Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay

I enjoyed this book, but man, did it make me mad.

I threw a book once. I had never read a Jodi Picoult book before and haven’t since, but I threw My Sister’s Keeper across the room and threatened to drop it off a balcony. I didn’t, though. I wanted someone else to read it and share in my rage, because I guess I’m awful. That’s only a fraction of what I felt after finishing Mockingjay, but I did slam the book shut with a “fucking seriously?” once I was done. Thankfully, I was in the room with someone else who’d already read it and could commiserate.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD

Katniss, by the time of this book, is a shell-shocked, more traumatized version of herself. She is violent and broken by the things she’s seen and done. It makes complete sense for her to be that way but there were times when I just wanted her to buck up, get over it and go fight something. She’s become a symbol of the revolution going on in the districts and Mockingjay centers heavily on her ability to deal with that. The book starts in the middle of what’s going on, travels back to show how things got the way they are, then moves into the present as the action finally begins. I remember feeling like it took forever to get to a place where I cared about what was going on. It wasn’t as much of a page-turner as the previous books were and because of that, I think it was easier to be annoyed by the parts I disliked. Even though I read it in a day, it felt like a slog.

Mockingjay was heavier on politics and the media than in either of the previous books, and that just wasn’t my cup of tea either. In the end, I found it to be a bit unsatisfying, but not totally unrewarding to read. I’d heard about how this book was so bad and the ending was awful, but I didn’t find that to be true. It wasn’t a book-throwing moment for me, but I wouldn’t blame anyone that disagreed.

Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire

Second verse, same as the first!

Catching Fire takes you into Katniss’ life, a few months after the hunger games have ended. The consequences of her actions have had a ripple effect and Katniss can’t relax into her victor’s lifestyle. Unrest is brewing in the districts and it comes to a head on her “victory tour” that she’s forced to go on.

This book starts out a little slower than the last, but once the action begins again, it’s another fun and quick read. I felt like Catching Fire was less “about” anything than The Hunger Games was. It’s mostly action, adventure and even a bit of mystery. Katniss has to figure out who to trust and how to survive the precarious situations she finds herself in.

I liked Catching Fire just as much, or maybe even a little bit more as I did The Hunger Games. Since it is such a quick read, I feel like I can’t even talk about the quality of the writing. I was just trying to get through it, anxious to see what would happen next. It’s not so disposable that I wouldn’t want to read it again, though. In fact, I plan to read the whole series again once I’m done with this year’s book goal, just to see how well it holds up.

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games

What is it possible to say about The Hunger Games that hasn't already been said? Everyone knows the gist of what it's about, so I'm not going to get into that, I'm just going to tell you why you should read it.

From the beginning, it's a fast-paced, exciting read. A lot of the exposition is interspersed with the action, which keeps it moving quickly. So even if you think you're going to hate it, just read it already, so the rest of us can talk to you about it! Can you believe how crazy such-and-such death was? Don't you think that so-and-so is going to turn out to secretly be a jerk? Is (narrator) Katniss secretly a jerk? Are we going to talk about how disgusting reality TV is, or could be, or are we going to rush to the theater to watch kids battle it out to the death and thank some deity that at least it's not real? (I've heard the movie doesn't glorify the actual games, but I guess we'll see.) Is society already as gross as it is in the book?

There are deeper questions to be asked when you read The Hunger Games, for sure. What happens when the government has too much power? How do people deal with that when they benefit from those inequities versus when they're held hostage by them. These questions aren't posed directly, nor are they really answered. I also think that if you're frustrated by politics but they're on your radar, (hi, that's me!), you'll probably be more apt to start drawing parallels and getting cranky. But The Hunger Games is self contained in a way that doesn't make it seem like it's trying to tackle such big issues, it saves them for later. I definitely think that's important for a YA book, to not get too serious about the issues in a way that bashes the reader over the head. (I think Collins saved that all for Mockingjay, or else just lost all her restraint there.) It's just about a girl fighting for her life and her family's future in a really fucked up system.

Also, maybe I'm overly sentimental, but isn't it a bit of a tear-jerker?

Nicole Baart - After the Leaves Fall

There is a nasty betrayal a reader feels when discovering that a work they once enjoyed is not fact but fiction. Reading “After the Leaves Fall,” I was afflicted with such a feeling and that was my own fault. Whether I read a misleading blurb somewhere or I confused a description for this book with that of another, I can’t say. I can only remember that I thought I would be reading a heartbreaking memoir with lush descriptions, which did turn out to be half true, at least. There really were amazing descriptions of surroundings and awful feelings of grief and regret, but it did start to get old. Too much of a unique thing turned weird and gimmicky by the end.

