13 books read in a month that included the tail end of winter break and two snow days. Will my reading fall off tremendously with the coming of the new job? Stay tuned.
Picture Books: Supertruck
Middle Grade: The Thing About Jellyfish
Young Adult: First and Then
Young Nonfiction: Sex is a Funny World
Grownup Nonfiction: Not Funny, Ha Ha
Supertruck
Stephen Savage
Read for Librarian book group.
Who was that truck? It was Supertruck!
The Thing About Jellyfish
Ali Benjamin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Really enjoyable story about getting over a friend’s death when you are in middle school and have even fewer skills than the average middle schooler. Not quite as moving as Rain Reign, but close.
I enjoyed it despite the fact that I read it through Multnomah County Library’s 3M app on my tablet, due to too many holds on the book copies. The app gave me HUGE TEXT that I couldn’t figure out how shrink. I shall have to ask an MCL employee for assistance.
Adventures with Waffles
Maria Parr
Read for Librarian Book Group.
Trille’s best friend Lena is a Norweigen offshoot of Pippi Longstocking and the two have many fun advetures in this episodic book.
Doing It
Melvin Burgess
I found it odd that the chapters jumped from first person to third person with no consistent rhythm. Sometimes the switch would come mid-chapter. Maybe if there had only been one person’s point of view, this would have worked, but with three characters–plus some other people weighing in now and then–I kept being jolted.
This feels like a fairly realistic book about what it is to be male and adolescent, which I ultimately found depressing because, dude, adolescent guys can be uber creeps. There was a long section where one main character liked a girl, but didn’t want to say he did because she was fat.
I guess there’s such a thing as being too realistic. Also, I totally felt for Ben, the kid trapped in a (n illeagal) relationship with his teacher.
The Promise of Amazing
Robin Constantine
Um. What was this book about? (It’s been a week.)
Ah yes. This was engaging when I was reading it. I enjoy a good story of a middle-of-the-road person. I liked the bad boy/good girl dynamic.
Apparently, though, it was fairly forgettable.
The Last Little Blue Envelope
Maureen Johnson
One of the things I think YA gets wrong is the feeling of completion when a couple gets together. They have found each other! They will love each other forever! Whereas in real life, we don’t tend to stay with the people we fall in love with in high school.
Maureen Johnson takes Ginny back to Europe, back to that guy she likes. But all is not the same. And there’s this problem with this other guy, who has all her envelopes.
Truly, Madly, Famously
Rebecca Serle
Let’s get the Portland details out of the way first. For most of the book I was thinking, “Thank god, the main character hasn’t been back to Portland, so there are no Portland details to get wrong.” But then, on 227, one teenager says to another: “We were going to do Nob Hill.”
And yes, I know what she’s talking about. But no Portlander talks about Nob Hill, we would say “Twenty-third Avenue.” Then, on the next page, “You have a protest in the Pearl in forty-five minutes…that community garden is not going to save itself.”
The protest in the Pearl wouldn’t be about a community garden! It would be about affordable housing! Seriously! Ms. Serle. Send me your drafts and I will fix these things for you. Or stop being so Portland specific if you aren’t going to get the details right.
Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, oh my god I loved this book. It’s not a Great Book, but it does what it does so well. Love triangle! Super awesome! I get grumpy in YA books when characters who would in real life be having sex, totally don’t. But there is no sex in this book and it seems totally reasonable. The kissing scenes are hot, the character arcs work and all is good.
I was thinking that there would be three books, one for each movie, but this book was feeling very finished with this book. So maybe we are done? [brief internet research interlude] Ah-ha! Goodeads has an untitled #3 book in its list. In the meantime, I’ll check out the author’s other titles.
First & Then
Emma Mills
I loved this book so much. There were weird characters, but they seemed like any normal weird character you might encounter in high school. I loved that Devon, the female lead, has a crush on her best (male) friend Cas and doesn’t know what to do with that. I love that she’s got this cousin living with her, and she’s having trouble not being an only child.
Devon loves Jane Austin and there are many Jane references sprinkled hither and yon. Probably more than I caught, because I mostly experience Ms. Austin through celluloid, not print.
Devon also has a friend Jordan, and I loved their friendship, which was that of opposite-sex peers who really like each other. In another universe, they’d probably be a scorching couple.* But in this one, they are admiring friends. I think this kind of relationship happens a lot in high school, but I don’t often see it in books set in high school.
Also, this book is funny, sometimes snortingly, sometimes in a way that makes you sound kind of crazy, because your laughter is echoing through an empty house.
This is my first favorite book of 2016
*Two points for anyone who caught the Cameron Crowe reference.
When you were mine
Rebecca Serle
Here’s the Romeo & Juliet story, but from the point of view of Rosalind. This was one of those books where I could tell who the ultimate hero was the minute he stepped on the page. I found the present-day setting okay, but the distribution of names odd. Rosalind, Rosalind, and Juliet was Juliet. But then Romeo was Rob? Overall, engaging story about wealthy teenagers.
A School for Brides
Patrice Kindl
I totally made fun of this for the tagline, but luckily my friendly librarian steered me toward this title. I read most of it while constantly referring to the list of characters in the front–there are a ton. This was an enjoyable frolic.
The Porcupine of Truth
Bill Konigsberg
Read for Librarian book group.
Let’s get my quibble out of the way from the get-go. Very near the end, there’s a scene in a dog park where a dog is in not the best situation. The dog exists briefly, and to make a larger point in the story, but as the poor creature walked off the page, I found myself worrying about him, probably to the point where I will think of this book as “that one with the poor dog.” I recognize this is not fair, but it was my reaction.
Poor dog aside, I really liked this story of a boy stuck in Billings for the summer with his estranged dying father. It’s a story of friendship and discovery and choices people make and choices that are made for them. It’s got a fabulous secondary character, too. Nicely done, Mr. Konigsberg. That makes two in a row.
Sex is a funny word
Silverberg/Smyth
Read for Librarian Book Group.
Learn about sex in comic book form. I loved the use of four different characters to explain things. I also really liked the careful choice of words. It is explained that some people have breasts, not that women have breasts. A nice intro of many things, without any identity baggage.
Not Funny Ha-Ha
Leah Hayes
A graphic novel about what happens when a woman has an abortion. It covers both surgical and prescription. To tell us the story it follows two different women who have chosen to end their pregnancies. It talks about the procedures, but also discusses the feelings, physical and mental, that might be encountered.
Very well done and fills a niche that has more-or-less gone unfilled. (Though if you know of any similar titles, do tell.)
