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books

Cybils Sunday – Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

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Get ready for a Renaissance Faire, Dungeons & Dragons, peeing in the woods, and twenty-sided dice! Welcome to Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern.

Jessie Sloan is best friends with Char and Bizza as she begins her sophomore year of high school, and she’s been close with them forever. Jessie is a bit of an odd duck who loves wearing her own home made skirts, and her goal this year is to make enough skirts out of different fabrics so she never has to rewear a skirt.

But things between her and her friends aren’t peachy keen. Jessie is actually quite frustrated that her friends want to spend all of their time hanging out with her brother Barrett and his punk rock band friends at the local Denny’s, which is full of smoke and really boring conversation.

Bizza and Char transform into punk girls and spend the beginning of their new school year getting close with the punk boys, including Van: the guy who Jessie’s been crushing on for a long time. Bit he’s Bizza’s boy now, thanks to her transformation.

Jessie’s disappointed to find herself alone for what should have been a great school year. Rather than wallow in her own pity, though, Jessie chooses to befriend Dottie, the weird girl in her study hall. And we’re not just talking weird. We’re talking Weird — one of those kids who’s been labeled the weird one since elementary school. But once Jessie strikes up conversation, she really begins liking Dottie, who she learns has been dating a guy for quite a long time and is mega involved in the game Dungeons and Dragons with a slew of other kids at school. Will Jessie decide to give in and become a mega-nerd or will she spend her year trying to maintain her old, though beaten, friendships?

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder is a very, very funny book. Jessie encompasses the perfect high school tone: she is funny, culturally-aware (and a total book nerd who kept talking about books like Life as We Knew It and Elsewhere), sarcastic, and 100% realistic. She embraces her inner nerd prior to meeting Dottie and her D&D playing crew, as we see with her skirt obsession. But you know that obsession? It’s much more than Jessie thinks; it’s proof she has an enviable and valuable skill and knowledge that she’s actually appreciated for and which she can use to enjoy herself.

Beyond the strength of Jessie’s character is the development of a number of strong, well-executed subplots. Bizza and Van’s developing relationship leaves readers wondering what’s going on, seeing they begin getting very close immediately after Jessie herself had a tender moment with him. Is he cheating on Jessie or is he using Bizza? When Bizza is left friendless, she must turn to Jessie to escort her to a clinic …. to be tested for a possible STD. The pacing, dialog, and delicate atmosphere between Jessie and Bizza in this plot point were pitch perfect and absolutely believable. But you know what was best about it? It was not at all contrived, nor a plot aspect upon which characters dwell, nor something that makes readers roll their eyes in utter frustration. Instead, it’s quite compelling and the emotions Jessie and the other characters display are authentic. It doesn’t become all consuming.

Jessie’s relationship with her parents and her brother Barrett are fresh in the wake of terrible parents that seem to be invading YA lit. I found the relationship that developed between Jessie and Henry — one of the D&D boys — to be very sweet and their moment together at the Renaissance Faire tender and a bit drool-worthy. Oh, and also hilarious.

One of the issues that stuck in my head when I finished the book is one I am eager to discuss or hear opinions on, both those of the YA judging panel and our readers. It seemed to me in the end that Jessie becomes completely okay with who she is, and she embraces her multiple sides, her dorkiness, and her comfort with being uncomfortable. She makes it clear throughout the book she doesn’t aim to change anyone, which is precisely why her relationships with Bizza and Char stand as they do. But Jessie sure did judge Henry’s clothing choices … and in doing so, she drops many hints about him changing his style, especially since his mom did a poor job dressing him. At the very end, there is a moment when Jessie comments on him changing from sneakers to Chucks, thanks to her shopping trip. I almost felt like she took a back step here and decided to change Henry; she liked him, but she liked him more when she made his apparel choices so that he’d be less dorky and more to her acceptable standards.

Aside from that criticism and flaw in Jessie’s otherwise enviable character, I spent a long time thinking about audience. I really enjoyed this book, but I also am able to look at it from a perspective outside of high school and one in which I am widely-read and somewhat (emphasis on somewhat) culturally-aware. While Jessie will absolutely speak to teen readers who embrace themselves and who they are, I wrestled with how much broad appeal this title will have. It is a very funny book, but the humor is subtle. Good teen readers will eat this book up, though your average reader may not enjoy the subtlety. For readalikes, coming to my mind are Pete Hautman’s How to Steal a Car (the humor!), Abby McDonald’s Sophomore Switch (the fitting-in-without-friends factor), Donna Freita’s The Possibilities of Sainthood (loving and embracing who you are), and Melissa Walker’s Violet on the Runway or Lovestruck Summer (self-assured but humorous and wonderfully sarcastic leading girls). You know, that’s great company!

