Once Upon a Time *Pretty Monsters*

So I'm at work on this particular Saturday and it has its advantage for today's Once Upon a Time pick. I could wander over to the shelves and have my pick. I don't have a lot of fiction at home, I tend to leave galley copies at work and I use the library as well. So it was great to remember Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters because it is PERFECT for my use today.

First off, the cover is gorgeous. Shaun Tan also provides amazing illustrations throughout this collection of short stories. When I thought of doing this post I was like "if I can't find a Pretty Monsters Shaun Tan illustration to include in this post, then I'm not doing it". Pretty silly considering the available content of images and info online, and also silly because Kelly's writing is mindblowing and absolutley worthy of its own post.

So, here is the opening of the first story in this collection, from The Wrong Grave:

All of this happened because a boy I once knew named Miles Sperry decided to go into the ressurectionist business and dig up the grave of his girlfriend, Bethany Baldwin, who had been dead for not quite a year. Miles planned to do this in order to recover the sheaf of poems he had, in what he'd felt was a beautiful and romantic gesture, put into her casket. Or possibly it had just been a really dumb thing to do. He hadn't made copies. Miles had always been impulsive. I think you should know that right up front.

When I read the first story I was floored by the story, the voices, everything. On the back of the book there is a quote from Garth Nix saying, "{Kelly Link is}...almost certainly not human. I believe she is a storytelling elemental who has unearthly powers that she uses to create wondrous and deeply fascinating tales". Truly, I imagine this woman with a unicorn in her lap, she is so wondrous. *gush gush*

Oh, good. I just checked and the paperback is available this October. Oh, also, you can read The Wrong Grave on her website!

*Review* Emiko Superstar

Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Steve Rolston

From Minx comics:

A borrowed diary, a double life and identity issues fuel a teenager's quest to find herself before she cracks and commits social suicide. Watch Emi go from dull, suburban babysitter to eclectic urban art star compliments of one crazy summer!

My Reading Experience:

Almost a year ago now the Minx comics line via DC Comics was cancelled. And it still bugs me. Seriously, I feel a little emotional about it. Not only did Minx eke out a stomping ground for girls within comics, both as readers and as writers and illustrators, it brought some great talent together. I mean, pairing Cecil Castellucci and Street Angel's Jim Rugg?? Truly awesome.

*rustling around Street Angel's website*

Awesome!! They still have this from a zine I put together a hundred years ago, on their website:

10/16/04 Femme INTERVIEW The first issue of Femme is now available. The contents include an article about the Golden Age of Wonder Woman, including an excerpt from an original Marston story from 1943, an interview with Trina Robbins, Lillian Robinson, Sawnie Burgos O'Brien from wonderland-site.com, Julie Doucet, Emily Blair from Soap Opera, and Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg from Street Angel. The zine also comes with three magnets: a Golden Age WW head, WW logo, and femme logo.
To get a copy, email: femmezine@hotmail.com (defunct).

And Emiko Superstar also pairs an awesome duo with Mariko Tamaki, of Skim fame, and Steve Rolston (Queen & Country, but also that little Degrassi: Extra Credit series, which I've actually read). The illustrations really did it for me in Emiko, they have a lot of life and great little details. Also a few cameos in the form of the Minx label as graffiti and one of Mariko sitting in a coffeeshop. Lovely things to catch while you're reading.

And the story is unique. It's definately a fish-out-of-water tale. But it's self imposed. One day at the mall Emiko meets Poppy, a performance artist, distributing flyers while making a public spectacle. The flyers advertise for a place hosting The Freakshow, called The Factory. Emiko thinks that if amazing people like Poppy are part of this Freakshow then she'd like to check it out.

Babysitter and good girl by day, Emiko re-invents herself into an artist, with inspiration from her everyday life. Until The Freakshow begins to crack around the edges and too much light gets in.

I wanted to cheer for Emiko as she found her passion and her art. She's such a wallflower to begin with but hasn't been inspired to be anything else. The group of people she starts hanging out with are well written and realistic. And I like that there are adult themes in the story; this isn't just about a girl finding a part of herself. The Curator, a much older man in charge of The Freakshow's management, is a creep. I've met people like him and he's so well used in this story. He's a good counterpart to the follow your passion and the rest will flow theme in Emiko Superstar.

I actually haven't read all of the Minx titles yet, but I'd love to continue collecting and reading them. There is a lot of care put into these titles especially written for girls.

