Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday Frustration

Image from The Broke and the Bookish

There's a lot of ranting going on in the blogosphere today due to The Broke and the Bookish's weekly Top Ten Tuesday meme.  Today, the prompt was the top ten most frustrating characters ever.  Originally, I wasn't going to participate in the meme this week.  If, when reading the prompt, several ideas don't spring naturally to mind, I usually skip that week.  I don't have top ten frustrating characters in mind (although reading other blogger's list definitely reminded me of what I hated and loved to hate about some characters); however, this topic happens to coincide with a post I've been wanting to write about my frustrations with a particular genre.

I may upset some fellow bloggers, but I've got to say it.  Friends...I'm sick of dystopia.

That doesn't mean I haven't read some FANTASTIC dystopian novels over the past few years:  Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy and Megan McCafferty's Bumped and Thumped for example.  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and The Giver by Lois Lowry are also favorites of mine.  Recently I finished reading Ally Condie's Matched trilogy, which I liked, but also highlighted for me how overexposed the dystopia genre and its key plot points are: the technologically savvy but overly oppressive government (Capital, Society), the female protagonist who chafes under the government's rule and ultimately decides to break out, the, often unequally weighted, love triangle.

Partly what's exhausted me isn't the books I've read but the books that are popping up on TBR and debut lists everywhere I look.  Peruse a publisher's latest catalog or the bookshelves at your local bookstore - dystopia is taking over!  Although the unique aspect of world-building continues to intrigue me, I can't bring myself to pick up yet another dystopian novel, even if it explores the cognitive highway of our memories like Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans, because the "new world" setting is merely masking the same old tired storyline and characters.

Also, many of these dystopias are series, usually trilogies, which means I am investing significant time and energy in not one book but three or more that may ultimately leave me unsatisfied.  Part of my frustration is in the unnecessary cliffhanging that drags the plot on for two to three more books.  An epic story like Rowling's Harry Potter deserves its seven books, but currently I am aching for a good standalone, preferably of the contemporary variety.

A final underlying conduit of my frustration may be the obvious move on the part of many authors and publishers to cash in on the latest craze in YA lit.  When Twilight went blockbuster, suddenly the Teen sections of bookstores were awash in black and blood-red covers of pale, moody guys with sharp incisors hovering protectively (or provocatively) over a beautiful and innocent (but inwardly strong) heroine.  The craze began leaking into contemporary Adult lit as well.  After the success of The Hunger Games, vampires are duking it out with tough, rebellious chicks and their hunky, and occasionally sensitive, love interests in an apocalyptic battle to establish a new and improved literary society.  It's making my head spin.

As a remedy, I've found myself returning to the classics.  I've finally gotten in a rhythm with Anna Karenina, and I love it.  Les Miserables is on tap next, followed by Bel Ami, with maybe a little bit of historical fiction thrown in.  I'm also currently reading Steve Luxenberg's memoir, Annie's Ghosts, about discovering the existence of a maternal aunt only after his mother's death.  But this book is more than a rehash of family secrets.  It explores immigration pre-, during, and post-World War II as well as mental health assessment and care during the early and mid-twentieth century.  Finally, I'm reading Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, which I picked up solely because it was illustrated (by Maira Kalman), but it turned out to be just what I needed: a regular teen girl trying to parse out, you guessed it, why she and her boyfriend broke up.

So guys, if you've stuck with me this long, am I crazy?  Justified?  Should I give dystopia another chance?  A cooling off period?  I need some perspective here!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Recommendation: David Levithan

