To Say Nothing of the Dog

After so much time spent reading young adult novels, I felt it was time for me to branch out a bit and try a book that was actually written for normal people who aren't suffering from debilitating cases of teen angst and hormonal crises. I polled some friends, and was told that To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis was a fun book that somehow managed to blend Victorian literature with time travel. I was initially a bit put off by the length of the book (a whopping 493 pages) compared to the fluffy teen fiction I've gotten used to, but once I bit the bullet and dove in I was glad that there was so much book to enjoy.

The novel follow Ed Henry, a time traveling historian from the mid 21st century who has been drafted into an assinine project to rebuild Coventry Cathedral with painstaking accuracy. His particular mission is to track down a historical artifact from the Cathedral known as the Bishop's Bird Stump, a breathtakingly hideous vase that went missing during the German blitz. Too much time travel quickly causes Ned to come down with a bad case of time lag, one of the first symptoms of which is "a tendency towards maudlin sentimentality, like an Irishman in his cups or a Victorian poet cold sober." Due to his time lag he becomes confused and forgetful, and suddenly finds himself being sent back to Victorian England on a mission that he doesn't know a thing about. As might be expected, hilarity and confusion ensue as Ned tries his best to figure out his mission, while at the same time avoiding disrupting the space-time continuum and accidentally destroying the universe.

The book reads like a mashup of P.G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams. It brilliantly captures the dry and restrained humor of Victorian satire, while weaving in just enough comic sci-fi to keep things fresh and interesting. The book doesn't look too hard at the mechanics of time travel, but it does play a lot with the unforseen consequences of small actions on larger historical events. To an extent this book is a comedy of errors, as Ned bumbles about England trying to accomplish his mission without offending Victorian sensibilities. The true humor and joy of the book, though, is in the characters themselves. Each character is a caricature of various literary stereotypes that are at once familiar and fun. Willis has such a strong mastery of her characterization, as well as of the generic conventions that she is parodying, that when her characters break with their traditional roles it is all the more surprising and delightful.

The writing flows well and is full of dry humor, apt litarary references, and enough wild speculation to keep any reader engaged and laughing throughout the novels considerable length. When I first heard of this book it was described as a novel that is perfect for Whovians (fans of Doctor Who) because it is a blend of Sci-Fi and history, with loads of British humor thrown in. I agree, but feel that this would apply to a much broader audience that the dear old Doctor. This is a book for anyone who loves literature, mystery, romance, or just wants to have a good laugh. Although the novel may not have engaged me much at an emotional level, the book completely delighted me from start to finish. It's probably the deepest book I've ever read that deserves to be called "light reading."

Score: 9/10
Read this book if: You like satire and parodies of either Sci-Fi or classic lit. Fans of P.G. Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, and Oscar Wilde will feel right at home. Also if you enjoy reading classic mystery novels or Victorian lit, and enjoy the occasional joke at the expense of the old literary masters.
Don't read this book if: You want a story that offers intense emotional engagement, will make you cry, or will change the way you look at the world. This is a great book, but it's just for fun.

Why We Broke Up

Why We Broke Up, by Daniel Handler (better known as Lemony Snickett) is a rather unusual but particularly interesting and delightful young adult novel about a relationship that is quite literally doomed from the start.

Basically the story is one big long letter written by the narrator, a girl named Min to her former boyfriend (and total tool) Ed. The letter supposedly accompanies a box wherein are housed a number of objects collected from the time the two were dating. In lieu of these objects the book is supplied with some very lovely illustrations of each, drawn by Maira Kalman. The presentation is unconventional and pleasing, and drew me into the story. Each chapter is accompanied by a relevant illustration, and the pictures essentially function as titles to the chapters.

The writing is quite good. I've read plenty of the Lemony Snickett books, and I can confidently say that this is nothing like them. In fact, I wouldn't have even guessed that the book was written by a British guy. It feels very American, and very young adult. It's clear that Handler has a really strong ability to adjust his writing for a particular audience and style, and I hope he continues publishing excellent stuff in several genres. The narrative style of the book is rather unconventional. It's epistolatory,  but one-sided. There's no actual exchange taking place. The narration is both first person and second person, which occasionally puts the reader in the role of the jerk ex-boyfriend. I rather liked that little trick, and I thought it was an effective way to engage the reader, and also to help the reader think about the issues complexly. I occasionally found myself trying to justify the actions of the ex-boyfriend, even though the guy was a major douche. I generally just love narrative trickery, though, so I enjoyed the style of the book.