I suppose this is where I need to add the disclaimer that this is a faith-based book (aka something I would never knowingly pick up), a work of complete fiction and that my feelings of betrayal when discovering both when about three quarters of the way through the book probably did taint my opinion, but I did try to get over my instant knee-jerk reaction as I continued reading. As a Catholic-raised agnostic, it was easy to identify with the main character, Julia DeSmit’s loss of faith, but the way the book concluded was quite unbelievable. Where faith might have provided some explanation for a reader who had any, I lack that completely and found the ending quite sappy and too easily won.

Back to the actual content of the book, the first half reads like a bunch of heartbreaking but distinctly separate short stories about the loss of both of her parents (not a spoiler, I promise). Julia looks back on her life with a clear perspective that the benefit of hindsight can provide. The sort-of-omniscience made sense at the time. When that started to carry over to the second half of the book, which switched perspectives to a more-recent-past tense, telling the story as it happened, as she enrolled in college and experienced things there, it didn’t make sense. This girl was learning who she was, faltering and fumbling along, but could describe things with such clarity that it felt like the author had stepped too far into Julia’s shoes, speaking for her instead of letting her tell the story, as she had been.

In one of the final chapters, when Julia was still telling the story, yet was also able to describe the thoughts and feelings of another character, that was the last straw for me. Even if I hadn’t been frustrated by finding out I was reading a book about faith, and a fictional one at that, the inconsistency would have irked me. I don’t mind strange narrators or even all-knowing asshole characters if the story is good, it’s the inconsistency that bothered me. I want to believe that I would have kept on enjoying the book if the writing hadn’t changed, even with the annoyance of finding out that it was fictional and was about faith and religion, but you can go ahead and take that with a grain of salt.

And it turned out that this is the beginning of a series. As much as I would like to complete the series for closure’s sake, because I am a crazy closure-needing freak, I definitely won’t. In the end, I wasn’t interested in Julia or the story she began telling halfway through the book. If you are religious and find faith-centered stories fulfilling, the story might overcome the flaws in the writing for you, but I was irritated by both and I would definitely avoid this author in the future. But the beginning was so good! Gah. It just wasn't for me.

Crystal Renn - Hungry

I loved Hungry, until I didn't. Co-written by Marjorie Ingall, a magazine contributor (at Self and the the late Sassy), the fact that some parts dragged on like the longest article ever...made sense. But let's start up with the good stuff.

As no stranger to the eating disorder memoir, I dove right in, excited for fresh details cataloging the experiences and situations that ultimately led Renn down the rabbit hole to disorder. She uses clear logic to explain how she ended up unhealthy and makes every effort to reiterate that her disordered actions were just that. The early part of the book, about her childhood and how nature and nurture both added up to ultimate destruction of her self-esteem and body as a result was told really well. You really get a sense that Renn was a girl you could have known growing up, by the way she tells her story. It's relatable and really interesting.

Where the book falters is the recovery portion. It seems as if one day, after enough frustration, she simply decided not to be sick anymore. Her weight fluctuated and she was unhappy for a while, she eventually found her "normal" weight and everything was fine. As she tells her story, after choosing plus size rather than "straight" modeling, she'll interject that she was still screwed up about weight and food, but I would've liked to hear more about that, what work she put into herself mentally and physically to get better. I want to know what battles she had to fight to get taken seriously in an industry prone to tokenism and flightiness, instead of switching between statistics about eating disorders and the awesome people she's been able to work with.

I get that Renn doesn't want to burn any bridges, should she continue to bust down the barriers to work in high fashion and work for those who had previously shunned her. I was disappointed that she wasn't able to get any more specific about her struggles, and the second half of her book was the poorer for it, but it wasn't a bad book by any means.

Renn and Ingall use a casual style, but sometimes the magazine style takes over a little too much. I could have done without the clothes-porn descriptions of Renn's wardrobe and the awesome things she's worn in photo-shoots. Ditto for the overt praise toward designers and photographers. If you're more into fashion than I am, maybe it'll be a plus, but I hardly expected to hear what any photographer is really like from a still-working model.

It's not as serious a memoir as others I've read, it's not the most dramatic book about a disorder that I've ever read either. It is, however, an interesting look at the messages that women are sent, explicitly and implicitly by the world of fashion and the attitudes of those around them, for better and for worse.

Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars

Now I can see why this series got picked up for a television show after Gossip Girl was so successful.

Pretty Little Liars was the perfect vacation read; scandalous, mysterious and funny. It's basically Gossip Girl with slightly less abhorrent male characters.

Much of this book alludes to past events when five girls, Alison, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna were best friends, in between 7th and 8th grade. After the bossy ringleader Alison disappears, the group fractures and their secrets stay kept. When Aria returns to town and the girls are entering their junior year of high school, strange texts and emails, all signed by "A," start to plague the girls.

I really enjoy that Pretty Little Liars has a bit of mystery to it and things take a darker turn than the Gossip Girl series did. If you liked those books, there's no reason why Pretty Little Liars won't go down just as easily. If you weren't into the Gossip Girl series, but you enjoy frothy scandals, give this series a try. It's definitely a quick and fun read.

Cherie Bennett - Life in the Fat Lane

Lara Ardeche, a voice in my head said to me, you are not a quitter. You can change this. And you don't need anyone's help. All you have to do is stop eating. Totally. No matter how hungry you get, or how bad that is, it can't be as bad as this is.

Yes. That was what I would do. I'd just stop eating.

One of two things would happen.

I would get thin again. Or I would die.

Either way I would win. - Life in the Fat Lane description from back of book, 1998 edition.

I love a good eating disorder (ED from here on out) story. Let's get that fact out of the way first. I find the psychology of them endlessly fascinating and one day, I hope to work with and help those that suffer from EDs.

Perhaps my more-than-casual interest in EDs colored my perception of this novel too strongly. Maybe author, Cherie Bennett, did not intend to address EDs at all, though much of the story centers around typical disordered thoughts and some characters are governed by what is usually looked at as disordered behavior, though Bennett refrains from using any specific terms (purging, binging, etc.) to refer to Lara's behavior. This story is not strictly about an ED, but it is firmly entrenched in that world. What Bennett did intend to do is a mystery to me.

Beauty queen and conveniently-named (for a completely unimaginative fat joke in the novel's latter half), Lara Ardeche (pronounced Ard-ash, can you see it coming?!?), is the straight-A, perfectionist, popular girl with parents who have no problems obsessing about her weight and eating habits over the dinner table. That's about 3 precursors for an ED right there. I'm willing to give Bennett one point for correct information, but I'm about to take away a million points for negligence.

Chapter numbers are, instead of chronological, beginning from one, Lara's weight measurements as they change through the book. Convenient for the reader, sure, so you don't have to do math or flip back chapters to add up Lara's weight and the plot points are all centered around weight, so the subject matter changes with each weight change. On the other hand, how gross and patronizing, to completely reduce this character to her weight and size, offering minimal plot with plateaus.

Also, when Lara is deemed to be at her perfect weight in the beginning of the novel, it gives someone who might tend toward disorder a goal weight to attain. Numbers are known to be triggering for those who are suffering with an ED. Although anyone with an ED picking up a book with this title is probably looking for trouble, a good bit of fear-based "thinspiration" and Bennett provides plenty of it.

Lara is under an insane amount of pressure from almost every source. Her parents have a rocky, seemingly loveless marriage, her friends are superficial and make derogatory comments about Lara's less popular plus-sized best friend to her face, her boyfriend is deemed unsatisfactory though she does love him, she has beauty pageant demands and she has self-imposed high academic standards. When she gains a little bit of weight, the pressure mounts and her barely-existent self-confidence falters until everything threatens to give way. Then does, when she continues gaining weight. Her grades take a dive, her parents relationship fractures, her friends turn on her, she can't even diet "right" (she abstains from eating during the day and sneaks food at night), and continues to gain weight to the point of hospitalization.

Being the person I am, I analyzed the clues given: Lara diets and "cheats" when failing to succeed at adhering to impossible restrictions, she works out to extremes. This has ED written all over it. Even when her weight gain was minimal, her mother provided immediate scrutiny. God. Her mother. What a piece of work. She set a terrible example, smoking and restricting her own eating for fear of weight gain and in the interest of keeping her man. All this set up to tell a pretty good story of what can happen when a perfect storm of pressure breaks down the spirit and body of a seemingly perfect girl.

But no.

I was debating revealing the next detail, but the following fact can be found on the back of another 1998 edition, so it's technically not a spoiler: it turns out that Lara develops a FICTIONAL metabolic disorder that causes her to gain weight, regardless of calorie intake.

