YA Blogger Community Thanksgiving

So, a little while ago, Adele from Persnickety Snark deemed it YA Thanksgiving; she wrote about all of the things she appreciates about being a part of the blogosphere, and she invited other bloggers to do the same. I'm a little late to the game, but I didn't want to pass up such a wonderful idea.

So here we go! What I love about blogging and bloggers!

*I have personal blog in which I write about my life. I also used to write about books in that blog. I would rate them and then give them one or two sentence reviews. I usually did about 10 of these in the same entry. And my friends complained. Because, unfortunately, quite a few of my friends aren't readers. They loved my blog, they said, but they didn't want to CONSTANTLY hear about all the books I was reading. So I started Brizmus Blogs Books, and I lengthened my reviews and started saying EVERYTHING I wanted to say, as opposed to editing myself down. And then people started coming and reading what I had to say. And saying super interesting things about it. And NO ONE COMPLAINED. People came because, like me, they ALSO want to talk about books. And that is just amazing!

*Going along with that last thing, it's been so amazing to hear what other people have to say about what I have to say. Or just period. To see when people agree with me and why and when people disagree with me and why. And often times, it gives me a new perspective on things; it opens my mind to think about things and books in new, fresh, different ways. Which is fabulous! Even if it doesn't change my mind about certain books or genres, I LOVE reading why another person perceived a book in a different way. Blogging has really been an eye-opener for me.

*I am sure everyone has said this, but I have come to know some AMAZING people through book blogging. I don't really do twitter (I try, but like I was with MSN, I'm just bad at it - I don't have the patience), so I feel sometimes as if I'm not as much a part of the "community" as other bloggers seem to be, but I feel like I've started to get to know some AMAZING people with some AMAZING blogs, such as Becky from The Bookette, Charlotte from The Book on the Hill, and Simcha from SFF Chat. They are awesome, and I really hope to someday meet them all!

*And then there are the amazing bloggers that I have come to love, despite not really getting to know them at all. Their blogs (like those of the people above) inspire me and give me new ideas and new food for thought. Blogs like BOOKLUST, Good Books and Wine, and The New Dork Review of Books. There are tons more, of course, and I'm sorry to not give a shout out to you all.

*I have discovered SO MANY amazing books through blogging! I have rediscovered a love of YA, but I've also found myself discovering new genres which I previously knew very little about. I love it when bloggers recommend obscure books that end up being amazing.

*Adele said this one, and I have to agree with her: LISTS! I love lists, and I feel like bloggers, as a community, make the BEST lists. Lists of the top 100 ya novels, of the most obscure books, and the best historical fiction, etc. . .

Okay, I am sure that I could really go on forever, but I'll stop here. Suffice it to say, I appreciate blogging and bloggers more than I could have ever imagined I would when I first started blogging (especially since I've never previously been particularly GOOD at being on the internet. I suck at sending e-mails, I can't do twitter, I can't do online chat; I just get so antsy! But I can blog, and I can peruse other blogs! It's amazing!). It and you (bloggers!) have opened my eyes and given me new perspective and new loves!

THANK YOU!

Waiting on Wednesday (6)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.



Basically, I pick a book I'm excited about that's coming out sometime soon.

Waiting on Wednesday two whole weeks in a row! I guess there are lots of upcoming books I'm excited about, what can I say? This week's pick is:


Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

Publication Date: August 10, 2010
Publisher:Random House

“It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.” Who needs a summary when you have this blurb? It's enough to make me wish I could run out and buy the book right now! But because I'm nice, I'll give you the summary as well.

Summary: In Let’s Take the Long Walk Home, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell has written a powerful and moving memoir about her coming-of-age in mid-life, and her extraordinary friendship with the author of Drinking: A Love Story, Caroline Knapp—fellow writers, AA members, dog lovers, and observers of life.

In her younger years, Caldwell defined herself by rebellion and independence, a passion for books, and an aversion to intimacy and a distrust of others. Then while living in Cambridge in her early 1940s, “an age when the view from the hill can be clear and poignant both,” Caldwell adopts a rambunctious puppy named Clementine. On one of their bucolic walks, she meets Caroline and her dog, Lucille, and both women’s lives change forever.

