Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson is such a little gem of a book! Oh my goodness! This is one of those books that just makes the heart happy, although it has its drawnbacks and its heartaches too.

Amy is having a seriously terrible year. Her dad died (and you get the feeling, right from the beginning that Amy blames herself), her brother is in rehab, and her mom gets a new job and decides to move from California to Connecticut right before Amy's senior year. She decides that it will be too expensive to fly Amy and their car across the country, but Amy refuses and cannot get behind the wheel of a car, so Amy's mom enlists the son of her good friend, Roger, to drive, since he needs to get to Philadelphia. Amy's mom completely maps out the trip — it will take four days, she's made reservations at hotels along the way and it is possibly, the most boring route ever. So, Roger proposes a 'detour' and Amy (uncharacteristically) says, What the heck and away they go.

And what follows is one of the most perfect road trips that could ever be. Both Amy and Roger have their own personal baggage. Neither of them really actually remembers the other (they think they maybe played a tag like game once upon a childhood) but they are virtually strangers. It's awkward at first, but as they spend more and more time together talking and getting to know each other, they also open the door to allow growth and change.

Spending days at a time in a car with no one else to talk to can really help you get to know another person fast. There's not a lot you can hide from a person when you are together and alone for so long.

One of my very favorite things about this book was the inclusion of the receipts, souveniers and playlists that Amy and Roger accumulated on their road trip. I keep weird stuff like that (Not even lying... I just cleaned out my 'keepsakes' box from high school and I refuse to admit some of the stuff I just tossed: P) and I loved seeing it included in a scrapbook like fashion. It just added so much fun to the story and it made me happy every time it showed up.

I will say that there were a few things about this book that didn't have me quite as enamored as the rest of the book. The first is her relationship with her brother. Amy experiences a lot of growth over the course of the novel and she realizes a lot of things about her self, her relationships and life in general. But the quasi resolution between Amy and her brother didn't, in my opinion, meet it's potential. There was so much possibility there that I thought was just skimmed over, almost like an afterthought. The other thing about this book that didn't sit well with me is how Amy and Roger's relationship played out. It is something that I did see coming from the beginning of the book (from the summary, actually) but still bothered me. AND it's kind of a spoiler. YOU ARE BEING WARNED. I'M GOING TO TELL YOU ANYWAY SO LOOK AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW. SPOILER****** I was not really okay with the fact that Amy & Roger have sex. For several reasons. Amy was not really in an emotionally sound/stable place when the trip started AND Roger started the trip believing himself to still be very in love with his ex-girlfriend. To me, sex should not ever be a casual or easy decision, but it was here. Add that to the fact that they wake up and basically have the — Cool, sex is great but this doesn't mean anything really, not a commitment, not a future, not even anything more than we just spent a week together in the car and I think you are hott and oh ya I do also really really like you sooo, I guess we'll see if this goes anywhere, but hey, no pressure — talk and that is also, not cool. *****THIS IS THE END OF THE SPOILERS SO IT'S SAFE TO LOOK AGAIN.

So, other than those two grievances, I really enjoyed this book. And even though both of those things (well, one more than the other) did bother me more than a little, it still wasn't enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of this book. It's a fun book but it has much more depth than I expected and it's really a book that I found to be solidly good. It's for sure one I'd like to reread and it's definitely one I will recommend.

A few hours later he chauffeured his wife Victoria to dinner at Matsuhisa restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Beckham wears his favourite black beanie for the trip to Pinkberry. Eldest son Brooklyn didn't join the boys' outing
The family dog Coco joined Beckham and the boys for the trip to Pinkberry, where they often stop off for a frozen treat.
Eldest son Brooklyn, who was with Beckham when the accident occurred on Friday, did not join the outing.
Date night: Beckham later drove his pregnant wife Victoria to dinner at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills
Mrs Beckham sat in the back seat while her husband drove to Matsuhisa - part of the Nobu franchise.
The collision happened after a gold Mitsubishi stalled in the fast lane due to mechanical problems, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said.
She said: 'Yesterday at approximately 9.13am Beckham was involved with a collision on the southbound 405 Freeway just south of Artesia Boulevard.'
She added: 'The biggest commotion was when people realised it was David Beckham.'
‘David’s car was taken away from the scene by a tow truck. It had lost a front bumper in the collision.’
Scare: The footballer was involved in a collision over the weekend with son Brooklyn (pictured together in March) but both were unharmed
source:dailymail

VIA On the road again: After his car crash David Beckham treats the boys to ice cream

Welcome to Robinson Wells today, author of Variant who is here to share with us some memories of the teenage years.:)

So, I’m not sure if I understand this correctly: If I was selling all of this stuff at a garage sale, that would mean that I don’t like it, right? If there was something I was selling as a teenager, then it wouldn’t matter much, so I’m going to change the rules: this isn’t a teenage garage sale; it’s a museum of my teenage years.

A collection of Supertramp CDs: No I’m not old enough that I was into Supertramp when they first came out (in the seventies), but for whatever reason I latched onto them as a teenager. I think it first was because of the kitsch of it—I mean, they have an album called “Breakfast In America”—but they started growing on me to the point where I owned all their albums and listened to them constantly. (I’m mostly over them now. Mostly.)

A fishing tackle box full of oil paints: Long before I ever thought about writing, my creative outlet was in the visual arts. My mom signed me up for an oil painting class when I was about eleven, and I really fell in love with it. (I don’t mean to brag, but I once took fourth place in the Utah State Fair. I’m kind of a big deal.) Sadly, writing has taken all my painting time away, and I haven’t done anything in years.

A road sign: In typical teenage fashion, my friends and I went through a phase when we would try to acquire (steal) the best signs we could find. We made a rule that we’d never do anything unsafe—no stealing STOP signs, or anything like that—but we got a lot of awesome ones. And, fortunately, one of our friends had a bus stop in front of his house, and we’d re-hang our stolen signs in front of his place: my favorite was a sign from the cemetery directing hearses toward the correct entrance. As you can imagine, my friend’s dad was not happy about this kind of thing.

A drafting table: In addition to painting, I briefly worked as a teenager drawing houses for real estate advertisements. I’m not great at drawing other things, but I can draw the heck out of a tract home.

My student government sweater: I think I ran for office every single year of junior high and high school, and never won, and then my senior year came around and I ran and lost AGAIN. But then they created a new position, held a special election, and I finally won! I was the Assembly Coordinator, which was a horrible job that I never would have taken had I not so desperately wanted to be in student government.