I read the acknowledgments, where Bennett thanked someone for medical references, so I assume the disorder is based on something real. That's fine. The fact is that the doctors tell her that she's retaining insane amounts of water, her body is highly efficient, the less you feed it, the more "efficient" her body could get, leading to more weight gain.

Seriously? I mean, wouldn't she at least have some kidney problems or something?

Whatever. She gets "fat" (I won't reveal her weight at either end of the scale but she and everyone else calls her this), word spreads in her hometown that it is out of her control and she gets some pity, even though her old superficial asshole friends turn against her.

I understand the appeal of using an outside force as the controlling factor - completely governing the weight she will be. Most bodies have a set-point at which they will return with normal eating habits, which is out of anyone's control.

Why, then, was that not enough to be a compelling story? Looking at how a "perfect" girl dealt with weight gain -- flying in the face of what everyone around her seemed to judge about her -- would have made for an empowering story, had Lara ever for one second stopped hating her new body.

No. Life in the Fat Lane supplied the perfect bogeyman, an unstoppable force onto which Lara could place the blame for her weight and could safely hate her body without hating herself...though she kind of did that too.

After Lara's family moves, she loses all her social capital as well as the pity she'd gained at her old school. Lara's new school was a horror show of fat-hating stigma (which, to be fair, a lot of high schools probably are for most people that fail to fall into a narrow ideal) and everyone else's disdain for her was only compounded by her own self-loathing.

Even as she allowed herself to start a new life in a new town, deigned to make friends with the other outcasts (she was horrified that they gravitated toward her, as if she was one of them) and found a way to enjoy a talent that didn't rely on her beauty -- she never seemed to stop hating herself. What she went through didn't make her change her opinion of anyone of size who were surely to blame for their own weight problems, except, OMG, some of them can apparently dress themselves and still have style! And sometimes they can find guys that like them, if they're blind or probably still want them to lose weight.

For fucking real?

The unnecessary disease, on top of the incessant weight bashing made for an unbelievable, yet still entirely depressing read. I cannot recommend this book for anyone and can only view it as a strong example of what not to do. Don't pull explanations out of thin air. Don't supply hate directed at a character (and a large segment of the population) that never gets resolved unless you want your characters irredeemable. And definitely, do not feed on the fears of those with actual diseases and/or endorse those behaviors, giving them perfect justification for disordered reasoning without attempting to frame any of that as such.

Sensationalistic, irresponsible bullshit.

Robin Stevenson - Inferno

Dante thinks high school is an earthly version of hell. She hates her new home in the suburbs, her best friend has moved away, her homeroom teacher mocks her and her mother is making her attend a social skills group for teenage girls. When a stranger shows up at school and hands Dante a flyer that reads: Woof, woof. You are not a dog. Why are you going to obedience school?, Dante thinks she’s found a soul mate. Someone who understands. Someone else who wants to make real changes in the world. But there are all kinds of ways of bringing about change…and some are more dangerous than others. - Inferno jacket copy from Robin Stevenson's website.

So this book came up when I was on a search for LGBT YA literature on Amazon to round out an order so I could get free shipping (I'm thrifty and it's books). So I bought it and it arrived and I read it.

It's kind of like a sub-par lesbian version of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being A Wallflower. Only instead of music, Dante is into running.

So Dante is this sixteen-year-old girl, and a huge part of the plot is that she's just changed her name from Emily to Dante, because she's super obsessed with Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. I mean, so of course her parents let her change her name to something totally ridiculous that she's only gotten into the year before!

I'm sure you can see where I have a problem with this premise, yes?

Anyway, there's all this fuss about how her name was Emily last school year and now it's Dante and nobody wants to call her Dante and seriously, this book would have been SO much better if she'd been a transman. I am not even kidding you, because the whole book sort of feels like maybe Dante as a character wants to transition, but the author didn't go there with it because she was too chicken to follow through with what she started.

Seriously. But maybe that's just me.

So she meets this chick Parker, she falls omg head over heels in love with her. Because that's what you do in high school, gay or straight. But see there's no actual conflict in the book unless Dante falls for Parker, because everything Dante does after that point is to make Parker like her. Even though Parker is straight.

As a sidenote, I recently read Julie Anne Peters's Far From Xanadu which had basically the same premise. And the same fucking fruitless ending.

SPOILER: Dante doesn't get the girl. Because Parker is straight. Also she has battered spouse syndrome. /SPOILER

Anyway, so there's some pathetic high school prankage anarchy and blah blah wow, this book really did not go anywhere.

