Hi, Again & April Reading Wrap-Up

Long time, no post, am I right?

Turns out moving across the country, hunting for a decent apartment, and applying for jobs can really take a toll on the blogging.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But, now I’m back and ready to rumble.

April is over. May is here. And I now get one whole glorious year without having to see that Justin Timberlake  “It’s gonna be May” meme everywhere I turn. PRAISE.

As for reading, April was a good month. Here’s what I managed to finish:

Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon  

 

I had never heard of Gabaldon’s Outlander series, but heaven bless the Tumblr user who strayed from their theme and posted a gif of Sam Heughan on my feed.

One look at that man and you best believe I signed up for a free trial week of Starz real fast. After finishing the series shamefully quickly, I bought the first two novels. Overall, I really enjoyed them, and despite the frightfully high page count, finished them quickly. I’ll definitely be reading Voyager before the next season premieres in September.

 

Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh

I’m not normally one for supernatural ocean creatures, but I received this book in a giveaway by the publisher, and the beautiful cover kept calling to me.  Set in the mystical Ile of Man in 1913, the novel follows Bridey Corkill — a young fisherman’s daughter with a paralyzing fear of the sea — as she tries to uncover who or what is behind a string of disappearances in their small village.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book. It had one of the most serious cases of insta-love I’ve ever read, the time period felt all but forgotten, and I found myself skimming the last half.

 

 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

 Without a doubt one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year, Angie Thomas’s debut novel was everything it was described to be.  THUG follows 16-year-old Starr Carter, a young black woman who must deal with the aftermath of witnessing the shooting of her childhood best friend by a police officer. This Black Lives Matter story should be read by everyone.

Just go read it, please and thank you. 

 

 

The Smell of Other Peoples Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

This was recommended to me by a friend, and the second I saw the gorgeous cover I knew I had to read it.

I mean, did you see it?

Following the eventually interconnected lives of four struggling teens in 1970’s Alaska, Hitchcock’s debut novel was, while slightly muddled, absolutely beautiful. Her own voice is so atmospheric and beautiful that it makes up for the fact that the four different narrators all sound more or less the same. There’s a whole lotta plot stuffed into a fairly thin book, but the novel serves all the stories well just the same. Overall, I really enjoyed this one.

And again, that cover though.

TTT: Favorite Literary Names

 I’m jumping on the Top Ten Tuesday train this week and taking cues from The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s list: Top Ten Character Names for a Kid/Pet/Car,Etc.

Comic Curiosity II: Paper Girls

 

Paper Girls, Vol.1 

Image Comics
March 2016
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Colorist: Matt Wilson
Lettering: Jared K. Fletcher

 

In keeping with the rest of the world, I’m still reeling from the 48-hour trip that was binge watching Stranger Things. That synth-pop lovin’ Goonies meets Lost Boys meets ET masterpiece was MADE for me. When someone mentioned that Paper Girls was basically the comic book/female cast version of the show, I all but sprinted to buy it.

Just the cover had me completely won over. I MEAN, CAN YOU SEE IT?

Paper Girls follows four newspaper delivery girls through the pre-dawn streets of Cleveland, OH.  Banding together, these ladies are ready to face whatever comes their way, whether it be bill-evading customers, uninvited male advances, or invading supernatural predators.

What I Loved

The Artwork. I’ll talk about the coloring first, as that was what initially drew me in and carried me through the entire volume. The way Wilson utilizes color is beautiful and spot-on. Many spreads and panels are almost ombre-like in their tonal shifts, utilizing a dusty, muted variation of stereotypical 80’s neons.  This was, without a doubt, the most aesthetically pleasing comic I’ve read so far.

Chiang’s drawing was also a major winner here. The characters look like actual adolescent girls (a refreshing change of pace), and the clothing is spot-on, a perfect match for the time period while avoiding cliched trends like leg warmers and side-ponies.

