Review Me Twice - Where She Went by Gayle Forman

I don't know if it's because I listened to the audiobook of this or if it's because I just don't REMEMBER that much of If I Stay (it was almost three years ago, after all) or if the writing just genuinely wasn't as good, but I really didn't enjoy Where She Went.

It was really obvious to me where the book was going to end up from page one, which was fine, because it's a teen romance novel, not a big deal, it's not like it takes a huge leap of the imagination to figure out what's going to happen.  But Adam is in this ridiculously depressive state, but it's not even a depression you can necessarily relate to.  You just kind of feel like he's whining and being emo.

And the writing just felt really cliche a lot of the time.  I felt like there were a lot of bad similes and metaphors throughout the entire book.  Jarringly bad ones, that would throw me out of the book.  It really felt more like she was trying to recreate If I Stay, which I remember having a little bit of magic, so maybe I forgave terrible metaphors a little more?  But it didn't have the same sort of feel to it.  It was just a rock star being sad because he lost his girlfriend three years ago.

I didn't listen to the audiobook like Cassy did, but I can only imagine it sounded like one long "Wahhhhhhh." Because oh my goodness can this narrator whine.

While I understand and empathize with real-life people who suffer from depression or are even just getting over a bad breakup, these are not the kinds of traits I want to see in a protagonist for an entire book. It can be part of the book... the journey to overcome depression makes a great story, but that's not what Adam is doing here. He's wallowing. Nobody wants 200+ pages of wallowing.

And the primary problem with If I Stay, which was that everyone's life (pre-car-accident, anyway) was so unbearably perfect, is still the case here. He's an overnight rock sensation with more money than you can shake a stick at (which is a weird thing to do to money, I think) and enough raw talent to fill several arenas. She's a cello prodigy who graduated early from Julliard and is embarking on her world tour of genius.

Author Bio: Gayle Forman

Alex yesterday mentioned that, when we did this book almost THREE YEARS AGO, we never did an author bio on Gayle Forman, mainly because we hadn't gotten into the schedule that we've gotten into these days.  So, why don't I go ahead and tell you a little about our author this week.

She's the one on the left ;)

Forman actually started her writing career with Seventeen Magazine, then moved on to other magazines like Elle and Cosmopolitan.  It was on a trip around the world with her husband in 2002 to that she started to write her first book, You Can't Get There From Here.  She published her first young adult novel, Sisters in Sanity, in 2007.

But of course, it was her 2009 novel, If I Stay, that really took off, winning a multitude of awards including the NAIBA Book of the Year award.  It was in 2014 that it was released as a movie with Chloe Grace Mortz starring as Mia (see above).

Foreman has also released a three book series, Just One Day, Just One Year, and Just One Night and she had one more book come out today called I Was Here.

She also has a webpage that you can visit, a facebook page, and a twitter.

Remember: Gayle Forman?

For those of you who have been with us since the beginning, it has been almost two and a half years since our first post. We read If I Stay by Gayle Forman in October of 2012 as our second review book.

That was back before we posted five days a week, and we didn't do weekly author bios yet. The Monday post for that week was What Is YA? and was written by both of us, and the favorites for that Wednesday was Favorite Authors.

Gayle Forman has shown up here again, more recently, since Cassy's store hosted a signing by her and Chloe Grace Moretz (who I adore and would love to be in the same room as, personally) last summer.

So this week, we're wrapping up the Month of Sequels with the sequel to If I Stay, which is Where She Went.

Review Me Twice - My True Love Gave To Me by Multiple Authors

I am actually a big fan of anthologies.  I have the theory that, by sheer odds, you're eventually going to hit ONE story that you like in it.  And I did.  In fact, there were a number of stories that I liked in it.  I really liked the one by Rainbow Rowell, though probably more so because when I went to see her at Politics and Prose, she read it.

If you ever get the chance to hear an author read their own work, do it.  It's SO MUCH BETTER than what happens in my head (and what happened there was pretty good.)

Some were definitely better than others, because you have twelve authors and while some are great authors, not all of them are meant to be short story writers.  David Levithan's was not one of my favorites.  I love him, and I liked his better when I heard him read it out loud, but I still didn't enjoy his story as much as I have enjoyed his books.

