Secondhand Saturday #1

As I've complained about more than once on this blog, I'm in the midst of moving.  It's been about as fun as moving can be, except for all the times I've slipped on the stairs or tried to carry a desk through thigh-deep snow (because, stupidly enough, we decided to move in the middle of a Minnesota winter), but it means actually having to sort through all of my knick-knacks, keepsakes, journals, and junk...and books.  Yep, books.  With a to-read pile about a mile high and not enough space on my shelves, I realized I needed to do a little downsizing...which is right about when I stumbled upon Reading Teen's Secondhand Saturday giveaway.  My stack of books is not nearly as impressive as theirs, but I do have a decent list for this week that will certainly expand by next week as I continue sorting.

To enter, just be a follower and leave a comment answering this question: What is your favorite genre within YA/MG and why?  One (random) winner will be announced next Saturday and will get their pick of this list:

The Pack by L.M. Preston (Goodreads)
The Prophecy by Gill James, signed copy (Goodreads/my review)
Max and Menna by Shauna Kelley, ARC (Goodreads/my review)
The Girl Next Door by Selene Castrovilla, ARC (Goodreads/my review)

Check back next week to see if you won!  As much as I'd love to make this international, I'm quite broke at the moment, so unless you are willing to pay shipping please don't enter.  Sorry!  Like I said, there will be more books coming soon - I'm pretty sure this will end up being a weekly thing.  Thanks for hosting, Reading Teen, and thanks for being awesome, followers!

Double Review: Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing

Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (books 2 and 3 in the Gemma Doyle trilogy)
Find them at a local indie!

• Why I read them: Victorian era, boarding school, magic, girl power, series I love
• Disclosure: Final pubbed editions were lent to me by an amazing friend.  Thanks!

I know I'm quite late to the party when it comes to these, and almost everyone reading these reviews will already know how amazing these are (or disagree with me completely), but I still feel the need to share my love of these books.  I'm not going to bother summarizing these, so if you're totally lost you should read my review of A Great and Terrible Beauty, the first novel in this trilogy.

Getting my hands on these two was something of a sneak attack, as I was all prepared to drop $20 cash immediately for books 2 and 3 pre-Christmas, but then realized I'd have to wait for all of the Christmas gifts to trickle in and then wait twelve days after that for my birthday.  Horror!  Thankfully, a friend noticed my distress and lent me her copies.  I'll still end up dropping $20 from my Christmas gift cards on these, though, because I'm already hyperventilating at the thought of having to give them back.

Both were plagued by the same sticky beginnings as the first book - Bray sinks a little too deep into catty boarding school girlspeak, and we lose a lot of the momentum between books.  There's definitely some backstory editing and direction changing, especially (small but predictable spoiler) when it comes to Pippa, which is always a pet peeve of mine.  Then again, the only series I've read where this hasn't happened is The Hunger Games, which doesn't count because Suzanne Collins is a TV writer who probably sat down and did one of those plot charts that Joseph Heller made for Catch-22 (I really wish I could find a picture of that thing, because it must be seen to be believed) and also a beast.  (Suzanne Collins, if you're reading this, that is said with the utmost reverence and respect.)  While I was occasionally frustrated at the loss of fluidity in the writing - these two aren't nearly as quotable as Beauty - it didn't take me long to get over my literary snootiness and get sucked wholeheartedly back in.

Books two and three take place much more in the realms, with a much deeper exploration of their politics and the deep, dark history of the Order and the Rakshana.  Geek that I am, I found this fascinating, especially as it meant a lot more "You know, the Order and the Rakshana used to be lovers..." innuendo between Gemma and Kartik.  All under the guise of intelligent discourse, of course.  Actually, that sums up so much of what I love about these books.  Bray's writing is flirtatious, funny, swoonworthy, and giggleworthy, while also being searing and hard-hitting.  She's out on a mission to debunk the myth that "supernatural romance" can't be smart, and succeeds entirely.  I can appreciate Kartik's Dev Patel-esque hotness while also pondering parallels between the Order and wise women in history around the world, and that's a fantastic juxtaposition.  (Yes, I just used the word juxtaposition in a sentence.  English student, holla!)

