Entry tags:

books, lists are my favorite, literary adventures, ya literature is fucking awesome

For finishing Northanger Abbey (ahead of schedule even! and I liked it!) I am rewarding myself with a nerdy book post.

Kelly has been hinting around a project for awhile. I was curious but I have been so swamped in every other aspect of my life I didn't want to sign up for things I couldn't finish. Well, the secret project is revealed and man, I was disappointed I didn't do it (but then again I also don't use LibraryThing errr at all, whoops). Then Nymeth posted with her entry, so well! I had to, ha ha. It's like she's adopted a sheep. A loud, mouthy, obnoxious sheep. Sorry, Nymeth. ;)

Anyway, so I sat down to think about YA titles I wish more people read. In the end, my list isn't very obscure, but it's true that for the last little while I haven't focused in particular on YA. I've branched out and by branched out I mean I stopped reading. >.> However, there are still a few I wish I saw covered more.

Dooley Takes the Fall by Nora McClintock: This is a neat little mystery, complete with protagonist with a checkered past, an unobtainable girl, and a really interesting father-son dynamic in a book where the main relationship isn't father-son. It's hard to find good mystery/suspense that doesn't want to bite your neck or eat your brains, so this was welcome. It has a sequel! I wants it.

Deadville by Ron Koertge: This book came out of nowhere and blindsided me. Honestly, I didn't expect to enjoy it when I started but I ended up finishing it, going, "hmm!", then picking it back up a few weeks later to read again. That rarely happens. It's a simple story; a girl the protagonist admires has an accident and falls into a coma. The past is raised! Suffering occurs, growth follows. Pretty standard, but the way it was done was just...pretty awesome in a very understated way.

Out of the Pocket Bill Konigsberg: Well! I am not surprised to find this on my list even though it's predicated on a extended metaphor. I am not kidding: this is the metaphor that keeps on giving. The title, the theme of the book, the various tensions: HELLO METAPHOR. I am really not sure how Konigsberg pulled it off without me wanting to take this metaphor back to his house, ring the bell, and go, "Hi! Your metaphor was too tired to walk home after it starred in your book, did my laundry, changed my trash, scrubbed all my floors, and gave me a hearty back rub. I thought I would help it home so you could put it out of its misery." Also, football: not my strongest point. I walked away from this book knowing ONE THING about the game, and SURPRISE it deals with the metaphor!

Hahaha, but the relationships here got me, ahhhh foolish kids and trust. Trust is so hard. You fall down how many times before you get it right? I think I fell all the way to 24 before I managed it and I still fuck up constantly. This book is excellent regardless of the football (although football is fine I am just football dense) and I wish more people would read it! BOYS KISSING. There's not that much but that's why fanfic was invented, okay?

The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-ucci: Speaking of things I need to write really, really gay fanfic for: THIS BOOK! I do not know how to sum this book up, honestly. I mean, I could say it was a search, a quest story, or a loss story, or a story about class, but that doesn't do it justice. What will do it justice? I am so glad you asked! A CAT MACRO:



Yeah, that sums it up. Of course, it kind of also spoils the ending because we all know how hard it is to find Jesus without the help of snarky cat macros, and the author shows the entire hand at the end, anyway, but HEY: gay gay fanfiction! That heals all wounds.

Things I thought I would never put in a post together: Jesus and gay fanfic. \o/

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger: Is it unfair to include this book? It did win Nerds Heart YA 2009, after all, but I still rarely see people reading and reviewing it (and of course by people I mean straight women who blog, because straight women who blog about books don't seem to blog much about the gay or the trans and this is a shame because it is awesome!). There are objections to this title, Chris nailed it for me when he was like "WHY IS THIS SO HAPPY OMG I NEED SOMETHING TERRIBLE TO HAPPEN TO MAKE IT REAL!" (disclaimer: dramatization). It's true; it is unflinchingly, over the top, with-no-shame-whatsoever the happiest book in the world. Ain't nothing but blue skies.

As a bonus, all the models on the paperback cover are men (and possibly the same man) which I find hilarious.

Now I have to go to bed and sleep for class, where I get to point out that John and Isabella Thorpe are douchebags.