I also recommend:
The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

Half World by Hiromi Goto

Half World by Hiromi Goto, beautifully illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

From the publisher:

Melanie Tamaki is an outsider.
Unpopular and impoverished, she is the only child of a loving but neglectful mother. She barely copes with surviving school and life. But everything changes on the day she returns home to find her mother is missing, lured back to Half World by a vile creature calling himself Mr. Glueskin. Soon Melanie embarks on an epic and darkly fantastical journey to Half World to save her mother. What she does not yet realize is that the state of the universe is at stake....

My reading experience:

The cover art is gorgeous; the front jacket folds out for a panoramic image of two Melanies in different stages of her journey. Jillian Tamaki does an incomparable job of illustrating Melanie from references in the story, which is refreshing for YA cover art. The colours are so vivid and there is so much movement in the cover. It attracted me to the book initially, even though I only had an advanced reading copy (which does not wraparound and does not have any of Tamaki's illustrations inside!). Good thing I never got to reading it until it was released! I was missing much of the connection between the illustrations and the narrative; at times pictures will show you what was written down for Melanie to read, which isn't actually written in the text. It gives you the magical feel that Melanie must have when she's discovering these messages as part of the story.

Melanie's story starts at the very beginning for her; her mother is pregnant with her in Half World and she and Melanie's father are scrambling along a cliff, persued by Mr. Glueskin and his freakish posse. They are trying to bridge the divide between Half World and Life (our world) so their baby can live. Half World is like purgatory, a place to go when you die. However, because of past events, the divide between Life, Half World, and Spirit World have become too solid, causing the denizens of HW to remain stuck there, trapped in their most traumatic emotional memories and living them over and over again, unable to move on. The opening scene with Melanie's parents and their flee from Mr. Glueskin, Mr. Glueskin's introduction and their sacrifice, make for wonderfully gripping narrative. It was a great way to start a book.

Horomi Goto's strength is for seemlessly weaving folktale, mythic, dream, and art history images, creating this narrative collage in her setting and characters. And the character of Mr. Glueskin is a formidable bad guy who reminded me of the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth. Which is actually a good reference point for Half World; Pan's Labyrinth meets Bosch, Frida Kahlo, Escher, with a dash of A Wrinkle in Time (which I've just read. What a cool experience to have read these two books so close together). And Half World is a very grown up book, with Melanie dealing openly with the nature of true despair and sacrifice. However, HW ends on a hopeful note despite the darkness that came before. Absolutely, there is light in this book.

Here is the dust jacket unfolded, courtesy of hiromigoto.com.

Mandy

You might also like to see:
Half World Trailer
Teaser Tuesday Half World
Review and Book Giveaway for A Wrinkle in Time

Thursday Trailer *The Forest of Hands and Teeth*

I started reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth a few weeks ago and then put it down. I can't say exactly WHY it didn't grab me. It could have been the weak boyfriend/girlfriend tension at the beginning.

But, after viewing this book trailer, I am seriously going back to this book! This trailer looks great and evokes the strange setting in the book in a creepy creepy way. I have newfound interest and will finish The Forest of Hands and Teeth!

And to its further credit, I WAS getting into the setting and the premise, it was just the secondary characters, and even the main characters who were kinda bugging me with all their partner swapping at the beginning. I think I only read about 100 pages into it. Hardly fair at all!

From Goodreads.com:

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

My Favourite Reads *The Witch of Blackbird Pond*

I read The Witch of Blackbird Pond probably when I was 12 or 13. I remember the cover (top right) vividly; this is the edition I read and re-read. It wasn't my absolute favourite book, and I remember not loving it as much as I loved The Crucible, but it did something for me at that age. And I actually re-read it for the first time in years about 6 months ago.

From Goodreads.com:

Forced to leave her sunny Caribbean home for the bleak Connecticut Colony, Kit Tyler is filled with trepidation. As they sail up the river to Kit's new home, the teasing and moodiness of a young sailor named Nat doesn't help. Still, her unsinkable spirit soon bobs back up. What this spirited teenager doesn't count on, however, is how her aunt and uncle's stern Puritan community will view her. In the colonies of 1687, a girl who swims, wears silk and satin gowns, and talks back to her elders is not only headstrong, she is in grave danger of being regarded as a witch. When Kit befriends an old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, it is more than the ascetics can take: soon Kit is defending her life. Who can she count on as she confronts these angry and suspicious townspeople?


Why did I choose it?:


I remember at 12 having a fear of mob-mentality because of this book, how a whole lot of people can just be so wrong and cruel. I wanted to run away to the "old Quaker woman's" little shack where she just seemed to hang out all day making tea from herbs in her garden. I felt Kit's burden of family members watching your every movement to judge its moral and social rightness. Re-reading it 6 months ago I had forgotten about the drudgery of this community's everyday life and how it is juxtaposed with the stark fear and persecution that can flare up suddenly and violently in its townspeople. Overall, I still stand by Witch as a good historical read and the original cover still draws me in to its story. Although the newer cover (right bottom) gives more of an indication of the setting and story, I find the older cover more evocative (even though when I was 12 I was still slightly disappointed that there were no "real" witches involved--I loved the horror genre then).



