41. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Alfred A. Knopf (Random House) e-book, 183 pages, 2006

And here's another YA book that I decided to read because I liked the movie. Except in this case, unlike Holes, I actually--don't hurt me--thought the movie was better. True, the book didn't involve Michael Cera, but Norah's character was completely different between the two versions. The Norah in the movie was cool, a little insecure, but just enough to be relatable, and down-to-earth; the book Norah was high-strung, foul-mouthed, and (to put it bluntly) extremely annoying.

I also kind of dislike books (A Great and Terrible Beauty, I'm looking at you) where the female characters are all "frenemies" and spend the whole time stealing each others' boyfriends and stabbing each other in the back but at the same time they're supposed to have a meaningful relationship. I mean I guess that is reality for some teenage girls (?) but it just makes no sense to me and I cannot follow it or remember who is supposed to be friends with who and why. Complex relationships are great but these characters just change their feelings about each other seemingly at random, and as much as I hate to say it I liked it better in the movie when Tris was just a "mean girl" persecuting Norah. At least it was consistent.

The best parts of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist were Nick's chapters, written by David Levithan. I've never read any of his work before but he's supposed to be kind of a big deal in the YA world, and I really want to read his new book for adults, The Lover's Dictionary (which, sadly, is unavailable in Japan).

Next up: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

40. Mockingjay

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press e-book, 288 pages, 2010

Maryann and I had a conversation the other day that clarified my thoughts on the Hunger Games trilogy as a whole, and what I thought was its major flaw: Katniss doesn't change or grow as a character at all throughout the books. She's portrayed as kind of an unlikable personality to begin with--surly, distrustful, far less crowd-pleasing than the kind and honest Peeta--and it works in the first book when she's fighting for survival and sacrificing herself to save her sister. But in the second and third books she remains completely self-centered as the struggle she's caught up in grows bigger and bigger around her, and it's frustrating.

I disagree with Maryann on the ending; I think Katniss ended up with the right guy (trying not to spoil things here although you probably shouldn't be reading this anyway if you haven't read the book and want to). I disliked what they did with Peeta through most of the book, and I think the final chapters had a kind of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows bloodbath thing going on where characters were killed seemingly at random and their deaths were barely noticed (spoilers, highlight to read: FINNICK!!!!!! Plot-wise there was NO reason he had to die, except that he was a newlywed and that's apparently the rule in these situations. Bonus cheap drama points if his wife is pregnant. How boring and predictable.) But honestly, all this is just nitpicking the most enjoyable series I've read in quite a while. Still highly recommended.

39. Holes

Holes, Louis Sachar
Yearling (Random House) e-book, 233 pages, 1998

Holes came highly recommended by Susi, and I'd seen the movie years ago and loved it, so when I saw that it was available as an e-book from the San Francisco Public Library, I jumped on it. (Yes, I also needed a short, easy read to keep up with the book challenge. And by "keep up with" I mean "desperately try to close the yawning gap between the number of books I should have read and the number I've actually read.") Anyway, I'm glad I did because the book was fantastic--tightly plotted, surprising, and full of more poetry and romance and wonder than I would have expected from the author of There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. (Not, to be fair, that I've ever read it, or any of Sachar's other books, but I'll admit I didn't expect at 24 to enjoy a book by an author that was popular with the boys in my class in the fifth grade. Huh.)

Oh, and as this was my first library e-book checkout, I might as well note that it's extremely strange to me that the library actually links to the Amazon website for checkout, complete with "Customers who bought this item also bought..." links (for purchase, not library checkout). Huh?? Also, when the book is returned, you get an email from Amazon reminding you that if you check the book out again or purchase it for Kindle your notes and highlights will be preserved. I mean, in a sense that's useful information, but it still feels icky for an online commercial giant to be so all over a library book checkout. (That said, it is pretty fucking sweet that I can read San Francisco public library books while living in Japan.)

28. Catching Fire

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press, 285 pages, 2009

I've been SO looking forward to reading this ever since I finished The Hunger Games, and it didn't disappoint. I did find the first half of the book less suspenseful than The Hunger Games, since the Games are now over and the story revolves around the victors going on tour and the rebellions that have started in the districts of Panem, but it picked up in the second half for reasons that I can't talk about because it would be a huge spoiler. I don't think I am going to know 100 percent how I feel about this book until I finish reading the third book, to be honest. It did start to seem less like the author had created a complex world and was working within its bounds and more like she was just pulling out all the tricks in the book to create suspense, but shit, it worked.

Next up: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

26. LIAR

LIAR, Justine Larbalestier
Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers e-book, 280 pages, 2009

I first heard about this book because of the cover controversy, which you can Google if you like, but it's far from the most interesting thing about the book, so I won't be talking about it here. I expected LIAR to be fast-paced, tightly constructed, surprising, and smart, and it exceeded my expectations by being all those things and also literary. It's the kind of book that's hard to talk about in a review without giving away massive spoilers, but at its most basic it's a murder mystery told by a self-avowed liar. The question throughout the novel is how much of Micah's fantastic story you can believe, and of course I have my own theory, but I won't be sharing it, partly because it contains too many spoilers and partly because there are so many possible interpretations and each reader has to draw their own conclusions.

(please someone else read this book so we can talk about it)

Anyway, what really pushed this from "good read" to "WOW" for me was the subtle but penetrating commentary on femininity that was everywhere in the story. Micah spins the most elaborate lies to alternately hide, explain, deny and justify her sexuality; the author never beats you over the head with it (although one of the characters makes the mistake of pointing it out to Micah), but it makes the book so much more than it would be if it was just a murder mystery.

23. The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Scholastic ePub edition, 275 pages, 2008


I know you have heard this from everyone and their mom by now but oh my God this was so good. SO GOOD. In case you live under a rock, it's a dystopian YA novel in which one boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts of Panem are selected as "tributes" and forced to participate in a televised battle to the death. This summary was, I'll admit, unappealing to me, but I read it anyway because of the buzz and I am completely won over. The suspense! The action! The romance! Agjsdlkgsfd! It stays far away from any kind of preachiness or political agenda, which I think was a smart move; instead it explores the choices and the sacrifices made by the tributes forced to participate in the brutal Games, all wrapped up in the most exciting adventure I've read since... I don't know, Harry Potter, maybe, but The Hunger Games sucked me in even more than that. I'm dyyyyying to read the next one but I don't want the series to end so I'm forcing myself to space it out. 


Next up: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett