Awesome young adult books
Wicked Lovely Melissa Marr
Ash has always been able to see faeries but has been taught not to let them know that. She’s always been in love with her friend Seth too, but his womanising ways have stopped her taking it any further. That is, until Keenan, the cursed Summer King decides that Ash is the one to break the curse and become the Summer Queen.
It’s a complicated story with a realistic reaction to being stalked and a genuinely intriguing Faerie court plot. I really enjoyed the mystery of it and had to stop myself from skipping to the end to find out what happens. Plus Ash was awesome and I loved the boys too. This is part of a series but each book is intended to be stand alone.
A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray
I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. I actually gave up around page 100, I just wasn’t feeling it. Like Star pointed out, all the characters were just kind of horrible, and I found the story to be slow.
Before I Die Jenny Downham
Oh my Goodness. I nearly bought this to read on the plane to Raro but changed my mind because I thought it would be too sad. It’s about Tessa, who has terminal cancer and has made a list of things she wants to do before she dies. Number one is sex and out of the way rather fast, the rest of her list is a bit tougher. It’s an incredibly moving book, to say the least. It does make you want to seize life by the privates and live the hell out of it. It’s also very elegantly written. Check it out. It’s sad, but it’s also hopeful.
Twenty Boy Summer Sarah Ockler
This book is also about death, but it’s about the people who survive a terrible accident and have to deal with loss. Anna, her best friend Frankie and Frankie’s big brother Matt were inseparable, the three musketeers. Then Matt was killed in a car crash. One year on Frankie and Anna are going on holiday to the beach, determined to meet 20 boys, only Anna has been keeping something from Frankie.
The book started out kind of annoyingly, because of the flashbacks and forwards it was a little hard to follow. Once I got a handle on it though I really enjoyed it. Sarah Ockler’s really got a knack for making the over the top teenage emotions real and immediate.
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
The dead are coming back to life, and they’re attending high school. A very personal, small, story about the ‘living impaired’ students at high school. Centred around Goth girl Phoebe and her connection to the dead boy Tommy. Her best friends, Adam and Margi can’t quite unserstand it. There aren’t any big answers in this, no one knows why the dead are coming back, they don’t seem to be eating the living and we’re told that it’s only American teenagers that come back. The story is more concerned with prejudice, understanding and dealing with difficult emotions. I found it to be absorbing, interesting and hard to put down. Hopefully it’s the start of a series….
How to be Rich and Happy – beliefs
So, I’ve learned some more things while reading How to be Rich and Happy. Which is the whole point, obviously, so that’s good. It’s working!
(Disclaimer: I get money if you buy it through there. So you should totally do it.)
Beliefs of mine that need challenging:
I can’t make a living as a writer.
I’ll never succeed because it is too hard to get published.
I am going to run out of money because I have reduced my working hours.
I don’t deserve to be rich and happy.
Luckily, beliefs are changeable, it turns out. Which is a good thing, because I want very much to be a successful writer and to make money off it so I don’t have to work in a call centre. So, I am not thinking about those beliefs there, because they won’t help me succeed.
Instead I am focusing on beliefs that will help me get what I want, which should be obvious once you read the below:
I am a successful writer, I write great stuff that is marketable.
I deserve to succeed, I deserve to be Rich and Happy.
I can and will succeed, I just have to keep on working at it.
These are small things, little affirmations to repeat to myself. But I believe in the power of positive thinking, just look at all the stuff I achieved in the last year after all. Little things have contributed hugely to those successes. For example just 4 hours off a week has allowed me to write so much more. Updating my blog with a weekly TiLT list has kept me optimistic even on grumpy days.
So, if I ditch these beliefs that are holding me back I am confident that I can make more headway into achieving my dreams, and that’s what it’s all about.
More about my dreams, aka my Big Five for Life soon.
Awesome Young Adult books
These books were all borrowed from the library 
The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
I can’t explain how much this book affected me. It was so involving that I dreamed I was in it. It was so exciting I read three quarters of it in one day, and then I wanted to make love to it. I was a library book though, so I returned it instead.
