Audiobook Awesomeness AND Oregon: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Yeah I know. I skipped like 10-15 states in there and went from Michigan to Oregon, but seriously who’s counting or cares. I will get to those states no problem. In case you don’t know what I am referencing, I am talking about my reading challenge.

Via GoodReads. Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind? 

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make. 

(SPOILERS BE AHEAD MATEYS)This audiobook was really good, like The Fault in Our Stars good. I teared up at the end.

We are introduced to a teenager, Mia, who is in some sort of limbo after a horrific car crash that has killed both her parents and her younger brother Teddy. She is grappling with her choice to join them in “afterlife” or to stay and continue her own life.

The narrative is told throughout a 24-hour period of the car crash up to the point when Mia makes her decision while in limbo. Throughout we get the story of her family, her first love Adam, her best friend Kim, her struggles with the cello, and her love of classical music told in a flashback style. The stories of the past help us, the reader, understand why this choice is a tough one.

The narrator was, of course, amazing and I could feel tears welling up in her as they did with me, especially after learning Teddy had died and then again with Adam’s heartfelt speech at the very end.

Even occasionally throughout the story there was cello music in the background which was strange, but also rather nice.

I don’t know how to exactly classify this story. It’s not really a love story or a problem teen story. I guess the best description would be realistic fiction? This book is for your Fault in Our Stars fans most definitely. It should also be of note that there is a movie based on this book coming out sometime later this year so young adult librarians need to start stacking up their copies now. 

21 titles down, 29 more to go! Close to the halfway point.

Michigan: Wake by Lisa McMann

Finally, at long last, a post about my Reading Across United States of YA challenge. It has been months (September!) since I read a book in the realm of this challenge I designed more than a year ago. Here is my review and thoughts on Wake by Lisa McMann.

Book Summary via GoodReads. For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.

This is the first in a series (can’t quite decide if I will continue) where a teen has an ability to be sucked into dreams of those around her.  The paranormal mystery behind Janie’s strange ability is intriguing to the reader and definitely kept me interested throughout the book. There is also a little romance between Janie and Caleb that isn’t the focus, but still helps to keep a teen’s interest. Definitely helps broaden the audience, making this a general crowd pleaser.

This isn’t necessarily a standout work of art for me, but I think with its smaller size (225 pages) and action-packed plot, this book is perfect for a reluctant teen reader. Recommend this title to those who love Rosemary Clement-Moore’s The Splendour Falls (AKA the Alabama Read) as it has the paranormal mystery surrounding the main protagonist.

Keeping it short! That’s 20 down, 30 more to go!

Currently on my shelf to read

I don’t know about some of you, but where I live in North Carolina there has been a ton of snow and ice. I have spent the past few nights curled up in bed or on my couch reading and though I am not close to finishing anything right now, I thought I would keep you all involved with everything I have checked out from the library.

Currently checked out on my library card are the following books/audiobooks:

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. I very briefly talked about this book in my previous post about YA romance novels. I originally thought this book (the first in a series) was similar to the movie Titanic, except that it takes place in a galaxy and uses a luxury cruise space ship. All the signs are there. There is Lilac LaRoux, the daughter of a very wealthy man, and Tarver Merendsen, from more humble beginnings, flirting on the cruise ship. They know that their flirtations are not allowed because of the simple fact that they are in different social classes. Then disaster strikes and they are the last survivors of the cruise ship Icarus and are now trying to survive on a strange planet where their escape pod landed. That’s very similar wouldn't you say? However the more I read, the more I see the TV show Lost appearing in the story. There is a strange planet that no one knows about that potentially caused the crash, there are haunted whispers throughout the forests and mountains, and there are strange animals that do not match the environment that our protagonists are in (think of the polar bears on Lost). I am only halfway through the book, but so far I am enjoying it.