Mandy


Previously:
My Favourite Reads *Sweetblood* by Pete Hautman
My Favourite Reads *A Handful of Time* by Kit Pearson

My Fvourite Reads is a weekly meme hosted by At Home With Books

Wishful Wednesdays (hosted by Should Be Reading)

Today I've been thinking about The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go. It's published in September and I can't even wait. This is partially because Knife ended on an almost literal cliff-hanger, which was frustrating at the time. I can see, once all three books are available and published in a massive volume together, that it won't be such a problem. But waiting for the second and third books to be published?..a bit annoying. Which is the only bad thing I have to say about Patrick Ness' books, because I really enjoyed Knife. Just read the first chapter, even just the first PAGE, and you will know what I'm talking about.

Published by Candlewick Press (love it) and winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, Knife begins in Prentisstown, a dystopian outcrop with not a woman in sight. Todd Hewitt, and every other male who had been exposed to the plague years ago, can hear a man's thoughts--and they're grim and brutal at times. Seeking peace and quiet, Todd heads out to the marsh only to find a great silence, like a tear in the world; Todd has found something that he thought had died, and it changes his world.

And that's all I'm giving today because the story decompresses in its own way, at times gripping and other times meandering. But the central mystery of the world of Knife is foremost and keeps me engaged. So a copy of The Ask and the Answer is my wish today! Do you hear that, Book Fairy?

Mandy

Everyone's *dreaming* of Edward

I was hopping around the web and found some items that are interesting when juxtaposed. From e. lockhart's blog entry:

Last week, I dreamed I went to a community theater production of Twilight. Edward was played by a replacement actor. He was 35 and balding, but did a good job. The production had been running so long there were only a few people in the theater. I was writing an article on it for some internet magazine.
During pauses in the action, the actors occasionally broke character to chat with the audience. The girl playing Bella was applying to colleges and asked my advice. Afterward, I saw the Edward actor at the bus stop. We chatted a little. It was only then that I saw he was bald. He wore a hat when he was being Edward.
Analyze as you will.

And then I found this little text byte from Stephenie Meyer about a dream she had of Edward:

I had this weird... I was sleeping in the guest room because my husband had a horrible cold and so I wasn't like in my normal surroundings and I had this dream that Edward actually showed up and told me that I got it all wrong and like he exists and everything but he couldn't live off animals... and I kind of got the sense he was going to kill me.
It was really terrifying and bizarrely different from every other time I've thought about his character.
It was cool because it added something different to my view of him.

Poor balding murderous Edward! I often have literary dreams when I'm reading certain books; (I know I mention Harry Potter a lot on this blog and that's mostly because of the HP Challenge, but) I dream about Hogwarts all the time. I often use settings from books in my dreams, or characters will pass through either acting like their book selves or otherwise.

What literary dreams have you had? Comment or blog about it and link here!


Mandy

*Half World* Book Trailer

I absolutely LOVE the notion of a book trailer! And this one is spooky and gorgeous and perfect for Half World. See my previous post for a Half World teaser.

Mandy

Teaser Tuesday * Half World *

This week's Teaser Tuesday for me is Half World by Hiromi Goto, featuring illustrations by Jillian Tamaki.

I first viewed Tamaki's beautiful illustrations in the graphic novel Skim, written by Mariko Tamaki (absolutely recommended, even if you've just decided to read one graphic novel this year). I was given an advanced reading copy of Half World and I regret to say that it did not include Tamaki's illustrations! It is sad because in some cases the illustrations explain pictorally what is said within the text, for example the heroine Melanie looks down at a fortune cookie that has fallen from the sky and the text does not tell you that "Go Home" is her fortune, it is left to the picture to convey this. Also, later on there is a similar narrative jump with a magic eight ball's portent. So I missed out on this reading the ARC. But, I DO have the published hardcover in front of me now and here is your teaser:

"Of course I have her," the creepy voice replied conversationally, as if he had heard her thoughts. "Let me call her over." His voice dropped conspiratorially. "She hasn't been herself. Not that she was ever much to begin with. But if she was always half of what she was, maybe now she's a quarter."

