Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Published by Ember, an imprint of Random House

Nick and Norah meet one night at a concert, and a strange series of events leads to the two of them spending the rest of the night hanging out together in various parts of New York City. Although on the surface the two don’t have much in common, this night ends up being the mother of all first dates, a night that changes everything for them both.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is the kind of book that should be read when in a funk. It’s such a shiny, happy story with so many intelligent and adorable things being said by its characters. It’s super short, so can be read in one sitting if preferred, and the characters will just creep into your heart and stay there. The end of the book is the kind that one can’t help but smile over. In short, it’s happy-making, and when I read the book, that’s exactly what I needed. So I loved it.

To be honest, this novel is much more fun than it is literary or serious or earth-shattering YA, but it’s such a sweet story about two kids who truly meet at the exact right place and right time. Both Nick and Norah are recovering from destructive relationships, and when they meet neither one of them is looking to get involved in anything serious. But they form the kind of connection that is once-in-a-lifetime, and they can’t help but just go with it. The night they spend together is fun and exciting and even has a few moments where their newly established relationship is tested. And, reader, you get to be along for the ride through all of this. And it’s fun, so much fun. And sweet, and cute, and hilarious at times.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is lovely. I enjoyed it tremendously and if you are looking for a fun, sweet, pick-me-up of a novel, look no further. This one’s a keeper.

The Odds: A Love Story by Stuart O’Nan

The Odds by Stuart O’Nan
Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin

Art and Marion’s almost thirty year marriage is on the brink of collapse. Neither one is currently employed, their home is on the verge of foreclosure and their savings account has dwindled down to almost nothing. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage and their financial lives, they take what little they have left in savings and head to a luxury suite at a casino in Niagara Falls in the hopes that they can win the money they need to get their life together back on track. In the process, Art and Marion must decide whether their marriage is something worth gambling on or if it, too, should be looked at as a total loss.

There’s no question that Stuart O’Nan is a truly talented writer. He took these pretty awful characters and their sad story and turned them into people I actually cared about over the course of this slim novel. Both Art and Marion have been unfaithful to one another, they both have said horrible things to the other, and there is absolutely no trust left in this marriage. And yet, somehow, I wanted them to figure things out. I wanted them to find a way to make things work between the two of them, I wanted Niagara Falls to help them fall back in love with one another, and I wanted this gamble to turn into a win. It’s strange for me that I’m saying that because when I began reading The Odds, I couldn’t have cared less about Art and Marion. But as the book went on, I found myself caring about them more and more, and eventually I got to a place where I was just hoping they would find a way to forgive each other and work things out.

I have to be honest, though, and tell you that Art and Marion are NOT likable characters. They treat each other with supreme unkindness, they have both cheated on the other, and in the beginning of the novel they have all but given up on one another. This is not a story about two people who fall back in love just because of a romantic second honeymoon. Rather, it’s a quiet story about two people who have to really work to understand the other. It’s a story about two people who have hurt one another so badly there is little hope for redemption. In any other author’s hands, I would have loathed these two people and thrown the book at the wall after the first fifty pages. But in O’Nan’s capable hands, they became people I wanted to get to know, characters I came to appreciate as the novel progressed.

I realize this book won’t be for everyone but I really came to enjoy it. By the end of the novel, I was really rooting for these two people and was so hopeful that things would turn out for them. If you like literary novels with characters that grow on you over time, pick up The Odds.

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson
Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin

Laurel is trying to recover from the deaths of her mother and grandmother in Hurricane Katrina. She has moved with her father and brother to a new town, joined the cheerleading team, has a new best friend and even a boyfriend, T-Boom, superstar basketball player. When T-Boom introduces her to meth, she can’t help but fall in love with the way it makes her feel, the way it erases all the pain she carries inside of her and makes her forget how much she misses her mother. As she gets further into her addiction, she begins to lose her friends, her family, her dignity – basically everything. With the help of a new friend Moses, Laurel decides to create a new reality for herself and recover from her addiction.

