“Everyone knows how fond the king is of his dark little fool…”

Dear Becca, 

Despite the fact that I was English major, I got through college without taking a course specifically on Shakespeare. I have read several of his plays, but I would not saw that I have extensive Shakespearian knowledge. King Lear is one of the ones I missed and I have to say, I felt at a terrible disadvantage while reading this book. The Sparknotes helped, but I always felt a little in the dark…like when someone tells a joke and you mostly get it, but it’s just not as funny because you know you’re missing something. In order to fully appreciate this book, I think I should have read the play first but unfortunately I just did not have the time or desire to do so.

Christopher Moore, author of FOOL (Photo Credit)

That said, it was still a very funny book. As you mentioned, there was lots of raunchy humor! I read this primarily on my BART rides to and from work and often hoped that no one was reading over my shoulder. I wish that I knew more about the Fool’s story line in the original play so that I could compare it to this adaptation. I assume the ending isn’t the only thing that’s changed.

I particularly enjoyed the footnotes, an appropriate touch since Shakespeare plays always have a lot. Taking something so familiar and making it silly was such an easy way to create humor in the story. For instance: “2. The dog’s bollocks!–excellent! The bee’s knees! The cat’s pj’s. Literally, the dog’s balls, which doesn’t seem to be that great a thing, yet, there you are.” The Fool’s narrative voice is great and I love that the story is so clearly his. I especially liked all the references to “perfect f***ing French”. These comments seemed to capture the spirit of this character exceptionally well for me.

I wish that I could have sat down and read this book in one day. I feel like it’s a one-sitting kind of book. It would have helped me stay in that world and mindset a little easier, especially since it was a little more difficult for me to get there without having read the play.

One thing that I would be interested to discuss with you is the “future” of this blog and our exchanges. I have a stack of books at home that have been on my shelves for years going unread and I thought I might try to burn through some of those and include one as a blog book. However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a bad idea. Those books have gone unread for years because I’m not very excited about them. Personally, I want to focus on sharing books that I’m really excited about or books that other people are really excited about. I’d like to focus on “buzz” books. (Books that are creating a buzz. Was that obvious?) We are both looking toward careers and futures that center heavily on books so it seems appropriate. I will really have to consider my next choice… 

Til we read again!
Megan

Second Chance Summer

Dear Becca,

Shortly after we went to the LA Times Book Festival, Jessi Kirby did a book reading signing in my area. She was touring with Jenny Han and Morgan Matson, which is how I came to find my latest YA selection: SECOND CHANCE SUMMER by Morgan Matson.

At first, I was a little wary of this book. It’s about a teenage girl, Taylor Edwards, who goes to her family’s old summer house for her father’s last summer. (He only has a few months left to live after being diagnosed with cancer.) I wasn’t sure about reading this because I don’t usually gravitate towards books about death or terminal illness. I understand why such books are important for people going through similar situations – we all need something to relate to and help us sort out our emotions – but personally I don’t like reading a story that’s going to turn out to be a “downer”. My mom went through cancer and she’s recovered, thank goodness, but it’s not something I long to relive. Nor was it something I wanted to read about while we were going through it.

Anywho, suffice it to say I had my reservations but Morgan Matson was one of the sweetest authors I’ve ever met. She was very down to earth and we spent a good ten minutes discussing her MFA. She was extremely encouraging when I told her I was thinking about applying to an MFA program. I definitely wanted to see what her latest book was all about.

As with most of my book choices, part of the storyline is a summer romance between Taylor and her first love, Henry. Taylor and Henry dated before the Edwards family stopped summering at their lake house. There is some mystery about what happened that summer, but it is enough to say they did not break-up on good terms. I suppose I’ve always known that the key to a novel about a good summer romance is the male love interest but it really hit home with this book. Henry is an extremely good guy. In fact, I can’t think of anything really negative about his personality or the way that he treats Taylor. That said, he might be a little bit too good to be true. I loved him as a character and of course I wanted him and Taylor to wind up together, but to all the young ladies out there – most guys are not this perfect and most guys do not give you this many chances.

Now, fair warning, I tried to read this book with a steely heart since I do not like crying during books. But I cried anyway. (Just a little bit.) You know the ending is coming but it’s still just so darn sad! The father-daughter relationship is a huge aspect of this book that I haven’t really focused on in this post. (Again, the whole talking about death/illness thing – I’m not good at it.)

Lastly, I hesitate to say anything about this because I know it’s not Morgan’s fault…but what really bothered me while reading this book was the number of typos. I’m used to there being one every now and then – after all, no copyeditor is perfect – but there were so many in this book that it actually became a distraction.  Nevertheless, it didn’t take away from it enough to stop me from recommending the book to you! And I’ve since gotten Morgan’s first book, AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR, which I am excited to read!