Story wise it’s a post apocalyptic tale about a facist-ish society where the rulers keep the rest of the country down by forcing them to offer up one boy and one girl every year to battle to the death in an all access, compulsory viewing reality TV show. One kid survives and their district gets monetary and food rewards. Our hero, Katniss, volunteers for the Hunger Games to save her innocent little sister. The book follows the whole process, going to the capital city to get made over and the politics surrounding the games and then of course, the game itself.
It is good, check it out.
So Yesterday Scott Westerfeld
I want to be an innovator so bad. Some of the time I think I am one, and that makes me really happy, but some of the time I think I’m just a trendsetter or even an early adopter.
This book is about trends, and how trends are made, and how they are marketed. It’s also about copyright infringements, cultural terrorism and falling in love. It’s a classic Westerfeld actioner, really pacey and exciting, but maybe a little less out there than the Uglies or Peeps books.
Intensely Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
The latest in my beloved Alice series kind of left me thinking ‘meh’. I can’t quite put my finger on why. I’m wondering if its because Alice isn’t ringing very true as a nearly-18 year old. Or maybe it’s because I’m annoyed that she keeps coming back to the boy she dated when she was 10 years old.
Being Nikki Meg Cabot
The sequel to Airhead and what I’ve come to refer to as Meg Cabot does sci-fi. I found this one not as good as Airhead, I think because it was quite repetitive. There was a lot of Em agonising over whether or not she could ever be with her true love, and it got a little old. On the other hand, the story picked up a lot towards the end and it got very exciting.
I wished there was more of her actually doing modeling, but I guess that’s not what the book is really about.
Learning from Ender Wiggin
Every now and then I like to re-read certain books. I get a hankering to re-enter that world and enjoy that particular story. The books I get the craving for would all come in my top books ever, so to my mind, they are also incredibly well written with well developed characters that one can learn from.
Ender’s Game is one such novel, and while on the surface it may not appear that this sci-fi novel about intergalactic war and the brutality of children is something you can learn to be a better person from, I think there are lessons to be had.
Balance.
Ender is the third child, specifically allowed by government mandate to exist because of the promise of his two elder siblings. However, Peter is too violent, too manipulative and kind of evil, so he didn’t get into Battle School. Valentine, the middle child, is at the other end of the spectrum, she is too kind and sensitive to be able to cope with the rigors Battle School would demand. Ender is a balance of both of those personalities. He can see where his brother Peter goes too far, and has been a victim of his bullying, when Ender’s own actions stray too far into the ‘Peter-zone’ he is filled with remorse. Remorse of course, is something that he has learned from Valentine. Ender has learned that emotions can be useful, and are indeed essential in being a good person.
By balancing Peter’s determination to get things done and Valentines sensitivity to the human condition, Ender achieves a balance that makes him both likable and an efficient leader.
Watch and Learn
One of the reasons Ender is so awesome at pretty much everything he does is that he gives himself time to learn before he acts. This is most obviously shown when he watches the older boys play a video game for an hour, works out the tricks, works out how different strategies are used and then beats the best older boy 2 out of 3.
Ender also does this with difficult people, he watches how they behave with their friends and their enemies until he knows how they tick, then he can use whatever strategy will work to get them on his side.
Search for love
This one is a little more subtle, but its there. Ender commands others so easily because they find it so easy to love him. He treats people with respect, kindness and patience. Although the teachers are specifically ensuring that he will be isolated from his peers Ender makes friends. His first friend at Battle School, Alai started out as an enemy. Alai recognises Ender’s genius and the way he treats people with respect and opens the doors to friendship with him.
When Alai reveals that he is religious (which isn’t allowed) by whispering the word Salaam Ender doesn’t understand the word, but he understands the warmth of the gesture and keeps the moment secret to protect Alai.
At the heart of Ender’s despair there is always his love for his sister Valentine, which keeps him going. To say too much more about that would be spoiler central, but Ender knows that he is not his brother because of the strength of his love for his sister. Searching out and holding onto love like that makes Ender a great person.
Tied into all of the above, and perhaps the most important thing is Empathy. The reason why the adults hide the things they hide from Ender is that they know he has too much empathy to really destroy the enemy. He is able to think like his enemies, put himself into their frame of mind and act accordingly. As such, he is able to understand his enemies in ways that no one else can, and thus he can feel remorse and regret when his actions have been destructive.
