Eleanor & Park Fan Art

Kristen and I both read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell recently.

A brief synopsis:

It's 1986. Eleanor moves to a new neighbourhood and new high school. She does not fit in. She meets Park, who loves music and comic books. She sits down next to him on the school bus one day and he makes the non-committal, but totally endearing gesture of lending Eleanor a comic book. And that's all I'll say for now. OK, I'll also say that it's a beautiful love story. (Kristen and I will be posting a chat about the book soon!)

One thing I really I loved about this book was the vivid imagery that it called to mind: Eleanor's bright, red, curly hair, Park in his concert t-shirts, and Eleanor's mismatched outfits from the 80s.

Other fans have been similarly inspired by these images, and taken things one step further. They've created beautiful fan art. 

Here is a sampling:

by Simini Blocker (http://siminib.blogspot.ca/)

by Andiree (http://andiree.tumblr.com/post/46126183024)

by Irena Freitas (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/eleanor%20and%20park)

by Simini Blocker (http://siminib.blogspot.ca/)

featured June releases: *The Oathbreaker's Shadow* and *The Moon and More*

So many exciting books are out this month! Here are two new arrivals that we've been waiting impatiently for:

The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch:

 

From the flap copy:

In the land of Darhan promises are bound by magic, tied into knots, and worn with pride. Those who break them are physically scarred, cast out into the desert, and tormented by vengeful shadows of their treachery. So when Raim agrees to give his life as a warrior to the future Khan, he knows that he must honour his word until the day he dies.

But on the night he takes his vow, Raim accidentally breaks a mysterious promise that he has worn since the day he was born. Yet how can he break an oath he has no memory of making?

With the dark mark of a traitor seared into his skin, and forced into exile, Raim flees on a journey that will reveal the true meaning of honour, and uncover truths that will change his world for ever.

THE OATHBREAKER'S SHADOW is a fantasy pitched to fans of Philip Pullman and George R.R. Martin, and Kristen can't wait to read it. Forgotten oaths? Broken vows? Exile? Her heart-rate doubles just thinking about it.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen:

From the flap copy:

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby? 

 Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

Mandy loves loves loves Sarah Dessen and thinks that this should be in everyone's to-read pile this summer.

Also! Be sure to check out and enter our GIVEAWAY DRAW here. The contest ends on June 25th, so enter as many times as you can before midnight on June 24th to win really awesome books.

Giveaway *(you) set me on fire* by Mariko Tamaki

(you) set me on fire by Mariko Tamaki

Mariko Tamaki’s earlier graphic novel, Skim, (about an adolescent girl struggling with her sexuality) was beautifully written and handled with honesty and sensitivity. Her new novel, (you) set me on fire, has a lot of the same insight.

Allison Lee is seventeen and starting college in the fall. She’s had a rough senior year in high school: she’s set herself on fire twice (accidentally) and been in love once, and the wounds are still fresh. College, she imagines, is the perfect setting to start again. And things seem to be going along as planned until Allison meets a rebellious girl named Shar and her world goes dramarama.

You’ve probably heard people say that life after high school is really just a rehash of the same old dramas. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that high school social structure is a super-concentrated slice of life. However you look at it, it’s fair to say that the teenage years are a goldmine of dramatic possibility for novelists, and Mariko Tamaki takes advantage of this in the best way possible. (you) set me on fire is reminiscent of the John Green at his best. 

-Erica  

In Defence of Romance

Rhymes with Cupid by Anna Humphrey is the story of Elyse: a seventeen-year-old employee of Goodman’s Gifts and Stationery with a beyond-her-years jaded attitude towards romantic love, and a passionate dislike for Valentine’s Day and all of its associations. After a particularly bad breakup the year before, Elyse just wants to make it through Valentine’s Day with her head down and her spirits relatively unscathed.

Enter Patrick, Elyse’s next door neighbour, secret admirer, and indomitable flirt. Elyse tries her darnedest to deflect his advances, but gradually begins to realize that Patrick may really be the good guy that he seems to be. As in “what you see is what you get,” and “yes, there really are good guys out there.” Remember Darcy from Pride and Prejudice? Good guy, just some trouble with sharing his feelings. Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything is another good example. He’s cool enough without you, but you’re still worth his time. Patrick Verona from Ten Things I Hate about You turns out all right in the end. And Cyrano de Bergerac has all the right words, if not the confidence to speak them himself.

So, see? Nice guys are all over the place if you look closely enough. The bad boy fantasy makes it all too easy for women to excuse bad behaviour and settle for being treated like they don’t deserve more. Rhymes with Cupid is a sweet, good-natured romance that made me smile on more than one occasion. The story is a classic and the writing is witty and smart, to boot. Read Rhymes with Cupid this Valentine’s Day and indulge all of your good guy fantasies. Lloyd Dobler would approve.

