Falling - Deine Lakaien, I'm Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran

In which I write my thoughts on Lauren Kate's Fallen, specifically the audio book:

Audio Length: 10 hours and 59 min.,

Release Date: 11/12/2009

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Format: Unabridged

** spoiler alert ** This book really surprised me with its plot and intrigue. I was afraid to pick it up after putting down Hush Hush because I couldn't take "yet another teen angst love triangle involving the Supernatural....AGAIN". I have a guilty pleasure for boarding school novels and this one does not disappoint. I do get a little disappointed at how much Luce loses herself in her infatuation for Daniel and how much she comes to depend on him. Frankly she becomes a fairly incompetent character who is left in the dark on most of the plot points, as is the reader. Lauren Kate definitely leaves the ending open to a trilogy and I now want to finish the series to see how it ends. And I know this is getting nit picky but fail on Lauren Kate's part for making the librarian a villain. I loved the secondary characters including Daniel's arch nemesis and the "dark to his light" so to speak, Cam, and Luce's fast friend who reminds me of a fairy raver friend of mine, Ariadne.
 
I do love when I catch mistakes in audio books, they always make me chuckle.I recall when I was listening to the audio book of Libba Bray's Rebel Angels I heard the author stop reading and say to herself how she was going to re-read the character's last sentence in a more convincing manner, i.e. less warbling. In the case of this audio book it was less obvious. The narrator has chosen one way to pronounce a character's name and then a few chapters later completely pronounced it in a different way...twice. 
 
The next book in the series is Torment, where Luce is transported to another boarding school where she learns more about her past lives and begins to distrust that her beloved, Daniel is telling her the whole truth.
 

I've had a good experience reading Maggie Stiefvater's "The Wolves of Mercy Falls" series. The love between Sam and Grace is loving without being too  lovesick. Their comfortableness with one another puts the reader at ease and makes them invested in their star crossed lovers plot. The two also read to each other in a corner bookstore loft, which to me is the ideal romantic situation. I may end up buying them. The visceral description of werewolves in winter makes it a good December read. I have yet to catch up with the final book, Forever.

 

Now that I'm on the subject, what's the deal with authors mass producing trilogy series? Are they following in the footsteps of author before them where a trilogy means not only an extended plot but more fans, more money, and more book tours? Or did they originally have a novel length story to tell that they just broke up into three books? The other series that I can't to finish is another supernatural love triangle involving Carrie Jones' pixies.
 
[images courtesy of goodreads]

Oh...and just for the heck of it, here are links to the songs referenced in the title:

For Falling - Deine Lakaien
For Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran

Very short post on Imagination land

I've always been curious about this since it's different for everyone, but I wanted to pose the question anyway:

How do you read?

Ok so that wasn't a very clear question, what I mean is how do you bring characters and events to life as you're reading a book with no pictures? For me I can describe the process as I'm playing that scene or that character's conversation in the space behind my eyelids (possibly my brain). One would wonder though how I can pay attention to moving pictures while simultaneously reading letter (R - L or L - R) across a page? I don't know. It's a myestery. So I ask again, how do you read?

Also, say a character is introduced into the book with a minimalistic description (gender or skin color). Do you impose a certain race or other descriptive qualities to the character? For example, I'm currently reading the middle book, Linger, in Maggie Stiefvater's Werewolf Sam & grace trilogy (preceded by Shiver). While the main character, Sam, has been described with moppy dark hair and golden eyes my mind immediately pictured him and Grace to be a matched pair of blondes and this is how they stayed.

Image courtesy of arockridgelife.wordpress.com

While some authors take time to introduce a character's attributes and description, some authors such as When you Reach Me 's Rebecca Stead and Virginia Euwer Wolff's Make Lemondae Trilogy only provide one attribute, such as skin color, or none at all to be purposefully ambiguous. As a result, readers may try to "place a race" on the character, either for imagination or for curiousity's sake. I know I've read that Wolff purposely left her main character's race to be ambiguous because she didn't want it to control the transformation of her character (minority rags to riches story, if that makes sense). Readers made inferences anyway based on such details in the book as geographic location, dialect, etc. How do you feel about this practice in young adult and children's books? Does assigning a race to a character ultimately bring up particular stereotypes embedded in the reader's brain, much as my mind takes control over how a character physically appears despite what the author writes?