It's not badly written, to tell the truth. But I found myself rooting for Dante to realize she was just bisexual and hook up with Leo because unlike with Parker, they actually had chemistry/made sense. But oh no, they're both in love with Parker.

Yeah, uh. If you're really bored and borrowing it from a friend or the library, you might read this book. Don't spend your money on it, though, 'cause it's not worth it. Pick up Peters's Xanadu instead, because it's got a better plot.

- Julieann

David Levithan - Boy Meets Boy

In the acknowledgments, Levithan said that this book began as a Valentine's day gift, a story for his friends. It read as a love letter to them, their inside jokes and their lives. Given that premise, I totally fell in love with this book and the fantasy town in which it takes place. In the real world, I could see where people would have problems with the easy lives and outlandish characters in the novel. Taken as a gift, I suspended any disbelief and just enjoyed the sweet story.

Valentine's day is hard for a lot of people and it's hard to shake if it gets you so down. It was so syrupy sweet and sentimental, but in spite of all that or maybe even because of it, I loved it. If someone told me about the book before I read it, revealed the utopian/gay-friendly fantasy world that housed the absolutely ridiculous characters, I think I would have rolled my eyes and hated it. Because it came with a sweet disclaimer, I was completely taken under the story's spell. Maybe it's because I know what it's like to write, knowing that someone else will see the words I've put down. A wink to real life, maybe a nickname or a joke that someone's made, it's fun for you and for them. It can be nice for an outsider to look in on that too, to escape to that world.

Boy Meets Boy is the story of Paul, his relationship with his best friend, a bitter ex and a blossoming new relationship. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, (I promise, despite the utopia I described above) but no matter the stumbling blocks that the characters come across, you get the sense that everything is going to be just fine in the end.

Recommended for people who have had a hard day, who want to wrap up in a blanket, curl up and read a story from beginning to end.

Chuck Klosterman - Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs

This book is a collection of essays written by Klosterman, covering everything from The Real World and reality TV to Saved By The Bell to serial killers.

I don't think I know how to do this book justice in a review. Klosterman is irreverant, funny, and a great read, from diatribes against Coldplay to having met a serial killer and knowing people who have met or known others in the past.

I definitely think, however, that someone not entirely enmeshed in pop culture wouldn't enjoy this book. It is one pop culture reference after another, and even for me, some of it was hard to follow. (I am just not a person who knows anything about Saved by the Bell, okay? I'm just now learning about Friends - okay, I never want to be a person who knows anything about Saved by the Bell.)

But it's interesting. Whether you're a fan of all these things or not, Klosterman certainly makes an interesting read out of talking shit about the way he lived, the way other people live, and the effect mass media seems to have on our culture.

Philippa Gregory : The Wise Woman

I've read several of Gregory's books, but this is the first that I've come across that's been more like actual fantasy than simply historical fiction.

The Wise Woman centers on a girl named Alys, a supposed orphan raised by a Wise Woman. Alys enters a convent, becoming Sister Ann. Unfortunately, it's not to last, and the convent is burned by the son of the Lord over the land they're on, sacked for the King (Henry VIII), and the nuns murdered. Alys, of course, escapes because if she didn't, there'd be no story.

The back of the book paints the story as a love triangle gone wrong by the use of magic, but that's not the heart of the story. Alys is a woman trying to rise beyond her life's station (cue gratuitous comparisons to Anne Boleyn, also a woman rising above her station, also accused of witchcraft).

Alys uses magic to ensnare the man she wants, after she decides to give up her life of piety and her chances of returning to a nunnery.

It's all very dramatic and it's definitely one of the better reads I've gotten from Gregory in a while (I've been struggling with reading The Other Queen for nearly a year now, and I just can't get into it). I'd recommend it if you want to read a good story along with your batshit crazy. Because it's definitely crazy and bizarre.

I liked it.

Ryan Mecum: Zombie Haiku

"Brains, brains, brains, brains, brains,
Brains, brains, brains, brains, brains, brains, brains.
Artificial hip?"

Lanie and I went with her brother and his friend and saw Zombieland this past weekend. That review will come soon, but afterward, after a delightful dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, we were killing time between that and our viewing of Whip It! (Review also forthcoming) and Lanie and I found this book in a display in Borders.

Now, the premise sounds dumb. It's haiku about zombies! Well, it's really not. It's haiku written by a zombie, with little extras thrown into the pages, like it's a journal-slash-scrapbook. And it's kind of great.