-Erica

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars...

John Green, with misplaced manuscript

Sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace has stage four cancer that is spreading to her lungs. Thanks to a hopeful new trial drug, the growth of her cancer has been halted for a time. At a cancer support group meeting to help her deal with her depression,  Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a handsome, charming young man whose own cancer prognosis looks better than Hazel’s. Hazel is drawn to Augustus' sense of humour, unique worldview and thorough grasp of irony and metaphor. Augustus has a weird habit of dangling an unlit cigarette between his lips, but later explains: “It's a metaphor, see. You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.” Hazel’s relationship with Augustus and their shared love of a book called An Imperial Affliction by a reclusive Dutch writer named Peter van Houten take them along an unusual path of self-discovery.

Beautifully written and filled with humour, The Fault in Our Stars is also one of the most highly anticipated Young Adult titles this year. And it’s no wonder. It’s author, John Green, has almost two million followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/realjohngreen) and a whole community of nerdy fans at vlogbrothers (http://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers) , a collection of video journals that are a back and forth correspondence with his brother Hank. The videologs are caffeine-fuelled musings on just about everything worth talking about. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Green’s fans are of the die-hard variety, regularly posting encouraging comments on his website like “I can’t wait to receive my signed, pre-ordered copy of your new book so I can lick your signature!” OK, maybe no one actually said that, but you get the idea.

The new book does NOT disappoint. The plot and topic of this new book was a closely-guarded secret with Green and his publishers for a while, so I had no idea what this one was about. John Green could sell his shopping lists on ebay and make a fortune so it almost seemed like what he chose to write about was irrelevant. But here’s the kicker: The Fault in Our Stars is about one of the single most difficult topics around: childhood cancer. In a lesser writer’s hands, this would be the kind of book I would diligently avoid; however, this is why it’s not a problem:

1)      John Green’s previous (and award-winning) book Looking for Alaska deals with death in a sensitive, intelligent, and even, at times, humorous way.

2)      Green writes teenage dialogue good enough to make Joss Whedon (Buffy) and Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) sit up and take notice.

3)     The Fault in Our Stars is filled with lots of literary references and poetry. I love that Green never assumes that his audience is stupid.

The Fault in Our Stars will be a feast for existing John Green fans, and--for new readers--a great introduction to a young adult writer at the top of his game.

-Erica

*Vegan Virgin Valentine* by Carolyn Mackler

After reading Tangled by Carolyn, I know that she is a GOOD writer. She's very good at it, in fact. And I was in the mood for more of her crafting. And I found a hardcover of Vegan Virgin Valentine at a used bookstore. AND its pink and sparkly. So I felt ready for another of her books.

Mara is in her final year at highschool. She's an intense overachiever. She's already been accepted to Yale, she'll start College in second year, and she's a nose ahead of her lecherous ex-boyfriend for Valedictorian. For every move in Mara's life she and her parents have meticulously planned the details. The worst part is that Mara has no idea that she's "repressed".

Or that's what V calls it. V, Vivienne Vail Valentine, is Mara's niece, although they're the same age. V is the daughter of Mara's flaky sister, Aimee, who arranges her life around guys, travelling from one lifestyle to the next:

My parents had me when they were in their forties. Now they're in their early sixties, which makes them ten or fifteen years older than most people's parents. Not that they show their age, aside from the fact that they geerally go to bed around sunset. We NEVER talk about sex, so I don't know the specifics of my eleventh-hour conception. But I'm convinced that my parents brought me into this world to compensate for my older sister, Aimee, who was eighteen and skidding down a road to nowhere.

Mara and V don't get along at all, even though V and Aimee stay with her family in between their travelling around. V is an "in-your-face" girl, who shows up to her first day at Mara's school in a tight tank top that says "I just cain't say no!" and makes out with her ex-boyfriend Travis. When Aimee moves to Costa Rica to persue her dream of learning how to make Central American cuisine, it looks like V is there to stay permanently.

While the story starts out with V acting out and really not fitting in at school or at home, the book is really about Mara and her breaking away. Seriously, she's almost 18 and she and her parents have one of those family cell phone plans so her dad can phone her all the time, and she thinks there's no problem with that! When V begins to call her on these types of things, at first Mara is angry and offended, but then she sees that V may be on to something.

Some of my favourite scenes are Mara's college drama class, taken with academic goals in mind, of course. Her teacher, Dr. Hendrick, keeps harassing Mara about her lack of dance rhythm in class. He's kind of self-important and keeps making the group do wacky improv scenarios, which are hilarious:

Twenty minutes into class, Dr. Hendrick instructed us to divide into groups of four and create a nature scene--one person as earth, one as wind, one as water, and one as fire. I was so paralyzed by the extreme cheesiness of the exercise that I didn't look around for three other people. And then, before I knew it, the class was all quadrupled up.