Beneath a Meth Moon is an extremely quick read that packs a huge punch. I read this book in one sitting, breathless, hoping and praying for Laurel’s recovery. As I was reading, I found myself feeling closer and closer to Laurel emotionally, and my heart just broke for what she was going through. This girl has had a difficult life, has had to grow up overnight, and I could almost understand why she would turn to a drug like meth to help her escape from her past.

I can’t tell you how much this book affected me. I don’t cry too often while reading, but this was one time that I definitely shed some tears. I have personal experience with addiction (not myself, but a few people I am very close to) and I get how difficult, almost impossible, it can be to get to a sober place and stay there. And to deal with all of this at such a young age as Laurel, well it is truly heartbreaking. Kudos to Woodson for taking on this topic though as I know meth is something more and more teens are tempted with these days.

Beneath a Meth Moon is an emotionally draining and tough, but excellent, read. At less than 200 pages, it can easily be read in one sitting, and the pacing of the novel encourages such a thing as you will be unable to put Laurel and her story down once you begin. If you aren’t afraid to read about difficult topics such as addiction, this is a book not to be missed.

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure by Julianna Baggott
Published by Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette

Pressia survived the Detonations almost unscathed, with nothing to show for them other than the small doll’s head fused to her fist. Many people weren’t so lucky – millions of people died, or fused together, or became part of the earth, or became crippled by the huge items that fused to their bodies. She doesn’t think much about the Before, just spends her time with her grandfather in his small apartment, her grandfather who has cared for her ever since her parents died in the Detonations. Partridge has a much nicer life – he is a Pure. The Pures escaped the catastrophic Detonations by living in the Dome, a secluded world that only the very privileged and important people were sent to just before the world exploded. But Partridge doesn’t have a perfect life in the Dome – his father is emotionally distant, his mother refused to join them and died in the Detonations, and shortly after, his brother killed himself. When he ventures outside the Dome and meets Pressia, both of their lives are turned completely upside-down.

Oh my gosh, I don’t know how to even review Pure. There were so many disturbing things about this book, but ultimately I couldn’t put it down. The world Baggott created in Pure is bleak, no question about that. It might just be the most disturbing post-apocalyptic world I’ve seen in fiction yet. People are fused with nature. People are fused with other people. People are fused with animals, for gosh sakes. It’s incredibly distressing to read but also I had a hard time looking away. I wanted more but I was afraid to want more. I know, that sounds so weird, but I swear if you read the book that will make sense.

What is so redeeming about this novel is how truly fabulous and well-drawn its characters are. Pressia has seen the worst of humanity but still holds out hope for a better life for herself, and has an intense devotion and love for her grandfather, despite the fact that she’s lost everyone else she’s loved. Partridge, who rebels against his father’s teachings and searches high and low to find the mother he knows didn’t abandon him, was a character I didn’t love at first but came to really admire. And Bradwell, sweet, hardened Bradwell, well that guy stole my heart. He’s been through the worst of the worst, with no family or real friends, leading an underground movement to overthrow the Dome, and when the Detonations came a flock of birds fused to his back, so they are forever a part of his body and soul. You wouldn’t think love would be possible in a world this awful but you would be wrong – these three form something of a little family as they fight to stay alive in this insane, terrifying world.

I raced through this book and couldn’t put it down. Ultimately, it has a very hopeful feel to it, as these characters force you to believe that anything is possible, that this world can change and redemption is possible. I found it to be a fresh take on the whole dystopia/post-apocalyptic genre and I believe it to be a welcome addition to the pool of other great books in this vein. Read it!

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas
Published by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

True Sisters, a novel based on actual historical events, revolves around four women as they navigate through the most desperate, difficult, life-threatening situation one can imagine. In 1856, a group of Mormon converts were encouraged by Brigham Young himself to journey with hand carts from Iowa City to Salt Lake City, Utah in search of the promised land. The Martin Handcart Company contains four women whose lives will be changed irrevocably by this 1300 mile walk. Nannie has just suffered being abandoned by her fiance on their wedding day and is traveling to Salt Lake with her sister and brother-in-law, Louisa is married to one of the most important church leaders and believes he communicates directly with God, Jessie is traveling with her brothers and dreaming of a bright future for their family, and Anne is a non-believer but was forced to accompany her Mormon husband to Salt Lake after he sold everything they owned and gave all the money to the church.