Now, it's not high literature, and it's not going to take you ages to read it (all told, I think it took me maybe half an hour to read the entire book from cover to cover). But the thing is: it's fun. It's a lot of fun.

If you get the chance to check it out, please do so. It will please your little zombie-loving heart.

- Julieann

ed. Rich Balling - Revolution On Canvas, Volume 2: Poetry from the Indie Music Scene

In some ways, this book was better than the first volume. In other ways, it fell short.

There's a lot more prose work in this volume, which is a huge plus. There are some truly great stories in here, like Justin Pierre's (Motion City Soundtrack) "Annelise." Unfortunately, some of the poetry falls disappointingly short of the mark, especially since this book actually does rely more heavily on lyrics than the previous one.

As you may remember from my review of Revolution on Canvas: Volume 1, I was told that a lot of the poetry contained in it was actually song lyrics from the bands. I couldn't tell - I didn't recognize any of them. Unfortunately for the second installment, it wasn't the same. Gabe Saporta (of Midtown in the first book, Cobra Starship in this second) graces us with the lyrics of "It's Warmer In The Basement" and "Success," both of which are on While the City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets. The same goes for The Hush Sound's Greta Salpeter, but, fortunately, not for her bandmate Bob Morris (listed here as Rob Morris).

Surprisingly enough, Pete Wentz's (Fall Out Boy) contribution is not lyrics.

I'll be honest and say that I'm torn between disappointment and pleasure at the inclusion of Armor For Sleep frontman Ben Jorgensen. I love that kid. However, what his contribution is... I'm not sure. It's not actually song lyrics (fortunately), but it's the idea and the basis of what would become the song "Smile For The Camera."

I know I'm talking a lot of shit, but this book is actually a much better read than the first one. Maybe the poetry is a lot of lyrics I already know because I actually listen to some of these bands, but there's a lot of really excellent prose in it, as well. If you liked the first volume, you'll like this one even more.

If you didn't read the first one, maybe give this one a try. It's poetry, after all. Nobody will hold it against you if you don't like it.

Leslie Simon & Trevor Kelley - "Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture"

Please don't think I'm taking anything in this book seriously.

I've read one of Trevor Kelley's books before, and I enjoyed it. It's all very tongue in cheek, jokey kind of stuff. Or maybe I'm just not as emo as I've been led to believe.

Anyway, so basically, this is a whole book dedicated to teaching you how to be emo, and simultaneously making fun of emo kids.

If you don't know what an emo kid is... why are you on the internet? Seriously, Google it. Something will come up. I promise. Also, before I get into this, I'm what's considered an emo kid. Um, or I thought I was until I read this book!

So it breaks down the beginnings of emo, starting with the founding way back in the day in DC. Fuck yeah, I moved to the birthplace of emo! Wait, I can't legitimately be excited about that. It profiles what kind of emo kid you are (for the record, I'm "frat emo" which is kind of like not even being emo at all except for I listen to a lot of Taking Back Sunday and get the snot beaten out of me at shows by the Bros Who Are Gay For Taking Back Sunday), what kind of relationships you're going to have if you like a certain kind of emo dude (if you're into the Chris Carrabba type, if you're into the Adam Lazzara type, etc - it's all going to end badly but who's counting).

There's actually a pretty interesting list of venues (Emo's in Austin, DC's own Black Cat), vegan restaurants, and albums that are essential to any emo kid (The Promise Ring, etc). Basically, it teaches you how to be an Emo Kid if that's what you want to be.

One of my favorite things about this book comes from it having been published in 2006 - it mentions Pete Wentz's supposed fling with Ashlee Simpson and makes a joke about how ridiculous that is. And look what happened!

Maybe it's a little outdated, but it's not that big of a deal. It's still an interesting read, and if you're emo or know someone who is... give it a shot.

Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak

I picked up this book for four bucks at Books A Million a few months ago, thinking that it was more like something in the vein of Patricia McCormick's Cut, which I read in Spring 2008 for a young adult lit class I was taking in school.

I was surprised to find out that it wasn't like that at all.

It's the story of a girl named Melinda who's a social pariah for calling the cops to a end-of-summer party. Her friends hate her - people she doesn't know hate her. She sinks into a depression that robs her of her ability to speak - hence the title of the book. Every time she's pressured to say something, she finds her throat closing up, and she stays silent. Her physical inability to talk to people mirrors her inability to talk about what happened to her at that end-of summer party, an incident that is danced around before she finally finds the ability to tell someone.