Now, none of us are currently being pitted in simulated war games against a race of aliens (as far as I know, anyway), but empathy is well worth cultivating. If you can understand someone’s actions then you can relate to them and if you can relate to someone then you are closer to becoming friends and everyone needs friends.
Graphic Novels I’ve read lately
Little Vampire
By Joann Sfar
This is really a children’s book but it was in the adult graphic novel collection, I think because of the way it deals with vampires and death and monsters. But it’s really a kid’s book. It’s a collection of three stories about a little vampire, who lives in a haunted mansion with his mother and a bunch of ghosts and monsters. He gets lonely (despite his red flying dog) and decides to go to school. Only thing is, at night all the other kids aren’t at school. Through a series of notes he makes friends with one of the ‘day kids’ and they have adventures together in the night time. It was cute. I liked it and I would recommend it to horror fans, those dealing with bullies and fans of weird Gothic art.
Gray Horses
By Hope Larson
Not sure if this is autobiographical or not, but it’s the story of a French art student on an exchange at an American university. It was very short and gentle, mixing French language with English a little and exploring loneliness and culture. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t blow my mind. I would recommend this for pretentious art students.
To The Heart of the Storm
By Will Eisner
I’m a terrible comics geek. I had never read an Eisner comic before this one. Eisner is basically the father of graphic novels. He wrote The Spirit which is super famous comics-wise and was recently made into a terrible movie. Anyway, my education has begun. I read this account of Will’s early life living as a Jew in New York and Jersey, told in flashback as he heads out in the train to serve in World War 2. It was very moving and sad, the amount of prejudice back then and his father’s struggle to pursue painting but still support the family. There was exploration of how he encouraged Will to pursue art as well and how Will’s relationships with others were shaped by his faith. It was hard going sometimes, lots of nasty, difficult subject matter but very very good. An absorbing read and when I went back to the library I looked for more of his reprinted memoirs. I would recommend this to fans of autobiography, people who like reading about wars and dedicated comics geeks.
Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe
By Bryan Lee O’Malley
The Scott Pilgrim books are being made into a movie! Woop woop. In the mean time you should really read them. It’s a Canadian manga about a 23 year old slacker pursuing true love and trying to make it with his band. It’s fun and silly and cute and at the same time, quite a serious commentary on relationships. I love it to bits. This was the 5th installment and really moved the over all plot forward. As always it left me wanting more…hopefully the movie will do it justice. It’s hard to imagine Michael Cera in the title role, but I think he can probably do it. I would recommend this to you. You should totally go and read the whole Scott Pilgrim series, it’s great fun.
American Widow
by Alissa Torres
Oh autobiographical graphic novels, how I adore thee. This book is written by Alissa, whose husband died in the attack on the World Trade Centre. She was heavily pregnant at the time. Part biography of her husband, an illegal immigrant, part a document of how difficult it was to get the promised support and financial aid, the story is told in fragments, skipping around various aspects of her post 9/11 life. The disjointedness is jarring when you read it, but having finished it I think it makes it all that more accurate a description of her grief and the turmoil that she experienced. I cried. I felt lucky. I felt like I should appreciate everything that I have. It was awesome. I would recommend this to anyone who is curious.
Dracula
In my quest to read more classics I decided that Dracula was the next one to tackle. I kind of sort of read Dracula back in 2006 when there was a livejournal community uploading it in real time, with all the diary entries and letters posted according to the dates in the book. This means it was in a different order slightly to the book contents. In any case I couldn’t remember very much of it from then and when I read it again much of it was new to me.
Of all the classics I’ve read so far I think I enjoyed Dracula the most. It’s just such a good story, spooky and engrossing and populated with interesting characters. I guess they have to be classics for a reason, but I didn’t enjoy Wuthering Heights nearly so much.
One of the things I really enjoyed was the portrait of Jonathan and Mina Harker’s relationship. There is strain put on it by the events of the book, or should I say, the actions of the Count, but through it all they remain devoted to each other. Mina is in a lot of ways the stronger of the two, being much less likely to break down emotionally and more level headed when faced with difficulties. Jonathan is a man of action and his devotion to Mina is what gives him the determination to hunt and kill Dracula with the others.
