The Book Theif (again)

I just finished this book and it is MARVELOUS. I absolutley adored it. It's sad but sometimes funny and terribly hopeful and wonderful. The main characters are so amazing, and the way that it's written is really kind of unique very powerful. Highly recommended.
Next up for me: The Road (finally). So far it's good.

The Book Thief

It sounds like we are all trying to read The Book Thief - I've been stalking a copy at the library as well. I will try to come up with a list for us to choose from.

Books I've Finished Since the Last Time I Posted on Here...

The Golden Compass, the Subtle Knife, and the Amber Spyglass.

Fantastic books. I won't say much about them except that I really liked them, and I would absolutely recommend them to anyone.

Austenland.

Kinda cheesy. The genre for last month's book club was romance and this is what Nathalie, Mike's mom, read. I told her I'd been thinking about reading it, so she gave it to me and told me I should. I wasn't ever very interested in reading it, but I figured I might as well, so I did, and it was not amazing, but not the worst either. It was definitely what I'd call "mindless froth," so at least my expectations were right in that. :)

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

So good! I just finished it this morning. I read it because I was kind of in a rut--ever since I finished His Dark Materials I haven't been able to really get into anything else, and I've just been reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves to pass the time. I picked up From the Mixed-Up Files a few days ago just for kicks, because I got it from Megan's book order a long time ago and hadn't read it yet. Really fun to read, I love the way it's written. Good times.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

This is a really good book. I started reading Amy Tan a couple years ago and I've really gotten into Asian lit since then. Lisa See writes in a different style, or at least in this book she does. It's a lot more... realistic, I guess--not that Amy Tan isn't, but this book focuses a lot on all the foot binding, the actual day to day experiences, things like that. I've tried several times and I really can't explain what the appeal of this kind of literature is to me, but I just know I really like it.

Next on my list are a couple books I haven't been able to get a hold of: My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Piccoult, and The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak. I'm trying to put a check on my money-spending, so I've been looking for them at the library. I can't find them at any of the libraries around here, though--all the copies they have have been checked out every time I look for them. Megan just got a copy of The Book Thief for Easter, so I'll probably borrow it from her when she finishes reading it.

And for now... I don't know. Maybe Missing, which is the other adolescent book I got from the book order a while ago. It's not really jumping out to me, but my experience has been that adolescent books are good for getting out of ruts because they're so fast and easy to get through.

Character Flaw

Since Baby Bear was born, I've had a lot more time to read. Thanks to Lin and the library, I've found some great books... Libba Bray's series, Austenland, Goose Girl, Enna Burning. Most of which are young adult books, which isn't a big deal to me. They are easy to read, clean and enjoyable. But I'm noticing a common character flaw that is beginning to really annoy me.

In most of these books the main character is supposed to be an independent, strong-minded female - which is great. So why is it that they all come to a point where they are presented with a problem and spend a good part of the book avoiding friends and family or lying about issue? Is this the only way to introduce conflict in YA literature? Do we really want our teenage girls to think that this is the only way to handle a problem? And why does being independent mean you can't trust the people who love you? I don't get it...

Are we all in a reading rut?

The answer for me would be "no," but I AM in a posting slump. I am reading - I finished two books in the last week, in fact, and am starting a new one today - I just don't have much to say. Which is strange for me, right? haha.

So I thought I'd at least put that out there. Maybe this summer we can organize a virtual book club meeting of sorts? Actually no maybe - let's do it! Comment with suggestions of books for us to choose from and we can pick one, read it at the same time, then blog away. We basically read the same books as it is anyway, right? What sayest thou?

Why does everything turn into a statement about the environment?

I finished Specials this week, the third book in the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. So here are my thoughts on all of them.

Uglies. I liked it okay. It was a quick read and a very interesting idea. Westerfeld creates a fairly believable far distant future of the world based on our current trends/social foibles, although some of it bugged me, but that's bound to happen when you are dealing with a completely fictional state based off of reality - everyone has their own view and interpretation. The main character, Tally, was likable in this book, less so by Specials. I don't want to get into the whole story line because a lot of stuff happens - but I was hooked by the end of the story. I previously mentioned that the book ends in a cliff hanger (which annoys me so very much), but I owned the next two books so I just picked up Pretties and moved on with the story.

Pretties. Tally turns from an Ugly to a Pretty. Pretties are "bubbleheads" who basically spend their time partying...well, not basically, that's all they do. But Tally is different and her ugly past comes back to help her escape the life of a pretty. I like the new love interest, Zane, but Shay becomes more and more annoying. I think Tally's priorities start to change in this book, but I like the idea that Tally changes herself and doesn't need a "cure" to overcome what's ailing her. She is confident and determined and those are good qualities for the main, female character in a teen fiction novel to have. On the other hand, she's far too involved with/concerned about her boyfriends. And now for a tangent.

