got gift cards to Barnes and Noble which I went out and spent (along with a little of my own money) on tons o' wonderful books.

I got lots of teen fiction (also thanks to Krissie who bought me four awesome books) and The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. I am especially excited about that one because I have been wanting to read Through the Looking Glass again.

So...here's the list.

From Krissie:
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Loser by Jerry Spinelli

From my gift cards:
The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (the complete box set, she co-wrote Sorcery and Cecilia and I really liked the cover art so I thought I'd give it a try)
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Just because they were on sale for less than $5:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
The Dictionary of Disagreeable English: A Curmudgeon's Compendium of Excruciatingly Correct Grammar by Robert Hartwell Fiske (it was $1.99 and I like reading about grammar misusage)
The Musee D'Orsay (which was 50% off and has beautiful pictures of the works of art from this museum in Paris, which was one of my favorites when we visited in the spring)

Okay, so I think that covers it. Actually I know I bought a couple more I just can't remember them at the moment. All in all, though, I am very pleased with my Christmas presents and tried to buy books that would last a long time and remind me of the people who made the buying of them possible. Hence the box set and the Works of Lewis Carroll. I am excited to start reading!!

And One More Thing

I've bought a few books lately that I'm kind of excited about, and here's why: I never buy books on sight. This has changed recently, but the way I used to be, I'd go to Barnes and Noble like five or six times and look at a book before I'd buy it. Then I'd go home and look it up online, to find out if I'd like it. This, I think, goes back to when I was little, and my parents wouldn't buy me books because they said I finished them too fast. So I went to the library all the time and became paranoid about spending money on a book if I wasn't sure I'd like it. This is no longer the case. This book, called Plain Language, was just sitting in the bargain books section of the bookstore. It was three dollars, I thought it looked interesting-- so I bought it. End of story.
But the book I'm the most excited about is called A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. I was first attracted to it by the cover, so I picked it up and read the first chapter. I had to buy it. It's about a girl who sees things like numbers, letters, and sounds in color, and so far that's all I really know. I'm excited to read the rest of it, and look at that cover! Doesn't it just make you want to read it? Also snuggle a cat. An orange cat. Which is deceiving, since the cat in the book is actually gray. But he has orange eyes, and an orange aura to Mia (the main character). Also, more points for the book-- recommended by both Meg Cabot and Judy Blume.
I use the word also a lot. Have you noticed this? I don't think I made clear in that last post HOW MUCH I love The Truth About Forever. It's so good. I'm almost finished with it and I'm sad but can't put it down either. I'm going to have to read more Sarah Dessen after this to get my fix, although I'm a little sad because according to Megan the rest of the books won't be QUITE this amazing. But I'll find something else, right? I mean, that's why we love reading so much. No matter how much we read, there's always something else.
Okay that's all. I love all of you. The end.