There is a very moving scene when Mina is aware that she has the vampiric taint on her and could potentially turn, she asks all the men in turn to promise to kill her if she ever does turn. This is understandably very hard on Jonathan, but she tells him that he must do it and allow her that comfort, that she will not be allowed to live on as a monster but be put to rest by one who loves her. Although it pains him to do so, Jonathan promises this to her. It’s hard to explain now that I’ve put it down, but his desire to make her happy even in such a horrible situation overcomes his initial resistance. Maybe I should have just said that they keep writing about each other when they are apart and trying to take the strain off each other when they are together. That sounds much nicer doesn’t it?
I love the side characters, the weirdly accented workmen that the characters encounter. I like the chapter about the last voyage of The Demeter, I like the way the Count can be so many different forms, but can only change at certain times of day. I like the distinct three acts the book is divided into and I love the character of Lucy.
All in all, I’d definitely recommend it. It’s wonderful to see all the vampiric lore that became such common knowledge, and I think you’ll enjoy the way Van Hellsing talks. English is his second language you see.
Point of Fashion: Batman/Robin
Current Obsession: Cemeteries of London
For the curses to be broken
After work I went to Farmers to find a new handbag, and I found one that I really like on the outside, but it’s big and open inside and I suspect I will lose things. If it had dividers inside I would have bought it. As it is I am considering. It might just be too big. I don’t know.
I came home, had lunch and wrote my new book for about 40 minutes, then I had a nap and finished reading How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier which was very very good after a not-so-hot opening. Then I read the author’s bio and found out that she’s married to Scott Westerfield, whom I love.
While sun basking, I became inspired to wash the windows so I did that and then I went to see the Monet exhibition, which was well worth the 15 or so minute wait. His canvasses are so deep, the colours just glow. Pretty. Then I came back and read an email from a friend who is very far away and another email with a picture of my sister. I am now sad.
Since this is meant to be an update about writing let me tell you a little about the book I’m writing. It’s pretty much about me as an eight year old. I’ve changed some stuff, updated the family a little, but it’s pretty much me. My lead character has two obsessions: reading and movies. The first novel is introducing all the people in her life and has her joining a book club at her library. I don’t have a name for the book just yet, but it’s very influenced by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice books and Meg Cabot’s Allie Finkle ones. In homage I have called my lead character Amy.
As I said, this book is flowing out of me. I have already filled nearly a quarter of an A5 sized bird notebook from Kikki.K. The notebook is lovely to use, thick pages and a stiffer cover than the Japanese shop ones I usually use. However, I’m a bit out of practice writing longhand so fast so I have to take breaks for my sore hand.
Some neat links that came up today:
Eight writing tips from Flannery O’Connor at the Happiness Project.
6 things to do when you lack discipline.
I also really love this blog of portraits blog. So much awesome fashion.
PoF: Zim
CO: emo
Writing links and thoughts
Here’s a tricky one….How to write a query letter. I have massive amounts of difficulty with this aspect of writing for some reason. It’s like my Achilles Heel. Some good stuff in there for sure.
In terms of battling one’s inner critic, the copyblogger has some good sensible steps you can take to Be a better writer in 10 minutes.
Inspiration can be tough to come by, so here’s a list of 30 ways you can find inspiration. Actually, if you read the comments too then there’s way more than 30 on there. Definitely worth a look when you’re feeling less than onto it, writing wise.
New Zealand based writers should check out this short story competition run by the upcoming sci-fi con Au Contraire. I’m already thinking about what story I could write that would fit into the theme.
Reading wise, I really like this review of Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret on Jezebel. It kicks mine out of the park. Although I think I enjoyed re-reading it more than she did.
And finally, (and don’t click on this if you are easily offended by sex talk, bad writing or really bad writing about sex) you may have missed Frank’s comment on my inner critic post, and that would be a terrible pity. Please check out this awful romance novel writing.
Books I’ve read
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
It was awesome. I mean, it didn’t make you want to pick it up once you’d put it down because there was no plot, but I liked reading it. I liked the idea of the road trips, I missed them when I was finished. I will read it again some day. Plus, I like checking it off my list of classics read.