I was surprised how good the book was. It's got a very strange set-up. There aren't real chapters, a lot of the dialogue is presented as

Mom: saying something
Me:

with Melinda's silences as blank spaces on the page. The book is divided into sections by the school year, each quarter ending with a rundown of Melinda's grades as she skips school and doesn't turn in homework.

It's a very fast read, and kind of heart wrenching if you've ever been through depression. Melinda just wants everything to go away, just wants to run away and hide, and no one will allow her to do that.

In the end, though, maybe things aren't perfect, but Melinda regains the ability to talk about what happened to her and to deal with the past that is haunting her.

I knocked this book out in a couple of hours, so if you've got some time, give it a go. It's worth it.

Curtis Sittenfeld: American Wife

Wow.

American Wife is one hell of a book. First of all, it's a commitment. It's almost 600 pages. Considering that it's decent quality writing, that's quite a substantial chunk of text. The book is split up into four sections, which are then split up into main story lines and current events interspersed with smaller vignettes relating to the matter at hand. If you're familiar with Sittenfeld's other work; Prep and The Man of My Dreams, it seems to be her standard format.

The protagonist in American Wife, Alice Blackwell, is loosely based on Laura Bush, but is also not unlike the main characters in her previous novels. I've read both of her previous books this year, so it's impossible for me to take this one completely at face value. All that considered, I thought this was a great book, much better than her last two. Prep was a bit of a struggle to get through, but her style was a bit unlike anything else I'd ever read. Once I knew what I was getting into, I liked each book after that even more. American Wife could be taken alone, I'm sure, but for full enjoyment, I'd recommend reading the other two first.

What was great about American Wife was that I didn't expect to buy into the story the way I did. How does one find oneself married to a man like George W. Bush and still remain a sympathetic character?

The book begins with that question in a way. Alice is in bed with her husband in the White House, wondering how her life has become what it is. The book travels into the past where a traumatic incident changes Alice's life and completely shapes what it will become. Even knowing the inevitable, I found it impossible not to wonder how it would all play out. It was all more interesting that I expected.

I'm not doing this book justice. It's hard to cover that much story without revealing anything that would ruin Alice revealing it for you. It's worth it to leave that up to her.

-Lanie

Laurell K Hamilton: Skin Trade (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Series)

So let's talk about Laurell K. Hamilton!

Skin Trade is the latest novel in her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, aka the Power of the Month Club, aka the Biggest Mary Sue Known To Man. And... it's good? Like... seriously.

It's a thick damn book. I bought it in hardcover, because all of my ABVH books since I bought my first way back when I was a senior in high school (which was, you know, only like seven years ago) have been hardcover. I have to have them right when they come out. It's a thing. It's like I hate myself.

Now, what you need to know is that when the series started, they were supernatural murder mysteries, and the heroine, Anita Blake, was only an animator (as in, she raises the dead for a living). She wasn't a necromancer, vampire's human servant, werewolf pack's queen, wereleopard pack's queen, succubus, or anything else. And this shit was good. Then she started having sex, became a succubus, and the books were mostly really terribly written erotica. (No, seriously. Anne Rice's erotica is better. And I hate Anne Rice.)

This happened around book ten, Narcissus in Chains. And then it went on terribly for about five books (including a book about My Most Disliked Character, Micah, that I didn't even bother reading), before finally going back to being more like a murder mystery in The Harlequin. (And then backsliding a little with a pity sex opener in Blood Noir that sent me howling into class the next morning to bitch to my one and only ABVH reading friend.)

This all has a point, I promise.

And that point is that there was absolutely zero sex in Skin Trade until chapter 60. Yeah dude. And it was GREAT because Anita was in Las Vegas, solving crime away from the five billion dudes she's banging with Edward (everyone's favorite sociopath!), Olaf (everyone's favorite sociopathic serial killer), and Bernardo (meh).

It is with great pride that I can say this is the best cotton candy I have read from Hamilton in several years. I love her stuff, I honestly do, but J. Christ, it has been crap for a good long while. And Skin Trade was actually, you know, pretty awesome. I should've known, because the last couple of Merry Gentry (Hamilton's other series) books I've read have been really good, as well.

If you're a fan of Hamilton, you've probably already read Skin Trade. If you're not a fan of Hamilton, you probably need to start at the beginning of the series and slog through like all the rest of us have. If you're a former fan of Hamilton, then you might want to pick the series up again, because it's... actually kind of good again. (Although I really, really recommend picking up The Harlequin first, or you're going to be confused as hell. I mean, I've read The Harlequin, and I was, because it was long enough ago that I couldn't remember what happened.)

