Ahead of its Time: The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries #1)
Turtleback Books, 2000

The year was 2000. The world at large had not, in fact, ended in the midst of Y2K concerns, however my world might as well have. Not that I'd loved elementary school, but compared to junior high... Junior high was proving to be another planet. So imagine my joy when I found Mia Thermopolis. She was struggling with her new school and the ridiculous world of algebra, too. Only I hadn't also just found out that I was a princess and heir to the throne of a small European country.

I have been a longtime fan of Cabot's work, and my summer break from school felt like a perfect time to revisit this series that I loved when I was younger, but never got around to finishing. I'm also a fan of the movies, but they are completely different from the events Cabot laid out here. In the first book, readers meet Mia, a sarcastic Manhattan teen who is a little bit oblivious to life, is failing algebra, is mortified that her mother is dating her algebra teacher, has a best friend who isn't always the fuzziest person ever, has a hopeless crush on the most popular guy in school, and on top of all of that finds out that due to her father's recent bought of cancer, the chemo has left him sterile and now she is his only heir to the throne of Genovia. Then comes Grandmere, the dowager princess and current leading royal who comes to stay at the Plaza Hotel and torture her granddaughter via "princess lessons." All Mia wants is a date to the Cultural Diversity Dance, is that so much to ask?

I flew through this book over the course of a few hours, the style of it like a conversation with a best friend, and I am excited to continue in this series. Also, it was nice to revisit my first ever book boy crush, Michael Moscovitz :)

In my opinion, contemporary fiction is where Cabot shines brightest, both in the YA and adult arenas. She has characters that feel familiar, like you really could be friends with them even though they are often in extraordinary circumstances. In Mia, I found a fictional friend who I loved growing up with, and I told Cabot as much when I met her a few years ago at my second ever signing event. And remember, back in 2000, YA wasn't really a "thing" yet. Cabot often shares the story of trying to find an agent and publisher for this book in the mid/late 90s and how it was a struggle because the story was too old for the children's section, but too young for the adult's. Thankfully, the HarperCollins family was willing to take a chance, and the rest is history.

If you're in the mood for a fun, light read to take you out of reality for a little while, pick up The Princess Diaries - you'll be glad you did.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading.

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Simply Genius: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Dutton, 2006

It's hardly a secret that I am a fan of both John Green and his writing. I'm proud to be a Nerdfighter and Green's stories often surprise me, leading me to discover new things about the story and myself. However, one way in which I feel I'm in the minority when it comes to this author's body of work is when I declare that after The Fault in Our Stars, Green's sophomore novel An Abundance of Katherines is my favorite book of his.

A recent road trip proved to be the perfect occasion to reread the story of Colin Singleton, a former child prodigy and recent high school graduate who has just been dumped. Again. And for the 19th time, it's by a girl named Katherine. While on a road trip with his best friend Hassan, the boys wind up in the small town of Gutshot, Tennessee, meet up with a colorful cast of characters including the incredibly un-Katherine girl Lindsey Lee Wells, and Colin finally has the Eureka moment he's been hoping for his whole life: he thinks he can develop a mathematical theorem that will predict the life of a relationship, hoping this will be his ticket to doing something that he believes really matters and avoiding future heartbreak.

Green's books never shy away from the big questions that life throws at us that can be hard to find answers to whether you're a teen or an adult. Katherines is no exception, but I still say this is the most light hearted of his solo novels. It's about relationships: with our friends, our parents, our romantic interests past, present, and future. It's about what matters to each of us, how others see us, and how we see ourselves. Plus there are anagrams, footnotes, and impressive looking math equations that I don't fully understand but they're awesome. Each of these characters brings something to the table, not always good things, and that's what makes them feel real. Glimpses of these characters remind me so much of people I knew in high school and college, and I love that about this book.

So if you're in the mood for a book that will make you think a little bit, laugh a lot, and still fits the bill for a summer read, I highly encourage you to check out An Abundance of Katherines.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

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Rereading With New Eyes: To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

J.B. Lippencott & Co, 1960

It’s often said that English and literature teachers are out to torture students with old books, which is why young people are forced to read “classics” against their will. It’s not actually true, but you probably couldn’t convince my high school students of that. It’s also been said by Cliff Fadiman that when you rearead a classic, you don’t see more in the book than there was before, you see more than you than there was before. Put these ideas together and you have me digging up my old copy of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. For the first time in 10 years, I decided to take another turn through one of the greatest American novels of all time.

What I found was a book I thought I’d remembered but so clearly didn’t. I liked it well enough when I was a freshman in high school, but at 14 years old there were so many other things going on. Now what I read was about so much more than the trial of Tom Robinson and how young Scout and her brother Jem watched their father Atticus defend a black man for a crime he didn’t commit in a time and place where everything was defined by one’s race. That’s a huge part to be sure, but Scout actually tells a story that spans four years - the trial only happens over the course of a few days one summer.

This book is full of growing pains and of not understanding. It’s a realization that our world is unfortunate shades of gray, and I don’t think anyone illustrates this better than Jem who is at a time in his life when he starts to see that the world is far more imperfect than he ever could have imagined. Scout is pure emotion, luckily raised in a house of love. And then there is Atticus, a literary hero unlike any other. Is he perfect? No. He’s from an age where there are things that can and can’t be done, and there are some aspects of society he accepts rather than fights to tear down. But overall, he is a good man. He is a fiercely loving father who wants to do right by his children and does the best he can. He is willing to take on incredible burdens because he knows it is the right thing to do and because though he won’t take on everything, it’s clear that he knows the blatant racism of Maycomb’s court is something that he must stand up against and should not be tolerated. He feels that if he doesn't do right by Tom, then he'll never be able to look Scout and Jem in the eye ever again.

It’s a story with humors and heartaches, with justice and injustice, with love and hatred, with kindness and cruelty. And while I’m sure I looked at it when I was 14, I didn’t really see it until I read this book again, with eyes 10 years older and a mind a decade wiser, much more aware of the world. I know how things have changed since Harper Lee penned this tale, and how some things have unfortunately stayed the same.

There’s not more in this book than there was before, but there’s certainly more in me. And if you haven’t read this book before, or you haven’t read it since your own high school days, I can’t urge you enough to pick it up. It’s one of those books that changes lives.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading.