Love, or Something Like It--Valentine's Day Stories for the Teen-age

Happy Valentine's Day!

In the spirit of the holiday, I wanted to provide your brain with some oh-so-love-ly tales. All of the novels below are available at at least 1 library in the Cumberland County Library System. Some are tales of heartbreak, while others are tales of love conquering all.

[DISCLAIMER: I have not personally read every single title on this list and therefore am not explicitly endorsing them, however, from the descriptions in the catalog, they all sound just about right.]

An Abundance of Katherines / By John Green
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.

Blushing: Expressions of Love in Poems and Letters / compiled by Paul B. Janecsko
A critically acclaimed poet and anthologist collects the most poignant and moving musings about love from a diverse group of classic poets and writers, such as Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson.

Delirium / By Lauren Oliver
Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

Enthusiasm / by Polly Shulman
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.

Fallen in Love: A Fallen Novel in Stories / By Lauren Kate
A collection of four love stories featuring Shelby, Miles, and other characters from the Fallen series. (And if you're interested and haven't read them yet, read Fallen, Torment, and Passion before the final book in the series; Rapture, comes out this June.)

Hot Mess: Summer in the City / by Julie Kraut
To escape a bad breakup in Bridgefield, New York, almost-eighteen-year-old Emma takes a summer internship in New York City where she, her best friend, and their rich, sophisticated landlady face a series of dating disasters.

How They Met, and Other Stories / David Levithan
Eighteen stories all about love, all kinds of love. From the aching for the one you pine for, to standing up and speaking up for the one you love, to pure joy and happiness, these love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down.

Immortal: Love Stories with Bite / edited by P.C. Cast
Stories by popular young adult vampire and fantasy authors. Stories included are:
Haunted love / Cynthia Leitich Smith
Amber Smoke / Kristin Cast
Dead man stalking / Rachel Caine
Table manners / Tanith Lee
Blue moon / Richelle Mead
Changed / Nancy Holder
Binge / Rachel Vincent
Free / Claudia Gray.

Night Star / By Allyson Noel (Book #5 in the Immortals series)
Psychic teenagers Ever and Damen face down bitter rivals, jealous friends, and their own worst fears--all in hope of being together forever.

Son of the Mob / by Gordon Korman
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.

30 Days to Getting Over the Dork You Used to Call Your Boyfriend / by Clea Hantman
BEING DUMPED HURTS. But you know what? It happens to everyone. Even Gwyneth, even Cameron, even Madonna have been on the losing end of love. The part you might not believe is that no matter how brutally your heart’s been broken, those wounds will heal. But the longer you dwell on the dork, the longer your heart will remain cracked. Enter 30 Days to Getting Over the Dork You Used to Call Your Boyfriend. One day at a time, 30 days in a row. At the end, you’ll find you have the power to yank that dagger out of your chest, stand tall, walk proud, and move on. And along the way, you may just discover something marvelous and surprising about yourself.

Hannah Just Read: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

I would like to start by saying YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK. You will love it--guys, girls, anyone, really... you will like this book.
Sam (full name Samhain Corvus LaCroix) is a college dropout turned professional burger flipper at Seattle fast food joint Plumpy's. He hangs out with his friends, skateboards, and cracks jokes like any normal kid until the night that Douglas Montgomery walks into Plumpy's and recognizes Sam for what he is-- a fellow necromancer with the ability to raise the dead.
Douglas is less than thrilled that there is another necromancer in town, and now he's out to get rid of Sam, who has one week to figure out all this necromancer stuff with the help of his best friend, Ramon, a hottie female werewolf, a talking head, and his mom.
This book was all over the book blogs and lists screaming its praises since it was released in December, and for good reason. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride is hilarious and exciting, and I hope it is the start of a series or a trilogy or something, because I loved it and I want to read more. I liked, too that it sort of took all of the fantasy stuff that's going on in teen lit right now and turned it on its head, poking fun at it, but at the same time embracing it. It was like the book was one big inside joke and everyone is in on it. I will say, though, just an FYI, Sam and his friends are a little older, like 19 or 20, and they do stuff in the book that people who are a little older do, but read the book if you want to, because I doubt you'll be disappointed. Unless you're boring or have no sense of humor.

Incidentally, this is also my last blog post. Starting the 21st of March I'm going to be moving to Allentown to be the Youth Services Librarian at the Parkland Community Library, so if you're ever in the area, stop in to say hi! I've loved reviewing books on here, and I hope you have liked reading them!