I physically shivered when I read this part. The speaker is Mr. Glueskin and he has trapped Melanie's mother in Half World as a way of luring Melanie in; they are speaking over the phone which Melanie thought was disconnected. So far the book is deliciously creepy and so so unique. I want to save it all up for a proper review to come! But I have found an illustration of a denizen of Half World which I've posted here.

Mandy

Previously:
Teaser Tuesday *The Space Between*
Teaser Tuesday *Hush Hush*

In my mailbox, a most exciting day!

A lot of people are blogging each week about what they have received in their mailbox, or bought, or found at the library, book-wise. I found out about In My Mailbox via The Story Siren and think I'll try it out.

Just today I received these beauties:

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

Everwild by Neal Shusterman

Thanks Simon and Schuster!

Ice looks gorgeous. I am in love with the East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairy tale (and really any classic fairy tale. I have a growing collection of fairy tale books for my neice, including 5 or 6 different re-tellings of The Snow Queen, my favourite), so I can't wait to get into this one. I'm also excited about the new Scott Westerfeld as it is intended for a slightly younger audience. It has great steampunk illustrations and seems to be a similar book to Philip Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles, which is fine by me. And Everwild is the sequel to Shusterman's Everlost, which apparently is going to be made into a movie. If these two are as good as Unwind, I will be delighted. All three books are available in the fall.

We also had a floating copy of Hiromi Goto's Half World,which is available now with beautiful and haunting illustrations by Jillian Tamaki, of Skim fame (which should be the next graphic novel you read!), kicking around the office and which came with glowing reviews from a co-worker. I'm reading it currently, so keep an eye out for the review.

When books are mailed to me at work I actually call out "It's for meee!" and lunge at the package. My favourite part of books in the mail are the occassional handwritten note I get from our publishing reps wishing me happy reading or just sending along some words. No note this week, but thanks again S&S for the lovely titles (and Penguin, a belated thank you for Half World which I think we received a few months ago at least--I just never got around to it).

What new books have you found/bought/been given this week? Have you read any of the books I've listed?

Mandy

YA out of bounds

This weekend was a big magazine reading weekend for me; I hardly cracked a book. The newest (for our slow overseas transit) SFX and SciFi Now mags came in at work on Friday, as well as SciFi Magazine earlier in the week. I also was given a copy of the latest Entertainment Weekly which features a vampire special.

So it was all genre all weekend for me. The EW vampire special was okay, nothing compared to this month's earlier SFX vampire special, but it had some coverage of the new t.v. show The Vampire Diaries, which I intend to read. But, for me, SciFi Now is always the highlight, and this month's issue has a little article written by sometimes YA author Chris Wooding. His opinion piece wonders if the "young adult category still [has] a purpose?". My initial reaction was a chin wobbling, tentative "yeeeeeesss", and then I finished the article and gave a little cheer for adults who get it; Wooding states "that thin sliver of years between chidlhood and late adolescence is fertile ground for the genre writer" and "a publisher of young adult books doesn't have to deal with the genre prejudice of the adult market".

Genre prejudice, I see it all the time. In adults most often. In teens, I see girls who've read Gossip Girl and E. Lockhart get just as excited about Scott Westerfeld's Peeps. And, just as Wooding explains, it has to do with a lack of boundary in the YA/teen section around literature versus genre, and more of a grouping according to age. Because of this, Wooding's genre novels tend to shelve next to "Jacqueline Wilson's stories for preteen girls". There is a tendency for people who identify as non-genre readers to completely skip over these sections when looking for books. But there is so much variation within this huge thing called genre that much in the way of great stories and great writing gets left behind.

Teen genre fiction covers are also more open to interpretive design than genre fiction specifically for adults. Looking at Justine Larbalestier's new cover for Liar, or Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go, you wouldn't know that you were reading something that would be considered a genre read until you were a good halfway into it. And even then, looking back, you would question this label. Whereas SciFi and Fantasy titles marketed for adults are most often pretty obvious, sporting glowing swords, Tolkien-looking landscapes, an air ship on fire; all of which are very cool things but they are too obvious to attract non-genre readers. A good exception to this are George Martin's books. Obvious fantasy covers, to me, give the message that the packaged book will be a safe and comfortable, familiar read if you're into the images depicted on the front. It suggests that people are just looking to read the same book over and over again. Which maybe they are, but let's not make it so easy for them.

I love the packaging of books. It's a very contemporary notion, the use of images to suggest content. In the olden days books came only in cloth bound, embossed hardcovers or a stitched pamphlet (early zines). The title and an expressive subtitle were a book's draw. Also, there were only 15 books in print so you could get to all of them in your lifetime, if you could afford them.

