014. The Giver by Lois Lowry
Publication: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (April 26, 1993), ebook, 210pp / ISBN 0440237688
Genre: YA Sci-fi/Dystopia

Read: January 24, 2012
Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Review

I’ve put off reading this book for FOREVER, mainly because I really hate the cover. That old dude? Makes me think of The Cay. And The Cay? Made me cry my eyes out when I was in fifth grade. I hate crying, and I thought The Giver would make me cry, so I stayed away. Simple!

Since I’m a big girl now, though, I figured I could read The Giver and I’d be okay. And I was. And I also kind of wondered what the big deal about this book is. I mean, I liked it. I just don’t see why people are going nuts over this book, which is what happened to some of my friends in high school when they read The Giver for the first time.

The author

I suppose nowadays we’re so used to YA dystopias that the quiet dystopias, the kind of dystopia that’s in The Giver, doesn’t make as much of an emotional impact that it would have done if I’d read this way before I’d read every other YA dystopian book I’ve read. And maybe that’s why the dystopia in The Giver is so insidious: it’s quiet, and sneaky, and I even caught myself thinking “well, that doesn’t sound so bad” a few times. I knew it was a dystopia, but it’s not the overtly evil kind of dystopia that we’re used to, and that kind of threw me off.

Which is good, don’t you think? It makes the reveal (that the utopia is actually a dystopia) that much more creepy. On the other hand, since I’m so used to excitingly evil dystopias, the bland kind of dystopia is…well…bland. Not that bland equals bad, necessarily! Just that it doesn’t make me jump up and down with excitement. No-one dies horrible, no-one’s being chased out of the community, everyone’s equal and well-fed and basically happy. There’s no dissent or unhappiness until Jonas becomes the Receiver, and even then– it’s only two people¹ out of how many others living there?

Compared to some other dystopians, this one’s relatively tame.

Still, despite the fact that I thought the dystopian society was boring, I did like The Giver. I liked the writing, and the characters, and I like the whole slow reveal of the utopia’s rotten underbelly. I especially liked the details of the utopia/dystopia, how it’s set up and how the people live in it, though that’s probably just because I have an interest in background technical-y stuff of sci-fi worlds. So, despite the low key dystopia, it’s still a darned good book with an interesting story and not-too-shabby characters. I’m just not madly in love with The Giver, and, you know what? I’m okay with that.

Rating

I liked it!

Buy

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Other reviews

The Cheap Reader: “The world building is on the simpler side because it is a short book and it is a children’s book. That doesn’t stop the world from being fairly complex though. I like the way that the story started out as almost a utopia. Everything seems so perfect, you almost start considering what it would be like to live in that situation. Soon enough the cracks start to appear.”

The Novel World: ” I think adults reading this book will be disappointed, expecting more depth. There were a few areas where Lowry could have expanded, namely with Jonas’ family and friends. They came across as vague and two-dimensional. Then again, maybe that was Lowry’s intent, to highlight the changes in Jonas before and after his time with The Giver.”

Miss Remmers’ Review: “I like the characters and (while at first the plot moved slowly) I could relate to the plot in an analytical sense. I loved how a part of me, like Jonas, believed that his society or community was perfect but then as the pieces began to fall apart and Jonas’ eyes were (quite literally) opened – my eyes were opened as well.”

Notes

Credit
The author’s photo comes from a random Google search thing. It’s not mine! Book cover comes from Amazon. It’s not mine, either.

Footnotes

REVIEW: The Giver by Lois Lowry is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

The book: I’m about halfway through Vesper by Jeff Sampson, and I mostly like it. I’m not sure why, but I always seem to treat books starring women written by a male authors more harshly than I do books with male protagonists written by female authors. Maybe I’m more worried about the former screwing something up? Don’t know.

Anyway, Vesper‘s a YA paranormal book but there doesn’t seem to be much romance going on so far, which is promising. There IS something being hinted at that might be soulmate related, but I’m not entirely sure yet.

The tea: Oh Earl Grey, how I miss you. Random “relax” tea? You’re no good at all!

Do they go together? Blah, not really. There’s a lot of action and thrills and stuff in Vesper; relaxing tea doesn’t fit in really well with that.

Other tea drinkers

Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!

