In love with Lola and the Boy Next Door

I was browsing through my library's latest e-book additions, and saw Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.  I knew nothing about the book, but I remembered book bloggers mentioning the title on Twitter a while ago, in tweet-sized bursts of excitement and anticipation.  Figuring it would be a fun read, and a quick one, I placed a hold on it, and was able to start reading it about a week ago.

Lola is a high school junior who's dating a 22-year-old musician.  She also has a unique fashion sense that includes designing and making her own clothes and wearing all kinds of wigs.  As someone with very limited and hum-drum fashion experience, and having never worn a wig in my life (as far as I recall), it took me a while to get into those parts of the story, and to appreciate that aspect of Lola's character.  But I enjoyed the book right from the start, and about a third of the way in, I was beyond hooked.  This book is full of squee!

The Boy Next Door mentioned in the title isn't the musician boyfriend who's really a bit too old for Lola, but The Boy Who Used to Live Next Door and Broke Lola's Heart Before Moving Away.  Early in the story, Lola sees her neighbors moving out, and soon, the family of The Boy Next Door moves back in.  Please suspend your judgment on this point: the boy's name is Cricket Bell.  I think Cricket is a completely idiotic choice for a name, especially for a male, and it only makes a tiny bit more sense when we know his twin sister is named Calliope.  Beautiful and drool-worthy people can have less-than-lovely names; I had a crush on a boy named Harvey when I was very young, who coincidentally had the same kind of dark hair and bright blue eyes that Stephanie Perkins has given to Cricket Bell, and while I found the name Harvey unfortunate, the fact that I remember him fondly (dreamily?) some 27 years later is proof that a person can have a lot of beauty lying behind a less-than-flattering name.

So, Cricket has grown into a handsome young man, which is not surprising.  What did surprise me was the fact that he was actually a nice guy, a truly good person, almost from his first appearance in the book.  He didn't play games with Lola, but told her early in the story that he'd felt badly about their falling out before the Bells moved away, that he'd always thought she was special, that he'd always liked her, and still did.  I don't read lots of young adult novels, but this seemed to me like a refreshing change, a very attractive guy openly proclaiming his feelings to a girl, because given their history, he thinks it would be wrong to pretend he isn't interested.  Lola spent two years hating Cricket for hurting her, and it takes a while for her feelings to thaw.  Also, Lola's relationship with Max, her musician boyfriend, is pretty serious -- at least on Lola's side.

This book reminded me of what it was like to be a teenager, and at times it made me wish that I was 18 again.  I finished reading it on Tuesday morning before work, but then on Wednesday night before bed, I was skimming back through it again, re-reading scenes and highlighting passages.  I wasn't ready to leave it and move on to another book, and figured I'd need to force myself out of my (too-long, unintended) blogging hiatus to write about it, before starting my next read.  It's hard to decide where to go now, when I'm still in Lola's room, standing behind her as she looks out the window and talks to Cricket, who's leaning out of his window in the house next door.

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

Read-a-thon: We'll see how it goes

The day is finally here, Jeff and the boys are at basketball practice, but I didn't make specific Read-a-thon plans or sign up early because I didn't know if we'd have anything else going on.  But, we took yesterday off and did a day trip, so the rest of my weekend is pretty flexible, and I'm hoping to spend a good portion of the day reading.  My husband suggested I do most of my housecleaning today, then it will be out of the way and I can read even more tomorrow.  I said, "But the Read-a-thon is TODAY."  And he was all, "It's A read-a-thon, and there seems to always be one going on," and I said, "No, it's THE Read-a-thon, and it's every six months, only twice a year."  And I shook my head and told him he didn't understand.  Nothing new there, I guess.

But, I finished my print book last night, and I'm not sure if I'd want to dig into a new book, or if I should "sample" as many of my unread books as possible, to see if they grab me enough that I want to continue to keep them around the house, or if they don't, then I can weed them.  If I decide to do my housecleaning, though, I'll start an audiobook -- specifically, my third go-round with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  I'm going to lead the book group discussion in November, so need to "re-read" it in time to prepare.  So if I listen while cleaning, the time will count as reading, and there's no need to plan or make any decisions, just get my mp3 player, get my cleaning supplies, and GO.  (Of course, I like the idea of reading "in print" when I'm the only one home and the house is quiet, which is NOW, through the next couple hours.)  I'll decide after I finish breakfast and get this posted.