I was so excited when I attended NCTE in November to learn that David Levithan would be there.  Several of his books have made their way onto my all-time favorites list, and I routinely recommend them.  Some of his more recent reads haven't been my cup of tea, but I'm not one who lets a bad book get in the way of a good author (see J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy).  At NCTE, Penguin was selling Levithan's Marly's Ghost for $5.00 and tossing in a galley copy of Levithan's newest novel Invisibility with Andrea Cremer for free.  I was so pumped.  I read Marly's Ghost, which is a Valentine's Day version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, on the plane ride home and was disappointed by its lack of originality.  Levithan wrote in his author's note that "for the actual writing, I sat with a copy of A Christmas Carol on my lap and went through it paragraph by paragraph, line by line, 'translating' the original story into my new story...some lines stayed verbatim."  This attention to detail is obvious and not for the betterment of the novel.  An idea that could have been interesting and refreshing turns out stale.  I began Invisibility with higher hopes.  For one, in reviewing Levithan's body of work, I found that I tended to love his collaborations more than his standalones.  Two, this was not billed as a remix but as a totally original work, unlike Marly's Ghost.  I am ashamed to admit that I couldn't get past the third chapter.  Because of some weird curse, I obviously never got far enough to figure it out, Stephen is invisible - others can't see him and therein lies the problem: there is nothing to distinguish him to the reader either.  He is a flat, one-dimensional character.  Elizabeth, who is the only one who can see Stephen, seems to have more bite and body, but even that wasn't enough to keep me going.  After two epic fails, I decided I needed to catalog what I loved and hated about Levithan in a tangible way.  At first I thought it was his collaborations I loved and his standalones I hated, but as Invisibility proved, it's not as black and white as that.
  
Loved

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (with Rachel Cohn) (my first David Levithan)
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares (with Rachel Cohn)
The Lover's Dictionary
How They Met and Other Stories

Didn't Love

Marly's Ghost
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List (with Rachel Cohn)
Love is the Higher Law 

Anticipating

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with John Green)
Every Day

Did Not Finish

The Realm of Possibility
Invisibility (with Andrea Cremer)

Maybe someone with keener insight can find the commonalities for me.  The breakdown of my list seems so arbitrary.  I am not giving up on Levithan though.  I have heard fantastic things about both Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Every Day, so I will definitely be reading them as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.  The premise of Every Day reminds me of The Lover's Dictionary, which I loved (no pun intended), and Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a collaboration with John Green.  What are the chances two of my favorite authors will let me down in the same book?

Monday, January 21, 2013

Recommendation: Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie

Note: Since this review will discuss all three books in the Matched trilogy, spoilers are likely to occur - at times unintentionally.

Cassia Reyes has never questioned the Society's choices regarding her life.  They know what's best for her and all the other residents of the Provinces.  From what to eat, how to learn, where to work, who to marry, and even when to die, the Society has been perfecting the art of living for decades.  While they've eliminated diseases like cancer and established a baseline for longevity, they've also eliminated choice and individuality.  It is the Society's belief that too many options create chaos and uncertainty, which is not conducive to a balanced, fulfilling life.  Therefore, in the Society, there is no such thing as a "jack of all trades" - all citizens are experts in one area only.  Common knowledge is pre-packaged in neat collections of 100 - the 100 History Lessons, the 100 Paintings, the 100 Poems - nothing is ever added or deleted - this set list is remarkable only for its eternal stagnation.  Even relationships are remarkably similar for their lack of interaction.  No one is ever allowed in another person's home unless they are immediate family.  Not that an individual family's home is markedly different from its neighbors.  Kitsch is a thing of the past - citizens are allowed only one personal family artifact, and even those are confiscated shortly into Matched.  To hold a mirror up to Cassia's home on Mapletree Borough is merely to project the reflection of the same rooms, landscaping, and family dynamics over and over and over again.

What is remarkable about Condie's storytelling is her ability to make the Society so appealing at first.  I was taken in by a life of relative safety and ease.  There is literally nothing to worry about because the Society takes care of everything for you - your health, your education, your job, and even your marriage or "match."  Condie achieves this seduction on the part of the Society partly through the naivety of Cassia's narration in the opening chapters of Matched.  Cassia, like a girl on the way to her first prom, is excited by the green silk dress she wears (one of exactly 100 she could choose from) and the promise of decadent food at the banquet ahead, but mostly she is excited because today is her seventeenth birthday and the day she will meet the person she will spend the rest of her life with, her match.  Cassia is surprised and delighted when she learns her match is Xander Carrow - her best friend and the Borough's quintessential "golden boy."  Xander is good-looking, friendly, and intelligent - destined for a prestigious job as a government Official.  Cassia is stepping onto the conveyor belt of perfection, following the footsteps of all those who came before her and succumbed to the will of the Society.  She knows nothing else, but what more could she want?  It isn't until a glitch in her Matching microcard shows her Ky Markham's face that she discovers the answer to that question.  Ky is an Aberration and not supposed to be a part of the Matching pool at all, but through Ky, Cassia taps into a world of emotion, desire, and creation that she never dreamed existed within the Society's restrictive borders.  Ky teaches her to write, and together they enter the hallowed halls of poetry where they learn the power of the written world to wound and inspire, which lays the ground work for a rebellion and a rising both personal and Society wide that hinges on the question hitherto unknown to Cassia and the citizens of the Society, What will you choose?