A Wrinkle in Time (Audiobook) by Madeleine L’Engle. This book was my husband’s favorite as a child. I had attempted to read it as an adult a few years ago, but I could not get into it. I see why he liked it. There are physics, space, and high fantasy. I thought it was a little too much fantasy for me personally, BUT I saw that my library has the audiobook and I decided to give it a try. We meet the Murry family who are saddened by the disappearance of their father, a physicist. Meg, the oldest, is having problems dealing in school and is constantly getting into trouble. It’s when her younger brother, Charles Wallace, finds company in three “ladies” (Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which) that we learn more about Meg’s father. He is trapped on a planet somewhere in the universe that is being controlled by “the Black Thing” and only Meg and Charles Wallace can save him.  Along with their new companion, Calvin O’Keefe, they race against time to save Meg’s father and protect the universe from the evil that is quickly consuming all of the planets. I am about halfway through and so far I love this book!

Taste Test by Kelly Fiore. Confession...I really like the reality competition show Top Chef. My husband has been a fan of the show longer than me. In fact he introduced me to it so we have eaten at a few of the contestants’ restaurants across the country. I saw a review of Taste Test in a copy of the School Library Journal and I couldn’t wait for us to get it. I am not too far in it at all, but the main protagonist is from a small town in North Carolina where she works in a barbeque restaurant with her father. The show, called Taste Test, wants her for their next season. This reality show is where teens go to a culinary school and compete for a scholarship to a world-renowned culinary academy. Of course, there is drama, mystery, and a twinge of romance, but again I am only 5 pages into it.

Wake by Lisa McMann.  This is the Michigan selection for my reading challenge. I have not started it at all, but will hopefully get to it by the end of the weekend. The premise of this novel is that a teenage girl, Janie, constantly gets sucked into other people’s dreams. She keeps this power a secret as no one would believe her if she told them and would just think she is crazy. She then gets sucked into a crazy nightmare where she is not watching, but participating. Looks like this one will be a great teen horror book to read? I don’t know, but it looks scary.

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini. The Massachusetts selection from the reading challenge. This book seems to be a modern version of an ancient Greek myth (probably Helen of Troy). Helen (see!) is having strange dreams of a long journey as well as hallucinating three women who seem to be the Fates from Greek Mythology. She soon learns that these are not just dreams or legend, but in fact they are her ancestry. The question is should she fight against destiny?

Ones I am currently on the waitlist for

Insurgent (Audiobook) by Veronica Roth. I am so close to listening this one. There is a huge waitlist for everything in this series at my library. That being said, I am now #2 in line for audiobook! GAH!

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo. I got on the waitlist for this one as soon as the Newberry Award Winner and Honorable Mentions were announced.  I am #4 on the list.

Maryland: Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Sorry peeps. It has been a rough few days and I just somehow got behind. I do have a ton to talk to about as I have listened to an audiobook in addition to reading Blood and Chocolate. Well let’s just jump into it shall we. We are onto Maryland for the challenge.

Synopsis via goodreads. Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?

This paranormal romance took me no time to finish. I believe I read it over the course of three nights, making it a perfect selection for reluctant teen readers. The size is about 260 pages so it would not frighten lower level readers to check it out from the library. I will say that this title is for your older teens, not middle school readers.

Blood and Chocolate was released in 1997, a good eight years before Twilight was published. Yet, I had never heard of it until college (circa 2007) where one of my best friends said it was her favorite book. When she discovered there was a movie, we ran to Blockbuster to rent it and we lay about in her dorm room watching it. When I read this book just a few days ago, I kept thinking how the movie was nothing like the book. Like not at all. It even had a different setting! This led to an ending that was a lot more surprising than I originally anticipated.  That being said, it is a paranormal romance so there are some typical characteristics to be on the lookout. All in all, I liked it.

What I liked:

-Vivian in some ways. I liked her confidence and general bad ass attitude. She also protected her mother and Aiden from antics of the pack, which I think made a bit more endearing. She didn’t seem like a placeholder or Mary Sue character that many paranormal romances tend write as their female lead; however, she did have flaws as I will mention later.

-Female werewolf perspective. I appreciated this because some of my favorite books from this challenge have been paranormal stories where we have the female protagonist as the witch or angel or what-have-you. Perhaps I enjoy the character development and growth in that scenario? The female protagonist realizes her strength to save the day. This is more pleasant, as opposed to having the female be mere mortal while trying to get the immortal gentleman to court her.

-Not quite the ending I anticipated. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but Vivian does not end up in the situation I originally guessed. It was nice surprise.