Now, books are commodities and vie against each other for your attention. They call to you from the shelf with their cover art; seriously, looking over at our rows of books I feel they are so chatty about their content and what they promise if you pick them up. Book covers are seductive, the little tarts, and they make me want to read all of them.

But I think ultimately Chris Wooding's article is important because it suggests that YA and teen titles pave the way for future genre readers, or at least make it possible for less genre prejudice in the adult years. And with less of a boundary between lit and genre, cover art may become more diverse and less obvious. However I am still content with glowing swords and air ships on fire.

Mandy

Book Blogger Appreciation Week Meme

Book Blogger Appreciation Week is coming up soon and I was only vaguely aware of it last year. This year I thought I would get involved even though I am a bloggin' newbie. Good thing they have a meme for it:

1) What has been one of the highlights of blogging for you?
The community, absolutely. Reading can be such an interior pasttime that it is great to share a bit of it with others who get it! I am grateful for the 10 people who follow my blog already (I'm in my second week of blogging), which seems like a big number for me. So many people have left comments for me and I appreciate all of them and respond to all of them!
I also love how focused blogging makes your reading experience. When I consider, pick up, or finish a book the first thing I think is to go to my blog and gab about it. I love reading reviews from average people, not just publishers; it's nice to know what people are ACTUALLY reading and what they think of it. I refer to goodreads.com all the time for book recommendations and links to book blogs.

2) What blogger has helped you out with your blog by answering questions, linking to you, or inspiring you?
New to blogging, I lurked at Bookshelves of Doom (see all blog links on sidebar) and The Story Siren for almost two years before starting my own. I found both blogs to have many funny, enlightening and fair reviews and looked forward to checking new entries everyday. Since I've started blogging, Alyce from At Home With Books has given me some really helpful information about how to set up my blog's comment moderation, which I couldn't quite get a handle of. She took time out to send me a link and to give me that information. Kiirstin from A Book A Week also opened me up to the book blogging community, as I followed her followers links and any blog she mentioned in her posts to see who was out there. But everyone in my blog link list have been very cool so far! Either leaving great little comments, which I really look forward to, or links to helpful information.

I look forward to following this year's BBAW!

Mandy

Once Upon a Saturday

What captures me when I see something on the shelf, what really gets its claws into me when I decide to read a particular book, is how it begins. And once I've finished a book, I often go back and re-read the beginning, which adds another layer to my experience of the story.
So this week, I will showcase for you the opening of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff:

My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go.

But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins everything changed. Part of that was because of the war, which supposedly changed lots of things, but I can't remember much about life before the war anyway so it doesn't count in my book, which this is.

Mostly everything changed because of Edmond.

I'm currently reading her very newest book, The Bride's Farewell, and I was reminded how much I love HILN. If you haven't read this book I sincerely encourage you to pick it up.
New Yorker Daisy exiles herself to stay with estranged cousins (actually she's never met them) in the English countryside. Four precocious cousins and their mother live in a sprawling, charming old house, embedded in the lush natural landscape. Her Aunt Penn is busy in the city with some hazy government work and the 5 of them make due at home without any adult supervision, filling their days with farmwork, picnics and reading. Idyllic, until the war begins.
I was blown away by this story. I love that Rosoff had decided to set the events during an imagined war, one that feeds on confusion and seems to be a historical pastiche of conflicts during the last century. Rosoff is a master storyteller, an impeccable writer, and dammit, she made me weep. HILN proves the resonance of literature and its importance for the human heart.

And I want to give away an extra copy! Inside it has a signed bookplate by Meg Rosoff that she sent me. Just leave your name, comments, and your e-mail address and I'll chose a name randomly on August 22nd.

Mandy

Previously:

Interview with Meg Rosoff

Speaking of the Harry Potter Challenge...

I just found this saved on the computer at work! We threw a Harry Potter midnight party two years ago when Deathly Hallows came out and I dressed like Bellatrix! Well, most of me did, as I have a time-turner around my neck. You can't quite make it out but my hair was awesome-crazy and my make-up was intense! There were black sparkles plastered across my face and head. The kids (there were 200 of them) kind of avoided me and I remember faux-attacking some troublesome Weasley twins. What a great night to remember!

I was going to go home after the party and start reading my copy of DH, but I fell asleep exhausted after a huge day of partying and working. The one image that sticks with me is this little boy, half-asleep, intensely reading the book at 12:15 as the party was breaking up. Like he was trying to cheat sleep and get in as much of the story as he could before his body gave out. So cute.

Oh, I am the one on the left!

Mandy

Previously:
Review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the HP Book CHallenge

The Space Between by Don Aker

I think that Don Aker took one of those creative writing classes which teach you to open your book with a bang:

I’m going to Mexico to get laid.