Dr. Hendrick sashayed behind me, rested his sweaty paws on my shoulders, and steered me toward the nearest group of four. "I hope you don't mind adopting Ms. Valentine," he said to them. "But all the elements are taken," a college girl whined. I think her name is Rhonda. Her tags are always sticking out of her T-shirts. I've had a bad feeling about her from the first day.

Mara also works at a coffee shop called Common Grounds, as a way to round-out her college resume. She doesn't want to look like a closeted nerd with no real world experience. She secretly pines for her boss, 22 year old James, who lives his life with a different definition of success. Mara is so inexperienced with guys, and wary because Travis was pushy with her, and it makes her so funny when she's around James:

"Guys can be such jerks sometimes," James said.
"Not all of them. Not you."
"Do you know that I would never push you to do anything you didn't want to do?" "I know."
"Good."

I have to admit I was relieved to hear that because, as we were discussing exes, I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that James is twenty-two. And I have a feeling that by the time people are in their twenties, they're not exactly walking in slow numerical order around the bases.

My one qualm about the story is the neat ending for Mara and Claudia. Sometimes friendships are strained too far and can't snap back. This is especially true, I found, in highschool. It would have been okay with me to show this type of very natural loose end in the book. I found that in Tangled, a loose end was left with Skye's character--you don't get to know exactly how she's doing by the last page--and I like this type of ambiguity. Although I guess Mara and Travis will never really see eye-to-eye; their whole competition for valedictorian, fueled by all of the emotions built up between them, makes for some hilarious moments in the book!

Also, I like what Carolyn has to say about the origin of her book from the back cover:

Mara Valentine first came to me in a short story. I loved how she was so rigid, but at the same time hungering to break out. And V goes back about ten years, when I met these two girls in South Dakota who were aunt and niece. They've always stuck with me. Imagine how wild it would be to have an aunt and niece the same age! What if they were total opposites? I knew that V was exactly what Mara needed to shake up the status quo.

Aw, and not to load you down with too much bolding but this is too sweet:

In the middle of writing Vegan Virgin Valentine, I married my husband. Jonas and my falling-in-love story is not dissimilar to Mara’s saga with James, the owner of Common Grounds. When I first met Jonas, I labeled him “friend material.” He didn’t fit into the category of guys I usually dated – for one, I was taller than him. And for two, it just seemed so easy to get along with him. Aren’t relationships supposed to involved lots of angst and tear-filled tissues? But I, like Mara, ultimately learned that love does not fit neatly into a category. And sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone to find something wonderful. Oh! And another similarity I have with Mara – I’m a devout vegetarian. But a title like Vegetarian Virgin Valentine didn’t have quite the same ring to it! (From Carolyn Mackler's website)

It's very cool when an author has a "Behind the Book" section on their website.

Two for two, Carolyn!

Mandy

Review of *How To Say Goodbye in Robot* by Natalie Standiford

When I first laid eyes on How To Say Goodbye in Robot my first response was "OOoooOOH", hushed and warbling, you know the sound. The art is so cool. First of all Hot Pink, come on, and second, there are these beautiful hand-drawn details on the inner flap and on the back. The front has a phone, but the lines come through as pink and a bit of light blue. On the back is a drawn phone jack and there are phone cords framing the blurb inside. The whole design screams Cared For In Great Detail.

And it's also true of the story in Robot. There are so many details--about people and places, facts--and each seem hand-crafted, much-thought-upon, and simply Neat. This is a character-driven book with many many little treasures inside.

Bea is new at school, just moved into town, and is a total fish-out-of-water as all of the students have been together since kindergarten. At morning assembly on her first day, Bea sits beside Ghost Boy, "We had a funeral for him once...in seventh grade. Someone spread a rumor that Jonah was dead, and then when he showed up for school, we all pretended we couldn't see him or hear him, to try to make him think he was a ghost". Attempting to talk to Jonah is like talking to a glass wall; he's snappy and sidestepping with everyone. Then, one day he seems to take on substance and tells Bea about The Night Lights, a late night radio talkshow. That night she sits in her room and tunes in, and she hears a familiar voice on the air.

At this point in reading I excitedly thought "Pump Up The Volume??!" And it is like it in a way, but just not the way I expected. The Night Lights is a corner in the world for misfits and insomniacs, dreamers and also crazy people like Don Berman. Ghost Boy phones in regularly and when she works up the courage so does "Robot Girl". Bea's mother gives her this nickname because Bea doesn't seem to have emotions. Bea's mother, on the other hand, seems to have too many emotions and they leak out of her in bizarre ways (there is this whole Chicken drapes thing where Bea's mom cuts them up to make outfits and earrings).
Night after night Bea and Jonah listen to their radio show and Jonah begins to tell her things about his life. And he's got a pretty dramatic one. Bea tries to keep up as best she can, but things start to get very intense.