I hope I’m not killing you with all these romances…

Til we read again,

Megan

PS (10/1/12) - I have to add a much delayed post script because I failed to mention that Matson references Colorado College, which is where I spent my first two years studying. It's very rare for people to know what I'm talking about when I mention the college, so I was more than a little surprised! After reading Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, I found out that the CC reference in Second Chance Summer is actually Roger from her first novel making a guest appearance. I wonder what Matson's connection is to CC!

Fool

Helloooooo Megan!

So as you know, originally I had planned to read a far more ambitious, academic text for our blog.  However, little 'ole me neglected to account for returning to school and having all sorts of responsible reading to do.  So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to put Neil Gaiman's American Gods back on the bookshelf for a while--but hopefully not for long!  Perhaps that will be my Winter Break book of choice.

In its stead, I've selected Fool by Christopher Moore, a book added to my collection courtesy of Tara, from our thesis class. When she was getting ready to move about a year and a half ago, she held a book giveaway via facebook, and I was quick to snatch up Christopher Moore's texts.  Mind you, I had no idea what this was about.  I just really wanted a copy of Bite Me, about, you guessed it, vampires to add to my growing collection of modern vampire fiction. Happily, this was HI-LAR-I-OUS, and I can't wait for you to read it. :)

Credit for the picture goes to these lovely folks. 

Now, since you have not had the pleasure of reading King Lear, you definitely need to check out the Sparknotes for the text before delving into this find, since it's a spectacular interpretation of The Bard's original work.  Fool is the story of King Lear told from the perspective of, you guessed it, the fool, who is a significant, not-so-minor character in the original play.

First things first: LOTS of raunchy humor. I mean, LOTS of it.  But that's part of the fun.  Actually, that's all the fun. I mean really, the book does not cease to entertain--even with the plot is particularly dark and twisted, you know that somewhere, someone's getting shagged, and Pocket (our Fool extraordinaire) is going to poke fun at them.

Which brings be to the genius of the novel.  Though this is satire, it's done in the spirit of Shakespeare. Take the opening to the book, this warning to the reader Moore presents before even reaching Chapter 1:

WARNING
This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as non-traditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank. If that sort of thing bothers you, then gentle reader pass by, for we endeavor only to entertain, not to offend. That said, if that’s the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story!

Does that scream Shakespearian monologue or what? As my beautiful, thespian-minded friend Deirdra pointed out, it's very similar to Puck's closing monologue in A Midsummer Night's Dream (and she'd know, since, you know, she played Puck back in high school).  The world Moore describes is synchronous with the world Shakespeare would have known and described.  Not only does he draw from Midsummer, but those three witches in the woods seemed very Macbeth-ian to me, with maybe a touch of the comedy of the three Fates in Disney's Hercules?

All Shakespeare aside, I also enjoyed those parts of the story unique to Moore's vision of this fictional world.  Pocket's history is unique, heartwarming, and, at times, tragic.  While the original Fool couldn't be ignored, since the Bard gave him the juiciest lines in the play, Pocket is a Fool you can't help but love.  Oh, and I should point out that, yet again, we have a story where the time jumps around a bit (that's how many now?).

Anyways, I don't have much to say about this one. It's just a great, light-hearted read, and I enjoyed reading it for the fun of the experience.  Maybe all my powers of analysis have been monopolized by the demands of grad school...hmm...

Extra bit of fun! A shot of D 'n' Me from Midsummer back in the day :)

Keep Calm and Read On,
Becca

"It comes down to your word against his."

Dear Becca,

For some reason I keep putting off the writing of this blog post. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I just don’t have a lot to say about the book or maybe I’m just tired of working on the computer all day long. Whatever it is, I won’t delay any longer….

The first thing that struck me about YOU AGAINST ME is how British it is. In reading your last post, I overlooked the bit about Jenny Downham being British. And even though I did a bit of reading about her myself and knew – somewhere in my subconscious – that she was British, it didn’t occur to me that it would be so apparent in her novel. My first clue: Mikey’s mom walks into the room with a fag in her hand. My jaw dropped until I remembered what fag is slang for in England (cigarette). And then there was the spanner that Mikey carried around for a whole chapter… I would be curious to know if there are two versions of the book and if you happened to purchase the original, British version. When I studied abroad in the UK, I picked up a Sarah Dessen book and the publisher had changed common American slang in order to make it more British. Pants became trousers, etc. But it doesn’t seem like that‘s the case this time. It just seems like a very British book. (And there wasn’t anything wrong with that once I got used to the slang!)