In the School Library Journal blog, I found an article entited, "When You Reach Me: The Race Card" that touches more on this subject:

"JULIA’S AMBIGUOUS RACIAL IDENTY

Julia’s skin color is described, but she’s never labeled racially or ethnically. She could be African American, but she could be Indian or Asian, too. Or biracial. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a similar technique employed by Virginia Euwer Wolf in the MAKE LEMONADE trilogy. It allows the reader to impose an ethnicity or racial identity on the character. We would generally recognize this as a strength, but there’s also a trade-off. Isn’t there also a generic quality to the character? One writer told me that, for example, when you set a book in the South, everybody knows that it’s hot and humid. What she looks for are the details in the setting that reveal a native understanding of the region. What are the details that would escape the notice of the casual visitor? Apply this to Julia’s characterization. She’s universal, but not very specific. Again, this is not a weakness of the book, generally speaking or in terms of the Newbery criteria, but it still left me wishing for those extra skillfully woven details. Another slight note of dissatisfaction."

I guess a point to take away from this discussion is that steroetypes have the ability to be changed or destroyed. So if we're dealing in the realm of fiction and not fantasy (where races are optional and as changeable as a pair of jeans), perhaps we can take comfort in this fact that even the reader's stereotypes of particular characters can be changed through reading books such as Stead's and Wollf's.


Conclusion to the Vampire Saga: Vampires are Stalkers

I now present to you the last book I wrote about for my Young Adult Literature class back in the Summer of 2009. I began these posts back in August of 2010 and covered the various adolscent paradigms represented within young adult vampire literature (that ISN'T Twilight) published between 1991 and 1997. I'll relist them here.

Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. United States: Candlewick Press, 1997.

Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Shattered Mirror. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001.

Hauptman, Pete. Sweetblood. New York: Simon Pulse, 2003.

Marrona, Amanda. Uninvited. New York: Simon Pulse, 2007.

Rees, Douglas.Vampire High. New York: Delacorte Press, 2003.

Smith, L. J. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening. New York:  Harcourt Press, 1991.

Of these titles, Smith's The Vampire Diaries, Atwater-Rhodes, and Rees have continuing books or have created a series around the books. The Vampire Diaries wins hands down for being the most popular series and most promoted within streams of social media. This is amplified and aided by the revamp (ouch) of the series due to fan demand, in which L. J. created another trilogy of books called "The Return". From this stemmed the TV show, "The Vampire Diaries" which is currently in its second season. By far these aren't the worst titles you can find amongst vampire young adult literature today and they all make valid points about the mythology that are both varied and unique. Throw in  a few psychological aspects such as vampirism as an allegory for adolescence and puberty, and you have a way for teens to relate to the material. I hope that you add these to your reading lists or recommend more vampire literature novels that teens (or myself) might like. I leave you, just a week or so before Halloween, with the final installment of the paper, Uninvited, which tells the story of Jordan and her recently dead boyfriend, Michael Green, who begins to exude stalker-like tendencies from beyond the grave.

                          Marrone, Amanda. Uninvited. New York:  Simon Pulse, 2007.

Jordan’s boyfriend Michael Green is the greatest thing to ever happen to her. The most popular new boy in school not only relieves her social anxiety, but also makes her feel that she matters and is loved. Unfortunately, the prospect of facing the entire student body with Michael on her arm is too much pressure for Jordan to handle, and she breaks up with him. Shortly thereafter, Michael Green is found dead and is rumored to have committed suicide. As Jordan copes with this loss through alcohol and drugs, Michael begins appearing at her bedroom window every night begging to be let in so they can be reunited. As his visits become more frequent and intense Jordan begins to suspect that her ex-boyfriend is not dead, but undead.

Uninvited is the best example of the renegotiation of power developmental task. Michael’s visits demonstrate immense power over Jordan by confining her to her bedroom. Readers should recognize the signs of stalking and abuse through Michael’s behavior: keeping Jordan constantly afraid to see her friends, meet new people, or venture out after sunset. At first, instead of confronting Michael, Jordan abuses drugs and alcohol as a means of denial and escape. However, Marrone highlights Jordan’s small victories like keeping Michael outside her window and emphasizes her transformation from victim to heroine when Michael threatens her best friend, Lisa. Ultimately, Jordan is a flawed yet appealing protagonist since she overcomes Michael’s controlling behavior, becomes sober, creates healthy relationships, and moves on.

