Empress of The World

I like that this cover is gender-neutral. It might inspire someone to pick it up who wouldn't typically reach for GLBT romance.

Empress of the World
by Sara Ryan
Puffin
Library copy from Follett
[#14 in my 75 book challenge]

This is a lesbian love story.

The story here is classic girl-meets-girl. The setting is the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, housed on a college campus. Nicola Lancaster is a theater techie studying archeology, and she meets a fun group of kids who instantly become her summer pals: computer chick Katrina, beautiful Battle, music-obsessed Kevin, and sweet Isaac. Like nerd kids do when then finally find themselves with their own kind, this quintet start developing feelings for each other. But Nicola finds that her feelings are for Battle.

I really, really want to like lesbian love stories. No, I take that back. I really, really want to LOVE lesbian love stories. Instead, I end up just liking them. Lesbian love stories are eternally in my friend zone. Unfortunately, Empress of the World ended up in the friend zone, too. Don’t get me wrong — friends are great! More friends are even better! But I’m still searching for that great romance that works as both a great read AND a great lesbian love story.

Where this one fell short was in the characters. I never got attached to Nicola as narrator, and I never got attached to Battle as a love interest. I kept comparing the characters to the kids from Anna and the French Kiss, and the characters in that story were far more developed. I wish Ryan had put a little more character development into the story so that the actual plot would make sense. I had trouble understanding Nicola’s motives and Battle’s reactions and why they even fell for each other in the first place. Ditto for the secondary characters of Katrina, Isaac, and Kevin. Normally I complain about books being too unnecessarily long, but this one was unnecessarily short.

Final Grade:   C    Here’s a book that solidly earned a C, and I quickly assigned it the grade with no waffling. A C is a good grade. Average. But I wasn’t blow away. It’s a quiet, sweet little book that would be worth reading. While I won’t run out and buy a copy, I’m glad I read it. It is  middle school appropriate (I’m pretty sure these girls were having sex, but it’s only alluded to and an “innocent” kid would probably not catch on to that), so I would recommend it to kids that seem to have an interest in lesbian literature or romances.

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie Edition

Ohmygoodness. Top Ten Tuesday this week is a FREEBIE week, which means I get to pick the topic. As always, the meme is hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish, where bloggers all post their lists to share. You should check it out. This week should be particularly interesting, since there will be so many different lists for this FREEBIE topic.

I picked this topic because I doubt it will ever be an actual TTT topic. So I’m going to introduce y’all to some great books in a category that is near and dear to my little heart:

Top Ten YA Books With Great LGBT Characters

[Books with positive or realistic gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered characters]

Five Books I’ve Read (summaries are my own)

1.) Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

This was one of the first YA lesbian books I read, and it is iconic in the canon. Published in 1982, this is the story of two girls (Annie and Liza) who meet at a New York museum and realize that they are more than friends. Though they struggle to hide their relationship, they also wish to stay true to each other despite the possible consequences.

2.) Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Though not a LGBT book specifically, the inclusion of lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered girls as main characters in the story were amazing. Libba Bray wrote some amazing LGBT girls into this quite feminist novel.

3.) Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

**2011 Stonewall Honor Book** “Tiny Cooper is not the world’s gayest person, and he is not the world’s largest person, but I believe he may be the world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.” Tiny Cooper is amazing. The gay Will Grayson is realistically flawed. And this is a wonderful, hilarious story about love and friendship in high school.

4.) Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters

Holland is a high school student, involved in clubs, dating a guy, and getting ready for college. One day she meets Cece, a girl who plans to start a Lesbigay club at the high school, and everything changes. Holland’s story isn’t always a happy or ideal one, but it reflect the realities and fears of students as they come out to themselves, their friends, and their families.

5.) The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

A verse novel depicting the voices of several high school students and the complicated web of relationships between them. Everyone can relate to at least one of the characters, and I loved that the relationships were so complex, unexpected, and interconnected. Secret crushes, secret fears, and secrets about identity are expressed in each point of view. 

And Five I Want To Read (summaries from Goodreads)

6.) Empress of the World by Sara Ryan

Nicola Lancaster is spending eight weeks at the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, a hothouse of smart, articulate, intense teenagers. She soon falls in with Katrina (Manic Computer Chick), Isaac (Nice-Guy-Despite-Himself), Kevin (Inarticulate Composer) . . . and Battle. Battle Hall Davies is a beautiful blonde dancer, and everything Nic isn’t. The two become friends-and then, startlingly, more than friends. What do you do when you think you’re attracted to guys, and then you meet a girl who steals your heart?