What I didn’t like:

-Vivian in other ways. She was way too obsessed with her looks and frankly, she just seemed mean-spirited and manipulative. For example, the way she treated Aiden in some ways felt like he was a cute toy to mess with. Though she changes in some ways later, I still think she was too obsessed with her beauty and not her heart.

-Most of the secondary characters. In this case, I didn’t like Esme, Vivian’s mother, nor did I like Aiden, especially at the end. Gabriel grew on me towards the finish, but he started off so sketchy.

In general, this was a nice, action-packed read.  I am mad that I read this after reading the Twilight series. I felt like throughout the whole read all I did was compare the two, which really isn’t fair to Blood and Chocolate because it came out first.

Bottom line, my recommendation is to get this book if paranormal romances are still popular with your youth. Let’s face it, that statement is probably true so just get this title for your collection.

That’s 19 down, 31 more to go.

Audiobook Awesomeness/Minnesota: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Synopsis via goodreads. For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without.

Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

After almost 6 months of beginning this YA reading journey, I am starting to feel dissatisfied with these YA selections. It feels like I have read these books before. The YA genres of paranormal romance and dystopia are in overabundance to the point where it has become frustrating for me as a reader. It’s not Maggie Stiefvater’s fault or Lauren Oliver’s.  I have now read around 18 titles for this challenge plus numerous others and it is starting to bum me out how formulaic and (hate to say it) cliché they all are. Poor Shiver just came in at a time where I'm about fed up.

This book series is for all you Twilight fans out there. There were lots and LOTS of dreamy, whimsical romance scenes and of course werewolves. Again my eyes rolled throughout most of this book. It also did not help that I audiobooked this title. Listening to the narrators, who granted did a great job with expression, read and act this book made me giggle. Needless to say, I will not continue this series like so many prior books.

Ok this is starting to sound bad. There are some good, redeeming qualities that I did like about Shiver. For one, Sam and Grace’s feelings for each other felt realistic to everyday teens. This includes their sexual relationship. Sam’s hesitance in the bedroom was kind of adorable and it was nice to have a guy’s voice talk about this subject. Secondly, everything about the story was incredibly descriptive. I could imagine the location and smells and temperature of the setting quite vividly and I feel this is Stiefvater’s strongest writing quality.

With the audiobook, the toughest part is that the book itself switches narrators between Sam and Grace; therefore, the audiobook also switches narrators. The problem is that most of the book Sam and Grace are in each other’s company and with multiple narrators you also have different narration styles. To clarify, this means that Sam’s narrator not only did his own character’s voice, but also had to occasionally convey Grace’s voice. The female narrator did Sam’s voice differently than the male narrator and the male narrator’s attempt at Grace’s caused some snickers. I know it is difficult to match the two and besides this one tiny problem, they did an excellent job with expression and engagement. Remember peeps, I have a hard time getting past some details.

The bottom line is that as a YA librarian, I would buy this series for my collection. Paranormal romances are still popular and I have been asked about this series by several teens even before I read it. Maggie Stiefvater is becoming a prominent YA author and has many other popular titles out there. If I make it to the selection for Virginia, I will be reading her work once more in The Raven Boys.

Peeps, I may need a YA break here so I am going to get an adult audiobook for next time. That’s 18 down, 32 more to go.

Maine: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

SUBTITLE: I’m not bothering with alphabetical order any more

Yes. I know. Maine before Kentucky or Louisiana? What is this chick doing? I was third on the wait list for Delirium and then it magically arrived for me earlier than expected. There is still a wait list for it, so I had to read it very quickly. Don’t worry, I will finish the other two. Unfortunately, I do have other books requiring my attention before I can even start those. But for now, onto Maine!

Synopsis via goodreads. Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.

My own synopsis: Lena (short for Magdalena) lives in a world where lovesick is not just metaphorical; it’s a physical ailment. The government of the United States has declared love a disease and blames it on the current, desolate situation. Scientists; however, have developed “the cure” which will render humans over the age of 18 docile and detached from the disease’s influence. No more crazy romance and no more pain. Children are raised to believe that Love is contagious and lethal. Lena is close to 17 and is ready for “the cure.” That is until she meets Alex who then shows her a different way…yadda, yadda, yadda. Come on people. You knew where this was going.