Though they are more different than alike, these two fiercely private, independent women quickly relax into a friendship more profound than either of them expected, a friendship that will thrive on their shared secrets, including parallel struggles with alcoholism and loneliness. They grow increasingly inseparable until, in 2003, Caroline is diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Caldwell writes: “It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.”

In her signature exquisite prose, Caldwell mines the deepest levels of devotion and grief in this wise and affecting account about losing her best friend. Let’s Take the Long Way Home is also a celebration of life and all the little moments worth cherishing—and affirms why Gail Caldwell is rightly praised as one of our bravest and most honest literary voices.

Review: Tokyo Fiancee by Amelie Nothomb

Title: Tokyo Fiancee

Author: Amelie Nothomb

Rating:

Who Should Read It? People interested in French or Japanese culture that are able to get past ridiculously horrible protagonists. Or those that have read and enjoyed Amelie Nothomb's other works.

What I Have to Say:
Amelie Nothomb is some weird mixture of French and Belgian and Japanese that I still don't quite understand. And my attempts at understanding left me occasionally confused. Despite each of her works being separated memoirs, each of which can supposedly be read not in conjunction with the others, I feel like, if I wanted to better understand this book, I should have read some of her other works, which she constantly referenced, first. She seemed to just assume, in any case, that I knew all of these things about her that I didn't know.

This would have been okay, except that her simplistic writing style was, in a weird way, captivating, and it left me feeling exceedingly curious. I WANTED to know more about her. Her story of living in Japan and her relationship with a somewhat eccentric Japanese man (well, eccentric, from what I know, for a Japanese man) was fascinating. I loved Amelie and Rinri together; I loved the way their relationship advanced in what she described as a "typical Japanese fashion." I really felt like I understood what it would be like for a westerner to date a Japanese man in Japan. I also loved the brief glimpse I got of what it must be like for a Westerner to live in Japan, and I can only hope that my stay here will be as full of exciting things as hers was.

Unfortunately, my love of all of these things left me absolutely HATING her by the end of the book. Hating her for the type of person she is and some of the things she did. Funny story: the day after I finished this book, I met up with a friend at a cafe in Paris, and I just do happened to end up at a table RIGHT NEXT TO Amelie Nothomb. And it was very difficult to me to conceal my disgust with her. I literally had to stop myself from getting up and asking her "HOW DARE YOU!" or telling her how disgusted I felt with her after reading her book. She was so egotistical, spoiled, ridiculous, and self-centered that it was a wonder anyone could manage to fall in love with her.

It was therefore hard for me to enjoy the book as a whole, even though the writing style was quite lovely and some of the content was brilliant and extraordinarily honest. Because I sort of hated her, the protagonist. And yet it was at the same time compelling enough that I want to go back and read her previous works. To give her the opportunity to redeem herself in my eyes.

Summary: A darling of the French literary scene, Nothomb delivers a complex story of first love set in late 1980s and early 90s Tokyo. Amélie is a 21-year-old Belgian student studying Japanese in Tokyo when she begins tutoring Rinri, a sweet, shy and wealthy 20-year-old, in French. The relationship quickly evolves into a friendship and, soon after that, into romance. Rinri is a young soul who is easily swept up in his love for Amélie, and his charm is undeniable as he courts her, but Amélie wrestles with the classic situation: she loves spending time with Rinri, but she doesnt love him, and she cannot deny her need for independence. Nothomb thankfully forgoes the standard approach to passion and unrequited love, leading the reader to hope the adorable couple dont get married and instead find their own separate happiness. Nicely told, intimate and honest, the book depicts perfectly a nontraditional romance.

Cover Story: I've put the French cover here because I actually read this book in French. The French title, Ni d'Adam, Ni d'Eve, translated From neither Adam nor Eve, does not, in my opinion, fit this book at all. The American title suits it much better. As does the American cover. I absolutely adore the French cover, but it has nothing to do with the book. There is nothing in this book that even remotely lives up to the coolness of the cover.

Review: Define Normal by Julie Ann Peters

Title: Define Normal

Author: Julie Ann Peters

Rating:

Who Should Read It? This is a great, important read for all teenagers and junior high/high school students. It's appeal is so wide spread, though, that I think that most adults (especially those who had geeky, awkward, difficult teen moments) will also enjoy it.

