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Dec 27, 2009

Lisa added it

The other day Stacey lent me this (subtitled The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, A Reading Memoir) because we have a bad habit of sharing library books. I had read Jezebel's Fine Lines column and come across this title somewhere, and when Stacey put it into my very hands I could not resist what was otherwise a low priority.

It was a delightfully fun read; Lizzie Skurnick clearly loves golden age YA fiction. But does she love the books enough? There were some ridiculous errors More...

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Feb 21, 2011

Florinda rated it:

It's been too long since I've started reading a book within a day or two of buying it, but I couldn't wait to dive into this one. However, let me get a quibble out of the way first: the subtitle of this book, "The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading," is using a very loose interpretation of "teen." There are quite a few books discussed here that feature pre-teen protagonists and are more likely to be shelved as "middle-grade fiction." In fact, quite a few of the More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Annie rated it:

I'll admit, when I first heard about this book I avoided it out of bitterness. Writing essays about re-reading my favorite books of adolescence as an adult was my idea! How dare Skurnick beat me to the punch?

But I got over it, and when I flipped through the table of contents while randomly picking it off the library shelf one day, I knew that I had to read it.

Skurnick is about a decade older than I am, I think, but her reading list as a teenager was very similar to mine. Ther More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2011

Mandy Jo rated it:

This week’s headline? her first period

Why this book? still more nostalgia

Which book format? shoddily produced e-book

Primary reading environment? day off work

Any preconceived notions? someone gets me!

Identify most with? the little princess

Three-word quote? “girl-growth vitamins”

Goes well with? midol and tequila

At 17, I was learning that fiction was the primary way I’d understand and find meaning in li More...

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Nov 08, 2009

Ciara rated it:

the blog ("fine lines" on jezebel) is vastly superior to the book, which seemed to be culled almost entirely from the blog with only minor edits, plus some solicitations from name YA authors in an effort to attract...current YA readers? i really can't imagine that current YA readers would give a flying fuck what lizzie skurnick thinks of the westing game, so this makes little sense to me. i mean, i LOVE my YA snarks & was a religious followed to the "fine lines" blog before l More...

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Nov 02, 2009

Snail in Danger (Sid) rated it:

Someone in the What's the Name of That Book? group here on Goodreads helped me remember that Secret Lives was the book I had read ages and ages ago and forgotten the name of. I did a little poking around and realize that that book had been recently mentioned by the author of this book in an NPR interview. The premise sounded interesting, so I snagged this at the library.

So, there's a kernel of usefulness here. I enjoyed the refresher of the books I'd read in the past, and discover More...

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Oct 30, 2009

Brenda rated it:

Attention! I went to a bookstore and sat down and read this in one sitting. Yes, the librarian who refuses to purchase books (why buy when you can borrow?) went to a bookstore for this one.
I was a fan of Fine Lines on when it first appeared on Jezebel and I have been so eagerly awaiting this book. If you were a child who checked your local library's copy of The Girl with Silver Eyes out almost every visit, if you can still recall all that imagery from the Little House books (vanity cakes, More...

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Oct 12, 2009

Karen rated it:

If you grew up in the 70's you have to read this book. It is basically little 2-4 page "book reports" of the books we loved as kids by current YA authors. Best part is they include photocopies of the paperback covers, some dog-eared and wrinkled. I learned a lot about books I remember reading, like did you know Harriet the Spy is all about social class division? Me either. And I was Harriet for Halloween one year! I also loved the category of books we should never have been allowed to More...

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Sep 03, 2009

Tressa rated it:

Ladies, who among you remember: 1) “We must, we must, we must increase our busts!” 2) spending the night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 3) a young spy’s penchant for her notebooks and tomato sandwiches 4) Tony wearing his raincoat to the blackboard 4) taming a wild island dog and naming him Rontu 5) and gazing at your first real love over a pot of boiling fondue cheese?

If you remember that these are from the teen books 1) Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret 2) From the Mixed-Up More...

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Jul 28, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

What fun awaits the female Gen-X reader between the covers of this hilarious and heartbreaking deconstruction of all our old favorites, from Little House in the Big Woods to the the forbidden and often hidden Flowers in the Attic! This collection of Skurnick's Fine Lines columns originally posted on Jezbel.com are bawdy, lurid, and shockingly insightful in terms of showing how the books we read shaped the young women we became. Skurnick covers the delicious food porn of Farmer Boy, the inexplica More...

