Monday, January 29, 2018

Mondays Need a Good Book: WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

When Breath Becomes Air

THE BLURB: At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. 

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
 

THE SCOOP: Since I write YA fiction, that's usually what I like to spotlight on my blog, but I had to make an exception for this memoir, especially since I gave it to my own teenagers to read. I'm not sure when the last time I cried reading a book was, before this one.

It's meditative and poetic and made me think about my own life. It also reminded me of my dad, who is alive and healthy, but who is also a brilliant doctor and scientist and lover of literature who always centered his family.

I guess I'm just glad I feel certainty about a life after this one, or this would have been even more of a tear-jerker.


THE VERDICT: This is a book that will stay with you. Paul Kalanithi wrote, "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything. Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'"  

Isn't that what makes life so impossible, tragic, and heroic?

Monday, January 22, 2018

Mondays Need a Good Book: WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI

When Dimple Met Rishi

THE BLURB:  With graduation behind her, Dimple Shah is more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.”

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.


THE SCOOP: There is so much to love in this story! Learning about Indian culture and traditions through two very different second-generation immigrants is delightful. The opposites-attract romance storyline is one of my favorites, and I love how arranged marriages and cultural expectations played into it in this story. I especially appreciate having a hero who is gentle and interested in a committed relationship. 

My only complaint is that I wish we'd spent more time with the lovebirds working on their app, since the STEM premise of the story was also fun for me.  



THE VERDICT: Definitely for older teens, since the story includes sex. I can't wait to see what else this author writes!

Mondays Need a Good Book: GEEKERELLA

Geekerella

THE BLURB: Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic science-fiction series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck and her dad's old costume, Elle's determined to win - unless her stepsisters get there first.

Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons - before he was famous. Now they're nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he has ever wanted, but Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake - until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise. But when she disappears at midnight, will he ever be able to find her again?

 
THE SCOOP: Such a darling story. The Cinderella bits were hilarious, the characters were both endearing, and I loved the dash of cosplay and geek culture. Very fun. I did wish we got to see more of the texting--it felt like they began texting and then fell in love without our getting to fall in love with them. But since we got to view the romance through both points of view, it totally worked for me.
 
THE VERDICT: Adorable. If you're in a fandom or love main characters whose lives aren't perfect, you'll eat this up.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Mondays Need a Good Book: THE GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide, #1)

THE BLURB:
Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. As Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.


THE SCOOP: This book is one of the best examples of voice I have ever seen. Delightful, irreverent, and one of my favorite time periods, to boot. It was a little more explicit in the main character's lusting after his traveling companion than I really love to read, but I was so unbelievably impressed by the author's command of voice.

I love this whole new trend of writing historical novels with a modern sensibility--I'm thinking of Lady Jane and Daughter of a Pirate King. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue falls into this niche of outrageously funny, pitch-perfect voice.
 
THE VERDICT: Oh, it's hilarious. A bit steamy for my taste, but so hilarious and well-told that I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Monday, January 8, 2018

Mondays Need a Good Book: THE GIRL IN THE TOWER

The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1)The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy, #2)

THE BLURB:
Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.



THE SCOOP: I loved the sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale even more than the first. Vasya goes to Moscovy in this book, and I have never, no never, read a book that more perfectly captures that old Rus, the pre-Peter the Great Russia. Wowzers! I felt as if I were creeping around dark, warren-like passages painted with gold and icons. And it's so fresh to see Russian mythology incorporated into a story.

I also love me a heroine who refuses to live her life according to the rules . . . which is funny, because I'm quite the cultural rule-follower, myself!

THE VERDICT: Every single page of this novel is out-of-this world amazing. Read them both!

Monday, January 1, 2018

Mondays Need A Good Book: ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME

All the Truth That's in Me



THE BLURB: Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family.

Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas.

But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever.

This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

 
THE SCOOP: There are a few story-telling techniques in this story that generally turn me off: second-person narration, present tense, short and fragmented segments, withholding pertinent details.

And every single one of them worked, and every single one was perfect for this novel.

Despite the dark themes the book explores unflinchingly, it isn't a dark book. It's hopeful. And that hopeful exploration of love, friendship, family, human failings, loss, and tragedy makes the story magical.




THE VERDICT: My emotional response to this story--which isn't generally the type of novel I seek out--surprised me. Somehow, Julie Berry manages to harrow up every single feeling and wring depth and tears out of them--and then resolve everything in a most satisfactory way. READ THIS.