A 1972 Chevy Impala: This was my first car (and, since you don’t know how old I am, it was more than twenty years old when I had it). My dad bought it from someone for $300, and it ran about as well as you’d expect for a $300 car. The main benefit of the car was that it was indestructible—it was made of solid steel. More than once, as I was backing into the driveway, I hit the concrete side stairs and heard horrible scraping only to jump out and see the car was completely unscathed—not even a scratch in the paint.

Playbills from numerous shows: I came from a singing and dancing family, and we (all of us, Mom and Dad included) ended up heavily involved in community theater. Although I did my share of acting and singing (I could NEVER figure out how to dance), I ended up falling in love with the backstage stuff, and eventually worked for years doing set design.

How fun! I come from a theater family too! I love that you guys all got involved together. I can't tell you how many times I get that look when family members ask me why I'm not involved with a show.: P Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

French fashionable house Hermès has co-operated with a command of distributors of cars Como and has developed design of an interior for ten cars Smart.

VIA «Fashionable brand Hermès has created design for Smart»

Earlier today, I posted an awesome guest post from author Lisa Schroeder about why she writes and loves Contemporary. She's offering a signed copy of one of her novels, Far From You (in my blog) and I figured that today was a good time to review the book myself.

Far From You is actually Schroeder's least well known book (heard that one from the author herself). It doesn't get the attention that her others have, and after reading it, part of me can understand it. With each of the other books, I had a pretty good idea what the story was going to be about. Not so with Far From You. In Far From You, Schroeder has actually crafted a much subtler story. It's harder to summarize, harder to explain, but it's one of those stories that niggles in the back of your mind, reminding you at odd moments that it's been there.

I don't know if that even makes sense, but I can't think of any other way to describe it. After I had finished, I thought about it, recognized that I still loved Lisa, but that this wasn't my favorite. It's still not my favorite (The Day Before gets that prize by a long shot, because it really was just that awesome). But the more I think about this one, the more I feel that its subtlety is what makes it so strong.

Alice is just this side of bitter. She's had to deal with an awful lot of painful changes for one so young and she doesn't really know how to cope with it all. She's not totally sure what to think about the new step-mom and half sibling, she's still trying to cope with the death of her mother and she's at that age where you are trying to learn about yourself and who you are. And then, Alice, her step-mom and the baby get trapped in a snow storm. They turned wrong, the car is low on gas and they are stuck in a snow drift. And things get pretty desperate very quickly.

This story is more internal and reflective than most I've read. There are very few characters, the setting is dire, but the same and Alice finds herself with large amounts of time on her hands, with nothing to do but wait for help or death. Her step-mom leaves to seek help, leaving Alice with this tiny baby, no food and a car that's nearly dead.

Alice becomes a strong person in that car, waiting for life or death to take her, and she becomes a fighter. She does what little she can to keep the baby warm, to protect each of them, and as she does this, she opens herself up to more than she had previously and she allows herself to love more fully. She spends a lot of time thinking about the people at home, her choices, her future and quietly, and without fanfare begins to mature.

I really appreciated that this book didn't require a boy to inspire change (although if I remember right, she does have a boyfriend back home...) and I also liked that the change was hers, and although it was, in part, inspired by a brush with death, even that is quieter than we as readers are used to. There was no crazed madman chasing after her, no apocalypse, no rouge government, no drug overdose or catastrophic accident. There was merely snow. Snow that piled and piled and cold that seeps into your bones and robs your breath. That kind of cold and desperation can make a person into many things and I loved watching Alice grow into herself. She's not perfect and there is still more she could change, but she accomplished so much throughout this short novel and it's a book that leaves you with your heart full.

(Can I just say that this is by far the most beautiful of Lisa's book covers (and IMO the hardcover is... rather ugly) but this is gorgeous, simply stunning and I feel like it captures the soul and heart of this book incredibly well.)

In general I'm a big fan of The Best American Series and the new one's for 2010 just came out. I bought The Best American Essays

and The Best American Travel Writing

since they are my two favorite collections. I flipped through the table of contents, skimming for essayists I know and love, and new ones I'm interested to read, when I saw that The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Essays both have an essay by David Sedaris in them. It's the same essay! Guy Walks into a Bar Car, which originally appeared in The New Yorker and can be read online. David Sedaris is known for being funny, so if you're looking for some giggles this is a great essay.

I wasn't vastly impressed by this piece but I think it's worth mentioning since it was chosen by Bill Buford and Christopher Hitchens this year. The essay is about Sedaris' trip on a train. In the bar car he meets a man who he is possibly attracted to, and he gets to talking and drinking with him. The guy is a total wreck, an alcoholic, screwed up family, and unemployed. Later in the essay he talks about a Lebanese man he met on a train some years before (he was 24), he felt an instant connection with this man, and the man invites him to come stay at his college with him, but Sedaris refuses. He later regrets this decision because, well, I think we've all been in that situation before. The essay looks at the train and travel as a kind of hopeful, romantic, new beginning, but then acknowledges that this is often not the case. And even when it is the case, we are often afraid of being truly romantic.

I love the way the essays starts: "In the golden age of American travel, the platforms of train stations were knee-deep in what looked like fog. You see it all the time in black-and-white movies, these low-lying eddies of silver. I always thought it was steams from the engines, but now I wonder if it didn't from cigarettes." This is a great set up for the rest of the essay. Sedaris gives us a well known image, beautiful, foggy, romantic train platforms that are full of mystery and elegance, but then he turns around and says something he has always though as beautiful and enticing might actually just be something gross or unimportant. And this is something I think happens a lot in travel. You dream up a place to be exactly what you want, but once you arrive it isn't anything like you expected. I experienced this when I went to Rome. I thought it would be this beautiful, romantic place, and I ended up thinking it was kind of disgusting.

He further ties this into age. He meets the Lebanese man at 24, but he meets the drunk more recently as an older man. "When you're young, it's easy to believe that such an opportunity will come again, maybe even a better one. Instead of a Lebanese guy in Italy, it might be a Nigerian one in Belgium, or maybe a Pole in Turkey. You tell yourself that if you traveled alone to Europe this summer you could surely do the same thing next year and the year after that. Of course, you don't, though, and the next thing you know you're an aging, unemployed elf, so desperate for love that you spend your evening mooning over a straight alcoholic." So in some ways life is a lot like travel. We enter with expectations, but as time goes on we realize they might not be exactly what we thought.

You can read this essay at The New Yorker, and if you do please come back to tell me what you thought of it!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Maybe something else good came out of Sleeping Naked is Green, or maybe this is something I've been thinking about for awhile and the book just got me thinking about actually doing something about it. I read. A lot. And I buy a lot of books, which means my paper use is astronomical. I mean really, I look around my house and I see it everywhere. So how do I reconcile the fact that I use all of this paper but still consider myself a green activist?