But probably my favorite out of the whole batch was Gayle Foreman's.  It was funny and poignant and sweet and just a great story.  I thought it was well done and one of those stories that was satisfying where it ended but still full of potential.

The book was a good anthology, and definitely worth reading, especially if you're just looking for a nice Christmas book.

I promise, one of my New Year's resolutions is to read every single Review Me Twice book beginning to end. But it's still 2014, so I didn't finish this one. What I did read, though, I really loved. My favorite thing about anthologies (other than what Cassy mentioned above, finding at least ONE you like) is how different authors take different approaches to the same theme or topic. I think a major reason why I didn't manage to finish this book on time was that I had to put it down between stories (and there are a lot of stories... twelve, so sayeth the subtitle). I don't read different authors' short stories back to back. When the anthology is all the same author, I can read straight through, but I have to do that thing where you put it down and digest what you read before I can pick it back up in the multi-author situation.

Twelve Author Bios

This week, we actually have TWELVE authors, because we're reading a Christmas Anthology!!  So, I thought it might be fun to actually do a quick bio on each of them (and that means most of them will be almost directly copy and pasted from Goodreads.  So be prepared for that.)

Stephanie Perkins

Perkins writes novels for teens (and for adults who aren't afraid to admit that teen books are awesome). She was born in South Carolina, raised in Arizona, attended universities in San Francisco and Atlanta, and now lives in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

Her best friend is her husband Jarrod. Their house is almost a hundred years old, and every room is painted a different color of the rainbow. They share it with a cat named Mr. Tumnus.

She's always worked with books—first as a bookseller, then as a librarian, and now as a novelist. On weekdays, you'll find her at her desk, typing away, downing cups of coffee and tea. On the weekend, you'll find her at the movies, waiting for the actors to kiss. She believes all novels and films should have more kissing.

Holly Black

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with Justine Larbalestier), and Welcome to Bordertown (with Ellen Kushner). Her most recent works are the middle grade novel, Doll Bones, and the dark fantasy stand-alone, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.

Ally Carter

Ally Carter is a writer living and working in the Midwest. She loved school so much she kept going...and going...and going...until finally she had to graduate. Now she has degrees from Oklahoma State University and Cornell University and a house and a job and other very grown-up things.

Her life is either very ordinary or the best deep-cover legend ever. She'd tell you more, but...well...you know...

Gayle Foreman

My name is Gayle Forman and I love to write young-adult novels. Because I do. So thank you for reading them. Because without you, it’d just be me. And the voices in my head.

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications asJane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Jenny Han

(Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and she went on to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn.  She is the author of To All The Boys I Have Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty

David Levithan

David Levithan (born 1972) is an American children's book editor and award-winning author. He published his first YA book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a Young Adult imprint of Scholastic Press.

Kelly Link

Kelly Link is an American author of short stories born in 1969. Her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: sometimes a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism.

Myra McEntire

Myra McEntire is an avid Doctor Who fan and will argue passionately about which incarnation is the best. She loves to search thrift stores for things to upcycle, as she’s a big believer in second chances. She lives with her two boys and husband near Nashville, Tennessee. Myra is the author of the Hourglass trilogy, which has been nominated for two RITAs and a YALSA Teen Top Ten, and was chosen as a SIBA Okra Pick. She’s currently contracted with Storybird, where she’s serializing a middle grade novel, called THE SHADOW GATE.

Matt De La Pena

Matt de la Peña is the author of five critically-acclaimed young adult novels—Ball Don't Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You and The Living—as well as the award-winning picture book A Nation’s Hope: The story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He teaches creative writing and visits high schools and colleges throughout the country.

Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

Laini Taylor

Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . about kissing. I am also an artist with a licensed gift product line called "Laini's Ladies."

Kiersten White

Hi! I'm the New York Times best-selling author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally. I also give the most awkward hugs in the world. You should probably opt for one of my books over one of my hugs, but then again, maybe you like awkward hugs.

As for me, I like writing flirting scenes, and fighting scenes, and sometimes I write scenes that fall somewhere in between the two, but only if I can't avoid it.

