Parenthetical.net

When Alton’s mother pushes him to play bridge with his blind, crotchety uncle in the hopes of scoring a big inheritance, he’s irritated — who wants to play a boring, mystifying game with old people? — but he goes along with it. Of course, he ends up loving bridge, and his uncle as well.

The best bits of this book are the growing relationship between Alton and his uncle, and the smooth unfolding of dark family secrets. The worst bit is Alton’s parents, who are not only one-dimensional, they’re one-dimensionally evil. They are money-grubbing hypocrites who “don’t like people on welfare” but still apply for unemployment and scheme to solve all their financial problems with inheritance from a relative they don’t like and barely know. (The ‘rents are a pretty small part of the book, but you know I have a thing about flimsily written parents.)

All told, though, it’s entertaining and satisfying. My brother the professional poker player appreciated the explanations of bridge hands, but if you don’t care you can skip those with no problem, just like you can (and should!) love Friday Night Lights with no understanding of football.

(Thanks for the suggestion, Brian!)

Also reviewed at: Bookshelves of Doom, Presenting Lenore, and the Wake County Libraries blog.

Russ and DJ have been best friends forever, and so have their “outrageous courageous” firefighter fathers. When both men die fighting a house fire, they’re town heroes — until the coroner finds drugs in their systems. All Russ wanted was to be just like his dad, but how can he accept the flawed man his dad really was?

HarperCollins sent me a review copy back in April (thanks, Laura!), and I read it then, but I put off the review until now because it was just published.

I thought it was fantastic! Russ is a believable guy in a believable blue-collar Boston suburb, from the DJ Schwenk school of plain writing about complex issues. This is gripping, painful stuff, and the end isn’t neat by any means; it’s an excellent choice for older reluctant-reader boys.

Also reviewed at: Girls in the Stacks

Scarlett’s family owns, and lives in, a stately old hotel in Manhattan, but both the hotel and the family have seen better days. They barely have enough money to make ends meet, Scarlett’s brother’s last chance at an acting career is crashing, her older sister is stuck in an Austenesque relationship with Wealthy Fratboy McYacht, her younger sister is recovering from cancer, and Scarlett herself is looking forward to a long, dull summer working at the hotel while her rich friends travel the world. And then Amy Amberson, umeboshi-plum-eating, tea-drinking, kimono-wearing agent to the Broadway stars, takes up residence in the hotel and takes over Scarlett’s life.

Maureen Johnson is my go-to gal for funny, clever comfort books. The characters and situations are outlandishly hilarious, there are just enough Serious Issues to lend the book the weight of reality without lending it much weight at all, and everything more or less works out in the end. They’re like eating a grilled cheese in the park, which is exactly what I wish I were doing right now.

Also reviewed at: Bookshelves of Doom, The Book Smugglers, and YA Fabulous (which resides at the awesomely-named echthroi.org).

Incarceron is the ultimate prison: no way in, no way out. It was designed long ago to prove that even the dregs of humanity could create a paradise if properly managed, but the AI that manages the prison became sentient and turned it into a hell. Finn was born full-grown in Incarceron and remembers nothing else.

Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron. As the only person who can enter the prison, he’s one of the most powerful men in their world, and a key player in the Victorian-style intrigue that swirls around him. Claudia and her tutor Jared are intrigue experts in their own right, and rebellion brews when they find a device that allows them to communicate with Finn.

I was absolutely sucked in to this dark, bleak world. Claudia, in particular, is a great character: scheming, practical, and with enough cold intelligence to match her father. She’s not the typical wide-eyed YA heroine thrown into adventure unprepared.

Incarceron is a textbook dystopia (without being particularly post-apocalyptic): everyone outside still thinks that Incarceron is the paradise it was intended to be. And Claudia’s world demands that everyone live “in Era,” following a strict Victorian code to prevent the destructive influence of technological advancement… but of course this comes with death from curable diseases and a backstabbing monarchy.

Though if everyone really believes that Incarceron is a paradise, why aren’t more people trying to get inside? And living “in Era” is a cool idea, but why is it so sketchily applied? Sometimes it’s taken seriously (Jared’s lack of medicine for his illness), but sometimes it’s just a facade (all the fancy technology in the Warden’s house).

In short, there are some enormous plot holes, but it doesn’t matter — the atmosphere is deliciously creepy, the story is original, and I can’t wait for the sequel.