One way to think about it is that everyone has their vice. Some people have gas guzzlers, some people buy a lot of coffee at Starbucks and use the paper cups instead of bringing their own, and some people buy a lot of imported foods. I just happen to be a reader, and if it wasn't this it would be something else. But that doesn't mean there aren't things I can do to make my vice, say, my hobby, a little nicer on the environment. I have some ideas on how I can do this, and maybe you have some ideas too (I'd love to hear them!).

Here are few things I'm asking myself to do.
1. Simply buy less books. Only buy books you know you will read, no matter how discounted they are, what deal is going on, or how popular a book is. Do your research before you buy, and keep a list of books you hear about. If you continually return to that book as something you want to read then go for it.
2. Buy books used whenever possible, and if the book is unavailable in a local used bookstore but you still want to buy it, order it from a company that has green shipping like Better World Books. Used books are just fantastic. They're usually cheaper, they're better for the environment because it's recycling, and used bookstores are just fun to browse. I've also found that almost anything that is a year old or more can be found on Better World Books, which is a great organization. They have eco-friendly shipping and they help fund global literacy!
3. Use that library card. For books I want to read once, or I'm not sure I want to buy, I need to start using the library. There are so many books I have that I shouldn't have bought. I just read them once, I'm never going to look at them again, I just wanted to read the story and now I'm done. Why did I not use the library?
4. Sell, give away, or donate books that I am no longer using. I might try to give away some of my books on here, and then whatever is left I'll try to sell and donate the remainders. I'm just sick of some of these books taking up space in my house, and even if I don't get anything out of them (monetarily) I would still love to have that extra space and now I'm not wasting the book.
5. Walk or bike to the bookstore and library. If I'm able to obtain the book in Iowa City than it's best to get there without a car. If I do go to the bookstore in the car, then I need to put it with my other car errands/work.

What are some of your ideas for greening your reading?

Ashfall by Mike Mullin is a post-apocalyptic novel that takes us into what it might be like if the Yellowstone Supervolcano were to actually explode.

I like in SE Idaho, which means that Yellowstone National Park is only about an hour and a half drive from my house. I spent many summers playing in the park, and I loved it. Seriously. If you've never been to Yellowstone, put it on your bucket list. Growing up so close to Yellowstone is what interested me in Ashfall in the first place. I knew the book wouldn't be about the park, because if the volcano erupts, I promise — there is going to be no park left. But I vividly remember the first time I went to the park after learning that it was one of the world's largest volcanoes. I was terrified and had these vivid mental images of my dad driving the car up the side of a giant mountain and straight down into the frothing, bubbling magma of the TV volcanoes.

Let me tell you — this book has made me insanely glad that I live where I do. Why? Because if the Yellowstone Volcano does explode? I die. Living so close makes for a great summer vacation but my survival chances are like 1 in 100gazillion million, if every single condition is absolutely 100% perfectly perfect. And even then, it's most likely that I'll live for an hour, getting to watch the massive, roiling cloud of dark death coming for me, and then I die.

Death isn't something I welcome, but I tell you what — after reading about the likely future for survivors?! I'm okay with it. The apocalyptic world that Mullin describes here in this book is freaky. And, not in the way that zombies are scary, because as much as we like to plan for 'when zombies attack' it's never actually going to happen. But this, this could definitely happen. If Yellowstone explodes, it would be absolutely devastating. We are talking thick blankets of ash coating most, if not all of the United States and worldwide weather changes from the ash in the sky. Everyone will suffer. Global chaos man. Ash coating a majority of the midwest or hanging out in the sky, obscuring the sun means that nothing will grow. No growing things means that animals will die. And, since most people don't keep much more food in the house than will last them a week, food will be scarce, people will start to scavenge, and things are gonna get nasty.

I'm glad I'm just going to go out with a bang with the volcano, because the afterlife has got to be better than this. But Mullin's main character, Alex, does an admirable job of surviving on his own. (And, he does make me regret, yet again, that I never learned karate as a kid...) Alex is left alone for a weekend, while his parents and younger sister go to visit his uncle about 2 hours away. And then — disaster. Alex is terrified, but stays for a few days with some neighbors, long enough for the insanely loud and massive rumblings of the volcano to stop. When Alex is no longer comfortable staying where he is, he decides to set out and find his family. Grabbing a pair of skis and some food and supplies, Alex walks out into the ash.

But Alex doesn't really know what he's doing. He doesn't bring enough food or water and he drinks it way too fast, drinking whole bottles at a time with his meals. But, Alex is lucky, and somehow, always manages to find what he needs right before, or right as his situation becomes dire. To be honest, it happened a few too many times to be wholly believable. When the world is in as much turmoil and panic, the likelihood of finding just exactly what you need just exactly when you need it, is slim. Like, finding an abandoned car right when you feel as if you can go no farther, even though you haven't seen any cars all day. There were a few times in the story when I thought, How convenient (mild eye-roll). But, we can't have our main characters dying on us, so I accepted the luck as necessary to the progression of the story, and honestly, the resourcefulness of the characters was a big help.

The only major complaint that I had with this story was the narrative style, but that is something that is more my problem than a problem with the writing. I find that I personally have a hard time feeling the proper urgency of a story when the main character already knows how the tale ends. I don't know what the proper name for this tense it, but it's first person, past tense? or something like that. But there are comments like, if 'I knew then what I know now', or 'I didn't know at the time, but found out later'. I hope that makes sense... For me, the story loses a bit of its urgency when I know the main character already knows how the story will end. It's not a conscious thing initially but it's been there in every story I've read that uses this style of writing. There's nothing wrong with it, I just don't connect to it as well as I do to some other styles.

This is a book about a journey, and it's a hard one. Alex struggles to travel, struggles to find genuinely good places to find food and water or sleep and Mullin doesn't hide from that. In the beginning, after Alex sets out to find his family, he realizes that it took him 6 days of walking on the skis to travel the distance it takes 30 minutes in the car. And Alex learns hard lessons too, many of which make him grateful for what he had and rueful that he ever took it for granted. It's a struggle every day for Alex to survive, and even with the luck thing, I would never want to be in his position. He finds enough to sustain him, but it's not like it's easy, and there is definitely no luxury to be had.