What I Have to Say:
This book was GOOD and, dare I say, important. When Jazz and Antonia fime themselves in peer counseling together, Antonia is annoyed. On the surface, they are two people that couldn't be more different: Jazz with her "punk" looks and her richer, over-present parents; Antonia (or Tone, as we come to know her) with her prissy looks, her lack of a Dad, and her sick mom. As they develop relationship through their peer counseling, though, we begin to learn that these two girls might have more in common than what the surface shows; more than that, they might have more to offer each other than one could ever imagine.

The bond formed between Tone and Jazz is fresh and unexpected (not that they form a bond, but the bond itself), and it teaches us that there is more to most things than meets the eye; we should never judge anything (including a person) by what we see on the surface. As hard as we try, this is a lesson that so many people have trouble learning, especially in junior high and high school. I wish some of my peers could have read this book when I was in junior high or high school. More than that, I wish I could have read this book. Jazz reminded me of a more slightly extroverted version of my high school self, and I think seeing the way she dealt with her struggles might have helped me immensely. And while her problem's and Tone's problems were different from my problems, they were all, in a sense, everyone's problems.

This book was edgy and somewhat gritty, and Peters dug right down into the heart of the matter, creating a fierce, intense story that wasn't so fierce or intense that it would be too much for a younger YA reader. Her story is believable, and I'm sure most readers will find a little bit of themselves in Tone and Jazz. So much so that it's almost impossible not to spend the whole book hoping for them and believing in them. And that's what makes this book important. The reader, even if for just a moment, is required to take a step back and stop subconsciously judging the world around them based on superficial things like image. In high school, that is big.

More than that, this books is such an enjoyable read that once you start, you won't want to put it down until you are done. "Define Normal" will make you realize just how unimportant the word normal really is.

Summary: Antonia is a "priss," Jazz is a "punk." Antonia belongs to the math club. Jazz hangs out at the tattoo parlor. Antonia's parents are divorced and her mother struggles to pay the rent. Jazz is from a traditional family and lives in a mansion with a pool. But when these two very different girls find themselves facing each other in a peer-counseling program, they discover they have some surprising things in common. Alternately hilarious and heart-wrenching, this is an absorbing read that will keep audiences thinking and laughing.

Cover Story: While I imagined these two girls VERY differently than the cover portrays them, I still think this cover is quite nice. It's plain and simple and yet strangely compelling.

Doing the Blog-Hop (1)

So this week, I had a little bit of free time for the first time in ages, and instead of catching up on some reading (oops, gulp!) or getting some back posts done for my blog, I decided to participate in the Book Blogger Hop!


It's hosted over at Crazy for Books, dna you can get all of the information here.

The gist of it is - you hop around the blogosphere and discover and support some new (to you) blogs.

I discovered some super cool ones, some of which are:

Tell Me a Story
Fragments of Life
Super Reader Girl's Book Reviews
Eclectic/Eccentric

If you head over via the hop, be sure to leave me a comment to let me know, and I'll head on over to your blog! :-)

Blog Tour Review: Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky

Title: Firefly Rain

Author: Richard Dansky

Rating:

Who Should Read It? This is for people that like books that present things slowly and subtly. I think if you like Richard Dansky's other books, you'll enjoy this one. Also, if you enjoy some of Stephen King's more subtle stories, this could absolutely be for you! Even though I didn't LOVE it, I can see how some people might.

What I Have to Say:
Firefly Rain was an exciting, suspenseful ghost story that, for some reason, didn't sit well with me. I enjoyed reading it, but I didn't find it riveting or horrifying or spine-chilling or any of the other things I was expecting it to be.

Richard Dansky starts off by introducing us to Jacob Logan, who has just returned home to small-town Maryfield, North Carolina after a business failure in Boston. His parents have been dead for some time. And then he spends the entire first half of the book introducing us to Maryfield and letting us see that it really is a small-town. There were times when I actually thought "Okay, I get it, Maryfield's a small, closed town. Now what's going to happen?" Weirdish things occasionally happened, but nothing that couldn't be explained by the ordinary, nothing that I would have thought of as "paranormal."