Thursday Tea (Jan. 26): Vesper is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

011. Planet Janet by Dyan Sheldon
Publication: Candlewick (February 1, 2003), Hardcover, 240pp / ISBN 0763620483
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 20-21, 2012
Source: Used Bookstore

Review

Diaries-as-books are some of my favorite things, and I especially like reading teenage diaries. Maybe because I find them so funny nowadays? Teenagers can be melodramatic and selfish and very silly– and Janet’s all those things. In a funny way, of course! Well, mostly funny.

The funny bits stem primarily from Janet’s complete inability to understand what’s going on around her. She’s 16, convinced she needs to go through a “Dark Phase” (which consists mainly of listening to jazz, wearing black clothes, and thinking deep thoughts) before she gets any older, and in despair of her very uncool family. Luckily she’s got a diary where she can write everything down!

The author

So Janet’s basically a normal teen who thinks her family is weird and that she’s super special and that her friends are the best people ever. Which is adorable! And also hilarious, the way Dyan Sheldon write it. And, also, kind of annoying, if that sort of thing annoys rather than entertains you.

I’ll admit that while I was entertained for the most part, I was annoyed with Janet for being such a dunderhead. She’s so self-involved that she doesn’t realize her parents are going through big problems, that her brother is being stalked, and that she’s being fought over by two of her friends. I didn’t find it particularly charming, either, that her codename for her mother was “The Mad Cow.”

Sometimes it’s nice when the reader realizes things that the protagonist doesn’t, and then we see the protagonist realize those things and it changes them, etc. But when Janet finally figured all that stuff out, it didn’t change her at all! Which is a shame, because some character growth at the end would have been very refreshing. I like my comedy books with a bit more depth, I suppose.

Still, Planet Janet is a cute book, with some fun plotlines and a great setting (London!). The characters are all ridiculous, but in a lovable kind of way, and while I don’t think it’s as LOL-funny as some other YA diary books it’s still pretty entertaining. I’d read the sequels!

Rating

I liked it!

Buy

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Notes

Re:the mad cow thing, from the author’s website:

I have the sneaking suspicion that the idea for this book came to me when my daughter rediscovered her teenage diaries and though I never read them, she did let slip that I was often referred to as “The Mad Cow”. I don’t know how terrifically funny I would have found this at the time, but now that I could see this was merely the exaggeration of adolescence I thought it was pretty hilarious. (source)

Credit
The author’s photo comes from Goodreads. It’s not mine! Book cover comes from Amazon. It’s not mine, either.

REVIEW: Planet Janet by Dyan Sheldon is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

007. I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Julie Dawn Cole & Michael Esslinger
Publication: BearManor Media / Ocean View Publishing (July 12, 2011), ebook, 252pp / ISBN 1593930747
Genre: Memoir

Read: January 13-14, 2012
Source: Freebie

Review

Memoirs from celebrities are, I think, always hit-or-miss, and this one is sort of between the two. It’s not a bad book, necessarily, it’s just that it’s kind of boring. The writing is bland and though it’s interesting to learn more about JDC and the other people from the movie, it’s not as entertaining a read as, say, William Shatner’s memoir about Star Trek is. The best part of the book is probably the pictures and memorabilia, however. JDC included some letters she wrote her family from the set of Willy Wonka, and they’re adorable and funny and really fun to read.

Rating

It was an okay read.

Buy

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009. Ghost College by Scott Nicholson & J.R. Rain
Publication: self-published (year?), ebook, 68pp / no isbn
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Read: January 15, 2012
Source: Freebie

Mini-Review

I don’t think I remembered that this was a novella when I started reading it, which is probably why I was so surprised at how quickly the mystery/action resolved itself! I think this could totally be expanded into a longer book, which might help with the problem I had with the switch from the “is something really happening” part into the “yes, something’s happening” part. It’s abrupt and kinda ruins the suspense.

Besides that, I did enjoy reading it. I loved the protagonists– they’re so cute!– and I like the idea of paranormal investigators actually finding paranormal stuff. It seems like a fun series and the writing isn’t bad, and I’d read more from either author.

