16. The Book Thief

So I just finished reading Mark Zusak's The Book Thief. And omg. It was so good. I absolutely loved it. Zusak has an amazing way with words. I do love a book with quotable passages and this book abounded in them. There are also lots of bits where the narrator takes a step back to directly address the reader. I love that.


I absolutely give it a 5/5.

Visit Mark Zusak's website ***** Buy this book on Amazon

7. The Luxe

The Luxe by Anna Godberson is the first book in a four-part series. I read this book and about half of its sequel about a year ago, but never quite had the time to finish the series. Last week, I saw all four books of the series sitting together on the library shelf. I knew I had to get them. So I got all four of them. This one took me about two days to read. I've already begun the second.

The Luxe is about the elite society of 1890s New York City. The main characters are two sisters, Elizabeth and Diana Holland; Henry Schoonmaker, Elizabeth's fiancee, who actually loves Diana; Will, a Holland family servant and Elizabeth's real love; Penelope Hayes, Elizabeth's best frenemy, who loves Henry; as well as a host of other minor characters like their servants and friends. Basically, everyone is in love but no one is allowed to publicly be in love with who they actually love. The Holland family is facing financial problems that are threatening to ruin them and their reputation - and in this time period of 1899, reputation is everything. Henry proposes to her because he needs his family to stay in the city's good graces; Elizabeth accepts because her family desperately needs money. As a result, Will leaves the Holland family to seek a fortune in California, telling Elizabeth to join him if she truly loves him. Penelope begins to develop a plan to get rid of Elizabeth so she can marry Henry. Diana doesn't know about Penelope's love for Henry, so she does her best to get Henry for herself. I guess that the entire book is a long, rather complicated love story.

I liked it.

I'm not usually one for love stories, but I liked these characters. I love the use of location in this book and I loved how descriptive it was. I had no problems imagining what the Hollands' dresses looked like or how Penelope's mansion looked.The chapters rotate points of view between the main characters, which I liked. It was interesting to see how the different characters reacted differently to everything that happened. Something I really didn't like was that the flow of the book got confusing at some times. On occasion, a character would say something and then immediately Godberson would spend a couple of paragraphs explaining scenery or an event or something and only then would the other character respond. In some parts, it read very much like a first novel, which it is. I can only hope that Godberson's writing improves over the next three books.

I'd give this book a 4/5. It was very good, but seemed at some time to be filled up with fluff.

Buy this book on Amazon ***** Visit Anna Godberson's website

6. The Hunger Games

What a freaking amazing book. I can't believe I haven't read it sooner. I picked it up on Friday night, round about 8pm and didn't get up until I had finished, at about 11pm. It was that good.

I'm completely exhausted, so I'm not going to leave a review tonight - I'll write it tomorrow.

Long story short: This book is fantabulous.

Buy this book on Amazon ***** Visit Suzanne Collins's website

5. The Name of the Star

Okay, so I'm a little bit late on this review, but that's okay. I've just been crazy busy lately, especially since Yom Kippur was yesterday. Anyway. This is the first book in the Shades of London series. It's a paranormal story, which I'm not usually very fond of, but considering my love for MJ, I bought it. And not only did I buy it, but I pre-ordered it from Books of Wonder in NYC and received a signed copy of the book, a magnet set made by MJ herself, and a pin reading 'YA Saves.' To be quite honest, if not for the gifts and the excitement of having a book signed by MJ, I would have waited until the book was published, borrowed it from the library, and then buy it if I liked it enough. I would have bought it. I absolutely would have bought it.

I don't really like paranormal books. They're usually too Twilight-esque, with vampires and werewolves and stupid girls falling in love with said vampires and werewolves. There were no vampires or werewolves to be found in The Name of the Star. There were, however, plenty of ghosts, murders, and BRITISHNESS. I've talked before on this blog about how much I love location. This book most definitely made good use of its location in London, UK.

So it's about this girl named Rory from Louisiana who is going to school in London for a year while her parents do a residency at an English university. Everything is all fine and dandy and British until this serial killer shows up. He's murdering people in exactly the same way as Jack the Ripper did in 1888. The biggest problem is that even though there is a plethora of CCTV cameras around each murder site, no murderer is seen. I don't want to say anymore, for fear of ruining the rest of the book ;]

I had a couple of issues with this book that I've noticed before in MJ's books. There are occasions where the narrator mentions something that happened as a result of something else, except I don't remember reading about the first thing. Case in point: At some point in the book, Rory says something about her throat hurting from the vomiting. I had to flip back several pages to find the line where she was sick. It's not a big plot point, there wouldn't have been anything wrong with ignoring it and continuing the book, but I had to find the line where Rory first vomited. I don't know if this is an MJ problem or a me problem, but it bothered me nonetheless. Another problem I had with the book was cliche - the idea of having a British boarding school with a fun, quirky roommate, a mean girl who has some kind of power, and a hot British love interest just seems so overdone. But I still love those books. I can't put them down. It's just overdone.

