YA Fiction: Illuminated by Erica Orloff

Publisher: Speak
Date: December 2011
Format: paperback
Source: purchased new
Read: to clean out my TBR pile
Pages: 244
Reading time: about two hours

From GoodReads: Some loves are not made to last . . . Like Romeo and Juliet, Heloise and Abelard were doomed from the start, and their romance was destined to pass into history. Yet when sixteen-year-old Callie Martin discovers a diary hidden within an antique book, their story - and hers - takes on another life. For the diary leads Callie to the brilliant and handsome August, who is just as mysterious as the secret the diary hides. Their attraction is undeniable. As the two hunt down the truth behind the diary - and that of Heloise and Abelard's ancient romance - their romance becomes all-consuming. But Callie knows it can't last . . . love never does. Will their love that burns as bright as a shooting star flame out, or will these star-crossed lovers be able to defy history?

My review: While reading Illuminated, I realized that this book was not, in fact, my cup of tea. Mostly, this is due to the fact that this is not a retelling of Abelard and Heloise's story like I had thought, but rather, it's a contemporary teen romance that finds its inspiration in that classic tale of love. The characters felt a bit flat to me - for a potential history major, Callie's original interest in the medieval manuscript that sparks everything is rather sporadic - and I wished the plot had focused a little more on the secrets hidden in the manuscript and a little less on Callie's strange obsession with connecting her and August's new romance with that of Abelard and Heloise. But hey, how much fault can you find with a romance who's male lead is intelligent, attractive, nice, and into old books? It's a cute read, just not my cup of tea.

YA Fantasy: Abandon by Meg Cabot (and a Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge)

Series: Abandon Trilogy #1
Publisher: Point
Date: April 2011
Format: ARC
Source: blog giveaway
Read: to clean out my TBR stack
Pages: 302
Reading time: between three and four hours

From GoodReads: Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back. But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid. Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most. But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

My review: I'm of mixed opinions on this one. On the one hand, it's Meg Cabot, whose books I absolutely adored and devoured during my middle school and early high school years. Her writing is hilarious and her characters are easy to relate to. On the other hand, Abandon fell flat compared to my high expectations from earlier Cabot reads. There were sparks of the humor I remember with such fond memories, but Pierce seemed a bit silly to me. And, as a high school senior who had once attended a prep school and seemed to have made good grades, she was unaware of who Homer was. For once, I join with one of the elderly characters in this book in bemoaning what is taught in today's schools.

I also wasn't always very clear on what was going on or where the story was headed, but then, neither was Pierce herself. The romance was completely flat - the attraction was entirely one-sided until a kiss resulted in insta-love, and the "Hades" figure in this Persephone retelling was very Edward Cullen-esque. The twist on the original myth, however, grew increasingly more fascinating as the book progressed, though the ending wrapped up a little too quickly. While it will be interesting to see what the rest of the trilogy has in store, I don't think this is one series I'll be super-eager to complete.


Once Upon a Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge hosted by Cover2CoverBlog: 1. Which book are you most excited to read in the coming year? The Map of the Sky by Felix J. Palma. I read and absolutely loved The Map of Time last year, but I'm intimidated by its sequel due to its length and my absurdly high expectations.
2. Which book would you re-read if you had the time and weren't so busy reading ALL the other good things? The Mummy! by Jane Loudon (an 1820s sci-fi novel, which I'm sure just everyone has heard of). I've read only an abridged version of it, given as it's the only physical edition published within the last 100 or so years, but the original 3 volumes are on Google Books.
3. If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why? No clue. Maybe Pi from Life of Pi, just to ask him about that ending.

Once Upon a Time Readathon START

Welcome to this year's Once Upon a Readathon, hosted by Reading Angels and Candace's Book Blog! This year, I'm starting out with five books (I took the lazy way out and intentionally tried to make sure they were all fairly short or looked like quick reads). As usual, I tried to stick to a retellings and classic fantasy theme to help weed out the large number of these sorts of books I have sitting around my room, unread. I'm pretty excited to get started, especially since today I am conveniently off work at my internship. :)

The list, to be updated throughout the readathon:
Abandon by Meg Cabot my review
The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Oz #7) my review
Illuminated by Erica Orloff my review
Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell my review
Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie my review

Good luck to all the other participants!

Fiction: A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel

Publisher: Riverhead
Date: May 2, 2013
Format: ARC
Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 195

From GoodReads: A Guide to Being Born is organized around the stages of life—love, conception, gestation, birth—and the transformations that happen as people experience deeply altering life events, falling in love, becoming parents, looking toward the end of life. In each of these eleven stories Ausubel’s stunning imagination and humor are moving, entertaining, and provocative, leading readers to see the familiar world in a new way. In “Atria” a pregnant teenager believes she will give birth to any number of strange animals rather than a human baby; in “Catch and Release” a girl discovers the ghost of a Civil War hero living in the woods behind her house; and in “Tributaries” people grow a new arm each time they fall in love. Funny, surprising, and delightfully strange—all the stories have a strong emotional core; Ausubel’s primary concern is always love, in all its manifestations.

My review: The content of collections such as this are always hit-or-miss with me. Because the stories are so short, it seems like they either strike a personal chord with me or are easily forgettable. The stories in A Guide to Being Born were about half and half. Sometimes, I was left wondering what point Ausubel was trying to convey. Other stories, I loved for their combination of magical realism and details of everyday contemporary life. All, however, were intriguing and thought-provoking.

