Something Strange and Deadly Book Club: Week Four

Hello again and welcome to the final week of the Something Strange & Deadly book club sponsored by Epic Reads. If you want to learn more about this fantastic book club dedicated to Susan Dennard's debut novel, click here.

This Week's Question: "'Eleanor, you have a choice,' [Jie] said softly. 'You always have a choice.'" (p. 166, Something Strange & Deadly)How do you think this quote relates to the overall theme of Something Strange and Deadly? Do you think Eleanor behaves as if she has a choice at the start of the book? What about at the end of the book? And do other characters behave as if they have a choice or do they see themselves as victims of circumstance?

What a question to end this book club on! Choice is a popular concept to explore in fiction for a reason, especially in the world of young adult literature. When people are young adults in their teens and early twenties, it's often the first time in their lives they are making important choices for themselves rather than always having others make them for them. This is absolutely true of Eleanor Fitt. As much as this story is about fighting zombies, it's a journey of making choices and being strong enough to stick with them. Eleanor doesn't behave as if she has a choice at the start of the novel because she's never had one before - these are uncharted waters for her. Over the course of the book, she thinks for herself, develops her own beliefs of good and bad and right and wrong, and by the end we see an empowered young woman who has made incredible sacrifices. Yet I don't feel sorry for her - instead I empathize with her because while she is making her choices, others are making their own. She makes a choice about who and what she wants, but so does Daniel and so do the other Spirit Hunters, and unfortunately they don't all make the same choice. It's heartbreaking and frustrating, but all things considered Eleanor handles it well. Her newfound ability to choose means she no longer has to conform to f that's not what she wants. And Miss Fitt chooses to own her name, which is an awesome sight to behold.

I had so much fun participating in this book club, so thanks to Susan Dennard for this great story and to Epic Reads for sponsoring this!

Wednesday Words: Book and a Beverage

The start of the school year continues to be insane, so not much reading has been happening lately (outside of my slow trek through The Fellowship of the Ring). However, I am excited to share that last week The Fuma Files was featured on The Book Addict's Guide, a fantastic YA blog run by the lovely Brittany, for her Book and a Beverage segment. I highly encourage you to check the post and her blog out - in it, I compare The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater and her character Ronan Lynch to drinking a Guinness =)

Click the link here!

Hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday!

Play On: This Song Will Save Your Life

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Farrar Straus Giroux - Expected Release Date: September, 2013

*ARC given by the publisher at ALA - Thank You!!*

All Elise ever wanted was friends. Even just one friend. Someone who she felt like she could talk to and was actually, really listening. It's why she spent the whole summer before her sophomore year trying to change herself so she'd be liked. Now almost a year after her plan and a suicide attempt failed, she might have found a way to the thing she's always wanted through unlikely means: by becoming the hottest new DJ at an underground club.

I can't remember where I heard about this book first, but I've wanted to get my hands on it ever since. Luck was on my side at ALA when the fabulous people at the FSG booth were kind enough to give me an ARC. My expectations were high, and this story blew away all my expectations.

Elise is a girl I can identify with in almost every way. She's been raised to believe that with hard work, with knowing who she is, she can accomplish anything. But that's not always true because there are so many things in this life we can't control like being the victim of bullying - sometimes it's blatant, other times it's more covert, but it always brings pain and leaves a scar. Music is her salvation and I loved how Sales started every chapter with song lyrics and so realistically showed how songs have a way of painting pictures, of bringing things together, of helping us make sense of our world or at least feel connected to someone else who knew exactly what we are feeling now when they wrote and recorded it sometimes years ago.

The protagonist is complex and confused and raw and honest and secondary characters fill out this story beautifully. It's a true to life portrayal of how people effect each other, how we don't always see or understand our own lives sometimes, and why we do things we know we shouldn't. The highs and lows and everything in between were sparkled with enough detail to give me an image, but never overwhelming.

If you love music, if you've ever wanted friends and felt alone, if you've ever worked hard and still feel like you're waiting for it to pay off, pick up a copy of This Song Will Save Your Life. I've already added Sales' other books to my Goodreads to-read list and can't wait to get more great stories from this talented writer.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Leila Sale's Website
Leila Sales on Twitter

Where's Your Bookmark? (31)

Talking about The Dream Thieves, the second book in Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. Thanks to Scholastic for giving me this ARC at ALA!

Wednesday Words: First Day of School

The title of this post pretty much says it all this time: today is the first day of school in my district. Great timing, too, because it wasn't until last week that I started asking myself "What day is it?"

With most of the hours of my day now being reclaimed by students, teachers, reference questions, lesson teaching, lesson planning, ordering, covering, labeling, Tweeting, book talking, drama club directing, speech judging, chaperoning, and new this year Tumblr-ing (literally just got approval to start a Tumblr for our school library yesterday and I'm so excited!), that means life is about to drastically change from my summer patterns of going to bed 'whenever', sleeping in until 8, and sometimes devoting entire days to curling up with a book.

With only 24 hours in a day, so much to do, and sleep being necessary to function, what happens to my reading time? It's cut down, sure, but I'm going to do my best this year to make sure it's not eliminated. My goal is to read for at least 15 minutes every day. It's not much. I'm currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time and 15 minutes sometimes isn't even enough to read one chapter, but it's something. Me in the morning with my coffee and a book. It's a great way to start each day, plus by not saving it for the evening, I can still collapse as soon as I walk in the door after a long day if I need to.