I was also impressed with Mullin's capture of human nature. The reactions of various characters Alex meets along the way are so varied, but so believable. Some are cruel and vicious, looking to scavenge or rob anything they can. Other communities rally together to protect and preserve all they can, realizing their chances of survival are better in a team. Still others seize and take power where they can, abusing those beneath them. And even in the communities where people are working together, you have to barter and trade for items you need and they pull every grain of food from you they possibly can. When faced with death, we will do pretty much everything in our power to ensure we can stave it off as long as possible and I thought Mullin captured that perfectly.

This review is already long enough, so I'll end with that even though I'm sure I could talk for hours about Yellowstone (and the interesting vacation pictures of me in it) and what the effects of this supervolcano erupting. It would be an absolutely devastating event, the likes of which civilization has never seen. You think the natural disasters we've experienced are bad? Just you wait until that gargantuanly massive volcano hanging out underneath Wyoming decides the pressure is too much. The world will be doomed.

*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review from the author in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Price was dressed in a pair of tight jeans and an off-the-shoulder cream knitted jumper which emphasised her extremely dark tan.
Lovebirds: Price and Penna dress down for their night out in Soho. Price's boyfriend appears very protective of her
The mother-of-three had her bleached locks loose around her shoulders and added a flash of colour with bright pink nails.
Penna, 26, was wearing a grey jumper and ripped grey jeans and appeared extremely protective of Price. He held her hand tightly and ushered her into their car as they headed home at the end of the evening.
Toned down: We are more used to seeing Price in full make-up, as at her novel launch last year, left, compared with her natural look last night
It was at this point that Price turned her own camera on the paparazzi.
She picked up a camera, and after working out how to take pictures on it, wound down the window of the car and snapped a few shots of the photographers as they took pictures of her.
Snap happy: Price turns her camera on waiting paparazzi at the end of her night out with Penna
So no upcoming nuptials? Price gets to grips with the camera. She appears ring free, having sported a large sparkler on her engagement finger last week
Price had sparked rumours, albeit with a large helping of scepticism, that she and Penna were engaged when she wore a huge ring on her engagement finger at a book signing last week.
But while she was ring-free last night she kept her new tattoo, which she had completed on her most recent visit to South America, under the sleeve of her jumper.
source: dailymail

VIA Is that really you Katie? Make-up free Miss Price looks fresh faced

The 50-year-old star tried various ways of getting into the vehicle in an elegant and ladylike fashion, but ended up having to lift up her knee and swivel her way in as the dress proved too restrictive.
This way or that way? But Vorderman kept a big smile on her face throughout her predicament
However, Vorderman managed to stay smiling throughout her predicament, grinning widely for the waiting photographers before finally successfully navigating her way into the vehicle.
Earlier in the day, Vorderman tweeted fans to warn them to expect a special outfit when she appeared on This Morning to do the newspaper review with comedian Iain Lee.
She wrote: 'Warning. This Morning about 10.30 I shall be reviewing the newspapers and will be in danger of dressing my age!! '
Got the answer: Vorderman eventually decided to lift up her knee and swivel her way into the vehicle
Vorderman has become something of a sex symbol in recent years and is undoubtedly in incredible shape for a 50-year-old woman.
And she said recently she is happy with her figure and has learned to accept her womanly curves.
Stunning: The white dress flattered Vorderman's hourglass figure
She explained: 'When you’re in your 20s and 30s you often think “I don’t like this bit, I don’t like that bit, I wish I could shave a few inches off here”.
‘But when you’re older you’re just blooming grateful for what you’ve got! For instance, I’ve learned that women spend lots of time worrying about cellulite but men just don’t see it, particularly as they get older themselves and their eyesight goes too!
'At this age you don’t beat yourself up any more - what’s the point? I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m really happy and that’s all that counts.'
source: dailymail

VIA What a conundrum! Carol Vorderman can't figure out

This is my first edition of a post I hope will go on for quite awhile, and one that all of you might be able to get something out of. When I first started this blog I was kind of pulling away from something that I really, really love. The essay. This summer I have taken a strong return back to my old favorite and now I'm hoping to talk about one essay I love every week. To start us off I decided to go with First by Ryan Van Meter which originally appeared in the Gettysburg Review, but I read it in The Best American Essays 2009. If the anthology is any actual gage of the best American essays published in 2009 then I would argue that this is actually the best essay, because I've returned to it about six times in two weeks and every time I grow to love it more. It's the only essay from the anthology that has left such a huge mark on me. And I didn't even know this until exactly this moment, but apparently he teaches at the University of Iowa (my school!). I honestly didn't know this, I don't want you all to think I'm biased or something.

This essay is the story of a five-year-old boy's thoughts on love, which he gains from watching soap operas with his mother during the summer. "What I enjoyed most about soap operas was how exciting and beautiful life was. Every lady was pretty and had wonderful hair, and all the men had dark eyes and big teeth and faces as strong as bricks..." (178). He believes that love is possible and beautiful and wonderful, and he believes that he is in love with his best friend who is possibly named Ben (being that he was five at the time, it's a little difficult to recall). "What I know for certain right now is that I love him, and I need to tell him this fact before we return to our separate houses, next door to each other" (177). They are riding backwards in the back of a car, with their dads sitting in the front seat together and the moms in the back. One of my favorite observations in the essay is "that when mothers and fathers are in the car together, the dad always drives" (178).

By the end of the essay young Ryan has proposed to Ben, only to be told by his mother that this is not okay. This shatters everything he knows or thought he knew about love, and with it some of his hope is also lost. This, of course, deals with homosexuality and the acceptance of it, even within your own family. I think this essay really transcends that though. To me it's more about growing up and learning that what you think as a child may not actually be how the world works. I was just thinking about how as a child death would happen in stories, but I never gave much thought to it. Now I'm obsessed with death in children's stories and how children react to it. Beyond the message of this story, it is beautifully written. I can see everything happening with such precision, it reads like a dream. One great example is right after Ben and Ryan let go of hands and he says, "I close my fingers into a loose fist and rub my palm to feel, and keep feeling, how strange his skin has made mine" (179).

This is by far my favorite essay I've read this year and if you'd like to read it you don't even need to get The Best American Essays 2009 (in fact, I'd probably skip it since I wasn't overly impressed by the collection as a whole, more on that later). You can check out this essay at The Gettysburg Review. It's very short, just three pages printed and I obviously think it's worth a read and reread. Ryan Van Meter also has an essay collection coming out April 2011 entitled If You Knew Then What I Know Now. I wait with baited breath.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

According to an announcement of the Culture Ministry, the coins were found in the luggage of a Greek citizen travelling by car to Munich and seized by the German police.

Most of them are made of copper and date back to the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and post-Roman eras.