Would you believe True Sisters was my first experience reading Sandra Dallas? I know she’s written a ton of novels but for some reason I just hadn’t gotten to her yet. I think it was good that I didn’t have any expectations going into this book, because it was a very good read for me.

I was captivated with this novel from the first page, mainly because of how well I connected to each of the four main characters. Each woman comes from a different background and perspective on their current situation, but not one is more sympathetic than the rest. Rather, the four women together make a complete picture of what the real people who made this journey over a hundred and fifty years ago may have been like. By the end of the novel, Dallas had taken me on a journey to get to know four fully realized women and I felt tied to each one of them in a different way. It was truly satisfying to see their personalities grow and change over the course of the novel as they were forced to grow up and become more independent in many ways.

There’s no way around the fact that the events in True Sisters are truly devastating. These people suffered for their faith. Historical accounts tell us that something like a third of the people who started the journey to Salt Lake City did not make it there. It is clear that Dallas did her research in preparing for this novel as her attention to detail is meticulous – while the specifics of these characters and their choices are entirely fiction. I was on the verge of tears multiple times while reading this book because there are just so many things that happen that are SO sad! But Dallas managed to bring some measure of hope throughout the novel as well, which is what made me compulsively keep reading – I just KNEW things had to turn around for these people and I anxiously waited for Dallas to show me how that was possible.

I really, really liked this one. I’ll definitely be reading more by Sandra Dallas. For those of you more familiar with her work, which novel should I read next?

Like the Red Panda by Andrea Seigel

Like the Red Panda by Andrea Seigel
Published by Harvest Books

Seventeen-year-old Stella is planning her suicide. She has two weeks of high school left in Orange County, California, and after graduation she plans to end it all. Her parents died together of drug overdoses when she was eleven, she has no connection with her foster parents, no real friends, and her only living relative is a crotchety, angry grandfather who doesn’t much care for Stella. So she spends the last few weeks of her time sitting back and observing and philosophizing every single detail of her life.

I can’t remember where I first heard of this book, but for some reason I had it in my mind that Like the Red Panda was comparable to The Perks of Being a Wallflower (a book I love). Well, if you plan to read this book, please know that is NOT the case. This book is completely different from any other YA book I’ve ever read, and can’t really be compared to any other novel. So don’t go in with any expectations like I had.

I cannot tell you how much my heart broke for Stella. Her situation is one that no teen should ever have to find themselves in – no family, no real friends, nobody to turn to for love and emotional support. It’s no wonder she doesn’t see the point of living anymore. It was difficult reading the book with the understanding of what she planned to do always looming in the background of everything she did, but as the novel went on I have to admit that I could see where she thought suicide was the answer. Although she had a lot of promise in her and a bright future ahead of her, with no one to love I can see how difficult life would be for a person. It was really heartbreaking.

In the midst of all this suicide talk, though, was an incredibly self-aware and often times hilarious teenager with the most interesting and astute observations about life. Stella is the kind of teenager anyone would want to love, as she is amazingly intelligent, has a great personality, and is wise way beyond her years. The fact that she has so many great characteristics about her makes her situation even sadder, as it’s obvious that had she been placed with the right foster family her life may have turned out a lot differently. I did enjoy reading the novel because she kept me so entertained throughout.

While I enjoyed Like the Red Panda overall, I absolutely hated the ending. I can’t explain why, for obvious reasons, but there’s no getting around that as it really changed the way I felt about the book once I finished it. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

Like the Red Panda is an incredibly unique YA book with a heroine that is impossible not to empathize with. I liked it quite a bit.