7.) Shine by Lauren Myracle

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice. 

8.) Luna by Julie Anne Peters

**A 2004 NBAYPL Finalist** For years, Regan’s brother Liam has been nursing a secret. By day, he is Liam, a passably typical boy of his age; at night, he transforms himself into Luna, his true, female self. Regan loves and supports her brother and she keeps his Liam/Luna secret. Things change, though, when Luna decides to emerge from her cocoon. She begins dressing like a girl in public; first at the mall; then at school; then at home. Regan worries that her brother’s transgender identity is threatening her own slippery hold on normalcy.

9.) Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

**Winner of the 2012 Stonewall Award!!** Carlos Duarte knows that he’s fabulous. He’s got a better sense of style than half the fashionistas in New York City, and he can definitely apply makeup like nobody’s business. He may only be in high school, but when he lands the job of his dreams–makeup artist at the FeatureFace counter in Macy’s–he’s sure that he’s finally on his way to great things.But the makeup artist world is competitive and cutthroat, and for Carlos to reach his dreams, he’ll have to believe in himself more than ever.

10.) Ash by Malinda Lo

**Winner of the 201o William Morris Award** In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

BONUS: Anything by Alex Sanchez, who writes fun books featuring gay male characters in high school. I’ve always wanted to read one of his books.

GOOD AUTHORS TO CHECK OUT FOR GLBT LIT: ME Kerr, Jacqueline Woodson, Lauren Myracle, James Howe, Julie Anne Peters, and David Levithan

Beauty Queens

Looks like fluff...but think again.

Beauty Queens

By Libba Bray

[#54 in my 52 60 book challenge]

Let this one be named the most bizarre book I’ve read in 2011. It’s like Miss Congeniality meets Lost. Beauty queens are trapped on an island after their plane crashes and they must figure out how to survive, but there are so many things getting in their way: corporate greed, dictators, secret agents, and pirates, just to name a few. It’s like a three-ring circus of campy weirdness.

From the beginning of the novel it’s very clear that this is intended to be over-the-top. There is a lot going on. Sometimes too much, because I know I felt overwhelmed at points. Even at the end I was still trying to figure out who some of the characters were. I liked a lot of what I read, but sometimes I was ready to give up. Overall, though, I’m glad I stuck with it because this is a very different book. Refreshingly different. And I liked that.

Believe it or not, Beauty Queens is probably one of the most feminist books I’ve read. At least, it’s one of the most modern feminist books I’ve read. I do love, love, love my Ruby Oliver books, which are probably my favorite modern feminist reads, but this took feminism to a whole different level. Each of the girls on the island has something different to add to the pot when it came to different aspects of feminism (which is probably why it felt like such a circus). Two girls dealt with being racial minorities (black and Indian). Two dealt with owning their own sexuality and romantic relationships. There’s a bisexual, a lesbian, and a transgendered pageant girl, as well as a cross-dressing pirate. It’s kind of like one big, happy, hilarious after school special for girls. And boys. And everyone.

The message in Beauty Queens is clear: be yourself. Whatever that is. Whoever that is. I don’t recommend the novel to everyone because it is overwhelming, but I recommend it to anyone who wants something feminist. Or satirical. Or anti-commercialism. Or ridiculous. I’m think it would be one of those books that would be excellent as an audio book, so I would strongly recommend picking it up in that format from your public library. Just know that this book exists, and be happy that it does.

Top Ten Books That Have Been On My Shelf For The Longest But I’ve Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the bloggers over at the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers from all around create lists based on the chosen topics, and post links to the host blog to share our love of books! This week’s topic made me laugh, because it probably reveals more about me as a reader than anything else of this blog:

1. The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson — Two things I love: lesbian fiction and Maureen Johnson. That explains why I purchased it, but nothing explains why I haven’t read it.

2. The Uglies by Scott Westerfield — A lot of people really love the Uglies series (trilogy? or are there more than three?), so I bought it…and moved on to something else without reading it.

3. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi — Terrible librarian confession: I’ve had this one for six months. Technically not as long as others on this list, but the fact that it’s a library book gives it an instant bump to the list.

4. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger — I have read 1/2 of it. It always escapes my shelf-purging fits of frenzied weeding because somewhere, deep down inside, I know I’m going to read the whole thing one day.

5. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult — This one will be read and reviewed soon. I’ve been saying that since I bought it in the Seattle airport  in the summer of 2009.

6. Thirteen Days to Midnight  by Patrick Carman — Eh. Someone convince me to read it. Please.

7. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood — I was so excited when I finally bought this at Pegasus books in Berkeley last fall. However, I get intimidated by the length when I look at my too-read pile and give up.

8. Unwind by Neil Schusterman — I bought this from my first book fair in the fall of 2009 and it’s been in my nightstand ever since.

9. Lord of the Flies by William Golding — I still have guilt from not reading it for ninth grade English, so I keep it around saying, “one day…”

10. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle — Currently reading it and I’m halfway done. I will finish it this time. Take that, fifth-grade me! It’s only been seventeen long, long years…

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

I love this cover! It doesn't tell much about the story, but it's very pretty.

The Mockingbirds

by Daisy Whitney

[#47 in my 52 Book Challenge]

I’m on a roll with the good books lately! Mockingbirds has been on my radar for some time now, and it was exactly what I thought it would be.

Themis Academy is a boarding school where the academics are amazing and the students are, too. Everyone seems happy, and the administration rarely deals with discipline. However, underneath the facade there are students who face real conflicts. Since the faculty won’t deal with problems, the students have created a secret society to judge these rights and wrongs: The Mockingbirds. When Alex is dated raped by an ultra-sleezy water polo player, she turns to the Mockingbirds to right the wrong committed against her.

Around the half-way point, I was pleasantly surprised that the story was not cheesy or predictable. Though Alex doubts herself at points, she knows she was raped and she does talk about it. I felt her reaction was realistic. I was also super-impressed by the reaction of the students around her, male and female. What impressed me most of all was the Mockingbirds themselves. The organization is slick and well-organized. I thought it would be more secret-society-ish, but it was secretive enough to feel full of intrigue.

The Mockingbirds is, of course, a reference to To Kill a Mockingbird, and Harper Lee’s famous novel shows up all over this book. It would be interesting to read the to side by side with high school students to make the older story more relevant. I’ve seen a lot of books doing this lately, not by retelling old stories but paying homage to them in telling totally new stories. I think it’s a pretty cool idea.

This book has so many of my favorite elements: boarding schools, secret societies, musicians, romance, modern feminism, and a kick-ass lesbian supporting character. Mockingbirds is definitely on the short list for best books of my 2011 Challenge…but with the good-book roll that I’ve been on, who knows how long it might last before it’s displaced with something even better? That being said, I am in the home stretch with only five books left to read. It’s looking like it might be more like 60 books this year, which is not a bad thing.

Penguins, Faux-Lesbians and Llamas…Oh My!

I still wonder what happened to the stockpile of Fruit Roll-Ups. Why must E. Lockhart leave me in limbo?

The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Training Them

by E. Lockhart

[#27 in the 52 Book Challenge]

Ah, Ruby Oliver. This book didn’t disappoint. She’s neurotic and delightful, all at once!

Ruby is back in the second book in the Ruby Oliver quartet, and she’s still picking up the pieces from her destroyed social life. Cricket and Kim are still not talking to her, she’s been in the state of noboyfriend for 39 weeks, and she’s still seeing her therapist to understand her panic attacks. However, Ruby is starting to come into her own. She’s made friends with Meghan and Noel, and is starting to pick up the pieces with Nora. Jackson is leaving notes in her cubby again and love triangles force Ruby to consult the rules in the Boy Book, a collaborative effort between Ruby and her (ex) friends that lays out the laws of the land when it comes to love and life in a small private school.

I must say again that the Ruby Oliver novels appear to be fluffy books, but I am continually pleased by the realistic feminist slant that E. Lockhart has in all of her novels. Ruby is a modern teenager who wants to be loved and liked by her friends, and she sometimes does stupid things in her attempts at navigating the world. However, the underlying message is that Ruby has the power to make her own choices and do what is best for her. Ruby’s therapist (the oh-s0 conveniently placed character of wisdom) regularly reminds her that she is too passive and she can’t blame others for things that go wrong in her life. I probably need to take a little bit of this advice, as I believe Ruby and I are quite similar.

