Merry Wanderer of the Night:
young adult

My freshman year of college I did a report on Sherman Alexie after reading a short story of his. I enjoyed learning about his life and writing but it didn't really go anywhere after I finished my report. Mostly because he kind of freaked me out. I mean, he was taught in my Intro to the English Major class so he must be pretty serious right? But when I saw The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I thought "Perfect! A young adult book! Easy peasy!"

This book really was a joy to read. It was light as far as writing, but the subject was heavy and obviously something close to Alexie's heart. It's about Junior, a teenage boy who leaves the reservation he lives on in Spokane to attend the white high school in town. Instead of just worrying about the normal things a teenage boy thinks about like girls and homework, he has to worry about the cultural divide he is opening between himself and his home. Some people in the reservation think he is brave but most people see him as a traitor. While he excels in his classes, he frequently misses school because of unreliable transportation.

The story really gets into a untouched territory as far as I'm concerned. Most people know about the extreme poverty in Indian reservations, but I really felt like I understood Junior separately from the place he was from. Because of that I was able to experience a lifestyle I've never known. I'm especially pleased this is a young adult book because I feel like his is a topic most young adults don't come in contact with until they are almost graduating from high school unless they live near an Indian reservation.

I couldn't talk about this book without mentioning the artwork. Junior is a budding artist and his drawings are scattered throughout the book. This real element helped me get to know Junior very quickly and relate to him. It's also a genius way to attract non-readers to this book, but that is beside the point.

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Anna Goderbsen has returned to English Major's Junk Food. After the emotional experience I had during the final book of the Luxe series I knew I had to have any book Godbersen wrote. When Bright Young Things

came out I was having a bad day. I had to go in for a series of doctor appointments and was discovering nothing. My mom and I stopped at the bookstore on the way home and she got this for me as a pick me up. I set the book on my nightstand, saving it for another day. A couple of weeks ago I was having a rough time of it, sick and tired, and I picked up Bright Young Things. I was immediately whirled out of my world of classes, deadlines, work, and responsibility. I sat in my bed and read for hours.

The book follows three 1930's girls in alternating chapters. Letty and Cordelia have escaped their small Ohio town to chase after their dreams. They both believe they were meant for bigger, better things. Letty wants to become a singer and she believes her dreams will come true immediately. Cordelia is a little more realistic about their possibility of success, but her desire to find her real father keeps her going. Astrid is a true New Yorker, though she doesn't live in the city. She lives with her wealthy family and attends magnificent parties with her handsome boyfriend. By the end of the book they have all been beaten down and changed.

I just loved this book. Beginning, middle, and end. It is exactly what I wanted from it. Godbersen's writing has gotten tighter, faster, more thrilling. She takes an extremely predictable story but still gets you to guess what happens next. Even more than that, I felt like Letty, Cordelia, and Astrid became my new friends. They began to fill the void the Luxe series left. Bright Young Things leaves me wanting more, and unfortunately I have to wait several months for the next book.

I'm not going to pretend these books are for everyone, I realize they are not. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table-- but a more well written, consuming young adult story I have not found. Give it a chance.

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Liesel Meminger steals books. It's hard to really classify her as a thief though, because she steals books from Nazi book-burnings-- and I could totally understand the desire to steal a book in a world where everything is censored. Liesel wants to know more about the world and what is happening, and she is experiencing the war unlike others her age because she is friends with a Jewish man who her family hides in their basement. All of these things are happening while Liesel learns how to read in The Book Thief

. Even though I know how to read, I was once again reminded how powerful books are and how important they are. After reading The Book Thief I wanted to see two things during my time in Germany. The book burning memorial in Berlin and Dachau concentration camp in Munich, the latter is strongly related to this book because Dachau is mentioned pretty frequently. Reading The Book Thief gave those things an added weight because I could imagine the characters from the book while I was looking at those sights.

The book is narrated by Death, which as you might guess makes it extremely bizarre. You actually sympathize with Death because you can tell he isn't choosing to take these people's lives, he is just doing as he is ordered. You can tell he is upset about what is happening, and he is tired from all the taking he has to do. In some ways I think this shows how people in Nazi Germany felt at the time-- like they were somehow forced to act in a way to support the Nazi party even if they didn't agree with it (possibly because they felt their lives would be taken from them).

Entrance to Dachau Concentration Camp.