I like that this book breaks with the general conventions of YA novels. Most YA books could be titled Why We Got Together, since they invariably involve love and romance at some level, and usually end when the two unlikely characters finally confess their love for each other! While this book has a bit of the same stuff, it only comprises a few chapters. Even these chapters aren't exactly gratifying, because the promise of a breakup looms over the entire book. This, in my opinion, is a very good thing. Too often YA lit seems to suggest that the solution to all of life's problems is a romantic relationship, or at least that once your problems are solved there will be some romance waiting for you. Anyone who is actually a human being realizes that this line of thinking is totally wrong. Life doesn't reward us with love at the end of every trial. In fact, often love itself is the trial. Handler approaches romance from this angle, and makes the inevitable breakup a moment of freedom, relief, and clarity. Why We Broke Up has joined Eleanor and Park as one of the only YA books that looks at romance realistically, making it a crucial addition to the body of YA lit. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Atwood: "Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It's like the tide going out, revealing whatever's been thrown away and sunk: broken bottles, old gloves, rusting pop cans, nibbled fishbodies, bones. This is the kind of thing you see if you sit in the darkness with open eyes, not knowing the future."

My favorite element of the book was the friendship between Min and her best friend Al. Although it is a boy/girl relationship, there's no romance there. It's so refreshing to read about a healthy male/female friendship that doesn't end in a makeout session. In fact, I think this book has possibly the most accurate and moving depiction of true friendship of any book I've yet read. It reminded me of some of my closest friendships, and therefore really resonated with me. It was a fairly small part of the story, but was vitally important to the overall themes of the book.

A few other quick notes. The novel is chock full of film references, and will therefore likely appeal to film fans (Min dreams of being a director, and often looks at her life as if it were a film). However, the one catch is that all the films being referenced are completely fake. This isn't a problem, though. Once I quit opening my IMDB app every time a film was referenced, I just began enjoying the descriptions of all these "classic" films. I think it was a genius move using fake films, because Handler could describe anything, make it as relevant to the novel as necessary, and he never had to tick off any diehard fans of old cinema in the process by misrepresenting well-loved films. Although the films referenced are fictional, the descriptions are true to the feel of old movies, and any film buff should enjoy the read regardless of the erroneous nature of the cinematic allusions.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It's longer than most YA lit, feels a bit more grownup, is a bit less sappy, and contains a healthy blend of the real and the whimsical. It's definitely worth reading if you're into YA lit.

Score: 8/10
Read this book if: You like YA lit but are a bit sick of the standard fare.
Don't read this book if: You are looking for some really deep literature, or something really light and fluffy. This book is neither, which is part of what makes it so unique and lovely.

P.S. While uploading the cover illustration I noticed that little silver seal signifying a Printz Honor Book. That puts the novel in the esteemed company of novels such as Looking for Alaska, The Book Thief, and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. I certainly feel the award was well-deserved!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

I honestly don't think I've ever read a book that David Levithan has had a hand in and genuinely loved. it. I generally find them reasonably entertaining, perhaps a bit too moody, and altogether forgettable. You would think I'd have learned my lesson by now, and yet I persist in reading his stuff. Here we have another fine example from the team that gave us Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. This time Rachel Cohn wrote Norah, and David Levithan wrote Nick. As I should have expected the book was nothing special. It kept me engaged while I was reading it, and has now been relegated to a box in the corner of my mind where I tend to store memories associated with visits to the DMV.

Nick and Norah is about two super-moody teenagers who have both been through rough breakups recently and find themselves partaking in a contrived five-minute relationship of total convenience, which of course stretches way past five minutes. The point of view switches from Nick to Norah and back again with each successive chapter, and while it's initially interesting seeing both perspectives the effect ultimately led to a sense of seasickness. I constantly felt that I needed to find my bearings within the minds of the narrators, and as a result I had a tough time finding any lasting engagement with them.

The plot itself is fairly straightforward, though I won't say much for the sake of avoiding spoilers. It was all very conventional young adult romance stuff, though, and nothing revolutionary. There were a few moments of real depth, particularly associated with Norah's past and her efforts to overcome it. The supporting characters ultimately provided the most depth and sincerity within the story, and I rejoiced any time Nick's gay friends showed up. Nothing makes for a good time in a work of young adult lit quite like gay friends! Unfortunately the supporting characters are just that: supporting. Their presence isn't consistent enough to pull the book out of the moody haze in which it primarily exists.

The novel's level of writing is fine for the genre. It's nothing extraordinary, but it also isn't distracting. The words are simply there to allow the story to exist. The words do their job without any fuss, and don't draw attention to themselves. My biggest complain with the book, however, is in fact a matter of language. The narrators are extremely foul-mouthed, and it seemed inappropriate and out of place. In a book for adults, wherein adults are having actual adult problems, I'm fine with some coarse language. But when it's a book about a couple of teenagers who are just worried about high school drama and romance, I don't think such crudeness is justified. It's as if the authors wanted to lend a sense of gravitas, but weren't able to create a story to justify it. Therefore they just threw in a bunch of profanity whenever they felt that the book needed to seem more mature. It didn't work for me, and I found it to be in bad taste.

