YAnnabe » 5 Stars

Review: Bird by Bird

Kelly — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:35:12 +0000

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Title: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Author: Anne Lamott
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I read this book a few years ago, and I thought it would make a good re-read.

Summary: A writer reflects on the writing life. Hint: It must include writing.

Review: If you are a writer—published or not—and you haven’t read this book, get thee to a bookery forthwith! Or, to put it another way: go get this book and read it NOW.

It’ll crack you up, it’ll be the flint that sparks your next great burst of inspiration, it’ll warm the cockles of your poor heart made bitter by all the self-doubt and the rejection and the hard work.

I almost had a breakdown trying to choose a quote to post with this review. Because it’s all so good. I would quote the whole book here if I could. But I had to pick one, so here you go:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

As I work on revising my most recent NaNoWriMo draft, I have to keep reminding myself of this. To really drive the message home, I think I’m going to tattoo one letter on each knuckle: B-I-R-D-B-Y-B-I-R-D.

Your Turn: What’s your favorite writing advice book?

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Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Kelly — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:00:29 +0000

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Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: My Goodreads buddy Lenore liked this book AND it’s a dystopia, so it was only a matter of time, really.

Summary: 17-year-old Jenna has been in a coma for over a year. Now she’s awake, but her parents have moved her to the other side of the country, her body doesn’t feel quite right, and her grandmother hates her.

Review: This book was one of my top 10 favorites of 2009. Why?

Unnerving story revealed a little at a time? Check.
Forbidden romantic interest? Check.
Hints at the direction our society could be heading without coming out and making a “speech”? Yes!

This is an early scene from the book, with Jenna, her mom, and her grandmother Lily:

I push my empty glass away and announce, “I’m going to school today.”

Mother drops her pencil and stares at me. Lily stops beating her eggs.

“I assume I didn’t graduate during the year I was in a coma, so I still need to finish, right?”

Mother hasn’t spoken. Her mouth is open and her head shakes slightly, like my words are ricocheting around inside. Somehow, I find it amusing.

“There’s two village charters within walking distance—I checked the directory on the Net—and the Central Academy is just a short drive.”

“You can’t drive!” The words shoot out of Mother, and then she says more calmly, “School is out of the question. You’re still recovering—”

“I’m fine—”

Mother stands. “I said school is out of the question. Period.”

I hesitate, but then stand, too. “And I say it isn’t.”

Mother is shocked into a marble stance. Neither of us speaks. Finally she looks away. She sits back down. She picks up her pencil. She is calm, smooth, practiced, the mother who seems to know where we are going before I do. “Go to your room, Jenna. You need to rest. Go. Now.”

I am seething. Outraged. Incensed. The words. They’re finally bubbling up in torrents just when I need them.

But the will. It is waning. Mother says I should go to my room. Go to your room, Jenna. Go to your room.

I do.

This is the first book by Pearson I’ve read, and you can bet I’ll be reading more. Have you read any others by her?

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks—My rating: 5/5
Sweethearts—My rating: 3.5/5
More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Review: Looking for Alaska

Kelly — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:52:09 +0000

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Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I loved Green’s other novels, so I had a hunch I’d like this one too.

Summary: 16-year-old Miles leaves his comfortable but friendless life in Florida to go to boarding school in Alabama. His roommate Chip quickly adopts Miles as a friend and introduces him to a girl who lives down the hall—Alaska. Beautiful and brilliant, Alaska flirts with Miles and he falls for her. But it could never work, and they both know it.

Review: This is my favorite novel from Green.

On the surface, the book offered up plenty to make me laugh. Here, Miles just found out his new school, Culver Creek, has a basketball team:

I hated sports. I hated sports, and I hated people who played them, and I hated people who watched them, and I hated people who didn’t hate people who watched or played them. In third grade—the very last year that one could play T-ball—my mother wanted me to make friends, so she forced me onto the Orlando Pirates. I made friends all right—with a bunch of kindergartners, which didn’t really bolster my social standing with my peers. Primarily because I towered over the rest of the players, I nearly made it onto the T-ball all-star team that year. The kid who beat me, Clay Wurtzel, had one arm. I was an unusually tall third grader with two arms, and I got beat out by kindergartner Clay Wurtzel. And it wasn’t some pity-the-one-armed-kid thing, either. Clay Wurtzel could flat-out hit, whereas I sometimes struck out even with the ball sitting on the tee. One of the things that appealed to me most about Culver Creek was that my dad assured me there was no PE requirement.

But the soul behind Miles’s story, behind his love for Alaska—that’s what made me fall for this book. My heart ached for Alaska right alongside his.

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

How I Live Now—My rating: 5/5
An Abundance of Katherines—My rating: 4/5
I Am the Messenger
More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Review: Catching Fire

Kelly — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:03:51 +0000

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Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I read The Hunger Games (the first in the series) earlier this year and loved, loved, loved it.