Okay. This book gets a 4/5. I would recommend it to anyone who likes paranormal books that are not romances. Also anyone who likes YA literature.

Buy this book on Amazon ***** Visit MJ's blog

4. The Rise and Fall of a 10th-Grade Social Climber

Okay, so this was kind of a cute book. I gotta admit, I'm a sucker for books that take place in exclusive private schools. And this one does feature a private school pretty heavily, although it's more ultra-progressive than exclusive. (No grades, people. No grades.) I also love that it used its setting of NYC so prominently.

So the book is about this girl, Mimi, who moves from Houston to NYC to live with her dad. She starts going to this school called Baldwin. She makes a bet with her childhood friend, Sam, to befriend the cool girls at Baldwin. So Mimi does just that, skipping school, smoking pot, drinking, and buying a fake ID to get herself into the good graces of the popular girls. She also keeps a journal of her endeavors - predictably, this journal ends up published online. But of course, Mimi is forgiven by the end of the book and it all ends happily ever after.

I really liked Mimi's difficult relationship with her mother; although it was very, very difficult, it was, to me, one of the most realistic parts of the book. I also liked that the popular girls at Baldwin didn't have the typical blonde, all-American look that popular girls in books usually have. Instead, they were very diverse. However, on the flip side, they had the same typical problems that rich girls in books always seem to have - f'ed-up family life, drug problems, etc. Not one of these girls was at all realistic. Also, secretly? I think Mimi's dad was gay. But that's just me.

My favorite character was Quinn, Mimi's dad's assistant. I also love that Mimi's dad is a photographer; I'm not sure why, but I really liked it.

All in all, I think this book gets a 3/5. It was a quick read and funny, but also very predictable.

Buy this book at Amazon ***** Visit Lauren Mechling's website 

(Can't find a website for Laura Moser now. Will update when I have one.)

3. Confessions of a First Daughter

Okay, so I finished reading Confessions of a First Daughter by Cassidy Calloway over the weekend, but haven't had time to write about it until today. I got this book about two years ago, I think. It was on sale and looked interesting. I'm definitely not the target audience, though - even when I first bought the book, I was probably pushing it. It's a more middle-grade read.

The book is about a girl named Morgan who is the daughter of the youngest and female president of the US. It's about how she deals with being in the public eye, having a boyfriend who pushes her boundaries, and her budding feelings for her Secret Service Agent. My main problem with this book is that even though Morgan is eighteen, I feel like she's more of a tween-type character. Her only age-appropriate problem is her boyfriend pressuring her to have sex. In addition, her voice throughout the book seems much younger than eighteen. Morgan and her mom look very similar and when her mom, the president, needs to get away to deal with some African politics, Morgan stands in for her. It's a cute premise, if totally unrealistic. My favorite character in the book is probably Hannah, Morgan's best friend. She just seems very fun and a much more relatable and realistic character than Morgan herself.

The book is a quick read. Like I said, I'm not the target audience, and I think that made me read through it faster. I liked that it featured the presidency and the White House - I'm kind of drawn to that type of book.

All in all, I'd give it a 3/5.

(Also, I really like the shoes on the cover. I don't think I could pull them off, but still.)

Buy this book at Amazon  ***** Visit Cassidy Calloway's website

2. Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Okay, so this was my second time reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson. The first time I read it was about a month ago when I bought it. It's written by John Green and David Levithan; each wrote one character and the chapters switch back and forth between those characters' points of view. I've read books by both authors before and liked them, particularly Green's An Abundance of Katherines and Levithan's How They Met and Wide Awake. To be perfectly honest, I like Levithan's writing more. I liked Green's books, but Levithan's are the ones that I return to again and again. There's just something there that I feel Green's books lack, although I don't really know what that is.