Rating

Not bad! I didn’t notice any typos or other weird stuff you sometimes find in self-pub’d books, either.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

010. The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum
Publication: originally published 1880, ebook, 45pp / no isbn
Genre: Financial advice

Read: January 15-16, 2012
Source: Freebie (it’s public domain)

Mini-Review

I read this merely because I was tired of modern stuff and wanted something different, and this is the first thing I stumbled upon when looking around the iBookstore. Basically? It’s Ye Olde Financial Advice from P.T. Barnum, who I suppose would be the one to go to when wanting to learn more about getting money. The hilarious thing is that the tips he gives– don’t spend more than you earn, keep your debt down– and exactly the same sorts of tips that modern financial advisers tell people. So does that say more about them, or about us?

Rating

Maybe not as entertaining as you’d think it be coming from P.T. Barnum.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Project Gutenberg for free!

MINI-REVIEWS: I Want it Now!, Ghost College, The Art of Money Getting is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

Previous tips:
Tip #1: Don’t try to do everything all at once.
Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to make friends.

BEA! Not my photo.

Tip #3: Interact with other bloggers (outside of your blog).

This is sort of related to tip #2, but in a more general way. You probably won’t be able to be friends with everybody, but even casual acquaintanceship is nice when you want to be part of a community. A really great way to become a casual acquaintance is to talk to people on Twitter. Even if you only spend half an hour a day talking to people, that half an hour will reap a lot of benefits. You’ll learn about new events, find interesting articles and blog posts, get to know your fellow bloggers a tiny bit better, and (and maybe this is most important), other bloggers will get to know you, too.

I’d also recommend trying to interact with other bloggers offline, too. Not everyone can do this, because not everyone has the resources or the time/money to go to books events, but if you can get to something like BEA or ALA or even a local book event where other bloggers will be, it’ll be SUCH an amazing thing for your blogger life. Just being around other people who identify as book bloggers and who go through the same frustrations and exciting things you do– physically, in the same space, being around them!– will give you a huge boost of confidence. It’s great!

How do you interact with other bloggers outside of your blog?

Tips for newbie bloggers (3) is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

So this past week has been pretty shitty. Why? Because of reasons. Something went wonky at the PO and two of my packages got sent back– including one that I’m pretty sure won’t be refunded, so I’m out $30. I lost my iPod Touch somewhere in a mall somewhere, and no-one’s going to return it even if I ask on Craigslist. And we might not be getting the condo we want that’s basically perfect for all the things we want/need. Also everyone’s at ALA midwinter and I’m besieged by jealousy.

But! We might still get the condo after all (no news yet), Alita is sending me her signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars (thank you, Alita!), and basically everything on my iPod Touch is replacable (and I wanted a updated version anyway). Plus I’m going to ALA annual! So it’s not TOO terrible. Just mostly terrible.

It’s been so terrible I haven’t even really been wanting to read books, which you know is a bad sign. On the other hand, buying books when I’m blue almost always cheers me up! I’m trying to not buy a buttload of paper books right now since we’re still between homes, but I found a lot of ebooks on sale the other day and I went NUTS with my Amazon gift cards. For $1 a book I won’t even feel bad if the books I bought turn out to suck! But I don’t think they’ll suck. So yay for having new books to read! I listed what I bought below, btw.

Besides books, Cute Roulette is extremely cheering. Thanks, Alison, for letting me know about it!

What sort of things cheer you up when you feel like a soggy paperback?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
009. Ghost College – Scott Nicholson & J.R. Rain [rating: 2.5] e
010. The Art of Money Getting – P.T. Barnum [rating: 2] e
011. Planet Janet – Dyan Sheldon [rating: TBD]

Books reviewed this week:
004. Graffiti Moon – Cath Crowley [rating: 4] e
006. Street Dreams – Tama Wise [rating: 2] e

Books acquired this week:

• The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood (bought).
• Vesper by Jeff Sampson (bought).
• Entwined by Heather Dixon (bought).
• The Unidentified by Rae Mariz (bought).
• Withering Tights by Louise Rennison (bought).
• Breathless by Jessica Warman (bought).
• American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman (bought).
• Planet Janet by Dyan Sheldon (bought from a UBS!).

Currently reading:
I’m still making my way through Jane Eyre. Hoping to finish it today! I want to read some of the new books I got next.

The Sunday Salon (Jan. 22): The “this week sucks” edition is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

Happy Saturday! It’s raining over here but in a gentle, almost nice sort of way. I’m still making my way through Jane Eyre, although I may have to start skimming because I’m at the part where Rochester is all gooey over Jane and it’s kind of boring compared to the rest of the book.

Meanwhile, here’s some interesting stuff I found online this week. Click images to go to their source!