The ones that stood out: While the opening story, "Safe Passage," was fascinating simply for its unusualness and dreamlike surrealism, the next story, "Poppyseed," was strikingly bittersweet. "Chest of Drawers" was perhaps my favorite, exploring gender roles and one couple's relationship from the male's perspective as he watches his wife's body change with her first pregnancy. I enjoyed reading "Magniloquence" the most, as I could easily connect it to the world of academia of which I am on the edge. It would be hilarious to see my professors in the story's scenario!

YA Historical Fiction: Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross

Publisher: Delacorte Books
Date: June 11, 2013
Format: ARC
Source: publisher
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 323
Reading time: three days

From GoodReads: When Maude Pichon runs away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive. Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect foil. But Isabelle has no idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to lose.

My review: Belle Epoque is based on Emile Zola's 1866 short story "Les Repoussoirs" about the fictional agency of Durandeau. Ross launches off from this story to write the compelling tale of Maude Pichon, a girl struggling to write the story of her own life by moving to Paris in the late 1880s in the midst of the changes to society brought by France's Industrial Revolution and Belle Epoque.

Maude is one of the most candid and realistic heroines I have encountered in a while. There's romantic interest, but it doesn't override the main story, and Maude's slight attraction to multiple boys before one begins to stand out seems much more true to real life than the usual insta-love. While she gets caught up in the opulence of her feigned fashionable life with the Duberns more than would be thought prudent, it fits with Maude's characterization as a provincial girl with overly-romanticized and cheery notions of what her life in Paris will be like. There is no fairy-tale, rather historically-anachronistic instant rise to fame, fortune, or love; the plot seems to take its natural course and suit both the characterizations of the book's key figures and what is realistic for the time period. At the same time, the issues with self-image and self-worth faced by Maude are things that any girl of today's time can easily identify with, making Belle Epoque an engrossing read for both fans of historical fiction and those who prefer more connections to contemporary life.

MG Fiction: The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Date: 2010
Format: ARC
Source: ARCycling
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 280

From GoodReads: Life in a small town can be pretty boring when everyone avoids you like the plague. But after their father unwittingly sends them to stay with an aunt who’s away on holiday, the Hardscrabble children take off on an adventure that begins in the seedy streets of London and ends in a peculiar sea village where legend has it a monstrous creature lives who is half boy and half animal. . . . 

My review: I believe my opinion of The Kneebone Boy would have been different if I had read this in elementary or middle school versus in college. Back then, I think I would have found Potter's writing style enchanting and hilarious, witty and perfect for the audience. Now, however, I couldn't tell whether I was amused by the author's sense of humor and jabs at the tropes of similar books, or whether I found such shenanigans rather immature. It's a sad dilemma, really, to feel like you're too old to appreciate novels for younger readers.

I read Potter's newest novel, The Humming Room, last year. In comparison, The Kneebone Boy is written in an entirely different style, and the ending seemed perfectly paced rather than rushed. Overall, I enjoyed both books. I was particularly surprised/intrigued by the ending to The Kneebone Boy, as it is more serious and realistic than what one would expect from what at first seems to be a wacky fantasy book. It works well for the story, though, and adds deeper significance to what could otherwise be viewed as a fun but flighty read.

Classic Lit: The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

Publisher: Bantam
Translator: Jack Zipes
Date: 1995
Format: paperback
Source: OU Honors College
Read: as part of an Honors College informal reading group/to be a completist
Pages: 263
Reading time: about three months, or entirely too long

From the back cover: To read Hermann Hesse's fairy tales is to enter a fabulous world of dreams and visions, philosophy and passion. This landmark collection contains twenty-two of Hesse's finest stories in this genre, most translated into English here for the first time. Full of visionaries and seekers, princesses and wandering poets, his fairy tales speak to the place in our psyche that inspires us with deep spiritual longing; that compels us to leave home, and inevitably to return; and that harbors the greatest joys and most devastating wounds of our heart.

My review: I was so, so excited to get this book - it's fairy tales, who wouldn't be? - and so, so disappointed once I started reading it. For one thing, they didn't much resemble fairy tales to me (though this could be at least partly because I'm more used to folkloric rather than "literary" fairy tales). The tales have the simple, blocky style of writing that characterizes such stories, but whereas I usually find such a style charming,  Hesse's manner of writing just irritated me. It was very much "THIS happened, then THIS," a lot of telling readers about the emotions and experiences of the characters rather than actually demonstrating them. I was often bored by the sequence of events, annoyed by Hesse's inclusion of vague philosophical ramblings significant only to himself.

The main thing I learned from this spring semester's Hesse reading group (we also read Narcissus and Goldmund and a selection of his poems) is how much I dislike Hesse's style and subjects. His fairy tales largely rehash the same themes as his other writings: the uniqueness in mind of the artist, how artists should separate their lives/work from the world, childhood innocence, and some vague oedipal thing about mothers. There's almost always some vague oedipal thing about mothers, and his constant bringing up of it is what probably most got on my nerves. Overall, Hesse came off as whiny to me, complaining about how great artists (with some obvious references to himself) are different from everyone else, more in tune with the natural world around them rather than with society.

Granted, I did not dislike every story in this collection. The stories about environmentalism and the dangers of modernism, such as "The City" and "Faldum," appealed somewhat to me. I loved the surrealism of "A Dream Sequence." My two favorites were probably "If the War Continues" and "The European," blatant criticisms of WWI that contained dystopian and allegorical elements, respectively. While overall I was irritated by Hesse's style and content, there were a few gems among this collection that I found quite worthwhile to read.