As you mentioned, there was a good balance of “all the lovey-dovey stuff” which was good because I trend toward far more fairy-tale romances than you do. I have to hand it to Downham – she wrote the most beautiful sex scene that I have read so far in YA. From Ellie’s perspective it was very moving and captured the sentiment without being too blatantly physical. I loved it.

SPOILER ALERT: One thing I want to say which is immensely cynical …Despite the fact that Mikey and Ellie overcome their “Romeo and Juliet”-like conflicts and wind up together, I can’t help but question the longevity and practicality of their relationship. On the one hand, I truly do believe that if you love each other enough you can overcome any obstacles. But on the other hand, as a very family-oriented person, I can’t imagine being in a relationship where there is such deep-rooted conflict between your families. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, there is no good reason for their grudge against one another so they can overcome it if they put their minds to it. But in this novel, the conflict makes perfect sense. I can’t imagine Mikey’s sister, Karyn, ever forgiving Tom for what he’s done to her. She’ll probably never be able to stand in the same room with him again. If Mikey and Karyn’s relationship is going to last for the rest of their lives, they will continue to face obstacles like that and what a challenging environment to start your own family in!

If I haven’t made it clear up to this point, though, I definitely enjoyed this book. It’s one I might not have picked up on my own – when it comes to YA, I don’t usually pick up books about sexual abuse –but the main characters are really compelling and it has a feel-good ending which I always appreciate!

Til we read again,

Megan

"I'm more of a thistle-peony-basil kind of girl."

Hi Megan!

After reading your review, I was really excited to get my hands on The Language of Flowers.  As I briefly mentioned in a comment on your post, I'm completely fascinated by secret languages. For instance: prison tattoos. In high school, I caught an episode of "Taboo" on the subject, and later I would fall in love with David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which revolves around the Russian Mob in England. Every tattoo means something, and for those in the know, a simple glance at another's body can reveal their life story. Can you imagine? I even briefly entertained pursuing Sociology, with the intent of further researching this subculture.

Naturally, since I have yet to be placed behind bars, the idea of a language embedded within the gifting of flowers, which I love and are much safer than prison needles and ink made from urine and boot rubber, caught my attention prior to even opening the book.

I love this cover! Follow this to find out about  the movie rights.

Happily, I was not disappointed. I really did get caught up in her courtship with Grant, one fueled by the exchange of message-laden flowers rather than meaningless trinkets and sentimental gushings. It seemed real.  Theirs was the courtship of two damaged people, who have been beaten down by a cruel world and for whom the odds are hardly in their favor. So "love" was not instantaneous. "Trust" was not assumed. It took time, and healing, for them to finally overcome their insecurities and fears and tentatively pursue a loving, committed relationship with another human being.  So while you're being refreshed by your return to Young Adult fiction, I'm quite happy with my heavy dose of adult reality.

However, it is a Young Adult novel that this book reminds me most of. Way, way back in the day, sitting in my sixth grade class, I snagged a book of the teacher's bookshelf, and while it's hardly a masterpiece of literature, it has still managed to stick with me over the years.  The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl tells the story of Anna, a little girl who is not only shy, but overlooked.  Her family is so unaware that she is able to create secret spaces within the walls of her home and vanish for a period of several years, with no one being truly the wiser.  She is neglected, yet finds a way to rise above, and this is what reminds me of Victoria in Diffenbaugh's novel.  Both girls are intelligent and capable of doing great and wonderful things, but it is not until they can run through the obstacle course Fate has set in front of them that they are able to rise above and take full advantage of all the talent they have been blessed with and love they are capable of.

All praises aside, Diffenbaugh did not write a perfect novel.  It took me a little bit of time to get into, as the beginning is rather slow (no flowers!).  But, once she got out of the halfway house and I began to pick up what exactly was going on with that time travelling narrative (that's another one you've picked that bounces around time, by the way), I was able to really get into it, and the first half of the book flew by.  However, come the moment of crisis, when Victoria is faced with the ultimate commitment-motherhood-and once again runs away, I was pissed. I mean really, really upset. Here is the girl who knows better than anyone what it means to be abandoned, and she goes and continues the cycle of neglect. And what's worse is that those women who were meant to be her support system and keep an eye out for things like postpartum depression are completely oblivious to her rapid mental decay!  Really, that section almost ruined the book for me. Had it ended differently, well, this would be an entirely different blog post.