It should be noted that several members of an antiquities smuggling ring that was dismantled in March 2012 were involved in the case.

Source: Protothema [January 24, 2015]

A car load of white teens gets stranded in the middle of the Philadelphia ghetto after attending a concert. A few exit the car in an attempt to fix it, and they are approached by some local teens. They are fearful for their lives, and after shouting some racial expletives, they all take off running down the street. They search the neighborhood for some safe place to retreat while they wait for someone to rescue them.

They break into an old, abandoned run-down house at the end of the street. But it's not abandoned. Shortly after entering the house, they are attacked by a "mutant" man. One of the youths is killed instantly and the remaining teens fight for their lives. They quickly learn that the "man" that attacked them wasn't the only occupant of this dark, deserted home. The house is full of inhuman "creatures"at various stages of deformity.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood teens have noticed where the "outsiders" have run to. They know the reputation of this house: no one who enters has ever come out alive. They go to the house of a veteran of the neighborhood and seek his assistance. They call the police and await their response. While they wait, Perry, the veteran resident, reminisces about the neighborhood, and recalls a time when the neighbors knew and talked to one another, a time when the police responded when there was an issue. He discusses the sad state the neighborhood is in now, and then decides to take a stand. The group decides to break into the home and rescue the trapped teens.

Keene does another stellar job with this newest book. He consistently succeeds at horrifying his readers. The perseverance that each of the trapped teens exhibits is commendable. The initial stereotypes they each have eventually fades away as they attempt to survive this house of extreme horror. I recommend this to any fan of horror fiction, but due to the level of gore, I sincerely warn those with a weak stomach to avoid it!

Thank you to Dorchester Publishing for providing a copy of Urban Gothic

for review.

Climate change seems like a huge, insurmountable problem. What can one little person do about this huge monster that is taking over our planet? It's pretty easy to look at the data, think about how much you will have to give up, and decide you're just not going to do it anything about it. But that is a big mistake and simply not true. There are little things each of us can do and together they will build up to something bigger.

I became intensely aware of Bill McKibben during fall semester when I became involved in a student organization called Eco Hawk. We decided to participate in a climate awareness event called 10/10/10 on October 10, 2010. Students and environmentalists around the world participated in the event, doing different things to promote climate awareness. In Iowa City we had a bike ride to raise awareness about different modes of transportation that are carbon free. The event was organized through 350.org, which just happens to be the environmental organization Bill McKibben co-founded. Since Bill McKibben was also visiting Iowa City for a lecture I figured I better read his most recent book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

, and Aths joined me to create this new feature called Leif Reads.

There is a lot in Eaarth about climate change, but I think this section gives a good introduction to the problem we're facing. "Normally--over all but the last two hundred years of human civilization-- the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere remained stable because trees and plants and plankton sucked it up about as fast as volcanoes produced it. But now we've turned out cars and factories into junior volcanoes, and so we're not just producing carbon faster than the plant world can absorb it; we're making it so hot that the plants absorb less carbon than they used to" (23).

350.org
What does 350 mean? Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 (carbon dioxide) in our atmosphere is the safe number for the Earth. We are currently at 388 parts per million. Doesn't seem so bad, right? But for most of human history it has been 275 parts per million CO2, until about 200 years ago when we started to burn coal, gas, and oil for energy. So scientists aren't saying 350 parts per million is the ideal number, it's just a number we could possible reach that would make our planet safer.

Throughout Eaarth though, McKibben admits that he thinks we have already lost the Earth we once lived on-- and we will never get it back. Hence the name Eaarth. It's the new name of our planet, and with this new planet we have to get rid of the old rules. They simply will not work any longer.

What can you do?
One of the first steps you can do is to educate yourself. Visit 350.org and read their frequently asked questions, their mission, read anything you can find on there. Join their movement. Consider ways you can cut back on the amount of energy you use. Not every city or town is made for walking, but when you do take the car out consider making the most of it. Instead of going to one store and then going to a different on the next day try to make fewer car trips. One of the absolute best things you can do though? Write to people. Write to your local government, your state government, your transit system, your landlord. Don't be afraid to ask people questions. What kind of fuel are your local buses using? What small changes do you see that could make where you live a better place to live? Government officials are there to listen to the people in their neighborhood and you might have an idea they have never thought about. Get your friends to join and write letters with you. The more people they hear it from, the better. Why do I suggest you do this? Because to make truly powerful changes that will change the rules that fit the new Eaarth we live on better we need our government to take notice and back up our choices. If you want to make big waves, this is a great way to do it. And educate yourself. Read a book like Eaarth to learn what you can do to be part of the new Eaarth we live on.

More info!
A link to find the contact for your state representative.
Eaarth facts and figures.
What is your carbon footprint?
Green Reads podcast in which I talk about Eaarth more generally.

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Sharks and Boys by Kristen Tracy is a book I really wanted to like. It's contemporary, which I absolutely love, and it also has this wild-survivor life thing going on. I mean, a bunch of teenagers stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean while sharks swim right next to their puny little inflatable 'boat'?! It has got to be amazing, right? Sadly... Not so much.

The story follows 4 sets of twins, Enid (main character), her twin Landon; her boyfriend Wick and his (jerkish) brother, two older twins and two twins with a multi-cultured background. These 8 teens have been involved in a twin-studies program since they were young kids, so they have known each other and been pretty close for years. Enid is the only girl and while it's not really a big issue, it has started changing things.

To be perfectly honest, I thought that Tracy tried to do way to many things with this story and what I feel it ended up with is a main character who drove me insane. Enid is that super clingy, controlling, possessive, annoying and insecure girl friend that no one ever wants to be around. She constantly needs Wick to tell her she's amazing or talented, even when they've already talked about that specific subject 10 times. She needs him to always be there, right when/where she needs him and she's just... UGH! Somehow, when Wick tells her that he needs some space, she's completely blindsided. (Umm, really? You didn't see that coming?!) She immediately assumes it's because of another girl, who crushed on him before moving and gets really upset. Wick then goes with the 6 other boys in their twin studies (including her brother) for a post graduation party for the oldest set of twins (who Enid has been upset with since their parents were both killed in a car accident and they took their grief out by being mean).

So, naturally, Enid assumes that he's going to cheat on her with this other chick, so she steals her mother's car (stranding her mom) and stalks him. And, it's planned. She stole the directions out of her brother's garbage can. She sneaks onto the boat the boys are all partying on, so she's there when the huge storm wrecks it. *Surprise!!*

Do you see? Do you get why I was annoyed with her? Why I didn't want to spend time with her?! Sigh.