And don't forget to enter our contest to win a signed copy of Unwind!!!

Review Me Twice: On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier

What an odd book. I didn't really know what to expect from it, to be honest with you. I knew it was for kids (it's a picture book) and I knew I had seen in reviews that it talked about science topics like the solar system and wild animals.

It has a really hippie-ish vibe to me. It's the only way I can think to describe it, really. Frasier uses the term "Mother Earth" a couple times (including on the dedication page). I love that it's all related to the concept of unity and responsibility for the earth, but I'm not sure I love the vehicle for that message.

When you look at a children's book and want to consider literary value, you aren't supposed to approach it with the attitude of "if I were a kid, would I enjoy it?" Because unless you read it as a kid, you don't know (and even if you did, you wouldn't remember it 100% honestly, because you're a different person now than when you were learning to read picture books). But... I don't think I would have liked this book as a kid. I would have liked the few pages at the end of the book that go into detail about the science mentioned in the book (I had a book about the Titanic that had a similar section, and I never read the story; just the historical notes at the back).

The book was very much, "look how small you are in this big world but no less important."  But in a really weird, roundabout, not really to the point at all kind of way.

The colors were really pretty, so if you were reading it to a younger kid they would probably really appreciate the pictures in it it.  But I think if you get much past the age of 5 for this book, it's not really going to be that appealing to its audience.

Over all, the book wasn't that impressive and not something I'd probably ever get for anyone's kids.

Author Bio: Debra Frasier

This is our birthday week! So we're taking it a little bit easy and reading a children's book.

And the author/illustrator of that book is Debra Frasier!

She seems to be quite the busy bee, if you check out her website and see all the projects she's up to: blogs, books, community work.

The book we're reviewing this week was the first one Debra Frasier published: On the Day You Were Born. (It only seemed appropriate to read a book about birthdays on the blog's second birthday!)

Why We Bully

Bullying has been around forever, and it's a huge topic in our book this week, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.  It's incredibly prevalent in our literature, probably in places that we didn't even realize.

Who would have thought that innocent Peanuts cartoons could be brought into a bullying post, but Lucy is a bully.  She is constantly pulling that football out from under Charlie Brown, telling him that he's hopeless, and generally just putting the guy down (not to mention the various other characters in the book.)

However, Shultz does show us that the bad guy doesn't always win.  Lucy is desperately in love with Schroeder, who constantly rebuffs her, often giving her a taste of her own medicine and befriending Charlie Brown.

For the record, this was what my copy looked like as a kid, 

until I read it so much the cover tore off.

Harriet the Spy is one of my favorite books and is a great example of bullying among kids.  Harriet gets basically ostracized by everyone in her class.  The thing I think that I like best about Harriet the Spy is that no one in that book is perfect.  Yes, Harriet gets bullied.  But you know what?  Harriet, in her own way, is also a bully.  She writes some pretty terrible things about her classmates, and then instead of suffering the consequences of her actions, retaliates with more bullying before she finally realizes that if she wants her friends back, she's going to have to humble herself.  

Books like Harriet the Spy use bullying to show how tough it is on a kid, how really wrong it can be and how hard it is in school, but also how easy it is for any kid to fall victim to it's lure as well as be a victim of it.  Bullying in literature is also used to show ways that we can prevent or solve bullying in schools, like our book this week does.  There are lots of books that have successfully used it (and some that have not so successfully done it.)

Either way, bullying is both an important literary and social topic that shows up tons in our literature.

If I Stay Signed Copy Giveaway!

Gayle Forman and Chloë Grace Moretz came to my mall awhile back and were signing ALL THE THINGS!!!  So, since I work at a bookstore, I bought a copy of the book to give to YOU readers and it's signed by BOTH Moretz and Forman!  EXCITING!!!

Why yes, that IS an actual copy of the book we're giving away.

This contest, though, we're going to make you really earn your contest entry.  We will be posting on the blog, as usual, and Facebook (as... mostly usual, though we've been less good about that as of late.)  You need to comment in one of those two places to enter.

