Books I've Been Reading

Here are some more YA books I've read and enjoyed lately:

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (the authors of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist)

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (due out in April 2010--an advanced reader copy) by John Green and David Levithan

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

The Mysterious Benedict Society (the first in a series) by Trenton Lee Stewart

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Some of them, such as Love is the Higher Power, deal with difficult topics (in this case September 11). All of them, though, particularly Love is the Higher Power, focus on the uplifting.

Speaking of which, I loved this post by Meg Cabot, the author of The Princess Diaries series. She writes in favor of the good-old escapist read.

Another Look at YA

I heart essays and books of essays. Lately I've been into these two books, full of essays by adults about the books they read as kids and teenagers.

• Everything I Need to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume edited by Jennifer O'Connell--This fun anthology is filled with essays by grown women writers about the Judy Blume books that shaped them growing up. Contributors include Meg Cabot and Stephanie Lessing. Most of the essays are that mix of comic and tragic that pretty much adolescent experience seems to embody. Even though I've read relatively few Judy Blume novels, this book still had me rapt, and I felt like I had read Judy Blume's full body of work by the end. This anthology is an excellent illustration of the power of books to reach out across divides and give lonely, confused, or curious readers something to run with.

• Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stop Reading by Lizzie Skurnick--This got its start as a column on Jezebel.com. The book is filled with book reports on a range young adult novels--some I'd heard of (Judy Blume, of course, is included) and some I hadn't. I haven't read much of it, but I have skimmed the whole thing, and it looks great. I love thinking about why the books we love matter so much.

Both of these books steer far away from a dry, academic tone. I know that literary analysis, even that with a light, conversational tone, isn't for everyone. To me, though, nothing makes YA novels better than a little analysis. And this is just the way to do it--to make it fun.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

I just finished this book by E. Lockhart. So good! I'd heard very good things about The Disreputable History before I read it (like this NPR recommendation by the author of Book Lust, Nancy Pearl), so I had very high expectations. When I got to the last third of the book, I started to really get what all the good reviews were talking about.

How do I even describe it? Let's start with the facts. Main character (you guessed it): Frankie Landau-Banks, a girl at an elite boarding school in northern Massachusetts. When she becomes aware of the presence of an active secret society on campus, she's first intrigued and then indignant. It's an all-male affair, one that has no room for her. That is, until she hatches a brilliant scheme.

And the brilliant scheme? That really hits its stride in the second half/last third of the book.

What I really loved about this book was its girl-power message. E. Lockhart did a wonderful job of describing what it's like to grow up girl. Wanting respect and caring/loving relationships at the same time. Feeling like you have so much to say but no one to hear you. Wanting to be seen and be a part of a world that excludes you.

This was no helpless heroine, and it also wasn't a caricature of a feminist, either. It seemed like a portrait of a real girl, one with a healthy sense of self, one caught between who the world was telling her to be and who she wanted to be.

And you know, reading this was an eye-opener. It made me realize how rare it is for a fiction book to openly discuss a girl/woman's place in society. The only examples I can think of off the top of my head are Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska by John Green. In those, it never really gets thoroughly worked out, though, because narrators are boys. Don't get me wrong--these are great books, because the narrators are acknowledging that there are three-dimensional females in their lives, but you don't get inside the heads of the females actually having these thoughts.

So here's what I'm really trying to say: As someone who's been that girl struggling to feel like she's more than society says she is, I like this book. As someone who's been that girl unable to understand why, when she does speak up, she's either viewed as a cute, harmless, nearly invisible ladybug or as a trampling, destructive, hostile elephant, never just a person something important to say, I like this book. As someone who wants girls these days to know that they're not crazy for wanting to feel empowered, I like this book.

So The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks? Highly recommended.

P.S. New Moon Girls magazine is, in my opinion, the best place for young women to find support in growing up girl. It's aimed at a slightly younger audience than this book, though.

An Abundance of Recommendations

It's been--hmm, months--since my last post. Not that anyone is reading this, which is perhaps why I went away. Of course, why would anyone be reading an unadvertised blog after three posts? But I'm posting again, because hey, someday people might read this, right? And then they'd go back and read old posts?

I didn't run out of uplifting material. No, I still read wonderful books and rent Netflix movies that I'd like to recommend. Let's see what I can think of off the top of my head as examples.

Books: Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and Looking for Alaska by John Green. All these books had dark elements, but they weren't written in a way that glorified the darkness, and that I appreciated. My favorite of the three? I don't have one. The order they're listed in is the order I read them. Paper Towns has a great mystery component that keeps you turning the pages. An Abundance of Katherines is humorous--the main character spends his time coming up with a mathematical formula to explain why he's always been dumped by his girlfriends. Looking for Alaska is sad and vivid in its portrayal of boarding school life (something with which I have experience). John Green is definitely one of my new favorite authors. I heart deep young adult fiction. (I'm on a YA bender, apparently. Honestly, I've never outgrown the joys of young adult fiction. So fresh, so honest.)

