Audio Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Holly Black [Website|Twitter|Tumblr]
Standing: First book in the Curse Workers series.
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
Published: May 11th, 2010 by Listening Library
Format: Audiobook; 6 hrs, 40 min. Read by Jesse Eisenberg
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

The first in a trilogy, this gritty, fast-paced fantasy is rife with the unexpected. Cassel comes from a shady, magical family of con artists and grifters. He doesn’t fit in at home or at school, so he’s used to feeling like an outsider. He’s also used to feeling guilty—he killed his best friend, Lila, years ago.

But when Cassel begins to have strange dreams about a white cat, and people around him are losing their memories, he starts to wonder what really happened to Lila. In his search for answers, he discovers a wicked plot for power that seems certain to succeed. But Cassel has other ideas—and a plan to con the conmen.

Sometimes I don’t really bother to figure out what a book is about before I pick it up.  When I decided to check out White Cat, by Holly Black, somewhat on a whim, it boiled down to 4 simple reasons: 1) It was available on Overdrive, 2) It wasn’t too long (I was burnt out from listening to 14-18 hour books) 3) It was by Holly Black, an author I’ve been wanting to read more of and 4) the series was wrapping up, so I could go through the whole thing without having to wait.  Needless to say, I was hoping White Cat would be decent, but didn’t expect it to be near as intriguing, original, or engrossing as it turned out to be!

Full disclosure: I’ve had a huge girl boner for con men ever since…well forever.  There’s something about grifters that is just undeniably sexy and alluring to me.  I blame my parents for glorifying The Music Man so much as a kid…you know that’s totes why I became a librarian, to meet my con man!  So…Cassel Sharpe?  Yeah, I’d hit it.  I probably wouldn’t even care if he were just using me as a means to an end (but he’d totally want to be strait with me because I’m the woman who would change his life).  I’ve never had a thing for Jesse Eisenberg before, and the second his voice came out of my headphones (yeah, I didn’t even read who the narrator was prior to checking this out), I had all sorts of thoughts flash through my head, most of which added up to: I don’t know how I feel about this.  But now?  After finishing?  I love me some Jesse Eisenberg.  I mean, I liked Zombieland a lot, but his other movies like Adventureland and Social Network were largely depressing views of the world and humanity, and since the kid comes across as a slightly less awkward and slightly more attractive version of Michael Cerra, I wasn’t exactly wringing out my panties for the guy.  But now I know that if I were to ever see him, I’d probably try to muster up the courage to tell him that I love his audiobooks: 1) Because it’s true, 2) Because I bet actors don’t get that a lot, and he’d totally want to have a night of splendor with me because of it, and 3) It’s cool, my boyfriend doesn’t read my blog.

Where were we? Oh yeah, con men. Sexy magical con men. Sorry Sawyer, my heart was yours, but it’s been sold to another because you lack the literal magic touch.  Holly Black has created a world in which there are curse workers; humans who have the ability to change something with a single touch.  There are seven kinds of curse work: luck, dream, emotion, memory, death, transformation, and physical.  A curse worker has to touch you with their bare hands in order to work you, which is why everyone wears gloves all of the time, and a bare hand is terrifying to behold.  Working people is illegal, and has been for several generations.  People that were once held up, have now been cast down as lowlifes and criminals, the worst of the worst and the lowest of the low.  And for the most part, they’ve taken on this mantle.  Worker families have become the crime families of the world.  They can change your memories, change your emotions, make you believe what they want you to believe, and kill you with a single touch.  They are, suffice it to say, scary awesome.

Cassel’s family doesn’t run a crime ring, but they’re not too far off.  His mother is in prison for working men for money, his brother is working for one of the biggest crime bosses around, and him?  Well, he’s just trying to finish high school.  Cassel is the disappointing child, the one without the power to work.  Raised in a worker family, he knows all the tricks.  He knows how to work a mark, and can almost always manipulate those around him to get what he wants.  He’s haunted by his past, and the worst memory he has: killing his best friend, Lila, at age 14.  As Cassel struggles to find out what really happened to the girl he loved, he begins to uncover a reality that he’s almost better off not knowing. 