I feel like this book has been widely read and discussed, but I'd like to talk about a personal experience with it. When I went to Dachau I expected to be overcome by emotion, but I wasn't. I don't know what other schools are like, but I have a difficult time remembering a year of elementary and high school where I did not learn about the Holocaust in an English or history class. Our education makes us deeply aware of what happened-- to the point where it becomes to difficult to look at the place where it happened and not be a little immune to it all. I did not feel unemotional or immune during The Book Thief. I was upset, crying, could not believe that this happened. I connected much better with this story than I did with any memorial I saw in Germany. I think that is a great testament to the power of books, which is what this book is all about. Going to the place where it happened, walking through a museum, they are important and wonderful things to do, but nothing makes me understand the Holocaust better than reading stories about it.

"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

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Heart with Joy

is a coming of age story centered around fifteen-year-old Julian Hale. His mother, a writer, has just left is father to manage her family's hotel in Florida. Julian knows there is more to the separation than a hotel though, and he plans to move to Florida with his mother at the end of the school year. In the meantime he has to take care of his father and becomes obsessed with cooking delicious meals for them and watching cooking television. In the process he learns more about his father and discovers that he is not the bad guy his mother made him out to be. Julian also gets to know his elderly next door neighbor, a woman who loves bird watching and her garden, and the cute cashier at the grocery store who loves to cook as well. Through all of these experiences Julian discovers who he is and who is going to be.

Hearth with Joy is sweet. Every page contains a softness that I haven't found in any other book. Steve Cushman is great at shaping characters we can know and love. Julian is a little quirky, he's a modern teenager but doesn't care about the Internet or television much, which at first I found impossible and ended up finding endearing. Julian truly cares about everyone he meets, which makes you really love him. He's not perfect though, he's idealistic about his parents' relationship and particularly about his mother. He is trusting when he, perhaps, should not be.

I adored his neighbor, Mrs. Peters. The relationship between Julian and Mrs. Peters made me want to start bird watching and forced me to rethink my ideas about aging. Their unlikely friendship was my favorite part of Julian's coming of age.

The writing wasn't as great as the story, and there were a few moments where it kind of stumbled. Julian rides his bike alongside his father while he runs and says he could keep up with him. As someone who rides her bike a lot I can say I always pass up runners, and have no problem keeping up with them, so this comment made me put the book down and try to figure out what Cushman was trying to say. This is nitpicky, but it was distracting as I was reading.

Overall Heart with Joy is a book worth reading. It will put a smile on your face and give you drive to work towards what you want. I know that Julian is a character that will stay with me for many years.

I'm giving Heart with Joy a B.

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The Luxe series has come to a close for me. I read The Luxe as part of my YA Challenge before my twentieth birthday, and became surprisingly obsessed with the stories of the high class Manhattanites of 1900. I read Rumors at the beginning of the summer and didn't spend too much time waiting to start Envy. And now I've read Splendor. And finished it. And I am very sad. This review will contain spoilers (so if you haven't read the series check out my reviews of the first three books!), but I'm really writing a love letter to The Luxe series. Because I loved it, I really did.

I was initially attracted to the series because the covers had pretty dresses on them and the characters promised to be catty and intense. I didn't expect to like any of the characters in the novel a whole lot, but quickly fell in love with Diana because she was a dreamer, a nonconformist, and she loved to read. Diana has made a lot of really stupid decisions over the course of the series, her obsession with Henry Schoonmaker is pretty stupid by itself. But she never did anything I wouldn't do, so I forgave her. In Splendor we find her chasing Henry to war, dressed as a boy in an attempt to join the army-- but at the beginning of this novel we find out this plan failed. I was a little disappointed Diana didn't get to be a boy for awhile, but wasn't bothered by it for too long. She has a flair for finding herself in the middle of a good story. And for those of you who have read the book, I love the decision Diana made by the end of Splendor. I wouldn't have changed it a bit.

As for the other characters, I think Anna Godbersen really filled everyone out. I actually found myself feeling sorry for Penelope at one point whereas in the past I've really just seen her as a villain. Elizabeth was, as always, the least interesting character in the novel, although there was some excitement with Teddy Cutting. Lina is self-centered and gets what is coming to her, but we see a good side of her and can understand why she has turned on her old self for wealth.

