Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Eight: Mosquitoland

Mosquitoland is David Arnold's first novel--it was just published this spring--and it is also a YA novel.  Kind of in spite of its almost aggressive quirkiness--an increasingly common YA novel trait in the era of John Green's outrageous popularity--I found Mosquitoland to be a compelling read, and I found the end to be particularly satisfying in that, as in real life, not everything is perfect, nor is everything as I had expected it to be as I was reading, but there was still a good measure hope for the characters.  (In these ways, and in a few others,* in fact, Mosquitoland reminds me of John Green's novels, and I think fans of John Green would likely enjoy Mosquitoland.)  But I digress...

Mosquitoland, set in modern America, follows the journey of 16-year-old Mim, who has been moved from Ohio to Mississippi by her father and new step-mother, and who is determined to make it back to Ohio when she realizes that something is very wrong with her mother.  Along the way, Mim meets a whole host of whacky characters, some of whom become fast friends, and all of whom are a little unbelievable (but no less fun for that).  Mim tells her own story from the first-person--some of it is in the form of letters she's writing--and her voice is so original that it really drew me in, even if I sometimes found myself slightly annoyed by Mim.  And I wanted to know how her crazy adventure would turn out--there's plenty of suspense in this story, and I was kept guessing until the end (although once I reached the end, I felt I should have seen it coming).  Anyway, if you're into YA fiction generally, or if you like John Green's writing and want something similar, or you want a story about someone traveling on a Greyhound bus, definitely give Mosquitoland a try.

*Other similarities with John Green's novels include...
...the importance of traveling around the U.S. unfettered by adults (Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines).
...a spunky, highly individual, and extremely idiosyncratic protagonist, who is also a basically normal American teenage girl (The Fault in Our Stars, but also major "supporting" characters (i.e. the girl characters whose lives utterly shape the lives of the boy protagonists) in Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns).
...the use of first-person narration from a protagonist with a really distinctive voice (Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars--also Paper Towns, sort of, though its narrator is not so quirky).

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven: Fiercombe Manor

Fiercombe Manor is British author Kate Riordan's second novel, and based on this one I will certainly consider reading her first novel (Birdcage Walk), though probably not immediately as they seem sort of similar, and I like a bit of variety in my reading, generally.  But back to Fiercombe Manor: this book's characters were more nuanced than I'd expected them to be based on the cover and the description on the dust jacket, and likewise its setting was more atmospheric than I'd expected.  These elements certainly added to this book's intrigue, at least for me; I found it quite compelling to read.  I enjoyed how the narration of the story switched between the protagonist, Alice, and Elizabeth, a mysterious figure from the past, often serving to increase my suspense while providing another dimension to Alice's discoveries.  There are light elements of romance, as well as stronger elements of mystery and suspense, in this well-written historical fiction novel; if you like historical fiction or are simply looking for a compelling read, I'd certainly recommend Fiercombe Manor.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six: The Deed of Paksenarrion

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon is actually a trilogy, but the stories are so closely linked (and were published in one volume, in this case) that I'll speak of them as one unit.  This story is in the high fantasy tradition, a tradition with which I'm not very familiar.  It's not one of my favorite genres, though I found this book to me mostly interesting enough to keep me reading its more than one thousand pages.  (This is not an enterprise for the faint of heart!)  It is a story of wars, of battles, of soldiers and knights and armies, and parts of it I found almost too gruesome to bear, though as readers of this blog might know, I have fairly little taste for that sort of thing.  Still, I found the overall plot and, more important, the character of the story's heroine compelling enough to keep me reading this book.  I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who doesn't want to make a big time commitment to reading a long tale of high fantasy, but if that's what you want, then, with my limited knowledge of what else is on the high fantasy market, I would guess that this is as good as anything.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five: Smart Girls Like Me

Smart Girls Like Me, by Diane Vadino, is a novel about a 24-year-old woman living in New York City in 1999, and it was really a great follow-up to The Defining Decade.  The protagonist is half-convinced the world will end with the year 2000, way more upset than she wants to admit that her best friend is going to be married in a few months, and doesn't really know what she wants and how to get it.  Her dating life is miserable--until a cute co-worker at the job she hates but is too wimpy to quit comes back from China and sweeps her off her feet.  (This was the least realistic part of the book, in my opinion.)  As her first serious relationship progresses, the millennium and her best friend's wedding approach, and her job continues to suck, our intrepid protagonist finally starts to figure some things out about who she wants to be, and while this book is sort of depressing, its end is cautiously hopeful.  It's a quick beach type read, good for a warm summer's day.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four: The Defining Decade

The full title of Dr. Meg Jay's book does a great job of summarizing its contents: The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now.  The author is a clinical psychiatrist who works primarily with clients in their twenties and early thirties, and from this work she claims (credibly, it seems to me) to have noticed a lot about what makes twenty-somethings successful (or not) in their twenties and also for the rest of their lives.  She paints the decade of one's 20s as being formative for the rest of one's life in terms of pretty much everything--work, career, and family are her areas of focus.  While this sort of turned up the pressure on me while I was reading--like, I have to get everything together before I run out of time--she also offers practical and achievable suggestions for how to get everything together, and these made me feel better.  (Figure out what you want.  If you don't know, try different things that will help you figure it out.  Don't take jobs with no possibility of advancement if you want to advance in your field.  Once you know what you want, take steps to make it happen, like going to school, or getting an entry-level job in the field of your choice, or moving to another city.)  I don't know how much value there would be to reading this book if you're not in your 20s--it might still be interesting--but if you're in your 20s now, I'd heartily recommend you read it.  (In fact, it was recommended to me by a friend, also in her 20s, and I'm very glad she suggested it!)