So, rules:

- Your comments have to be at least two sentences long and something that might start a discussion.  "I liked this book.  It was good" does not count.  "I really like time travel sci-fi.  I think Octavia Butler is the best writer of our time" would count.  You're attempting to engage the opinions of others.

- You can not comment spam just to win.  However, if you end up engaging in a discussion with someone (including us), we will count each comment as an entry, as long as they abide by rule one and stay relevant to the post/discussion (if you start going off into a tangent about how hot Hugh Jackman is, I'll agree, but will no longer be counting your comments as entries.)

- Inevitably, all comments are up to our discretion if they are counted as entries or not.

- Comment has to be on a post within the last week (or so).  We're not going to go checking months and years worth of back posts just to see if you put a comment there.  Sorry.

- We will randomly pick a winner on August 22, 2014, the same day that the movie comes out!

- As per usual with these contest, contiguous US.  Sorry to all our international fans (and I know that we have a few.)  We just can't afford the shipping.  We will be shipping it USPS with no signature required.

- The winner must provide a valid address within one week of winning (that would be August 29).  Email us at reviewmetwice [at] gmail [dot] com.  If they do not, we will pick another winner.  If the SECOND winner does not claim it, we'll dispose of the book as we see fit (AKA I'll give it to my co-blogger or sell it on eBay.)

- Please keep it civil.  We love discussions on this page, and we're totally ok with disagreeing with people! (In fact, we think it makes it more interesting.)  However, if it starts to get inappropriate or mean-spirited, we reserve the right to moderate.  This applies to especially foul language, name calling, or anything else we deem to be really jerky.

Good luck!!

This is in no way endorsed by the movie, the actress, or the author.

If I Stay Meet and Greet

So, I'm late on posting today, and it's a busy week anyway, so I'm posting a picture of what I did today!!

That is Gayle Foreman, author of If I Stay (which we reviewed almost two years ago, because we're hipsters like that.), and the lead actress of the movie, Chloe Grace Moretz.  I got stuff signed by both of them!!

Sooooo, stick around for the movie coming out on August 22.  We just MIGHT be giving something special away. ;)

From Page To Screen

So, at work, we constantly have these tables called "from page to screen" and on it we pile all of the books that have been turned into movies (or are about to be.)  Since we're talking so much about books that result from video games this week, I thought it only appropriate to give you a list of books that have movie companions.

I've listed this book on here more than a few times, and of course, we reviewed it awhile back, but I think it bears being repeated.  The book is amazing and, I can tell you, that the second book holds up to the first one.  I might even like it better than I did the first one.  This is definitely something you should read before the movie comes out in September.

This book is probably on my top 10 favorite of all time.  It's sweet and it's moving and it's so incredibly and beautifully written, it's impossible not to fall in love with it each time that you read it.  Narrated by Death, it's the perfect third person view.  It does have a movie already out on DVD, which I can really tell you if it's good or bad, seeing as I've never seen it, but definitely get your hands on the book first.

This is a great alien superpower book (and another that fell onto our review radar).  It's interesting and fun and really well done, but not so over the top that you can't take it seriously.  Apparently, it's also a movie, that came out in 2011.  Who knew?  So after you read the book (which you will love), take a look at the movie (which looks like it might not be terrible.)

This is one of the VERY few books that I actually enjoyed the movie better (though, how could you not with Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman.)  However, the book is well written and tells a wonderful story of two women, making their own way while the Civil War is going on. (and you can read our review here!!)

There are SO many books to movies.  So, tell me what movies you preferred over the books?

Review Me Twice - In Liam's Wake by Ashlyn Forge

This week, we read In Liam's Wake (which... I believe was a NaNoWriMo novel for Forge at first.  Yay, NaNo!)  As usual, I'm going to start with the things that I liked about the book.

I really liked the characters in this book.  They all had distinct voices and personalities and mysteries.  You never really KNEW 100% what was going on with any of the characters until you reached the end of the book.  I thought that the flash backs were a nice touch, letting us see what happened then as opposed to what was going on now.  Just when you think you know what's going on... BAM, nope, just kidding.  You don't.