Again, the hardcover for book #2 is quite different from the paperback.

Ruby Oliver is hilarious in an intelligent way. One of my favorite subplots throughout the book is when her parents decide that her social withdrawal must be because she is a lesbian.  Ruby’s parents had recently read a book called Empower Your Girl Child and they constantly tell her that she’s a lesbian and they love her anyway, even though she’s not a lesbian. I also gave Ruby an air high-five when she ended up with some pictures of a friend’s boobs and tore them up, with no regard for how that would affect her social status. She did the right thing and never wanted to take it back. It was a good moment.

So I’ve now finished Ruby Oliver #2 and I’m already well in to Ruby Oliver #3…she’s a little but addictive, but that’s okay because it’s summer and I have more time than usual for reading! I hope y’all are reading up a storm, too!

I Promise I Only Cried a Little Bit

I can see how it "will appeal to fans of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight" but it also appeals to those of use who hated Twilight!

If I Stay 

by Gayle Forman

[#25 in my 52 Book Challenge]

Before you read this review, know that it is best enjoyed with a Yo Yo Ma soundtrack. So if you own any Yo Yo Ma, or even any version of Gershwin’s Andante con moto e poco rubato, put it on as theme music. (Okay, so I know that most of you won’t actually do that. But trust me, you’re missing out).

I now see what all the buzz is about for this book. It’s been in my TBR pile for a year and I finally got around to reading it. I read it in less than a day. This is the story of Mia, the Juilliard-bound, classical-musical loving cellist. Mia’s boyfriend and the rest of her family are punk rockers, but they still love, appreciate, and support Mia. Her life is pretty average. Until one day her entire family is in a terrible car accident, and Mia must make the decision about whether or not she’ll stay or go.

Before reading the book, it was hard for me to imagine how the author could make a good case for me to be on the fence about Mia’s decision. However, she did this quite well. I could see Mia’s dilemma on why it might be best to let go. Mia reminds us what it is to live and to remember, but also what it is to feel great pain and loss.

The imagery and sound references in the text were so vivid that I knew this would be made into a movie. And apparently the movie rights have already been bought by the same people that made Twilight. I hope they don’t overdramatize this book like they did with all the Bella/Edward madness, as this book is more simple and subtle. But Gayle Forman has written a story that will translate very well to the big screen. Even the soundtrack is included throughout the text, since music is so important to everyone in Mia’s life. (You can view and download the songs from the novel, by artists like The Eels, Yo Yo Ma, The Smiths, The Ramones, and James Taylor, here). I can already visualize the car accident scene in my head, with Beethoven’s Cello Sonata no. 3 playing as the chaos occurs. It’s a heartbreaking scene.

Mia’s story is one that will stay with me for a long time, which is the mark of a very good book. I can’t avoid mentioning that the book was very reminiscent of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (but much better!) and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (which I didn’t even finish). Highly recommended, and I’m glad I read it so I can now recommend it to my students!

My Latest Picoult Read

Zoe's story hit close to home on so many levels.

Sing You Home 

by Jodi Picoult

[#24 in my 52 Book Challenge]

I love a good Jodi Picoult book. Picoult tells a story in such a way that I fly through her books in a matter of days. Her pacing is perfect and her subject matter usually makes me question my own morals. This book was no exception!

The basic plot: Zoe is a music therapist who is experiencing fertility problems with her husband, Max. The tension between the two over the fertility problems results in the end of the marriage. Shortly after, Zoe is surprised to find love with her close friend, Vanessa, while Max becomes a born-again Christian. When Zoe wishes to use frozen embryos that she and Max stored during their marriage in order to have a child with Vanessa, a legal battle erupts.

This book was a little different from the other Picoult books I have read. I have read (in this order): The Pact, My Sister’s Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, and Handle With Care. I felt that Sing You Home was more linear. There were a few flashbacks here and there, especially at the beginning, but overall I felt the story was seated in the present. I’m neither here nor there on that, but it did make this book feel different.