Cassel is one of those bad boys that you just can’t help but have a thing for…because he’s also kind of a good guy.  Cassel wants to do the right thing, it’s not his fault that doing right by someone often means doing wrong by someone else.  Seriously, if this book doesn’t sound intriguing to you, then I think you might be broken.  It’s cool, I’ll get Cassel’s mom to work you into feeling like you must read this series.  Because really, you should.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I’m pretty sure there’s no question about that.  I’ve already checked the last two books out, and am most of the way through Red Glove as I write!

Recommended for: YA UF fans, chicks who dig con men, those who want a story that is dark and edgy with a male narrator—no fluff-n-stuff in White Cat!

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  Hey, did you guys know/notice that Jace Wayland from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series makes an appearance in all three of these books?  Made my day in the “I spotted the pineapple in Psyche!” kind of way.

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Audio Review: Fever Crumb by Philip Reeves

Title: Fever Crumb [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Philip Reeve [Website|Twitter]
Standing: First book in the Hungry City Chronicles prequel trilogy.
Genre: Young Adult, Futuristic, Sci-Fi
Published: March 1st, 2011 by Scholastic Inc.
Format: Audiobook; 7 hours. Read by Philip Reeve.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Fever Crumb is a girl who has been adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the order of Engineers, where she serves as apprentice. In a time and place where women are not seen as reasonable creatures, Fever is an anomaly, the only female to serve in the order.

Soon though, she must say goodbye to Dr. Crumb - nearly the only person she's ever known - to assist archeologist Kit Solent on a top-secret project. As her work begins, Fever is plagued by memories that are not her own and Kit seems to have a particular interest in finding out what they are. Fever has also been singled out by city-dwellers who declare her part Scriven.

The Scriveners, not human, ruled the city some years ago but were hunted down and killed in a victorious uprising by the people. If there are any remaining Scriven, they are to be eliminated.

All Fever knows is what she's been told: that she is an orphan. Is Fever a Scriven? Whose memories does she hold? Is the mystery of Fever, adopted daughter of Dr. Crumb, the key to the secret that lies at the heart of London?

Haunting, arresting, and astonishingly original, Fever Crumb will delight and surprise readers at every fast-paced, breathless turn.

Philip Reeve has created a most intriguing world in Fever Crumb, the first installment of a trilogy preempting his Hungry City Chronicles (also called the Mortal Engines series--the prequel trilogy was written after).  Now, I haven’t read the Hungry City Chronicles, so I can’t really speak to that effect, but I will say that Fever Crumb was a delightful, quirky, futuristic steampunk-like read.  Fever Crumb appears to be set in our own world, but so far in the future that electronics and such are referred to as creations of the ancients.  While I would argue that Fever Crumb is not technically steampunk, and is rather just straight up sci-fi, it does have a very steampunk-like quality in that the world has a Victorian feel, and thus it will appeal to fans of that genre.

I picked up Fever Crumb on audio after seeing it on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list.  The title alone grabbed me, and when I read the premise I was drawn in.  The audiobook is read by the author, Philip Reeve, and I am almost always a fan of audiobooks read by their authors (see Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens).  I’m happy to say that Fever Crumb did not disappoint!  Philip Reeve’s narrative was excellent, and with an accent matching Jim Dale’s it was easy to be charmed into enjoying the audio of Fever Crumb.  His futuristic London held some laugh out loud quirks for me, like the use of the term ‘blogger’ as an insult, or instead of Hari Krishna cults on the street there were cults chanting ‘Harry Potter’.  In fact, my initial reaction shortly into listening was ‘why haven’t more people I know read this book?!’  I’m sad to say, however, that my initial interest in Philip Reeve’s London waned by the end.  I did enjoy Fever Crumb, but it turns out I liked the entire storyline significantly less than I liked the idea up front.

Fever Crumb is also one of those books that, at least for me, sits on the precipice between Middle Grade and Young Adult.  It is technically categorized as Young Adult, but reads very much like a Middle Grade book.  I’d put it on the brink with books like Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, or C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.  I enjoy this age range, though I find it difficult to peg down at times, but sadly Fever Crumb didn’t grab me in near the same way as the other series mentioned.