Interview: Eloisa James, author of ‘The Duke is Mine’:

Of course, we can (and must) tell off people who seem retrogressively prone to dismissing romance as a genre written by foolish and uneducated women and read by the same. It’s just not true! But there’s an aspect other than simple prejudice that I find interesting: The field of romance writing is one of few great meritocracies in America. It doesn’t really matter if a good author has a Ph.D. or a GED: In fact, education is pretty useless when it comes to creating a gripping, sigh-worthy romance novel. So your question about why people are surprised when they find out that lots of romance authors are super smart not only reflects misogyny in America, but also the fact that some of the best romance writers are super smart, but never bothered to get a degree.

The First Five Days on Goodreads @ CuddleBuggery. Drama! Just in case you don’t know what’s been going on at Goodreads lately.

Commonplace Post (18) is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

006. Street Dreams by Tama Wise
Publication: Bold Strokes Books (March 13, 2012), eARC, 264pp / ISBN 1602826501
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 11-12, 2012
Source: NetGalley

This book will be released on March 13, 2012!

Review

The problem (if it can be called a “problem”) with reading so many great books in a short amount of time is that the books that aren’t great but are still good seem even less good than they normally would if they’d were read after a streak of sucky books. Do you know what I mean? Street Dreams isn’t a bad book. I just wasn’t as wowed with it as I wanted to be.

Tyson Rua has more than his fair share of problems growing up in South Auckland. Working a night job to support his mother and helping bring up his two younger brothers is just the half of it. His best friend Rawiri is falling afoul of a broken home, and now Tyson’s fallen in love at first sight.

Only thing is, it’s another guy.

Living life on the sidelines of the local hip-hop scene, Tyson finds that to succeed in becoming a local graffiti artist or in getting the man of his dreams, he’s going to have to get a whole lot more involved. And that means more problems. The least of which is the leader of the local rap crew he’s found himself running with. Love, life, and hip-hop never do things by half. (Summary from Amazon).

I liked Tyson! He’s got a lot of problems and he doesn’t always know what to do, and sometimes he’s too dependent on a dream of an imaginary savior who’ll fix things for him, but I liked that about him. He’s got faults! I love characters who have faults that they have to work through! I also liked the characters surrounding Tyson– especially the adorable dude who ends up as Tyson’s boyfriend. They all felt like very real people to me, warts and all.

The author

That said, despite the fact that I liked the characters, and the music/art stuff was very interesting (especially since it was centered around local New Zealand artists), for some reason I wasn’t blown away with the book as a whole. It’s a very low-key book, and I think it was overshadowed by the non-low-key books I read immediately before it. That’s not Street Dreams‘ fault, and in fact I feel pretty bad that I don’t love it more, but, well.

It’s not a bad book, remember! In fact, if you want to read more GLBTQ books, or books set in non-US places written by non-US authors, or books with POC characters, then Street Dreams fits perfectly.

Rating

It was okay.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Other reviews

QueerYA: ” The setting is intriguing and almost otherworldly for American-centric readers like me: who even knew New Zealand had a hip-hop scene? Asides about local vs. American rap and the difficulties moving from notebook art to spray-painting add even more interest. Recommended.”

Notes

So I got tired of writing summaries! Sometimes I spent more time writing the summaries than I did the review. Obviously I don’t have a future in back-cover copy…

Anyway, do y’all like the summaries better above the review, or inside the review? Let me know!

Credit
The author’s photo comes from Goodreads. It’s not mine! Book cover comes from Amazon. It’s not mine, either.

REVIEW: Street Dreams by Tama Wise is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

The book: I’m a little over halfway done with Jane Eyre and I’m loving it! It’s so much better than I thought it’d be. Starting with Anne Bronte was, probably, a mistake. Agnes Grey? Ain’t got nothing on Jane Eyre.

Interesting tidbit! I think some of the nasty kids from Agnes Grey are in Jane Eyre! They even talk about one of their governesses being named “Grey.” Isn’t that neat? So reading Agnes Grey first wasn’t all that bad after all.

The tea: I found a huge box of Earl Grey for a relatively good price the other day, but I resisted! And instead I choked down a cup of White Christmas tea that I’d brought with me from New Mexico. Ugh.