Overall, while many people see The Luxe series as junky, YA books, I feel the need to disagree. The Luxe series continues to have more depth with every book. It represents problems young adults have to this day such as following your dreams, representing your family, getting what you want but being a good person. And even though the characters are catty and conniving, and the book is incredibly fun to read, Godbersen is still a skilled storyteller. No, she is a skilled writer. She can hold suspense, she can make your heart ache, she can make you squeal with excitement, she can make you fall in love with characters over the course of one year and four books. When I finished Splendor I cried. Perhaps I am still grieving, because when I finished the series I didn't simply feel like I had finished a series, I felt as if I had finished a relationship with one of my best friends.

The power of reading I suppose.

I give Splendor an A, and I give the entire Luxe series and outstanding A.

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District 12, Katniss Everdeen's home, is gone. And she is in a place most people didn't even think existed, District 13. What will her fate be? Does she even care? This is how Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy begins. I didn't start The Hunger Games series until this past spring, but I quickly became obsessed and spent all summer howling in pain that I had to wait for Mockingjay

to come out. The day the book came out I got my copy and then spent the rest of the day in class and at work, eagerly awaiting evening where I could just sit down and read, read, read. I originally planned on reading the whole book in one sitting, but it didn't happen. I was two thirds of the way done and then went to bed, only to come home and finish it the next night. If you haven't started The Hunger Games trilogy please check out my review of the first book, The Hunger Games and if you'd like the second book, Catching Fire.

When I finished this book I immediately started texting my friend Liz because it's so difficult to get through this whole book without talking constantly about everything that happens. I'm going to agree with a lot of other people and say that this book started out extremely slow for me. I kept with it because I knew it would get better, but it wasn't as "jump right into the action" as I thought it would be. One third of the way into the book it really started to pick up, but I found myself constantly distracted over Cinna's possible return. I felt like Collins really laid it out that he might come back and since Cinna is my favorite character I pleaded with her throughout the book to make it happen.

I won't say if it happens or not, some of you haven't read Mockingjay yet (what are you waiting for?!?!), but I will say that unlike a lot of others I was very pleased with the ending of this book. I thought it gave a realistic portrayal of the way war and tragic experiences tear down a person. I thought Katniss' deterioration was great, the way her spirit breaks over the course of the three books. I know a lot of people really wanted Katniss to get stronger and for a happy ending, but personally I thought that would be doing a disservice to the audience of these books. It's just not realistic to say that at the end of all of this everything would be beautiful and happy. And as far as Katniss's revenge, I say yeah, she would be vengeful.

I wouldn't have changed very much about Mockingjay. I'm giving it an A.

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This review is of the third book in The Luxe series, so it will contain spoilers if you haven't read the first two books in the series. Interested in my thoughts on those? Check out my reviews of The Luxe and Rumors. I still say The Luxe series gets better and better as you go on and Envy

is the best yet in the series. Splendor, the final book is all I have left. I'm trying to savor the anticipation but at the same time I just really want to know what happens next! So when we left The Luxe girls in Rumors Henry and Penelope are married, to the great dismay of Diana Holland since Henry was clearly in love with her. Elizabeth Holland is very sad because her husband and former chauffeur has passed away, and her mother is trying to pass her off to a new suitor so the family can have money again.

Basically everyone is unhappy in this book. Literally everyone is unhappy. And I love Diana even more in this book because she is actually trying to do something about it! I loved how everyone was unhappy because from the outside all of these people seem to have perfect lives, but they're all actually completely miserable and I think that is a great thing to consider. No matter how good something appears from the outside when you experience it, it might not be that great. There were times in the book where she acted stupidly to try and make Henry feel guilty for what he did to her, but what teenage girl hasn't done that before. Honestly, the Diana-Henry-Penelope thread takes up the majority of the book and it was so intense, that at one point when I was reading on my lunch break I forgot my sandwich at the restaurant because I was so upset with Henry. And if that doesn't make you want to read this book, I don't know what will.

The ending is the biggest cliffhanger yet and while part of me thought, "Yeah, I'm so sure that would happen," part of me just thought, "These books are so awesome!" The ending really comes from nowhere, I was shocked by it. You can probably tell by my verbal typing diarrhea that I still don't know what to say about it. I just honestly can't praise these books enough.

I give Envy an A.

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Meg Cabot's Mediator Series has been out for about six years, but even though I love Meg Cabot I never tried them out. Once I got my nook I decided to download the first book, Shadowland

since it was fairly cheap and I was looking for a good escapist book and I know Meg Cabot always delivers that. And I was write, because I could not put Shadowland down. Suze just moved to California from her home of sixteen years, New York. She is not enthused about the move at all, to say the least. She has to live with her mom and her mom's boyfriend as well as his three sons. But they're not so bad, the worst part is Jesse, the dead cowboy that is haunting her new bedroom. Except, well, he is a little cute. Oh but then there is the dead high school girl haunting her new Catholic high school, and she is looking for revenge. How can Suze see all of this stuff? Because she's a mediator, a communicator between the living and the dead.

