Monthly Favorites | October

2015-10-29T20:37:00.002-04:00

My first installment of my monthly favorites! This month, there's gaming, tech, comics and more. This was actually really fun to do, so I'm sure this will become something I look forward to shooting every month. It's an interesting little stock take of what I was into for a moment in time, which I think is really cool. Anyway, you can watch it here:

Carry On | Book Review + Discussion

2015-10-22T17:07:00.001-04:00

Author: Rainbow Rowell

YA Fantasy | Novel | 528 pg | Pub. 2015

Rating: ★★★★☆

Carry On is a coming-of-age story about Simon Snow, the worst "chosen one" to ever be chosen. In this story, Rainbow Rowell takes the fantasy world Cath wrote about in Fangirl, and brings it to life in her own voice. The result is a fun and charming love story that I flew through. You can watch my full review and discussion below.

Book Courtship Tag

2015-09-29T21:58:00.001-04:00

I really wanted to do a tag video this week, so here it is! You can watch Leah's original tag video here.

Cyborg Issues #1 and #2 | Comic Talk #1

2015-09-16T17:00:00.000-04:00

Cyborg is new on the DC line-up this year, so here are my thoughts on the first two issues! This is a series you don't want to miss out on.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe | Book Review

2015-09-04T23:27:00.000-04:00

Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

YA Contemporary | Novel | 368 pg | Pub. 2012

Rating: ★★★★★

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a beautiful novel. Relatable characters, a poignant tale, and one-two punch writing round out this coming-of-age story by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. You can check out my full review below.

I'll Give You the Sun | Book Review

2015-08-21T00:10:00.001-04:00

Author: Jandy Nelson

YA Contemporary | Novel | 371 pg | Pub. 2014

Rating: ★★★½☆

I picked up Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun back in January, and only just got around to finishing it. In the aftermath, I'm glad I did. The story itself was enjoyable, and I especially liked reading with two narrators. The book centers on a pair of twins, Noah and Jude, who have a falling out when they're 13-years-old. We switch off between their perspectives every chapter: Noah's point-of-view mainly covers the time before and during their blow up, and Jude's point-of-view takes place three years later.

I know a number of book bloggers took issue with the "artsy" way in which this book is written (Jandy Nelson is a true believer in metaphor), but that was probably my favorite part. Nelson's writing style is beyond vibrant, which fit for these sibling artists.

I found both Jude and Noah to be really engaging, but I think its pretty safe to say that Noah ended up as my favorite. I loved that he thinks in artwork. Every single title thrown into his stream-of-consciousness narration felt evocative (a few of my favorites include Portrait: Jude Braiding Boy After Boy into Her Hair, Family Portrait: Assume the Crash Position, and Portrait: Mother in Blinding Color). From the start, Noah's chapters are funny, heartbreaking, enlightening and deeply relatable.

While there is something interesting in Noah’s storyline with his stargazing, baseball-playing crush, Brian, the typical YA romance is still alive and well in the interactions between Jude and Oscar. Oscar, of course, is a misunderstood, rebellious bad boy with poor impulse control and a crooked smile. Jude, of course, finds all this terribly intriguing. I know I’m sounding totally cynical, but I personally did get tired of the whole Jude and Oscar, “will they/won’t they” thing. I know a lot of people were really won over by him as a character, but I never quite got there myself -- and I think it's mainly due to how things ended up between him and Jude. (Spoilers ahead, folks.)

In Jude's final chapter, Oscar tells her they shouldn't be together. When discussing their relationship, he says, "[b]ut it's not our time. Not yet." I honestly sighed with relief at that. Maybe it's a mark of me getting older, but I just had such an issue with the idea of them dating while Jude is still as young as she is. (Side note: In the interest of full disclosure, I’m also willing to chalk part of my frustration up to my developing boredom of reading about straight couples.) When Jude pushes back, Oscar puts up a token argument before giving in to his previously stated impulse control issues. This section almost felt like a justification was being made directly to the reader, which I really wasn’t for. While we're in this negative zone, I should also say that the pacing didn’t work for me. I appreciated the last hundred pages or so for moving as quickly as they did, because before that it seemed like things were really being dragged out.

Setting the cons aside, there are some things that Nelson totally nailed in this book, which definitely deserve props. I’ve heard it said that people who don't write children well often don't remember what it felt like to be children themselves. Nelson proves herself to be far removed from this category. She captures the sense of great, wide wonder that many of us experience when we're young, and brings it back for us to feel again. She also nails a kid's perspective on their parents. In their memories, the twins describe the scale of their father, and the otherworldly nature of their mother. They look beyond the humanity, beyond the personhood, of their parents — as I think children often do. With Nelson, these feelings read as honest, rather than hokey or cliched, which is all I could really ask for.