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Jul 26, 2009

April rated it:

Remember the books you read in middle school? The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, Blubber, A Wrinkle in Time?

Well, it turns out that pretty much every woman you know has read them too, and loved them just as much as you did. Here, Lizzie Skurnick discusses some of the best-known selections from your 7th grade bookshelf.

I definitely remember reading most of these books. Re-reading them. And then reading them again. I'm sure I'll read them in the future. Books like Are You There Go More...

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Jul 26, 2009

Terry rated it:

FANTASTIC.

I cannot even articulate the, speaking absolutely literally, visceral response I had to this book.

It made me miss my sister even more than I already miss her almost every single day; it was from her that many classic works of "young adult" lit came into my hands. I can't think of Judy Blume or Norma Klein without thinking of my sister.

It made me relive every sense memory of middle school, where I first waited impatiently for my turn to rea More...

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May 11, 2009

CLM marked it as to-read

Here is the PW review:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/...

Launched from her regular feature column “Fines Lines” for Jezebel.com, this spastically composed, frequently hilarious omnibus of meditations on favorite YA novels dwells mostly among the old-school titles from the late '60s to the early '80s much beloved by now grown-up ladies. This was the era, notes the bibliomaniacal Skurnick in her brief introduction, when books for young girls moved from being “wholesome and More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2010

Sara rated it:

I was a fan of Lizzie Skurnick's Fine Lines column on Jezebel, and I was SO EXCITED when I found out there was going to be a book!

I read a good portion of the books written about in Shelf Discovery, and I remember seeing a lot of the ones I didn't at the library. My favorite thing about reading this was the relief I felt learning that I wasn't alone in drooling over the food descriptions in Wilder's Little House books or wishing I had a cormorant feather skirt like the one described More...

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Aug 13, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This is a charming dream of a book. It reminded me of the days when I really discovered books and all of the joys that reading has to offer. I did not read every essay as I hadn't read all of the books mentioned, but it was nice to see the ones that I had read and the ones that I re-read over and over again. Like Lizzie Skurnick, I have been known to curl up at night with the young adult novels that I read way back when. THE SECRET GARDEN, THE LITTLE PRINCESS and any of the LITTLE HOUSE books ar More...

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Sep 08, 2010

Melody rated it:

Other reviews detail the typos, homophones, and flat out errors sprinkled liberally throughout this book. I won't dwell on them here other than to say that they really detracted from the reading experience. I never know if the author or the editor should be held accountable, but either way it's inexcusable- especially in a book about books the author ostensibly loves and reveres.

I read the majority of these books as a kid (with the exception of the scary ones, and the dreck like V.C. More...

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Dec 31, 2009

Caitlinleah rated it:

first, i DID like this book. it was basically what i expected it to be and have dogeared so many pages so i can read- or reread many of her YA esentials. and while it is charming to find someone who knows these characters like i do, it does seem a little unfair to have everything be like a giant "in" joke, for which i'm only "in" half the time. (just because i have worn out Frances Hodgston Burnett books doesn't mean i've ever read VC Andrews. I haven't, OK! so kill me! i' More...

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Jun 09, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This was an interesting book, and I definitely enjoyed it, but I think I enjoyed it most as a gateway to rediscovering books I loved when I was 10, but hadn't read in nearly two decades, or to finding books I had somehow never heard of nor read.

Outside of its use as a gateway, Shelf Discovery was a bit problematic. The essays about books I hadn't read were often too short to really give me any sort of feel for the book. Also, I know this came from an internet column, but I think it More...

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Dec 06, 2009

Eleanor rated it:

Book porn for those of us who were nerds in middle school. Loved reading some familiar titles and thinking, "Oh yeah, I LOVED that book." And some of my favorites were included. Having said that, the descriptions of the books I hadn't read were sort-of boring. And it was shocking when someone else's take on an old favorite was different than mine. There were also times when I was impressed by someone else's insight, but that was less frequent. Basically a collection of blog posts from More...

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Aug 06, 2009

Brandy rated it:

I'm about halfway through this (it's a hard book to read cover-to-cover, straight through) and frankly I'm a little disappointed in it. I don't know what I was looking for, exactly--insightful essays about the cultural significance of each title, maybe?--but this isn't it. Mostly each entry reads as a lengthy plot synopsis, though written with snark and affection in roughly equal measures. When they entries are on books you also know and love, you don't really notice the detailed plot so much More...

