October Wrap-Up

October Overview

October was a really good month. I finished my second semester of graduate school, went hiking through Death Valley, and got a ton of reading done. The blog hit 300 Bloglovin’ followers and 15,000 pageviews. Thank you to everybody who takes the time to read my braindead ramblings.

I got home from Death Valley very late on Tuesday night, so I haven't had time to go through my pictures, but the trip was a lot of fun. There was a sandstorm on the last day. I had never been in a sandstorm before. Getting sandblasted was an interesting experience. I might be able to do some travelogue posts if you guys want to see more of my trip.

Post-sandstorm selfie. Who knew that hair could hold so much sand?

Books I Read

I read 14 books in October! See how productive I can be when I have slightly less schoolwork? Unfortunately, November is going to be a horrible reading month. I will be traveling a lot and starting school again. I’m actually going to have to take a blogging hiatus from November 12-22 because I won’t be home.

Here are the books I read last month. Reviews for most of them are up or will be up in the next few weeks.

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

Vengeance Road – Erin Bowman

The Weight of Feathers – Anna-Marie McLemore

Monster – Walter Dean Myers

Kit’s Wilderness – David Almond

A Step from Heaven – An Na

Postcards from No Man’s Land – Aidan Chambers

The First Part Last – Angela Johnson

Jersey Angel – Beth Ann Bauman

How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

Looking for Alaska – John Green

American Born Chinese – Gene Luen Yang

The White Darkness – Geraldine McCaughrean

Tilt – Ellen Hopkins

Best Books of October

Since I read so much, it was really hard to pick favorites, but here are my top three:

3. Looking for Alaska – John Green

2. How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

1. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

Most Popular Reviews

Here are the most-viewed reviews I posted in October:

1. Vengeance Road – Erin Bowman

2. Postcards from No Man’s Land – Aidan Chambers

3. Love Letters to the Dead – Ava Dellaira

Most Popular Posts

These are October’s most-loved non-reviews:

1. 10 Signs That You Read Too Much Young Adult Fiction

2. Top Ten Tuesday: Series I’ve Quit This Year (So Far)

3. I Saw The Martian Movie!

Tentative November TBR

November is going to be a bad reading month. I know I’m going to read The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. Other than that, I have no idea. I would like to continue reading the Printz Award winners because I’m enjoying them so far.

All The Things!

All The Things (AKA the number of unread books on my TBR shelf) = 33 books.

I’m currently reading The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.

Printz Review: How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

Fifteen-year-old New Yorker Daisy is sent to live in the English countryside with cousins she’s never even met. When England is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy, the cousins find themselves on their own. As they grow more isolated, the farm becomes a kind of Eden with no rules. Until the war arrives in their midst. 

Daisy’s is a war story, a survival story, a love story—all told in the voice of a subversive and witty teenager. This book crackles with anxiety and with lust. It’s a stunning and unforgettable novel that captures the essence of the age of terrorism: how we live now.

Review: A few years ago, I went through a phase where I was only reading dystopias. I burned myself out quickly because a lot of the books felt like clones. It seemed like I was just reading the same book over and over.

I don’t know how I missed How I Live Now during my dystopia phase. It would have broken up the clone monotony. This book is a dystopia with a teenage girl as a main character, but it’s a little different from what I’m used to.

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is living with her cousins in England when a war breaks out, and the nearby village is invaded. The cousins are split up and sent to live in different foster homes until Daisy’s aunt can get back to England. When Daisy begins to suspect that her aunt is never coming home, she becomes desperate to reunite with her cousins.

Daisy isn’t your typical YA dystopian heroine. She has no interest in politics. It isn’t her job to overthrow the government and save the world. She doesn’t even know what the war is about or who’s fighting. Daisy and her cousins are just kids who are trying to survive something that they don’t understand. This dystopia is creepy because it feels so plausible.

To contrast the realistic dystopian elements, the book has some strange fantasy elements. Daisy and her cousins have a psychic connection with each other and the landscape. I like that the psychic connection is kept mysterious. Daisy and her cousins just accept that they can read each other’s minds. This is how their lives work. They don’t question it. The connection is interesting and makes the story more than a typical dystopian/survival/war book.

There are a few things that I didn’t like about the book, but the story is compelling enough that I could easily look past them. The writing style was distracting at first. There are a lot of long sentences and SHOUTY CAPS. I did get used to it eventually because it’s realistic and true to Daisy’s personality.

I guess I also have to talk about the insta-cousin-love. Daisy does fall in romantic love with her cousin shortly after meeting him. My first thought was, “Are YA authors so desperate to include a romance in their books that they have to resort to insta-cousin-love?” The romance is my biggest problem with the book. Even if the characters weren’t cousins, it would have felt underdeveloped and unnecessary. I’m not sure why this book needed a romance. Luckily, it isn’t the main focus of the story.

The best thing about How I Live Now is its themes. Unlike a lot of dystopias, it doesn’t deal with large-scale problems. It’s about reevaluating your life and deciding what’s important. It’s a very personal story, and that’s what I love most about it.

  

Unpopular Opinions Tag

This is the unpopular opinions tag. Like the title suggests, my opinions will be highly unpopular, so please don’t hate me. I'm not trying to insult your favorite book or make anybody feel bad. I wanted to do something a little different, so I tried to answer the questions with pictures only.

1. A popular book or series that you didn’t like?

2. A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate but you love?

3. A love triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did not want them to end up with?

4. A popular book genre that you hardly reach for?

5. A popular character who you do not like?

6. A popular author who you can’t seem to get into?

7. A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing?

8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading?

9. The saying goes, “The book is always better than the movie,” but what movie or TV adaptation do you prefer to the book?

Printz Review: The First Part Last – Angela Johnson

The First Part Last – Angela Johnson

Bobby is your classic urban teenaged boy—impulsive, eager, restless. On his sixteenth birthday, he gets some news from his girlfriend, Nia, that changes his life forever. She's pregnant. Bobby's going to be a father. Suddenly things like school and house parties and hanging with friends are replaced by visits to Nia's obstetrician and a social worker who says that the only way for Nia and Bobby to lead a normal life is to put their baby up for adoption. 

With powerful language and keen insight, Johnson looks at the male side of teen pregnancy as she delves into one young man's struggle to figure out what "the right thing" is and then to do it. No matter what the cost.

Review: I read this entire book without putting it down once. I know the book is only 130 pages, so that doesn’t sound impressive, but I don’t think I’ve read a book in one sitting since The Hunger Games came out. This is going to be a short review. I don’t have much to say other than “This little book is good!”

Anyway, The First Part Last is about Bobby, a sixteen-year-old who is raising his newborn daughter on his own.

The book is written in a fragmented writing style that really allows the reader to experience Bobby’s exhaustion, confusion, and desperation. He’s trying to do what’s right for his daughter, but he doesn’t always make the best choices. The writing style reminds me of urban poetry at times. The chapters alternate between “Then” and “Now.” The “Then” chapters are about Nia’s pregnancy, and the “Now” chapters are about Bobby’s struggle to raise their daughter. Even though the book is intense, it’s not hopeless. You get a sense that Bobby will do whatever it takes to care for his child.

Even though this is a contemporary book, there is a lot of suspense. The reader doesn’t find out why Nia isn’t involved in the baby’s life until the end. Older readers will probably pick up on the foreshadowing and figure it out before the end, but younger readers may be surprised.

This is an important book because it focuses on a teen father. In our society, teen mothers get all of the attention, but there are fathers who are raising children alone. They deserve to have their stories told, too.