Flight into Fantasy

I have to start this post by warning y’all that it’s not my usual style. It’s kind of rambly and stream-of-conscious, and is also spoilertastic. You have been warned.

One of the series I discovered last year, when I was in the middle of a blogging slump was the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. I have read the first three books in the series, which are as follows:

• Virgin River

• Shelter Mountain
• Whispering Rock

The premise is this. Virgin River is a small, idyllic town in the mountains of Northern California, which seems to attract the lonely, the hurting, and the broken-hearted. We begin the series with Mel, who needs a new start in life after the death of her husband and comes to Virgin River to practice midwifery and gets involved with Jack, the owner of the town bar. The second book features Paige, a battered wife on the run from an abusive ex, who ends up with Jack’s partner at the bar, a big teddy bear of a guy named Preacher. (Preacher, incidentally, is my absolute favorite Virgin River man so far. He’s big and burly, but also extremely awkward and shy, and he was a virgin, which is enough of a rarity in romance fiction that I still find it awesome when it happens.) In the third book, Jack’s sister, Brie, ends up brutally attacked and ends up finding love with Mike, an ex-cop friend of Jack’s who’s also turned up in Virgin River.

What I like about these books is that, in addition to the rather strong romance storylines, there’s a real sense of the town. I get the feeling that there really are people with lives that don’t intersect often with the main cast of characters. I appreciate it when authors do this, as it lends verisimilitude to their settings, and Virgin River, in Ms. Carr’s hands, is a place I’d like to visit.

I do have to admit that I went into the books not really expecting straight-up romance. I enjoy the books all the more for that fact, though, because I genuinely like the setting and the characters. I also think that the romantic aspects of the books, while important, aren’t really Ms. Carr’s strong point, because, at least in the books I’ve read, they’re fairly repetitive. After all, how many Marines with deep personal pain can there be for every hapless damsel who’s just suffered personal tragedy to stumble upon? Honestly, I’d much rather read about the couples after their courtship. Mel and Jack’s wedded bliss, for example, is far from the treacle you’d get in most traditional romances, and I think the scene where Preacher informs a whole barful of Marines that he’s closing early on account of its being ovulation day cracks me up.

The books have tackled lots of relevant issues as well, everything from the ethics of dealing with local marijuana growers to the need for contraception to teenage drug use. Sometimes Ms. Carr handles these issues better than others–like, there’s one particular marijuana grower who is quite interesting and who I know from reading spoilers becomes more important in the series later. Then again, there was the bombshell in the thirdd book where one woman, after finally getting a mammogram, finds out she’s got breast cancer and is dead by a few dozen pages later. That whole subplot was just a bit too precious for words.

And then there’s the Rick/Liz subplot. See, Rick’s a randy 17-year-old boy who sometimes helps Jack at the bar. And he met a new girl, Liz, who was 15 and basically tarting it up. They ended up having sex, and Liz became pregnant. Afterwords, a whole mess of slut-shaming ensued. Liz basically becomes weepy and distraught, and presumably quits wearing skirts that hike up to her crotch. And Rick whines and emoes about how he’s totally ruined Liz’s life and he’ll never, never, never have sex with her again until she grows up. He worries about Liz but in kind of a self-absorbed way that, while I’m sure it’s authentic, grated on my nerves, especially since, as readers, we never saw Liz’s POV. We just know that Rick thinks she’s too young, her aunt thinks she was being a little tart but loves her anyway, and Mel just wants to do the best she can by her as her midwife. And then, after Liz loses the baby–a karmic death if ever there was one–Rick decides he needs to up and join the Marines. Because he decides for Liz that Liz is too young and needs to grow up. So, you know, instead of actually, truly making sure she’s OK, he’s like, “See you after basic.” And, as I understand it, he gets his own book in the series in which he has PTSD, which means former slut Liz will probably selflessly stand by and wipe his emo tears.

…Wow. I really didn’t think I had that much animosity toward that one particular subplot.