Nick and Norah is a decently pleasant novel to read, but isn't one that will change my life. It was fun while it lasted, but now that it's over I'm kind of glad to be done with it. I suppose in that sense it's the perfect book for young adults, because that's exactly how I felt about adolescence as well. I'll tell you one thing, I sure wouldn't want to experience it again!

Score: 6/10
Read this book if: You have nothing better to do, and just want to kill a few hours with a book that won't leave much of an impression once you're done with it.
Don't read this book if: You have access to anything better.

P.S. For those who have seen the film, the two works are totally different. I'm guessing that the person who wrote the screenplay read the back of the cover, thought it was a fun idea, and ran with it. I thought the film, like the book, was fun in a sort of vacant way, but the two have almost nothing in common in terms of either plot of characterization.

Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins, is decidedly a girl book. That doesn't make it bad, of course, it's just something to be aware of. The novel is, structurally at least, pretty standard fare in the world of YA lit. It's about a teenage girl who is sent off to Paris to a boarding school to complete her senior year of high school. At first she is miserable about leaving her friends and a budding romance behind, but once she gets used to Paris she falls in love...and not just with the city.

What immediately impressed me about this book was the care with which it had been written. The plot evolved delicately, and the characters demonstrated marked growth throughout the novel. The writing wasn't sloppy or hasty, and it demonstrated a maturity and confidence on the part of the author that I found very refreshing. What's even more impressive is that Stephanie Perkins is, for all intents and purposes, an amateur writer. This book was birthed during NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Despite its rushed origins, however, the book is polished and complete. In fact, I believe the level of writing is superior to several of the books I've recently read by prominent authors, particularly Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. Though still unproven in many ways, I believe Stephanie Perkins has the raw talent and the attention to detail to become a truly excellent novelist.

My main problem with the novel is not the writing itself, but the plot. Though in the first portions of the novel the plot develops in a satisfying manner, complicating itself enough to stay interesting but not so much so as to become convoluted, it became overly simplistic as the novel reached its conclusion. Essentially things just sort of ran out of steam towards the end. It wasn't an unsatisfying novel, but the ending was rather predictable, and I felt it to be too conventional. Stephanie Perkins could have gone several different ways with the ending, but she just took the easy way out. This is fine, but is ultimately the reason that I think Anna and the French Kiss will remain a girl book rather than a book that a wider audience can enjoy. It was just a little too pleasing in the final analysis, and didn't demand enough of the reader or the characters to create lasting meaning. The novel's moral force fizzled in a wave of sentimentality. What's truly unfortunate here isn't that the ending was bad, it just wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be given how excellent the first half of the novel was.

On the whole this book is enjoyable, easy to read, and more carefully crafted than many other popular works of YA lit. It is, however, ultimately a fairly shallow book that demands little from its readers and offers little in return outside of a few hours of pleasant entertainment.

Score: 7/10
Read this book if: You like sappy romance stories, are enchanted by the romance of Paris, or are a teenage girl of any sort.
Don't read this book if: You are looking for a story that will take you on a meaningful emotional journey, or that demands a little work on your part to be fully enjoyed.

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

This novel is a bit of a strange bird in that it has not one, but two authors. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan collaborated to create this charming little work, and overall I think their union was a success.

The novel focuses on two teenagers, Dash and Lily, who both live in New York. Lily finds herself alone for the holidays, and decides to leave a red notebook with some cryptic instructions between two of her favorite novels at a local bookstore. The notebook is then retrieved by Dash, also a conveniently alone teenager, and the two kids begin swapping dares, sharing adventures, and getting to know one another through the notebook.

By having their interactions take place within the bounds of the notebook the novel offers an interesting twist on the conventional teen romance. Physical attraction and hormones play no part in Dash and Lily's friendship, and the two are able to arrive at a true meeting of minds and emotions that they are incapable of achieving with any of their friends in the physical universe. Their relationship has a sort of purity and honesty to it that is very refreshing for anyone accustomed to the typical romances found in novels of this sort. The friendship that springs up between Dash and Lily is aided by the strength of the two characters, who are well developed, unique, and interesting. The novel also features a fairly good cast of supporting characters. Though many of the secondary characters are a bit flat, there are a few (including a wonderful great-aunt and a chap named Boomer) who provide both excellent comic relief, and a degree of depth to the novel.