I spotted Ally Condie's Matched several years ago when I was pursuing the shelves during a bookstore binge.  I was immediately intrigued by the unique cover and made a note to pick this up one day.  Fast-forward several years later - my librarian calls me as I am literally stepping out the door to begin Christmas break.  "We just got in a new shipment.  Do you want to come down and grab anything to read over the holidays?"  Do I?  Minutes later, I had Matched, Crossed, and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore in my greedy little hands.  I devoured Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore first and then turned to Matched.  It had been so long since I had read the blurb that I couldn't quite remember what it was about, but I remembered that cover.  I began reading and was pleasantly surprised by what I found in its pages.  I was immediately reminded of Lois Lowry's The Giver, but I was pleased that Condie chose a female protagonist and focused more the on the Society's matchmaking than professional placement.

As a lover of language and literature, Condie immediately ingratiated herself and her story to me by her inclusion of Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" as the corner stone, not only of Ky and Cassia's love story but their rebellion as well.  Interspersed with other lines of poetry, Condie's writing itself is beautiful and poetic.  When I was in high school and college, I was constantly seeking out the perfect quote from this song or that book to represent my life or as evidence for my interpretation of a larger theme.  I read with pen in hand, which often resulted in permanent ink spots on my couch and bed covers.  However, once I graduated, I relished sinking into a story without the need to superimpose my ink on top of it, but Condie's story had me reaching time and time again for a way to preserve this particular language, this particular moment, this particular revelation so that I could return to it to savor long after the story itself was over.  It is those pockets of beauty hidden between the pages of Matched, Crossed, and Reached along with larger musings on personal growth and choice that kept me going when the story itself fell victim to inconsistent pacing and an unequally weighted love triangle. 

Most dystopias have a love triangle at the center of their story line that creates personal tension in addition to the societal tension brought on by growing unrest on the part of the citizens.  On the surface, Condie's trilogy has both of these things.  Cassia must choose between Xander, her perfect Society match, and Ky, who makes her aware of a life outside the Society's walls.  In making this choice, Cassia travels to the Outer Provinces and into the Carving before returning to Central, the Society's headquarters, as a spy for the Rising.  Her travels are dangerous, and for someone who has always relied on others for sustenance and guidance, Cassia is quick to tap into her own survival instincts and blaze her own trail.  I admire Cassia for her determination; when she chooses a path, in life or in love, she sticks to it.  However, this single-minded focus does not make for a very compelling three book journey.  There is little what if? in the pages of Matched, Crossed, and Reached, and although Cassia's, Ky's, and even Xander's journey to join the Rising is dangerous, danger itself rarely reaches them.  By far the most thrilling aspect of the novels is the mutated Plague that descends upon the citizens in Reached.  The immunology behind the cure is fascinating, but this is only explored in the last hundred pages of a three book series.  The rest is a slow build-up to this moment of fast-paced action.  Similarly, the love-triangle is not really a love-triangle at all.  Cassia chose Ky in the early pages of Matched, and she never wavered in her choice. Condie attempts several times to cast doubt on the young lovers by introducing other potential matches into the threesome, but it seems that in addition to ridding the citizens of the Provinces of the ability to choose their own mates, the Society also eradicated jealousy.  These competitors for Ky's and Xander's love never quite become the threat they are intended to be and, instead, become close friends.