There is also a whole lot of “Ra ra ra, yay Marines!” talk in this series. You know a male character is supposed to be good and honorable if he is either planning to serve in the Marines or has served in the Marines or some other branch of the military. That aspect of the series isn’t one I can speak about, because the people in my family who are uber-military types aren’t generally people I talk to enough to ask, “Is it really like that? Do you feel extremely close to all your Marine brothers and would you do anything for any of them?”

That being said, the Marines stuff balances out well with Mel’s character, who is generally a positive example of a strong feminist who isn’t a hard-ass. She’s dedicated to midwifery and women’s health issues, and I appreciate that she doesn’t poo-poo the idea of abortion outright, since there are characters for whom that comes up. (Thankfully, in Virgin River, if you don’t want a baby, you will lose it due to miscarriage or stillbirth, so actually having Mel hold someone’s hand during an abortion isn’t ever likely to come up.)

In conclusion, despite some of the snarky things I’ve said, I find these books comforting. It’s fun to slip back into a familliar world with familliar characters. I generally know where the plots are going, and the sequel-baiting is pretty unsubtle–in the same way that an anvil to the back of the head is pretty unsubtle–but I think that’s part of their charm. You know what you’re going to get, and when you get it, it makes you feel good. I wouldn’t call these keepers, but they are strong, b-grade comfort reads.

Last month, I signed up for Kailana’s Time Quartet readalong. I didn’t even think about the small problem that would present itself when I decided to do this, namely that I have already reviewed it. So I wasn’t really sure what exactly I could say that I haven’t already said about this book when I read it this year. I decided, therefore, that instead of writing a real formal review, I’d just tell you why I reread this book so often.

The main reason, of course, is Meg. I love Meg. I was Meg. I definitely went through a period of feeling like a complete outcast growing up. I knew that I was different from my peers in significant ways, and I know I had my moments of beligerence.

The thing about Meg that struck me then and strikes me now is that she was a geeky child who *did something*. Her mere existance didn’t automatically mean she was destined for greatness, and she wasn’t completed when she discovered Calvin–who is still one of my favorite YA boyfriend characters, BTW. No, Meg had to struggle and she had to endure and she had to come to grips with her faults, and though she wasn’t alone the whole time, she certainly wasn’t propped up either.

Another reason I constantly reread L’Engle is that I get more out of it each time I read. I knew this was a smart book, but I don’t think I realized just how literary it all was, and I think, now that I’m older and, presumably, wiser than I was at, say, eleven when I first read this book, many of its themes make more sense. Love is important, and Meg’s fierce love for Charles Wallace is a foundation of the entire Time Quartet. And, of course, each time I read the book, I understand more of Mrs. Who’s constant quotes.

To that end, one of the criticisms I’ve read about this book was that it’s quite religious. Normally, that’s the kind of thing that would bother me, but I think L’Engle must have been the sort of woman who, though feeling her faith deeply, would have respected that she did not speak for other people. And, really, the themes she writes about transcend religion. L’Engle writes about love, from the romantic to the filial, and how important it is, even when it’s not always easy. I can’t think of a religious tradition that would disagree with that notion.

I’m glad I got a chance to reread this book, and I’m excited to read what the rest of the readalong participants thought. Next month, we move on to A Wind in the Door, which is probably my favorite of the series.

I’ve been resisting the urge to read The Hunger games by Suzanne Collins for a long time, mostly because of the hype. I’ve been burned too many times by overhyped books that did nothing for me at all, and I can be a picky reader.

However, last year, Maree, Memory and I decided that we should get it over with and read the book together. That way, if it sucked, we could console each other by, I don’t know, maybe pasting horrible lines of the book into Twitter. (OK, maybe I’m the only person of the three of us who would do that.)

Anyway, we all emailed each other questions that we answered about the book. So go over to Memory’s blog and read what we thought of it.

For the record, I’m not sure this was quite an A book for me, but it really was quite good and I hope to read the second book soon.