Thanks to the YA Fiction Cybils Panel for such a fantastic title on the short list. I hope that Halpern sees her book getting a ton of attention, as it is well-deserved. I eagerly await her next title (and I plan on going back to read her first book).

* These are entirely my opinions, not the rest of the judging committee’s.

Morris Nominees: Read and Reviewed!

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The Shortlist for the 2010 Morris Award was announced a few weeks ago, and Kim did a great job introducing each of the titles right here. I’ve finally had the opportunity to dig into each one of them!

Ash, by Malinda Lo

This retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist left me less than impressed. I found Ash’s character throughout the story uninteresting, and frankly, I felt that the entire lesbian twist came about suddenly and without any real meaning. Ash didn’t seem interested in a female-female relationship throughout, so the decision to have the story take that turn left me feeling like the heft of the story wasn’t succeeding quite as it should and needed something to make the pieces wrap up at the end. As a character, Ash was disappointingly boring, and I didn’t see why any of the secondary characters cared about her. She didn’t seem to give any thought or time into developing and sustaining those relationships; she just had them and there were never any challenges to those facts.

That said, I was also disappointed in the world building. For the entirety of the book, I never felt like I was being invited into a story; instead, I felt like I was being given a third-person account of a situation, without any feeling of being enveloped in a world. The back story dragged on much longer than necessary, and because they were displayed as facts (this is how it is) rather than pushed to be a real inviting storyline (this is why it is), I felt like an outsider unable to step into the story. The setting left me wanting a lot more, as well, since none of them seemed well enough delineated to differentiate among them.

For fans of retellings, this may work, but for lovers of fantasy and lush story telling, this is a disappointment. My feeling regarding its selection as a Morris nominee is, unfortunately, the fact there’s the lesbian twist. I feel like that element may have been given more weight and attention than the writing and world building itself. Since last year’s winner was a similar retelling (and had many of the same criticisms from other readers as I give this title), I suspect this may not be this year’s ultimate winner. You may want to bear in mind with my review that I am not a heavy fantasy reader, so my expectations in such a story may be widely apart from major readers in the genre. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this title!

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Kim wrote that this was “[a] huge doorstopper of a book advertised as a Southern gothic thriller with plenty of mystery and romance. Normally right up my alley, but I confess the length (626 pages!) is daunting.” Let me just confess: 626 were entirely unnecessary for this title!

The writing in Beautiful Creatures was gorgeous, fluid, and enveloping. The setting was wonderfully southern and gothic — something I adore in any book! Unfortunately, the overuse of elements and story lines grated on me as I struggled to understand the need for not only 626 pages but also forthcoming sequels.

The characters were uninteresting, particularly Ethan who did nothing but live for Lena, who was herself very boring. I didn’t care about their family history and I felt there was way too much happenstance. I mean, for 16 years nothing, absolutely nothing, leaked out about the history? Hard to imagine. Likewise, the library/librarian scenes were pandering to librarians and were painful to read. I’m very critical with books that dabble on too long about librarians or libraries because to me, it’s begging for those venues to then be very excited about the books. The only interesting character the entire book for me was Uncle Macon who we don’t learn enough about. Actually, Boo the dog was pretty interesting too. I wish we learned more about those two and less about Lena the Rain. With the way the story was built in its southern setting, I thought Macon and Boo deserved much more attention than they were given.

Ethan is no hunk nor droolworthy, unless you like a guy who has nothing going on except obsessing about other people. He needed to grow his own spine and interests. I’m not sure why this is being called such a great book, except perhaps because readers are excited they made it through such a long tome? It’s nothing special, and I’m kind of sad to feel that way. Definitely not worth the 626 page investment; this could have been done much more effectively (even capturing the same story!) in 1/2 of the pages.

To be entirely honest, I felt like this was trying hard to be the antithesis of Twilight: Ethan is the wirey, spineless character who lives for no one but Lena, much in the way that Bella does for her vampire. So maybe for readers of that series looking for something similar, this may fit the bill. It’s a bit more literary, but the romance plays out similarly.

