I love this series. It’s probably one of my favorites, and the author Ally Carter is one of my favorite bloggers. While reading
Cross My Heart I was struck by the many similarities between it and
Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire, which is not necessarily a criticism, but…it was a little strange. There’s a Grand Hall, a beginning-of-the-year dinner (probs a common tradition in boarding schools), a mansion with secret passage ways, a withholding font of infinite wisdom (Rachel in this series, obvs Dumbledore in HP), another school that comes for an extended visit, and even a special ball! All with the Gallagher Girl twist, of course. Anyways. I have to say, I enjoyed this book a lot, because Cammie is a nice but rational yet sympathetic main character and her life is never dull, and Carter’s writing is great, but the whole Zach/Josh dichotomy reminds me a lot of the whole Jess/Dean dichotomy from
Gilmore Girls and WE ALL KNOW WHERE I FALL WITH THAT ARGUMENT. I mean, I just don’t understand the nice girl falling for the guy who is basically a jerk to her all the time. This is Ally Carter, and she’s a really thoughtful writer, so obvs Zach has some redeeming qualities, but I’m skeptical about him and Cammie as a romantic couple. It just doesn’t ring true to me. Now, the tough, flinty girl/raw angry mean bad boy thing, THAT I understand. Veronica and Logan, Blair and Chuck…gimme more! But not when the girl is good and nice and normal like Cammie. Then I just don’t understand what she sees in the guy who never says a kind word to her. Maybe that’s just me.
This book is incredibly sad. Jeannette Walls lived what was at once a fascinating and horrifying childhood, characterized mostly by poverty and hunger caused by her rather ridiculous dreamy parents. They were selfish and insecure and needy and immature and their four children, who had practically no care from the time they were toddlers, carry the scars (some literal, some figurative) of their parents’ neglect to this day. On the other hand, the Wallses had experiences almost nobody can claim, a self-sufficiency that no one can question, and a drive that no one can sully. So there’s that. Also, Jeannette Walls is a really great writer; she knows exactly how to tell her story and the book has no saggy spots, and the prose is solid and functional, like the author herself appears to be. If nothing else, this book made me grateful for the vastly different way in which I was raised, and for my mother, who lent me the book, in particular.
So I picked up this ARC at work recently and I read it quickly and while I liked it well enough, I wasn’t really blown away by it. It has a blurb from Stephenie Meyer, the author of
Twilight, who is apparently a friend of Pike’s, and while I’m not like, “I must read anything Stephenie Meyer has read” because obvs I don’t care about that, I’ve never seen a blurb from her on a book and I can’t imagine she does it very often and thus I was intrigued. There’s nothing really
wrong with
Wings, it just didn’t thrill me the way
Twilight did. I guess it wasn’t campy or over-the-top enough, or maybe I don’t like faerie stories (this is the first one I’ve read), I have no idea. Plus, nothing makes me blank out faster than when someone says the word “vegan.” Still, the book stopped long before you find out anything really concrete about the faerie world Pike has created, so I’ll probably pick up at least one sequel, to see where this train is headed.
Actually, I read most of
East of Eden in 2008, but I didn’t finish the last 100 pages until 2009, so…it’s a straddler, but I’m following the rules and counting it in the year I turned the last page. Anyway, Steinbeck considered
East of Eden his masterpiece, and even though I’ve only read one other book of his and a short story, I can pretty much guarantee that it is, even though it was
The Grapes of Wrath that won the Pulitzer. A retelling of the first stories of Genesis (Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, etc.), the book is sometimes obvious in its parallels, but nevertheless it is a beautifully written, emotionally resonant, thoughtful novel that was an actual
joy to read. Kathy Ames and Cal were my favorite characters, though, and that worries me. I also had a little “you-are-there reading” moment when I was driving through the Altamont Pass last week; it’s not Salinas, but it’s close enough, and it was really stirring.
I feel like my count is off somewhere, because while I don’t think
The Gum Thief is the last book I read in 2008, I can’t at the moment think of what book that was. Sigh. Anyway, I’m a huge Douglas Coupland fan, so I liked
The Gum Thief, but if you’d never read any of his books and I raved at you about him and you picked this one (his latest) up and read it, you’d be like, “What’s the big deal about this guy?”
The Gum Thief is not his best work by a mile. It’s entertaining and thought-provoking and well-written like all his other books, but for some reason it just didn’t get me in the same place as
Hey Nostradamus! (my personal favorite),
Microserfs, or even
Girlfriend in a Coma.
For some reason, despite the fact that I read a lot, I have a hard time keeping up with the award-winning titles, and invariably the short list for a presitigious award will be announced and I will say, “Wow, I have neither read nor heard of ANY OF THESE BOOKS.” But this year, at least I’ve read one Printz honor book! And what a great one to read.
Repossessed was incredibly engaging, hilarious and awesome with a really choice narrator, but what I liked most about it was that it managed to balance humor and good storytelling with a perspective on faith and spirituality. The main question the book asks, “How can a benevolent creator fashion a being with a certain nature and then reject it for fulfilling that nature?” It’s a rhetorical question, for the most part—Kiriel doesn’t necessarily get the answer he seeks—but it’s an interesting thing to think about.
Repossessed doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it also doesn’t shy away from engaging the tough religious questions inherent to the narrator’s experience.
“ It’s amazing how you can be a total shithead, and yet your soul still wants to hang out with you…I don’t deserve a soul, yet I still have one. I know because it hurts.
Douglas Coupland, The Gum Thief
Okay, here’s a question: why does the cover of a book about a secret society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds have a dachsund on it? I’ve never liked this cover much (too plain and boring for such a cool book), but now that I’ve noticed that I’m just annoyed.
Anyway, this book has been getting a lot of attention in the YA community; it was nominated for a National Book Award, even. It deserves the accolades. It’s really great. It’s fun and it’s smart and it has something to say and it’s empowering and it’s rebellious and it’s tenacious and it’s exciting. I didn’t exactly buy the romance, but I guess that’s all for the best anyhow, and I thought it would turn out a little differently than it did, but that’s way more realistic. I loved this book, devoured it, couldn’t put it down, which is saying a lot since I haven’t been feeling that way about books a lot recently, for whatever reason. This is exactly the sort of book I should be reading now, the sort of book I press into my sister’s hand and say, “Please, for the love of God, read this because it will mean something to you.”