I really liked Forge's world building.  We were given the colony, a place that had crazy rules and was a prison, but no one seemed to really think that way except for Liam.  I liked that the topsiders were a part of, yet separate from the colony.  Everyone paid their debts topside, and if they didn't die by the time the debts were paid, they got to go to the colony.  It was their reward.  But there was no love between topsiders and the colony.  It was an interesting dynamic.    

Everything FIT in the world too.  For instance, since it was underground there were water rations and specific foods (like orange juice) were incredibly expensive because they were hard to come by.  Everything really worked together and you could tell that a lot of effort had gone into the descriptions of the colony to make it that way.  I appreciate that.

There were some things that really turned me off to the book, however.  Liam and Riley were both very vocally against homosexuality (which is kind of necessary in the colony because there are so few females.)  But it seemed like the second it came to each other, it was fine.  It just seemed really off to me that they would be so against it everywhere else, but so willing to enter into that relationship with each other.

The other thing is that there was way to much sex/sexual scenes going on in the middle of this book.  I don't mind sex scenes (after all, I'm a Jean Auel fan and you just can't get more sex than that), but I felt like it didn't really serve a purpose here.  It was also just there all of a sudden.  It went from Riley hating Liam to them having sex in about 2.5 seconds.  And while this DOES get explained later, I just feel as if there was too much for too long of a time.

The story also gets lost in itself sometimes.  You really have to pay attention to what's going on or you're going to be lost.  Which... is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you're not an attentive reader, it could cause you problems in this particular book.

Over all it was well done, well paced, and well edited, which is always appreciated on this blog.

THIS is how pacing is done. Take note... everyone. It wasn't a FAST read (but then again, I was reading it on my computer, which is slower for me than the old-fashioned paper version) but it was a SMOOTH read, which I love. Things happen fluidly. (Though, you do need to be pretty absorbed in order for this to work. I don't think this makes a good read-it-in-pieces-on-your-lunch-break kind of book, which is how I had to read it. It's better as a sit-by-the-fire-in-a-Snuggie-and-fly-through-it sort of book.)

Whenever you have a setting with very different rules from our real-world settings (usually futuristic or alternate history) it can be difficult to explain all the new stuff without starting off with a laundry list. "So there's this place, and it's divided into these different areas, and there's a caste system that goes like this..." Yeah, that's not going to turn out well for you or your readers. But this was approached very well in In Liam's Wake; you can piece together the important bits within the first 20% of the book (how much do I love that Kindle keeps track of that for me?) and the rest clicks into place as you get to it. It's something I don't have a lot of skill with, and I admire it.

Along the same vein, naming stuff can be hard, especially in this genre. I appreciate the use of simple terms like "the Colony" and "the Assembly" because that's how people naturally label things in real life. And then when something needs a new word, it is cleverly done. "Elete"? Perfect. We understand that it is synonymous with "elite" but it's new and different and better.

Like Cassy, I thought the sexplosion in the middle was a little out-of-nowhere, but I've seen more egregious examples of that.

All in all, I really liked this one. Everything fit together the way a good story should, and... seriously, just read it to see the pacing, if nothing else. It's really great.

Author Interview - Ashlyn Forge

This week, we're reading In Liam's Wake by Ashlyn Forge.  It's her first published book, which you can purchase a copy of here.  As often happens when we're reviewing break out authors, we have an interview with Ashlyn for you!

  What gave you the idea for this novel?

- The idea of the novel itself wasn't as clear as the the setting. The setting was already established in my head, and I thought of the things in my genre which I haven't seen much of. And it just came ot be.

Who is your favorite character in, “In Liam’s Wake”?

- My favorite character, other than Jerret, would be Met. I'm a big fan of a good bad guy.

What projects are you working on now?

- I'm working on another standalone. book 7 "The Stuff of Dreams." It should be out in 2014.

What was the hardest part about writing this book? The easiest?

- The hardest part was getting Liam to behave. Some characters take you into directions you weren't planning on. I won out in the end though. The easiest part was the character personalities. They are very defined in my head, and although I don't feel confident in much, I do feel confident that I got that across well enough.

What originally made you decide to write?  How long have you been doing it?