And he does. Well, he has strong intentions. What soon-to-be-turning eighteen year-old Jace doesn’t know is that life has a way of churning up the best intentions, leaving him to sort through what’s left.
Jace loves his family but travelling with his mom, his lushy aunt, and autistic brother will make it near impossible for him to achieve his goal at the Mexican resort, the Mayan Empress. When his aunt rents him his own room at the resort, he can’t believe his luck. But the only person he seems to attract to his company is the jerk jock, Connor, who is travelling with his raucous team mates.

And that’s the plot in a nutshell. But it doesn’t touch Jace’s real story, the one that unfurls slowly and takes on more colour as Jace learns what it really means to become a man. The excellence to this book is in Jace’s voice. I could feel Don Aker channelling his teenage self through the character with a touch of his more objective, adult perspective. But only a touch. Aker threads the best use of dirty words and expletives I’ve read since King Dork. The Space Between rests somewhere in between the styles of Frank Portman and John Green, with a heavier Green leaning. If you read this book just to experience the world through Jace, it will have been well worth the read.

That said, I have a few problems with the plot turns. There’s nothing outrageous that happens (which I tend to hate; *spoiler* like for example Renee being the killer in True Blood season one—what a betrayal of an awesome character and also a stupid narrative decision even if it is supported by the book), but some of the events seemed harried or two-dimensional. Or see-through; please find genuine ways of getting the character from point A to point B, emotionally. And for the most part, Aker does, I mean I read this book like a crazywoman up at 7:00 a.m. just to get a good 150 pages in before work.
I wish I could quote some of the awesome use of bad words and their combinations from the book but I assume that I’m in polite company! You won’t necessarily bust a gut, but you’ll yell HA! (one of my own many ways of laughing) and attempt to Aker-ize your everyday conversation. Be warned!

Mandy

Previously:
Teaser Tuesday of The Space Between

My Favourite Reads * Sweetblood*

I found out about At Home With Books while bloghopping and she has a weekly My Favourite Reads post. The point is to go all nostalgic and showcase a book from your past; and busting out the book nostalgia is what I'm all about (seriously, I can have a fit of nostalgia a week after reading a truly good book). So here is my pick for this week:

Sweetblood by Pete Hautman

I read Sweetblood about a year ago, which technically counts as my past, and fell in love with the genius of Pete Hautman. My partner works in a used bookstore downtown (where I used to work, more about my used bookstore love in a later post as Part Deux of my Library Love post), and he brings me home books that he thinks I'll like (he's kind of perfect that way). He brought home this book that shrieked "I was packaged in the nineties to appeal to goth-grunge girls with attitude". And I know it appeals because I would have loved the cover then. But the premise was what pulled me in, followed by a "you had me at the first page". Actually let me go get it so I can quote how it opens:

Blood is my friend. Without it my cells shrivel. Without it I die.

At night, alone with myself, I hear it rushing through arteries and veins, platelets tumbling in a soup of plasma and glucose through slick, twisty tubes, lining up to enter narrow capillaries, delivering oxygen and fuel, seeking idle insulin. It is a low-pitched sound: wind passing through woodlands.

Sixteen year old Lucy is a diabetic and has this amazing theory that the myth of Vampirism over the ages was caused by a lack of education about people with diabetes. She shares her theory with everyone from guidance counselors to her favourite online chatroom, Transylvania Internet. Until she attracts the wrong kind of attention.

Why I chose this book:

Well, apart from the fact that I absolutely loved it, it is a completely unique take on the "vampire" story. The focus is on Lucy who can't seem to care enough to properly control the ups and downs of being diabetic. She has no connection to anyone around her and only finds expression through this group of self-proclaimed vampires. Draco, the groups much older leader, takes a particular interest in Lucy's theories about vampires, claiming that he's the only "real" vampire she'll ever meet. The whole book, though, is about her choices. Hautman is a genius at creating very real characters who evolve organically. There is not much to the plot because this is a very character-driven book. And I loved it for this. For all the packaging and slightly misleading backcover blurb ("caught up in late-night parties and goth culture, she begins to lose control of her grades, relationships, and health"), this is a real gem of a book. I went on to read Invisible (holy crap awesome) and Godless (funny and great--it also won the National Book Award, no small feat) right after it. I've taken a bit of an author-binge break and was a little put off by his Poker plot books, but reading more Hautman is on my list of things to do before I die.

And it looks like I'll cross this off the list sooner than I thought as Pete has a new book coming out in September: How to Steal a Car.