In Uninvited, vampirism is a metaphor for suicide as well as avoiding conflicts. Both Jordan and her friend Lisa consider using vampirism to escape their problems: Jordan’s lack of self-esteem and parental guidance via absent parents and Lisa’s diagnosis of lupus. Because of the various references to unsafe sex, drug and alcohol abuse, attempted suicide, and other serious issues this book is appropriate for high school readers.



ALA Day #1

I was very excited and anxious at the same time at the thought of attending my first professional conference for the American Librarian Association. I described it to friends who asked me what I was doing, "What's the ALA Conference?" It's where hundreds of librarians and awesome bibliophiles descend on DC to talk about books and wreak advocacy havoc. Well, maybe not that last part, but definitely a lot of cool and awe inspiring people converging into one place. A few people I spoke to said, "I hear those conference can get pretty crazy." This made me flash back to an invitation I'd received to go to the ALA Dance Party which was Prince themed. All I did was nod and smile in response. Unfortunately, I did not get to attend the Thursday, Friday, or Saturday events of the conference as I had agreed to be in a friend's wedding. This was also before I knew the dates of ALA and could not back out of the wedding as a result without causing offense. So as we begin, my launch date for the conference was Sunday, June 27th at 10:30 am.

I had planned on attending various events starting at 8 am. I was surprised with a visit from long time friends from Leesburg and that turned into late night conversations, bad science fiction, and chips and salsa until 2 in the morning. When I left the apartment at 8:30 am I made it into the conference, registered and breathlessly stumbled into my first event with the ALSC (Association of Library Services to Children), Celebrating the Spoken Word with Poetry for Young People, a program which discusses and sings the praises of using poetry to impact children and literacy. The speakers included Mary Ann Hoberman, Children's Poet Laureate; Stephen Young, Program Director, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest; Sylvia Vardell, Professor, Texas Woman's University, School of Library and Information Science. I recall the youngest speaker, Amber Rose Johnson, most vividly. She was the winner of the 2010 Poetry Out Loud Winner, and is a senior at at a high school in Providence, Rhode Island. The Recitation Contest involved the student picking and memorizing three poems of their choice and then delivering them in front of a panel of judges. I recall her second poem choice, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, in honor of her parents and Margaret Walker's For My People. She recited the last poem for us and to hear her speak moved the entire room into a stunned silence. It's almost as if we weren't listening to poetry but rather the dreams and hopes of a young black woman speaking of the struggles of African Americans over the past few centuries.

Some of my takeaways from this event about poetry were:

• "Rhymers will be readers" = Literacy --> Poems --> Children --> READ.
• We should be looking at what poems do and how they use language when using them with children.
• The best poetry informs all of our senses.
• Having kids read poetry along with you, even if they're ESL kids and can only focus on one word, is a great way to get them to participate and into poetry
• Children who have at least 4 nursery rhymes memorized will be reading at higher grade levels by the time they reach elementary school.
• As quoted by the Amber Johnson, "A poem is a reflection of you, who you are, a reflection of the author, and a reflection of yourself."

I was volunteering at this event for the ALSC and helped hand out handouts (which disappeared faster than you can say, "Free food in the exhibit hall!") Once the handouts ran out I struck up a conversation with a woman volunteering at the event too, a librarian from Montgomery County. I was excited to find a kindred spirit and proceeded to ask her question about working with children in library services. I was disappointed when I came to find that she's looking to change careers because, as she put it, "She's tired of working with children and tired of all the bureaucracy she has to put up with." She's not even a member of ALA she told me. I met with my friend Miranda after this who told me she couldn't stand how negative people were being and usually tuned them out when they spoke like this. I can't tell what my path as a librarian is going to put me through, but I hope not to come out of it jaded and worn.

I accompanied this librarian into the overwhelmingly crowded exhibit hall where we proceeded to chat. I told her I'd ran into the same man 4 times on the metro and throughout my morning at the conference:
"Have you played 'Cite the Librarian' Game?", she asked me.
"What's that?", I asked.
She replied, "Where you look at someone and ask yourself if they're a librarian or not."
"He definitely doesn't look like a librarian," I said.
"You don't look like a librarian either," she retorted.