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Genre: Contemporary YA fiction
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I am apparently much more interested in contemporary issues books when they’re YA. And this book got hyped all over the place, so I decided I’d give it a go.

Synopsis:

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

My Thoughts: First off, I didn’t know that Jennifer Brown is a somewhat local author. Apparently, she writes a column for the Kansas City Star. And, having learned this about her, I will probably spend more time than is healthy browsing the Star’s online archives to read her work. That’s neither here nor there, though, since this is a review of her novel.

To be honest, Hate List was a bit of a slow starter for me. I was intrigued by the idea of reading about a character as complex as Valerie Leftman, but I wasn’t actually sure I could manage it. What if I didn’t like her? What if, like her family and most of the people around her, I thought she was pretty much guilty by association?

Thankfully, after the first couple of chapters, I got quite into Valerie’s story. She’s one of the more complex characters I’ve read about recently, and, after some time to warm up to her, I realized she worked for me. She’s very confused about what happened that May day when her boyfriend shot up the school. She blames herself for what happened, and she’s pretty much starting the book just wanting to finish out the school year as quietly as possible. Of course, that’s not what happens, because she just can’t. Not with an event like a school shooting.

Because she’s such a complex character, and because the issues she goes through aren’t pat and easily solved, Ms. Brown doesn’t provide Valerie with easy answers. Even at the end, it’s clear that she still has to come to terms with her future, but the experiences of the novel have made her stronger. I appreciated that Brown chose to go that route, since otherwise I don’t think I’d have found Valerie’s story as believable.

In addition to Valerie, the rest of the characters are multi-demensional as well. Valerie’s parents, in particular, are drawn with a depth I don’t often see in young adult fiction. Nick, too, though he did shoot several people in Valerie’s high school, is also portrayed with enough sympathy that the reader can see what Valerie saw in him.

The emotions in this book felt very genuine. Each person deals with what happened the day Nick shot up the school commons in different ways. There were moments I was cheering for Valerie as she dealt with the minefields of other people’s experiences with the tragedy. There were other moments, particularly a few harrowing scenes between Valerie and her dad, where I wanted to hug her. There were also bits where I was angry with her. The fact that Ms. Brown successfully played with my emotions and I never felt manipulated is definitely a point in the book’s favor.

This book also reminded me of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, what with both stories featuring deeply troubled heroines in difficult situations who cope with life through art. I read Speak with clenched teeth, wondering why I was supposed to empathize with such a self-absorbed brat. (I’m aware I’m the only person in the history of the Internet who felt that way. Please don’t stone me.) Obviously, I liked The Hate List much better. The book also reminds me of Lionel Schriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is a book I never did review but which I read last year, which also discusses school shootings. Brown’s story isn’t as intense as Schriver’s, but at least I walked away from Hate List thinking the heroine would be OK, something I couldn’t say for Schriver’s heroine.

Final Thoughts: Ms. Brown’s debut was complex and dark and fascinating. I didn’t love it, because it didn’t speak to me on a completely visceral level, but I definitely appreciated the solid writing, and the complexity of the characters and the situation. If you, like me, like your contemporary YA complex and gritty, this is definitely a must-read.

Final Grade: B

Other Opinions

• Presenting Lenore

• Karen’s Book Nook
• YA Book Central
• My Friend Amy
• Galley Smith
  

Title: The Sugar Queen
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Genre: Contemporary fiction, magic realism
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I’ve had this book TBR, but was finally inspired to read it by a review from Angie.. (See below.)

Synopsis:

In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets–and secret passions–are about to change her life forever. Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis–and two parts fairy godmother… Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life–because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding. Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and–most amazing of all–has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time–even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place–and what Chloe has to do with it all–is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life. Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love–and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

My Thoughts: One of the things I wish I saw more of in the fiction I read is the positive effects of female friendship. It’s irritating to have a female best friend be portrayed as shallow, or merely a vehicle to introducing the heroine to a love interest, or, worse, a complete and total cow. And when I find a book that celebrates the beauty of female friendship, I want to embrace it and crow about it to everyone who’ll listen.

