Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: King of the Screwups
Author: K.L. Going
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: Liam is a high school senior, and everyone loves him. Except his father. Somehow, no matter how hard he tries not to screw up, Liam disappoints his dad. When his dad kicks him out, Liam’s only option is to live with his dad’s cross-dressing brother. Which pisses off his dad even more.

Review: I will definitely be reading more by K.L. Going. (Can you believe I haven’t read Fat Kid Rules the World? YA sacrilege!)

I love it when a main character breaks out of tired old stereotypes. Liam is straight and yet surprisingly comfortable in his own masculinity for a guy who’s inherited the sensibilities of his supermodel mom. Still, he has to figure out how to live in the real world, where even his dad is homophobic.

And my goodness, his relationship with his father is screwed up. I sometimes wished that I had a little more insight into why his dad was the way he was, but then again parents don’t come with an owner’s manual to explain all their hangups.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, so I’ll be passing it along to my rarely-reading hubby.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

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Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: Elsewhere
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Why I Read It: I saw it on the shelf at the library before I left for vacation and decided to bring it along.

Summary: 15-year-old Liz gets hit by a car and ends up in Elsewhere—a place where everyone ages backward until they become babies and get sent back to Earth.

Stopped on Page: 122
Why I Stopped: Intriguing concept of the afterlife, but the characters never came alive to me, so to speak. The story also seemed to slow down quite a bit once Liz got to Elsewhere. I was about to board the plane to come back home, so I decided to stop this one and start something new that I might like better.

Your Turn: Should I have kept going? Or was I right to stop?

Note: As an aspiring author, I respect the extraordinary amount of effort that goes into writing a book. I did not write this review in order to be unfair or negative about the book. My goal is simply to articulate why the book wasn’t for me.

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: Shine, Coconut Moon
Author: Neesha Meminger
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: Sam is Indian American but knows nothing about her Indian heritage. Then shortly after 9/11, a man in a turban shows up on her doorstep saying he’s her uncle.

Stopped on Page: 38
Why I Stopped: I loved reading about a culture I know so little about, but I stopped this one because the amount of telling got to me. I feel like it could have been tightened up a lot to avoid telling something we’re about to be shown as well. For example:

“Today I’m on my way to Molly’s house. They’re having a huge birthday celebration for Molly’s great-aunt Maggie. I love and hate Molly’s huge family gatherings. Love, because her family is awesome—they’re a blast to be around, and warm and welcoming. Hate, because when I’m in the midst of all that laughter and familyness, I feel more alone than ever.”

Then the scene right after this shows the exact same things we were just told.

Your Turn: Should I have kept going? Or was I right to stop?

Note: As an aspiring author, I respect the extraordinary amount of effort that goes into writing a book. I did not write this review in order to be unfair or negative about the book. My goal is simply to articulate why the book wasn’t for me.

Title: The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Author: Deb Caletti
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Why I Read It: I’ve never read anything by Caletti, so I thought I should check out one of her books.

Summary: Quinn lives with her mom, her aunt, and her grandma, all of whom have been unlucky in love. She wants to believe in love herself, but it’s not easy when you add in that even your own dad is breaking more than his fair share of hearts.

Stopped on Page: 94
Why I Stopped: This story moved too slow for my taste. In the entire first chapter, it felt like nothing happened. It had all these asides and generalizations, but not much in the way of action.

Here’s the start:

When it came to love, my mother’s big advice was that there were WARNING SIGNS. About the “bad” guys, that is. The ones who would hurt you or take advantage or crumple you up and toss, same as that poem I would once try to write for Daniel Jarvis. The wrong men—the psychopaths, cheaters, liars, controllers, stalkers, ones too lazy or incompetent to hold a job, to hold their temper, to hold you properly, to hold anything but a joint or a beer bottle—well, there were RED FLAGS, and you had to watch for them.

But I’d like to give Caletti’s work another try. So see that Pick My Next Book box at the right? Recommend away!

Your Turn: Should I have kept going? Or was I right to stop?

Note: As an aspiring author, I respect the extraordinary amount of effort that goes into writing a book. I did not write this review in order to be unfair or negative about the book. My goal is simply to articulate why the book wasn’t for me.

Audience Pick!

Title: The Key to the Golden Firebird
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: After their father’s heart attack, their mom starts working overtime and it’s up to the three Gold sisters—May, Palmer, and Brooks—to pull through it on their own.

Review: This story is about how grief can turn you into a zombie. And Johnson’s humor was the perfect way to temper the heavy topic.

Although I’m not usually a fan of alternating points of view, it worked for me in this story because a common grief united the three girls.

Here’s the first part of May’s story to give you a taste for the rest of the book:

May Gold’s actual name was Mayzie. As far as she knew, this was not a real name. It was a made-up, moon-man-language name based on Willie Mays, one of the most famous baseball players of all time.

All of the Gold girls were named after baseball players, a testament to their father’s obsessive love of the game. Brooks was named after Brooks Robinson, twenty-two-year veteran of the Baltimore Orioles. Palmer was named after Jim Palmer, who was considered to be the best pitcher in Orioles history. May’s sisters’ names had relevance in their lives. They played softball. (Palmer was, in fact, a pitcher.) Also, Brooks and Palmer were kind of cool-sounding names. May could imagine a Brooks or a Palmer working in a law firm or becoming a famous artist. Mayzie was someone who had a washing machine on her front porch and turned up on some trashy talk show for the “My Mom Married My Brother!” episode.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

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