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins

Clarissa Iverton is twenty-eight years old when she learns that her beloved father isn’t her biological father after all. Her mother disappeared fourteen years earlier, the man who she thought was her father has just died, and her fiance revealed a major secret to her, so Clarissa decides to embark on a journey to find her biological father. Her travels take her to a hotel made of ice, in the middle of nowhere, and what she finds when she gets there shocks her and changes everything she thought she knew about herself. She then must decide what to do with what she now knows to be true about her past, and how to incorporate that knowledge into her future.

Vendela Vida has such a beautiful, lyrical quality to her writing. Her writing style gave this entire novel almost a dream-like feel and I would find myself lost in Clarissa’s story due to Vida’s gorgeous word choices and phrasing. Great quality writing isn’t hugely important to me but when it’s excellent in a unique way like Vida’s, I tend to notice it and fall in love with the prose – as was the case with Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name.

I felt deeply for Clarissa throughout this book. She begins the book completely unmoored – she has been deceived about a lot of important details about herself, and shockingly she was lied to by the most important person in her life, her fiance. I honestly cannot imagine what that feeling would be like, to literally have no one to trust, but Vida made me feel so much empathy for Clarissa’s situation. She wrote Clarissa’s character with so much truth and raw feeling that I felt her pain through the pages.

The events toward the end of the novel truly shocked me as they shocked Clarissa. The reader finds out the truth about Clarissa’s origins at the same time she does, so it completely threw me for a loop as the reveal was not what I was expecting at all. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending, to be honest, but I can’t explain my conflicts with it without getting into spoilers, so I’ll just avoid that entire conversation.

I really enjoyed Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. Vendela Vida has an absolutely gorgeous writing style and she wrote a fully drawn character in Clarissa. I would absolutely recommend this one for lovers of character-driven novels with excellent writing.

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Published by Algonquin Books

The year is 1946, and city girl Laura is trying to deal with the fact that her husband Henry has decided to move their family to a farm on the Mississippi Delta. The Jim Crow South is like nothing Laura has ever experienced, and every day brings something new for her to adjust to. The war’s ending brings two men to help with the farm – Henry’s younger brother Jamie, and Ronsel, the eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the farm. Ronsel was a hero in the war, but unfortunately back in Mississippi he is seen as less than a man due to the color of his skin. These two men somehow form a friendship, and this friendship sets the stage for the novel’s shattering conclusion.

I wanted to read Mudbound because I thought When She Woke was pretty genius and while I was reading that book, there was something about Jordan’s writing style that I was really drawn to. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I was hoping the same quality would show up in Mudbound and it definitely did. Jordan’s fantastic writing and story-telling ability drew me into this novel from the first page, and I had extreme difficulty putting it down for any stretch of time.

I have to say, though, that although I loved this book it shattered me. I became so invested in these characters that the ending just about killed me. That’s the thing about my experiences with this author so far – she writes these incredibly real characters that become a part of you as you’re reading about them. So when THINGS happen you feel them so very strongly. That’s another thing about this book that worked so well – Jordan is so skilled at bringing the reader in, at giving little hints and clues that things are not going to turn out well so you know to expect something throughout the whole novel. She creates this foreboding atmosphere throughout the entire book, but when it’s finally over, what happened is nothing like what you were anticipating. It’s crazy good writing at its best.

There’s nothing else for me to say except read Mudbound. I absolutely loved it.

Make it Stay by Joan Frank

Make it Stay by Joan Frank
Published by The Permanent Press
Review copy provided by the publisher in conjunction with TLC Book Tours

Married couple Rachel and Neil are preparing dinner for some friends one evening in their home in Southern California when Neil decides to tell Rachel the backstory of their dinner guests, the Spenders. Mike and Tilda Spender have led an extremely strange life, with Mike deceiving Tilda for years, Tilda raging against him when she discovered his betrayal, and in the middle of it all they somehow produced a beautiful, intelligent daughter named Addie. As Rachel hears the truth about these people she’s known for years, she realizes that their catastrophic lives may actually affect her own marriage and future.