This is just such a book. Josey meets and befriends several interesting women over the course of the story, from Della Lee, the tramp living in her closet, to Chloe, the sandwich shop owner. And it is those friendships that make this story magical, as they set in motion all of the changes that happen in Josey’s life.

Josey herself is the kind of character that, if written badly, can be a real pain to read about. She starts the story a beaten-down woman who dreams of leaving her small North Carolina town, even though she feels guilty about being such a rotten child and therefore thinks she ought to stay home and take care of her unappreciative mother. In the hands of a less skilled author, Josey is the kind of character I’d want to smack upside the head, then feed them a slice of get-over-yourself cake. But the magic of this book was that I sympathized with Josey’s plight. I know what it’s like to feel like you have no other choice but to retreat into a more pleasant world of your own creation, and that is the way that Josey copes. But once Della Lee makes her escape the confines of her comfort zone, Josey finds that her life is much more interesting and rewarding.

The other characters in this book are drawn with just as much depth. Chloe in particular I loved, not least because of her affinity with books–they literally pop up around her whenever she needs them. Josey’s love interest, far from being simply a shallow but good-looking man, has demons of his own. Even Josey’s mother, far from being the one-note villainous character she could have been, is drawn with surprising warmth.

The plot of the novel centers around the self-actualizations of the major characters, and it’s done well. The magic realism touches, far from being a distracting nuissance the way they generally strike me, added an element of wonder to the setting. I found myself wishing for a secret closet like Josey’s, and sighing wistfully over the fact that books do not pop up around me like they do for Chloe. I loved the fairy tale aspect of the story, and I adored the romances, both the one between Josey and Adam, which was very sweet and tentative, and the one between Chloe and her boyfriend, which was very much passionate, but in some ways a bit more realistic, by which I mean that I suspect a few strictly romance readers might have issues with Jake. Ms. Allen drew me into the world she created, and I practically read the book in one sitting, taking only a brief break because I simply didn’t want the story to end. In fact, it is the kind of book that I think I could get a lot out of rereading, which I very much want to do.

Final Thoughts: This book reminded me of another recent read, Like Water for Chocolate. However, I understood Josey far better than I understood Tita, and I was completely drawn into Josey’s world and the lives of her friends.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions

• Angieville, who made me want to read it.

• Book Addiction
• At Home with Books
• Books on the Brain
• Bookfoolery and Babble

Title: Into the Wild Nerd Yonder
Author: Julie Halpern
Genre: Contemporary young adult fiction
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: The synopsis caught my attention. I figured it would either be very good or train-wreckily awful. (Yes, I’m aware I just made up a word there. Feel free to use it whenever you want.)

Synopsis:

It’s Jessie’s sophomore year of high school. A self-professed mathelete, she isn’t sure where she belongs. Her two best friends have transformed themselves into punks and one of them is going after her longtime crush. Her beloved older brother will soon leave for college (and in the meantime has shaved his mohawk and started dating… the prom princess!)… Things are changing fast. Jessie needs new friends. And her quest is a hilarious tour through high-school clique-dom, with a surprising stop along the way — the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, who out-nerd everyone. Will hanging out with them make her a nerd, too? And could she really be crushing on a guy with too-short pants and too-white gym shoes? If you go into the wild nerd yonder, can you ever come back?

My Thoughts: Confession time: I was a gamer in high school. I started out being the typical dungeon master’s girlfriend, then I really got into it. I don’t play RPG’s face to face these days, mostly because I haven’t found a group that’s local that I click with, and also because I am far, far better at playing RPG games online, where I don’t have to struggle to think on my feet. Also, online games have a tendency to emphasize good writing and go deeper into characterization, which appeal to me more.