The character I most enjoyed in Fever Crumb was, no surprise, Fever Crumb.  Fever is practical and logical to a fault; so much so that she seems almost robotic like.  She won’t drink hot tea (because the transportation of tea is impractical), she shaves her head every other day (hair is an unnecessary vestige of our ancestors, and creates a home for lice), and she certainly doesn’t go in for things like fairy tales or fun.  I think this is why the beginning of the book was so much more enjoyable to me than the end.  I loved seeing Fever’s reactions to things, and observing her thought process.  As the story goes on, she inevitably learns that it is okay to feel, and honestly I found her less interesting when she became more personable. 

The overall story of London, humans, and the scriveners was most assuredly an interesting set up, but I am uncertain that I was caught up enough to carry on.  Philip Reeve does have a unique and charming way of putting a Victorian style on Science Fiction that is different from the steampunk genre in which we normally see this union. 

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I did enjoy Fever Crumb, especially in its audiobook format.  However, since my library doesn’t have the rest of the series on audio, and I don’t feel invested enough in the series to purchase it on audio, I do not know that I will be continuing on.

Recommended for:  Those who enjoy older MG/younger YA books, steampunkers.

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Audio Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

  Title: An Abundance of Katherines [Amazon|GoodReads] 
  Author: John Green [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
  Standing: Stand alone novel.
  Genre: Young/New Adult, Contemporary
  Published: September 21st, 2006 by Brilliance Audio (in print by Dutton Juvenile)
  Format: Audiobook; 6 hrs. 47 min. Read by Jeff Woodman
  Source: Borrowed from my local library.

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

I’m not sure why this didn’t occur to me until long after I’d finished An Abundance of Katherines that of course I was going to thoroughly enjoy it.  The whole ‘being attracted to someone with a particular name’ thing has The Importance of Being Earnest written all over it, and I don’t think it’s any secret that I am a fan.  And enjoy it I did.  Thoroughly.  An Abundance of Katherines was the book I chose to give my John Green V-Card to, and I really don’t think I could have made a better decision.  This book, to me, was hilarious, but not over-the-top-trying-too-hard ridiculous hilarious, completely-plausible-real-life hilarious.  The kind of hilarious that means you probably shouldn’t listen to this audiobook while working out if you have asthma, because you will inevitably have a laughing fit while already low on breath and have an asthma attack somewhere far from home and your inhaler that you left sitting by the sink.  Quite possibly when Hassan is having a fat kid asthma attack of his own.  So, so worth it.

Jeff Woodman, the narrator, has a pretty sweet backlog of audio goodness behind him.  I’ve listened to his narration of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Life of Pi, but he also narrates books I’d love to listen to including The Westing Game, The Queen’s Thief series, and other John Green books.  Those are some legit credentials people, and he’s earned them.  His narration of An Abundance of Katherines was spot-on—not the kind of narration that makes a good book better, but the kind of narration that brings a great book to life and lets you consume it in an ideal format.

One of my favorite aspects of An Abundance of Katherines was that I did not like the protagonist, Colin Singleton.  Quite frankly, the kid was a tool, and I love well-written characters that are the types of people I would never hang out with enough to observe in real life.  I mean, I’m all for nerdome and smarty pants and what not, but Colin Singleton just takes it too far.  He’s the kind of kid who’s socially awkward, and knows he’s socially awkward, but only because he has a friend like Hassan to give him clues as to what is and is not interesting for other people to hear.  I was less shocked by the idea that Colin had been dumped by nineteen Katherines than I was by the notion that this dweeb could get nineteen girls to go out with him in the first place.  His social awkwardome doesn’t shut him up or turn him into an introvert, and I kind of love that.  Colin is who he is, and even though I wouldn’t be caught dead with the kid, more power to him for not compromising and for finding friends who do enjoy him for who he is.

Even though Colin is a quirky mega-brain character with many life experiences the rest of us will never have, I feel like he’s incredibly relatable.  He grew up labeled as a child prodigy, and now that he’s finished high school and is ready to move out into the world, he has to decide what it is he’s going to do that will mark his future.  Colin wants to matter.  I think most of us go through a similar experience at one point or another.  We all grew up with certain labels, and we all have to decide whether or not those labels will continue on with us, and what we’re going to do with our lives.  But, as the character Lindsey so poignantly puts it: “What matters to you defines your mattering.”  To Lindsey, her mom, and many people in Guttshot (the town Colin and Hassan end up in on their quarter-life-existential-crisis road trip), it’s stories that make us matter.  For Colin, it’s the idea that he could be a genius—he could figure out what it is that makes someone either a dumper or a dumpee. 