- I started writing when I suffered a loss 13 years ago. It was a good way to escape into a world I could control. I gave it a rest for awhile, just dabbling here and there, and then came back to it.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

- No one can tell you to write, and no one can tell you to stop. Keep pushing forward. One of these days, you're bound to break out into a run.

We have to ask, what's your favorite book?

- My favorite book is: Sneetches on Beaches by Dr. Seuss. It's amazing how such a short story could tell such a very big message. The exploitation of insecurities has never been so much fun to read. :-)

Thanks so much, Ashlyn, for taking the time to answer our questions!  If you want more information about Ashlyn and her book, you can visit her website, her facebook, or her twitter.

Author Bio: Pittacus Lore

I'd like to show you a picture of Pittacus Lore, author of this week's review book, I Am Number Four. But I can't do that, because he doesn't exist.

This is the photo from the "About the Author" on the book flap.

Pittacus Lore is a pseudonym for two authors working jointly to write the Lorien Legacies series.

This is James Frey. He is one of the two people who make up Pittacus Lore. You may remember him as the author of A Million Little Pieces, the book that enraged millions of Oprah Winfrey's followers because it claimed to be a memoir but was mainly fictionalized. (You may recall me talking about this before.) At least the Lorien Legacies admit that they're fiction. (Which is good, since they're about aliens hiding from other aliens on Earth...)

This is Jobie Hughes, the other half of Pittacus Lore. His website lists only one novel, At Dawn, published in 2012. There is very little other information about him.

Pittacus Lore is much like Lemony Snicket, in that he is mentioned within the stories he is authoring. At first, I thought Pittacus Lore was just a poorly chosen pseudonym by someone who didn't mind everyone knowing that his name was a pseudonym. I even read the little blurb about the author on the book flap... it says that he's an elder of Lorien, hiding on Earth. So I thought this was just a particularly pretentious author with a bad pseudonym.

Then I got maybe 100 pages into I Am Number Four, and saw that Pittacus Lore was mentioned in the story. To the internet I went, and learned the truth. Which is a little better than my assumptions before, I suppose.

Authors Diagnosed with Dyslexia

Lots of famous people have been diagnosed with dyslexia: Steven Spielberg, Orlando Bloom, Henry Winkler, Guy Ritchier, Keanu Reeves, Pablo Picasso, John Lennon, Keira Knightley, Jay Leno, Bruce Jenner, Salma Hayek, Whoopi Goldberg, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Anderson Cooper, Cher, Tom Cruise, Lara Flynn Boyle, Alexander Graham Bell...

You might think being an author is an unusual career choice for someone with dyslexia. But Patricia Polacco - author of this week's review book, Rechenka's Eggs, and dozens of other children's books - was diagnosed with dyslexia, and she is not alone!

Louise Arnold
In 2003, the BBC wanted to find "the next J K Rowling," and they found Louise Arnold. They asked for the first paragraph of a children's book, and put the finalists to a public vote. When Arnold won, she got an agent and started writing the Grey Arthur series, which to date includes three books: Golden & Grey (An Unremarkable Boy and a Rather Remarkable Ghost) (in England, titled The Invisible Friend); Golden & Grey: The Nightmares that Ghosts Have; and Golden & Grey: A Good Day for Haunting.

Octavia Butler
Author of the Patternist series, Lilith's Brood series, and Parable series, along with many short stories and articles, Butler has won the Hugo and the Nebula, and is arguably the best-known female African-American science-fiction writer. She was the first sci-fi author to earn a MacArthur fellowship (aka the Genius Grant).

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
The famous creator of Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and such) was diagnosed as dyslexic, which is simultaneously not surprising (have you read "The Jabberwocky"?) and very surprising (for a man so amazing at word play and a child who read difficult works so early in life).

Fannie Flagg (Patricia Neal)
Flagg wrote the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (which was adapted to the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, for which she won an Academy Award) and she was also a regular on the show The Match Game. She has spoken about her dyslexia, saying that it's an ongoing problem, and that her writing was put on hold for most of the '70s because she was discouraged.