I've always thought mediators were kind of fascinating and I think Cabot does a great job of really showing some of the problems that might arise if you were sixteen years old and saw dead people. Like, how would you tell your mom? And if you decided not to tell her, how would you hide something like that? I feel like Meg Cabot always puts herself into the situations she is writing about and imagines going through a normal life with whatever problems the characters have. She becomes her characters, and that makes for YA books that I can never put down. This was the perfect summer read for me, a little creepy and a little awesome. Suze is pretty badass too, which anyone who reads my blog knows I love. She's got her leather jacket that she wears to death even though her mom hates it and she sneaks out of her room in the middle of the night to go kick some ghost butt.

But the book also deals with normal teenage stuff, like fitting in. Obviously being a mediator doesn't make Suze the most popular girl in school, that is until she gets to her new school where everyone is amazed that she can save so many people from falling beams. And Suze speaks her mind. She flat out tells the most popular girl in school that she thinks she is totally rude. She basically says and does everything you wish you had said and done in high school- but she's still insecure, and she's still a normal teenage girl. She's still pining away for a boy that is way out of her league. Let's just say this book took me back a couple of years to my own high school days. My biggest gripe with this book was that the plot was too rushed towards the end, and I felt like an important character fell out of the story for awhile so it was little jarring when he came back. I fully plan on reading the next book in the series though.

Shadowland gets a C.

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I am a long time fan of Sex and the City. I used to stay home from school and watch it for hours (okay I finally admitted where I was to all of my high school teachers!). And I've always seen myself as a Carrie so when I saw that Candace Bushnell had written a book about Carrie before Sex and the City (i.e. high school Carrie Bradshaw) I knew it would be the perfect summer book for me. I have never actually read Sex and the City or any other books by Candace Bushnell, so The Carrie Diaries was actually my first taste of her writing style. I'll be honest, I've read better, but it certainly wasn't the worst writing I've ever read. So now, to answer the question everyone wants to hear, what was Carrie Bradshaw like in high school?

The book picks up right at the beginning of Carrie's senior year. She's from a small town and lives with her two younger sisters and her dad. Her mom has sadly died* and her sister Dorrit is having some serious issues with coping. She has begun to steal, dye her hair, and basically cause quite a ruckus in the Bradshaw house. Carrie has her own problems to deal with. She didn't get into the summer writing program at the New School and while she was busy working on that all summer it seems that all of her friends have started having sex, including her smart, quiet best friend The Mouse. Carrie goes into panic mode, and that is when the new kid comes to town. His name is Sebastian Kydd and he is all kinds of trouble, which of course means every girl in school wants him. Carrie knows she does not want him though, because they met once as little kids and he didn't find her uber feminist comments amusing. At least, she's pretty sure she doesn't want him.

Carrie's dad is an extremely intelligent man who wants nothing more than his daughter to go to Brown. Carrie is, well, alright with this and when they visit the school Carrie meets the older (and personally I think more awesome) George. George is a student at Brown who has taken a wild interest in Carrie, but Carrie (true to form- I'm an Aiden fan) has zero interest in him because she is blinded by Sebastian. So this is how Carrie's senior year is shaping up. And as senior years go, it sounds about right.

I really had no quibbles with this book. The writing was what I expected, although not great. Carrie's character made sense as the younger version of Carrie Bradshaw. There were several storylines and they were mostly finished by the end of the book. Basically this was a fairly mindless, brainless book that was perfect to start my summer off with. I would suggest it to any Carrie Bradshaw fan. This book earned a C.

*Anyone who has watched the show as religiously as I have knows this is not the case on the show, because on the show she has a deadbeat dad. That's not to say that Bushnell's image of Carrie Bradshaw (which I understand is an alternative name for herself) is not less important than the interpretation of her in the show, but it's something I couldn't help but notice.

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I am so excited to review Catching Fire

because it means I get to talk about all the things I had to hold back in my Monday review of The Hunger Games. That being said, if you haven't read The Hunger Games yet I wouldn't advise reading this review. Check out the review of The Hunger Games, and then go read it. You know you want to.