Not only that, but there is so much additional drama to the story. And not the good kind of drama like TNT, but more like Soap Opera drama. It's about that well thought out and well planned. There was more than one occasion where I feel like the internal dialogue must have been — Oh ya... Let's go with that plot thread! But, we didn't do anything to prep for it! Oh well. That'll be okay. They won't notice because we'll toss in another shark or something right there. Ooh! Great idea! No one will notice that this is ridiculous if there's another shark!!

I have a feeling that this review is coming across as overly harsh right now, and I feel really bad about that. There were some good points to this book as well. It really wasn't all bad. But the more time passes since I've read the book, and the more I think about it, the less favorable I feel toward it.

I did like the twin dynamics at play here. It was really interesting to watch the differences and similarities from one twin set to the others and then to break that down more into the actual twins. I also really liked Landon. A lot. He was sometimes a bit stand-offish and brusque with Enid, but it was obvious that he really cared about her, and when it came right down to it, he always had her back.

I did not, however, like Wick. At all. I don't blame him at all for wanting space from Enid. I wanted space from Enid after the first chapter. But the way that he handled things later and the way that he spoke to Enid really rubbed me the wrong way. And even though Enid really bothered me, she does have some pretty valid reasons for being a little insecure in her relationship (insert really crappy dad here) so I got it, even while it bugged me.

For good or bad, the relationships were really what drove this book. The plot was just such a convoluted mess that I had no idea what to focus on. And that's not even including the bit about the sharks! I was expecting that. But there was just so much random, seemingly unconnected information and so much drama that didn't move the story anywhere or help the character development that it got overwhelming. Also, I felt like one of things that should have been the most emotional parts of the story was a complete cop-out. And, if you've read the book, I have a feeling you know which part I'm talking about.

Honestly, there are more things about this novel that bothered me. The way certain characters handled personal situations and decisions, the way the author represented certain facts about and characteristics/beliefs of the characters and so on. But, I honestly don't want to just tear the book down. It really wasn't that bad. It just definitely wasn't the book for me.

Would I ever read this book again? Highly unlikely. Would I ever give Tracy another chance? Most likely. Would I recommend this book to others? Possibly, but not without some strong reservations.

If the idea intrigues you, give the book a chance. And then, please! Come back and tell me what you thought. I'd love to be able to chat with someone about their thoughts on the book!

*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this through a Teen Book Scene Tour.

Over the summer I purchased a Nook and promised I would write a review about it, but it's taken me until now to really figure out what I like and don't like about it. I'll just start this off by telling you all that I don't regret buying my Nook at all. I think most people know about the main features of the Nook. Mine isn't the touch screen, it's the original digital ink version. I really like the digital ink except for when you turn the page the screen turns black while the letters rearrange themselves. It's a minor thing, but I do find it annoying after long periods of time. Instead of talking about the features of the Nook, which you can find out for yourself on Barnes and Noble's website, I'm going to talk about how I use my Nook and why I'm glad I have an ereader.

I bought my Nook to read books I wouldn't necessarily want print copies of-- and since I'm pretty cheap when it comes to ebooks that is mostly what I've used it for. I refuse to pay price of a physical book for an ebook. I would rather have the actual book in my hands than have a digital version of it. Maybe I'll change my mind over time, but for now that is how I feel about it. Since I mostly buy copies of books I wouldn't necessarily want a physical version of my Nook has a lot of YA books, romance novels, and galleys. One of the ways I use my Nook is to read while I'm working out. I set it on the elliptical machine and all I have to do is push a button when I want to turn the page. It doesn't interfere with my exercise at all, and it's just one extra way I can zone out. Right now I'm reading Ninth Key (The Mediator, Book 2)

, which is a bit of a mystery, and I find myself wanting to work-out longer to read what happens next. By reading a book while exercising I can finish an extra book every couple weeks.

Reading in the car has always made me carsick, but for some reason reading on my Nook does not. I think it's because it's easier for me to control the movement of the book in my hands, whereas when I read a physical copy my arms jump around so much it's hard for me to focus on the words in the book. Reading in the car is the first thing that got me really excited about having a Nook because I've always wanted to be able to do it.

My favorite Nook story is from last semester. I decided I wanted to write a paper about The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

and I needed the book in a few days. None of my local bookstores had it so my only option was to order the book online, which would take at least a few days to get at my house and put my paper writing off. I decided to buy the ebook version of it and had it in just a few minutes. I was able to finish the book in two days and got my paper finished on the day it would have arrived had I ordered it. If you need a book quickly, an ereader is a really convenient, fast way to get it.

I thought I would use my Nook a lot more than I have, but the truth is that I'm still extremely attached to physical books. I'll take a physical book over an ebook any day, but like I said earlier, there are books where having the ebook makes more sense for me. I do think I am able to read more books because of the ereader because I can read in places I wouldn't have read in before (like the gym) and I'm able to read books I wouldn't have otherwise read in public (like romance novels in my parents' house). An ereader is not an either or decision, you can have physical books and ebooks, and you can pick and choose how you want to read certain books. I personally like the Nook a lot, but it's really my only ereader experience so I can't compare it to other ereaders very well.

Do you have an ereader? Which one do you have? What do you like about it?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I would classify myself as a walker. I love walking long distances, five miles are so, just to see that I can walk that far. Sometimes in the blazing heat I ask myself why I do it, and I want to return home, but I press on. Walking is the perfect way for me to escape from the world and the people who are around me, and it makes me a happier person. I love listening to music when I walk, and I frequently listen to book podcasts, but I had never listened to an audiobook until this summer. I really had no interest in them either, but I knew that my new job (the one I just started this week) was very iPod friendly and I figured I might as well try to get some reading done while I'm at work! So I got my first audiobook to try out, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. I listened to it mostly while I was walking, although sometimes while I was driving, and I actually really enjoyed the whole experience. I'll review the book at a later date, for now I just want to talk about audiobooks for those who love them and for those who are unsure if they want to try them out.

I decided to go with the Bill Bryson book because he narrates it himself. This was attractive to me because I love going to readings to hear authors read their work. It was a really good fit and I'm glad I started out with an author narration. Eventually perhaps I'll move on to a different narrator. One of the main reasons I've stayed away from audiobooks until this point is that I really dislike being read to. I find it extremely hard to follow and feel like I lose a lot of information. When I came away from Bill Bryson's book I didn't feel that way at all, but perhaps that is because it's all about Des Moines, Iowa, which is where I am from so I was very interested in it. I like to think that's not the only reason though. It seems like what I really dislike is being read to badly, because then it's easy to drift off and think about something else. An engaging narrator can hold my interest and make the audiobook feel more like a friend telling me a story at lunch than like a person reading to me.