The Everafter, by Amy Huntley

I listened to the audiobook version of The Everafter, and it killed me to have to stop listening when I would get to my destination. I really became involved in the story itself, and I found that the narrator, Tavia Gilbert, did a great job for the most part (though I found her portrayal of a 17-year-old a bit too old sounding and found the editing of the audiobook left a LOT to be desired in terms of sound quality….and not because of the story drifting from the afterlife to the past – that itself was quite clear).

The story line is both original and not — it reminded me a lot of the premise to both The Lovely Bones and Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, both titles I was unable to get through. But this title I had no issues getting through. Huntley writes fluidly and fully, developing not only a compelling character in Maddy, who exists in “IS,” but I felt her development of Gabe, Tammy, Sandra, and Sandra’s family fantastic.

This book has a bit of a mystery to it, but I knew immediately how it would end. Even with that knowledge, I still wanted to know what happened and what events came to cause Maddy to die at the age of 17, before she became an aunt. I found the notion of using lost objects to return to a place magical enough to be believable. I really fell into Maddy’s “IS” and real-life worlds and believe that there was a great balance among the two worlds, the mystery, and the character development to drive the narrative forward without dragging. Janssen reviewed it, too, and made the comment I would like to emphasize: this is a quick read and should not be anything more.

But here’s my criticism (and you knew it was coming): this isn’t all that original. Before I picked it up, I knew it was going to be like the two aforementioned titles that I didn’t like. So while I liked this one, I think it was because it was similar to the other two but “done right.” That, of course, means it was done correctly for ME as a reader. For those who loved either of the other two, though, this might be just a copy cat attempt. I wish I could sit in on the Morris committee meeting just to hear the discussion from those on either side of this camp.

Flash Burnout, by LK Madigan

Like Kim, this was the title I was least excited about because the description was kind of vague. But you know what? This was, hands down, my favorite of the five.

Flash Burnout is a story about choices in life when it comes to relationships; in this particular instance, it’s a story about Blake deciding between his super hot girlfriend and a girl with whom he develops a close friendship. But it doesn’t transpire as you expect, especially given that summary and the introduction to who Blake is.

When I began the book, I absolutely hated Blake. He reminded me of a stereotypical boy who cares nothing about people but instead was dating Shannon because of her totally hot body. He obsesses with looks, and he’s not shy about being a complete jerk about it. But perhaps that was what the charm was: Blake wasn’t afraid to be himself. And as the story progresses and we watch him get stuck into a pretty tricky situation with two girls, he doesn’t stray from his real heart and desire to be a good guy. I’m ultimately thrilled with how Blake ended up in the end of the book, and I felt like his cheerleader throughout the course of the story.

Like The Everafter, I felt LK Madigan did a great job creating secondary characters. Shannon and Melissa are believable girls, who are both total opposites and quite similar. I thought that the multiple story lines hidden within the story — those of photography, loss, love, and the drive for “getting lucky,” — worked together smoothly without being trite. The dialog is really well done and definitely screams teen. There have been a lot of books lately where the dialog falls so flatly, but this one does NOT disappoint. This may be the precise reason why Blake is such a great character who you can’t help but love and hate: he speaks realistically, and not the way we just hope he’d talk. The final scenes include photography backdrop and his last photo exhibit , and they were brilliantly connected to the entire story.

Criticizing this title was a little hard, but if I had to make any, it would be that Blake doesn’t take himself seriously enough. There are a lot of missed opportunities in terms of how the story could have shaped up, but perhaps it comes back to Blake being such a great character because of his faults. And being frank here, the premise, like that of The Everafter is not entirely original or unique. Boys and girls have relationship issues like this, and there are a million books on that. Likewise, I think audience on this title will be hard to find: it’s a little crude for most “girl” readers (those who like to read girl-centric books) and it’s too invested in emotion for most “boy” readers. It’s not a mystery and it’s not a fantasy or science fiction. It’s not a problem novel nor a real coming of age story. It’s a bit of a romance, but it’s not a traditional one, either. I love books that fall into this nether land, but they are ultimately tough to sell. I would, however, LOVE to see this one take home the Morris to raise its awareness. The buzz will help it find the right audience.

Hold Still, by Nina LaCour

I’ve already read and reviewed this one, and I did so before the Morris short list. You can read that review here.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this title, but I suspect it was short listed because it’s an issue book. Although I think it never coalesced well, I know there were a lot of fans, and I do think there is teen appeal here (however unrealistic I found the entire premise and however much I absolutely did not care about Caitlin or Ingrid).