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three: Sam Ellenport & Ron Gordon: Reflections of Two Craftsmen

This funny little book was recommended to me, so I read it--I doubt I ever would have found it on my own.  It consists of two essays: the one by Ellenport is about binding books by hand and the one by Gordon is about type-setting and book design, since those are the crafts they practice.  I found it a lot more interesting than I though I would, and while reading it they even had me convinced that I wanted to start practicing these crafts, despite the fact that current technologies are quickly rendering them largely obsolete.  (I came to my senses when I finished reading the book.)  Ron Gordon designed this book, as he still works as a book designer, and I do have to say that I found it very odd and actually quite distracting that he chose to justify the text to left only, rather than having it justified on both sides.  Nonetheless, if you love books not just as stories but as objects, this is an interesting first-hand look at how books have traditionally been created.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two: The Historian

I've read Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian once before, about eight years ago, so I didn't remember many of the details and it was almost like reading the book for the first time.  I do remember that I found this academic vampire-hunting story really terrifying when I read it as a teenager, and while it is still pretty chilling, I was not nearly so terrified this time around.  This is a long novel, but I was so absorbed with it that I found it difficult to put down and ended up reading it fairly quickly.  One website described it as an atmospheric novel; I'm not sure that's quite the word I'd pick.  While there are frequent descriptions academic research related to Dracula (as fifteenth-century ruler of Wallachia, not as vampire) and of the many beautiful settings--this book takes place all over 20th-century Europe, from Cambridge to Istanbul, Amsterdam to Venice, and of course in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania--there is also plenty of action.  This is, after all, a book about hunting down Dracula and his vampire minions, and it certainly includes the necessary bites to the neck and stabbings through the heart.  There is a lot of mystery to counterbalance the longer descriptive passages, and as I said, I found it really hard to put this book down.  It's not for the faint of heart, but if you're looking for an engrossing read with fascinating characters, lush settings, and a good helping of action and mystery, this is a great choice.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One: The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts

So the full title of this (non-fiction) book is The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts: The Library and the Young Adult.  First published in 1969, it is written by Margaret A. Edwards, one of the earliest well-known pioneers of library services to teenagers and a long-time young adult services librarian in Baltimore's pubic library system.  While many of her attitudes about teenagers are dated--especially regarding what teenage boys like to read as compared to teenage girls--I can really respect most of her ideas, ideas that were largely ahead of her time, namely, her respect for teenagers as people, her belief in the importance of reading for fun (and in the importance of having YA literature available for teens to read), her outreach efforts in schools and in communities, and her insistence that teens deserve library services and materials dedicated to them.  This was not the most thrilling book to read, but as someone who's really interested in public library services to teens, it did provide an interesting historical background to teen services in public libraries.  But if you're not interested in that, I wouldn't suggest you read this book.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty: I Work at a Public Library

This is a collection of extremely short vignettes (all are less than a page long) that recount hilarious real-life interactions between librarians and the patrons they serve.  Its arrangement into themed chapters, with each chapter assigned the appropriate Dewey number, is cute and fits the mood of the book perfectly.  If you're looking for something to make you chuckle aloud, I Work at a Public Library is a strong contender.

Chapter One Hundred Nineteen: The Revelation of Louisa May

This is a newer book by Michaela MacColl (Always Emily), which I also got for free at school, and in many ways it is quite similar to Always Emily.  It is another blend of YA/historical fiction/mystery/literary fiction, with a fictionalized, teenaged Louisa May Alcott as its protagonist.  As with Always Emily, I found the end mostly satisfying, although again I found the treatment of the romantic subplot a bit simplistic; once more, if you enjoy any of its constituent genres, you will probably enjoy this novel, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading it back to back with Almost Emily, as I did, since they're quite similar.  I should also note that Michaela MacColl also has other YA novels that look similar to the two I've read, although I haven't read any of her other books yet.  I probably will read them at some point in the not too distant future, though.

Chapter One Hundred Eighteen: Always Emily

I got this book by Michaela MacColl for free at school (the perks of being a grad student), and I ended up enjoying it more than I expected to.  This is an interesting mix of genres, blending mystery with historic fiction and literary fiction with many typical YA elements: teenaged Charlotte and Emily Bronte are the main characters in this novel, and they must attempt to figure out some (totally fictional) mysteries that are, in fact, based on their more famous books (somewhat loosely, I think, never having read them--whoops).  The quotes from the Bronte sisters' books that begin each chapter are a nice touch.  The ending is mostly satisfying, although I think MacColl simplifies the romantic element a bit too much, and overall I enjoyed this quick read.  If you like any of the genres this book includes, you'll probably enjoy reading it.

Chapter One Hundred Seventeen: Fortunately, the Milk

This is one of Neil Gaiman's most recent books for kids, and it is a delightful romp of a story.  Skottie Young's delightful illustrations are the perfect completion to this hilarious tale of what happened when a dad went to the corner store to get some milk.  For an adult reader, it's a very fast, light read--it's pure silliness, in the best possible way.  If you need to while away three quarters of an hour, reading Fortunately, the Milk is a great way to spend it.

Chapter One Hundred Sixteen: In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians

Well, I don't usually enjoy short stories as much as I enjoy novels, and that held true in this case as well.  While I did enjoy these stories--and some of them I really liked quite a lot--I just don't feel as motivated to keep reading one short story after another compared to a novel, where I feel compelled to keep reading chapter after chapter to see what's going to happen to the main character.  Short stories lack that buy-in.  Nonetheless, this library-themed and librarian-themed collection was of particular interest to me, as a student in library school, and I enjoyed reading it, even though it took me a long time to work my way through this fairly short collection.