And but so anyway, when I started Into the Wild Nerd Yonder I steeled myself for Halpern using it as a vehicle to either make fun of the nerds in Jessie’s school or teach Jessie a valuable lesson about not being such a snot. So, expectations firmly grounded in very low territory, I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome this book was, and by the fact that it didn’t wander into annoying cliche territory.

Jessie herself is a wonderful lead character. She’s smart and funny and I related to her. I liked that she was a reader, and she was reading books that I really have to get around to reading myself. (She mentions Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer and Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevon, both of which I have TBR.) I also envied Jessie her mad sewing skills. I wish I were that crafty, and it made me happy that one of the reasons she was accepted by the D&D crew was her sewing ability, which her former friends thought was a bit lame.

Jessie’s struggle is authentic, and I never felt that the story got bogged down by unnecessary angst. There were also some very poignant moments, especially between Jessie and her older brother, that made me smile. And, of course, there is the romance angle, which was exactly right and very sweet. To make this shorter, I felt for Jessie and rooted for her as she tried to figure out where her place was. In fact, with its intensely likeable protagonist, I thought Into the Wild Nerd Yonder was reminiscent of the one Sarah Dessen book I’ve read.

Final Thoughts: A great protagonist and an excellent round-up of secondary characters makes this book a fun and highly recommended read. I hope Julie Halpern has more where this came from.

Final Grade: B+

Other Opinions

• Serene Hours

• The Book Muncher

Hello, blog. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I know I’d made a resolution this year to be more consistent with my blogging, and, well, we see where that got me.

The truth is, I’ve been in kind of a reading slump lately. Most of this is because RL is being full of drama and treachery and all-around unpleasantness, which have weighed on my mind quite a lot. But I’m trying to calm down and take things as they come and not panic.

Also, and this is a little weirdly OCD of me, but my favorite reading chair broke. It’s still under warranty, but they’re not going to be able to come fix it until February. Which means I have to find some other place to sit and read, and it’s just not the same!

I did, however, manage to finish a couple of books recently, and I’m hoping to revitalize my reading mojo by the simple expedient of needing something to do to procrastinate instead of doing my homework.

I plan on posting a couple of reviews in the next couple of days, and hopefully this will bring me back on track with my blogging goals.

Title: Sleep No More
Author: Susan Crandall
Genre: Romantic suspense
Source: Bookshare
Challenges: None
Reason for Reading: A couple of years ago, I read and loved Pitch Black by the same author. So when this book came up on Bookshare’s New Books list, I knew I had to read it.

Synopsis:

DANGER NEVER RESTS

The night was always Abby Whitman’s enemy. As a young girl she walked in her sleep, and one night, started a fire that scarred her sister for life and left Abby with unbearable guilt, and a loneliness that echoes within her

AND EVIL NEVER CLOSES ITS EYES

Now Abby has begun blacking out again—with apparently fatal results. A car accident has killed the son of a prominent family. Even though the evidence seems to exonerate her, Abby is plagued by doubts—and soon by mysterious threats. A young psychiatrist, Dr. Jason Coble, is intrigued by Abby and offers to help her explore the dark recesses in her mind. Through this terrifying journey, Jason’s interest turns to passion, and he yearns to give her the love she craves. But first, Abby must trust him—and shed light on secrets that will rock this Southern town and reveal a danger that threatens them both.

My Thoughts: When Abby Whitman starts walking in her sleep again, she is terrified. Always cognisant of the fact that she set the fire that destroyed her family home and left her sister scarred, she perceives herself as a danger to herself and others, and so she’s refused to let anyone else sleep under the same roof with her. This has worked well for her so far, at least until she begins sleep-walking. When she wakes up in a pond, having been sleep-driving, and comes upon the body of a murdered man, self-doubt begins to creep in.

Jason Coble has problems of his own. He worries about his ex-wife, Lucy, whose drinking hasn’t stopped like it’s supposed to. And when he meets Abby, he knows he wants more from her than simply being her doctor.