So that said, I’m a little let down in the choices overall. I felt like some of the books were chosen due to hype and marketing (Beautiful Creatures has had incredible marketing, which you best believe contributes to titles being read and considered for award nominations) and I felt others were chosen because of their clear appeal to the target audience. I’m disappointed that other knock out first-time authors didn’t get their time in the limelight….but that’s where other awards like the Cybils, BBYA, and others come in, right?

Have you read any of them now? What do you think deserves to win? Do you disagree with my thoughts? I’d love to hear them!

What do you think of the list? Had you heard of most of these books before the shortlist was announced? I’m actually quite surprised that I had – that was not the case last year.

Cybils short list

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New Year’s Day brings relaxation, renewal, goal setting, and the Cybils short list! Here’s the link to check them all out.

I’m absolutely thrilled about the short list for Young Adult Fiction. There is recognition going out to titles that deserve it. We’ll know in a little over a month who will win the award in each category.

What do you think of the short lists? Any surprises? Any disappointments?

Frankly, I think the YA list is one of the most diverse lists I’ve seen of many awards contenders.

Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

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If you don’t get the cover or the title, then this book probably isn’t something you’ll understand completely and many of the not-so-subtle jokes will be so lost on you. Elizabeth Eulberg’s debut young adult novel The Lonely Hearts Club will no doubt leave young Beatles fans with something to swoon over.

Penny Lane Bloom — yes, that’s her real name — has been close to Nate her entire life. They grew up close and finally, the summer before her junior year of high school when her parents are out of the house, she’s ready to have the sex with him he’s been subtly pressuring her into for a while. But when she sneaks downstairs, he’s there with another girl.

Penny Lane isn’t happy and she isn’t going to take it. She decides she’s going to begin her own club, just her and herself, called (you guessed it) The Lonely Hearts Club. The rules? No more dating for the rest of high school.

When school begins just days later, she begins noticing a change in her former-but-no-longer friend Diane, who’d always been attached to Ryan, her boyfriend since 7th grade. Diane suddenly wants to be friends with Penny Lane again, and it isn’t long before Penny Lane decides to give this a shot … if for no other reason than to get the dirt on why Ryan and Diane broke up after all of those seemingly happy years together.

It’s then that Penny Lane confesses about her club, and Diane asks to join. Of course, it doesn’t take long for a slew of other girls, fed up with the boys in their small school, to take part in this club, either. The club’s mission is to establish camaraderie among the girls and to feel empowered. They spend their Saturday nights together, and they gain strength from one another to do things outside their comfort zone — Diane, for example, quits the cheerleading squad, which has always been “her thing,” and chooses to try out for the basketball team.

But when Ryan begins to make his feelings clear toward Penny Lane, what will become of the Lonely Hearts Club?

The Lonely Hearts Club was a very cute read, with an interesting, albeit conflated and confusing, pro-feminist flavor to it. It recently had its rights picked up as a film. I liked Eulberg’s writing style a lot, as it made the book fly for me. Penny Lane was a fun character who, I think, was a realistic portrayal of a girl caught between wanting to swear off the male population completely and wanting to find a good guy to date. I think that this will indeed make a great movie, as the writing style Eulberg has is just conducive to that. The Beatles references throughout made a nice motif, as well, and where it could have gone overboard quite easily, I think there was enough going on elsewhere to not make it overkill. This is a nice stand alone book that will be one many girls can relate to.

However.

I had a lot of issues with the book, too. First and foremost, the pacing did not work. Penny Lane begins her club when her junior year begins, but it takes only a couple of weeks before there are hordes of girls begging to be a part of this. Her friendship with Diane is cemented way too quickly, and the book wrapped up by the end of the first semester, with the group that was all about feminism and swearing off guys deciding its okay, actually, to date guys. It happened too quickly to be anywhere near realistic and too quickly to be authentic. Oh, and her parents, while they were supportive, were also clueless, flat, and went along with anything she did.

There were a number of subplots that happened, too, that were impacted by this pacing. There was a member of the club, her name being Kat or Kate (the ancillary characters in this title are all the same, so I can’t remember her name) develops an eating disorder that’s quickly mentioned. By the end of one month’s time, she’s suddenly healed. No one seems to care, either, about the issue at all, other than the two times it’s mentioned very casually. Can I remind you that I just read Hungry and myself, along with the entirety of teendom, also read Wintergirls and know this isn’t in any way realistic? It seemed like there was a huge missed opportunity here or it seemed like the author felt or was told she needed to have an “issue” thrown in. I’m not sure, but it really bothered me and I wish those six sentences (that may be a liberal estimate) could have been edited out.