Jules Verne
French novelist Jules Verne is best known for Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. He is the second most translated author in the world (following Agatha Christie) and is one of three authors referred to as the Father of Science Fiction (along with H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback). While he is considered a children's writer in most Anglophone regions, much of Europe considers him a major literary author.

So if you have been diagnosed with dyslexia or any other learning disorder, don't be discouraged! These people weren't! (Or they were, and then later they weren't. I'm a bad pep-talker.)

Re-memoir Me

Tweak, our book this week, is actually Nic Sheff's memoirs about his struggle with drug addiction.  There are more than a few memoirs out there to read, some better than other.  So I'm just going to give you a few that have stood out over the years.

The Girl in the Red Coat by Roma Ligocka

I know I've mentioned this book a few times on this blog, but that doesn't stop me from loving it.  Written after seeing herself on screen in Schindler's list, Ligocka revisits her harsh and frightening past, during both the Holocaust and the Cold War.

It's touching and heartfelt and sad and wonderful and if you don't cry a little at the end, I'm pretty sure you have no soul.

Tuesday's With Morrie by Mitch Albom

We've already reviewed Mr. Albom on this blog, but the thing with being a good author is that you tend to crop up a lot.  Tuesday's With Morrie is Albom's recounting of his time with an old professor.  After hearing about his teacher's illness, Albom visits him every Tuesday, learning from him once again.  It's touching and sad and wonderful and Albom's writing is just phenomenal.
 
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
 

 

Really, I could throw Maus in with Persepolis, but A. Maus is technically not a memoir (it's a son writing about his father's experiences) and B. we JUST heard about Maus last week (whereas, it's been awhile since we've talked about Persepolis.)  Satropi talks about her life in Iraq during the 80s and the war that ensues there.  She talks about how it effected her life, and the decisions she made (bad and good) due to the situation in her county.
 
Really, the thing that makes it unique however, is that it is told as a graphic novel, something very unusual when it comes to people writing about their lives.

Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott

I have not read this one, but a lot of people have recommended it.  And Anne Lamott wrote Byrd by Byrd, which is pretty much the best novel on writing you'll ever read in your entire life.  So I don't have any problems recommending this to you.

It's about Anne becoming a grandmother.  A book about her son (who she wrote a memoir on called Operating Instructions) having a kid.  She talks about the trials, advice and crazy situations that becoming a grandmother is all about.

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

What list of memoirs would be complete without the girl that, seemingly, started it all?  We all know (and have probably read) Anne's diary, written while she was trapped up in an attic, hiding for her life.  She talks about boys and getting her period and all the things she misses from before the war.

While very obviously written by a 13-year-old girl, you can't help but be moved by this story.

By Its Cover: Cold Mountain

This is one of those covers that fits the title, but probably not a lot else.  You can see the rolling mountains in the background. If you've never seen the Appalachian Mountains, that's pretty much what they look like.  They're much smaller than, say, the Rockies, and they're very ROUND on top.  For a mountain range, it's not very big. (As Alex once told me when I mentioned I had to drive over a mountain every day, "That's not a mountain.  It's a big hill.")

The blue and black is a nice touch because, well, a large chunk of this novel takes place during the winter time.  It gets cold and snowy.  Besides, it's called COLD mountain, so I feel like putting such cool colors on the cover was a good idea.

It's a simple cover, but I think that's kind of good for this book.  It's not trying to be flashy or be something it's not.  It's almost as if the book is telling you, "I don't need a flashy cover.  You're going to like me for my writing."

I agree with Cassy on every point with this cover. The image doesn't need to be complex; the subtle Appalachian Mountains background is enough to get the point across. Besides, the titular mountain is more of a metaphor for simpler, happier times in the book than about the literal place (although they're rolled into one) so we don't need a literal, clear image of the mountain.

Also, this book is known. It's award-winning, best-selling, instant classic... all those cliches they put on covers. So it could have a plain color cover and it would still work, because you know what Cold Mountain is.

Review Me Twice - Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

I saw the movie to this ages ago (and enjoyed it!)  It was also part of the reason I picked this book (the other being I saw it on the display at the Library and decided we should do it.)

Other than not being able to get the image of Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger out of my head (who, incidentally, don't look ANYTHING like the characters in the book), I was a little less impressed with Cold Mountain the book than Cold Mountain the movie.