Make it Stay has quite an interesting structure to it – the book is almost a story within a story. We have the present-day Rachel and Neil, and then we have the entire history of Mike and Tilda’s marriage, Neil’s friendship to the two of them, and how everything that happened in the past brings us back to the present-day. It is a unique way to tell a story, but I do think that in this case, it worked. I remained engaged with Rachel and Neil as characters while also feeling the need to find out more about Mike and Tilda’s history.

These characters are not people I would want to ever be friends with. Mike and Tilda are truly not nice people, they are incredibly strange individuals, especially Tilda, and Mike is simply a deceitful person. I really didn’t like them at all and I couldn’t help but wonder why Neil and Rachel had continued this friendship with them over the years. Unfortunately, I felt that I didn’t get to know Neil and Rachel very well throughout the book, as it was so focused on Mike and Tilda. That’s quite a shame, honestly, because what I did get from Neil and Rachel is that, although they definitely are not perfect, they seemed like lovely people and I was interested in understanding them better. This is a short book, though, and most of the meat of the story is spent on Mike and Tilda’s story.

While I enjoyed Make it Stay while I was reading it, I have to admit that ultimately I found it forgettable. Not that it’s a bad book or that I didn’t like it by any means, just that I can tell this isn’t going to be one of the novels that will stick with me for very long. But I did really enjoy the writing and the structure, so I would be open to reading something more by this author. Would I recommend Make it Stay? I’m not really sure. I liked it well enough but for me there wasn’t that special something that really makes a novel. If you’re interested in the unique structure of this book as well as Frank’s ability to make me continue reading about characters I hate, go for it. Otherwise, maybe choose a different novel instead.

The Sunday Salon: Busy as usual

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to The Sunday Salon. I’m shocked that I’m finding the time to even write this post because I’ve been exhaustively busy lately. In a good way, mostly, but I simply have been doing very little reading or blogging over the past few weeks.

Things have been good here, though. Two weekends ago hubby and I spent the weekend at Disney World. We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort, which while not a luxury hotel by any means, was really quite nice and the grounds were absolutely gorgeous. We spent very little time at the hotel anyway, as we hit three parks in two days (Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and the Magic Kingdom), two of which we’d never been to before. My favorite part was definitely the safari at the Animal Kingdom (if you ever go to Disney, this is a MUST do in my opinion), while my hubby’s was probably the fireworks at MK – he’s definitely a kid at heart. It truly was a fabulous weekend, but it added to the busy, go-go-go feeling that I haven’t been able to escape this year.

The following week, I worked a ton of hours and I can’t even tell you what happened to last weekend – it’s a complete blur to me. Probably consisted of church and dinner out on Saturday and who knows what on Sunday. Same with this weekend so far, I worked yesterday and have spent the morning today doing laundry and getting stuff organized in preparation of my upcoming trip. Yes, I am flying out to Columbus, OH tonight for a week of training for work. It promises to be an exciting week with much to learn, but from what I hear it consists of four 12+ hour days and a half day on Friday, followed by a flight back home Friday evening. I am mostly excited but admittedly exhausted just thinking of all those long days.

Things have NOT been good on the reading front lately. Most nights when I am finished making and eating dinner at 8 pm or so all I want to do is watch TV and can’t even think of picking up a book. Plus I’ve been trying to be more consistent about going to the gym at least 3-4 times a week in preparation of a trip I’m taking to the beach with my family in mid-June. I did finish one book today while waiting for my laundry – True Sisters by Sandra Dallas, which I really liked. I’m thinking of bringing Pure by Juliana Baggott on the plane with me today as it looks like just the thing to keep my mind entertained on a three-hour flight.

As far as blogging goes, I have one review scheduled for tomorrow for a book tour and the blog will probably be dead the rest of the week. I am hoping to get back into review writing when I return next weekend, but honestly we’ll just have to see how it goes. I have had to put most of my mental focus into my job lately so I’m definitely not putting any pressure on myself blogging-wise.

How about you? What are you up to this Sunday? Any fun plans I can be envious about?