An Abundance of Katherines is full of profound eureka moments about what it means to be an average person living life and what impact that might have, not on the world but on you.  It was hilarious, fun, and full of insight about becoming who you are supposed to be.  My one complaint about the audio version of this book is that you don’t get to see the equations and graphs that Colin writes for his theorem.  For someone very visual, like me, it was kind of hard to picture.  Luckily, other people have posted pics of them, like Chachic, whose review I’ve linked below!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Of course!  I’m reading The Fault in Our Stars for book club, and I plan to listen to Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska on audio.

Recommended for:  Any contemporary fan, people who enjoy road trips, existential crises, eureka moments, and nerds. 

Real life repercussions of reading this book: Um, remember that somewhat vague allusion to this book making you have an asthma attack it’s so funny.  Yuuup.  That was me.

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Audio Review: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Title: Princess Academy [Academy|GoodReads]
Author: Shannon Hale [Website|Twitter|Facebook] 
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published: November 1st, 2007 by Full Cast Audio (First published January 1st, 2005 by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books).
Format: Audio; 7 hrs, 30 mins. Read by Laura Credidio
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Award Winning Reads Challenge

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

Unfortunately, Princess Academy is one of those books for which my enjoyment suffered because of the format I chose.  Now, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy Princess Academy, I most certainly did, but I would also almost certainly have enjoyed it more had I read it.  The audiobook of Princess Academy was produced by Full Cast Audio, and like their name, they use a full cast to read their books.  Instead of a book narrated from different perspectives using various narrators (which I am fine with), Princess Academy had a main narrator for the text, and then each character had a different cast member voicing them.  The main narrator, Laura Credidio was fine, but I was uncomfortable with the structure of the dialog.  I’ve never listened to a book like this, and was trying to push myself out of my comfort zone.  It wasn’t terrible, but I’m happy to retreat back to what I know I like.

I think where the full cast structure hit me most, was in my ability to like Miri.  The girl doing her dialog made her come across as very whiny.  As such, I wasn’t really able to root for her the way I normally would such a character.  I did think that most of the other voice actors did a good job, this was just clearly not the format for me.

Princess Academy was a very cute and touching non-traditional fairy tale type story.  It was funny, when I picked it up, I was actually thinking that the premise sounded a bit like the forthcoming book The Selection.  However, Princess Academy panned out nothing like The Bachelor, for which I was quite grateful.  I loved that the academy gave these girls a chance to come into their own, and find meaning and purpose in their lives beyond what they had expected or what was planned out for the girl selected for marriage by the prince.  In fact, the prince was such a menial part of this story, it was very little romance and a lot of girl power!

The girls, Miri in particular, show their ingenuity by applying the facts and information they learn at the academy to better the lives of their townspeople, and their own lives in learning.  The magical element in Princess Academy, quarry speak, is so unique and wonderful I absolutely loved it.  The concept was that workers in the quarry had this method of communicating non-verbally with one another to invoke memories that elicited messages or warnings.  Miri, who has never worked in the quarry, has felt as if she were lacking and not really a part of her community.  With determination and perseverance she is able to better understand and manipulate quarry speak, allowing it to play an important roll throughout the girls’ story.

Princess Academy was a charming story about finding one’s place, following one’s heart, and the power of relationships.  Certainly a recommended read, and surely an enjoyable audiobook for those who don’t mind this unique narrative structure.  Maybe it’s better for kids who might otherwise have a difficult time keeping the characters strait by voice?  I’m not sure.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: I did like Princess Academy, but I didn’t love it.  I’m planning for my next Shannon Hale read to be The Goose Girl, as that is the book that gets talked about the most highly about the blogosphere.

Recommended for:  People who like this narrative style, anyone who enjoys non-traditional fairy tales and a focus on female relationships, friendship, and family.

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Audio Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Title: The Help [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Kathryn  Stockett [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Historical
Published: February 10th, 2009 by Penguin Audio
Format: Audiobook; 18 hrs, 7 min.  Read by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Cassandra Campbell, and Octavia Spencer.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

I don’t read a ton of adult novels, and even when I do, I don’t often read the Bestsellers as I’ve found my tastes and the tastes of the masses don’t often align.  I have found, however, that with these types of books audio is often the way to go; for example, I really enjoyed The DiVinci Code on audio during a road trip, when I probably wouldn’t have read the book otherwise.  So when people of the blogosphere were constantly recommending the audiobook of The Help by Kathryn Stockett, along with a real life friend of mine, I decided to check it out.  I’m happy to announce that everyone was right!  This was a wonderful audiobook, certainly the ideal format for this story.

Now, I know some readers dislike multiple narrators, but I’m a fan, especially when the audiobook employs various narrators for each of the perspectives.  The Help made use of this expertly, providing us with three narrators for the perspectives of Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter.  One of the ladies in my book club told me she’d attempted to read The Help, but gave up because she couldn’t handle the written dialect.  This is a complete non-issue in the audio format as the narrators have the accent and dialect down pat.  The only issue I had with it was starting to think in a southern twang after too long of a listening session.

The Help does an excellent job of immersing the reader into the world of early 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.  It’s hard for someone as young as me, or from a place so nearly devoid of diversity as me (We have six, count ‘em, SIX African Americans in my home town.  We did have a black woman mayor for years though which I think is pretty great considering.) to truly understand what any of the women in this book were living.  Unsurprisingly, The Help was about women’s rights nearly as much as it was about civil rights, and is filled with strong, brave, and stubborn female characters for you to love and hate.  

Honestly, I could talk a lot about the themes or messages of this book, but I feel like there isn’t much I could say that hasn’t already been said.  I know I’m not the last person to read this book, but I’m so far from the first that going on and on seems silly.  Mostly I just want to accentuate the fact that even though this wasn’t a book I would normally have picked up, I am so glad I did--I loved it.  Also, this audiobook is masterful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys audiobooks.  I’m now super excited to see the movie and compare, though I’ve been battling that very long wait on Netflix since the release.  Ah well, I’ll see it eventually (and let you know what I think when I do).

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Like I said, this wasn’t my normal read, so I probably won’t go out of my way to read Kathryn Stockett’s next book.  That said, I am very willing to try more audiobooks that are in a similar vein and come highly recommended.

Recommended for:  Those interested in the history of civil rights and black/white relations in the south in the 1960s, people who like stories about strong women.  Anyone who enjoys audiobooks.

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Audio Review: The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

Title: The Emerald Atlas [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: John Stephens [Website]
Standing: First in The Books of Beginning series.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published: April 5th, 2011 by Listening Library/Knopf Books for Young Readers
Format: Audiobook; 11 hours 38 minutes.  Read by Jim Dale.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage.

Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.

Until now.

Before long, Kate, Michael, and Emma are on a journey to dangerous and secret corners of the world...a journey of allies and enemies, of magic and mayhem.  And—if an ancient prophesy is correct—what they do can change history, and it is up to them to set things right.

The Emerald Atlas brims with humor and action as it charts Kate, Michael, and Emma's extraordinary adventures through an unforgettable, enchanted world.

Now we all know Jim Dale is the boss when it comes to audiobooks, and The Emerald Atlas was fine, but even Jim Dale couldn’t charm me enough to keep me from thinking ‘Geez this book is way too freaking long!’.  Seriously people, what is with the 400+ page middle grade books these days?!  I’m glad that we have the confidence in our young readers to expect them to slog through these epics, but personally, I go to middle grade reads when I need a bit of a break and want to finish a pleasant story in one sitting.  The Emerald Atlas was not that story.  Okay, okay, that’s not to say that The Emerald Atlas was bad, it wasn’t, and I did enjoy it.  I’m just not sure it was astounding enough to justify that kind of time stamp, and I feel like I invested more into this book than I got in return.

The Emerald Atlas had a lot of elements that I liked.  I enjoy the focus on the bond of siblings, I liked the incorporation of many different fantasy characters like wizards and dwarfs, creepy monsters, and if I had known there was time travel in this book, I totally would have picked it up earlier!  I won’t reveal the details, or the mechanism, but I will say that if you’re a time travel lover and enjoy middle grade reads this could be a good book for you.  The Emerald Atlas takes place in a reality where the magical world used to be entwined with our own.  It has retreated into its own, but there are places where crossover between the mundane and magic worlds remain. It is one of these crossovers that engulfs the children in adventure.

The siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma each had their own strong personality characteristics and I loved that while they found one another annoying they would staunchly defend one another against anyone outside of their family.  They share a strong belief and hope in the love of their unknown parents, and are open to loving adults despite the cruelty and neglect they have experienced in their time. There was, however, a pattern throughout the book where one sibling would get separated from the other two and drama would ensue, and this got to be a bit wrote for me by the end.  I did like the uncertainty I felt at the book's close.  Were these kids ‘destined’ for adventure, or did they create their own destiny through time travel?

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  Eh...maybe 50/50?  I liked The Emerald Atlas, but I didn’t love it, and I don’t feel invested in the series.  That said, if Jim Dale records the next one, I may still pick it up.

Recommended for: People who don’t think twelve hours is too much of your life to spend on a middle grade book (I'm really sorry I'm being snobby about this, I know, I'm a lazy reader at times), and those who love Jim Dale and/or time travel enough to go there.

Real life repercussions of reading this book: I listened to maybe ⅓ of this book while hopelessly lost on Long Island one day.  I was so angry/upset that that may have leaked over into my impressions of this story. DON'T WORRY. After I called the bf crying, he purchased me a GPS for Valentine's Day.

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Stephanie Perkins [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel, but there are/will be two companions!
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Published: December 2nd, 2010 by Listening Library/Dutton
Format: Audiobook/Kindle edition.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Completely Contemp Challenge.

Anna's father, who seems to basically be Nickolas Sparks, decides to ship her off to boarding school in Paris for her senior year to get herself some culture.  She doesn't want to go, and is bitter at her lack of choice, but she finds herself not entirely hating the place once she makes some new friends--particularly Etienne St. Claire.  St. Claire is American born, English raised, and French sired.  And if you don't find that hot, well I don't know what's wrong with you.  Too bad he's taken; not only does he have a girlfriend, but her new friend Meredith's totally in love with him.  Besides, Anna still has feelings about Toph from back home, right?  Ha!  Prepare for a year of awkward.

Let’s take a moment to discuss the importance of choosing the right format.  I initially picked up Anna and the French Kiss as an audiobook, and after suffering through 5 chapters I was ready to give up.  I couldn’t stand the narrator, Kim Mai Guest.  To me, the narration came across as very whiney, snobby, made the whole story seem very vapid, and I did not want to hear it.  Needless to say, I won’t be listening to other works like How I Live Now or Wildwood Dancing that are also narrated by Kim Mai Guest.  Now, I do want to emphasize that this audiobook was recommended by multiple people, so don’t let my bad experience make up your mind--just know that if you don’t like it, you can always change formats!  Since pretty much everyone loves this book, I decided I’d switch over to the Kindle edition and push through to see if I could like it better.  This made all the difference!

My judgements and emotions went back and forth a lot throughout this book.  I love boarding school (living vicariously), but I hate Paris (maybe hate is extreme, but I don't like it).  I loved St. Clair (awesome friend), but he was kind of a douche (crappy boyfriend).  Anna was annoyingly naive (come on, no one watches that much film and doesn’t know ‘pissed’ means drunk in Britain), but totally identifiable (more on this later).  There were some teeth grinding cliches (like bending down to pick things up and bumping heads), but the story was very true to life and the crappy decisions many people make in relationships.  In the end, I decided I really liked it, and appreciate Perkins’s honesty and ability to wrangle uncomfortable situations into text in a way that made me scream “WHY AM I SO AWKWARD?”

So...since this is a romance, let’s discuss the leads!  I identified with Anna a lot, in ways that actually made me uncomfortable to remember some of the past decisions I made that hurt my personal relationships.  She’s a film buff, and wants to be a critic, which is awesome.  She’s totally awkward about her Americaness upon moving to Paris, which I can 100% identify with.  I spent my junior year in Europe, and had similar feelings upon moving to New York.  Being from Wyoming, my impression of NYC was largely formed watching episodes of Sex and the City.  I was so nervous to even set foot in the city at first, as Anna was in Paris--filled with complete misconceptions and self-consciousness.  Anna was also awesome in that she didn't turn into a bumbling idiot around the guys she liked. She was still her intelligent, funny, silly self. Finally, I completely loved Anna’s outlook on sex.  She basically states that she wouldn’t have sex with anyone unless, if she were to get knocked up, she wouldn’t be embarrassed to tell said kid who her father was.  YES!  I will totally preach this to my daughters someday.  