Likewise, the principal character decided he didn’t like the club and rather than discuss this with Penny Lane alone, he calls her parents in for a conference about her behavior. He also decides to ruin a fundraiser that the club spearheaded to raise money for the basketball team (wait, isn’t it the case that sports are already funded well at high schools and yet no one had a problem with this at all?) but he himself kept a secret organization that asked the students what they wanted out of their school because his student council wasn’t good enough. Ryan was a part of this secret club, but we never hear more about it — I was expecting that the principal’s dislike for the club and his interest in input from students like Ryan would have something to do with my next issue of the blatant disrespect of the males in school. Weird. Just weird.

Okay, now my big beef: feminism is not about hating boys. Throughout the very quick book and way-too-quick school semester, Penny Lane and all of her friends in the Club have a misconception about feminism. They believe that it is all about hating boys. Not just that, but they believe all boys are out to get them and are jerks, tools, slobs, and cheats. They’re flat our disrespectful. Although by the end they have a bit of a change of heart, I think this message could be dangerous. To be quite honest, it felt to me like The Lonely Hearts Club was trying to be the antithesis of Twilight — whereas Bella becomes a tool for a boy, these girls just went to bat believing ALL boys were going to treat them as tools and thus, they should swear them off and treat them like dirt. I cannot believe Ryan let these girls treat him the way they did when we as readers were not given any reason why he should be treated poorly. In fact, there’s an excellent scene in the book (perhaps my favorite), where Diane begins to talk about her and Ryan’s decision not to have sex during their lengthy relationship. I felt like Ryan was actually a stand-up guy for the decision!

I know that the girls figure it out in the end that not all boys are jerks, but it takes a very long time (250 pages) to get to this conclusion. This isn’t feminism; this is man-hating. This isn’t empowerment we should be teaching girls; this is blatant hatred and mistrust.

But for all of my gripes, I’ll say this would be a fantastic book club choice for an all-girls book club. There is a lot to discuss in this title, particularly when it comes to things like relationships, feminism, empowerment, and blazing one’s own path in life. This book actually reminded me quite a bit of Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials in terms of lessons learned. I am curious to see how this one plays out on the big screen. Since Eulberg’s worked on Stephenie Meyer’s saga, I’m curious what sorts of parallels we may see happening.

I look forward, too, to seeing where Eulberg may go with a next novel, and I really hope things like the awkward pacing, flat secondary characters, problem-introducing-and-rapid-resolution-with-no-sympathy-from-the-main-characters, and other issues don’t hurt the movie. This is a book that will definitely have appeal to teens, but those of us a little removed from that (and I’ll be honest to say I’m not THAT much removed from then!) may be disappointed. Other bloggers, including The Compulsive Reader and Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews have absolutely loved this one.

The Lonely Hearts Club hits stores December 29. Keep your eyes on our site over the next couple of weeks. You’re going to see this book mentioned another time or two!

2009 Picks

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There are a ton of “best of” lists floating around this year. I have a hard time choosing a best of anything, simply because I haven’t read everything and don’t want to make a decision when I could read something written in 2009 in, oh, 2011, and be disappointed I didn’t add it. Likewise, the reading experience itself changes as you read more and become a better reader.

So instead, I’m just going to give brief shout outs to some of my favorite 2009 reads this year. Many of these were not top-of-the-listers from their respective publishers or didn’t quite get the buzz they deserved. Although many of the other lists I’ve seen lately have had a lot of really great books on them, to me, they’re all the same books (you know I really liked Lips Touch but it’s been on everyone’s top list and it makes me wonder if people really consider their OWN favorites, rather than crowd favorites. Oh, and don’t get me started on Marcelo, which you already know my feelings on. But I digress…). These are all young adult picks; my adult reading this year mostly consisted of a few classics and a lot of non-fiction that either fell far from high opinion (Methland will be the topic of a future post about misinformation and the absolute importance of fact-checking) or was something that no one else would be interested in me gushing about (I love reading books about real estate, business, and finance, ok?).

In no particular order:


How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford really blew me away. It was absolutely original and the writing itself was fluid and gorgeous. I heard someone describe this as an indie hit of books. This is a fantastic story of friendship and of loss, as well as family and how family goes through cycles because each individual does, as well. I love the relationships here, particularly the one Jonah has to Matthew — to the idea of Matthew and what that relationship does to him as a person. I love Bea’s position as a person on the outside and on the inside of both Jonah’s relationship to Matthew and the relationship he has with himself. It’s so pitch perfect and moving.