However, this book really felt different for other reasons. I think this was the first Picoult book I’ve read that really hit close to home in many ways. I don’t really live in the medical or legal worlds, I’ve never had a serious medical problem, I’ve never wanted to kill myself or anyone else, and bullying wasn’t a major part of my life. So the other Picoult books I have read felt more like peering in on someone else’s life, seeing how other people live. Sing You Home felt like peering into my own life, or what my life could be, five or ten years down the road. Picoult made me feel the emotions of wanting to conceive and not being able to, an emotion that I am terrified I might actually experience one day. For lesbians, having a child can be a very complicated and expensive process. But, I’m like Zoe — I want it so badly.

In fact, one of the things that attracted me to the book was that it was about lesbians. I felt the story did a good job in not making Zoe and Vanessa into “token” lesbians or stereotypes. They felt like normal people, multi-dimensional and believable. I absolutely adored reading their love story. I felt for Vanessa’s professional worries over being out as a school counselor, too, because that’s something I worry about every single day in my own job. And, since I consider myself religious, I completely understood Max’s conflicts over religion. It’s hard to understand what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God when the people who teach and counsel for the church are more concerned with their own self-interest and close-mindedness than seeing the real world. Top all of that off with Zoe’s love for music and I was hooked.

I’d give this book four stars (not that I usually give stars). The emotions and characters were well written and I couldn’t put it down once I got into it. It loses one star because I felt it was a little predictable at times. I saw the ending coming from a mile away and I felt that some of the plot twists were a bit contrived. Overall, though, it was a fabulous book and I would highly recommend it. And here’s to Jodi Picoult for writing such a great book and (hopefully) changing a few people’s minds about homosexuality and same-sex parenting in America!

By The Time You Read This…

Book 10 of 52! Which means I’m back on track, because this is week 11 of 2011.

The title of the book is what grabs your attention.

10.) By The Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead

by Julie Anne Peters

I read a summary of this book last spring and I knew I wanted to read it. Daelyn is a teenager who is going to commit suicide. She has been bullied her entire life because she was overweight, and she has failed twice at ending her own life to escape her “loser” life. Now she is determined to become a “completer,” so she joins a website for other completers where she finds a community of people that help her objectively and rationally plan for her Day of Determination. Daelyn determines that she will end her life in 23 days, and she begins the detachment process from her life.

This is not an pleasant book to read, but an important one. I felt that the bullying Daelyn experienced was very realistic, and it reminds me that the little things can build and build over time with terrible consequences. As an educator, it made me ponder which of my students might be feeling the same way as Daelyn. It reminded me of The Pact by Jodi Picoult because both feature protagonists that only feel happiness when planning their suicides. Dark stuff, but it does happen and it breaks my heart.

This is one of those books you can only read once. The ending impacted me in such a way that I don’t think I could read it again now that I know how it ends. I need some of my friends and/or students to read it so we can discuss the ending in detail. It’s quite frustrating to read a book like this alone and have no one to talk to about it!

I’ve been a fan of Julie Anne Peters ever since someone slipped me a copy of Keeping You Secret at camp, and she did not disappoint. Almost all of Peters’ other novels are queer fiction (lesbian and transgender fiction, in particular), so I was surprise to see her write a heterosexual character so well. But she did it and she did it well. This is one of the best books I have read in some time, which is why I read it all in one sitting. I recommend it.

I think I’ll be reading more on the suicide/bullycide theme. I’ve pulled Hate List and Bullyville off my shelf to put in the reading queue.

Stuff I Like #9: Handwriting

Blogging has come about as a pastime because I have a long history of journal writing. I started my first journal when I was 7-years-old, and didn’t stop until well into college. I loved seeing my own life written down in my own handwriting. It made the experience more permanent and more personal. Blogs disappear into cyberspace, there is less guarantee that the record of my life with be around after I’m gone. Not that I think many people will care about my life, but I’m sure there will be someone down the family line who would find it interesting or nostalgic.

I miss the times when I could identify all my friends by their handwriting. The times of handwritten letters and passing notes in class. I can identify my girlfriend’s handwriting, and that’s about it. The good, old-fashioned love letter is dying, but I do get letters inside cards and the occasional note scrawled on computer paper when she leaves in the mornings. I keep all of these. Sometimes I keep them for the content, but mostly I keep them because seeing her handwriting makes me feel closer to her. With Valentine’s Day coming up, I’m keeping it simple this year — a love letter in a card, written by hand because it is far more romantic that way!