I read recently that late to the game comic readers like myself have a hard time shifting from text-only reading to simultaneous text/image reading – skipping from word bubble to word bubble and ignoring the images in between. I’ve definitely felt this in my reading so far, but I think the artwork and color in Paper Girls helped me bridge that gap. I couldn’t help but pay attention.

I genuinely wanted to cut out entire spreads of this to hang on my wall. I’m assuming that this is frowned upon in the community – akin to highlighting, writing in margins, or dog-earing pages of books (All of which I do. What are you going to do about it? AB-SO-LUTE-LY. NOTHING).

What I Not So Loved

Pacing and Character Development. The four titular characters were each so uniquely different; it’s unfortunate that they seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Paper Girls got a bit bogged down by a constant influx of new characters (human and non-) and I often wished it would slow down a bit. I would have happily read page after page of the girls going around on their bicycles, smoking cigarettes, and putting down school bullies – providing some much-needed character development. This, however, wasn’t the case, and the story quickly moved onto a (still not quite fully realized) supernatural invasion (it’s a wild one).

I’m going to make a major (and much too early) generalization and say that this kind of fast-paced storytelling is just part of the medium, and I’m just not used to it quite yet.

 

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In the end, I finished Paper Girls the same way I finished Stranger Things – pretty confused. Whatever supernatural being reeking havoc on Cleveland is yet to be fully understood by the end of Vol. 1. If that suspense doesn’t get readers itching to read Vol. 2, then the cliffhanger in the final panel will.

Vol. 2 of Paper Girls will be available November 30, 2016 (but you can buy the single issues now if that cliffhanger is just too much to bear).

 

 

Review: A Torch Against the Night

 

A Torch Against the Night
Sabaa Tahir
Published by Razorbill
30 August 2016

Find the GoodReads summary here.

It’s safe to say that the second installment to Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series was one of the most anticipated YAs of the season – and for good reason. A Torch Against the Night was, in short, a beautifully written page-turner (with a swoon-worthy protagonist to boot).

Torch takes place right where Ember left off – with two victims of the totalitarian Sparta-inspired Empire, running for their lives. Laia, an oppressed scholar turned Resistance spy, and Elias, one of the best (albeit unwilling) soldiers the Martial Empire has trained. Laia, with help from Elias, continues her fight to save her older brother, who holds the key to the Scholar’s fate in the Empire, from Kauf, its most dangerous prison. But Torch isn’t just an adventure story; otherworldly creatures and deep mythologies take it into a realm of high-fantasy that I didn’t quite see coming, but enjoyed nonetheless.

What I Loved

Character Development and Pacing. I’ve found a few reviews that fault Tahir’s protagonist, Laia, for what they consider unbelievably quick character development. It’s true – Laia had to develop quickly. After watching her grandparents/guardians brutally murdered at the hands of the totalitarian Empire and her brother taken away for interrogation (as good as death), Laia has to get really brave really fast. After a bit of waffling in the Ember, Laia is steadfast in her decisions and capabilities – and I was all over that. I was happy, ecstatic even,  that I didn’t have to wait until the final pages for Laia to understand her worth and strength. YAAASS, GIRL.

On a similar note, the characters in Torch are honest with each other, and I have never been more appreciative. One of my absolute least favorite thing in YA (that, unfortunately, seems to also be one of the most pervasive things), is protagonists’ unwillingness to share facts or feelings that would make their lives 300% more enjoyable/easier. Both Laia and Elias could have easily kept major information private, torturing themselves even further in the process. Honestly, it was refreshing for two mature protagonists to simply be honest with each other from, more or less, the beginning of the novel.

Narrators. I have to admit that when I realized Torch was going to be told from three different perspectives, I groaned. Loudly. And thrashed around a little for good measure.  I’m starting to tire from what I see as a relatively new trend in YA to utilize an extensive number of first-person narrators. Not only is it extremely difficult to capture that many different voices in one novel, but it disjoints the story, magnifies the number of characters a reader has to keep track of, and often encourages unnecessary or waffling storylines.