And then there’s Etienne St. Claire.  First the good: he’s shorter than Anna (as a 6’ tall woman, I love seeing this sort of thing), he’s totally sweet, funny, and thoughtful, he goes out of his way to make sure Anna feels comfortable and explores Paris.  Then...the bad: he’s so needy that he continues to date his gf, even after he obviously has feelings for Anna because he’s not 100% sure of her feelings, while at the same time actively working to keep any other guy from getting near Anna.  He crosses all the lines.  But then he totally calls Anna on her shit, and there’s totally (at least) two people in this boat, so I guess I can’t funnel all my angsty glares toward him.  Also, yeah, he's going through some crap, and I guess that can make people make stupid decisions. So I forgive the guy.

In the end, I appreciated that this wasn’t a fluffy happy love story, even though it was full of some great humor.  There were a lot of very realistic bumps in the road, and I found myself thinking ‘oh thank goodness I’m not the only one who’s been this stupid’.  

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I may have been waffling for the first portion of this book, but by the end I was sold, and will be reading both Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After.  Does anyone know if Isla will feature the Isla that appeared as a minor character in Anna?  I hope so!

Recommended for:  Girls who need to grow a spine already, Paris lovers, pretty much anyone who likes YA romance. OH WAIT I'M THE LAST PERSON TO READ THIS BOOK.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  Your vocab word of the day is callipygian.  Meaning having well shaped buttocks.  

Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Title: Beauty Queens [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Libba Bray [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Humor, Speculative Fiction
Published: May 24th, 2011 by Scholastic Press
Format: Audiobook; 14.5 hours.  Read by Libba Bray
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

According to the acknowledgements, David Levithan at one point says to Libba Bray, “A plane full of beauty queens crashes on a desert island and....go!”  And she did.  

Here’s a rough outline of what to expect from the audiobook of Beauty Queens: The girls of Drop Dead Gorgeous get plane-wrecked on an island containing an evil volcano lair and meet sexy reality T.V. pirates. Kind of awesome, huh?  


Let’s meet the (surviving) Miss Teen Dream contestants!

Miss New Hampshire:

Adina is working as an undercover investigative journalist bent on taking the pageant down and exposing it for the misogynistic racket it is.  She’s overly caustic, sarcastic, jaded, bitter, and full of contempt for Miss Teen Dream and the other girls.

Miss Nebraska:

Don’t be fooled by Mary Lou’s extreme Fargo accent (sorry Libba Bray, people from Nebraska do not talk like that.  Neither do people from Fargo for that matter...my cousins from Wisconsin kinda do...), she’s not just the country girl next door.  Mary Lou observes all the Midwest niceties, but deep down she’s a wild one longing for adventures as a pirate queen.

Miss Texas:

Taylor is Texan through and through, and she takes her Miss Teen Dream seriously.  Deadly seriously.  She insists on continuing pageant prep, non-offensive language, chipper can-do attitudes, and no shenanigans.  There’s always been a Miss Texas in the Top 10, and Taylor plans to go all the way.

Miss Colorado:

Nicole is a pre-pre med student in it to place and garner some scholarship money.  Let’s face it, Nicole is black, and the only African American woman to ever win Miss Team Dream went down in shame.  It’s not likely to happen again.  

Miss California:

Shanti is fighting Nicole for the minority vote, presenting her case as the well-adjusted child of Indian immigrants.  She knows how to make papadon in the tradition of her grandmother, she has charming stories about her parents, her talent is traditional Indian dance.  And she hates when you call her “Bollywood”.  

Miss Michigan:

Jennifer is a juvie-turned-beauty-queen project of her guidance counsellor, and Miss Teen Dream is supposed to set her on a better path.  Jennifer is our mechanically inclined, comic-book loving lesbian, whose personal motto is: WWWWD?  What Would Wonder Woman Do?