Oh YA dystopia. We meet again. This is the fifth one I have read this summer. In my personal layman opinion, the allure of the dystopian novel is the world that the author creates for the reader. A world in which, as the reader, we feel could exist or even currently exists in some respect. The corrupt government manipulating its people to become mindless drones all in the name of peace is prominent in these plots. It also feels rather relevant to our situation now-in-days. In dystopia, not only do we fall in love with a setting like Panem (Hunger Games), but we also fall in love with a hero/heroine. The problem that I, Ryn the Librarian, have with Delirium is my inability to connect with the world Oliver created.

The book felt formulaic. Girl lives in dystopia. Girl falls in love with the “wrong” boy. Girl learns that world isn’t what it seems. Girl reluctantly has to save the public from this dystopia.  Pretty much like any other YA series out there right now.

The other problem that I simply could not get past, was the concept of love as an ACTUAL disease needing a cure. Love is already used pretty poetically and thematic in books. The fact that Oliver is using love in the physical sense is bold, but in the end felt too silly and cheesy for me to enjoy. On the one hand, this fictional society felt like an exaggeration/commentary of prudish societies of the past and I found I could like it. On the other hand, I had difficulties getting through the premise of Love as a disease and it needed to be cured. This was the exact same problem I had with the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. Yep, I never finished Uglies because there are some concepts that Ryn the Librarian just can’t get through.

I have to remember that this book is not for me or my age demographic, it is for teens. If this were 1998-2005, I probably would have eaten this series up in a heartbeat. As an adult; however, I spent most of the book either snickering at the overdramatic declarations of love or rolling my eyes at the stages of amor deliria nervosa (the medical term for the love disease). I read portions out loud to my husband and we both roared with laughter.  Again, Delirium is not for late twenty-somethings.

Also, I have to remember that formulaic works for a lot of readers. If you find a series or author that you love, you want to read similar titles. The public loved Hunger Games, so now there are tons of Hunger Games-esque series. It was the same thing with Twilight and even Harry Potter before that. I know I have tried many different genres for myself and I know what I like in my books. It does tend to look similar over time.

If I had to rate this book out of 5 stars, I would say 3.5 to 4. There were aspects I liked about this book, but I could not suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy it. No matter how I feel, teens love this series. If you are a YA Librarian, you better get it for your collection. Just remember that doesn’t mean you have to read it.

33 more books to go!

Kansas: The Wizard of OZ by L. Frank Baum

Subtitle: Summer Reads
 

The Kansas selection from the Epic Reads blog post is a famous story despite many adults and children only recognizing it from the 1939 movie classic, starring Judy Garland. I am definitely one of these populations. I, however, thought it was a boring selection for Kansas. I mean come on! They are only in Kansas for like half a chapter right? So how could I actually make this interesting? I decided to attempt to investigate the readability of graphic novels. Well then the chronic non-finishing sets in and I didn’t finish it. I know, I KNOW! I have problems.

Here is the thing. I saw the movie so many times and even though I have not read the book, I know the differences as I got curious one day and went on glorious Wikipedia for some answers. Yeah everyone gives me flap for that, but it’s more accurate than Brittanica so I feel no guilt!

Anyways, I have decided to move on and do some “fun” reading while on a little vacay. I ended up reading Skinny by Donna Cooner.  First, I will say that this reads like a problem novel just like Laurie Halse Anderson style and is one which I suffered and sometimes still suffer constantly.  Skinny is the story of a girl, Ever Davies, who at the start of the book is 302lbs. After several attempts at dieting and an embarrassing situation at school, Ever decides on gastric bypass. The rest of the book is Ever losing weight, as well as, losing the voice that keeps holding her back from moving on…the voice goes by the name of Skinny.

This book isn’t just for those who feel constantly fat by the voice in their head, it is for anyone who hears a voice that says they are not good enough. I have a little voice like that and so do many of us. I attempt to ignore her and move on and so should you. I am here to say that the voice is NOT true for any of us, we are all wonderful. So tell that voice in your head to shut the eff up. This book is very well written and I recommend it for those like me who have that voice in their head.

Sorry for the short post, but I have more reading to accomplish. This means I have 34 more books to go!