And now onto the ending, which I will try very hard not to say anything spoilery about.  It made me cry.  Is that spoilery?  It was definitely painful and dragged out, and I think the author could have left it a little less open-ended in some ways and a little more in others, but it served the purpose.  Complaining about it feels kind of like complaining about the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Could I have done it better?  Probably not, so I'll just suck it up and acknowledge that one of my favorite series ever has come to an end.  If you are like me and late to pretty much every big series (except for The Hunger Games, because I was totally down with Suzanne Collins before she was one of the 100 most influential people of the year), this one definitely needs to go on your list.  Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing might not have sparkled the same way as A Great and Terrible Beauty (and their covers weren't nearly as pretty), but they were a lot of other amazing things besides sparkly.  Also, they reference Oscar Wilde.  What could be cooler than that?  Five out of five stars.

In defense of Wake by Lisa McMann

I turned on the Internet this evening, fully intending to write one of the many reviews I've got backed up in my brain.  This post is not one of those reviews - I will get to them eventually, I swear! - because I discovered this: Wake by Lisa McMann is being challenged at Oliver Middle School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.  If you remember, I reviewed the book earlier this year and it had a HUGE impact on me.  Definitely bigger even than what I said in the review.  I don't feel like I've ever had such a personal stake in a book banning before, so I wrote to the principal of the middle school using the contact information Lisa McMann put in her blog post, and here's what I said:

Dear Mr. Officer,

My name is Maggie Desmond-O'Brien, I'm a 16-year-old book blogger, and I found out today that the novel Wake by Lisa McMann is being challenged at your school.  I don't know what your school district is like and what challenges your students face, but if it is anything like mine, I think Wake could do more good in your schools than could possibly be achieved by removing it.

Wake's protagonist, Janie, faces a low-income situation living with an absent father and an alcoholic mother.  She gets called white trash and lives on the wrong side of the tracks, but still works hard to achieve her goal of getting a good education and going to college.  It is very unlike the bulk of teen novels that feature a glitzy protagonist with a glamorous party lifestyle.  When it does feature sex and drugs, it does so in a very real manner, and makes the consequences of these things clear - again, unlike many teen novels.  Also, it's profanity is never excessive or used for shock value - it is simply the way real teenagers and middle schoolers speak, especially those from bad situations.

I frequently speak out against book banning, but I can honestly say that I've rarely had such a personal stake in one.  Reading Wake made me feel so much less alone, as I have also been dismissed as "white trash," despite my educational goals (I would like to double major in English and International Studies with a minor in Sociology).  I read it at a time I was really struggling and despairing about ever going to college, and after my initial devouring proceeded to carry it around with me everywhere and re-read it because I found it so inspiring.  I'm currently attending a local college full time working towards my associate's degree through a state program, and I don't know if I would have had the courage to do that without this book.  The realization that authors can write about teenagers like me instead of only Gossip Girl-style characters or fantasy heroes also fueled my goal to write for a living.

To conclude, while I feel middle and high schoolers are smart and capable of distinguishing fiction from reality and should never have books banned from their schools and libraries, I would especially object to the removal of a book that could help so many like it helped me.  I hope this email will make a difference in your decision.

Respectfully,

Maggie Desmond-O'Brien

Even re-reading it for this blog post I can think of a lot of things I left out, so if you agree with me and feel like adding your voice to the debate, please write to Mr. Officer (the principal of the school) at mrofficer@baschools.org.

Read This Week #9

No new books this week - wish I was at home so I could take a picture of my to-read stack so you guys could see why - except for a really awesome book on repurposing old sweaters that I got as a birthday present.  Considering the amount of Barnes & Noble gift cards I have now, though, you can expect some hardcore IMMing in the upcoming weeks! =)

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Read This Week

Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

(I figure if I average three a week I'll go a bit over my goal of 100...looks like I fell short this week.  Oh, well.  Frustratingly, nothing applies to challenges, either!)