From the publisher:

Some girls act out by drinking or doing drugs. Some girls act out by sleeping with guys. Some girls act out by starving themselves or cutting themselves. Some girls act out by being a bitch to other girls.

Not Kelleigh.

Kelleigh steals cars.

In How to Steal a Car, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman gives us a thrilling ride through one girl’s turbulent life -- one car theft at a time.

Mandy

Previously:
My Favorite Reads A Handful of Time

Already Read This? Try:
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

So I have finished the first book in the Harry Potter series for the Harry Potter Book Challenge I’ve joined, and I have to say that I have read this book three times now and it has gotten better each time. Maybe it is the foreknowledge of what’s to come, as I’ve read the series before, but mostly it is the nature of this book itself. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, even by itself, is a tightly written, superb story with extremely memorable characters and a lot of funny bits!

HPPS opens at the Dursley home where we’re introduced to Harry and get a huge sense of what his life has been like since his parents have died. I appreciate Harry’s “home life” as an important part of his character and also to the story, but I don’t love these sections. And I forgot that in the first book, the Dursley home portion takes up the first 60 pages. I loved Dumbledore’s presence on Privet Drive and Hagrid’s introduction, McGonagall’s kitty appearance, but I couldn’t wait to get to the good stuff.

When Hagrid appears on Harry’s eleventh birthday and invites him to go to school at Hogwarts, I felt a relieved shift in the tone and inwardly felt this excited joy for him. I love when a book can have that effect on me. And I mentally rubbed my hands together in anticipatory glee when the Weasley twins were introduced; besides Luna Lovegood, the twins are my favourite characters. I even love their casting in the Harry Potter movies.

Speaking of the films, at times it was hard for me to re-capture the images of the characters and settings I had before I’d seen them, reading the books previously. Especially with Dumbledore, and Harry for that matter. I wanted to separate the world of literary Harry Potter in my head from the movies, and at times it was very hard. I like the films but I almost resent them for this.

I also get excited, re-reading a book, when I notice things that I didn’t notice before. Like the fact that Hagrid and Harry go for burgers after visiting Daigon Alley, which is such a normal thing to do. It almost seems out of place when you read about the Hogwarts’ banquets and the crazy wizard food later. And I thought it was hilarious that it took me three readings to finally ask what kids do for school before they go to Hogwarts. The kids of wizard parents, I mean. What did Ginny Weasley DO all day during the first book?

I’ve been trying to pinpoint what exactly it is about the Harry Potter books that is so appealing, while I’m reading. I think it has to do with the vibrant imaginative scope, the staggering, detailed immensity of Hogwarts and the wizarding world. It leaves itself open to many new additions in each book and it takes on this gravity, deepening and darkening with each book. And the complexity of the characters and their own stories are so memorable.

Finally, I was surprised at how much was in this first book, given its paltry 223 pages! Events charge along nicely but I never had the sense of false pacing in the story; for all of its adventure, HPPS still seems like a leisurely, snug read. Something you settle into immediately, like a plush armchair.

(ha, on a silly note I just accidentally wrote plush armhair—reading Harry Potter is like curling up in plush armhair. Maybe I should have left it that way!)

I'm going to wait a month before reading and reviewing the second book, even though I totally want to dive right into the whole series again. They are so addictive, but I want to take my sweet time with them!

Mandy

Teaser Tuesday The Space Between

Teaser Tuesday is an idea I borrowed from A Book A Week, who borrows it from Should Be Reading (two of my favourite book blogs, see my bloglist to the right).

From Should Be Reading:
~Grab your current read
~Open to a random page
~Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Book (from the publisher):


The Space Between by Don Aker
Just dumped by his girlfriend, Jace Antonakos has recorded a proclamation in a notebook his English teacher made him take on his winter vacation to the Mayan Riviera: I’m going to Mexico to get laid. The fact that he’s only days away from turning 18 and still a virgin has Jace spooked, and he figures that Playa del Carmen’s golden beaches draped with equally golden girls should increase his odds of success. On the other hand, the fact that he’s travelling with his mother, his aunt and his nine-year-old autistic brother just about kills that bet. Then he meets Kate, who he thinks might be just the person to help him with his “problem.” If only he knew what to say to her.

The Teaser:

Lucas basically won the anti-lottery, because fewer than five kids in ten thousand get childhood disintegrative disorder. In fact, according to a weird statistics website that Rod found, you're seventeen times more likely to board a plane with a drunk pilot than to be diagnosed with CDD. Which, if you think about it, really isn't all that comforting.