Summary: After surviving a fight to the death, Katniss Everdeen has to adjust to her new life of privilege while everyone she knows and loves still struggles to put food on the table. Not to mention she’ll have to figure out what to do about the two young men in love with her.

Review: The worst part about this book was coming to the last page and realizing I have to wait a whole freaking YEAR before the next book comes out.

This woman sure do write good. Best love triangle I’ve ever read. How does she make me sway from Team Gale to Team Peeta and back again, over and over?

The suspense of the 75th Hunger Games consumed me. I had about 20 pages to go when I had to leave for work one morning in order to make it to an early meeting. So I stuck it in my bag and brought it to work with me.

That day was absolute TORTURE. I had meetings all morning, with no time to go back to my desk in between. Then at lunch, I had only a couple minutes to read before my afternoon meetings started. And again, no time at my desk between meetings. WHY ME?!?

Finally, FINALLY my last meeting was over and it was time to go home. On the way to the car, I threw the keys to my partner and pulled the book out of my bag. When I got in the car, I propped the book open on my knees and started reading. THEN I put my seatbelt on. It’s all about priorities, people.

Suzanne Collins, if there’s anything I can do to help you focus on writing over the next few months, you just let me know. I can walk dogs, babysit kids, formulate a magical body spray that will make bathing unnecessary. You name it.

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Review: Revision & Self-Editing

Kelly — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:33:24 +0000

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Title: Revision & Self-Editing: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Finished Novel
Author: James Scott Bell
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I was looking for a practical guide to editing my first draft.

Summary: A national bestselling author and writing teacher lays out a plan for revising your novel’s first draft.

Review: I wish I could roll up all the tips in this book into some Silly Putty and stick it directly on my brain.

So far, I’ve flipped through about 20 different revision books. Most of those books were too abstract in their advice, and some others (while excellent) were focused on line editing. I needed a book to guide me on the macro edit—pacing, character development, setting, voice, and so on.

This book has all that and more. Including a revision checklist at the back. I am a checklist sort of a girl. (Sometimes in the morning, while I’m in bed waiting for my daughter to wake up next to me, I’ll start composing my checklist for the day in my head and then obsessively repeat the items over and over so I don’t forget them before I get to paper & pen.)

The advice in this book is practical, with writing exercises that aren’t just busy work. It’s clear they’ll get you further along on your revision goals.

As the author suggests, I’m going to expand the checklist to include all the other nuggets throughout the book I want to be sure to check for. But I’m out of the school mindset, so I’ve otherwise drawn a blank on how best to absorb all this wonderful knowledge.

Here’s one tip I plan to use soon:

Then, after some cooling off, produce a summary of the novel. A synopsis, but one’s that subject to change. Because you’re going to try to make it better and deeper. You may even change it significantly.

The summary should be no more than 2,000 to 3,000 words, and you should produce several versions. …If you produce several of these summaries, and finally fine-tune the best version, the method will give you a roadmap for an organic second draft.

You can bet I’m going to read the rest of the Write Great Fiction series.

Your Turn: What tricks do you use to learn and internalize new things from a book you’re reading?

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Review: Broken Soup

Kelly — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:25:17 +0000

Title: Broken Soup
Author: Jenny Valentine
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I enjoyed Me, the Missing, and the Dead by this author, and this is her latest novel released in the US.

Summary: Rowan’s older brother is dead. Her father has left. Her mother sleeps all day, leaving Rowan to take care of her little sister. So when a stranger at the store insists she dropped a photo negative, she doesn’t have the energy to argue with him. But then she can’t get that mystery photo out of her mind. And who was that boy anyway?

Review: I luuuuurve this book! The story unfolds a little at a time, luring you deeper and deeper into what Rowan is going through. I admire how the author strings you along and keeps creating mystery in your mind. Jenny Valentine, please hurry and write more!

This is the type of novel I would love to diagram or use to practice plot-boarding.

Here’s a little from the first page to whet your appetite:

It wasn’t mine.

I didn’t drop it but the boy in the line said I did.

It was a negative of a photograph, one on its own, all scratched and beaten up. I couldn’t even see what it was a negative of because his finger and thumb were blotting out most of it. He was holding it out to me like nothing else was going to happen until I took it, like he had nothing else to do but wait.

I didn’t want to take it. I said that. I said I didn’t own a camera even, but the boy just stood there with this “I know I’m right” look on his face.

He had a good face. Friendly eyes, wide mouth, all that. One of his top teeth was chipped; there was a bit missing. Still, a good face doesn’t equal a good person. If you catch yourself thinking that, you need to stop.

Now go and read the rest!

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Review: Wintergirls

Kelly — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:57:29 +0000

Title: Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: Because everyone was raving about it, among other reasons.

Summary: Lia and her best friend Cassie made a pact to become skinny together. But then Cassie drops Lia, and a few months later Lia finds out Cassie has been found dead.