Since I've now overrun my word limit by quite a bit, I'll go ahead and stop now. But first, I thought I'd share my favorite flower and it's meaning:

Alstroemeria: Devotion

Keep Calm and Read On,

Becca

You Against Me

Hi Megan,
 
I think you'll like this selection much better than my last one, haha. There are no middle-aged amputees to be found, no cheating on your husband, no fantasizing over the idea of a "fourth hand," et cetera. Romance is in the air between two teens, separated by money and circumstance, their love forbidden by their families, but undeniable in their hearts...


Oh jeez. Romeo and Juliet, here we come! -_-

Image from Goodreads.com

Just kidding. I mean, yes, it's definitely turned out to be another modern-day take on that over-taught tale (though her inspiration is less surprising after having read that she did theatre for a long while before writing. Those Brits and the Bard, I'm telling you).  But I liked it, I really did.  For one, this feud is newly begun. Wealthy and posh Tom Parker is accused of raping Karyn McKenzie. Once Tom is released on bail, temperatures rise as one brother wants to defend his sister's honor, and a sister tries to reconcile what she may or may not have seen that night with the love she bears for her older brother.  So it's refreshing to know why the two families hate each other, and that this hatred is spurred on by real, relevant hurts rather than some past, vaguely remembered wrong.


Be warned though, Downham doesn't pull any punches in this one. Mikey McKenzie, brother of the alleged rape victim, has a home life that is far from ideal. With no father and a mother who rarely finds her way out of the bottle, it's up to him to hold his broken family together. And while Ellie Parker may  have the "perfect family," Downham shows that a beautiful house is often just a facade for a ugly family.  A family where a father is so caught up in appearances that he will do anything, truly anything, to keep his reputation flawless. 


What I found particularly excellent, however, were the Parker siblings. Karyn isn't the only one who was scarred by the events that night, and Downham does an excellent job of making the reader truly experience Ellie's turmoil as she struggles to comprehend what she may or may not have seen that night. And Tom's character is interesting as well. I won't say much more than that, for fear of giving away too much, but what happens towards the close of the novel when all truths come to light was an important step in humanizing Tom. 

Also, it was nice not to be overwhelmed by all the lovey-dovey stuff :)


Like I said, I think you'll enjoy this far more than The Fourth Hand! Oh, and I should apologize if this post is all over the place-I wrote the first half about a week/week and a half before the later, so I'm sure I forgot somethings I wanted to say!


Keep Calm and Read On,
Becca

The Language of Flowers

Dear Becca,

The first time I heard about THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS, I was reading Sarah Dessen’s blog. In case I haven’t mentioned how amazing Sarah Dessen is, she’s basically my YA hero. Her endorsement (“It’s just so different from anything else I’ve read lately and I can’t put it down”) was enough to convince me that it was worth putting on my to-read list. And let me just say what a great decision that was. It wasn’t until I started reading the book that I found out how widely known and read it is. Turns out, one of my co-workers was also reading it and one of my writing teachers had recently read it as well.  I suppose it’s not too surprising that I’m late to get on the bandwagon when it comes to adult fiction….

More to the point, this book is about a young woman named Victoria who has recently been emancipated. She spent her youth in various foster and youth homes and now that she is on her own, she has to figure out what to do and how to support herself. The novel weaves back and forth between Victoria’s time with her favorite foster mother, Elizabeth, and the present day. Elizabeth teaches Victoria about flowers and flowers become the one thing that Victoria really identifies with and cares for. In the storyline that follows the present day, Victoria finds work as a florist. And there is, of course, a romance.

As the title suggests, the theme in the story is the language of flowers. Different flowers mean different things and this is how Victoria knows how to express herself. There is one point in the story (and I will not note the page because we’re not in college anymore!) where a client asks Victoria to make her a bouquet with flowers that will stimulate sexual desire. Victoria finds it a challenging assignment and wonders if she should lie about the flowers that she uses. After all, the client won’t really know the difference. But she decides that she can’t. For me, this was one of the most powerful moments in the book. Deciding whether or not to stick by what you believe. It would be easier not to, but Victoria does it anyway. And since Victoria usually runs away from challenges, this was a particularly beautiful moment.

It’s hard for me to pinpoint my favorite part of this novel. It takes place in San Francisco and I wish I could say that I was able to relate to it better because of that. But truthfully, I’m actually not all that familiar with the different little parks and places she frequents. I really want to visit the flower market after this!  Ultimately, it’s the cast of characters that kept me reading. They’re all a little damaged and arguably, dislikable, but it’s the way they all complement each other and lift each other up the best that they can. A lot goes unspoken (which you would think would make it hard to write about) but Diffenbaugh does a great job of showing the emotion between characters without telling. I could really take a lesson from her on subtly.

I loved this book! And yet…I can’t wait to get back to reading YA.

Til we read again!

Megan