Beach Reads

So, if you're reading this, I'm at the beach (I know; be jealous.)  And I figured there was a good chance one (or more) of you are going to the beach this summer.  So I'm just going to crank out a few books that are fabulous for sitting in the sun with.

I would be doing this list zero justice if I didn't start it off with a romance novel.  Really, it's the first thing that everyone thinks of when they think beach read.  What's more, this is one of the better romance novels out there (as far as these things go.)  You can read our review of it, or just pick up a copy.  After all, why not read a little smut on the beach?  What else do you have to do?

It's very rare these days that you get a book that's just ONE book.  No Sequels, no trilogies, just one.  And while Stargirl does, technically, have a sequel, it was so terrible I couldn't get pack chapter four.  So I like to pretend it doesn't exist.  But Stargirl is one of the best, most touching books about love and high school and "fitting in" that you can find.  It's fairly short, fairly uncomplicated and entirely wonderful.

This book is fun and a fast read.  It's just a bunch of quotes of really odd things Jen Campbell has heard over the years, working at a bookstore.  No plot, no need to pay a lot of attention and you can open it anywhere and start reading, which makes for a perfect beach read.

Sometimes, a little chicklit is all you need.  Confessions of a Shopaholic is funny, ridiculous with just the right amount of romance thrown in to make it a perfect beach read.  You can't help but love Becky Bloomwood, despite all the messes she seems to get into.

What are you reading at beach this summer?

Some YA Books to Buy Your Teen

Ok, so tomorrow we're actually going to be talking about our favorite YA book of all time, but I figured, with Christmas coming up, there are probably a lot of you out there buying for teenagers, or kids getting right into that age.  So I'll save my #1 favorite book for tomorrow, but today, I'm going to give you a list of some great books for teens.

The Book Thief is an AMAZING book about friendship and family and doing the right thing (but on the most extreme level.)  It's about love, and caring, and reading and the importance of all of it in life.  While the book will make you cry basically from start to finish, it's so moving and heartwarming and the perfect book for really any kid between the ages of 12-100.

There's not much by Spinelli that I don't just absolutely love, but Stargirl is probably one of his best.  It's such a great story about being true to yourself, and being who you should be, despite those around you.  The point is happiness, not to make other people happy.  The book is actually from Leo's point of view, telling us the wonderful, and the terrible, ways that he sees Stargirl.

Honestly, I could put John Green on this list about five time (which is about how many books he's written), but I put this one on here, even over Looking for Alaska (my most favorite by him.)  If you're kid is a band nerd, buy them this book.  It's funny, so HILARIOUSLY funny, and most of that humor came from being a band kid for years.  Seriously, this book is for band kids.

You know why I love this book?  This whole series, actually?  Because it's such an awesome portrayal of friendship.  And, if you ask me, a pretty realistic one.  Shit happens, and sometimes, it happens without your friends around.  And sometimes you can only communicate to them through letters and magical pants.  And sometimes your friends are on your side, and sometimes they're on your side, even if you think that they aren't.  But at the end of the day, good friends are always there and give you exactly what you need.

Really, pick anything by Ellen Hopkins ever.  We've always recommended her on here and big reason is that she doesn't lie to kids.  She writes from a very personal place, a place that she saw her daughter in, that sometimes here daughter is STILL in.  If your going to discourage kids from doing drugs, this book is probably the best way to do it, because it's so very real.

I know Unwind has come up on here a lot, but honestly, I can't recommend this book enough.  It is so moving and powerful and, honestly, has one of my all-time most favorite, most powerful and well written scenes I've ever read in my life in it.  Shusterman handles the volatile subject of abortion so perfectly, so powerfully, and so respectfully, that I can't even begin to recommend this book enough.

Stay tuned tomorrow for mine (and Alex's, of course) all time favorite YA book.

Fantastical Fun

We've reviewed one or two fantasy books on this blog before.  (Ok, only about two, but still.  It's there.)  Alex talked to you about world building, so I won't really get into that.  I'm going to show you some of the fun fantasy things from around the internets.

Come see Jim Hines, Fantasy author who also moonlights as a fantasy cover model.

