I Was Here by Gayle Forman

I Was Here opens with Meg's suicide email (that she sent on time delay to her family and best friend), I regret to inform you.... . The reader never really gets to meet Meg, all that's shown of Meg is through the memories of Cody, her best friend. Cody is shocked and devastated by her friend's death, but she is also hurt that she was caught off guard (Meg was her best friend, shouldn't she have seen some sort of sign?). When she finds an encrypted file on Meg's computer she becomes embroiled in Meg's seemingly sudden decision to end her own life.

Forman has created a work that tackles a difficult and emotionally wrought topic in an authentic way. Cody is grieving and angry and says hurtful things and makes rash (and in the light of day ridiculous potentially dangerous) decisions as she struggles to figure out life without her other half. 

Read-Alikes
Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross

Maude Pichon has recently run away from her provincial home in Brittany, and the life her father had planned for her (which included marriage to a middle age butcher) to Paris.  It's 1888 and Paris is getting ready for the Exposition Universelle, and its most well known landmark (the Eiffel Tower) is in the process of being built.  However, the city is more expensive (and less dream-like) than Maude anticipated and soon she is out of money and food.  Desperate for work, she becomes a repoussoir, an unremarkable or ugly woman who is hired out to beautiful socialites in order to make the socialites stand out and "become" more desirable by comparison.  Maude is humiliated, but without any other options she is hired by a Countess.  Unfortunately, the Countess has hired Maude to be a repoussoir for her daughter, Isabelle, who not only has no idea Maude is more than a poor relation, but also has no interest in society events or marriage.  This bought friendship begins to develop into a real one, but the closer Maude grows to Isabelle the more she begins to deceive both Isabelle and her employer.

Maude and Isabelle are both young woman who want more than the life that has been planned out for them by others, but they have grown up worlds apart.  Belle Epoque is a novel about friendship, the future, and Maude figuring out who she can be.  Being hired for being ugly has shaken her grasp on her own self worth, but it is the girl she has been hired to accentuate that helps her get a hold of who she is and what she wants again.

At times there is some awkwardly placed French ("...repousser? To push away, to repel or repulse" - general this type of breakdown of a word in your own language is saved for the ACT) as it's what they should already just be speaking, but not enough to be truly annoying, and much of it is smooth enough to not get in the way.

An entertaining historical fiction novel, that is a lighter read, filled with smart and interesting characters.

A Morris Award Finalist

Looking for more Parisian historical fiction?  Check out Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.

Lisa

Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

15 year old Londoner Mila is hyper observant and has a talent for reading people and places. When her dad's best friend, Matthew, up and disappears just before they are set to visit him in the States, he and Mila decide to keep their plans to and fly out to see Matthew's wife Suzanne and their baby Gabriel to see if they can help find him.  

Mila is able to garner information from the feel of his home, the attitudes of his wife and dog, and putting together information from past events (such as the death of his teenage son). While the mystery of Where has Matthew gone? and possibly What has Matthew done? keeps the reader continually turning pages, the real meat of Picture Me Gone is about relationships between people: friends, family, and even pets. It is about life and how things can fall apart and be held together. As Matthew's past and disappearance become more complicated Mila and the reader realize a simple tied up ending isn't a genuine possibility(and luckily Rosoff doesn't disappoint).

Lisa

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

I was a little reluctant to read this book because it sounded like a disease-of-the-week movie with a J.D. Salinger type of character thrown in to give the book a twist. I was pleasantly surprised and ended up thoroughly enjoying The Fault In Our Stars. While at its most basic level the book is what I described, it never presents stereotypical characters or trite solutions to their problems.

Hazel Grace, the novel’s narrator, is a sixteen year old cancer patient. She meets Augustus Waters, a handsome boy about her age who was once a star basketball player before losing his leg to cancer. He comes off initially as something of a James Dean, tortured rebel type, but Green quickly develops him into a believable and unique character. One of my favorite touches is how Augustus puts cigarettes into his mouth but never lights them. Hazel is horrified when she first sees him put one in his mouth, but he tells her that “It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.” Augustus and Hazel’s relationship becomes deeper when Augustus reads Hazel’s favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. This is apparently the most important novel ever written, at least for the two of them, and their obsession with its cryptic ending and the whereabouts of Peter Van Houten, the book’s reclusive author, set in motion much of The Fault In Our Stars’ plot.