Do they go together? Yes! And I’ll tell you why: just like how I hate the taste of White Christmas tea, Jane (when she was a kid) hated her aunt and cousins and so on! So they totally match. Right.

Other tea drinkers

Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!

Thursday Tea (Jan. 19): Jane Eyre is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

004. Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Publication: Knopf Books for Young Readers (February 14, 2012), originally published 2010 in Australia, eARC, 273pp / ISBN 0375869530
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 7, 2012
Source: NetGalley

This book will be released in the US on February 14, 2012!

Review

Thanks to Pam for tweeting about this last month! She mentioned that it was available on NetGalley, and as soon as I read the summary I knew I had to read it.

It’s the last day of year twelve and Lucy wants to do something radical before it’s over. She wants to meet Shadow, a graffiti artist she’s been pseudo-stalking for two years and who paints some of the best art she’s ever seen. “Shadow” is actually Ed, who just wants to get enough money to pay rent for the month. He’s got a way of getting it but it means the possibility of going to jail– and of cutting off any dreams of a future in art. When Lucy recruits Ed to help her find Shadow, they go on wacky adventures do a lot of awesome things that I can’t describe in one paragraph or less.¹

The author

So, basically, this is what I wanted Brooklyn, Burning to be. I sort of liked BB, but there was just something about it that didn’t click with me. Everything in Graffiti Moon clicked, and it clicked in an almost perfect way. Like The Green Man, Graffiti Moon is about art, poetry, and the people who exist within them. Unlike The Green Man, Graffiti Moon‘s magic comes entirely from the people who inhabit the book. I think anyone who’s watched a John Hughes movie knows what a perfect day and/or night is like when you’re a teen, even if you’ve never experienced one for yourself. Graffiti Moon could totally be a John Hughes movie, and now that I’ve compared GM to at least three other things I suppose it’s time to start talking about the book for its own merits.

Yeah! Graffiti Moon is an AMAZING book. It’s thrilling in the way that your first crush is thrilling. And the characters? Yeah. Totally adorable. I also love that art and making art plays such a big role in the book, especially in the unconventional way it does. Lucy loves glassmaking and Ed loves graffiti! Also, there is poetry. Also, and I’ve mentioned this before, but they’re all adorable people.

Slice of life stuff is something I really enjoy, but I know it annoys some people. There’s not much action besides whatever’s happening in the character’s hearts, and the character development is usually slower and less dramatic than in other genres. But I like slice of life stories because the people in them are usually extremely relatable, and the adventures they have always seem like adventures I could be having, if I were friends with them. And when the writing is as good as Cath Crowley’s, the low action isn’t a problem because you get enthralled in the littlest of things, and it’s ALL exciting.

If you like John Green’s books, you’d like Graffiti Moon. If you like books about people who work through their problems with help from their friends and the events around them, you’d like Graffiti Moon. If you like books that focus on a single important day (or night) in a person’s life and how that short time span affects them for the rest of their life, then you’d like Graffiti Moon. Or, heck! If you just like darned good writing, Graffiti Moon is the book for you!

Rating

There was a speedbump near the end that threw me off for a while, but overall it’s an excellent book.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Other reviews

Good Books and Good Wine: “Cath Crowley’s writing style is gorgeous and seems to follow this trend I kinda noticed where all the Aussie authors I read are unbelievably good. When you read Graffiti Moon, you should let the words and the prose wrap around you and immerse yourself in the experience because Crowley’s writing is delectable.”

Alexa Loves Books: “I loved the way the story unfolds, the events of a single night perfectly demonstrating character and relationship development. It was just plain fun to read; once I started, I simply couldn’t put it down.”

The Allure of Books: “I really appreciated what a huge role art plays in the story. From glass blowing to graffiti to high school art class. All the detailed descriptions of Shadow’s graffiti give us insights both into art and into life. I am far from being truly educated in the world of art, so the fact that I felt connected at all to the world in this story is another pretty brilliant achievement on the part of Cath Crowley.”

Plus lots more here.

Notes

Here’s the Australian cover for comparison:

I think the Australian one works better for appealing to boys, but I like the US version because it’s got both Ed and Lucy on it and their entire heads are there and everything! And they’re interacting with each other! Do you know how RARE that is in US YA book covers, y’all?

Credit
The author’s photo comes from her website. It’s not mine! Book cover comes from Amazon. It’s not mine, either.

Footnotes

REVIEW: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.