When we left the Hunger Games Peeta and Katniss had beat out the Capitol in their sick game. They both won the Hunger Games, which is impossible. When they return to District 12, they both discover things aren't that easy. Katniss realizes she still has feelings for Gale, and let's face it, Gale is kind of pissed that Katniss and Peeta were all lovebirding during the Hunger Games. And maybe he could get past it, if it wasn't for the fact that Katniss and Peeta basically have to pretend they are in love for the rest of their lives if they want to survive the Capitol. (Well Peeta might not have to pretend quite as much. Because Peeta is awesome.)

I loved Catching Fire even more than the Hunger Games, if that is possible. There were so many beautiful moments in this book and I thought the writing was even better. I'll do a few quotes without trying to give anything away. Two of my favorite Katniss quotes fromt his book are "Right before the explosions begin, I find a star" (379) and "I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of rebellion" (387). Ah! Katniss just got even more badass in this book. Katniss becomes so much more confident and daring in this book, even though she faces serious consequences. I won't go into too much detail, but some of the districts are having uprisings and the Capitol thinks Katniss (more than Peeta) is responsible for them.

I finished this book in a ridiculous flurry of emotion. There were so many times throughout the book that I was yelling "No! They can't do that!" I haven't been this sucked in in a long time. For several hours after finishing it I was sitting in my room thinking about it. It probably contributed to my lack of desire to study for the past two weeks. And I think that is the mark of a pretty good book.

Catching Fire earned a freaking A.

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While I was avoiding homework this morning I ran across an article on Twitter called 20 Books Every Teen and Tween Should Read Before They Hit 16. It's a pretty good list, although I haven't heard of some of the books before and I have read less than half of them and most of the books I definitely did not read by the time I was 16. Some of these I've actually read during the course of writing on my blog! Books from the list I have read are:

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Harry Potter Series
Animal Farm
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Macbeth
Go Ask Alice
The Outsiders
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret

Books on the list I haven't read are:

The Catcher in the Rye (Although I've read pretty much everything else by Salinger)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Maus
The Lord of the Flies
The Golden Compass
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Flowers for Algernon
A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Treasure Island
Slake's Limbo

Some of these I'm not that interested in reading, but some of them I feel like I really need to read. And since I didn't quite make it by sixteen, I think I'm going to try to get some of them in before 21. I have about eight months until my 21st birthday and there are 12 books I haven't read. I think I'd like to read at least six. Does anyone have any ideas on what books would be the best to read from this list? Have you read the books on this list? What do you think is missing? Personally, I think On the Road should be on there.

Go Ask Alice is marketed as a nonfiction diary written by a teenage girl who becomes addicted to drugs. The book was "edited" by Beatrice Sparks though, and in recent years it has been largely recognized that she authored this book based on accounts from a patient she had. So this book is mostly a propaganda piece to scare kids into not doing drugs. That being said, the book definitely leaves the reader with some terrifying images of drug use and as a 14-year-old this book certainly scared me. As a 20 year old I was less frightened, but since I have seen people fall to drugs like this I was not entirely jaded.

Now, I did read the book pretty differently this time around. It seemed like the only reason the girl in the book (her name is actually not Alice, we never find out her name) falls to drugs is because she is insecure; "Even now I'm not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things I've gotten from books" (5). This is a lovely sentiment, but the book really seems to drive home this idea that the girl has no idea who she is. You've met these people, the people who change their favorite kinds of eggs based on what guy they are dating that week (yeah, I just referenced Runaway Bride). I can certainly think of a few off the top of my head. While I think that being dependent on others for you worldview isn't necessarily a good quality, I do think it's a quality that most teenagers have. To use such a universal trait in order to terrify kids out of using drugs seems like a bit of a cheap shot to me.

At the same time, there is some truth to this book. I won't pretend to know about how realistic her drug use is because I honestly have no idea, but her account of adolescence is pretty dead on; "Adolescents have a very rocky, insecure time. Grown-ups treat them like children and yet expect them to act like adults" (76). Yeah man, been there. This is one aspect of the book that I think really works. There is no pushing kids to adults. At fifteen and sixteen you've pretty much figured out that adults don't actually know everything. You're not old enough to realize that they know a lot either. So the message to ask for help isn't necessarily a message saying, "You're a stupid kid and you won't go anywhere in the world without mom and dad," which I think most kids probably relate to.

This book earned a C. I read this for the Shelf Discovery Challenge.