Miss Illinois:

Sossi gets the handicapped vote for being hearing impaired (though she’s annoyed that people won’t just up and say ‘deaf’).  She is amazeballs because she started an all-hearing impaired dance troupe named Helen Kellerbration.  Puns may make terrible jokes, but they make fantastic group/team/roller derby names.

Miss Rhode Island:

Petra is the tall, big-handed, hormonally challenged secretive girl from the Northeast.  She knows every lyric to every Boys Will Be Boys song, has a heart of gold and patience to boot.  As a nearly 6’ girl myself, I find the insinuations that Petra is “big” to be a bit insulting, but yes, finding size 11 heals that don’t look like ass is hard.  

Miss Mississippi:

Tiara may not be able to spell Mississippi (or douche), but she represents with pride.  She’s the sweet resident ditz, who’s not nearly as dumb as she comes off (some of the time), and depending on your opinion of kittens you will either want to put her in your pocket or see her drown.

Miss Alabama:

Essentially, Brittani is Tiara’s twin, though she seems slightly more intelligent.  Also, non-essentially, she’s more-or-less a filler character.  So let’s address the other fillers while we’re at it:

Miss Arkansas, Miss New Mexico, Miss Ohio, and Miss Montana:

They’re just here for the show people.  They’re the group of friends whose experience on the island we don’t much acknowledge.  Oh and Miss New Mexico has a tray stuck in her forehead.

Looking for a rep of another state?  Too bad, they’re dead.  Check the floating bodies in the water or the frying ones in the plane fire.  Let’s get on with the story...

Up front, these beauty queens are pretty easy to pass off as a largely unlikable bunch.  Adina, and Taylor in particular, as the two extremes of pageantry garner the least sympathies.  However, as the story draws on, it’s easy to see that there is much more to these young women.  Each of them has entered for her own reasons, presenting us with a myriad of bad stereotypes and heartwarming truisms.  This book held an interesting dynamic for me, as I am not sure that the characters grew as much as I did while reading about them.  The girls certainly did change and come into their own, but my initial opinions of each of them changed more than they actually did  as I got to know them.  At the end of the book, there wasn’t a one of them I wasn’t rooting for, and luckily Beauty Queens wraps up with an awesome 80s-style flash-forward montage where we get to see how the girls grow up.

This book especially shined in its audiobook form, read by the author herself evoking the spirit of Effie Trinket.  Libba Bray was excellent at the accents (with the exception of the aforementioned Miss Nebraska, but a villain who talks like Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory more than made up for this), and voices were done in a way that made the speaker instantly identifiable despite the amount of characters.  The footnotes had the fun chime of an airplane announcement, and the commercial interruptions came with fitting music.  I find the use of footnotes in general to be annoying, but the chime certainly helped, and I tend to overuse parenthesis, so who am I to talk?  Besides, there was this:

Footnote 50: Really, being a librarian is a much more dangerous job than you realize.

That said, Beauty Queens was positively dripping in satire.  I was torn between just enjoying the ride, and feeling I needed to think about what was being said with the thick and abundant placement of “The Corporation”.  In the end, I’m left wondering if Bray was really trying to say something with this book, or if it was all in good fun and just a laugh.  I truly believe I would have enjoyed this book more as a teen myself, when I was myself every bit as caustic and sarcastic as Adina (okay, so I still am, but I think I’m less jaded now).  

In the end, I felt that Beauty Queens had all of the quirkiness of a Bryan Fuller show without the charm.  It's a whole new world of pretty, people.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: 100%.  Libba Bray’s upcoming book, The Diviners was on my Top Ten list of books I’m looking forward to reading in 2011.  I’m wondering which Libba Bray we’ll see here, the Going Bovine/Beauty Queens Libba Bray, or the Gemma Doyle Libba Bray.  Personally, I am hoping that she is able to find a happy medium between the two, and given the setting of the 1920s and promised ridiculousness, I’m thinking it just might be possible.

Recommended for:  People who like their satire laid on thick, or those who might enjoy a literary mocumentary. People who enjoyed Going Bovine.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  The repeated use of the phrase “Beauty is pain.” gave me some horrible flashbacks to my childhood babysitter who used to say this as she French braided my unruly curly hair so tight I cried.