The place I actually most enjoyed listening to the audiobook was in the car, which surprised me. When I'm walking I have a tendency to think about anything that is bothering me and it's a more reflective practice than driving. In the car I really have nothing to focus on but the road so it's easier for me to lose myself in an audiobook. I think this will be the case with my job as well, because it's a lot of repetitive tasks and I think I might really enjoy listening to an audiobook for awhile to get me away from how mundane everything I'm doing is.

Do you listen to audiobooks? Why or why not? What do you like about them or dislike about them? Where do you listen to them?

I think this might be the first time I've ever really and truly 'gotten my rant on' about a topic here on the blog. What's my topic? The current usage of OCD in YA Literature. So brace yourselves, because Ashley is about to get very angry.

(This is a big enough topic, and one that I've been thinking about long enough that I've actually decided to write two posts on this one — one here on Danya's blog, and then a longer, more detailed (and rantish) post here on my own blog.)

There is something that's been popping up in a lot of YA books recently that's really been getting on my nerves. I've wanted to write a post about it for a long time, and I decided that Danya's Psychtember was as good an excuse as I was ever going to get. I'm going to warn you right now (and again later, cuz I'm like that) that this is a very long, very angry rant post. All of my anger and frustration at what I perceive to be the usage and misrepresentation of OCD in YA literature has been laid out for you to see. If you want the condensed version (wimp: P) you can in my blog to visit Danya's blog where you'll be able to read my shorter post.

I don't know how many books need to be written for something to actually qualify as a 'trend' but I've been noticing something in YA lately that has me more than a little concerned. And that's the use of OCD. OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is a serious and debilitating mental illness. It can manifest itself in innumerable ways, and with varying levels of intensity or severity. I'm a little bit concerned that lately it's been made light of in YA literature.

What do I mean by this? Let me first explain what an OCD really is. A lot of people joke about having an OCD because they like to keep their desk organized, or have a specific order to the way they clean their room. But most people who are going to joke about an OCD not only do not have one, but they have no real understanding of what it is to live with an OCD either. An OCD is debilitating, it's severe and it's not something you can ignore when it's convenient. To be diagnosed with an OCD, you must have obsessions, which are persistent, irrational thoughts you can't control, that even though you recognize them as being irrational or inappropriate, you can't make them go away, can't talk yourself out of them, as well as compulsions, which are actions you use to overcome the obsessions. But even more than that, to be considered a diagnosable OCD, it must also be disruptive to your life. That means that an OCD isn't a minor annoyance or inconvenience. To have a legitimate OCD, it must be severe.

An OCD can manifest itself in hundreds or thousands of ways. The compulsions are what most people focus on our talk about in relation to OCD. The compulsions are things like washing hands, checking every door and window in the house 3 times before bed in a specific order, tapping the outside of a door twice before you can open it etc. and they are not something that can be avoided, forgotten or skipped. It's not like, Oh, I'm tired today, guess I'll just do it next time. It is something that must be done to control the obsessive thoughts. OCD is an anxiety disorder. And the anxiety a person would feel if they tried to forcibly pass on an OCD ritual?! Ain't gonna happen... If for some reason they did manage to fall asleep before completing their compulsive rituals, they would wake up, and not a pleasant waking up either, but one filled with stress and anxiety. But it's important that we not forget about the obsessions. Obsessions are thoughts that are irrational, and uncontrollable. These obsessive thoughts are what lead you to your compulsive actions. So, you might obsess over a feeling of being dirty, that for some reason you are dirty inside and out and these thoughts give you so much anxiety that to lessen the stress of these thoughts, you wash your hands. But it's a temporary relief, and the next time the thought comes, you wash again and again and again. It's not being paranoid that you left your car unlocked, so you go back to check. It's this thought that if you don't go back and check the car again, something unimaginably bad is going to happen. So you check again, even though you know you locked it before. And the obsessive thought isn't always logical, it doesn't always lead to a natural compulsion either. It might be that you believe that if you don't wash your hands every 30 minutes, someone will die. So, you know that this isn't true. You know no one is going to live or die because you washed your hands. But you have to wash your hands anyway. You have to.

So here's the thing that really gets me angry — OCD is a serious, debilitating, destructive and emotionally (and sometimes physically) exhausting disorder. But it's not always treated as such. People make light of it all the time, discussing it, laughing about it as if OCD is no big deal, just some minor annoyance. And a lot of the books I've read lately with OCD characters perpetuates this. These books are furthering the ignorance surrounding OCD. Warning — This next section is very possibly going to come across as very harsh & snarky & angry, but this is a rant, so deal...

I feel like some of these authors heads must have sat down and gone through a combination of the following ideas-
Hmm... My hero is super perfect. Like, he's gorgeous, rich, super nice, everyone loves him when they talk to him, etc... But, no one wants to read about a completely flawless boy... We get too much flack for that. Ooh!! I KNOW! I'll give him an OCD!! Then he's a perfectly flawed hero & I can still let him be perfect! Because an OCD is a flaw!! *fist pump

OR

I want this dude (or dudette) to have some kind of mental illness. But what to do? What to do?... It can't be something like schizophrenia, because everyone knows that's untreatable and like, serious and stuff... Depression is so last publishing season, everyone's been using that one and I don't want some sad chick. Hmm... Lets google this... Oooh, this looks promising! I'll give them an OCD!! PERFECT! They can be 'troubled' and struggle, but still have a mostly normal life. I love it. Aren't I so brilliant. *pats on back*

OR

Just add OCD & stir — Instant Character Depth!

Now, I'm actually pretty sure that none of these authors have ever actually sat down and thought this. (and I hope that I never find out if they have). But that doesn't change the fact that it seriously upsets me when I read these characters in a YA novel who have been given a legitimate and serious mental disorder being made to seem as if it's just not that big of a deal. Like it's something they can brush off or use to their advantage (*whines — It's just my OCD today. It's acting up). It is not like that. OCD is something that can be managed and stabilized and, depending on the type of OCD, the severity and the stressor that induced/triggered it, sometimes, it can even be cured (although, as with any mental illness, cure is a relative term...) . But it is not something that just gets to go away because you want it to, or because it's easier today to just not deal with it. It's a mental illness. And if you have it, you have it. And let me tell you — I know someone, in real life who struggled with this. And you know what, it sucks. Like, hard core. It's not fun, it's not something to laugh about and it doesn't give "depth". It's a DISORDER.