There is some great humor in Robot. The previously mentioned Dom Berman is one of the voices heard on the show. He regularly phones in disguising his voice and basically acting like the Peeves of the book. Later on, when the Night Lights get together for a dinner, Bea has this encounter with Don Berman:

Jonah was talking with a chubby middle-aged man with stringy hair, a goatee, and a smug look on his face. His hands and jowls trembled. Don Berman.
"Don, we're huge fans," I said.
"Don, we're huge fans," he shot back in a high-pitched voice meant to mock me.
What a jerk, I thought, but I didn't care, because he was Don Berman, and that's what Don Berman did.

Or when Bea first sees Tom Garber, who has actually dated every girl in school and a few from surrounding schools:

Before he sat down, my internal heat-seekers sensed what was coming my way: deep blue eyes that melted girls like Velveeta in a microwave.

and later:

A mysterious force vacuumed the air out of the lunchroom.
"Hey, girls," Tom Garber said. He flashed his teeth and mirowaved the entire table as he slo-mo'd by. The light glinting off his glasses temporarily blinded me. "Bonjour, Beatrice."

Of everything, I loved the portions of chat on the radio show. You get this sense of people in the city, unknown to each other, sharing their loneliness. Even Don Berman. When the events with Jonah's family take on the dramatic proportions of a gothic novel (also something Natalie writes into the text), I was a little put off, but realized that it was self-aware and had more to do with the inner life of Jonah. When the book ended I thought, "Yep, pretty much how it had to go". I felt it was a perfect way to close such a strange and nearer the end, haunting story.

Mandy

Review *Crazy Beautiful* by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Crazy Beautiful will get it's hooks in you...no wait,.. Crazy Beautiful; you'll be hooked...hmm.

From the back cover of the galley edition:

I would give a lot to see that smile again, directed at me.

It may not be much, but I would give up everything I've got.

In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn't outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don't scare her. They don't keep her away. In fact, they don't make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering. Or maybe she's just a girl who needs love just like he does.

A modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Lauren Baratz-Logsted's Crazy Beautiful strips away the original tale to get to its essence, revealing truth about forgiveness, redemption, and the power of love.

The first thing I thought when I finished reading this book was, "100 more pages, please". It was over too quickly and I felt the overall development would have benefitted. The back cover says the published book will be 256 pages but my galley comes in at 193 pages. So, more please!

Crazy Beautiful is told in the popular style of he-said-she-said, where you'll get alternating chapters from both Lucius and Aurora's points of view. In this book it led to a bit of an imbalance; I had a great view into Lucius' character, but I was left hanging with Aurora. I didn't get a handle on her character. She was just this beautiful girl with a heart of pure pure gold and a deceased mother, which only makes her more tender toward people, and especially Lucius.

Lucius, though, was moody and withdrawn, but also funny and surprising. He has this big brother antagonism with his little, popular sister and will menacingly raise his hook in the air above her head to be intimidating. Lucius is also pretty witty verbally, which I think you'd have to be if something this huge hung over your life and you went to HIGHSCHOOL and had to deal with the kids there. Some of his lines are great.

I would have loved a little more heat between the two. There isn't enough romantic lead-up to make you need for them to get together. I like witty, charged banter. And maybe more push-and-pull between them; Aurora working through her mother's death and also through her feelings for Lucius having no hands. It is just accepted that she doesn't care about looks, but she would still contemplate her feelings about this. I didn't really know what Aurora thought and felt.

But Lucius was a great character to get to know. It really was his book. When I started reading I was like, "why would you purposefully get hooks and then walk into highschool and add another layer of suffering to this whole situation; just get prosthetic hands". But there's this interesting passage in the book about some internet research Aurora is doing on prosthetics:

"This article is about soldiers wounded in Iraq," he says. "It focuses on this one double-arm amputee who uses what they call traditional metal hook prosthetics. It says he was told the myo-electric--battery-operated--hands would be the best thing for him. But he was disappointed. He says--get this!--that what the article refers to as 'World War II-era technology' is better, easier: they don't fall off his arm like the other kind is prone to do, and the hooks are more supple and reliable"

The passage goes on to say that some opt for the realistic hands for a cosmetic reason, although the hooks have better versatility and are more intuitive to use. So, neat. It made me appreciate Lucius better, knowing he wasn't just choosing hooks so he could externalize any self-hatred.

Crazy Beautiful is available now in hardcover. But I'd like to make my copy available in a book giveaway. Leave your name and e-mail address, even a comment and consider yourself in the draw. I'll call on the randomly chosen winner in two weeks from this date!

Mandy

Review and Giveaway for *Perfect Chemistry* by Simone Elkeles