This comment actually stung to hear. Especially when it was followed by one of the vendors asking me what high school I was from. My attire didn't make me look that young I hope. I had my hair down and undone so that may have been why. My confidence was boosted by a homeless man later on the metro who asked me if I was a librarian or a teacher. He loved us so much, he said, that he eventually wanted to marry a librarian.

Once the librarian and I parted ways on the exhibit floor I spent the rest of the day picking up swag and running into Laurie Halse Andersen, famous young adult author of Speak, Wintergirls, Twisted, Prom, and Chains. I ran into her at her mini Q&A at the Live at your Library Stage. She read an excerpt from her new book Forge which is a continuation of the storyline from Chains following a pair of young African American teens during the Revolutionary War. I clapped softly after her reading and she whipped her head around to me and said, "Don't clap! It's only the prologue. You don't know if the rest is going to be good or if it will suck." She was smiling when she said this though. A very humble writer, Laurie also shared that, "These books are not copy-edited, please don't hate me. I really don't know where commas go." As a gift to herself she has promised that once she finishes her three books surrounding this topic she will read M. T. Anderson's (no relation) similar books beginning with, The Astonishing Life of Ocatavian Nothing.

Laurie tweeted a photo of us at her reading. See if you can find me! It's hard, trust me!

After Laurie's Q&A I spent a lot of time wandering the exhibit hall where I picked up various amounts of swag. I will detail everything I picked up later in Day 3 but suffice to say I scored a gem finding a recorded book narrated by James Marsters for FREE! I also visited Alliance Entertainment booth who were GIVING AWAY FREE CDs and cleaned them out. I think I walked away with maybe 10 or 12 CDs total of popular and eclectic music. Best find ever was Massive Attack's latest album.

My second volunteer program for ALSC was called "Good Comics for Kids" which was a panel of librarians, most of whom were dressed in steampunk attire, recommending good graphic novels for kids up to middle school. I met Erin Burns here, a library associate from DC Public Library, and she gave me insightful advice on how to survive searching for a job. She had been unemployed for 8 months having being laid off from a position that hired her for not having an MLS and then let her go for the same reason. Her best piece of advice was to have a support group whether it be religious, family, or friends. Have a network of people to bring you back up when you're feeling low and discouraged. Also, have an activity that gets you out of house and prevents you from getting overwhelmed. She described a program that combined dance, improvisational theatre, and a third element that sounded very fun.

My third and final commitment for ALSC was volunteering for the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet at the Renaissance Hotel near Dupont Circle. On my way to the hotel I ran into my friend Miranda, a fellow grad student from UMD, on the bus. She's currently living in Rochester, NY and came down for the conference since a friend was letting her use his apartment to stay in (fairly sweet deal) while he was away on business. We talked shop on the bus about life after grad school, job searching, and living in general. She hung out with me on my volunteer stint, which involved guarding the doors to the banquet hall to prevent anyone from coming in early. Thankfully there was a reception across the hall we could usher them into to get distracted with wine and talk. Around 6:48 when the doors were supposed to be open, the librarians in line were definitely getting cranky and I had flashbacks of working special events for Parking Services at JMU. While waiting and watching people walk by I looked to my life and saw Laurie Halse Andersen in a stunning floor length blue and green gown, very faithful to her organic lifestyle. I was shocked at seeing her there. I had tried asking her a question at her book signing but didn't get the chance (I was very very shy). Not so here when the first words out of my mouth were, "MISS ANDERSEN!" She looked at me in surprise, walked over and said, "First of all, call me Laurie." From there her entourage went to look for something and that left me speaking with her for 10-15 minutes about her books, the movies her books were turned into, the possibility of Wintergirls being optioned for a film (probably not), raising her chickens, her writing cottage, her writing style, and how much her books impacted me and my friend Sarah and our high school book club. Laurie smiled and was very gracious throughout our conversation even stopping to hug me twice before she left with her escorts. I was glad I was able to tell an author how much reading their books meant to me and to be completely honest about what I thought of them. Wintergirls was especially hard to get through. Laurie started a trend that most of the authors I would hear and speak to followed up on, giving their two cents about Twilight. Laurie herself said that she couldn't finish reading the books. In fact, she nearly threw one across the room. But her opinion was that if it got the kids reading then she had no complaints about the quality of the literature. Since Laurie's books deal a lot with girls' destructive relationships and the boys involved in them, we compared Bella and Edward to Laurie's characters. I told her how most girls could see themselves in Bella not because she was a relatable character, but because she was a tabula rasa with unrealistic expectations for a relationship and absolutely no sense of self or self-worth. At any rate, Laurie hugged me goodbye and left for the banquet and I was left with a very good end to my evening and my first day at ALA Annual 2010.