I think authors (especially in teen fiction) get caught up in trying to always have some sort of love interest for their main character. This is mostly annoying with the female leads as the way they associate with the boy they "love" often counters their previously established characteristics. A prime (and recent) example of this would be Bella in the Twilight series. We are told that she is mature, independent and strong-willed. When she is with Edward, though, none of these traits really shine through. The same can be said for Tally (possibly to a lesser degree) and also for several other teen heroines. Am I the only one who sees this or is bothered by it? Perhaps this is just human nature and all girls can be this way at times (ie. change themselves to make someone else happy), but I'd like to think that in a book, where everything is being created from scratch, that maybe the heroine could truly stick to her character/morals/beliefs and still keep her boyfriend, best friend, etc. happy. Maybe I'm crazy.

Finally, we have Specials. The pace was slower and Tally was annoying. Also, Shay was MORE annoying. Shay redeemed herself in the end, which was good. Tally never really truly "fixed" herself in this one though. She just leveled out everyone else. Plus other things happened that I was not happy with but that I don't want to write here and spoil for those of you who haven't read it yet. Then, to top it all off, the ending! The entire series is turned into a politically charged environmental statement and a poorly worded one at that. I am to believe that in the space of one year, Tally has gone from ugly to pretty to special, has brought down a corrupt government, alienated most of her friends, lost two boyfriends, AND then chooses to become a super secret environmental crusader?! Is it sad that I was fine with everything I listed before "chooses to become a super secret environmental crusader"? The ended just made it cheesy and annoying for me. It felt like an afterthought. Like Westerfeld needed to make a statement so he picked one, scattered a few convenient lines throughout the last book to corroborate the ending and viola!, that's it? Meh.

I think there is actually a fourth book in this "trilogy" but I am unsure about whether or not I want to read it? It's called Extras. Has anyone read it? Let me know.

Overall, I would probably recommend these books if you wanted something quick and light to read. I guess they would be a B- all together (I really enjoyed the first book, but was disappointed by the last).

Frustration!

Can someone please tell me why book 8 is not in paperback yet?? It came out at the very beginning of July of last year. This was eight months ago! And until now I had heard nothing about its paperback release, although I just found something on a website that said the beginning of July 2008--which I will trust, since I have nothing else to go on, and which also makes me very sad. Why do you suppose this book will require a full year before its paperback release? None of the others took that long. Grr.

Uglies, Pretties, etc.

I just finished reading Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Great book, intriguing idea...but HOW could anyone have started reading these without being able to move directly to the next book? If I didn't already own the first three out of four when I started reading Uglies, I would have been very annoyed by the end of it. It just stops right before a big event...technically right in the middle of a big event. This isn't like Twilight or Harry Potter where each book has a subplot to further the major overall plot of the series - it's like a "to be continued" storyline on TV and those are never fun.

Anyone feel the same way about Uglies?

More to come...

P.S. from Miri

Miri has just read the trilogy mentioned in my previous post and made a post about it on her blog - just thought I would reiterate it here since it was interesting and well timed.

The Sweet Far Thing, etc.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

I just finished reading this book which was part of the Book Extravaganza of Christmas 2007 (ie: given to me by Krissie). Here's the synopsis:

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

When I started the book I thought it would be as silly as the synopsis made it sound, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a quick read, and silly at times, but I found myself getting pretty involved with the mystery of the story. It's relatively easy to relate to the "evil" things girls will do to one another, emotionally and socially as well as to the bond that is eventually formed within a somewhat mis-matched foursome. It also helped that I watched Phantom of the Opera (similar time periods - completely different settings, but it still set a mood) while I was in the middle of the book. The mix of the setting and subject was fun as well - there's a good juxtaposition on the girl's trials in preparing themselves for Society (dealing with suitors, facing their different societal roles, being proper) and their desire to break free from the rules (which results in the use of magic).

There were parts that were slow - things that could have gotten resolved much faster but were drawn out for purposes unknown to me, but overall I liked the main character, Gemma, and the story. Of course, now the sequels are added to my list of things to read. I can't read the first in a series and not follow up. Here's hoping they match up to the first installment.

And I have to add that I kind of love the cover art. It doesn't tell you anything really about the stories - other than it's probably set in the 1800s-ish time period - but it's simple and pretty and I like that. Although I think I like the last one (to the right) the best.