To sum up: I'm tossing my hat in the ring, but with lowered expectations.  If I don't get much reading done, I will not be miserable about it.

I have to add, I loved this pre-Read-a-thon post from Alice at Reading Rambo, called "Why Readathons Never Actually Work for Me."  The details are different, but the overall spirit is a lot like how my Read-a-thons usually end up.  Her post is also really funny; go read it!  And then, enjoy the rest of your Read-a-thon!  :-)

My review of The Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman

From the publisher’s website:

In the final weeks of the Weimar Republic, as Hitler and his National Socialist party angle to assume control of Germany, beautiful girls are seen sleepwalking through the streets. Then, a young woman of mysterious origin, with her legs bizarrely deformed, is pulled dead from the Havel River. Willi Kraus, a high ranking detective in Berlin's police force, begins a murder investigation. A decorated World War I hero and the nation's most famous detective, Willi also is a Jew. Despite his elite status in the criminal police, he is disturbed by the direction Germany is taking. Working urgently to solve the murder, Willi finds his superiors diverting him at every turn. As he moves through darkness closer to the truth, Willi begins to understand that much more than the solution to a murder is at stake. What he discovers will mean that his life, the lives of his friends and family, and Germany itself will never be the same.


(First, an admission: when I saw this book on LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers list, I was drawn to it because the cover reminded me of my copy of The Shadow of the Wind. The description intrigued me, and that’s why I requested it, but it was the cover that initially grabbed me. Do you see a small resemblance too?)



The story begins in November 1932, when the body of an unknown woman is pulled from a river, and Willi Kraus is assigned to the case. However, in chapter three, Willi receives orders to find the daughter of the king of Bulgaria, who came to Berlin with her husband a few days before and has since disappeared. Willi doesn’t investigate missing person cases – he’s a homicide detective – but President von Hindenburg wants to assure the Bulgarian ruler that Germany’s best Inspektor-Detektiv is searching for the princess. Fortunately, Willi’s junior apprentice, Gunther, is dedicated and very bright, and he’s able to continue digging for evidence in the murder case while Willi tries to find the princess.

As Willi and Gunther investigate the two crimes, they find a few similarities between them – for instance, the body was found in Spandau, and the princess was last seen alive in the same area. They also find hints that both cases might be part of a larger plot: a number of people, mostly young women, who had appeared to be sleepwalking and then went missing; evacuations of dozens of people from a state hospital, with no record of where they’d been taken; and the fact that several of the missing persons had been linked with a hypnotist called the Great Gustave. All of this takes place while the German government is in turmoil, and the Nazi Party is gaining strength. Willi begins to fear for the safety of his sons and the rest of his family, and eventually for his own life. It’s difficult to know who’s telling the truth, who can be trusted.

Paul Grossman is a great storyteller, and the pacing in The Sleepwalkers is excellent. From the very first chapter, the wheels are in motion: characters introduced and gradually revealed, crimes to be investigated, and pieces of evidence located and examined. Through all this, the tentacles of the Nazi Party stretch further and further over everything in the story. Grossman weaves the elements together in ways that make sense, and keep the reader engaged.

The Sleepwalkers is definitely a thriller, but more a psychological thriller than an action story. It’s much more than a murder mystery, and not a “typical” historical novel. I’d call it a historical thriller: some of the characters, places, and plot details are fictional, but the backdrop of the Nazi Party’s machinations and the increasing horror uncovered by Willi and his allies is, sadly, based on fact. In a note at the end of the book, Grossman indicates which parts of the story are true, but adds that most of the incidents occurred several years later than the timeline in his book.

Given the difficult subject matter and disturbing events and imagery, The Sleepwalkers isn’t suitable for everyone. That said, it’s an intelligent, entertaining, sexy, scary, and thought-provoking novel. Highly recommended.