While I enjoyed two other John Green novels, Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, The Fault In Our Stars is by far the best of the three. It maintains the unique and quirky characters from the other two novels while also being a rare case of an author taking on more significant subject matter without becoming heavy handed. I can’t recommend this book enough.

John

NaNoWriMo

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this month? November is about half-over. How is the novel coming along? If you're looking for inspiration, here are some book about other young authors, struggling with their own stories.

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
Before Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was a small town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school. Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian comes into the picture and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything. The Carrie Diaries is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer. Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships left on her. Through adventures both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.

Love Story by Jennifer Echols
Erin is headed to college to study creative writing but her grandmother wants her to major in business and then come back home to Kentucky to run the family's farm. But Erin won't agree. Studying in New York and becoming a novelist is her dream. So Erin's grandmother takes Erin's inheritance and gives it all to Hunter Allen who has lived on the farm for years. Erin is furious that Hunter conned her grandmother into giving him Erin's birthright and sending him to her college. At least she's free of him in her writing class. Unfortunately for her, the day she's sharing a story (featuring a Hunter-inspired character) with her class, Hunter walks in. And after reading about himself in Erin's story, he writes his own assignments that lure Erin into dangerous fantasies about what could have been between them...and what might be.

Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance
Nothing exciting ever happens in the town of Maplewood - until famous thriller writer Ian Tremblin holds a short-story writing contest with a prize that seems to be the opportunity of a lifetime: five finalists will get to spend the evening with Tremblin in the haunted mansion Daemon Hall, and the winner of the best short story will see publication. Wade Reilly and the other finalists could never have imagined what they find lurking in the shadows of this mansion. During a suspenseful night of tale-telling, strange incidents mix the realms of the real and the supernatural. What is Tremblin really up to, and can he be trusted? What about Daemon Hall - is it alive? And, more to the point, will any of the contestants make it out of this hall of horrors to tell their story?

The Brontë Sisters by Catherine Reef
The Brontë sisters are among the most beloved writers of all time, best known for their classic nineteenth-century novels Jane Eyre (Charlotte), Wuthering Heights (Emily), and Agnes Grey (Anne). This sometimes heartbreaking young adult biography explores the turbulent lives of these literary siblings and the oppressive times in which they lived. Brontë fans will also revel in the insights into their favorite novels, the plethora of poetry, and the outstanding collection of more than sixty black-and white archival images. A powerful testimony to the life of the literary mind.

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors
When you're the daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalized for mental illness. After putting on a brave front for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue, and the Queen can't write it. Alice needs a story for her mother--and she needs one fast. That's when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol's voice in her head and see things she can't explain, she must face the truth--that she's either inherited her mother's madness, or Errol is for real.

Kimberly

Banned Books Week

We are celebrating Banned Books Week this week. The American government may not ban books from being printed, bought and sold but books are still frequently requested to be removed from schools and library shelves. During Banned Books Week, we celebrate the freedom to read whatever we want and discuss the dangers of restricting a community's access to books.

In 2011, there were 326 known attempts to remove materials from schools and libraries. The following books were among the top ten books challenged or removed from libraries last year.

 ttyl, tffn, l8r g8r (Internet Girl Series) by Lauren Myracle
Told entirely through instant messages, this series follows the friendship of Maddie, Zoe and Angela, three sixteen-year-old girls ,as they experience some typical pitfalls of adolescence: boys, queen-bee types, a flirty teacher, beer, crazy parents and more.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Capitol of Panem is harsh and cruel and keeps the twelve outlying districts in line by forcing them to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight-to-the-death on live TV. One boy and one girl are selected by lottery to play. Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to participate in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before - and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender--and a symbol for rebellion. She will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
 Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Based on the author's own experiences, this novel chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. 