There was a lot going on in this book. We have Abby and her sleep-driving. We have Jason and his family problems. There is a priest who’s been acting strangely, and Jason’s stepson, Brice, has issues of his own to work out. For the most part, all of these stories are successfully woven together, and they all added to the plot in a satisfying way. I rooted for the characters, and found this a satisfying read, but compared to Pitch Black it was a bit disappointing.

My main problem was Abby. Girlfriend had a huge martyr complex that I found annoying. I could understand her worries about being a danger to herself and others, but she took it to extremes. She also spent much of the book in a state of emotional frazzledness that made her hard for me to relate to. I wanted to see her be strong, and for the most part she wasn’t. Also, a revelation comes at the end that completely banishes Abby’s fears, allowing her to get together with Jason. That felt tacked on, as if the author wasn’t quite sure what to do to get her leads together, so she resorted to deus ex machina.

Jason I liked quite a bit more. He’s a man with some genuine problems, but he was basically a good guy. I liked that he had an ex-wife that was always going to be in the picture, and even though the ex was an awful mother Jason still respected her and didn’t angst too much over his feelings about Abby as a result of this prior relationship. That relationship is presented realistically, and I bought the chemistry between Abby and Jason.

As for the secondary characters, they were disappointingly flat. The good guys were clearly good. The bad guys were clearly not, and none of them felt fleshed out.

I do think Ms. Crandall can deliver a fast-paced and engrossing plot. When I was reading the book, I was engrossed. It was only when I put it down that I realized I could easily get distracted by other things. Like all good mysteries, I didn’t have the villain pegged right away, and I was left quite satisfied with the story, with the exception of the silly deus ex machina at the end.

It should also be noted, because it started to bother me, that Abby has a lot of property damage to deal with. I stopped counting after she had to replace her third cell phone, and things always seem to break, burn, or get vandalized when she’s around. It would be funny with another heroine, but as another reviewer points out, Abby goes through the trials of Job, so after a while it all seemed a bit much.

Final Thoughts: I’ll probably read more Crandall, but I’m glad I didn’t buy this book. If you like romantic suspense set in the South, and you don’t mind characters that are a little bland, check this book out. But it’s not my favorite by the author, and I know she can do better.

Final Grade: C+

Other Opinions

• All About Romance

Title: The Nanny Diaries
Author: Emma McLoughlin and Nicola Cross
Genre: contemporary fiction
Challenges: None
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I saw the movie last week and really enjoyed it.

Synopsis:

Working her way through NYU, Nanny takes a post with the super-wealthy X family of Park Avenue. She immediately adores their four year old son Grayer, and just as quickly learns the insane amount of work it takes to insure a worry-free day for Mrs. X, a mother who, by all appearances, does not work or clean, cook, shop, or wash clothes, does not even see her own child more than is strictly unavoidable. When Nanny’s presence starts to take an unexpected toll on Mrs. X’s relationships with her husband and son, Nanny finds herself with an unexpected and powerful enemy. Realizing what a precarious and potentially explosive position she’s in, Nanny finds herself simultaneously trying to take care of both the increasingly miserable son and the increasingly irrational mother, before the situation blows up in all of their faces…. Authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus skillfully skewer the pretentions of Manhattan’s super-rich and allow the rest of us a rare peek into the heretofore closed world of Park Avenue backstairs.

My Thoughts: This is one of those books which is hard to review. I find that, even though I finished the book two days ago, I don’t really have a lot to say about it. It was entertaining, and I enjoyed reading it, but I did not love it. I would, in fact, rather watch the movie again.

The problem here is that I’m a Midwestern girl. The closest to Park Avenue I’ve ever been in my entire life are the times I’ve landed on Park Place in Monopoly. I can’t judge, therefore, whether this is a good example of social satire. I believe that it is because the authors were trying for that, but I’m far from an expert.