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Sep 11, 2009

Heather rated it:

This book was much better than I expected- I could not put it down. It's a series of essays by women re-reading the books they loved as teenagers. "Go Ask Alice," "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret," and "Harriet the Spy" are all there, all our favorites by Lois Duncan and Madeleine L'Engle, along with the books we knew we weren't supposed to be reading but did anyway- "Flowers in the Attic" and "Clan of the Cave Bear" were two that brough More...

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Oct 20, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

Were you an avid girl reader in the 80s?

This book is a much appreciated expansion of the author's "Fine Lines" column found on Jezebel.com and it is SO MUCH FUN. Brief essays (a bit of a stretch: maybe meditations?) on the era of YA novels from the 70s to late 80's. SO MUCH FUN. Divided into sections/themes: girlpower, tearjerkers, the supernatural, after school special/issues, the lovelorn, old fashioned girls, and "Oprah type books" from before we knew what that More...

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Sep 19, 2009

Inge rated it:

I was very excited to read this book. It's fantastic premise: revisiting the books you loved (or loved to hate) as a child or teen. I read the uncorrected proof, so I am going to give this book the benefit of the doubt and assume that the finished copy wasn't such a hot mess. (I have read many ARCs, and not once have I seen one with so many typos and garbled sentences. It's kind of hard to read a book that calls Cecily Von Ziegesar's books "Gossip Girls", especially since she is a cont More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 27, 2009

Annie rated it:

This is a great premise and a very enjoyable read for a certain audience. I think I both expected (from the NPR feature that brought the book to my attention) and hoped that the book would be more academic than it is. I would have liked to have learned more about where these books stand in the history of literature and how they compare to young adult literature before and since. In fact, the book is set up, as an earlier reviewer mentioned, almost purely as a walk down memory lane, with a cou More...

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Jul 01, 2010

Andrea rated it:

Such a great idea--such a disappointment. While hearing Lizzie Skurnkick discuss her book on a radio program I was thrilled to hear a pretty hard hitting feminist talke about loving some of the same books I did. I had hope that moms and girls might find some great recommendations in this work. While some of the book discussed are girlhood classics others are not worth reading. Skurnick's language is off putting reminding me of Erasmus' comment that "words can . . . disfigure thought," More...

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Aug 22, 2009

Karin rated it:

This started off as a fun interesting read, but as I got to the 100 page mark I just started to feel bogged down and the book got tedious. Maybe it was the author repetition. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't read a lot of the books in the middle section. Maybe it was because some of my favorites were missing or got the "two page" treatment. Maybe it was because it started to feel like work to read book review after book review after book review. Whatever it was, I lost interest More...

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Nov 01, 2009

Jenn rated it:

two and a half, probably. ultimately more enjoyable than not, but still a bit of a letdown. in the sense that it's better in theory (or, in the jezebel columns from which many of the essays had their birth) than in reality. reading it in small doses certainly helps, as is being in the right mood, because coming at it in the wrong frame of mind and you will just find lizzie and her penchant for letting-the-typography-do-the-talking and the given snark simply annoying. and also you'll feel nitpick More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 31, 2010

Vanessa rated it:

Like just about everyone else who reviewed this book, I was a fan of Skurnick's Fine Lines column on Jezebel. Like just about everyone else, the editing errors annoyed me (Example: In the essay on the book Jane-Emily the evil ghost is referred to as both Jane in one sentence and Emily in the other. I haven't read this particular book so I remain unclear.) Some of the writing was a little too chummy but I suspect it worked fine in blog format. And if you are, say, 30 or younger you won't find som More...

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Aug 27, 2009

Megan rated it:

Don't go into this expecting academic discourse or something. It's a high-five with nostalgia (I used to read and re-read A Gift Of Magic but hadn't thought about it in years!). It's your best friend, admitting that she dog-eared *those* pages in Forever..., too, and making you feel okay about it. It's almost pornographic in its recounting of all those delicious descriptions of food and clothes (in, say, the Little House books or A Little Princess... which probably *was* a big reason why I read More...

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Mar 31, 2010

Brenda rated it:

This is a compilation of essays from a self proclaimed lover of young adult books. The books center more around those published in the late 60's to mid 80's books and the authors who were influential in the genre. I loved this book, but realize reading about books isn't that exciting for everyone. She did a great job describing and analyzing the books and why we like them. I hadn't read all of them -- in fact because some of them were so old I hadn't read or heard of a ton of them, but it di More...

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