I felt like this book was just different from so much that’s out there right now. There’s a lot of depth but there’s not necessarily a lesson to be learned: it’s a moment – a year in the life of Bea – that has a lot of meaning and power but at the end the main character realizes that it is indeed one year of many and that that helps shape who she is. She is and is not Robot Girl, just as Jonah is and is not Ghost Boy.

The use of a radio show and characters was beautiful and unique, but not unique enough that teens won’t “get” it. This was something so modern, even though it takes place via radio – we all have these networks outside our physical place and all of these people shape us as we shape them. The ending conversations nearly brought me to tears because they were so powerful. Add to that the notion of the boy behind the camera rather than the boy in front of it also worked really well for me.

What really made this a great read was that it never once felt like Standiford was trying too hard. Sometimes an author or artist just tries to hard to make things work, but in this book, it felt like things just tied together well. It was clearly a well-planned book but it wasn’t oversculpted nor manicured to a point. It was left with enough room to make connections and pull together ties for each reader to take away something personal.


Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker. I’ve already reviewed this one in depth. Since that review, I’ve taken every opportunity to talk this bad boy because it never got reviewed in a professional journal, which kills me. Sure it looks girly, but it is so much more. I recently talked this one to a group of 9th graders, and it went out….not only did it go out, but my co-talker said she’d never otherwise pick it up but is now interested. I’ve already mentioned, too, what I think is a turnoff on this one, but if you are able to look past it, you’re in for a real treat here. I’m dying to get my hands on Walker’s Violet on the Runway series, but it’s hard to come by. It’s on my 2010 to-read list for sure.

Ruined by Paula Morris is one I read recently that continues to stick with me. This is a ghost story, set in Lafayette Cemetery in post-Katrina New Orleans. I’m going to be honest, though, and say that it’s not the mystery or the ghost story that appealed to me; it was Morris’s absolutely enthralling descriptions of New Orleans and the history of Mardi Gras. What she weaves into a story that has massive teen appeal is something much deeper and more intriguing for adults. Setting plays such a huge role in this story, and Morris is able to make the city such a vivid character here. This isn’t to say that the entire plot, driven on the idea of spirits wandering the city, particularly after the disaster, isn’t interesting because it sure is. I’m not a mystery, ghost, or supernatural reader, but this one definitely did it for me, and it did it for me in a big way.


An Off Year by Claire Zulkey didn’t really give me a lot of emotions, to be honest, but that’s the point. Cecily and her dad drove from their home in the Chicago area to Ohio, where she’d be beginning her freshman year of college. We all remember those days, right? Well, Cecily decides when she gets there that she’s not actually ready and oh, hey, could she just go back home? Dad agrees to this, and the book follows as Cecily struggles to figure out who she is and why she made that decision.

There is not much action in this book, and frankly, Cecily did a lot of sitting around, whining, and picking fights. But as the book progresses, as a reader you really pull for her to figure herself out. Cecily is a little bit of all of us and I felt that Zulkey did a great job of making her totally human. And the lack of real plot is perfect because it’s realistic — but don’t worry. Cecily kind of figures something out at the end of her year, and it’s not a fabulous trip to Europe taken like many gap year kids.


Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson is another one I’ve already reviewed, but it fits my bill here. This book is hilarious and spot-on in narration of a teen boy. I’ve read a couple other books trying to fit the voice of a teen boy, and they have just not done it for me (Carter Finally Gets It made Carter a total jerk and I think it was trying far too hard with being funny and Two Parties, One Tux, and a Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath was just a bit too forgettable). But James Hoff? Yep, he’s a teen boy and really, really funny….because he’s not trying to be.

That’s it folks, my five favorites of 2009. I’ve got a couple more 2009er’s in my currently reading pile, too, including Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis (totally underrated and one that while I enjoy now, I would have absolutely eaten up as a teen, even though I have a contention with some poor editing [articles missing in more than one instance in sentences]) and Beautiful Creatures….and Along for the Ride, which I’ll likely go audio on.

I’m already thinking about the titles I’m excited about for 2010, but I also try not to get myself worked up about forthcoming titles because it’s this hidden gems that need to be uncovered and discovered.

What do you think? Do you agree/disagree or have any other favorites?