I do know that what Nanny goes through in order to appease the X family is crazy and ridiculous, but I never really felt like I was reading a chick lit story. The tone was a bit too somber, though there were funny and light moments occasionally. I loved Grayer, the boy that Nanny watches, and I liked Nanny herself. I also found the reactions of her family and friends to her job as a nanny to be quite fascinating, but I think overall the movie delivered a far more satisfying story. There was a more cohesive plot, and I got more of a sense of the character of Nanny than I did from the book.

Final Thoughts: I would absolutely recommend watching the movie. The book just left me meh.

Final Grade: C

Other Opinions

Have you read and reviewed this book? Let me know in the comments!

Title: Tough Tiffany
Author: Belinda Hurmence
Genre: Children’s fiction
Source: Bookshare
Challenges: Flashback Challenge
Reason for Reading: I had read this book as a child, and I was curious to see if it would hold up at all.

Synopsis: This book tells the story of a year in the life of Tiffany Cox, a black girl living in North Carolina. Tiffany wants to be thought of as tough, but she’s not sure that she actually is. Still, when her family has to deal with the repossession of their furniture, their grandmother’s missing money, and Tiffany’s sister’s pregnancy, Tiffany rises to the challenge and proves herself.

My thoughts: I can’t speak to the cultural relevance of this book, as I am as white a girl as they come, and I live in the midwest, not the south. That being said, I really enjoyed rereading this book. I liked that it dealt with poverty as a fact of life. Nobody bemoans their lack of money, they just move on and deal with it the best they can. I imagine there are a lot of kids out there in a similar situation to the Cox family, but they just aren’t talked about as much.

The characters are wonderful. Tiffany is spunky, in the best possible way. It’s obvious that she loves her family, foibles and all, and I believed her as an eleven-year-old girl. I also loved Tiff’s family, from her sometimes shrill, spendthrift mother to her crotchetty old grandmother to her pregnant sister. They’ve all got their flaws, and they aren’t idolized, which again makes them seem like people I could actually meet.

I also enjoyed the factthat this wasn’t an issue book. It’s about Tiffany growing up a little, but it’s not as bleak as the subject matter–a sister’s pregnancy at the age of fifteen–might suggest.

I don’t think I’m likely to reread this in the future, but I do recommend it as a not-very-dated book for middle grade readers.

Final Grade: B+

Other Opinions

Have you read this book? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

You wouldn’t think that Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quartet and V C Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic would be two tastes that would taste great together, would you?

Well, you would be wrong.

This was my favorite offering from this year’s Yuletide. It becomes even more awesome when you consider that the fic was written for me by one of my BFF’s!

P.S. In other random news, I’ve decided that my best of 2009 list is not getting written. Just go out and read Tender Morsels , which I didn’t ever manage to review, and you’ll have read my favorite book of 2009. (Sadly, no one wrote Tender Morsels fic for Yuletide. Next year, however…)

I am several reviews behind, and I wanted to jstart fresh and review books I’d read in 2010. With that in mind, I thought I’d steal an idea from Kailana. She does a feature occasionally called Six-sentence Saturday, in which she talks about recent reads in reviews of only six sentences. Here, then, is my attempt at the same kind of thing.

• Hard Candy by Andrew Vachss: This is the fourth in Vachss’s Burke novels, and is largely a transition book. The case Burke works on is incidental except that it allows him to deal with some of the demons he’s been fighting since the last book. As such, I didn’t think it was as strong as some of the others I’ve read. Still, Burke is one of my favorite characters in all of literature, and I can’t wait to dive into the next adventure in his life. This book works fine as a stand-alone, though I think you’d get more out of the series by starting from the beginning. This book rates a B.

• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel: This classic Mexican novel of romance and cooking had an interesting premise–a woman is thwarted from marrying her true love because she has to take care of her mother, so she throws herself into life in the kitchen. Sadly, as awesome as this idea was, and as much as it’s a modern classic, it didn’t work for me very well. I found the novel quite readable, but the main character, Elena, struck me as a Mary Sue. I also thought a few of the magic realism bits were just random, and that took me out of the story. I’m sure this makes me a plebe of the lowest order. I have to give this one a C.
• I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb: The premise is pretty much right there in the title. I thought this book was quite fun, and enjoyed it while I was reading it, but it wasn’t perfect. Mr. Lieb tried too hard to make this book appeal to both kids and adults, and I’m not sure how well it would appeal to either. It did make me laugh out loud in places, though, so it succeeded somewhere. I’d read more by Josh Lieb in the future. This book gets a B-.
• His Ordinary Life by Linda Winfree: I officiallhy love the Hearts of the South series. Each book is an intimate glimpse into the life of two small-town Georgia residents and their friends. In this installment, the romantic conflict–a marriage in trouble due to poor communication–is expertly handled, and I was invested in Dell and Barbara’s making things work. The suspense plot was also quite well-handled, with a villain I didn’t see coming. I’ve got to stop waiting months between reading these books. My grade is a strong B+.
• A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotsen: What a fun, delightfully fluffy confection of a book! This is a romance in the best sense of the word, with an impoverished Russian countess charming everyone she meets in the house of an earl where she is working as a housemaid. I smiled all the way through this book, and eagerly look forward to reading more Ibbotsen. I suspect that fans of more realism in their romances will find this book hard to deal with, but to them I say “Thppppt.” I loved it anyway, and the book neatly avoids any romance tropes that make me cringe. I rate this another B+.
• The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things and How to Do Them by Peter Sagal: I like books like this, which are deeply personal encounters journalists have with whatever they’re studying. Sagal, who hosts the NPR show, Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me goes on a personal journey through several vices. Ultimately, he decides he’s better off sticking to his vanilla lifestyle. Mostly, I thought this book was quite funny and I definitely couldn’t put it down. Still, there was a certain prissiness to Sagal’s writing that kept me from really taking him seriously. Despite that, though, I’d rate it a B.

And there you have it, the last of the books of 2009. There is one more review forthcoming of a book I read last year, but I’ll let it speak for itself when the time comes.

Happy New Year!

I still haven’t gotten around to writing up any of the best-of lists for 2009 that I was planning, but since my resolution this year is to blog more, I figured I’d make a post anyway.

I spent New Year’s eve hanging out with friends, one of whom we picked up from the airport. As two of the three of us were blind, we decided it would be fun to visit one of the two theaters in the Kansas City metro area that offers descriptive video and see what was playing. Which meant we ended up flummoxing the poor theater staff who didn’t even know descriptive video was available. It also meant we missed about the first 20 minutes of Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakuel. Somehow I had missed the fact that the chipmunks have made a comeback, and, in truth, that particular cultural phenomenon isn’t one I embrace with any kind of enthusiasm. My BFF’s 5-year-old, on the other hand, is an ardent fan of the Chipettes, the three girl chipmunks who, as it turns out, are quite besotted with the original chipmunk brothers.

I can tell you that I liked the movie–at least the part I sat through. I don’t think I would watch it over and over and over, but there were bits I loved. (Including, I must admit, a really nice moment between Theodore and Eleanor, the chipette of his dreams.) That being said, I continue to be gobsmacked by the idea of the chipmunks in high school. I really hope there will not be a third movie, featuring the chipmunks in college, possibly joining a loser fraternity which somehow needs to be saved from disbanding.

Anyway, after the movie, we spent the evening at a New Year’s party where several people we carol with were also in attendance. Instruments were produced, and a jam session broke out. It was a wonderful way to wring in the New Year.

Today, my friends and I hung around together, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. We watched the Nanny Diaries , about which I find I have considerably less to say. It was entertaining, and I intend to read the book. I also ate my friend’s chicken curry salad, about which I would rhapsodize in great detail if I were any kind of food blogger. And now I’m home, hoping to curl up under my favorite quilt and finish a book which will become my first read of 2010.

I hope all of you were able to have a good time ringing in 2010. I look forward to finding out what the new year brings us!