I received a paperback copy of this book from the publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin, through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. I appreciate the opportunity to review this book, and hope that LT helps it to reach a wider audience.

The haul from this year's book sale!

It's been a full week since Friends Night at the annual TSCPL book sale, and I'm only NOW able to post about it, although I took the photo and entered everything into my LibraryThing catalog last Saturday. Life is just too damn busy. Also, when I DO have some free time, I usually choose to read rather than blog ... and of course I can read in bed with a booklight before I go to sleep, and it would be much more difficult to write a blog post in that same position and situation. But, I digress.

The book sale was great, and I found a bunch of books that look really good, including a few that had caught my eye several times in the past, and I finally went ahead and bought them - such as Little Children, Say You're One of Them, and Bird by Bird. But Saturday, amazingly, I said to Jeff, "I think I might have too many books, I guess I should get rid of some of them." And then I started clearing out some books -- not too many, but a small pile or two! I was able to make room for some of my new acquisitions, but I still have maybe half of them to put away.

Even though I found good stuff, I didn't have the same euphoria at the sale this year that I've had in most prior years. Yet I was able to spend more than I'd expected to: after paying my $52.00, I literally had one dollar bill and a bunch of change in my wallet, and that was all. In my defense, I have to say that every item I got was $2.00, because I didn't even go near the mass market paperbacks which were only $1.00 each. Also, four of the books I got are for my mother-in-law. (Those aren't in the picture.) So my item total was 19 print books (some hardcover, some trade size paperbacks) and three audiobooks -- all of them only $2.00 each, and if you think of it from that perspective, it's quite amazing! No, I didn't get any books for the boys, but darn it, a few of them are YA and they might like them someday when they're older. Having read and loved King Dork, I'm psyched to have the audio of Andromeda Klein, and when my boys are older teenagers, I hope they might read and enjoy them both, because Frank Portman is completely hysterical!

So many things I want to write about lately, and as I said, never enough time or energy. I wrote a few pages in my notebook last night, might scan and post that later, but otherwise, I've just been reading and thinking, in between all the time working and being mom and cleaning house and just getting by. Next on the list: getting to bed, since it's midnight. But check out that photo again; man, I got some really good stuff. :-D

Journal entry for August 6

One week ago, August 6, was my first time taking part in an event called Do Nothing But Read Day. Sounds right up my alley, right? Of course it is. But sometime during the afternoon, my mood took an extreme downward turn. Later in the evening, after a nap, I tried to capture my thoughts with pen and paper. The results are in the photos below.











I hope to continue using my new journal to keep my writing hand in shape. ;-) I plan to post more pages from it on here if/when I can.

Mini-review of The Shadow of the Wind

This mini-review was initially posted on my local library's website. To enter the grand prize drawing for the summer reading program, adults had to read eight books and write a review of at least one of them. I wrote mine for The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (and brilliantly translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves). I started reading it before the Special Libraries Association (SLA) conference, June 12 to 16, and didn't finish until after my trip. In fact, June and July were very busy, hence my long silence from blogging, and I can't tell you how much I've missed my blog, and writing in general. I'm posting the mini-review in part to "ease back into" blogging. Anyway, I love love loved this book, and here's what I had to say about it:


Almost anyone who really loves books, and who understands the power of books and reading to transform our lives, will love the novel The Shadow of the Wind. It begins in 1945, when ten-year-old Daniel is first introduced by his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

Daniel finds a novel called The Shadow of the Wind, written by a man named Julian Carax, and falls in love with the story. When Daniel tries to find other books by Carax, he learns there is a mystery surrounding the author and his books: someone else has been searching for copies of Carax's books, and burning all that he finds.

There are mysteries, romances, troubled families, true friendships, forbidden love, and murder. There are good guys and bad guys, and some characters' true colors aren't always clear. Most of the story is set in Barcelona, Spain, and the setting feels gothic, as though it's always nighttime. Yet there are lighter moments, and a lot of humorous dialogue. Ruiz Zafón weaves the disparate threads together securely, and creates a masterpiece.