However, these minor issues in narration highlight a key theme of the series: choice.  Cassia learns that Ky was deliberately inserted into the match pool on behalf of the Rising to wreck havoc with the matching system, and once the Society found out, they decided to monitor the situation because the odds of Cassia being matched with two people she knew are unusual, and the Society is always on the hunt for more data.  As this scene illustrates, a person can be compatible with many other people.  That person then chooses who to be with, and that choice is not a one-time thing.  It is saying I choose you everyday.  In my opinion, many marriages fail today because people do not commit to their choice.  They fail to remind themselves and their partner that I choose you, and even though Cassia's relationship with Ky is not defined by doubt, it is exemplary because they continue to choose each other.  It is a relationship worth modeling.  Cassia herself is a character worth emulating as well.  Matched may seem at first glance to be a series about fighting for the one you love, but Cassia's story is bigger than that.  It is a journey characterized by self-actualization in which Cassia learns how to express herself and dares to stand up for her own independence.  Although I think Condie solidifies Cassia's strength of character early on in Matched, it was interesting to see where her choices took her over the course of the series.  As Condie wrote, "this is how writing anything is, really.  A collaboration between you who give the words and they who take them and find meaning in them, or put music behind them, or turn them aside because they were not what was needed" (Reached).

Best matched with fans of less violent dystopia.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Top 10 Tuesday Rewind: Kick Ass Heroines

Image from The Broke and the Bookish

Jamie at  The Perpetual Page Turner had a great post some time back entitled "What Makes a Heroine Strong or Kick-Ass?"  She posted this in response to a Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and The Bookish asking for a list of Top Ten Kick-Ass Heroines.  Like Jamie, my definition of "kick-ass" is not necessarily someone who has been doing some ass-kicking.  Of course that can be part of it, but my definition of kick-ass is someone who is independent, fearless, intelligent, and just plain cool.  I didn't get to participate in this Top Ten Tuesday, but it's been one that I think about every now and then, so today, I thought I would rewind and post my Top Ten Kick-Ass Heroines.

*Note: My explanations of why these characters are kick-ass may contain spoilers.  You have been warned.

1. Katniss Everdeen The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Katniss definitely does some ass-kicking in Suzanne Collins' trilogy, but she is also an incredibly brave person.  Stormy at Book.Blog.Bake recently posted a thorough discussion of Young Adult Dystopian characters and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in response to some things she read denouncing Katiniss as a "strong" character because she does experience a sort of break down in Mockingjay.  Strong people hurt too; it's what they do in spite of that hurt that defines them.

2. Hermione Granger Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling - Hermione made smart, bookish girls cool, and that is totally kick-ass.

3. Puck Connelly The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - If you haven't read Maggie Stiefvater's The Scropio Races, go do it now.  It is an unexpectedly beautiful book made all the more brilliant by the presence of Puck - a rough around the edges girl who dares to be the first female to ride in The Scorpio Races, a dangerous horse race hosted on the island of Thisby every year.  Not only does she dare to ride, she decides to ride her own island pony instead of the terrifying, if captivating, capaill uisce.  Does Puck choose to do this for the fame and glory?  No, she makes this choice because of her brother and her fierce family loyalty.  Definitely kick-ass.

4. Jessica Darling Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty - Oh Megan McCafferty, thank you for writing about a real, awkward, snarky, hilarious, and totally kick-ass high school girl.

5. Amy Dunne Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - I don't admire Amy Dunne's actions AT ALL, but you have to admit she is kick-ass - even if she's crazy.

6. Annabeth Chase Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan - Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and she's really smart, but she's also really brave and an architect.  This girl's got skills.

7. Liesel Meminger The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Liesel is a young girl in Nazi occupied Germany who befriends and harbors a Jewish man and steals books that the Third Riech is burning.  If that's not kick-ass, I don't know what is.

8. Jo March Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - Jo has always been my favorite March girl because she dared to write and dream and travel.  I hope I have a little bit of her in me.

9. Mia Hall If I Stay by Gayle Forman - Mia, a masterful cello player, has to choose, literally, between life and death when the rest of her family has perished after a terrible car accident.  Mia chooses life, which is a choice that is always kick-ass.