Website: Vlog Brothers' You Tube Channel. This I found through John Green's website. He and his brother Hank Green set out to communicate every weekday without the written word for a year, and this is what it became. Video blogs back and forth, and they're hilarious. That year ended a while ago, but they're still at it just for the fun of it. Watching their old videos got me through days of lying on the couch feeling under the weather. I laughed out loud, all by myself in the room. I really don't know how to describe these at all, besides hilarious. Here's some of my favorites: July 18: Accio Deathly Hallows and Peanut Butter Face. This one's just interesting because haven't you always wondered how audiobooks are made?

Movies: The Singles Ward, The Singles 2nd Ward, and God's Army. I don't happen to be Mormon, nor have I ever been, nor do I ever plan to be. However, these three films were made by Mormons about Mormons. And you know what? It's really cool to see into their world. I rented the first one by accident--hazily noticed that the description of Singles Ward mentioned a Mormon character, but figured that was just the one character. And then the whole movie was about Latter-Day Saints doing Latter-Day stuff. It was a good movie, too. In a normal movie, many of the laughs come from people getting drunk and doing stupid stuff when they're drunk. The Mormons don't drink, though, nor do they even consume caffeine. The humor is tame, but good. I will say this: Singles Ward is cheesy. There are sound effects and the un-ironic wearing of a metallic silver shirt. But it's entertaining and all around fascinating to see how a whole world of people with whom I've had very little contact live their lives. So much so that I sought out the next two films knowing full well they were Mormon productions.

So listing examples took up some room. I didn't realize how much I had stored up in my head. Have fun reading or web surfing or watching. The world has good stuff in it. It's our job to find it and make more of it.

Young Adult Books Rock

My foray into the library's young adult section was fruitful. Not only did I discover Jeremy Fink--see last post--but I found two other books I liked.

First off, another book by Wendy Mass. This one is called A Mango-Shaped Space. It's about a girl named Mia who finally discovers that there's a name for her ability to see colors when she sees letters and numbers and hears distinctive sounds. Learning that name, synesthesia, and meeting other synesthetes empowers her to embrace her colors. Of course, it's a rocky road that leads to her own acceptance and the acceptance of friends and classmates, but the book has a definite uplifting note.

The final young adult book that I read recently is Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron. The title comes from a quote by Ovid: "Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you." This book is a great example of a specific type of uplifting material, the type where (a) you feel validated in hearing a characters struggles in life, because you've known similar feelings or struggles, and (b) the character makes something of that struggle. Here, the main character James is generally unhappy, not able to pinpoint an exact reason for it at first. He knows that his confusion around his sexual orientation, his parents' divorce, and the falling of the Twin Towers (he lives in New York) two years before the book takes place must all factor into it, but it takes the course of the book to work toward a new understanding of how to function despite these truths. Someday takes place during the summer before he's supposed to go to college, and though he doesn't have a perky personality, James nevertheless delivers a heartfelt story of subtle change.

Both of these books were as good at the beginning as they were at the end. I love a book with good follow-through. I'm looking forward to reading more by both of these authors.

Uplifting-ness

Do you ever just need something to lift your spirits? I do. Actually, it's become a minor mission of mine to sort through the media out there and find the movies, the books, the websites, the essays that uplift and sustain.

Maybe you're ill and stuck inside all day, staring at the wall again as thoughts float past. Meditation is one approach, a very good one. Crafts are another outlet, but they take energy. During my times of illness, though, there has always come the point when I need a distraction, a message of hope. Stimulation of a positive nature.

Maybe you're going through a rough personal relationship. A breakup, a fight, or a time of little communication that leaves you confused. Sometimes you need to turn to a different world or hear of another's experience that turned out okay.

Maybe you're just bored or a little down after an exhausting day. Enter the uplifting material out there. It's harder to find than I would have expected before I started seeking it out specifically. The definition of "uplifting" isn't saccharine--we're not talking about cream puff happiness here, the type that fades as soon as you've experienced it, giving you a sugar crash soon after. It can be silly, downright stupid, intelligent, thoughtful, serious, or outlandish. Just as long as it leaves you feeling good about life.

Taste, of course, varies. When I Googled "uplifting," the first hit was the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary definition: "to improve the spiritual, social, or intellectual condition of." We're all so different in our experiences of life, so let's just lay it out now that we won't always agree about my picks, and that's okay. I just want this to be a fun place to share my latest discoveries, whether oldies unearthed or more recent fare.

Here's where I'll begin: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, one I finished last night. The last time I was at the library, I wandered over to the young adult section. That's where I found this. I often find these novels more honest and real than some of the adult fiction out there. You're often grabbed right from the beginning, and that was certainly true with this book. Jeremy Fink narrates the tale of his journey with his best friend, Lizzy, to uncover the keys to a box his father left him. Engraved with "The Meaning of Life" and the mandate to open on his thirteenth birthday, the box's arrival in Jeremy and Lizzy's life throws them into wholehearted search for a way to open it. Still processing the death of his father about five years earlier, Jeremy soon finds himself deeply questioning life's meaning as he begins to wonder if he'll ever see the box's contents.

I truly enjoyed this one. It was fun and honest. The friendship between Jeremy and Lizzy is quirky, as is that between Jeremy and his mother. Unexpected events and discoveries keep it fresh until the end.

Thanks for reading. If anyone is reading this, I welcome your suggestions for uplifting material out there!