(Can we talk about the cover, though? Please stop with the holographic covers. The shiny shiny rainbows just make everything look chintzy. If it weren’t for Paula at Pink Me, I wouldn’t have picked this up because the cover made it look like an Alex Rider book or some other bit of generic adventure fluff.)

Also reviewed at: Pink Me, The Book Smugglers, and Presenting Lenore

And it comes down to… Howl vs. Eugenides. Go vote, but read the battle first; it’s brilliant. (Spoiler alert: they go have a beer together a la Giles and Ethan Rayne.)

Autoshare for Hunger Games and cocktails: the long-awaited Hunger Games drinking game, including delicious-sounding cocktails like The Katniss (Pernod Absinthe, gin, bitters, & grapes) and The Cinna (balsamic, strawberries, & vodka).

Why aren’t there more YA-themed cocktails and drinking games? Someone should do something about that. Thank you.

(Thanks, Arianna!)

This link combines three of my favorite things: cover art, fantasy novels, and charts. Check out Orbit Books’ annual intern-generated Chart of Fantasy Art.

A few highlights:

• Swords and “glowy magic” are down, but still incredibly popular.
• Wolves are down; elves and fae are way down (we can only hope this category includes vampires)
• New categories include “damsels (no distress)” and “zeppelins/dirigibles.” I think this bodes well.

(Via Christine)

I didn’t read a single piece of fiction this summer. This is unheard of. What’s even more surprising is that I read all four non-fiction books cover to cover and enjoyed most of them. From favorite to least:

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath — When I described it to him, Boyfriend S thought this sounded like Brainwashing at Home for Fun and Profit, but it’s really more about encouraging change: change in yourself (go to the gym regularly), change in your country (respect this endangered species instead of eating it, an example from the book), or change in your organization (get your students to recycle bottles properly, not that I have that problem at all). I found it utterly fascinating, and I highly recommend it if you, like me, start a lot of sentences with, “Why can’t people just…”

The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin — The subtitle gets it about right: “Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.” The Bitch Magazine article “Eat Pray Spend” lumps this book with Eat Pray Love in the category “priv-lit,” which I don’t actually think is fair. Rubin’s whole mission is to be happier in her own life, with her own job and two young kids and minor daily joys and annoyances. (I want to go off on a tangent about priv-lit here, especially as it applies to YA, but I’ll have to save that for another post.)

She’s full of little tricks and Lifehacks for greater happiness/sanity. (A particular favorite of mine is the One-Minute Rule: if it can be done in less than a minute — recycling the junk mail, putting the dishes in the sink — do it right away.) Rubin’s approach to happiness is not everyone’s, but you might find the book interesting even if you do not, like me, believe that “happiness” is synonymous with “organization, productivity, and lists.” Thanks for the rec, Jaime!
[Read more →]

In the YA Fantasy Showdown, Katsa is most satisfyingly kicking Edward Cullen’s ass.

Other contests include Christopher Chant vs. Hermione Granger, Ged vs. Edward Pevensie, and the incredibly painful Katniss vs. Tally.

For added value, each contest includes a bit of fic describing the battle. I like the one in which Chrestomanci informs Hermione the know-it-all that there are more things in heaven and earth, yadda. Go vote! It’s fun!

I seem to have taken an accidental hiatus from blogging. Review every book I read? Post about all the interesting things I’m cooking? FAIL. The end of the school year plus a few months of poor health wiped me out, man. But after a good month and a half of summer, I think I’m ready to get back on the blogging train! (Two weeks before school starts again.)

I’m still committed to reviewing everything I’ve read, for myself as much as anything — it’s helpful to use my blog as a recommendation engine. To dig myself back out I’ll blow through some speed-reviews over the next week. They won’t be brilliant, but at least I’ll remember what I thought about each book.

As for food, I added that to my blogging rounds because people kept asking me what I was cooking and preserving and how I was using my preserved food and whatnot. I don’t have time to blog everything I cook or preserve, and you’d be bored. So what food stuff do you want to read about (if anything)? Recipes? Preservation? Improvisational meals? Gluten-free baking? Locovoration in a New England winter? The Local Produce Only Project in general? “Shut up and get back to the books” or “Just shut up” are also acceptable answers.

I hope you’ve all been enjoying your summers!