The most interesting and intriguing thing about the first half of the book was Jacob's transformation. I think that, ultimately, Jacob was a very 2 dimensional character, never doing anything unexpected and never saying or doing things that really gave you the impression that you got to know him (until the very end that is). And yet, still, it was amazing to see how living in a small-town really did change what we knew of him. His actions and way of speaking slowly transformed from city man to country boy so subtly that the reader almost didn't even notice what was happening. That in and of itself made me realize that Dansky really does have some amazing writing talent.

In the second half of the book, things did pick up, and paranormal "ghost story" aspect became more and more evident. Dansky, over time, slowly gave the reader (and Jacob Logan) clues that would allow him to see the ghosts for what they were and to understand what was going on. It was fairly easy to figure out the identity of the ghosts, but I for one didn't REALLY understand what was going on until the very end. It wasn't frightening, and it didn't have me on the edge of my seat with bated breath, but I did find myself interested in knowing how all of the little clues were going to fit together. I tend to like it when things build up slowly, but I think the problem with this book was that things built up a little bit too slowly, and there wasn't enough imagery or character detail to keep me distracted.

My absolute LEAST favorite part of the book was Jacob's friend from Boston, Jenna. She was hard-headed, loud, over-bearing, and obnoxious, and it seemed like Jacob often thought so, too. This would have been okay, except that it was clear we were supposed to like her, and I just didn't. For this and several other reasons, I really didn't like the ending. And I think that a great ending is the only thing that could have made this book take a step up for me.

Luckily, the quality of writing was there to redeem this book. If it weren't for Dansky's beautiful descriptions of the southern town and its inhabitants, I don't think I would have enjoyed this in the end. It was just so right on, so southern, and, the people inhabiting the town were, for me, the creepiest part of the book. I also enjoyed the first person narration by Jacob Logan. As a small-towner moved to a big city, it was interesting to see things from the point of view of someone who did the exact same thing.

I'm therefore ultimately exactly in the middle of the fence about this book. I enjoyed reading it, and I read it quickly, but there were quite a few things about it I didn't like, and it didn't seem to be like the type of book it was supposed to be. I was expecting things from it and wanting things from it that it was just incapable of giving me, and I found it lacking in originality. Small town with scary secrets. I can see, though, how there are some that might absolutely ADORE this kind of book. It's, in a sense, a subtle paranormal mystery that you really do have the opportunity to solve for yourself.

Summary: A riveting supernatural mystery like you've never read before.

The prodigal son leaves the big city to return to his dearly departed parent's house in North Carolina only to find, now that he's home, that something is trying to make damn sure he stays there--even if it means burying him out back.

In a small town with dark secrets, one man struggles to find a way out before the spirit of the town can find a way in.

Marking the debut of our brand-new imprint dedicated to showcasing the best new voices in speculative fiction, Firefly Rain is one of the most chilling, unique ghost stories ever penned. Mystery lovers will devour the clues. Fantasy readers will be sucked in by the magical atmosphere. No one will be able to put it down--until the very last twist comes to light.

Cover Story: I'm not the hugest fan of this cover. I like the pretty covers, but there's something that seems childish about it, as opposed to creepy. The other cover, which I can't find an image of, which has a sort of twisty house, I think is amazing, and it fits the book perfectly!

Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review by Pocket Books.

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

I haven't done Waiting on Wednesday in AGES!, and I'm really not planning on making it a regular feature. But Wednesdays when there is a book that I am SUPER excited about, I will participate. So, logistics.
Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.



Basically, I pick a book I'm excited about that's coming out sometime soon.

This week, I'm SUPER excited about


My Name Is Memory by Anne Brashares
Publication Date: June, 2010
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Summary: Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. Daniel has "the memory", the ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he's previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. A love always too short.

Interwoven through Sophia and Daniel's unfolding present day relationship are glimpses of their expansive history together. From 552 Asia Minor to 1918 England and 1972 Virginia, the two souls share a long and sometimes torturous path of seeking each other time and time again. But just when young Sophia (now "Lucy" in the present) finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, to understand the true reason for the strength of their attraction, the mysterious force that has always torn them apart reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.

A magical, suspenseful, heartbreaking story of true love, My Name is Memory proves the power and endurance of a union that was meant to be.

I love Anne Brashares, and this one looks EXTRA fantastic!