Despite my reservations, Tahir handled the varying perspectives wonderfully. Most importantly, I felt that the three separate POVs were necessary to the narrative and overall made for a richer storyline and more complex and sympathetic characters.

Villains. All I will say to this point is MAN, can Tahir write some villains.

What I Not So Loved

Lack of Worldbuilding. I see this as actually a carry-over from Ember, which for me, simply didn’t lay sufficient groundwork for a full understanding of the Empire. It caused a lot of confusion as I read Torch and lead me to really struggle with fully picturing and comprehending the construction of the world. That being said, it  wasn’t enough to keep me from loving and recommending this novel.

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Overall, Tahir wraps up Torch much more mercifully than Ember (which might of well have just ended mid-sentence), while still leaving readers with plenty of questions and hopes for the third installment. The third novel of the series is set to come out sometime in 2018.

 

 

Back to (Blogging) Business

With the ink on my thesis finally dry, I am (unofficially) done with my master’s degree. Barring that my readers don’t LOL at my submitted draft and toss it in the nearest trashcan, I’ll soon be the proud owner of a new diploma.

 

 

After a few more spins around the EU with friends, I’ve made the harrowing 4,000-mile trek back to the USA. I’m at home, applying for jobs, and making extravagant plans for this blog (READ: UNEMPLOYED).

I’m really excited for everything I have planned, including a regular posting schedule, a few blog series, and a total focus on children’s and YA literature.

 

Upcoming Series

I was a bit disappointed when, during an entire term dedicated to visual literacy, we didn’t get to really critically discuss comic books or graphic novels. The majority of our reading for the term focused on picturebooks and digital apps. This left me really wanting to spend some time getting acquainted with a medium that I have very little experience with. So, I’ll be chronicling my entry to the world of comic books. I’m sure I’ll misuse the word “panel” and “gutter” approximately 267 times. Won’t that be fun?

I’m looking forward to sharing how very little I know with you!

 

My other series of posts will really just be an accountability-holder for myself. Like many, I have an embarrassing amount of books that have been on my shelves for far too long, and I’m finally forcing myself to finish them. Also, I have been in graduate school in the UK for the last year and somehow came back home with about -2 dollars to my name (don’t question it – that’s just how the British Pound works). Longtime TBRs and my trusty library card are going to be my best friends.

First Up: Rick Yancey’s The Fifth Wave series 

 

 

 

Beach Week Reading Review

Summer never officially starts until my family and I load up the car with Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion and head south for our annual beach vacation. It’s always one of the best weeks of the year and I’ll be darn if 4000 miles and some jet lag are going to stand between me and this:

I usually can make it through a book a day when we’re beachin’ it up, but this year was a bit different since I couldn’t afford to stop working on thesis. I was rocking something a little different than my typical YA and Nicholas Sparks, so I just have one to review.

But don’t you worry, I am studying children’s literature after all – so I got to read some YA, just with a bit of a more critical eye than the beach usually calls for.

 

My main text for thesis is Veronica Roth’s Divergent series so I mostly finished those up on the plane ride over. It’s truly amazing what you can get done on a 9hour flight with no wi-fi. I thought for a millisecond about always working without an internet connection, but don’t worry, I got over that real fast – it was just the cabin pressure talking.

I’ll spare you a review of Roth’s series, as anyone who has any desire to read the books by now probably already has (or has at least seen the movie). Also, I’m currently elbow deep in theory about this book, so I’m going to leave it for the thesis writing.

Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

“Amy Curry is not looking forward to her summer. Her mother decided to move across the country and now it’s Amy’s responsibility to get their car from California to Connecticut. The only problem is, since her father died in a car accident, she isn’t ready to get behind the wheel. Enter Roger. An old family friend, he also has to make the cross-country trip – and has plenty of baggage of his own. The road home may be unfamiliar – especially with their friendship venturing into uncharted territory – but together, Amy and Roger will figure out how to map their way.”