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Jill wants to be popular, but it's kind of tough when her best friend is in the other fifth grade class. It's important to be friends with Wendy, the class know-it-all and ring leader, because if you're on her bad side fifth grade can be pretty tough. Unfortunately for Linda she is not on Wendy's good side. Linda is a little heavy, and when she gives a report on whale blubber she is just asking for a nickname to formulate. At least that is what Jill thinks, because she is the one who starts to get everyone calling Linda Blubber. This is the story of Blubber.

Fifth grade is rough, I remember it well. I think I was probably the Linda of my class, so reading this book was kind of painful for me. I found it a little hard to sympathize with Jill because she reminded me of other people that picked on nerds in elementary school. Still, Jill does become sympathetic as she learns what it's like to get picked on throughout the book. And she can be kind of funny sometimes; "My father doesn't have to worry about wrinkles so he never has to wear anything on his head. I'll be like him when I grow up" (19). I can imagine saying something like that when I was in the fifth grade.

This book says a lot about getting picked on and picking on people, but there is also a pretty clear message about weight issues. Fifth grade is about the time most girls start obsessing with their weight, at least I think that was how it worked in my school. Jill eats and eats and never gains any weight even though her school nurse says she needs to. Linda diets and diets and can't lose a pound. The story is a chance for girls to realize that everyone around them is struggling with weight, and I think it tries to argue for acceptance as well. I think it could do a little more of that though.

This book earned a B. I read this for the Shelf Discovery Challenge.

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I never read any Beverly Cleary books so I decided to give her a try as part of the Shelf Discovery Challenge. After reading Fifteen I think it's probably best I didn't read any Beverly Cleary books because cynicism caught me pretty early in life and I think a lot of eye rolling would have happened. That's not to say that a lot of eye rolling didn't happen this time around, because it most certainly did. Jane is fifteen and she has decided that she is going to fall in love, although this doesn't seem like a possibility while she is on her way to babysit a tyrant child. Still, a girl can dream right?

Surprisingly, though, a dog food delivery boy comes to the house she is babysitting at and he is positively dreamy and wonderful and everything that a first boyfriend should be. Jane wonders when she gets home if it would be too forward of her to ask the woman she babysat for who the delivery boy was. No, that won't work, she'll just have to continue babysitting at the house and hope she runs into him again (sounds like something I would have come up with when I was fifteen). Luckily she doesn't have to worry about it because the boy calls her (this would never happen in real life). His name is Stanley Crandall and he would like to take her out. A few dates go by and Jane is Stan's girl, or at least she thinks he is until he takes another girl to the school dance!

So, the story has some misgivings, but it was also written in 1956, a year before my mom was even born. I tried to remind myself as I was reading the book. I never really felt like I knew who Jane was, but she did say some funny things every once in awhile. "Nobody wanted to be sweet and sensible, at least not a girl in high school. Jane hoped her mother would not spread it around Woodmont that she thought her daughter was sweet and sensible" (28). That was funny, and I think I could relate to that when I was about thirteen, not fifteen, but as I said 1956 so we'll move on. What really peeved me about this book though was that Stan was quite literally the only thing Jane cared about; "She did not want to be a brilliant student. She did not want to be intellectually curious. She wanted to be Stan's girl, dancing with him in the gymnasium of Woodmont High" (116). I mean, couldn't she have grown even just a little bit? I know I was kind of boy crazy when I was fifteen but I still had some other interests. Like reading and music and getting a car. I mean, it's 1956 not the beginning of the world.

So this novel earned a C.

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I'd been wanting to read a YA vampire novel for awhile when I picked up Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz. It came at the perfect time too, because I'd just finished The Jungle and I wanted to read something that wouldn't take a lot out of me. When I first opened the book I considered putting it back down, the first few pages are somewhat painful as far as writing. I decided to persevere though, reminding myself that I wanted something nice and easy. The writing does get better as you go on through the novel, or maybe you just get more used to it.

Typical to books about high school this cast as popular kids and rebels. I would say the main character is Schuyler Van Alen, a rebel. She lives with her grandmother and her mom is in the hospital with a coma. She has never really known her mom since she has been in a coma most of her life, but the doctors say she could wake up any day, so Schuyler visits her every weekend and reads the newspaper to her. Schuyler's best friend is Oliver who follows her around like a lost puppy. The friendship is really all about the two of them, but they let the new guy Dylan tag along because he likes them and because he adds to their mysterious aura.