So here's to recreational reading, and if you're still in school/working in schools, the assigned reading too! I'd love to know what fantastic titles you are all reading in and out of the classroom - tell me here, on Twitter, or on Goodreads! And now, it's off to work I go.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Something Strange & Deadly Book Club: Week Three

Hello again and welcome to week two of the Something Strange & Deadly book club sponsored by Epic Reads. If you want to learn more about this fantastic book club dedicated to Susan Dennard's debut novel, click here.

This Week's Question: Eleanor finds herself more and more intrigued by (and perhaps attracted to) Daniel Sheridan, the inventor of the Spirit-Hunters. What is it about him that appeals to her? And vice versa, what do you think attracts Daniel to Eleanor? Then there's Clarence Wilcox, the seemingly perfect eligible bachelor. Why do you think Eleanor doesn't like Clarence?

Ah, now we jump into the juicy relationship dynamic! In her original post for these questions, Susan Dennard states that E.M. Forster's novel A Room With a View is one of her all-time favorites. I loved that book as well, and I can see a lot of parallels between that story and this one in terms of Eleanor's relationships with Daniel and Clarence.

I think one of the primary aspects of Daniel that appeals to Eleanor is that he's honest. Not to say he wears his heart on his sleeve or is always open about everything, but he never tries to be something he's not. He's not comfortable with a seemingly rich and good girl sticking her nose in his business and a dark world he's dedicated his life to fighting. He's the only person in Eleanor's life that treats her like she's normal. To her mother, she's a pawn. To Philadelphia society, she's the daughter of a disgrace. But with Daniel, he teases her, calls her Empress, tries to make her feel uncomfortable and at the same time shows her (however unwillingly) a place where she could have a chance to be more than a society girl. He pushes her, and she pushes back. This is key to why I think Daniel is attracted to Eleanor. She's feisty. She doesn't always listen, yet she always has good intentions. They're both vibrant people being muted by their respective situations and the expectations of society. They don't seem to like each other at first, but they do come to respect each other and from that, something more grows.

It's the opposite when examining Clarence Wilcox. Slimey from the start, Clarence is a creep with an agenda. He doesn't even hide it very well, at least not to Eleanor. While charm and a rich family are more than enough in the eyes of Mrs. Fitt, Eleanor sees not all the pieces fit together. Her smarts and ability to pay attention to the world and people around her are the same things that make her a good Spirit Hunter and a good match for Daniel. To Clarence, her skills are nuisance. He represents the worst in men as a manipulative specimen who doesn't think much of others (especially women) and will use whoever he has to if he believes he will benefit in the end.

A Modified Myth: The Abandon Trilogy

The Abandon Trilogy by Meg Cabot (Point Publishing)
Abandon, 2011 (bought copy)
Underworld, 2012 (ARC from Blog-O-Rama - thank you!)
Awaken, 2013 (ARC loaned from Literary Lushes - thank you!)

Meg Cabot takes readers to the land of the dead in her Abandon Trilogy, a reimagining of the Persephone myth. While I usually don't review a series as a whole, this time I feel like I can make an exception. This blog started after this trilogy did, and now having completed the whole series, I feel that it's best to look at all three of these books together as one unit.

The premise: Pierce was 15 years old when she died. She arrived in the Underworld and reconnected with John - a death deity she first met when she was a child and her soul mate - but she escaped and came back to life. The trilogy follows their romance when they meet again 2 years later and her struggle with becoming queen of the Underworld and spending eternity there, being targeted by evil spirits known as Furies, and trying to keep her family safe.


Now I love Meg Cabot's writing generally. The Princess Diaries books felt like they had been written just for me, I adore many of her other YA novels, and as I've grown up I've enjoyed the handful of her adult novels that I've read. However, if I'm honest, this series was a tough one for me. In series, there is of course an over-arching saga that ties the books together, but to me a strong series means that each installment has an arc of its own. Here is where the Abandon Trilogy struggles.

If read in quick succession, the story makes more sense. Abandon is mostly backstory, explaining the connection between Pierce and John. Underworld is a typical second book, filling in more details about the world, introducing more new characters but seeming to leave a lot of the old ones we just got to know in the first book behind. Then finally Awaken brings back things we haven't thought of since book one, mashes them up with plot points and characters from book two, and thus wraps up (mostly) the story of the lord of the Underworld and his beloved.

The premise is interesting, but to me this is a case of a trilogy that is actually one book drawn out over three books. With some editing and condensing, this could have been a really fantastic stand-alone novel in my mind but as a series, it didn't quite hit the spot for me. What I can say positively is that this is a trilogy that mostly redeemed itself in the third book. Much of the tension in the relationship between the protagonists stems from lack of communication, but at least much of that is resolved by Awaken's conclusion. Old characters and newer characters blended together to form a colorful and quirky cast. Not everything was fully explained, but the main points were so I was mostly satisfied.

Overall, if you are a fan of Cabot's and haven't read this series yet, borrow it from your library if the mood strikes. It wasn't my cup of tea, but this trilogy was the reason Meg Cabot came to town a few years ago and I got to meet this rockstar author I've looked up to for a very long time. She even declared that I was the best librarian ever! For that I am eternally grateful.



Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading.

Meg Cabot's Website
Meg Cabot on Twitter