10. Offred The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - Megan McCafferty's brilliant satiric/dystopian series, Bumped and Thumped, is loosely based on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, but Melody and Harmony pale in comparison to the original handmaid, Offred, who is forced to serve as a sex slave and surrogate mother against her will but, despite the oppressive society she lives in, maintains a flame of hope and the courage to escape.

Honorable Mentions:

Mandie Shaw Mandie Books by Lois Gladys Leppard - Wholesome, Christian, pseudo-detective Mandie is only a pre-teen, but she is inquisitive and clever, which makes solving mysteries easy.

Professor Minierva McGonagall Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling - Professor McGonagall, also sharing her name with a goddess of wisdom, seems stern and matronly, but deep down, she has a fiery, passionate spirit full of fight and zeal.

Jane Eyre Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - Team Rochester!  Jane is often billed as meek and mild, but she survives many physical and spiritual trials on her pilgrimage for true love.

Stargirl Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - As her name indicates, Stargirl is a free spirit, and her story teaches young readers today not to give in to the pressure to conform.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti

I have already posted several poems by Christina Rossetti since I started participating in the Poetry Project hosted by Lu at Regular Rumination and Kelly at The Written World in July.  I didn't realize how big of an impact her poetry had on me until I would look at the month's poetic theme, and a poem of hers would immediately pop in my head, like "Goblin Market" did in October, or I would stumble across one of her poems and think I have to post this, like "A Christmas Carol (For My Godchildren)" in December.  I knew January was Christina Rossetti month, and every time I posted one of her poems here, I thought, Maybe I should save this for January, but I knew I would think of something else wonderful to share.  While I was reading up on "A Christmas Carol (For My Godchildren)," I ran across a poem that for my entire life I thought was only a hymn we sang at Christmas time.  I had no idea it was first a poem by Rossetti.  Also entitled "A Christmas Carol" (apparently Rossetti wrote lots of Christmas Carols), this poem has been turned into a hymn by Gustav Holst known by its first line "In the Bleak Midwinter."  It is a beautiful, melodic piece.  I still think it is appropriate to share in January due to its winter theme.  I'm sure I'll find another Rossetti gem to share before the month is over.  I have also included a link to a video of the poem being sung, so readers can get the full effect.

Happy New Year!

In the Bleak Midwinter sung by Choir of Kings College, Cambridge (that means it's good, y'all)

A Christmas CarolChristina Rossetti

Source: The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, with a Memoir and Notes by William Michael Rossetti (1904), p. 246

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air,
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, –
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

Before 1872

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

(1/1) New Year's Resolution: Top Ten Books to Read in 2013

Image from The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.  On this first day of a New Year, we were asked what are reading resolutions are.  Here in no particular order are the top ten books I want to read this year.

1-2. The Ask and The Answer and Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness - I started this series last year and loved it, but somehow, I never finished The Ask and The Answer (I'm only about 50 pages in), so I am making this series a priority this year.

3. Just One Day by Gayle Forman - I adored If I Stay and Where She Went, and I can't wait to start Forman's new two part series about a boy and a girl who spend one amazing day together in Paris.

4. The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen - I started reading Dessen in my early teens (!), and I can't believe this is her 11th book!

5. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - I am a firm believer in reading a book before I see a movie, and I am dying to see Anne Hathaway sing in this new film adaptation of Hugo's classic work.

6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - ditto number 5 - I have started this book, and I hope to finish it this year.  It's a hefty one.

7.  Every Day by David Levithan - Levithan has been hit or miss for me recently, but I've read rave reviews of Every Day, and it's premise reminds me of The Lover's Dictionary, which I adored, so it seems promising.

8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - not my normal read, but I've read excellent and intriguing reviews (also, look at that cover!), so I'm planning on picking it up.  (This will be a great book for the "Outside the Box" reading challenge I'm participating in this year - hosted by Kate at Musings of a Book Lover.)

9. Anything by Courteny Summers - Summers has been on my TBR list for a long time.  I'm hoping to rectify that this year.

10. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan - due out later this year, The House of Hades is the final installment in The Lost Heroes series.  I read The Mark of Athena last year, and it was the best one yet, so I can't wait to see what Riordan has in store for readers next!