Review: The Moon and More

By Sarah Dessen
Available now from Viking Juvenile (Penguin)
Review copy

A.J. Jacobs can try to dub realistic YA novels "GreenLit" all he likes; those of us who actually read the genre know DessenLit would be more accurate.  Sarah Dessen is one of the queens of the genre, and she didn't get there by writing bad books.  THE MOON AND MORE isn't one of her more romantic novels, but Emaline is a memorable heroine with an absorbing story.

(Please note that the above paragraph is not a knock on John Green.  I love his novels too.)

Emaline is highly competent and not very flexible.  She likes to be sensible and orderly.  She's a terrific student and an asset to her family's business, Colby Realty.  But it's her last summer before college and she's not feeling so orderly inside.  Her absent biological father inspired her to dream bigger, and she did.  She got into an Ivy.  But she can't afford it.  Now something she didn't really want has been torn from her and she's still feeling the loss.  And her relationship with long-time boyfriend Luke isn't seeming so solid.  Emaline's not where she expected to be.  At the same time, she's not sure where she wants to be.  Small town? Big city?

I think Emaline's inner conflict really resonates.  She's got family trouble, guy trouble, but most of all she's dealing with moving on in her life and growing older.  And we all have to move on and grow older.  But I have to say, my favorite part of the book was her younger brother Benji.  I just wanted to take him home and let him do fun things.  I loved Emaline's relationship with him, because Benji needs someone on his side.

I also liked how Dessen managed the romantic aspects.  There's Luke, Emaline's old boyfriend, and Theo, the new guy in town to help a famous documentarian.  It's not quite a love triangle; Emaline is never with both guys at the same time.  But Dessen definitely took the romantic relationships places I didn't expect.  (Mostly because I was expecting a straightforward romantic plot.)

Okay, the family is great too.  Emaline's problem isn't that her family is awful.  They're a perfectly normal family.  But people in perfectly normal families drive each other batty all the time.  There is a particularly big personality clash between Emaline and her oldest sister, mostly because they're more alike than they realize.

Dessen's books are giant helpings of comfort food, and THE MOON AND MORE is no exception.  Emaline's bildungsroman is perfect beach reading, especially for Dessen's fans who want to return to the town of Colby.  Dessen will be signing at the West Houston Community Center tomorrow, sponsored by the Blue Willow Bookshop.  I haven't decided whether I'm going yet, but if I do, I hope to see my fellow Houstonites there.

Review: Only Human

Book Nine of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection
By Gareth Roberts
Available now from BBC Books
Review copy

For the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, the BBC commissioned a reprint of eleven novels to represent each of the Doctors.  I love that they chose to reprint beloved novels instead of publishing new ones, to show off the history of the character.  Books and radio plays have been as much a part of the series as the television show.

The book chosen to represent the Ninth Doctor is ONLY HUMAN by Gareth Roberts.  Roberts has written books covering both Classic and New Who.  He's also written a couple of episodes, including fan-favorite "The Lodger."  I had high hopes for ONLY HUMAN, given Roberts' pedigree and my love of Nine, and those hopes were not dashed.

The Doctor and his companions Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness are in modern-day London when they run across a Neanderthal, known as Das.  Soon enough the Doctor and Rose are going back in time to discover how Das ended up so far from home and Jack is attempting to help him blend in.  I particularly liked the parts about Das and Jack - they're both far from home (Jack is from the future), but have very different perspectives on the present.  Jack's bisexuality is just as matter of fact as always.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Rose have stumbled upon a research team from a dark period in human history/future, when emotions are controlled by chemicals.  Leader Chantal seeks to "improve" the human race, starting from the very beginning.  It's an idealistic motive twisted in monstrous ways.  This would be an episode to watch from behind the couch.

I'm not sure ONLY HUMAN would intrigue readers not familiar with the characters.  It's a fun adventure full of great personalities, but the book isn't concerned with introducing the Who mythology.  But it's a great choice for fans.  I'll admit to not being that excited about cavemen, but I was proved quite wrong in my estimation of the setting's potential.


Thanks to BBC Books and TLC Book Tours, I have one book to giveaway internationally.  You can choose between ONLY HUMAN, REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS (review June 20th), or WHO-OLOGY: The Official Miscellany.  Giveaway ends June 30, 2013.

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Movie Monday: Doctor Who Series 7 Part 2

I am a big Doctor Who fan.  I come by it honestly; my dad was a fan as a child back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.  The show has a wonderful structure that allows the cast to rotate fairly frequently without majorly disrupting the show.

Series 7 Part 2  saw the introduction of a new Companion, Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman).  Coleman has a wonderful sprightly energy that plays well off of Matt Smith's fast-talking Doctor.  At the same time, she's more vulnerable than most of the recent Companions.  She's brave, but she lets her fear show.

I was disappointed with the first part of Series 7.  I enjoyed it, but it felt like the character arcs for Amy Pond (Karen Gillian) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) were already finished, as much as I loved the characters.  Part 2 was a lovely bit of fresh air and one of the best runs of episodes the show has had in ages.  I think "Cold War" was my favorite - stylish and a touch creepy.

If you haven't seen an episode of Doctor Who, this isn't the best season to jump in.  Matt Smith's time as the Doctor is coming to an end, so his character arc is concluding.  But I think this is a season fans can be happy with.

Get Ready for the 8th Annual MotherReader 48 Hour Book Challenge!

The Annual MotherReader 48 Hour Book Challenge is being hosted by Ms. Yingling Reads (with some help from Abby the Librarian.)  It starts this Friday, June 8th.  I am unable to participate* this year because of my niece's dance recital, which is going to eat up my entire weekend.  But I had ridiculous amounts of fun doing it last year.  If you aren't already committed to doing something this weekend, I highly recommend it.  It's a great chance to catch up on your TBR and meet fellow crazy book lovers.  Even better, the challenge raises money for charity!  And if that's not enough motivation, you can win some really awesome prizes.

If you are participating, please tell me!  I'd love to sponsor someone.

*Okay, okay, I still intend to participate but I doubt I end up reading for more than eight hours or so.

Armchair BEA: Young Adult and Children's Fiction

There are people out there who think it's childish for grown-ups to enjoy YA novels.  Sometimes they even write to advice columnists about it.  I started reading YA as a child, true.  When I was ten or so, I still loved Nancy Drew and Animorphs.  But each book took me maybe twenty, twenty-five minutes to read.  I needed something more substantial, for the sake of my attention span and my parents' wallets.  My dad tried by giving me novels such as Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, but she had this terrible habit of interrupting the awesome vampire action with boring sex.  Then I discovered the YA section of the library, starting with WILD MAGIC by Tamora Pierce.  I've never outgrown it because there's nothing to outgrow.

I like books about teenagers.  No, I'm not a teenager.  But I like books about gay Chinese dragon tamers*, and I am not gay, nor Chinese, nor a dragon tamer.  If the only books I could read were about lower middle class, white, twentysomething technical writers from Texas I would be very bored.  YA is just another type of book.  Yeah, it's marketed mostly to teens.  I love science fiction and that's marketed mostly to men.  About the only genre I read actually marketed to me is romance.  I can deal.  If the person observing me read can't, why should I care?

My policy: read what you like.  Read how you like.  No shame.

If you like YA, MG, children's books . . . the only childish person is the one concerned about someone else's reading habits. 

*I am sadly not referring to an actual book.  But I would read that book in a hot minute.