Review: I didn’t want to read this. I knew what it was about—a girl with an eating disorder—and I didn’t want to knowingly subject myself to that world of pain.

But then I went to my favorite locally owned bookstore to hear Laurie Halse Anderson speak. I got there too early and didn’t have anything to read with me, so I picked up Wintergirls and read the first 15 pages. It took all my self control to put it back on the shelf and wait for it to come in at my library.

I finished this book in less than 24 hours, on a workday no less. Lia was so real to me that when I wasn’t actually reading, she’s all I could think about: Would she pull through? How long til she hit bottom? Would it be too late?

Lia’s story haunted me because I know that countless girls out there have stories just like hers. Now that I have a daughter, this issue hits close to home. I can’t protect her from the impossible idea of “beauty” on TV, in magazines, from other kids. What can I do as a parent to foster a healthy body image? I really don’t know.

Reading Lia’s story convinced me that not knowing the answer to that question is unacceptable. So if you know of any good nonfiction books on this topic, please let me know.

I highly recommend this amazing book. And when you’re done reading it yourself, lend your copy to a parent you know.

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Review: Jellicoe Road

Kelly — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:59:15 +0000

Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Summary: At a boarding school in the Australian bush country, Taylor Markham has been selected as the reluctant leader to represent the school in negotiations with their rivals, the Townies and the Cadets. But when the only adult in her life disappears and Taylor finds out the Cadet leader knows her better than she’d like, will she be able to hold it together and protect her kids from retaliation?

Review: When I finished Jellicoe Road, I smiled and set it down on my nightstand. Not 30 seconds later, I picked it back up and started reading it again from the beginning. The last time I did that was with the fourth Harry Potter. Actually, that might be the only other time I’ve ever done that.

So yeah, you could say I sorta liked this book…if for no other reason than I loved it. I actually convinced my hubby to read it, and he reads like one book every 6 months so it better be good if it’s going to join that exclusive club.

This book is the type of book that’s so incredibly well written so as to make me completely question my ability to ever achieve something even 1% as good.

This is just from page 2, and there’s more where that came from, I promise. The narrator is talking about having survived a car crash where her parents were driving.

Someone asked us later, “Didn’t you wonder why no one came across you sooner?”

Did I wonder?

When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they’re some kind of garbage, don’t you know?

Wonder dies.

But don’t take that one snippet to mean this book is all depressing. It’s not at all. It’s heartbreaking, yes, but also hopeful. And funny.

I’m going to sleep on it, but this one might just make my list of top 10 all-time YA favorites. And thank you to whomever submitted a suggestion for me to read Saving Francesca. I definitely will.

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Review: The Hunger Games

Kelly — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:41:14 +0000

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Summary: In a post-apocalyptic world, the government picks two children from each of its territories to participate in The Hunger Games—an annual fight-to-the-death reminder that the government is in control, just in case you forgot. When Katniss’s 12-year-old sister gets picked in the fatal raffle, Katniss volunteers to take her place without a moment’s hesitation. But does she have what it takes to fight for her life?

Review: I was initially reluctant to read this one because it sounded so damn depressing. But after reading so many glowing reviews, I decided to give it a whirl. And boy, am I glad I did.

Yes, the world of Panem is grim. Yes, kids getting randomly picked to fight each other to the death is morbid. But this is a crazy good story. During the Games, I found myself getting ready to turn to the next page before I was even done reading the current page.

Collins manages to explore the idea of kids being pulled into violent conflict without hitting you over the head with the real-world parallels. Which is more fun because you get to come up with the parallels yourself and feel wicked smart for it.

The love triangle just broke my heart. Unlike some other recent YA love triangles (*cough* Twilight), I actually felt torn between the two love interests! Plus, the kissing scenes were yummy.

I cannot wait until the next in this series, Catching Fire, comes out.

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Review: Graceling

Kelly — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:54:45 +0000

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristin Cashore
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Summary: Katsa is Graced with the ability to kill, which her uncle the king exploits for his own gain. She has no friends—how could a wild, predatory animal have friends? Then one day, she meets another Graceling who not only challenges her idea of friendship but her idea of herself. And it just so happens he’s pretty darn cute, to boot.

Review: OhmygoshIlovedthisbooksooomuch. I’ll try to stop gushing and write a coherent review, but…sigh. I was sad to let this one go.

Just a few of the things I loved loved loved:

The world—I always get a little nervous when I start a fantasy book because the author can get so wrapped up in naming things and creating their own little world that it takes away from the story of the characters and their struggles. Not so with this book. The world is there, but you aren’t hit over the head with it. So the result is that it feels real. Within the first few pages, I felt like I was there.
The strong main character—Actually, the strong female main character. And I’m not talking the ability to kill. Katsa is a girl who knows what she wants and isn’t going to let other people tell her how to live her life.
The romance—Yum.

I can’t wait for the next in this series!

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