Hannah Just Read: It's Kind of a Funny Story

As per the recommendation of one of our fabulous pages here at the library, I recently finished reading It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. The book is about Craig Gilner, who due to the huge pressures of his super fancy New York City high school, becomes clinically depressed. After a particular bad during which he plots to jump off of the Brooklyn Bridge, Craig checks himself into the hospital and is committed to the adult psychiatric ward.
As the book started I didn't know if I'd like it. The plot starts out pretty non-linearly--things jumped around a lot, but as I got more and more into the story I really started to appreciate Vizzini's humorous take on such a serious subject. There were parts in the book where I was thinking to myself, "should I be laughing at this, because it feels wrong, but it is also really really funny."
There were definitely some cringe-worthy moments, too, like when Craig calls the girl he likes and then she shows up at the hospital to visit. Ughh.
So I would very much recommend this book pretty much for anyone, even your parents, because I think Vizzini does a good job of showing what being fifteen is like, I mean, if you're clinically depressed and in a psychiatric hospital and you're really funny.

Oh! Also, I almost forgot, the book was made into a movie this year starring Emma Roberts and Zach Galifianakis. Here's the trailer:

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

This was another one of those "finally-got-around-to-this-one" books - Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It's the story of Arnold "Junior" spirit, a young native American who decides as a freshman, at the urging of one of his teachers, to attend school off the reservation where he lives, in order to get an education that would give me a chance at attending college. Junior is smart and a kid whose heart and intentions are good. On the negative side, he's scrawny, with a host of medical issues. He has a hard time fitting in anywhere, since many on the reservation consider him a traitor, but the white kids at his new school aren't real receptive to an Indian attending their school either. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes sad look at both the positive and negative sides of reservation life, and a realistic look at the struggles and successes of a young man that almost anyone could relate to. Highly recommended. Enjoy

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To

Finished D.C. Pierson's The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Needed To a few days ago. Honestly, I'm still deciding how I feel about this one. Darren, one of the main characters, is a relatively nerdy high school student who likes to draw. He pretty much keeps to himself, until another, even nerdier student, Eric, notices his drawings, asks serious questions about them, and doesn't make fun of Darren or the drawings. In fact they quickly discover a shared love of sci-fi, and soon are hanging out together, developing a full-scale series of movies, and books, based on their character and story ideas. Eventually Eric confides in Darren and tells him something about himself that he has kept quiet. He never sleeps. Never has. Ever. He doesn't get tired either, but Darren later sees the periodic, near-breakdowns, that Eric suffers as a result of never having the down brain time that everyone else does. Together, they start trying to test the limits and consequences of Eric's "ability." Along the way, a girl comes between them, and Darren breaks the confidence in retaliation. Suddenly big, mean men are looking for Eric in order to run tests on him. When Darren and Eric go on the run, Darren learns something even more fantastic about the extent of Eric's "ability" that makes it even more dangerous. Due to a bit of language, and some mature, though not really graphic content, this one is for high school, not middle school students. Generally, pretty funny, with some teenage angst, and sci-fi stuff thrown in as well. Enjoy!

What Mrs N's Been Reading - The Spectacular Now, Marcelo in the Real World, and Newes from the Dead

I have hit an all-time low. This is the first time that I've finished 3 books before I got around to posting my review on them. I've got a litany of excuses, but never mind. Let's just get to 'em.
The first was Tim Tharp's The Spectacular Now. The narrator is Sutter Keely, a high school senior and king of the party animals. He lives with his mom and step dad. His sister is the trophy wife of an older, incredibly snooty executive. His girlfriend, Cassidy, breaks up with him early in the book because she sees him as a lot of fun, but never serious, never considering anyone else's feelings (especially hers), and has no future. But this doesn't really slow down Sutter's partying. He goes from one good time to the next, always carrying his whiskey flask. One night he wakes up in the middle of a lawn with a girl looking down at him. Aimee is a socially awkward but really sweet girl. Sutter helps her with her predawn paper deliveries then devises a plan to go out with her a few times, as a good deed, to improve her social life. Of course, things don't go quite as planned. Sutter's voice is egotistical, but honest. You see him throwing his life away, but you also see his good intentions. There's no nice, neat sitcom ending here, but it's realistic. Not for middle schoolers due to heavy drinking and other adult situations.
Francisco Stark's Marcelo in the Real World, is the story of Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old boy with a high functioning form of Asperger's Syndrome. He has been going to a school for special needs students all of his life. He is looking forward to the job he has lined up for the summer working with the horses at his school, but his lawyer father has other plans for him. He wants Marcelo to work in the mail room of his law firm, and to attend a regular high school for his senior year. He thinks that Marcelo is better able to function in "the real world" than he thinks, and that experience in dealing with "the real world" will do him good. You see inside Marcelo's head as he struggles to cope with the noisy city streets, and the nuances of dealing with other people, that he finds incredibly difficult. Going from an entirely sheltered existence to dealing with the cast of characters in a cut-throat law firm is quite the culture shock, but he manages to handle most things. Then he is faced with a moral dilemma that could effect his entire family and his own future, as well as people he has never even met. Wonderfully written! Nothing really objectionable for older middle schoolers, but I think high school students will get more out of it.