Anyway. Will Grayson, Will Grayson. As the title suggests, the book is about two boys named Will Grayson. At first, their lives seem totally separate. Will Grayson (Levithan's character) is best friends with Tiny Cooper, who is "the world's largest person who is really, really gay." Then, you've got will grayson (written by Green)*. One night, Will Grayson goes into Chicago with Tiny to use his fake ID for the first time. That same night, will grayson goes to Chicago to finally meet a boy he's been talking to online for months. Their paths collide and will ends up spending the night wandering around Chicago with Tiny. Throughout the book, Tiny is writing and staging a musical about his life and how he grew up gay. The musical, entitled Tiny Dancer, is a source of contention between Tiny and Will, who is uncomfortable with how he is portrayed in the musical. In the end, Will Grayson comes to terms with the fact that he is a crucial part of Tiny's life and therefore must be in the musical; in addition, Tiny realizes that the musical will not be successful if it's solely about him and, as a result, he does some rewrites to make it about love. In the end, the musical is put on. Tiny and Will get into a fight, and so does Tiny and will. In the end, though, the relationships are healed and will grayson has a friend help him show Tiny just how much he is loved.

This book is about relationships. It's about Tiny Cooper falling in love with will grayson and about Will Grayson coming to terms with his friendship with Tiny. But the relationship I found most poignant was that of will grayson and his mother. Early on in the book, it seems like will is the typical teenage character who dislikes his parents - as the book continues, I slowly began to realize how much will and his mother care for each other, as messed up as both of their emotions are. The scene where will comes out to his mother is touching, but I think there was a more touching scene - toward the end of the book, will desperately needs to talk to someone. He calls his mom and there's just this sense of desperation. I don't really know how to explain it. It was just a touching scene.

Other aspects of the book that I enjoyed were the lyrics for Tiny's songs. The ones provided were very funny and I found myself wishing that it was a real musical. Just like in Dessen's Along for the Ride, I also enjoyed the multitude of quotable quotes. And finally I just have to say this: I. Freaking love. Tiny Cooper. What a fabulous character. He's just so confident and fabulous and caring and yet... he has flaws. He knows that he has flaws. At the end, he finally pours out his fears to will grayson. I love Tiny as a character.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a fun read and easy, although its simplicity is deceiving. On the surface, it's just about two boys with the same name. But underneath, it's about so much more. Both authors are very very good at writing for teens and their voices show through in this book.

Buy this book at Amazon *** Visit John Green's website *** Visit David Levithan's website

* As Green says, will is a "lowercase person." As such, all chapters told from will's point of view are totally lowercased.

1. Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen

So let's be clear on this. This is most definitely not the first time I've read Along for the Ride. It is, in fact, one of my favorite books by Sarah Dessen. It's got that mysterious male love interest, lots of quotable passages, and a girl riding a bike in a prom dress. There's a beach setting, a baby, and a trouble father/daughter relationship. Not to mention that it's set in Colby, a beach town in DessenWorld, and has several references to Dessen's other books.

The basic gist of the story is that Auden, the protagonist, is spending her last summer before college with her dad, 26-year-old stepmother, and half-sister. Auden's mother is a very respected professor at the university and a very judgmental feminist. She is the foil to Heidi, Auden's stepmother. There is a memorable scene about halfway through the book where Auden's mother shows up in Heidi's store where Auden is working and is disdainful of the abundance of pink, bikinis, perfume, makeup, etc. It is the moment in the story where Auden (finally!) realizes the differences between herself and her mother. Another key figure is Eli, Auden's love interest. Both insomniacs, Eli and Auden begin spending their nights together on a quest to give Auden childhood experiences she missed out on. Eli is mysterious; he pops up a couple times before Auden even knows who he is and there is none of that nonsense of the reader knowing more about him than Auden does. In typical Dessen fashion, there is a fallout between them and then a happy reunion.

Like all of Dessen's books, I loved the references to her other books. Two of Auden's close friends are characters from Keeping the Moon; the restaurant Auden goes to with her dad is where the main character from Keeping the Moon works. The necklaces from Lock and Key pop up; Heidi and Thisbie, her daughter, first showed up in What Happened to Goodbye. I love finding these references. I love how Dessen has created this whole world where all the characters are sort of connected through a Six Degrees of Separation-type thing. It's fun. I liked Dessen's characters. Even though she and I have no particular similarities, I found myself relating to Auden. I understood some of her problems, could even see myself in some of the same situations. Auden's friends, Isabel and Maggie and Leah and Adam, were very realistic. I have friends who are Adams, friends who are Maggie; I know people who are Isabels and people who are Leahs. Auden's brother, Hollis, was one of my favorite characters. Although he's not present for a lot of the book, I liked his interactions with Auden; he clearly loves her and they are good friends - similar to my relationship with my older brother.

I didn't have any major problems with this book. A lot of people often grow tired of Dessen's formula for her books, but I didn't find that a problem in this book. I liked it as a nice summer read. One thing I disliked was the choppy transitions from present-time to a flashback. At some points, I had to flip back and reread a page to figure out what train of thought led Auden to a flashback.

All in all? A 5/5.

Buy this book at Amazon  *** Visit Sarah Dessen's website