Sigh. But, I did warn you that this post was going to be long and rantish.

And, yes — I'm deliberately not naming names or pointing fingers. I deliberately decided against using specific titles because my annoyance with the usage of OCD in YA right now has made it so that some of these books that probably do a fine job of it lose me as soon as the love interest or main character has OCD. I'm not talking about books that have chosen to write about OCD specifically. I'm talking about books that deal with a different topic altogether, and use OCD as a side plot... But this post is an angry post. So I'm leaving titles and names out of the anger. But I gotta tell you, I'm getting might tired of it.

So authors, Please stop using psychological disorders as a way to add interest to a character. If it's a legitimate and important part of who they are, they Yes! PLEASE use it. We need more books dealing with mental health in a positive and accurate way. But, if you are going to use mental health, do NOT google search it and assume you are an expert. Take more time to research, talk to therapists and licensed mental health professionals. Talk to people who have the disorder. But more than anything else, treat it with respect.

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A very warm welcome now to Ammy Belle who has a great post for us today about How to Find Pixies in New Jersey. Not sure what them means? Then read on!!

And, don't forget to check out Ammy's first guest post over at The Book Rat about Tender Morsels!

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I suppose in some way, everyone thinks of the princess in the castle or the knight in shining armour when they think of fairy tales: your mind becomes awash in the grandeur of the Disney fairy tale – the white walls of a palace, the beautiful silhouettes of the old dresses, the magic of a time that caught somewhere in the fold of history we have yet to discover.

But the real magic of fairy tales is that they can adapt – and adapt well – to pretty much anything. The reason for this, is the plain fact that fairy tales are just moral tales – they are stories you tell people to warn them about life (especially the original ones, the ones I like to call dark fairy tales). Essentially, these modern fairy tales take the original magnetism of the stories from the olden days and attempt to fit them into some modern city or town.

Lately there has been a little bit of a trend on adapting fairy tales: one such series is the Tithe series by Holly Black. In this series (I have only read the first book, but my understanding is that the first is the best example of modern times and fairy tale) we are dropped into a fairy war, where dark fairy tales meet the New Jersey shoreline. It ‘s through the realm of faerie that Black creates, the use of iron as the boundaries between human and faerie, and the manipulation of the changeling narrative from old stories, that makes Tithe a modern faerie tale.

Kaye is our heroine. She’s a blonde haired, green eyed girl with almond shaped eyes and is pretty small for her age. She lives a nomadic lifestyle with her Mom, who sings for a series of bands. Her father isn’t in the picture, but when her mother’s boyfriend attempts to stab her, they pick up and move back to their home in New Jersey – to live with Kaye’s older, stricter grandmother, in her home near the seashore and the woods, where Kaye had imaginary friends growing up. The imaginary friends, are of course, faeries of different types, and they “play” along a little creek near her house. Little does Kaye know, they have been fighting a strange war for her whole life.

Tithe is a real faerie story – in the sense that, it has faeries. Like Tir Na Nog. In fact, very much like that: in the original faerie stories, faeries were not like Tinker Bell – they were actually untrustworthy. They guarded their own possessions jealously, and killed anyone who came at them from any which way. Faeries are manipulative and care very little for humans – and sometimes they are beautiful, but often they are gnarled and misshapen creatures that have a very scary sense of humour.

Black doesn’t hold back – she makes her story gritty and realistic, with a caffeine-addicted, chain smoking, strong willed protagonist, and her dismal nomadic background. Her friends are few and far between, and filled with jealousies. Her life is dangerous, but she doesn’t realize it, and coming back to New Jersey makes it that much worse: there in the industrial dotted river side, there lives a kelpie – a sea horse that collects young drowned girls. Black entwines the old with the new – mixing the harsh and lonely world of the kelpie, with the paint chipped world of the New Jersey boardwalk. It’s an amazing comparison, and the best example of it is when the kelpie and Kaye strike a bargain: for his boon, he requests the dilapidated old carousel horse to keep him company in the deep. This juxtaposition of old and new, on top of the contrasted faerie and human world, creates a blanket of intrigue that almost shows a compassionate side of Kaye’s world.

Such is the case with iron in Tithe: the faeries are cruel and out for themselves, their desires – whether they are actually good or bad – come before anything else – but they are nature, they represent a basic form of nature, that can be cruel and yet very vulnerable. This tension works within the New Jersey city limits – or at least, the New Jersey that Black paints for us – this urban wasteland where the shoreline is wasting away, and nature seems on the verge of making a comeback, as the water and grasses start taking over the boardwalk. Iron represents this hardline though, the thing that faeries cannot survive – they can be wild and dangerous – but put them in a car, and they’re toast.

I think that iron is an interesting choice for this. In an age where we see digital media and electricity and such as such big themes (see Steampunk), I think a return to iron is both interesting... and it makes sense – I mean, what do we have that isn’t made of iron? The whole human world seems to be a death trap for faeries, and in turn, the faeries are harsh and cruel – and they have weapons. Instead of guns, they have swords, but it works in the totality – the adaptation to the New Jersey shoreline works with the iron, the totality of the dangers for each world is balanced so well, it is almost as if New Jersey itself is a magical place.

Finally, there is the changeling aspect of the story: the changeling narrative is an old faerie tale, where faeries will steal into a nursery and switch a newborn baby with an old, dying – but veiled – faerie. There actually is no real reason, I think... or at least I have never found a common theme for all of it – though each story has its own unique spin. Tithe gives its faeries a reason for the changeling, but it changes the rules – the changeling doesn’t die, instead, the changeling becomes the story. The main viewpoint is through the lens of someone who does not quite belong and at the same time, is pivotal to everything that happens. The reason this works for the modern fairy tale, is the fact that it basically reminds us all of our awkward teenage years when we were confused about how the world fit together, but deep down inside, we knew we were special.

In the end, this is what why the modern fairy tale works – it pulls out the comparisons between the old and the new, and draws a line between these worlds... and then allows the characters to hop scotch between the lines, in order to draw the reader in. It works because we want the magic, and we recognize the setting – much like a dystopian, where the parameters of what we understand become hazy and fluxuate so that we can imagine ourselves in different situations.

Tithe was a great read, and I cannot wait for the next two instalments – not only because of weird way New Jersey becomes more magical, but also because the main love interest, Roiben – he’s awe-inspiring.

Anyways, that is my take on modern fairy tales and Tithe – go check it out, and keep reading those fairy tales – they can adapt to pretty much anything – can’t wait to see a cyberpunk fairy tale set in the future...