Mary Hooper's Newes from the Dead starts with Anne Green waking up in absolute darkness, unable to move. As she tries to figure out if she is dead or alive, in heaven or hell or purgatory, she remembers that she had been hanged. In alternating chapters you see the story unfold from two points of view, Mary's as she describes the events leading up to her hanging, and that of Robert Matthews, an Oxford scholar who is witnessing the dissection of Mary's body along with several other doctors and medical students. This is based on actual events that occurred in England in 1650. Very compelling reading! Mary's story will keep you engrossed, and you will also get a look at the politics of the 1600's, as well as the medical procedures and theories of the time. At one point I was wondering how the things they were putting on Mary's body (turpentine, sheep dung, etc.) didn't take out half the other people in the room! Probably not for younger middle school students. Considering the subject matter, there's very little gore. But Mary was hanged for infanticide, believed to have killed her newborn baby, whose father is the grandson of the master of the house where Mary had worked as servant. That subject is handled as discreetly as possible, but it's still not for younger readers.
Enjoy!

What Mrs N's Been Reading - Spanking Shakespeare

Just finished Jake Wizner's Spanking Shakespeare. Not a favorite of mine, but will probably be enjoyed by older teens. It's the story of Shakespeare Shapiro's (Yes, that is his real name. Explains a few of his issues in life.) senior year of high school, at the start of which, he vows to finally get a life, get a girlfriend, and get into a good college. As a senior project, all students at his school must submit a memoir of their life. Shakespeare looks both forward and back in his life as he works on the memoir, and along the way learns a bit about himself and his family, and helps a fellow student get past some horrible things in her life. Some mature content, so not for middle schoolers.

What Mrs N's Been Reading - The Off Season

Just finished Catherine Gilbert Murdock's The Off Season. It's a sequel to Dairy Queen, which I hadn't read. Not having read the first had absolutely no effect on reading this one. It's about D.J., a high school junior who lives on a dairy farm in the midwest. D.J. narrates and it reads just like a friendly farm girl is sitting next to you telling you her story, like you're old friends. D.J. isn't the type of high school girl that books generally get written about. She has been a star basketball player, and is hoping for an athletic scholarship, because she's not going to get an academic one. She is also a starter on her high school football team, and a linebacker, no less! The book is about a month or 2 in D.J's life as her family faces a few crises, her love life is a roller coaster, she suffers an injury, and her best friend moves away after being thrown out of the house by her mother. I enjoyed it - mostly because I liked D.J., but also because, although you weren't really left hanging with any ofthe story lines at the end, you also didn't get an ending that was tied up in a pretty little bow with everything working out like a sitcom or a movie of the week. In other words, I thought it was pretty realistic. If you're a middle or high school girl, but not the girlie type that so many teen books seem to be written for, check this one out - you'll probably enjoy it.

What Mrs N's Been Reading - An Abundance of Katherines

Just finished John Green's An Abundance of Katherines. Wasn't too crazy about this one. I finished it, so it's not that it was bad, but it wasn't one that I was anxious to get back to between readings. It's the story of just-graduated, former child prodigy, Colin, and his slacker friend Hassan. Colin has only ever had girls named Katherine as a girlfriend. He has just been dumped by Katherine XIX, as he refers to her, and decides to go on a road trip to nowhere in particular with Hassan. They end up stopping in a tiny town in Tennessee. In an attempt to make his mark on the world, and fill the void left by Katherine XIX, Colin decides to try to mathematically model relationships, so that one could accurately predict the length of the relationship and who would be the dumper and dumpee. There's actually a fairly lengthy explanation of the math in the appendix. Because you're dealing with a child prodigy who is fluent in a number of languages, you learn a few good insults in languages that the people you hurl them at are unlikely to understand. There also some interesting bits of trivia in the footnotes, if you're into that sort of thing. I guess what knocked this book down a couple of points in my book, was that the author threw some mildly crude stuff in there, for no really good reason - just to try to be cool. Just because it seemed forced, it annoyed me. Otherwise, I think I would have liked this book more. All in all, not bad, just not on my list of favorites.