 Newbery/Caldecott Banquet. Snazzy fest with dinner!

Recent Read

Having been an avid fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Series I never hesitated to pick up and read her newest installments even in spite of the fact that I believe the series is taking a serious downturn by becoming more involved in metaphysical relations with several men at once and less on Anita's abilities to function independently as a necromancer. That aside I picked up Flirt at 11:30 pm and by 1 am I was finished. Laurell definitely has a gift for storytelling in that it's nearly impossible to stop reading her books because you're so eager to see what happens next.

The best part about Flirt wasn't the story, although that was good too. The best part was the after notes where Laurell explains not only her writing process for the entire book (why she stopped writing Divine Misdemeanors to bang this one out, what music she listened to, etc), but she also gives the inspiration for the story and the names of everyone involved. According to her Flirt was inspired by one scene which took place in real life while she and her husband, Jonathan, were visiting with THE Jennie Breeden, creator of the web comic "The Devil's Panties", and her husband. The four of them were at a restaurant and Jennie's husband accidentally began flirting with the waiter, which made Laurell wants to find out if the waiter responded to women as well. The result was a funny series of strips in the Devil's Panties web-comic as well as a familiar scene unfolding within Flirt. In the web-comic, Laurell makes a joke about putting the scene in one of the books. To see this amount of intimacy where a writer exposes part of her writing process and inspiration to the reader makes the reader really feel as if he/she is part of the author's world if only for a few minutes, as they recall their own misadventures in flirting.


On a bit of a downside, I did finally finish the loosely based trilogy penned by Lois Lowry: The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger. I have to say I was wholly disappointed with the final installment, especially with the ending. There were some loose ends tied up and some left untied. The narration did not seem to flow as well as the previous two books and I felt less invested in the characters and more interested in where the plot twist would be appearing. You're left disappointed. Stop at Gathering Blue and you'll get a good sense of fulfillment if not closure.

Famous Authors

I've been lucky enough to meet quite a few famous authors in the children's, young adults, and adult circuits. Some of them were brief and resulted in an autograph or a photograph, and others lead to long lectures and advice in the field. The latter was thanks to Maria Salvadore's classes where she invited colleagues of hers as guest lecturers.

Children's Authors
Mo Willems - Autographed my copy of "Don't Let the Pigeon drive the bus"
Rosalyn Schanzer - Author of "What Darwin Saw"
Susan Stockdate - Illustrator of "Fabulous Fishes"
Katie Meizner - Author of "Going Places with Children in Washington, DC"
Jean Gralley - Author of "The Moon came down on Milk Street"

Young Adult Authors
M. T. Anderson - Autographed my copy of "Feed"

Adult
Jodi Picoult - She autographed my copy of "My Sister's Keeper" and took a photograph with me.

I really hope to meet more YA and children's authors like Julie Andrews, Louise Rennison, John Green and Sarah Dessen, whom I really admire. But this list is definitely a good start.

Famous Authors

I can remember a few famous authors that I've met this year and year's past. A lot of names I keep seeing over and over again as they were guest lecturers in my classes with Maria Salvadore and also very active on the children's author circuit. Other encounters were just that, encounters. I also missed a few big chances to meet authors I was really interested in, like Sarah Dessen. So hopefully I'll become better with that.

Fred Bowen - Guest Lecturer, writes sports fiction for children
Jodi Picoult - Got a picture with her, she autographed my copy of "My Sister's Keeper"
Mo Willems - Autographed my copy of "Don't Let the Chicken Drive the Bus"
M. T. Anderson - Autographed my copy of "Feed".
Roz Schanzer - Author of "What Darwin Saw"
Kathie - Meizner - Author of "Going Places with Children in Washington, DC", Guest Lecturer
Susan Stockdale - Illustrator, "Fabulous Fishes"
Jean Gralley
and that's just to name a few.