"Cassy, why on earth did you just send me to a site with a creepy guy posing in creepy ways?"  If anyone has ever seen a fantasy cover ever, they know that woman are put in the most ludicrous positions ever on the cover.  So, to highlight that fact, this awesome dude decided to replicated them on his own.

And, just to be fair to both the sexes, Hines also did the male covers, really highlighting how RIDICULOUS the women poses are and how... well, less ridiculous the male poses are.

What would one of these posts be without a name generator?  If you just type "Fantasy Name Generator" into Google, you get about a million, most of them profiling World of Warcraft (which, just for the record, is evil.)  However, this one is pretty good and it gave me names like "Mocaror" and "Drarggrornkon".  Is it just me, or are fantasy names notoriously hard to pronounce?

Of course, there's always a list.  This one from Goodreads isn't terrible.  At the very least, a Twilight book doesn't show up until #35, and even then, it's the Bree Tanner book.

I typed "Twilight Sparkle" into Google expecting 8 Million Edward Pictures.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found a bunch of PONIES!!

Hey guys!  Let's talk the Twilight Drinking Game!!  (PS, if that link doesn't work, let me know.)  Now, of course, Alex and I would neeeever endorse excessive drinking.  *Shifty eyes*  But, let's face it, if you're going to read Twilight, you need a way to get through it, so start downing those shots, my friends!

And, just because I like to end on a crazy high note, I once again give you the Anne Rice Monster Freak Out.

Now, really, you didn't think I'd mention Twilight that much and not give you a sparkle gif, did you?

Answers to First Lines Post

Special Sunday post!  Ok, it's just the answers to my Tuesday post, but it's exciting nonetheless.  How many did you know?  Which ones did you get wrong?  Let us know!

 

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
6. Beloved by Toni Morrison
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
8. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
9. Ulysses by James Joyce
10. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
11. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
12. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
13. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
14. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
15. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Dante's Inferno
17. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
18. Don Quixote by Cervantes
19. 2001: A Space Odessy by Arthur C. Clarke
20. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
21. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
22. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
23. The Stranger by Albert Camus
24. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
25. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
26. Genesis (The Bible)
27. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
28. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
29. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
30. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
31. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
32. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
33. Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley
34. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
35. Matilda by Roald Dahl
36. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
37. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
38. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
39. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
40. Peter Pan by J.M. Barry
41. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
42. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
43. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
44. A Little Princess by  Frances Hodgson Burnett
45. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
46. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
47. The Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
48. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
49. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
50. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Famous first lines

This is totally just something for fun.  I'm going to give you a list of first lines in books.  You tell me the book/author (or just the book is fine.)  On Sunday, I'll give you all the answers.

I have one big, fat rule.  Please, PLEASE do not go onto the internet and look them up and then answer them all.  This is not a contest; we're not giving anything away; it's just to be fun.  So if you know it, GREAT.  Comment and tell us!  If you don't, then leave it be in case someone else does.

Also, as people guess the right answers, I'm going to cross them out. :D

1. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
2. Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
3. Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the riverbank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book’, thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversation?’
4. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.
5. Who is John Galt?
6. 124 was spiteful.
7. A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” and, in a shield, the World State's Motto: “Community, Identity, Stability”.
8. Call me Ishmael.
9. Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
10. Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity, baripity--Good.
11. They murdered him.
12. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
13. Marley was dead, to begin with.
14. Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.
15. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
16. Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.
17. Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.
18. Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.
19. The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended.
20. It was a pleasure to burn.
21. You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
22. Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.
23. Mother died today.
24. "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
25. All this happened, more or less.
26. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
27. 'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
28. It was a nice day.
29. To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.
30. Not every 13-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty.
31. Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.
32. It was four o'clock when the ceremony was over and the carriages began to arrive.
33. Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan.
34. The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon.
35. It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
36. Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
37. In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.
38. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.
39. It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s okay. It’s hard to be the one who stays.
40. All children, except one, grow up.
41. Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin
42. The year that Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette.
43. When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.
44. Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.
45. True! - nervous - very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?
46. The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.
47. Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach.
48. It was a dark and stormy night.
49. The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit
50. Shadow had done three years in prison.

There you go!  50 first lines.  See how many you know.  If you want, leave a first line in the comments that's not on the list to see if anyone else knows it.

Have fun!