Alethea's comments (member since Jun 23, 2009)

Alethea's comments from the YA Book Club group.

Read:
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
After by Amy Efaw
My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent
Named by Marianne Curley
The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
Immortal by Gillian Shields

and, though not YA, read or reading:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Sea Glass by Maria V. Snyder
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Will also try to get Meridian by Amber Kizer read before the end of the month.

Hi Jennifer! Yeah, I had to find an outlet for my booktalk--it's not enough that it's my job (I'm a sales manager for a big chain bookstore) or that my husband reads (though not YA) or that I have a YA book club that meets every 3 weeks. Thanks to this group I'm reading The Hunger Games for the 3rd time!

Diana, this book is extremely worth it! I re-joined the group just so I could reply to your post. That's how good it is ^_^ of course now that we've all hyped it up, you're gonna read it and be like, "eh, it was ok."

Alison, let's get on with the social commentary--what shall we talk about? kids today? violence? poverty? responsibility? politics?

Let's go!

Hi! I'm Alethea, and I'm in way too many groups. But then again, I read way too many YA novels. So the chances are high that I've already read most of the group reads and can comment, phew.

I'm really loving the series Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer, Storm Glass (Glass Book 1) by Maria V. Snyder, and Lisa McMann's Dream Catcher series (starts with Wake.

Can't wait for Fire (Kristin Cashore) and Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins), coming this fall!

I couldn't get halfway through the movie! Although I was watching it with my husband; I think without him around I would have been much more forgiving. Maybe I'll try watching it on my own later.

The DVD comes out in the US next Tuesday... I'm so getting it! I heart Michael Cera.

I'm taking a college class right now and boy, do they curse. And not very well, either. I think you've got to curse quite a lot, and well into your twenties, before you get how to curse fluently. Teens are still thinking quantity over quality. Me, I can admire a well-placed F-bomb, especially from someone who doesn't use it often. It's a special event.

Not wrote: "Is there actually a band called "Where's Fluffy"?"

Nope! Made-up band.

Whose narrative style do you prefer, Nick's or Norah's? Why does it appeal to you?

Do you dislike one, the other, or both?

Music is an intrinsic part of the story between Nick & Norah.

A friend commented to me that while he was reading the book he experienced a weird craving to listen to some of the songs they mentioned, but in particular songs that they mentioned which only exist within the context of the book! Boy, was he disappointed when Googling "Where's Fluffy" only came up with the viral campaign to promote the N&NIP movie.

Are there songs from the book and/or movie which particularly appealed to you?

Did any of you "discover" a new artist or song through the book?

What role does music play in N&N's relationship--really, in any teen relationship or romantic association?

To clarify, I actually went to 7th and 8th grade in the town Vicki lives in! Not a lot of swearing there, that I can I remember. Then moved to Los Angeles, where I went to high school. I know it's not the NY hipster/emo/music scene, but we swear a lot here, too.

In general, what are your thoughts on sexuality as a theme in YA literature?

Consider as well the theme of homosexuality/homoeroticism, which appears in this book (saving my op. for later) but that I wouldn't dare discuss with my husband's 82-year-old conservative Catholic grandmother.

Let's face it, pubescence is when sex becomes an issue in most human lives, defined as the time when the body parts/hormones in question become functional but not yet fully developed.

As with most new technology, kids today (compared to, say, kids 100 years ago) seem more able to pick up any new gadget, plug it in, play around with it, and figure out how it works without reading the manual. They ask their friends for pointers on its use, or, like Tris, Google techniques on how to get the most out of it.

Finally, how does the book explore the theme and does it work for you? Why or why not?

I'm only a few pages in, and Holling seems extremely paranoid to me! I don't know what to make of Mrs. Baker yet.

I thought of myself that way! I don't now. I met and married the Nick to my Norah.

Childhood or adolescent abuse of any kind, in any era, can have varying effects on how a person views intimacy. They may want nothing to do with it, or want it but not know how to deal with it, or without wanting it are able to participate in acts of intimacy with another person because the act holds no emotional significance for them anymore. They disconnect from sex the way I do when I brush my teeth--your mind goes elsewhere, wandering until your two minutes are over and it's time to rinse.

Then there are some of us who are lucky enough to survive--to be able to overcome psychological hangups with physical intimacy *somehow*. I can't pretend to be an expert on it, but I have experienced it. And yes, it is very sad. Not all of us make it out ok and go on to have stable relationships or marriages. Some extreme cases become abusers themselves, and I think that's the saddest because that makes it seem like an unstoppable vicious cycle.

Anyone brave enough to try their hand at it?

COLIN SINGLETON

Lose Cog Lint Inn (ok, it doesn't make sense, nor does it describe Colin, but I used all the letters)

HASSAN HARBISH

Harsh as sin? Bah! (which does bring Hassan to mind, when he first enters Colin's room I think he's going to be a typical brash teenaged boy but he's actually a big softie, no?)

Others to consider:

LINDSEY LEE WELLS (swell eyelid lens)

GUTSHOT (I kind of like, "Got huts?" and "hot gust")

KRANIALKIDZ (ones with Z's are kind of limiting, though--but here's one for SITZPINKLER: "sprinkle zit"--Eeeeww!)

Anyone catch a reference to something in AoK (lol, that works out to be a good acronym) that younger readers might have to strain to catch?

For example, I just recently read Atlas Shrugged, so I caught a possible reference in the name of the old factory worker, Mr. Starnes. In AoK he talks about how Hollis has been good to the factory workers.

In Atlas, Starnes is the name of a factory-owning family whose mismanagement of their business becomes catalytic to the entire story (I don't want to spoil this for anyone who hasn't read AS so I'll stop there).

I love Hassan but somehow, disconcertingly, have cast Jonah Hill as Hassan in my head. And I am not a big fan. But there he is, every time I open the book!

I love how Colin's brain connects ideas together. I have a similar thought pattern that most often comes out when composing displays in the bookstore where I work. For example, I started out with a fairy tale book, added another fairy tale book, a wooden princess doll kit, a wooden looking-glass ("magic-mirror") kit, and two frog beanie babies... I hope someone gets my train of thought. I know Colin probably would, even with a limited knowledge of juvenile folklore.

I know I'm a bit late jumping in here, but I am about halfway and really loving this book. My husband and I just started listening to Outliers so Colin's ideas on relationships are particularly relevant to me right now.

Courtney, what did they change, and why do you think it was better? I haven't seen it--I meant to, and read the book because the movie was pending, but after devouring the book I couldn't bring myself to go watch the film!

I read this book in anticipation of the movie coming out in theaters, which I then missed. I think I didn't want to be let down in case it wasn't as good as the book.

I had just read Flipped and thought another example of boy-girl narration would bother me, but it didn't. I did think, Whoa! These books are both shelved in Young Adult, but I'd be comfortable with an average 13-year-old reading one (F) and not the other (N&NIP). The swearing didn't bother me, but I went to public school starting with 7th grade :-\