The thing that really killed it for me was Inman.  He had fled the army after he was injured (totally believable considering that was a HUGE problem on the Confederate side towards the end of the war.)  That was about where my interest ended.  There was a lot of walking going on with Inman.  A lot of uninteresting walking.

Also, for a guy who is trying to hide from the confederate army, he certainly talks to a lot of people.  He never seems to have qualms about going up to houses or villages or just believing whatever random strangers on the road tell him.  And it gets him in trouble more than a few times.  You would think he would learn after awhile, but he never really did.  And he ALWAYS ended up on top.  Always.  The man had the uncanny ability to get himself out of situations, which makes the ending all the more unbelievable.

However, I really liked the parts with Ada and Ruby.  I liked watching Ruby, a self-sufficient woman who could care for a farm on her own, whip Ada into shape.  And I liked watching Ada pull out the softer side of Ruby.  She dulled Ruby's edges.  Their story was engaging and interesting and really hopeful.

So, I guess I half liked the book, because the chapters would alternate between Ada and Inman's stories.

My Bottom Line 2 1/2 out of 5

Honesty time: I did not finish this book. And the main reason was something Cassy already covered: Inman's chapters are snoozefests, while Ada's are far and away more interesting to read, but not compelling enough for me to want to suffer through an Inman chapter to get to the next Ada chapter. So I would put the book down more often and for longer than I should have to get through the whole thing.

Like Cassy, I very much liked Ruby and the way she interacted with Ada. Usually, I can't stand a helpless, clueless, depressed character, but I liked Ada from the beginning, despite her complete and utter inability to function as a human being on her own (though I can totally understand why... having been bred for education and society, she was plunged into circumstances requiring her to run an estate and feed herself with no training in those areas, and she couldn't exactly Google "biscuit recipe"). But then Ruby shows up and things get even better.

I've never seen the movie, but I might watch it now just to see the remainder of the story.

Author Bio: Charles Frazier

This week, we're reading Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. 

Not a lot is known about him.  He was born and raised in North Carolina and hasn't done a whole lot when it comes to writing.  Cold Mountain was his first, and most successful, novel of the three that he has written (the other two are Thirteen Moons and Nightwoods.)

Cold Mountain was actually based on stories that he was told as a kid. It has been compared to Homer's Odyssey, but... set in the American Civil War, alternating chapter-by-chapter between Inman's and Ada's points of view. While it is a LARGELY fictional novel, there was a real Inman that was in the Confederate army.  He was a relation of Frazier's. 

Frazier was an English professor before he wrote Cold Mountain.  He graduated from the University of South Carolina.  Currently, he's living in North Carolina with his wife and his daughter.

No blog, but he does have a Facebook site that looks like it's kept up pretty regularly.

By Its Cover: Moonraker

This is the cover of the copy I read. As you can see from the bottom, it's from the James Bond Classic Library, so it's not exactly first edition. It's one of the more descriptive covers I've seen for this book, though. It shows you the most important thing in the whole book: the rocket, James Bond, and Gala Brand.

I like this cover. It reminds me a little of the Mad Men intro (with the semi-silhouette, faceless people, the suit on the guy - obviously Mr. Bond himself).

I also really like this cover. I don't understand the reasoning behind using the stencil font (it's usually more of an army thing, and while this book is related to military topics, it's not really a direct involvement). I like the abstract flames, though.

This one, I don't love as much. It's part of a series of covers that I like quite a bit (you should see the one for Live and Let Die) but this one just falls short. Sure, it shows you the rocket (which is just the greatest epitome of how the 1950s expected the future to look like) and Gala Brand, and the font is just peachy (also very 1950s-version-of-the-future) but I just think the whole thing falls short somehow.

This is the cover that I had.  In terms of telling you what might go on in the book, it gets the point across, but I'm with Alex.  It doesn't really do much for me.  I think it might have something to do with Gala Brand putting on the fakest "I'm scared" face while standing in the most unnatural "I'm being cautious" pose.
 

Obviously, these are just a sampling of the many covers Moonraker has seen over the past several decades.