Alice Series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
The Alice Series follows Alice McKinley as she grows up from third grader  high school graduate in Silver Springs, Maryland. Alic lives with her older brother and father. Her mother died when she was five and Alice struggles growing up in an all-male household. The books follow Alice as she navigates her life, her adventures with her three best friends, her family, and her romantic entanglements 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
In 2540, most of the world has been unified into the World State. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. John has grown up outside of the World State and when he is brought to London, he cannot accept the merits of a world based on consumerism without individuality, spirituality or personal freedom.

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
Composed entirely in short poems in free-verse, Sophie describes her struggles of freshman year and her relationships with a series of  boys. She's openly dating sexy Dylan, chatting online with Chaz, and crushing on sweet, nerdy Murphy.

Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
This series revolves around the lives and loves of privileged teenagers at the Constance Billard School for Girls, an elite private school in New York City's Upper East Side. The series primarily focuses on best friends Blair and Serena whose experiences are chronicled by an anonymous blogger known as "Gossip Girl."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Scout lives with her brother Jem and her father Atticus in 1930s Alabama. The children and their friend Dill spend their summers exploring their small town but when Atticus defends a black man accused of rape, Scout discovers that her town is steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy and she learns the power of quiet heroism.

Kimberly

Olympic Reading

Have you been enjoying the London Olympics this week? Check out some of these great summer sports books when you're not watching the action and drama on TV.

Perfected by Girls by Alfred C. Martino
Life isn't easy for Melinda Radford. Her parents have forbid her from seeing a new out-of-town boyfriend, her grandmother insists she give up a fun job at the mall for a dreary office internship, and she's the lone girl on the Ashton High wrestling team, dealing with opponents who refuse to compete against her, a few who want to crush her, and an infuriating older brother who's the varsity team captain and always flirting with her best friend. Just when it seems things can't get any more complicated, an off-handed comment to a newspaper reporter puts Mel at odds with her teammates, her brother and, worst of all, her coach. But through a strange twist of tragedy and fate, Mel is given an unexpected opportunity to accomplish something no girl in her school's history has ever done, and to redeem herself in the eyes of many.

Boy 21 by Matthew Quick
Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob, drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries. At home, his dad works nights and Finley is left to take care of his disabled grandfather alone. He's always dreamed of getting out someday, but until he can, putting on that number 21 jersey makes everything seem okay. Russ has just moved to Finley's neighborhood and the life of this teen basketball phenom has been turned upside down by tragedy. Cut off from everyone he knows, Russ won't pick up a basketball but answers only to the name Boy21--taken from his former jersey number. As their final year of high school brings these two boys together, a unique friendship may turn out to be the answer they both need.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not comforted by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run? As she struggles to cope with crutches and a prosthetic, Jessica feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don't know what to say, act like she's not there. Which she could handle better if she weren't keenly aware that she'd done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. Rosa is going to tutor her through all the math she's missed and she sees right into the heart of Jessica. With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that's not enough for her now. She doesn't just want to cross finish lines herself-she wants to take Rosa with her.

Breathless by Jessica Warman
When Katie Kitrell is shipped off to boarding school by her distant father and overbearing mother, it doesn't take her long to become part of the It Crowd. She's smart, she's cute, and she's an Olympic-bound swimmer who has a first class ticket to any Ivy League school of her choice. But what her new friends, roommate, and boyfriend don't know is that Katie is swimming away from her past, and from her schizophrenic older brother, Will, who won't let her go. And when he does the unthinkable, it's all Katie can do to keep her head above water.

Now Is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven with nothing more than a leather soccer ball filled with money. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere and must rely on the kindness of people they meet to make it through. But when tragedy strikes, Deo's love of soccer is all he has left. Can he actually use that gift to compete in the Street Soccer World Cup and resurrect his life?


Kimberly

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

Jay Asher is the author of the hugely popular Thirteen Reasons Why (which I loved!) and Carolyn Mackler is the author of the very funny The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. So of course I had very high expectations for The Future of Us and was not disappointed.

Here's the setup:

If there was a device or program that would give you a glimpse of what your life would be like 15 years from now, would you try it out?
Would you really like to know how life has turned out for you and the people you know?
When you find out that your life in 15 years is nothing like you thought it would be, would you try and change it in the present time?

Emma & Josh do.

Read the book to find out what happens...

Karen