So, Ms. Hamilton:
I can't take back all those not-so-nice things I wrote about Anita-as-a-Mary-Sue in my essay last fall (on the bright side - I still hate Stephenie Meyer more and could never consume her as my personal printed cotton candy like I can you), but I'm glad you've finally taken a turn for the better.

My favorite thing about this book was Olaf. Can we see him and Edward more? Thanks. :)

ed. Rich Balling, "Revolution on Canvas, Volume 1: Poetry from the Indie Music Scene"

No, this is seriously a book. Yes, it opens with some prose by William Beckett of The Academy Is..., and yes, you can imagine about how well this is going to go after that.

Well, sort of.

I don't know how long Lanie has owned this book, but I definitely chose to read it, thinking I could strap on my lollerskates and get a good laugh out of "what the hell, someone let Matt Rubano write something and then published it?"

(Sidenote: Anyone who knows me knows that at this time in my life, I am particularly obsessed with Taking Back Sunday. In which case you should also know that I get a lot of laughs out of making fun of Matt Rubano and how sexy he thinks he is. Ahh, Rubano. You are not even making the list of sexiness being in the same band with Matt Fazzi and Adam Lazzara, I hope you know. Just play bass, k? Just bass. But I digress.)

So I read the damn thing, even though it opens with William Beckett and I am an avid giggler at his prose, since I follow thewilliambeckett.com on the internet and I really just want to edit him, oh God.

Full Disclosure: I do not know half the bands in this book. Well, that's not entirely true. I know the names from being half-hipster, half-scenester, and from knowing all the lyrics to Gym Class Heroes's "Taxi Driver." I spend half my time gleefully horrified by Gabe Saporta from Cobra Starship, and Midtown are too depressing for my soul. My biggest fantasy in life is to see Something Corporate in concert. (Can you hear me, Josh Partington and Andrew McMahon? GET ON THIS.) So...

I was pleasantly surprised. I had previously been told that most of the pieces were actually lyrics, but most of the pieces being by gents I don't listen to effectively rendered that piece of information useless. (Most of the names I did recognize were prose, rather than poetry - Beckett, Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack, Rubano. If Partington's were lyrics, I couldn't tell, because I don't actively listen to Firescape. I don't know enough Midtown to suss out Saporta. Tim McIlrath of Rise Against could've been lyrics, but not from any RA song I knew. And so on.)

It's not going to take you a lot of time to read this book. It might increase your indie cred if you read it. (And if you think so, allow me to laugh at you and say "ha ha, you're a giant loser worrying about your indie cred!")

I liked it enough to look up volume 2 on Amazon and buy it. Of course, it probably didn't hurt Volume 2's case that it's got Armor For Sleep listed for contribution.

But again, I digress.

It's a nifty book. Some of the things in it are genuinely interesting. Some of the things in it are pretentious crap, but that's how the scene rolls. Some of the things in it are "Death of a Male Hooker," and I don't even know sometimes.

Try it. You might like it. I was surprised that I did.

Lavinia Greenlaw - The Importance of Music to Girls

This was an impulse purchase that I made when Lanie and I were at an Urban Outfitters in Baltimore a few weeks back, the weekend before my birthday, I think. I picked it up because I liked the title, and because I liked what the back presented to me.

The book is Greenlaw's memoir, but it's so much more than that, as well, to someone who can define their life by music trends. Greenlaw grows from disco to being a hippie, to being a punk, and by way of these things discovers who she is as a person.

The book is easy to relate to, even though Greenlaw grew up in an entirely different era than I did. She has disco vinyl that she doesn't want to part with but is embarrassed to own. I have mp3s I try not to let get scrobbled to last.fm because they're a guilty pleasure.

(I'm not, however, fighting it quite as hard as Greenlaw. But then again, I'm much older than she was at this time - the book spans from when she is a child to seventeen or eighteen, then skips ahead to a quite poigniant chapter about the birth of her first child, the first boy she loved, and music.)

As I said, I can relate to this book. Music defines my world, much as it did Greenlaw's as she was growing up. I think anyone who is defined by music can enjoy the book, though it might be harder for a boy to understand than a girl. A lot of the book is about trying to fit in and find your place as a girl, changing yourself to be things you aren't because there's something or someone you want, or want to like you.

Impulse book buying can be hit or miss, but I feel like this one was definitely a hit, at least for me.