On the opposite side is Mimi, the queen of the school who is ridiculously rich and fearless. There is also her brother Jack who is good at everything and gorgeous. Mimi and Jack seem to have some weird kind of Flowers in the Attic thing going on, but no one pays attention to them because they are perfect. On this side there is a new girl named Bliss. She comes from Texas and is trying to learn how to fit in the New York high class scene.

And this is how everything goes, until a mysterious death comes to the school and turns everything on its head. Soon people who are not supposed to talk are becoming allies. All because of The Committee. Everyone thinks The Committee is a place for the really rich people to hang out and plan parties, which is partially true but there is more to it than that. When Schuyler Van Alen gets invited to The Committee Mimi is furious. It doesn't help that her cousin Jack seems to be interested in Schuyler either.

So basically this is mediocre writing with a somewhat interesting plot. This the first in a series of books and I think I will probably read the next in the series. The plot really starts to pick up towards the end and I felt driven to finish the book so it wasn't all bad. It's just not The Luxe or anything.

This novel earned a C.
I read this book for the First in a Series Challenge.

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I remember loving the movie Harriet the Spy when I was a kid, but slightly remembering the movie didn't really prepare me for actually reading Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzburgh. For some reason the Harriet I had in my mind was an angsty 14-year-old girl. In reality, the Harriet of the novel is an 11-year-old genius. Or at least I thought she was a genius. She is encouraged to write everything she sees by her nanny Ole Golly. Harriet thinks about everything in terms of how it will help her career as a writer and detective. She has routes that she goes through every day.

The people she observes on her routes are cat-loving Harrison Withers, a snooty old couple, a woman who (for a period) refuses to get out of bed, and an Italian immigrant family who owns the local grocery store. Harriet's observations of these people are surprisingly astute for a young girl, and they kept someone twice her age (me) in fits of giggles. I had a journal like Harriet when I was a kid and I wrote down my thoughts on everyone in my class too. I always remember my mom telling me not to write anything down I didn't want anyone else to see, and this is something Harriet has to consider in this book.

One thing that annoyed me about this book was how the "romance" between Harriet and her friend Sport was portrayed as this fact that everyone should know. This fit with Harriet's voice in the novel, but I still thought it was kind of weird. Their love relationship was mentioned about twice during the whole book and I wondered why it needed to be there at all.

This novel earned a B.

I read this book as part of the Shelf Discovery Challenge.
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I put off reading the second book in the Luxe series for awhile because I wanted to the savor the end of the first book. Luckily the beginning of Rumors by Anna Godbersen drew me right back into the dramatic ending of the first book. This review will not spoil anything in Rumors, but it will assume that you have read the first book in the series.

At the beginning we are reminded that Elizabeth Holland is dead, of course we know that she actually is not dead. Instead she has traveled to California to meet her lover and her family's former footman Will. Will has it in his head that he will strike it rich with oil. Elizabeth loves Will and wants to believe in him, but her wealthy past and good sense tells her this might not be the case. She has a lot of time during the day to think about her life back in New York as well, so Elizabeth isn't as happy as she thought she might be. She takes solace in the fact that she still has her engagement ring from Henry Schoonmaker. If things ever got too bad, she could always sell that.

And back in New York Elizabeth's sister Diana is desperately in love with Henry. Henry, however, doesn't know that Elizabeth is still alive. When he finally comes out of mourning he can't wait to get back to Diana, but his best friend Teddy assures him that he cannot fall in love with Diana. It just wouldn't be right. This gives the semi-evil Penelope the perfect opening to win Henry's attention... or bribe him for it.

I love, love, loved 89% of this book. This of course is a completely false percentage because I'm horrible at math, but we'll say that is how much I loved. There was so much of Diana in this book that I couldn't put it down. I just adore Diana. Elizabeth was a little flaky to me. I was so annoyed with her faithless attitude towards Will. Poor Will though... such a dreamer. My two biggest complaints about this book are Lina Broud and the ending.

Lina Broud is a side character. She used to be a maid and is also in love with Will, but when she is fired from the Holland household she lies about her past to everyone she meets. In this book Lina is climbing the social ladder in a completely idiotic way. Basically I thought there was too much Lina in this book. Her character is annoying. She is unappreciative (which makes no sense because she used to be a maid) and kind of full of herself. I liked her more in the first book when she was genuinely in love with Will. You will see in this book that she is not.

The ending, you'll have to decide that for yourself.

This novel earned a B.