Because the novel was written collaboratively, with David Levithan writing Dash's portions and Rachel  Cohn writing Lily's, the two characters have their own voices, thoughts, and styles. This also means that the novel will likely be just as accessible for boys as for girls. However, the collaborative nature of the work is also probably this novel's greatest weakness. I'm not sure how collaborative novels are written, but there are points in the novel where it is clear that the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. David Levithan's writing tends to be faultless, if a bit bland. However, Rachel Cohn's writing revealed an alarming tendency towards poor editing and inconsistency. Although these problems generally just resulted in minor typos, they occasionally led to inconsistencies within the novel's plot itself. In a novel written by two well known and well respected authors, I consider such sloppiness absolutely unacceptable. That said, the story's plot and characters were sufficiently strong that I was willing to overlook the technical errors while reading the novel. However, now that I've finished the book I would be remiss to not at least mention that whoever edited this novel did a subpar job.

On the whole this novel is engaging, quick to read, and enjoyable. The strength of the novel rests primarily in the two main characters, who are well developed, likable individuals. The plot occasionally left me a bit incredulous, but I still found myself struggling to put the book down. It probably won't change your life, but if you're looking for a quick read that will give you a little food for thought, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares won't disappoint.

Score: 7/10
Read this book if: You believe in the magic of Christmas; like treasure hunts, riddles, and dares; or believe in the power of the printed word as a vehicle of truth, when appearances so often deceive.
Don't read this book if: You can't tolerate some sloppy copy editing, don't like cheesy romance, or are a purist for deep books.

Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances

I must have been getting nostalgic for winter when I picked up this little Christmas-centric piece authored by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. Though the three stories are loosely related, they are essentially independent of one another, and I will therefore review them separately below.

The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson
This was a fun, fluffy little piece about a girl whose train gets stuck in the worst blizzard in 50 years. She meets a boy, they become friends, and awkwardness/hilarity ensues. I liked this little story. It was fun, it had some real heartfelt moments, and it offered some keen commentary on the one-sided nature of many of our relationships. The writing is nothing to shout about, but it didn't get in the way of the story and was pretty transparent throughout. Although there were some moments that were pretty cheesy, this was an enjoyable little tale.

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green
This was probably my favorite piece in the collection, and not because it was written by John Green (who I have an avowed bias towards). This story is about three friends who are summoned to a Waffle House where await an entire train car full of cheerleaders who have become stranded due to the weather. What follows is a wild adventure as the three friends attempt to brave the storm in order to partake in the miracle of cheerleaders. Beneath the surface, however, is a story of loyalty, love, and friendship that will appeal to anyone who has been lucky enough to be a part of a group of friends who are wildly different, yet unfailingly loyal to one another. This story reminded me of high school, and gave me a renewed appreciation for the simple bonds of friendship that I've enjoyed over my life. It was a real pleasure to read.

The Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren Myracle
Her last name my be miraculous, but her writing is anything but. The final tale in this collection was easily my least favorite. It focuses on a pouty, self-centered girl who has recently broken up with the love of her life for really dumb reasons. The whole story is just her trying to justify her actions to herself and others, with everyone (reader included) just rolling their eyes and trying not to lash out at her. Not only is the narrator irritating, but the plot itself is cheesy and plodding. Although not exactly painful to read, this story certainly wasn't nearly as pleasant as its two companion tales.

On the whole Let it Snow is a fun, fluffy, and quick read. If you're interested in some holiday cheer, or just like the instant gratification of not one, but THREE romances crammed into one book, give it a try. If you're after a book with real literary merit, symbolism, character development, or complexity you'll want to look elsewhere.

Score: 6.5/10 (This would probably be 7.5 if the book didn't include The Patron Saint of Pigs).
Read this book if: You're nostalgic for Christmas, find the prospect of getting snowed-in romantic, or are just looking for some (extremely) fluffy entertainment.
Don't read this book if: You want to read a work of literature that actually has literary merit. This is escapist fluff fiction through and through.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Ah, the Cold War. Has there ever been any other historical event that has given us more excellent films and stories? I mean we've got The Hunt for Red October, Rocky IV, every James Bond film, as well as this little gem from John Le Carre. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the story of Alec Leamas, a field agent with British Intelligence who is asked to do one last mission before he "comes in from the cold." This story tells about that last mission in the divided city of Berlin. There's really not much to say about the book beyond that. It's a fun read, and pretty engaging. Unlike the James Bond books (which I haven't read, but so I've heard) this book tends to be more psychological than action-packed. It addresses the moral conflict and ambiguity that exists within the minds of the agents who sacrificed their own moral compass for the sake of a greater good. The novel explores these questions elegantly and with pathos, and by the end you really care about the characters. This book is considered one of the best spy novels ever written, and I can see why. It's not an action thriller, but it has all the twists and turns of a good mystery, and will keep you engaged and guessing clear to the end.

Score: 8/10
Read this book if: You want a quick, fun read that has more psychological action than actual explosions-and-guns action, or if you like the Cold War.
Don't read this book if: You want explosions-and-guns action, or aren't in the mood for light reading.