This book is just about everything you could want out of a contemporary read. The romance was believable and well-paced, the characters were likable, and the road trip was enviable. Scrapbook style photos and receipts throughout the book add a really a nice touch, and the trip itself is one I wouldn’t mind taking. I only wish I could have gotten a few more chapters at the end –  or at least an epilogue. For spoiler-y reasons.

I’ve been looking at Matson’s titles at the bookstore while browsing for years now, but have never taken the plunge to actually buy one. But after thoroughly enjoying Amy and Roger, I’ll pick up another one of hers soon.

 

Top YA Contemporary Reads

Maybe it’s the sunscreen fumes getting to my head, maybe my flip-flops are too tight and cutting off my circulation, or maybe it’s just my brain refusing to acknowledge that my dissertation is due in two short months, but there is something about the beginning of summer that makes me want to read all of the Contemporary YA.

Whatever the reason, I want fluff and I want it NOW.

As I’m doing some serious GoodReads research to choose my beach reading for our annual family trek to Florida, I thought I’d list a few of my favorite titles.

DISCLAIMER: THE BIT ABOUT SUNSCREEN AND FLIP FLOPS WAS JUST FOR HUMOR – I LIVE IN THE UK NOW. I DON’T EVEN THINK THEY SELL THAT STUFF HERE

 

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

“The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs the trellis to sit by her and changes everything.”

This is always my go to if anyone ever asks for contemporary recommendations. It has all my favorite tropes – the big, messy, and affectionate family, the beach, a kind boy who wears plaid, and a complete LACK of teenage angst. There is little to no brooding to be found here and its just refreshing. While still recognizable as teenagers, the protagonists in this novel are in one of the most mature, genuine, and healthy relationships I’ve read in YA. While searching for the cover of this book online I also realized that its sequel, The Boy Most Likely To, had been published, and you better believe I amazon-primed that right on over.

 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

“Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris–until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.”

I’m just going to  say flat out that this is pure wish fulfillment. I mean, hello – there’s a boy named Etienne AND it’s set in Paris. Perkins is a big name in the contemporary world for good reason. Her novels are sweet, well written, and she can set a scene like nobody’s business.

 

Paper Towns by John Green

“Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew..”

Thought you’d get out of here without hearing about the big man himself, did you? Well, think again!

I get it that at this point, many of us are at our quota for hearing about John Green. But there’s a reason for that – he’s a hilarious and thoughtful writer who proves with each best selling novel that books for young readers do not have to be watered down. Adolescents understand complexity and appreciate well written prose, and Green delivers.

Another reason I tend recommend this book over other Green titles is that it is genuinely the first book I ever read that had me in actual tears from laughter

 

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

“Ruby knows that the game is up. For the past few months, she’s been on her own in the yellow house, managing somehow, knowing that her mother will probably never return.

That’s how she comes to live with Cora, the sister she hasn’t seen in ten years, and Cora’s husband Jamie, whose down-to-earth demeanor makes it hard for Ruby to believe he founded the most popular networking Web site around. A luxurious house, fancy private school, a new wardrobe, the promise of college and a future; it’s a dream come true. So why is Ruby such a reluctant Cinderella, wary and defensive? And why is Nate, the genial boy next door with some secrets of his own, unable to accept the help that Ruby is just learning to give?”

I knew I had to have one Dessen book on the list, as she is somewhat of a figurehead in the world of Contemporary YA. Her books can be very heavy on the girl keeps things bottled up inside to the point of self-combustion trope, and she definitely has a formula when it comes to her novels. That said, they are enjoyable and she doesn’t skirt around issues familiar to her adolescent readers like many authors tend to do.

Of her many novels, Lock and Key seems to be the one I return turn to, but they are all a bit interchangeable so feel free to choose between one of many.

 

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

“A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
 
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.”

I came across this one specifically looking for YA addressing LGBT protagonists and themes. In the limited LGBT YA books I’ve read, many revolve around the exploration of sexuality and are very focused on the act of coming out. Those books are undeniably important, and there should be more of them, but it was nice to to find a novel about what happens after. When the story begins, Emi is comfortable in her sexuality and has had a number of relationships – her sexuality wasn’t the story, but was instead part of it.