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This book all started as a game between Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. They each took one character and wrote letters back and forth to each other with no intention on publishing, but here it is, published. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is the story of two cousins spending their coming out apart. They live in a different world during 1817 London; a world where magic works. Kate is away in London and Cecy (or Cecelia) is in Essex. They each come out into society with a bigger bang than anyone expected, and solve a magical mystery along the way.

I really liked the idea of this book. Magic, London, history, and letters. I tend to really enjoy books where the narration changes, but I could tell that this started as a game and not as an attempt to write a novel. Since each author obviously had a certain plot in mind that they had to intertwine in the end there wasn't a lot of direction with the plot. I enjoy a lot of novels that aren't wrapped up in plot, but this was quite anti-climactic. I kind of got the feeling that they had to remove a few things that weren't part of the story, but I think a few things should have been added to keep the book moving. It was a short book, and sometimes I felt like I was dragging myself through it.

There really wasn't enough character description either. I had a hard time figuring out what the differences between Kate and Cecy were. Cecy is much more magical and Kate is a bit more practical, but other than that I had a hard time differentiating between the two. This was especially annoying in the beginning since there was now exposition and I was thrown directly into the exchange of these letters. One reason for the lack of character description could be that the letters were written between two women who already knew each other. The authors might have assumed their traits were coming through, but I didn't feel there was enough.

I've been kind of hard on this book so far, but compared to the other YA books I've read this past month this one wasn't as intriguing. As I've said the idea of the book is excellent, and there were some things I did enjoy. I particularly liked how well developed the magic in this book was. Cecy makes charm bags that protect others from bad magic. The books does a great job of describing these bags and how they are used. I also really enjoyed the male characters in this book. Kate and Cecy each have a love interest (James and Thomas respectively). If the female characters were more well developed, I might have enjoyed their relationships even more.

This novel earned a C.

Pub. Date: September 2004/1988
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format: Paperback, 336 pp

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Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading.

I am reading my last book for my 19 Going on 20 Challenge this week. It is Sorcery & Cecelia, Or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. Here is my teaser:

"The investiture itself is a brief and simple ceremony, a matter of presenting the honored newcomers to the college with a blue sash, a silver medallion, and a daub of scented oil between the eyebrows. That, repeated twelve times in rapid succession, would hardly provide entertainment enough for an entire afternoon, so the college expanded the ceremony with a choir of boys from the abbey school and a detachment of Royal Guardsmen to arch their sabers over the wizards as they approached the dais for investiture." (20).

Is it just me, or does it seem like most historical YA books have some element of magic in them?

I really did not like Gemma Doyle at the beginning of A Great and Terrible Beauty. She bitched about everything, but in all honesty I bitched about everything when I was a teenager too. I kept that in mind when I was reading it, considering that I read this for my 19 Going on 20 Challenge. And she did grow, quite a bit really. So I was glad when I reached the end.

This is the first novel in the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Gemma is living in India with her mother and opium addicted father. She is sixteen and dying to go to school in London like a normal girl. What Gemma doesn't know is that she is not a normal girl, and her mother is not a normal woman. Her mother is keeping her in India for a very good reason. Of course, since she is a teenager none of this occurs to her and she just thinks her mother is out to get her. This is why she runs away from her in the market at the beginning of novel. She quickly becomes lost and when she looks to find her mother she has a painful vision. There is a man and her mother, and they are are both dying. This is when Gemma meets Kartik, a boy who cautions Emma against these visions she is having.

After her mother's death Gemma does go to school in London. It is 1895 and the school is Spence. The popular girls have their place, and Emma does not belong there. That is until she shows that she can play the game as well as any of them. She becomes friends with the rich and fashionable Felicity and Pippa, but only spends time with them if they will include Ann, Gemma's orphan roommate. I thought the friendship between the girls happened a little too quickly and a little too easily, but I did like how Felicity's character grew as the novel went on. It keeps you wondering if Felicity is really good or evil as she is obsessed with the idea of power.

My favorite aspect of this novel was how trapped the girls felt by the confines of marriage and society. I liked the idea of magic as an escape to this, even if I don't read a lot of fantasy novels (besides Harry Potter). I thought it was interesting to think that women or girls might dream of other realms or magic to save them from their doomed lives. I could definitely see Marianne from Sense and Sensibility coming up with something like this.

This novel earned a B.

Pub. Date: March 2005
Publisher: Random House Childrens Books
Format: Paperback, 432 pp

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