I just started reading this book. Jace's voice is pitch perfect. I picked it up at one of my favourite used bookstores yesterday. I knew of this book beforehand, it has some critical praise and people on Goodreads.com seem to like it, and I was surprised to find it used. The author's previous book, The First Stone, won a White Pine Award. I like this teaser because it really gives a sense of Jace's voice as well as how he sees the world and what he's dealing with in his family as the story opens.

Mandy

Last Week's Teaser Tuesday for Hush Hush

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

So I've just finished A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, and I wasn't so sure that I would write a review of it. Mostly because I didn't grow up reading anything by L'Engle. After finishing the book I had this huge feeling that had I read it when I was younger, it would have changed the way I was arranged inside. That said, I am still impressed by this book.

Initially, I thought it was going to be a fantasy story. And there are definite elements of fantasy, but I totally see it as more Science Fiction. In an interview with L'Engle at the back of my edition (which also features a complete transcript of L'Engle's acceptance speech for her Newbery Award), she mentions reading about Einstein's theory of time and space, and it gave her the idea for tesseracts and space travel. I really, cerebrally, appreciated her explanantion, with pictures, of how Meg and crew could travel across the galaxy and visit other planets. I loved the placement and stark horror of CENTRAL central intelligence. All of the SciFi stuff was very cool and intelligently used.

I loved the character of Charles Wallace. I loved that he used his full name throughout. He was extremely intelligent but also very empathic and compassionate. I liked that L'Engle made Charles Wallace such an ambiguous and unique character. He's like a little miracle person, and I loved that he was in Meg's life. She was a little too hot-headed for me. Especially when she is so disappointed in her father near the end. She was such an arbiter of fairness throughout that I was annoyed when she judged her dad so harshly. And he was all like "Uh, I was trapped in a column of nothingness for a long time, cut me some slack" (not a direct quote--although that would have been hilarious).

I also thought that it ended a little abruptly. I would have liked a little more of a showdown, a Crossroads air-guitar reckoning. But, there are some very insightful and impactful observations about life, the living of it, light, dark and all the rest in this book that I will remember.
I'm afraid that this review, which is more of a whispy musing, won't do the book justice for those who grew up reading A Wrinkle in Time. If I had use for a tesseract it would be to deliver this book to my younger me.

I would also like to pass this book on to anyone who would like it. It's a beautiful edition with a forward by Anna Quindlen, an interview with L'Engle and a transcript of her Newbery speech. This little draw is open to anyone regardless of location; I will mail it out to you. I'll be using the random.org true random number generator, which I learned about through For the love of all that is written blog, to determine the winner. So please just leave your name and e-mail and consider yourself in the draw!

Mandy

You may also like:
Review of The Wand in the Word (interviews with Fantasy writers including L'Engle)

Musing Monday

Over at Should Be Reading, today's Musing Monday question is about Library Love! And just this morning, as I woke up to an entire day off and alone, my secret wish was that the library was open. I phoned, it's not. But, the library is the first place I go whenever I have a day off.

When I was a tot I loved the library and I think I got to go every 2 weeks or so. But in highschool I would walk ten minutes downtown and sit at the Main library for hours after school or during a free period. I had little notebooks that I would write things down in (I was reading mostly non-fiction) and I actually never brought books home; I would read them there and leave bookmarks in them, slip them back on the shelf for the next day.

Now, I live 10 minutes from my Main library and I walk there whenever I have a day off, if my books are due, or just to sit and read. They have an entire wall of windows with chairs and tables underneath, and the street is older and quaint and quiet. The whole thing makes me focus completely on whatever I am reading. I have been known to read an entire book just sitting there. The last time I did this was when I randomly picked up Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande. I also still have my original library card from when I became old enough to get a plastic adult card. When I was a kid I just used my mom's card and then I had a paper certificate from the library saying I could take out like 3 books, but that was just an extention of my mom's card. I think I was 13 when I got my own, and this is the card I still have with my cute, crafted little signature.

When I went to University I spent most of my time at the Dana Porter library. It's the arts library, 10 floors of books and a coffee shop. I think my first reaction to it was, "Are you kidding me?". I spent A LOT of time here, in between classes, after classes, during classes, drinking vanilla cappuccinos and reading and writing in my little notebooks (again, mostly non-fiction. I only came back to fiction two years ago). Even after University I used to audit classes and sit at the Dana Porter afterwards reading. I haven't just gone to hang out there in a while, as it is a 40 minute bus ride, but when I die it is one of the places I will go back to to haunt!

Through my life the library has been a safehaven for me, as well as books in general, and I have sought out the nearest library whenever my life changed, whenever I changed schools, moved out, or needed to get away.

I think I will make this a two-part answer and next time speak about my love for used bookstores and my love for the new bookstore that I currently work at.

Mandy