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Children’s Literature: What we do

When I tell people what I’m studying at Cambridge, I usually get something along lines of, “Oh! So…you get to, like read Harry Potter all day?”

Now don’t get me wrong, we talk about Harry Potter. A lot. Homeboy pretty much changed the game for us. But, we do a lot of other things as well.

I thought very seriously about doing one of those “what friends/family/teachers think I do vs. what I actually do” memes, but do we really need another one of those floating around the inter-web? No. The answer is no. Please don’t make anymore of those. 

(Two months later…)

Turns out graduate school is kind of busy and a little hard, and things like blogs can be totally ignored or forgotten for weeks at a time. But, fear not! I’ve got a deadline in two days that I’m choosing to pretend doesn’t exist which means it’s BLOGGIN TIME.

Seeing as I haven’t made one post about Cambridge, I’ll start at the very beginning:

My College

The college system was completely lost on me when I started, so I’ll do a quick run down. About 30 colleges make up the whole of University of Cambridge and as a student you are simultaneously a student of both. Essentially, your college is where you live, eat, and participate in extracurriculars. When you apply to Cambridge, you must also apply and be accepted by a college. I quickly learned Hufflepuff wasn’t an option, and had no earthly idea what college to choose, so I submitted an open application and was pooled into a college by the university.

This worked out 200% in my favor and I landed in best college I could have hoped for – Newnham. It’s one of two women’s colleges at Cambridge, stunningly beautiful, historic, and known for having one of the best college libraries. So yeah. I’m into it.

 

The Power of the Porter

While before moving here I had no earthy idea what a Porter was or did, I have now decided that under no circumstances will I ever live anywhere without one.

In my future episode of House Hunters International that will be NUMBER ONE on my wishlist. Forget needing a “space to entertain,” or a finished basement. I need a 24/7 Porter’s Lodge. The Porter is the Keeper of the Keys and the Knower of All. They do things like, tell you how to get to the laundry room, help you call a taxi, make you a cup of tea and give you a pep talk when you break down crying on the phone with UPS because a mean man threatens not to deliver your luggage. You know, things like that.

A lot of things went wrong my first few days on campus, with luggage held up in customs and the fact that I didn’t have access to my housing, so I got on a first name basis with my Porter real fast.

Harry Potter

I get a lot of “It’s like you’re living in Hogwarts!” comments, and I’m not even going to lie – you’re right. I’m not even going to pretend. This place is Hogwarts.

 

Cambridge itself is such a beautiful city, and by far the biggest and most vibrant place I have ever lived. At eight weeks in, I still cannot walk through the city center without being hit by absolute wonder at being here.

 

The end of my first term is only two days away, and I cannot believe I have already been in this amazing place for eight weeks. As much as I miss home, I quickly found a home at here in Cambridge at Newnham with a group of ridiculously intelligent women who have already become close friends.

Things that are hard in Cambridge:

1. The first 10 things on my list are food related (i.e. there are no wheat thins, cheese-its, Sonic Happy Hour sodas, bbq chips, etc.). Also the kitkats are different here. This is a true hardship that has nearly made me buy the first available plane ticket back home multiple times.
2. People follow american politics like sport here, and FAR to much of my time is spent having to talk about Donald Trump. It would mean a whole lot to me if we could just get that taken care of soon so that I don’t have to listen to people make fun of our country everyday. Thanks a lot in advance.
3. I really tried to be a sport about the whole “opposite side of the road” thing, but I have to ride my bicycle everyday and it’s probably the most stressful thing I’ve ever dealt with up to this point in my life.

Day 15 – 17: Salzburg

Well readers, it was inevitable. We were getting too comfortable with our travels and, if I’m being honest, feeling pretty darn sure of ourselves and our train-catching abilities, so the backpacking gods had to take us down a peg or two. Our last day in Italy, we added one more notch in our backpacking belt, and missed our train.