Title: Suite Scarlett
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: Before I started this blog, I read Let It Snow and loved the story by Maureen Johnson. I decided it was time to check out one of her novels.

Summary: Scarlett and her family own and live in a New York hotel. For her 15th birthday, she’s given a suite to take care of. Which would be so much easier if it wasn’t inhabited by a Broadway has-been who gets her kicks from bossing Scarlett around.

Review: I will definitely be reading more by Maureen Johnson. I absolutely LOVE her sassy, sarcastic humor. I’ve also been reading her blog to get more of her brand of funny on a regular basis. (Very entertaining stuff, except that it always makes me a bit depressed after the chuckling tapers off. I’m just a wee bit jealous of Ms. Johnson and her funny-making skills.)

Here’s a little taste for you:

Perhaps it sounds like a wonderful thing to be born and raised in a small hotel in New York City. Lots of things sound fun until they are subjected to closer inspection. If you lived on a cruise ship, for example, you would have to do the Macarena every night of your life. Think about that.

Still, this book made me daydream about living in a hotel. But only if I can live with a family like Scarlett’s.

I adored the characters in this book, especially Scarlett’s older brother. The scenes with Scarlett and her brother were among my favorites mostly because of their witty banter but also because they had such a great sibling relationship.

Have you read any books by Johnson that you would recommend? Leave a comment or add your recommendation to the Pick My Next Book section in the sidebar!

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Title: Perfect Fifths
Author: Megan McCafferty
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Why I Read It: I read the rest of the Jessica Darling series in 2007, so I wanted to see how the last book wrapped it all up.

Summary: Three years after he proposed to her and she said no, Jessica Darling runs into Marcus Flutie—literally.

Review: I’m glad I read the final book in this series not just for the closure but because the book offers up some truly enjoyable moments. And even though it had been almost 2 years since I last read about Jessica, this book brought it all back immediately.

But this wasn’t my favorite book in the series. A few reasons why:

• Transcript in the middle—The 2nd third of the book is a conversation between two characters, but nothing else happens. You don’t even get to see what the characters are doing except when they talk about it. It’s like reading a transcript. Interested technique, but it got old for me after a few pages.
• Clever bordering on pretentious—I like smart humor, I do. But a few times, the extreme cleverness of the characters induced eye-rolling.
• Short wrap-up—This is probably just me, but I wanted more of a conclusion. Or at least more time in the conclusion. After such a long series with a back-and-forth, steamy relationship, I was looking forward to more of a payoff. But then, I’m in the camp that liked the conclusion of the last Harry Potter, which I know isn’t universal.

With that said, if you’ve read the rest of the Jessica Darling series, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

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Audience Pick!

Title: Saving Francesca
Author: Melina Marchetta
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Francesca goes to a formerly all-boys private school where the only thing co-ed is the fact that girls get their own bathroom. But that’s not even her biggest problem—why does her usually peppy mom refuse to get out of bed?

Review: Ah, I could read Melina Marchetta’s books all day, every day. I loved Jellicoe Road more than this book, but I still adored Francesca’s story.

This woman should teach a class in writing dialogue, if she doesn’t already. The dialogue she writes is clever without being pretentious. And funny. Actually, forget being jealous of how the author writes the dialogue, I’m jealous of how these kids speak. If I could be that quick with a comeback, I would be the coolest ever.

Another thing I loved is how Francesca has guy friends who aren’t interested in her romantically. They’re just really, truly her friends.

Finally, a little taste for you. A boy named Will put the moves on Francesca, and she confronts him about it:

“I don’t want you to think I do that all the time,” he says, sounding a bit strained.

He’s very stressed. I have caused that stress. I am jubilant that I have caused that stress.

“Why would I think otherwise?”

“Because,” he says.

Because?

“Don’t you do legal studies? Aren’t you in mock trial? Does the argument ‘because’ usually work for you?”

He doesn’t even have the decency to be shifty-eyed. He just stares straight at me.

“You were drunk, Will,” I say after a moment. “I wouldn’t expect you to even remember anything.” I turn to go.

“If I was sober, you would have been impressed,” he says, repeating my words from that night.

“But you weren’t. And I’m not,” I say firmly. “And if you think that I am praying at night for you to ask me out, just dream on.”

I walk away, so proud of myself that I can hardly contain it.

***

Dear God, please please please let Will Trombal split up with his girlfriend and ask me out.

The prayer becomes my mantra all night.

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Natasha of Maw Books Blog recently interviewed Ingrid Law, the author of Savvy. This quote struck a chord with me:

I decided to write the craziest sentence I could think of without judging it too much.

It’s such a simple idea, but the more I think about it, it’s frickin’ BRILLIANT.

Because when you sit down to write—after you’ve killed time on Facebook and used a toothpick to flick, flick, flick out the crumbs between the keys on your keyboard—what’s the biggest obstacle to getting words on the page? That pesky internal critic, right?

So if you start out by writing the craziest sentence you can think of, you’ve given yourself permission to let the craziness continue. You’ve set the crazy bar. That internal critic will still be there, of course, but that first sentence can be the shiny object you distract her with. Make it so crazy she’ll go on about it for days and days before she gets around to noticing what you’re writing after that.

Let’s try it. To start us off, here’s the first sentence of Savvy:

When my brother Fish turned thirteen, we moved to the deepest part of inland because of the hurricane and, of course, the fact that he’d caused it.

I’ll go first, but I know you can be crazier than this:

• I wish I could pinpoint the exact moment that I started believing my dog Sadie was Ronald Reagan reincarnated, but it’s too late for that.
• Lynn opened the library doors and snapped her eyes shut—with blue books next to red books next to green books and black books everywhere in between, she might as well turn around and go back home.
• If I ever find the kid at our school who started everyone making Top 3 Teachers I’d Totally Do lists, I’m going to punch him in the face.

Okay, now go crazy! And please share your craziness in comment form!

Photo by barefootinfla1.

It’s happened to us all. You love a book and sing its praises to everyone who will listen. To your utter surprise, somebody actually heeds your advice and reads the book. But they don’t like it as much as you did. Or worse, they hate it and suggest you reimburse them financially for their wasted time.

How you respond in that moment could make or break your friendship. So I’ve put together a few tips to help you escape this sticky situation unscathed.

1. The Blatant Denial

Example: “Oh, you thought I recommended that book? No, what I said was don’t read that book! Oh, haha! What a funny misunderstanding…”

Bonus tip: Don’t forget to update any online reviews you posted.

2. The High(brow) Road

Example: “You didn’t like the book? Hmm. You didn’t happen to read the English version did you? Because that translation is absolute crap compared to the original written in 15th century French. Unfortunately, that version is out of print and I sent my only copy off to the Louvre, but I’ll be sure to let you know if I spy it at a library sale.”

3. The Opposites Game

This friend of yours is apparently viewing the world through upside-down glasses. Next time they give you some advice, be sure to do the opposite. Note that this tip doesn’t just apply to the world of books.

Example: Say you find yourself driving while your friend is navigating. If they say to go left, go right.

4. The Dumping

How close could you ever be to someone who is so obviously deluded about what makes for a good book? You might as well cut your losses now, before you end up taking one of their recommendations.

Photo by tinou bao.