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I had this massive craving to read this story again and bought it for $10 at Borders. I love this story so much. It’s so sad, but the bravery of Sara makes it beautiful. I also love that she is a storyteller, I love the way she imagines and pretends and tries so hard to be a good person, even when she is starving. That’s the kind of princess I want to be.
I love this book to bits. I think I might read it again.
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
Told from two different points of view in alternate chapters, this is a pretty classic superhero story but told as a regular novel rather than a comic. The first point of view is Doctor Impossible, a super villain who is a bit like Lex Luthor if he was a mad scientist with some super powers. I pictured him as Neil Patrick Harris because of Dr Horrible. The other point of view is Fatale, an ordinary girl who was in a terrible accident and was rebuilt as a super powered cyborg. It was really fun and funny and the characters were interesting and engaging.
The Walking Dead: Volume 7 by Robert Kirkman
Man. These books just get more and more hardcore. I mean I knew it would go badly, because all the main characters were all like ‘oh, everything’s been so happy and peaceful and we’re all doing so well.’ And them BAM! huge scary cliffhanger ending. Plus there’s a nice line of grey going on about whether our heroes are really the good guys or not.
Now I’m reading Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear, which is a slightly overwritten modern fantasy about Faerie, mages, werewolves and a rather lovely kelpie. If by lovely I mean dark and evil and a bit sexy. It took a couple of chapters to warm up but I’m enjoying it now.
Weeeeeeekends rock
Ok so my weekend started out with dinner at Cha and then attending Regan’s play Play On! I liked it a very lot. Regan is impressively good at comedic acting, I enjoyed her performance very much and often found myself watching her over the other characters regardless of who is talking. This might be a bias though. The other actors were funny too and overall the show was very fun.
The premise is that a bunch of not-so-great actors are putting on a play but the playwright keeps adding new stuff and changing things. First act is a rehearsal, second act is dress rehearsal and third act is opening night. It was a little like watching a live, very long gag reel off a DVD extras menu. It was tempting to yell out the line prompts when you remembered them and it was very funny when people forgot their cues, etc.
I was at a table with my Lee (much easier to get him to come to something that itsn’t a musical), Svend, Star, Maggie, Nick and Sass. We had a lot of candy and sugary drinks so we got quite silly. If you’re on Facebook you will have already seen the photos of the various cups of things that we created, but I’ll put one in here for the non-FB-initiated. 
So, that was awesome fun and we stuck around and got to chat to the star herself, which was awesome as well.
Saturday morning I finished reading World War Z by Max Brooks which is a collection of oral histories of the Zombie apocolypse, 10 years after humans beat the zombies back. It was fan-freaking-tastic. If you have any interest in horror or history or wars I would recommend it. I am making Lee read it next, so that I can talk to him about it. The author is pretty equal opportunity, collecting stories from all over the world (nearly) and one guy who was on an international space station at the time of the war. New Zealand is mentioned in three sentences near the end, so that was fun.
Met up with Svend and C for brunch at SMK and got a bit of shopping done for my Armageddon costume.
Saturday night Lee and I brought a bucket of KFC and watched Speed racer on Blu-ray at Chelle and Jase’s house. Nothing beats a bucket of chicken, it’s just so high class. We were all giggling like little kids about it actually. I am impressed with HD TVs and Blu-ray now, I think Speed Racer was made for that format. I’m keen to watch some other movies that way, Cloverfield for one, but there’s not too much point in us buying or borrowing them until we get an HD projector, which is some ways in the future.
Today, Sunday, has been nice and lazy. Saw my mother in law, passed on the fabric and pattern for the jacket of my Armageddon costume, went to Spotlight and the library and had a very good hot cross bun at Bordeaux Bakery. As you can tell, I haven’t been eating hella healthy though, so my energy levels today are a bit crap. I did write a ten minute story, a couple of notebook pages of my current long-short-story and did some scrapbooking.
It’s a sunny and beautiful day, I’m feeling good. Especially because I only have a two day work week and then we’re off to Auckland! Now, to note down the names and locations of all the food places you guys have recommended to me.
PoF: Batgirl
CO: What’s for dinner.
